Summary: Shizuo spends his last few months in a hospital, losing his strength and dying. Izaya comes in to gloat as often as he can. But after Shizuo's death, Izaya finds life rather empty. LJ drrrkink meme.

Pairings: IzayaxShizuo. (If reader does not like this pairing, don't read.)


Seek

Eyes that scan the streets, wore a smirk behind the glass that kept the pouring rain out. Watched as the rain hit against the people's plastic umbrella while they seek for a dryer shelter. How were his beloved humans doing today, was the thought that came to Izaya's mind. It wasn't long till the raven got bored at watching the people who went by; life now was beginning to get alittle too dry. The dissatisfied frown that appeared made him impatient: Izaya couldn't wait for the fun of his plan to come, he wanted it to happen now.

But as much as he wants it, Izaya knows that rushing things would do no good; as it might end up ruining his precious plans. In the past, he was able to find thing that could keep his mind off while allowing time to pass. However, in the last month, there were nothing that could keep him entertained. Surely there were many things that kept changing as the day went past, but none gave him the thrill he seek.

Usually when such a thing happened, the raven would hunt out for the blonde; Shizuo was always able to entertain him. Izaya might hate the blonde, but as long as those toys could amused or averted his attention, he couldn't bare to toss it away nor to break it. No matter how bored Izaya was, he couldn't mess with Shizuo this time of round. Izaya closed his eyes as he recalled what happened to the blonde; the sight that left him confuzzled.


The day which came and pass was always the same. The chatters and laughter heard from the crowds made the streets of Ikebukuro vivacious. Blending with the crowd wasn't too hard for the raven. However, there were always a few people that could spot the raven from a distance; whether it was by instinct or by spotting his skipping figure.

"IIIIIZAAAAYAAAAA!" an all too familiar shout of his name had simply pointed out the perfect person whom fitted the 'sense by instinct' category. The crowd where he had blended in was currently dispersing as people scattered away from him. A smirk found its way onto the raven's lips as he whirled around. He felt both happy and disgusted at the sight of a familiar blonde dressed in a bartender outfit at the end of the street.

"Yes, sweetheart~~?" Izaya hummed while suppressing the urge of puking upon such words that escaped his lips: after all, this was the best way to provoke the blonde. And by provoking the blonde, it would make the chase far more fun and unique compared to the previous. The twitch of the eye along with the throbbing veins that surfaced on Shizuo's face showed Izaya that the blonde was not pleased by his 'reply'.

Shizuo shot his hand out to the nearest object, which was a sign before he yanked it out of the cemented ground and threw it towards the raven. Izaya took two quick steps to the left and allowed the pole to crash into the ground behind. The raven stuffed his hands into his jacket, one hand caressing the flick blade while he flashed the usual grin which earned a low growl from the blonde. Whirling around, Izaya began their game of 'chase'.

Shizuo's yell which echoes through the streets made him snicker. However, to the residences and people of the streets, the yell was like a siren which warned them to seek for shelter- away from the destruction. Adrenaline which pumped into his veins made Izaya tremble with excitement. This sensation was one which he could never get bored of; something that Shizuo was usually able to do. Izaya never did give much thought into wondering about the reasons why the blonde was able to engender such a sensation. But he couldn't be bothered.

What difference would it do? None, was what the raven knew.

In their every game of 'chase', Izaya would notice that the blonde gave his all (not that Izaya didn't either). However, today the blonde seemed alittle odd. Each turn the raven ran, he would peek for the immediate sight of the blonde. But today, the sight of Shizuo curving while chasing after him were slower than the usual and they were getting more slower as the chase dragged on.

Izaya did wonder if the blonde's stamina had fallen compared to their last game, or either Shizuo was sick and couldn't be as fast as he should be.

"What's wrong, Shizu-chan?" Izaya shouted to the blonde as they ran on. "Aww~ Is monster-kun getting tried already?" The raven provoked when he didn't receive the shouts he had expected. A sign pole that flew before him, made Izaya stop to face the blonde.

"S-shut up, flea..." Shizuo scowled as though what Izaya said was the truth. The raven couldn't understand why did Shizuo react this way and squirted his eyes to try unfold what the blonde had planned; despite the fact that Shizuo was stupid (to Izaya), the blonde still had the capability of doing things that Izaya had never expected he could. Other than the rage that consumed the blonde's features, Izaya was sure he spotted the hints of shock and confusion.

The raven also noticed that the blonde was panting heavily, as though he was having problem in getting the air into his lungs. Not once, till now, did the blonde ever pant in a way like this during any of their chase. Never.

