500 days of Izaya

Prologue

Day 240

The mysterious black rider rode imperviously around Ikebukuro, navigating the streets until she came upon the pachinko parlor, Heiwajima Kasuka holding onto her middle tightly, pale in the face from the rambunctious ride. The two slipped into the side door leading to the single studio apartment, left unlocked. The black rider swung the door open, the duo wordlessly walking into the apartment.

"Celty! Kasuka! I'm so glad you both came! I didn't know who else to call!"

Celty removed her helmet, black smoke forming on the spot in what could only be recognized as a 'frantic pattern.'

"Did the right thing. Brother?"

"He's-"

A few dishes crashed against the wall. Then an uprooted sink, followed by the refrigerator. Kadota sat in the living room, sipping tea troublesomely. He seemed used to the behavior.

"Brother."

Shizuo, now in plan sight, visibly froze.

"Kasuka? What are you doing here?" the appearance of Shizuo's little brother seemed to have calming effect, and the rest of the small group visibly relaxed.

"Help."

"Help me? Do what?"

"Please clean up. First."

The blond slowly obliged as he fixed the refrigerator upright and plugged it in, following with the sink. Shinra (the frantic individual from earlier) watched in disbelief as the 'gentle giant' hesitantly put the appliances back in order.

"Sit."

This seemed to be the cue for everyone to occupy the rest of the seats in the living room, and they all gave Kasuka their undivided attention (something he was only all too used to.)

"The key is not to panic." Shinra offered, nodding encouragingly as if he thought his advice would work by staying positive.

"I feel sick." the blond hung his head, gripping his undied hair in his fist, his once blond head of hair now streaked with brown.

"Drink." Kasuka passed the brown paper bag to Shizuo, the tip of a bottle could be made out as he pressed it to his older's brothers lips.

"Is that...?" Kadota didn't bother to broach the question, looking uncertainly at the bag.

"Vodka." the actor nodded, noticing the slight wince as Shizuo downed the drink, grimacing at the taste.

"More." he replied, none the less. The clear alcohol dripping down his chin as he emptied the bottle's contents.

"Does Ruri know you're out this late? It's your day off."

"Just start from the beginning."

He pondered over the day's events.

They had browsed through stalls in Tokyo. " We spent the day together."

He remembered dislocating a photo booth from its place in the mall. "We went shopping."

Izaya laughed and pointed out his wrong doings in the news, sipping coffee as he did do. "We had coffee."

The both pointedly ignoring the gigantic poster of Kasuka as they debated what movies to watch. "We watched a movie."

Izaya making fun of him for listening to Enka music, and then laughing harder when he threw the record CD's at him and dodged, resulting in the both of them being kicked out due to the injury of the shop owner. "We bought music."

"I thought it was a great day." Maybe not, but all in all it was.

"And then what happened?" Shinra murmured.

Russian Sushi was at the right amount of business as it constantly was, Simon waved to the locals, which scared them more often than not as he brightly informed them that the sushi they made was definitely not made out humans. But probably because he was nearly seven feet up in the air, black, and put emphasis on words in the middle of a sentence, mispronouncing them in the oddest ways.

" Surprise him, give him anything as long as it has ootoro." he gave Izaya a meaningful look. "I'll have a milk and some onigiri."

As soon as the waitress had left them, the informant had fixed him an unreadable look. "I think we should stop seeing each other."

Shizuo was broken out of his reverie when nearly all of his friends shared the same question.

"Just like that?" Kadota dropped his unlit cigarette.

"just like that?" Shinra stared.

Even Celty, thrust the same response to his face, typed neatly on her PDA.

"Did he say why?" Kasuka asked amongst all the nonsense, leaning his head on his perched arms thoughtfully.

All of the sudden, he was back in Russian Sushi.

"This...thing. Whatever it is...it's not normal. You and me. Do you think this is normal?"

He blushed and fumbled with his hands. he slid his cobalt sunglasses over the bridge of his nose so the informant couldn't see his eyes.

"Well of course we're not normal. But I'm happy...Are you happy?"

"You're happy?"

"You're not?"

"All we do is argue!"

"Well we've had our disagreements in the past, but-"

"Maybe he wasn't in a good mood." Kasuka interrupted.

"Maybe he was PMSing?"

Shinra regarded Kadota incredulously. "He's a guy. And what would you know about that anyways?"

Kadota sputtered, obviously embarrassed beyond words. Celty, a voice of reason (although she had no voice at all,) urged him on. 'Then what?'

'This can't really surprise you. I mean, we've been like Sid and Nancy for months."

Shizuo merely gave the informant the most confused look he could muster. "What does that even mean?"

Izaya stared at me, red eyes blazing with an emotion that was clear as day. "You're Sid. And I fear that I'm Nancy. See, he stabbed her with a kitchen knife seven times. Repeatedly. Oh, and that you're a tad delusional."

Simon's boss had laid out their food in front of them and Izaya joyfully clapped his hands together in clear delight. "We'll talk about this later! It's lunch time after all." Izaya had dug into his bentou like the conversation had never happened, the debt collector was not so lucky.

He watched him eat like it was the worst travesty in the history of mankind. The debt collector took one glance at his meager meal, and started to walk away.

"Shizu-chan!-"

This was the part where Izaya would tell him they were just friends.'

"-Come back here! I don't have my wallet today!"

The anger he had been holding back for the better half of the day released itself, and it wasn't very pretty.

"ShiZUoh! Eat sushi! Sushi good!"

Simon's form of consolation wasn't working well either.