Title: Moonlight Kiss
Authors: Rukawagf
Pairings: Heiwajima Shizuo x Orihara Izaya
Rated: G
Summary: Taking place after the anime season 2, Orihara Izaya celebrates his first birthday with his new crew of 'family' members while Izaya reminisces over a certain monster...maybe. Featuring Sozoro, Haruto, Himari, Nec and Manami, with cameo of our dear Tsukumoya.
"Cake! Cake! We got the cake, Izaya-san!" Haruto danced as he held the box up high. No one was unkind to tell him to be careful in case he dropped it, all save for one person.
"Haruto. Watch your step," she said pragmatically as she followed him in a normal gait behind him. She shot an acknowledged look at Izaya once she came into the large suite of their hotel and then promptly ignored him. Izaya couldn't help but smile in amusement at the obvious and predictable move as he leaned on one side of his wheelchair's arm.
"Thank you Haruto, Himari. Nec, would you please grab us some forks and plates?" Izaya asked as he touched the keypad on the arm of his wheelchair to move forward toward the coffee table with the couches. Nec ignored his request as she continued to sit where she sat on the couch, busily typing away into her laptop. Despite her punk styled skull-faced rings on four of her fingers, she had no problem typing in the speed of light.
"Too busy. You want those documents today or no?" was Nec's curt reply as she shrugged. Besides, she knew that Izaya had specifically asked her to grab them because she would not comply.
"Aah… I guess we'll have to be beasts and eat with our fingers," Izaya teased as Haruto's eyes grew wide, petrified what they would have to do without plates and forks. Himari sighed as she looked away. Even if all three of them were 'short', with Izaya unable to stand, there was still one other…
"Haruto-dono, would you assist me in getting the forks and plates?" the tall elderly man, Sozoro stepped in to ask with a slight gentlemanly bow to the little boy. Haruto eagerly nodded and they were off to the kitchen where Sozoro lifted up the boy to his shoulders so Haruto could happily stack the plates into his arms. Sozoro could comfortably grab the plates himself but he always took the time to respect Haruto's philosophy to work to earn something, and in this case, a slice of Izaya's birthday cake.
While Nec continued to hack into three companies to mine the data Izaya wanted, with a small discounted pay since it was Izaya's birthday and Nec didn't 'mind' maaaybe to offer a discount on her services for twenty-four hours, Himari carefully unboxed the dark colored cake onto the coffee table.
"Chocolate?" Izaya asked, looking at the color of the cake.
"Not exactly," answered the girl as she said no more.
Sozoro and Haruto passed the plates as the doorbell rang.
"I'll get it!" Haruto chirped as he raced to the door before anyone could even answer, although at this point everyone had already expected Haruto to get the door. The boy greeted the last guest to the party as she closed the door behind her and quietly handed a bag to Himari.
"Heh, not for me?" Izaya smiled as Manami sat on the farthest couch from him.
"Do I look like the type to get you a birthday gift?" Manami smirked with a bitter twist on the corner of her lips.
"Mmm, yes. Laced with the most bitter venom hopefully." Izaya replied back playfully.
"Oh, you'd like that?" Manami didn't even bother to sneer.
"A gift is a gift and I accept everything. Especially something so well thought out." Izaya smiled innocently back, obviously in a great mood.
Sozoro watched the exchange without a comment as he placed a large candle labeled 'forever 21' on the center of the cake and lit it. Although Haruto has protested days ago that they should sing a happy birthday song, literally everyone said no, as they all knew, only Haruto would probably sing it. So Sozoro simply held the cake to Izaya and the informant blew without his song. Everyone clapped dutifully while Haruto clapped with passion. Then he watched excitedly as Sozoro cut the cake into equal slices for everyone.
"Thank you for the food!" Haruto cheered as he took a large bite of the cake. Everyone took a bite of the cake and made a weird cringy expression save for Himari who looked a bit amused and Manami who didn't touch the cake.
"Who chose the cake again?" Izaya asked as he chewed slowly and smiled, once he got used to the bitter and sour flavor.
"I did. I requested the blackest black coffee." Himari replied, in her head thinking to herself, 'dark like your soul,' but did not speak it out loud. Instead she added with a feigned pretence that she knew Izaya can see through her, "I figured you would like black coffee, Izaya-san."
"Well yes. I am indeed rather happy that you thought of me while picking the cake." Izaya genuinely meant that as he took another bite of the cake while everyone else lowered their's. However, Haruto looked as if he was going to cry. He wanted the cake so badly but it wasn't sugary at all. It was as if he asked for a toy truck and got a worm instead but being such a good natured boy he was, he didn't want to refuse the hard-earned cake.
"Here, Himari got this for you." Manami stepped in and gave the bag she brought. Haruto opened the box inside to see small vanilla flavored cupcakes.
