Story: Unforseen (may change story name later), Chapter 1
Summary: When Izaya begins acting strangely, Namie eventually makes a call to somebody who she believes will be able to help him; Mikage Sharaku. Mikage, upon going to check up on Izaya, then makes a horrifying discovery about him that she would have never forseen. Self-harm. I WROTE THIS ON NO SLEEP AND IN A DEPRESSIVE AND ANXIOUS STATE, SO YOU'LL HAVE TO FORGIVE ME. I will bring in Shinra later.
Namie was not an idiot. Because of her knowledge in pharmaceuticals and even psychology, she knew when something was wrong with somebody, especially when she'd known them for a long time. She picked up on quirks and payed closer attention to people's habits than she'd like to admit.
So when Izaya had began to smirk less and seemed to be becoming more reclusive, not to mention coming into work paler than usual, she couldn't help but notice. Even if most of her attention still remained on her beloved Seiji, Izaya's changes had inevitably become distracting as of late, and she couldn't just turn a blind eye to it anymore, because it was becoming rather irritating. If something happened to Izaya, her paycheck would be gone, and so would her fastest route to keeping up with keeping an eye on Seiji. Of course there were other factors, but she would rather not focus on them.
So she decided to make a call to somebody who knew Izaya better than many; A woman who had a past with him. Mikage Sharaku.
"Moshi moshi..." the woman's deep voice answered from the other end of the phone. She sounded tired.
"Mikage-san, this is Namie. I was wondering... have you noticed anything out of sorts with Izaya-san lately?"
There was a momentary silence on the other end of the phone that implied that she was thinking about it, before she finally spoke. "...Why do you ask?"
"As somebody who has knowledge in the subject, I couldn't help but notice that he looks paler than usual, and has been quieter as of late. It wouldn't be that much of a problem if it wasn't getting in the way of my job and my avalibility to keep an eye on Seiji. But seeing as he keeps canceling my work, I can't just ignore it anymore. Do you think you could check up on him?" Namie proposed.
"I'm kind of busy right now. Is it really that big of an issue for you to talk to him yourself?"
"While it is true that I could approach him about it, I feel like you two have a relationship beyond professionalism and you would have more luck getting through to him. You have known him longer than me, after all." Namie told her.
"You have a point, I guess." Mikage sighed from the other end of the phone. "Fine, I'll go."
"I appreciate it. I'm going to hang up now." Namie said.
"Yeah. See ya..." Mikage grumbled, before the last thing Namie heard her saying was, "Ugh, that idiot better not have gotten himself into something stupid by the time I go to check on him..."
Well, that took care of that.
...
Mikage didn't want to admit it, but she had noticed the changes in Izaya as well. He didn't spout off nonsense about loving humans as much anymore and he did seem quieter lately. Not to mention what Namie had mentioned, about how pale he seemed.
Mikage was the only one at the dojo right now, so she made sure to lock up behind herself as she then made her way to Izaya's apartment.
She knocked several times. And when nobody answered or opened the door, she finally decided to use the key. She was one of the only ones, alongside Shinra, Namie, and Izaya himself that had a key to it.
Upon entering, she took note of how quiet the it was inside.
"Oi, Izaya, you in here?" She called out after a moment.
No answer.
Now that she thought about it, what was she going to say? She had come here with the intentions of confronting him, but now she felt at a loss of words.
Despite everything, she didn't want to sound insincere.
However, she knew that saying something was better than saying nothing, so she refused to just turn away, because a lack of confrontation is part of exactly what had caused her and Izaya to become so distant.
Walking around, she noticed the bathroom light was on. She didn't want to intrude on his privacy, so she stood by the door without looking in an knocked on the wall near the door. "Izaya, did you hear me? I need to talk to you about something."
Still no answer. She really didn't want to walk in on him and invade his privacy, but there was a really uneasy feeling in the pit of her stomach that just wouldn't let up.
So she decided to let her gut feeling guide her. And she was horrified when she did.
Blood.
There was blood in the bathtub.
Izaya was lying in it. His face was extremely pale.
She had to take a moment to process it, before she rushed to his side. "Izaya?"
"Izaya...!" She shook him in an effort to wake him up, and upon further examination she realized the blood was coming from his arms. Cuts. So many fucking cuts and even scars.
