Chapter 1

Izaya looked up from his laptop. Sitting cross-legged on his bed, fingers paused over his keyboard, he looked his roommate straight in the face and said, "What?"

Shinra bounced off of his bed. "A double date!" he repeated. "Except, it won't be for you because my friend is straight, but this will be the perfect opportunity for me to finally ask Celty out!"

Scoffing, Izaya looked back down at his laptop. "And here I thought you'd finally found your balls lying around somewhere," he said. He scrolled lazily through a forum. "Shinra, going out with a group of friends that happens to include her does not qualify as a date. It wasn't the last time or the time before that, and it won't be this time either. So quit asking me to go out with you guys. I'm an actual adult with a busy schedule, you know. Unlike some people."

Shinra dropped down onto Izaya's bed, lying with his legs dangling off the side. "But this is different!" he said. "I'm inviting someone else this time. He is straight, but who knows? Maybe you can get him to like you."

"I'm not gonna throw myself at some straight guy," Izaya said, rolling his eyes.

"But you can be charming when you want to be!" When Izaya didn't respond, Shinra poked him in the leg. "C'mon, please?" he said. "All you have to do is lead Shizuo away from Celty and me, which won't be hard at all at a matsuri, and then just hang out with him for a couple hours. Even if he's not gay, he's a pretty interesting guy. He can lift things like two times his weight, no problem, and you should see him in a fight; he can beat up ten guys all by himself! That's actually how I met him – "

"Are you trying to set me up or are you secretly planning to kill me?"

Shinra smiled. "I'm trying to get you interested," he said.

"Either way, I'm not going."

"Izaya," Shinra whined, sitting up. "C'mon, the sooner I get with Celty, the sooner I can stop bothering you like this."

Izaya sighed. "Then just ask her out like a normal human being," he said, looking up. "She's our fucking roommate. You could just walk right next door and ask. You don't have to involve me in your stupid love life."

Shinra dropped his smile. "Well then, I guess I don't have to treat you the next time you come walking in with a bullet wound," he said.

"And I guess I don't have to keep my mouth shut about it instead of reporting you for medical malpractice."

Shinra fell silent for a beat, but then he poked Izaya again. "C'mon, Izaya," he said. "Please?"

Izaya sighed. He finished typing out an email and then checked his phone, sifting through the notifications.

"I'll think about it," he said.

Shinra cheered, laughing, until Izaya kicked him out of his bed.


"Shizuo, these are my roommates."

Shizuo looked over at the two people by Shinra's side, a girl and a boy, the girl pretty with light brown hair and green eyes, the guy skinny and staring. Shinra gestured to the girl.

"This is Celty Sturluson," he said. "I've mentioned it to you before, but she has aphonia, so she can't speak. But she can still communicate using her phone."

She held up her phone now, smiling.

[Nice to meet you.]

Shizuo smiled back. "Nice to meet you too," he said.

"And this is Orihara Izaya," Shinra said, gesturing to the guy. "He's not that great of a person. He's kind of an asshole actually, but I'm sure you guys will get along."

This Orihara guy also had brown hair, but his was darker. He even smiled too, but whereas Celty's smile had looked somewhat nervous and somewhat gentle, this person smiled broadly, like he was evaluating Shizuo and laughing silently at something that he saw.

"That's awful, Shinra," Orihara said. He stuck his hand out to Shizuo. "Shizu-chan, I promise I'm not that bad."

Shizuo didn't take his hand. "The fuck is wrong with you?" he said, scowling. "Don't call me that."

"Well, aren't you cute." Orihara took his hand back, but those scrutinizing eyes lingered.

"What did you – ?!"

"C'mon guys, let's get going!" Shinra interrupted, glancing back and forth between them. "I'm starving."

Shizuo dug his hands into his coat pockets, fuming, but he nodded his assent.

This had been a bad idea. He met Shinra just a few months ago, when he was out working with Tom. He was taking a break when some guy slammed into him, spilling scalding hot coffee all over his new, white shirt. Now, Shizuo wasn't unreasonable. If the guy had stopped to apologize sincerely, Shizuo could have gotten over it, and the stranger could have made it to his appointment, and the both of the them could have gone on with their lives, neither one remembering the other. The problem was the guy just kept on going, running off to wherever he needed to be – not that Shizuo cared – and that was when he lost it. The guy and everyone who tried to stop Shizuo after the first punch had it coming, anyway.

Afterwards, Tom came over to scold him, or more to shake his head than anything else, and his junior from high school suddenly showed up.

"That was amazing!" he said, after a hasty greeting to Tom. "I've never seen anything like you in my entire life!"

Shizuo looked at the eager eyes on this new stranger's face, his cotton-blue scrubs, and even though he was tired, Shizuo felt a new rush of rage overtake him. Lucky for Shinra, Tom recognized the danger signs and calmed him down before Shizuo could start beating the shit out of him.

Now in the past few months, the guy had been using Tom as an excuse to hang around Shizuo. He was fascinated, apparently, by Shizuo's strength. He wanted to know everything from Shizuo's family history to every single detail of his life up until now, but Shizuo more often growled at him than answered any of his questions. He annoyed Shizuo to no end, but after a few months, he got used to having the little doctor-in-training around. Anyway, he figured Shinra had to run out of questions at some point in time. So when he asked Shizuo to the matsuri, after Shizuo refused him multiple times and Tom sat Shizuo down to have a heart-to-heart talk about how little friends Shizuo actually had, Shizuo accepted the invitation.

But now? He was probably never going to cross the threshold out of his apartment ever again.

