Fraternising With the Enemy

Disclaimer: Durarara isn't mine.

"Did you have to break all of his furniture? Seriously, there's nothing to gain from that Shizuo."

"I'm sorry…" That was all he had been saying for the past half an hour. The client had been tricky as expected and attempted to threaten Tom with a knife. Shizuo had been reminded of a certain flea bastard and so had completely lost his shit.

"There's only one thing we can do now." Shizuo gulped. "You are taking a few days off."

"What?" He had expected to be fired. Tom was a good friend but he was still his employer after all.

"This Izaya thing is just going to bother you otherwise. You need to start thinking of him as someone else."

"Why? It's still that smug bastard!" Just his likeness was enough to drive him into a rage.

"He doesn't remember any of it. To him you're just a stranger. So treat him like one. Forget your history and try talking to him. And then, you might relax a bit more and stop attacking people so much." It made good sense. Of course it did. That didn't mean he liked the idea though.

"And what if I can't learn to deal with him?"

"We'll cross that bridge when it comes to it." Tom clocked the worry in his face and smiled. "This might be good for you Shizuo. You could finally get rid of that weird thing you have."

"As if." Nothing could make him stop disliking Izaya Orihara.

"Just give it a few days and see. I'll phone you when I want you back." And he tapped him on the shoulder and headed in a different direction.

Shizuo pulled out a cigarette in order to steady his nerves. Full days filled with the bastard flea were not ideal at all. He could see them looming up in front of him like an impassable mountain range.

What are we even supposed to talk about anyway? Aside from telling the man how much of a hated psychopath he was, conversational options seemed limited. But for Tom, he would try.

When he walked back in Izaya had fallen asleep leaning on his table. This was a problem. He didn't want him just walking into the bedroom if Shizuo tried to sleep in there. In the end, he figured he'd move the flea, even if his touch repulsed him.

Izaya weighed practically nothing but this was probably more to do with Shizuo's strength than anything else. The way he picked him up meant their faces were kind of close and so Shizuo tried to avoid looking at him. He was very self-conscious after all. The smell was hard to ignore however. He was wearing Shizuo's clothes but he hadn't showered still and so smelt very much of whatever it was he normally wore.

Having a sensitive sense of smell felt very much like a weakness right now. At least he was only moving him to the next room. Though he got unlucky. Because all of a sudden, a pair of wine-coloured eyes were staring up at him. It was a miracle he didn't drop the guy.

"D-Don't fall asleep on my table, go to bed!" This time it wasn't just anger he was feeling, but embarrassment. As usual he covered it up with rage.

"I was waiting for you to get back."

"Why?!"

"I thought I should?" Shizuo was unused to this kind of treatment and so wasn't sure how to react. All he could do was put the man down.

"Since you're awake, you can walk yourself." And he turned around and walked back in to the lounge, slamming the hall door behind him. He was just so socially awkward that he couldn't deal with anything normally. And Izaya was definitely the worst person for bringing that out in him.

-Page Break-

And the next morning, the awkwardness continued. Shizuo and Izaya staring at each other over the table as they ate breakfast. Not fun. Shizuo was forcing himself to stare at the man. Izaya's facial expressions were very different to what they usually were so he figured if he stared for long enough, he'd stop seeing him as the usual bastard.

Izaya himself was also watching the strange blonde bartender. He seemed more interested than anything else in this person. There was no malice in those eyes; only some unease due to the odd behaviour he'd seen.

"Shizuo?" He hadn't expected talking and so he almost jumped.

"What?" This was kind of shouted but was still a vast improvement to his normal speech.

"Do you have work today?"

"Why are you asking?"

"I just wanted to know…"

"I don't have any work for a few days." Inwardly he cursed at himself for revealing this information. He could have used this as an excuse to go out.

"Oh." And there was no further commentary. Some tension seemed to leave his shoulders however. Even that minor interaction had stressed out Shizuo however and so he grabbed a cigarette. The things were rapidly disappearing.

"…Why do you smoke?"

"Because I like it." He hated people nagging at him. He needed his fucking stress relief and if anyone tried to take it from him, he would break their legs.

"Isn't it bad for you?"

"You couldn't remember your own name but you remember that?"

"I don't understand it either…" Izaya was looking at the table, his brows knitted together in confusion.

"…So you really don't remember anything?" This was such a weird thing to happen that Shizuo couldn't even imagine what it would be like.

"Not really…" Izaya spoke carefully. "I remember what objects are, I know how to use them, but I don't remember learning how to use them."

"Oh…"

"How did it happen?" Shizuo froze.

"Well… We were fighting and I hit you with a street sign." Izaya just stared at him.

"I…I can believe that." He'd seen Shizuo trying to plant it into him when he had woken up. "What did I do?"

"…Let's just say it was a lot of stuff and leave it there." After putting out his cigarette, he lit up another one.

"…Can I ask you something more…personal?"