Mikage felt sicker than she'd ever felt before. She couldn't believe what she was looking at. Izaya had been cutting himself? For how long?
She told herself it didn't matter right now, and unplugged the drain to let the cold bloody water out of the bathtub. Fortunately, she could tell that he was at least still breathing.
Seeing as he wasn't responding, she grabbed a nearby dry rag, and gently dabbed one of his arms with it, drying his skin off. She moved it away from the water and held it up, reaching over to the brown shelf behind her, grabbing a box of bandage wraps that she was glad he had. Using one hand to hold the rag around Izaya's wrist, and using the other to hold the bandage wrap, she used her teeth to break the plastic, pulling it off of it. She then let the bandage wrap unroll before finally beginning to wrap it around his dry arm.
As the water was just about to drain out, she noticed him lull his eyes open.
"Mi...kage...chan?"
She was more relieved than she would ever admit to hear his voice, but knew that she needed to focus on his cuts.
"Don't talk... Just stay awake." She mumbled, as she hooked the end of bandage to the rest of it with the metal clip that came it. Maybe tape would have been to use to avoid giving Izaya anymore crazy urges to harm himself, but it was all she had.
She wasn't completely surprised that Izaya didn't say anything more, given that he was probably dazed and too weak to converse much.
Moving onto his other arm, she wondered if this was her fault in anyway. She was basically his bodyguard, and the only body guard truly devoted to him, and yet she had let pride get the best of her, otherwise she would have talked to him by now, and confronted him on his depressive symptoms.
She had known something was up with him for a while, but she had simply decided there wasn't anything she could do.
Still, just because Izaya was stubborn wasn't a reason to let him destroy himself, and she realized that. She didn't care what he thought or said now. He may have done some things that she didn't like before, but, in a way, he'd saved her when she was in an extremely dark period of her life all those years ago, so now she was going to do the same thing for him whether he liked it or not.
She couldn't help but wonder if he had anybody he felt he could talk to at all. Knowing him, he probably knew there weren't many that would listen to him, as much as she hated it.
Even so, she would have listened if he had tried to approach her with sincerity...! She would have listened to him. Izaya shouldn't have been so prideful about things himself. He should have reached out to somebody!
He probably doesn't know how to reach out to anybody, a thought dawned on her, filling her with a bit of regret. He had lived his entire life relying sole on himself for emotional support. He may not have been a person who coddled others, but he certainly didn't expect it from them either. And given that his parents had never really been around, she didn't want to admit it, but it made damn well sense why he was the way he was.
Mikage had never been able to truly hate Izaya either, because she knew a bit of what he had been through and had always known that Izaya wasn't heartless, underneath everything.
She understood that he was actually a fragile human being beneath it all, even if he tried to reject his humanity, and avoid his heart.
He wasn't looking at her anymore, and she could tell that he was probably frustrated that she had seen him in him such a state.
"...Sorry..." she said. She didn't know why she had apologized, whether it was for not making it clear before then that she did care about him, or intruding on his privacy, maybe both.
His response left her with an unidentifiable angst.
"You shouldn't look... like that, you know... Melancholy doesn't suit you,... Mikage-chan." He told her, with a weak smile.
"I should say the same thing about you, yet here you are with cuts and scars covering your arms... What does that say about you?" She didn't hesitate to point him out on his twisted hypocrisy, as she finally finished up with the bandage wrap.
"...Touche." He muttered and gave a small smirk, his auburn eyes downcast.
She then pulled out a towel wrapping it around him to cover him up. "...Can you stand?"
"I can try." He said, tying the towel around his body. Weakly, he used his arms to push himself up. However his arms were shaking and he obviously wasn't very steady at all.
"Let me help you." Mikage said reaching out to grab his arm.
"I'm fine." Izaya said, trying to pull back. However, Mikage refused to backdown and kept her grip on him.
"No, you aren't. You're going to fall. And you're unsteady as hell. Sit down on the side of the bathtub so you can get your clothes on. Here." She told him, handing him his clothes. "Let me know when you're done."
"However," Mikage had pulled out several switchblades from Izaya's jacket. "I'll be keeping these."
...
A/N: What do you guys think? I'll try to update when I can.