Celty and Shinra were ahead of them, cooing over some goldfish, while Shizuo was stuck in the crowd with this pest. Orihara was chattering on about something that sounded like the history of matsuris taken word-for-word from a fucking encyclopedia, but even if Shizuo had been interested in something like that, he couldn't hear half of what the guy was saying anyway. It was just the way he looked at Shizuo every now and then, those dark brown eyes glancing at him as if Shizuo was a particularly large spider he just couldn't leave alone. It was fucking annoying.

Suddenly, he grabbed Shizuo's hand. "Hey, there's takoyaki!" he said, pointing at a stand far off on the left. "Let's go get some!"

Shit, takoyaki actually sounded good. Shizuo tugged his hand out of Orihara's. "Fine," he said, as if he was losing an argument somehow. "I'll go let them know."

Orihara smirked and took Shizuo's hand again; this time, intertwining their fingers. "You're pretty stupid, aren't you?" he said.

"What?!"

"C'mon, we're blocking the crowd. We can catch up with them later."

He tugged at their hands. People were bumping into him everywhere, staring with eyes that asked what the hell they were doing just standing like that, holding hands. Shizuo looked back at Orihara's smiling face. He tugged a little again.

"Come on," he said.

Scowling, Shizuo started walking. After a few seconds, he at least tried to take his hand back. "Hey," he growled. "Let go."

Orihara glanced back at him, smiling. "Wouldn't want our Shizu-chan to get lost now, do we?"

Glaring, Shizuo tightened his hand around Orihara's. God, he wanted to kill him.

They weaved in between the people and the stands like that, holding hands. Orihara wore a ring. It was on his forefinger, just plain, slick metal, and Shizuo wondered why a man would wear something like that. In fact, Orihara was pretty well-dressed in general. He wore a long, tan coat and a black scarf with black jeans. Even though it was kind of cold, his coat was unbuttoned, revealing a pure, white shirt. Overall, he looked too put-together for a local matsuri, especially compared to Shizuo's puffy jacket and blue jeans.

Briefly, Shizuo wondered what kind of a man Orihara was: if he was rich, if he grew up with a nice family, if he was the type to have a lot of friends. Maybe he was all of that, and that's why he was so goddamn pushy. He would probably have better manners, though, if he came from a rich family.

"Are you getting any?"

Shizuo blinked, staring at Orihara, who was staring back. He quickly looked away and noticed that they had reached the takoyaki stand.

"Uh, maybe," he said. "I don't know how much money I brought with me."

Orihara waved at him, finally letting go of their hands. "It's fine, I'll treat you."

"You sure?" Shizuo said, too shocked to say anything else. He put his hand back in his coat pocket. The flea's hand had been bone-cold.

Orihara laughed. "You don't have to look so surprised," he said. He turned to the vendor and ordered two sticks of takoyaki, which steamed in the air. Shizuo accepted his with a mumbled thanks.

"So," Orihara said as they walked and ate. "I heard that you work as a loan shark instead of going to school. Is that right?"

Shizuo scowled. "I help Tom, who's a debt collector."

"Hm, so you're his bodyguard. Seems fitting, you look terrifying enough with that face and blond hair."

Shizuo took an angry bite from his takoyaki. "What about you?" he growled. "You studying how to be a major asshole or something?"

"Shinra didn't tell you anything about me?"

"No."

Orihara grinned, licking takoyaki sauce off his lips. "And yet he told you all about Celty-san, even though I'm one who actually shares a room with him. How cold!"

"Well, Celty-san seems a lot nicer to hang around with than you."

"How can you say that?" Orihara said, laughing. "You just met us."

"I trust my instincts."

"And? What exactly do your instincts say about me?"

"That you're evil."

At this, Orihara looked up at Shizuo, his eyes wide in a sudden shock that surprised him. Orihara brought up a hand to cover his mouth, and for a real second, Shizuo thought that he was going to cry. Then he burst out laughing.

"Evil!" he said, leaning against a nearby bench. "Who says that?"

Shizuo pushed him, unable to hold back, at least, not with this guy. Orihara fell to the ground, but he only sat there, still laughing.

"Shut up!" Shizuo said, blushing despite himself.

"I won't," he said, wheezing. "Because I'm evil."

"I said shut up!" Shizuo dropped down on top of him to punch him, strangle him, to make him just shut up one way or another, but in the blink of an eye, he had a knife to his throat.

"I highly recommend you don't do that," Orihara said, not laughing anymore. He was smiling though, everything from that thin-lipped smirk to the edge of his weapon whispering out a deadly challenge.

Shizuo could feel it infecting him, the dare in this man's eyes, and slowly, he felt himself smiling back.

Then a familiar voice spoke up behind them.

"There you guys are!"

Startled, Shizuo looked around. Shinra was approaching them with a strained smile, Celty just behind him. "We were looking all over for you!" he said.

Orihara sat up – well, as much as he could with Shizuo on top of him. His knife had disappeared. "Really?" he said, eyebrow raised.

Shinra shot him a warning look as he reached them, which amused Shizuo. So this flea could get even Shinra angry. "Really," he said.

Celty stepped up, her phone raised.

[Are you guys okay?]

"Just getting to know each other," Orihara said smoothly.

Scowling, Shizuo got up, not bothering to help the flea up too. He didn't seem to notice. Orihara just stood up and brushed himself off with the usual smile on his face, rearranging his scarf.

Shinra glanced at Orihara. "I see," he said. "Well...come on! Celty says that she wants to try the takoyaki here."

"It's not that great, you know," Orihara said, laughing as he followed them.

Shizuo waited a second before going too, taking in deep breaths as he tried to calm the blood that was pumping out almost painfully from his too-fast heart.