"…Fine."

"How'd you lift that street sign?"

"I just did. I get angry, I lift anything I can get." And as usual he felt uncomfortable talking about it. It was a sore topic for him. "Can we talk about something else?" He didn't want to get angry.

"…Do you have any family?"

"Are you bullshitting me?!"

"No?!" Izaya looked uneasy at the sudden explosion.

"Why aren't you asking about your family? Isn't that the first thing you should be worrying about?"

"Seeing as no one came for me, I'm guessing I don't really need to know about my family. Or want to know either." Even in spite of brain damage, Izaya was fully capable of working things out.

"I can understand that…" Although they weren't amazingly close, Kasuka would help him if he ever got into a situation like this.

"Am I kind of an asshole?" This time Shizuo started spluttering.

"W-What?"

"I'm just guessing I can't be a great person if people don't want to be around me." Izaya seemed very matter of fact about this.

"You… don't seem very upset about this."

"I guess I'm not…" He sounded surprised at his own reaction. "I'm kind of weird, aren't I?"

"…That's one word." Shizuo was unsettled by this, but when it came to the flea, nothing was beyond him.

"Tell me about you." Shizuo jumped again.

"What kind of things?"

"Anything." Izaya wasn't smirking. Instead he gave him a small smile. Shizuo wasn't sure what to make of this.

And so he just told him some basic stuff. Like the fact that he had a younger brother, that he'd had many jobs, his best friend Tom, his oldest friend Shinra, that he was incredibly strong…. None of it went into any kind of detail though. The flea could never be truly trusted and so he wasn't getting any deep emotional crap.

"Any more?" And he still wanted to know something.

"…How about I tell you stuff about you?" Not that he knew much but he didn't like talking about himself.

"…I'd rather not."

"Why?"

"I don't know…" Izaya looked kind of puzzled. "I'm not sure I want to know about me that much."

"You did before."

"Yeah… And now it's making me feel kind of sick."

"Probably because you haven't had a bath and now you stink." He'd said it without thinking but it was true. His sensitive nose picked up a lot.

"I do?" Izaya looked down at himself and grimaced. "…Can I use the bath?"

"Sure…"

"I need your help getting changed though."

"Right…" This sucked.

Leading Izaya into the bathroom, he started faffing with the bath, trying to avoid looking at the flea behind him. Undressing another man was awkward as hell and the fact that Izaya seemed unbothered by it all but kept staring at him made it harder.

"You can do the trousers right?" He bloody hoped he could do the trousers. He wasn't doing them, that was for sure.

"I think so."

"Good." At one point he felt like he had made Izaya's shoulder worse as he yanked the shirt off quite harshly. "There."

Being the socially awkward fool that he was, he walked into the door in his attempt to flee. This depressed him more than anything else since he couldn't seem to do anything normally. He only had five seconds of a reprieve (it felt like that anyway).

"Shizuo?" He'd just sat back down and gave a long and frustrated sigh.

"What do you want?"

"I can't wash my hair…"

"…" Fuck, fuck, FUCK! He did not want to see him naked. No way in hell. "…Wait there."

Izaya was sat on the stool, completely naked. He didn't seem as embarrassed at this situation. Shizuo, wanting to get this over with, marched over and grabbed the shampoo. He was so awkward that he knew he was probably rubbing the guy's skin off.

"Could you not be so rough please?" Izaya was flinching as he said this.

"…Sorry." It had always been hard for him to judge his strength.

Once the shampoo had been washed out, he made his excuses and dashed out the door. He was so obvious that he doubted Izaya didn't notice his dislike, even in his addled state.

Izaya was in the bath for so long that even Shizuo began to be concerned. Not that he cared or anything but he didn't want him dying in his bath. With a sigh, he marched to the bathroom and tapped lightly on the door. Sadly his lightly left a small dent in the door. He was clearly agitated.

"Oi, Fl-Izaya. You alive?"

"Yes?" And he sounded completely fine. "Is something wrong?"

"No!" And cursing his loud shouting he stormed back to the peace of the lounge. He even turned up the TV stupidly loud in an attempt to block out his irritating and dysfunctional brain.

Izaya appeared not long after wearing only boxers and staring again.

"Can you help me with the shirt?"

"Fine!" And after he'd done this, he was once again made to feel like an idiot.

"I have a home, right?"

"Obviously."

"So…Could we get some clothes from there? I mean, isn't it a problem if I'm always stealing yours?" Shizuo just stared at him. He hadn't considered that at all. Izaya had a load of things in his flat that they could have easily used. And even brain damaged, he had worked this out faster than Shizuo had.

"…Excuse me a second." Shizuo calmly stood up and exited the flat. Two crushed street signs and a downed wall later, he returned. "Yes that would be a good idea."

"Were you ok?"

"Yes."

"But you-."

"I'm fine!" Aside from being a completely useless moron of course.