"What did you do..." The blonde growled within the pants as though whatever the blonde currently felt was all because of Izaya. Shizuo then pulled out another sign threateningly, waiting for the reply. The raven stood and watched as the way Shizuo gripped the sign firmly. But there was something off about the way the blonde held the pole; Shizuo was leaning towards the pole and using it to support his weight.

Izaya chose to push away the currently thought of possible chances of why the blonde was different and wore a smug grin before running off once again. Their game of chase couldn't end yet; Izaya wouldn't let it end when things had began to become more interesting with each flaw the blonde showed.

The sudden sound of a body hitting the ground and clinging of metal made the raven stop in his tracks. Turning around was the one action that Izaya regretted for ever doing as soon as he saw the body that laid on the ground. What Izaya saw was the twisted face of the blonde in utmost pain as he pressed one hand hard against his chest while the other clawed the ground.

The short, sharp intake of gasp which came from Shizuo didn't make Izaya comfortable at all; instead, it made him uncomfortable to see a monster like Shizuo in pain. Only when tears that dusted the eyelashes would gather to fall from the blonde's cheek, did Izaya realized that people were beginning to crowd around. Eyes that locked onto the fallen blonde before glancing at the informant from the crowd brought a smile to Izaya's face.

"..." Izaya knew that the blonde was cursing him through those soft, breathy and inaudible mumbles while he clenched tightly against the broken pieces of the clawed ground.

"I can't hear you, Shizuo-chan~~ You need to speak lou-" Izaya stopped his taunt when he saw that the sharp intake of air from the blonde stopped as his hands released the pieces gripped. How rude, was what Izaya thought as he wore a pout while eyes locked onto the stilled and motionless body. Murmurs from the crowd began to increase in volume and it wasn't long before some high school girls whipped out their phones to snap a few shots of the greatest man in Ikebukuro, laid unconscious on the cold ground.

The raven let out a sigh fake disappointed, shaking his head and skipped away from the blonde. Even with the woman's voice whom shouted for the crowd to give way and that she was a doctor, he didn't even look back once.

"Die, won't you Shizu-chan~?" Izaya sneered at the delightful thought of the death of the blonde. Even if the blonde dies, he'll still be able to get his hands on other much more fun toys to play around with. Maybe, it was time for a change; for him to get another newer and more entertaining toy.


Izaya stared at his blank computer screen, stared at his very own reflection whom in turned, stared back into his red eyes. Those eyes seemed to sneer with rue; laughing at his foolishness back then. The raven chuckled lowly under his breath, as if he didn't mind the way his own reflection had just insulted him. After all, it was his fault to have believed that humanity would present him with another more entertaining toy. It was somewhat his fault to easily give away one of his favorite toys to sickness (or was it?); But what was this bitter-taste aftertaste?

Regret?

The low chuckles began to turn into a wild and well-humored crack of laughter. It amazed him how 'human' he was capable of being because of simple mistake he made; those which humans would always repeat. The saying of 'No human is prefect' must mean that despite his well gained information, he still couldn't be a god yet.

Even when the phone rang, he ignored it and continued spinning on his chair. The echoing of each ring drilled it's way into his mind, and continued till someone picked it up with an annoyed hiss. The raven could feel those eyes locked against his spinning figure as it anathematized his ignorance while talking to the person at the end of the line.

"The call's for you." Namine glared before Izaya flashed her a vulpine smile. The raven picked up the phone, only to see his assistance reach down for her purse before heading towards the door. She wore her usual face which seemed to say the words 'I can't stand breathing the same air nor being in the same room with you any longer for this day'. When he called out to her, teased that she was cruel for leaving despite the 'working-hours' had not ended, she chortled and spammed the front door.

"Hello, isn't this alittle too early for the call?" Izaya asked the man whom he believed was at the end of the line. Shiki wasn't one who would call earlier than the arranged time or was the elder man in a hurry for the 'giving' of information?

"I'm sorry, Onihara-san. I didn't meant to report in earlier than the arranged date and time." A voice so gentle and timid which replied back shocked the raven for a moment before he cursed mentally for mistaking one of his pawn as Shiki.

"Did something happen?"

"Hewaijima-san's condition worsened and he collapsed." If it was the Izaya from before, he would have been shocked by those words; with thoughts of 'how could that monster collapse?' running through his mind. But he wasn't. Silence fills the air once more as Izaya concentrates on the voices and chatters at the other end of the line. Izaya chuckles to himself just before he burst into laughter: He couldn't believe how human the blonde was becoming. Collapsing once more? Now, how 'human' was that monster going to be?

Maybe he didn't lose his favorite toy just yet. Instead of the chasing game it used to provide, it must have changed into one which was for display; a toy when not treated gently, would break easily. Izaya stopped laughing but began to smile at the thought. Since Shizu-chan had become an 'only-for-display-toy', won't it be much more fun to break the blonde? Won't it be much easier to see the many emotions- other than rage- show itself on the blonde's face? Why didn't he think of this before?

