Chapter II

Karisawa Erika couldn't help but shiver in excitement.

She had practically been sleeping, eating, breathing yaoi for almost a good twenty two years of her life, but heck, this had to be the first time she was able to witness such a real, such a... such a passionate confession. It wasn't like anything she had imagined before. Her heart had almost imploded with joy, and for now, she was sure that it was impossible to prevent a broad, creepy grin from spreading all over her face.

Never mind that Shizuo-sama and that man had declared their love in the middle of the day and in front of a shell-shocked woman instead of under the moonlight.

Never mind that the rain hadn't been screaming a tragic, heart breaking song to express its ultimate angst like in those cheesy novels.

Never mind that there hadn't been any sparkles and flying roses (though she had always been pretty fond of the sparkling element); never mind that the romantic moment had only survived for less than two minutes.

This thing was real.

I'm gay. And this is my boyfriend.

I'm gay. And this is my boyfriend.

I'm gay. And this-

"Karisawa-san, please stop replaying that video already! You've been watching it over and over for the last three hours!" Besides her, Yumasaki Walker huffed, half disappointed that his favorite partner's attention had been stolen away from him, and half freaked out as the eerie chuckles he had come to know so well kept echoing eerily inside the small room.

"But Yumacchi! This is an official yaoi moment! No wonder Shizuo-sama had never been in a relationship with a woman before! Can you see the way he looked at Izaya-kun? Or the way Izaya-kun smiled back at our young master? Or the way-"

"They were just pretending." the blond cut her off, rolling his eyes as Erika abused the replay button on her camera one more time. "Nothing more, nothing less."

"-And Izayan looks really young! He can pass as a high-school student with that face!" A squeal proved to him that he was totally ignored. "Ne, ne, I think we can make a Shotacon doujinshi from this! I mean, Shizuo-sama might actually be a pedo-"

A heavy sigh escaped Walker's lips as he realized that there was no way he could bring his friend back from her la-la land for the time being. It had been a really bad idea to come to that restaurant in search of writing materials for his latest yuri novel. Erika wouldn't live this down for at least another three months.

The blond sobbed inwardly. All he had wanted was some yuri in action.

He was pulled out of his endless stream of self-pity, however, when his companion quickly flipped her phone open and punched in a bunch of numbers.

"Who're you calling?" he asked.

"You remember Mai-chan and KuruKuru? I'm paying them a visit."

"But wha-" Walker paled as realization came and gracefully kicked him on the face.

"K-Karisawa-san, you aren't gonna…?"

The smirk on Erika's lips confirmed his suspicion.

The blond waved his hands frantically, "Oh no you don't! If you do that, even if you're a girl, Shizuo-san's gonna beat you up bad! Like really, really bad! Karisawa-saaaaaan…"

Kadota almost dropped the vase he was carrying as a horribly high-pitched scream pierced through his ears. He scratched his head, eyeing the closed door to Walker's room curiously.

I wonder what those two are up to again…

o0o

The next morning, Tanaka Tom almost choked on his tea the moment he turned on the television.

"What the…?" the butler mumbled in disbelief, lost in his own thought as the twin reporters on the screen continued to chatter happily as if nothing out of the ordinary had just occurred.

o0o

The constant ringing of his cellphone was annoying Shizuo to no end. The blond shifted under the tangling mess of sheets and pillows, eyes clenching tight as a grimace tainted his previously peaceful expression. The day before had been particularly tiring to him, and the blond found himself desperately in need of his beauty sleep. He wanted it, and he wanted it now. Fuck the bastard who was giving him calls that early on a Sunday morning.

The device continued to whine.

Shizuo contemplated if he should just throw it out of the window.

As if already knew his murderous intention, the evil spawn of a machine decided to shut up, before happily screamed again at the top of its non-existent lungs. With a curse rolling not so smoothly out of his lips, the younger Heiwajima slid out of bed and grumpily made his way towards his desk. Flipping his phone open, golden eyes narrowed when he recognized the caller ID.

"Hi, dad." He answered with a sleep-clouded voice, hoping, hoping that his father would pick up the situation like the smart man that he was.

"Shizuo, is Delic with you?"

The blond cocked an eyebrow at the question, before realizing that his twin must have turned off his cell in case their parents called to complain about whatever Shizuo had done during the miai. The clever bastard.

"He didn't go home yesterday. Said he had some stuff to do, but he didn't tell me where he was going." Who knows, maybe now he's already somewhere in England, the golden-eyed man thought to himself, absent-mindedly casting his gaze to the wall in front of him, trying to count how many dirty spots there were while waiting for his father's responses.

He didn't have to wait for long, though, when his mother's excited voice burst through the phone. "Tell him to go meet us immediately when he gets back then! My, your brother, he dared to hide such a thing from us all!" Something suspiciously akin to a squeal resounded from the machine, before the line went off.

Utter silence.

For a good five minutes Shizuo just stood there, staring at the phone in his hand as if it had just suddenly grown another head. Was it just him, or had his mother truly sounded so… cheerful? He was pretty sure that she was talking about the incident yesterday at the restaurant. Harima Mika had probably told his parents everything. Then… shouldn't his mother be a little bit more upset about it?