"Thank you Himari-chan!" Haruto happily devoured his cake with some relish and Izaya now understood the little twinkle in their eyes as Manami and Himari exchanged a look. When Himari grew up just a bit more, she would be formidable partner for Manami, Izaya could see that and the anticipation of their future excited the informant. Yes, this was indeed a good birthday.
After all, the last time anyone celebrated his birthday in a large group like this was when he was still in high school.
Unconsciously, Izaya fingered the phone in his pocket and pulled it out to see if he had missing calls or messages for the fifth time today. Again it was zero.
Well, at least this year, he actually had several people to celebrate it with. Even if he was still hoping for one more message from one specific person.
"Still waiting for a phone call?" Sozoro asked as he stood next to Izaya, glancing over again and noting that he had been checking for messages constantly.
"Well, we had a fight, you can say…. So I guess I shouldn't expect it anymore." Izaya replied casually as he put his phone away.
"Your sisters sent you a birthday card." Sozoro spoke and Izaya simply nodded. Sozoro remained silent, making a mental note for himself. If Izaya wasn't waiting for a call from his sisters then…
"I've told him you know, that you're alive." Manami spoke up as if she was continuing this vague conversation with a reply. She decided it was a good time to jab it in and see if it hurt Izaya to know that.
Izaya however, did not look surprised nor seemed to care, at least in outer appearance. "Is that so?" was all he told her before Haruto jumped to him and asked if Izaya-san would like a bite of his sweet cake. After that, the rest of the party continued as normal as 'normal' could be with the eclectic group. Manami continued to ignore Izaya along with Himari, Haruto kept feeding the sweet cake to Izaya while they ate together, Nec completed her hacking into three of the companies that Izaya had requested and went on to see if she could hack into Tsukumoya's chat room again, for another challenge round, and Sozoro remained silent as he observed stoically next to Izaya.
All in all, it was a lively birthday party. Manami went ahead and headed home while Nec decided to stay over at one of the suite's adjacent bedrooms. Sozoro tucked Himari and Haruto to their respective beds and came back to the living room of the suite.
Izaya had drawn open the curtains and was looking out the glass doors to the balcony of the suite as the moon rose up high and the town was dark with sleep.
"How long will we be staying?" Sozoro came quietly behind Izaya to watch the stars with him.
"Few more nights until the things settle down, then we'll move to the next town over." Izaya replied without turning back. Sozoro noticed that one of his hand was inside his pocket with the cellphone, just in case it vibrated.
Sozoro considered briefly if he should bring a blanket to cover Izaya if he were to fall asleep but it seemed as if the informant wanted to spend the rest of the night alone. "Don't stay up too late, Izaya-dono." Sozoro bowed, deciding against his idea and respect Izaya's silent wishe for solitude. And as an after-thought, he added, "happy birthday."
Izaya didn't reply to that nor turn his head, however he waved the back of his hand to let him know, 'good night.' Sozoro left, turning himself in for the night as well.
The informant caressed the keys on the electric wheelchair of his out of habit, as he watched everyone fall asleep one by one and the night transitioned to the next day. It was always strange, Izaya thought, how humans created and tried to separate time into years, months, days, hours, minutes and even to seconds, even though time was fluid and one smooth unchanging motion. As if somehow, separating the time into compartments allowed man to be able to control time. But no, it was just an illusion of control. There was no fireworks or a boom that indicated that now the day 4th had ended and marked the day 5th. Time just existed, forever continuous, marching forward without a care even if someone wanted the time to just 'stop' briefly. Like right now, Izaya wished he could tell time to 'stop' just for a few moments. Just, a brief moment.
"Not even you could punch time to stop, dear monster." Izaya softly whispered as the sandman started to arrive while time aggressively proceeded without rest. He couldn't help but weakly smile, "not even dead roses tonight?"
As the informant started to nod off to sleep, the inside coat of his jacket lit up with a message being delivered to his cell phone, just before time past midnight.
Author's note: Happy birthday to Izaya! I know this is not a normal shizaya fanfic and i'm so sorry! It's actually a sequel to my other fanfic 'Forgotten Birthday', on my archiveofourown page but it can be a stand-alone too. (wow I can't believe that fic is 5 years old now… ) I wanted to explore again when Izaya is on his downtime, during his vulnerable moments.
This fic features a lot of characters from Izaya's novels because I really wanted to write them interact with Izaya and none of my on-going fanfics really have room for them. Besides, I really thought Izaya could have a nice birthday with them for once, in his own way ahahaha. I really recommend reading the novel, "A Sunset with Orihara Izaya" translated by lovely kaede721 at wordpress to get the full story!
And thoughts on who sent that message and what the message said? I'd love a feedback in the reviews! Thank you and again, happy birthday to our flea!