"Hmm~ Now this is getting interesting..." Izaya purposely murmured loud enough so that his pawn could hear. When she excused herself from the other end of the line, Izaya slumped back into his chair, grinning at all the fresh ideas that formed in his mind; Ideas which could be used to break the blonde. Now the only piece he needed to gain before all was done, was to know what was going through the blonde's body; the reason of why he was slowly dying.

Izaya pulled out his phone and dialed for a cab to the hospital. By going to the hospital, he would be able to kill two birds with one stone; He could see the infirm face of the blonde and also finally meet the doctor in-charged of Shizuo, Arisu Hisako, to get the last piece of information he needed. The raven grabbed his jacket and left his office, skipping to the cab which waited for him below.

The drive to the hospital seemed to take forever for the raven, who watched as the scene of streets go past. He wanted to ask the driver to speed up because the thought of Shizuo waking up before he reached his destination annoyed Izaya. If the blonde was awake, it would have meant that the raven would have missed the delightful sight of a weaker Shizuo- who laid helplessly bounded to the bed by his slow approaching death.

Izaya paid the driver upon reaching their destination and walked in. Inside, Izaya immediately met up with his earlier little pawn, who greeted him with a slight bow before she led him to where he had in mind. It was good to have pawns who knew what he wants and acts immediately.

While they were walking, another thought came to Izaya's mind. What fun would it be to let a chance of annoying someone like this slip?

"Hey, don't you even wondered what would happen if someone knew what you did back then, trainee nurse-chan~?" Izaya asked the pawn who led him through the corridor. Her body tensed as she stopped. The raven smiles at this reaction; He was pleased by the way she had reacted to his prediction. The pawn turned around, mouth ready to spill out the many excuses before-

"Sako." Izaya turned around to see the person who called out to the pawn's name in a firm voice. It was a tall brunette, whose hair was tied into a simple ponytail and wore a doctor's coat with a tag clip at the breast pocket. Bingo, the raven thought as a slight smile tugged on his lips when he saw the name of the said person.

"D-doctor Arisu...I was...umm...b-bring this man here to...to the room which his cousin-"

"Sako, you're stammering." The doctor pointed out, indirectly telling the nurse that she wasn't buying any of the words said. Izaya smiled, glad that the doctor in charge of the blonde was a person who would get straight to the point- not one who drags on with long talks before getting to the point. The doctor let out a sigh before she told the pawn of Izaya's, "Sako, leave this man with me and get back to your duties. I'll bring this man to whichever room his cousin is in, okay?"

Before the pawn could say anything more, Izaya place his hands on her shoulder and smile by adding it that he didn't mind who it was as long as he could 'visit' his 'sick cousin'. The pawn left without another word.

"Ah, my friend's in room-" Izaya tried to name out the room number of Shizuo's, but was stopped in the same way as how his little pawn was earlier.

"Onihara Izaya." Was all the brunette doctor said before she turned and began to walk. "Follow me." Izaya smiled and followed, despite the fact that he didn't like people ordering him around. Oh well, he'll have to get back at the doctor later, after the important talk. It wasn't long till she brought the raven to into the room where Shizuo occupied for the last one month. Except, there was no sight of the said blonde.

"Ah~ Doctor-san's so mysterious, how did you know that Shizu-chan's my cousin?" Izaya lied, wanting to see how the doctor would react at the lies said. And after that, he might surely be able to clear his suspicions.

"Onihara-san, whether you're my patient's cousin, I couldn't careless. So would you mind getting striaght to the point? I have other patients who are much more worth my time, other than it being wasted on a seemingly harmless fire which would eventually burn and scar everything." The brunette doctor said in a flat voice.

"Poetic~ Or was that suppose to be a metaphor?" A smirk played on his lips. Izaya might like people who would get straight to the point: however, for him, the raven would prefer to beat about the bush before getting down to the point. After all, it wouldn't be fun if he didn't do so, now would it? The doctor stared at him, unimpressed with how he had just provoked her.

"Let me get one thing straight, I'm not going to allow you to visit my patient any time soon nor update you about his current state since you're not really his family member. Also, you'll only make his current state worst if you visited him. After all, you're the fuel to his fire, not in the good direction." the doctor simply blurted out the obvious fact.

"Are you sure by doing that...it would be a good choice for you?" The raven murmured softly as his eyes gleamed with a hint of sinister and menacing threat; since the doctor said he couldn't meet the blonde nor give him a simple update of the blonde's condition, he might as well play out his cards now. The brunette doctor's eye widen in confusion, as if she couldn't understand the meaning behind the raven's words; especially when the raven mentioned about herself.