After all, the official heir of the family had just turned gay.

…temporarily, of course. But that was beside the point.

"Shizuo-kun, are you up yet?" The deep voice accompanied by a soft knock on his bedroom door pulled the younger Heiwajima back to reality.

"Come in", he breathed out upon recognizing his butler's voice, a hand slowly brought up to massage his throbbing forehead. It was still too early in the morning for his foggy brain to comprehend everything.

"Turn on the TV." was the first thing that slipped past Tom's lips as the older man stepped into the room.

Shizuo blinked.

"Wha-" The words died in his throat as his eyes drank in the man's serious expression. The blond made a tsk sound with his tongue, before walking towards his bed to get his TV remote control.

The plasma screen hummed to life.

"And now for the big news today, the secret love story between sons of the two most notable figures in Japan this year!"

"Evidence." (And we even have proof.)

Shizuo didn't think his eyes was able to open any wider as the previous day's memories suddenly flashed across his TV screen, slowly and painfully, accompanied by the excited squeals of the bespectacled reporter. There he was, grabbing and pulling the black-haired waiter against his chest, smiling at Harima-san's stunned face and proudly announcing…

"…I'm gay. And this is my boyfriend."

Shizuo didn't know if he should crawl into a hole and die, or just go murdering the first creature his hand could touch.

"What the-"

o0o

"-fuck, Izaya-nii? You've just been home for a week and now you're getting married?"

For the second time that day, Izaya had to put the phone a good five inches away from his ears when his little brother's screeching screams burst through the receiver. The raven smirked as Hibiya's frustrated voice carried on with the boy's now mostly unheard rants, his hand idly tracing the smooth buttons on his TV remote control as he leaned back on the sofa.

"Relax, Hibi-chan! Who says your beloved big brother is getting married?" Ruby eyes glinted playfully as he pressed the machine back to his ears, knowing full-well that his singsong tone under this situation would just annoy Hibiya even further. He could practically sense the boy's glare on the other line. "You, of all people, should know that this is-"

"-clearly not a misunderstanding at all! Heiwajima Delic himself admitted that they're currently in a relationship! Just look at the passion-" A swift click on the remote and the braided-haired reporter's enthusiastic chirpings instantly ceased in its existence.

Hibiya sighed. "Would it kill you to be serious once in a while?"

"Would it kill you to stop being an uptight brat?"

"I'm not an uptight brat!"

"You're uptight, and fourteen. That makes you an uptight brat." Izaya's smirk widened as he heard a groan from his little brother.

"Did mom say anything about this?"

"Ah, you don't have to worry about mom. She's just being, you know, herself." An excited cry from upstairs fiercely interrupted his words, but Izaya continued as if nothing had happened, "I think I pretty much have an idea about who spread the news to Mairu and Kururi, though. Heh, how troublesome~"

A minute passed.

"…You're having fun, aren't you?"

"I love you, too." The smirk on Izaya's lips widened when the sound of a phone being thrown violently to the floor officially ended their conversations.

His baby brother was just too cute sometimes.

The twenty four-year-old man tapped his cellphone slightly on his lower lips, a languid smile dawning on his handsome features as memories from the previous day once again flashed across his TV screen. Scarlet irises narrowed, much like the way a cat's eyes would when spotting its favorite prey as the image of a certain blond popped into his sight. A deep chuckle escaped his lips as Izaya lazily stretched his slim body, attempting to find a more comfortable position on the sofa.

He truly hadn't expected his trip back to Japan after seven years to be this… interesting.

Izaya had to admit that helping the Heiwajima that day at the restaurant hadn't originally been his intention. After all, Orihara Kyouko's purpose in forcing her eldest son to work as a trainee at one of her famous restaurants certainly wasn't to teach him how to poke his nose in her precious customers' business. And Izaya himself, too, didn't find such actions anything more than a waste of time.

Why had he done what he had done, then?

The reason was simple: He had wanted to see how the blond would react upon seeing the desperation whirling inside those amber eyes.

And that was why he had stepped in, with a pen in his hand and a smile on his lips, waiting for the Heiwajima to use the God-sent interruption to scurry away like the pitiful man he was supposed to be.

The reaction he got back was beyond his expectation.

For now, Orihara Izaya knew that he would be kept entertained for a while.

"-Heiwajima Delic himself admitted that they're currently in a relationship-"

Pause.

Rewind.

"-Heiwajima Delic himself admitted-"

Pause.

Rewind.

"-Heiwajima Delic himself-"

A smirk.

"Oh? It seems that they can't even get your name right…"

Grin, grin.

"…ne, Heiwajima Shizuo-san?"

o0o

My special thanks to: sesshyluhvr, Tsumetai-kaze, akirachan610, Cael Luciano, mika. siam. 71192, twinkee-neekee, anon, keiko-uchiha, GoPlayInTrafficxox for their review in chapter 1. I'm glad that you like the story and I appreciate all of your kind words 3.