"Doctor Arisu, do you know of hackers?" To others, this might have jumped to an unrelated topic, but it was one which Izaya believed would be the best card against the doctor. "Do you know how it feels to kill someone? Do you know of the loss of a lover one? Did you ever felt the sensation of crushing guilt?" For that very moment, Izaya saw the doctor's eye waver before it was masked by a pretense of confusion.

Izaya shook his head and let out a sigh as his hand moved in mocking pity, "I'll have to rephrase it in a way that you're almighty mind can understand, then. Did you have a lover who died because of a mistake you made in your previous...let's say, occupation?" If you thinks that what Izaya was trying to do now was to use guilt against the doctor, you are wrong. He was going to blackmail her into becoming another one of his pawns, like the trainee nurse from before.

"Personal details of my life is something my mummy told me not to share with strangers." Words of cold sarcasm was something the raven didn't expect; but it was a hint that the doctor wasn't pleased with the direction of where this conversation was headed towards.

"Well, then I guess your mother must have been rolling comfortably in her grave to have known that her sweetheart was a rotten hacker." Izaya blurted out those words while smiling sweetly at the doctor- ex-informant. "Oh, I forgot! One who killed as well." The doctor frown in disapproval at how the raven had just insulted her dead mother and dag up about her previous 'life' information.

However, it wasn't long before she smiled and chuckled in amusement. A hacker being blackmailed by an infamous informant? She couldn't help but to find the humor within.

"Before anything else, why are you doing so much just for the report on Heiwajima-san?" Just as Izaya was going to lie- saying that he didn't understand what the doctor meant- but she cut him short. "I managed to fabricate lies I'm living in now, burying the past so deep that it wasn't suppose to be easy for anyone to dig it up. You must have went through quite a lot just so as to 'blackmail' me, didn't you?"

"Isn't it to be said for you as well? Going through so much trouble to dig up information about my welfare and...games. Aren't you doing a little too much for that monster? Or are you this...my stalker?" Izaya paused, choosing the right words to provoke, or at least make the doctor uncomfortable. Sadly, the brunette doctor didn't reply back, only stared at him- waiting for his reply.

Under normal condition, the raven wouldn't have bothered to reply; after all, it would be a waste to share his reasoning with some low and lovable human. However with time of the blonde's life not being on his side, what other choices did he have to get the information he needed fast? There were other ways, but this was one of the most easiest and safest.

But Izaya could be as stubborn as anyone when it was needed for him to be. "What good would it do for you to understand? To know?" Silence. "Is there really the need for reasons to do so in the first place?" Izaya was sure that the doctor couldn't understand the hidden meaning behind those words his said. But there really wasn't the need for someone as her to understand. No one needs to know when he himself hadn't understood it well enough.

The reason could be because he wanted no one to hold information of the blonde without the news going through him first. Could be because he didn't want anyone to be close with that monster, to understand what a naïve thinking that monster had; how foolish it was, how laughable it was. Or it could be this, he didn't want anyone to have the capability of crushing the monster, to break it into thousands of pieces, to make it burst into rage.

Izaya frowned at the thoughts; he didn't like it when he began to think too much, it never really did much good and would usually only anger him.

He could feel the doctor's eyes on him before she let out a sigh. What she thought wasn't the thing that interested the raven. Instead, it was the expression that she held; one that seemed to be like pity and yet not. The sudden beeping could be heard as the doctor pulled out her phone, checked the message before turning towards the door.

"Is that a no to my...request?"

The doctor stopped and looked at Izaya and stated once more, "I made it clear from the beginning that I was not going to let you close to my patient. Let it be to harm or comfort him. There never was a yes nor no to you request."

With that, she left the room. Izaya stared at the door, disappointed that he couldn't get the information that he wanted through such polite means- with the light threatened of blackmailing. He smiles as he walked out of the room, walked back into the taxi that continued to wait for him outside the hospital; it was a good thing that Izaya always had a backup plan to ever single action he did -other than when he was angering the blonde.

The raven whipped out his phone as his smile widened; he'll have to work his way around plan B then, despite how hard it might be compared to the doctor's.

When the person at the other end picked up the line, he chirped happily as his eyes gleamed with malevolent, "Hello~".


A/N:

Firstly, the oc doesn't play a major role in this story and is only inside to help with the explaining of Shizuo's sickness and for some cold humor...

Once more, pls forgive me for the mistakes made and for the confusing parts will eventually be explained as the story goes on. Also, would long chapter (slower update) or short chapter (faster update) be preferred?

I hope that you've enjoyed reading this chapter.