A/N: Chapter has been edited!
I don't own Durarara.
chapter four
"Think... I'm gonna... die..."
Those were the words that escaped Nanase's mouth before she suddenly lurched off of her bed and darted into the bathroom before ever so eloquently retching up her guts. After that was done and over with, she let out a heavy sigh and practically melted onto the cool tiled floor, hand over her eyes.
"Never drinking that much again. Ever."
She lay there for a few minutes before forcing herself to get back to bed. Collapsing onto the sheets, she glanced out the window. It was dark outside; she had probably messed up her sleeping cycle by getting stupidly drunk in the middle of the afternoon and falling asleep. She confirmed this once she blearily looked to the clock on her wall, seeing that it read three in the morning.
"At least I got home in one piece." And then, a thought occurred to her. "... How did I even get home?"
Ah, the mysteries of life.
The last thing she could recall was gulping down sake at that sushi bar. So how? She thought long and hard - which wasn't really that long, and her brain was mostly incapable of the hard part - and gave a shrug, deciding to just be grateful she somehow safely arrived home.
And then she remembered she was jobless; the growing suspicion she spent most of her money on sake didn't quite help.
She turned her head and sighed, then let out a moan at how the sudden action made her feel sick all over again. Really, there was only one thing she could say right now.
"... gross..."
"P-please! I promise I have the money in the bank! I... I just have to go get it!"
Shizuo's brow twitched as he stared down the man groveling on the sidewalk, Tom sighing behind him. People were gawking, their cellphones already out in hopes they'd catch him perform another superhuman feat. Others knew better and had quickly evacuated the area.
Just another day.
"For once," Tom stated, moving up to Shizuo's side, "I wish I knew if you people were telling the truth or not. It'd save a lot of time and effort on my part, you know."
"I've never told a lie in my life, I swear! Oh, please, I'll-!"
Shizuo grabbed a cigarette from his pack before lighting it, inhaling deeply. The man kept blubbering out excuses, and he was this close to taking a step forward and pummeling him-
"Shizuooo-san!"
Oh, no.
Brow twitching even more, he turned to see Nanase speedwalking towards them, waving frantically. As she got closer, Shizuo took note of her scraggly, hungover appearance. Her long dark hair was tied into a knotty side ponytail, which looked like it hadn't seen a comb in days. Her wrinkly shirt wasn't doing her any favors, either. Her bag was hitched over her shoulder, and she dug in it as she neared them.
"Shizuooo-san! Hey!" That time, both Tom and the client turned to stare at them.
"I'm working-"
"Oh? Really?" She questioned, halting in her search for a moment before resuming again. "Well, I'll be quick! Just, you see, I woke up this morning, and I totally couldn't remember how I got home! And then, I went back to sleep, and then when I woke up again, I remembered!" She cheered, still digging around. "Maybe not so much remembered... actually, my neighbor told me some scary blond guy carried me around the building, ahah! I figured that was you, right?"
"...Yes," He bit out, "Now what do you-"
"Here we go!" Nanase whipped her hand out of her bag, taking out a crumpled brown bag. "There's some pastries in there – you know, from that really good looking bakery on the other side of town!" She toed the sidewalk. "Erm, I might have had a few..."
Surprised, Shizuo blinked before taking the bag. He looked inside to see assorted cookies and such inside, albeit a bit crumbly. "...Thanks."
"No problem!" She chirped, before taking note of Tom and the man on the ground. "Hi! Tom-san, right?"
"...Right." Tom cleared his throat before turning back to the matter at hand. "So we'll get our payment by tomorrow, right? Since it's in your..." He looked at the man meaningfully, "...bank account, and all."
"Yes, of course! I promise!" He cried, throwing himself on the ground again.
Nanase peered at the man curiously. "Mm... Shizuo-san?" He merely grunted at her, watching the scene in front of him. "Maybe I shouldn't be telling you this, but... well... you did help me out last night, and seeing as this is your job and all, and that's important, and-"
"Spit it out already."
"Well... he's lying. About having the money..."
Shizuo raised a brow before turning to look at her, then looked to the man on the ground. Nanase waved her hands in the air, seeing the scrutinizing look in his eyes.
"I know it sounds ridiculous, but... but I just know these sort of things!" She fretted, hands moving to cup her cheeks. "Y-you don't have to listen to me if you don't want to, but... I very much doubt you'll get that money tomorrow..."
"H-Hey!" The man on the ground yelled, seeming to have caught on to what she was saying. "I have the money! I don't even know you!"
"True, but..." Nanase scratched her head, making some more of her hair fall out of the messy ponytail. This seemed to be one of those times where she should probably just keep her mouth shut, wasn't it?
"...Well, I've gotta go. Looking for a job and all," She grimaced. "I hope you like the sweets, Shizuo-san! Thanks again for last night, who knows where I'd be right now?" Giving a wave to Tom, she quickly ducked away before berating herself on not being able to keep her mouth shut. Shizuo stared at her retreating form for a moment, wondering what that had all been about.
"Tomorrow," Tom said to the man, before nodding at Shizuo. Hands in his pocket, he followed behind him.
The next day came, and with it, more excuses.
"T-the bank was closed?"
The man from yesterday whimpered out, hands already over his head in a defensive manner – however, shielding of any part usually had no effect on Shizuo's brute strength, and the man was soon flying across the street.
"What a waste of time..." Tom pinched the bridge of his nose before looking tiredly at Shizuo. "Ah, well. Next one on the list, I suppose."
The work day went just the same as the beginning of it, with excuses, pained wails, and many cigarettes being smoked. It was about the time Tom was about to dismiss him for the day when a thought suddenly struck him.
"Hey, Shizuo." He got a grunt in return, but Tom knew him well enough where he figured it was okay for him to continue. "That girl from yesterday. What was her name, again?"
It took him a moment to remember. "Nanase." He puffed on his cigarette. "Why?"
"Do you think it was just coincidence she knew the both of them were lying?" Tom mused, hand on his chin.
"Good guesses," Shizuo suggested in a bored tone. "Anyone could have been right. Why's it matter?"
"You remember where she lives?"
If it had been anyone else not answering his questions, Shizuo would have probably blown a gasket. "Yeah."
Tom glanced at his watch. "It's not too late. Go up there, will you-"
"For what?" He asked, unable to keep some of the incredulosity out of his voice.
"Tell her she has a job. If she passes the trial run, that is." Tom waved a hand and began walking away.
"Can she even tell up from down?" Shizuo grumbled out to his co-worker, "I don't think she can."
"See you tomorrow, Shizuo. Tell Nanase-san I'll see her then, too."
Cursing, he snapped the cigarette in his hand before setting on his way to the girl's apartment. Deep down, the blond felt a little bit of doubt at his response. He knew better than anyone else strange shit was always going down in Ikebukuro – hell, one his friends had no head. Would it really be so farfetched to believe someone could tell the truth from lies?
Some time later, he was in front of apartment 314. He knocked twice before the door swung open; Nanase appeared before him, blinking up at him. Crumbs seemed stuck around her mouth, and her shirt seemed to be stained with jelly. The culprit, he found, lay in her hand – a doughnut.
"Shizuo-san! What a surprise!" He merely nodded before pointedly looking inside, and she opened the door wider and stepped back. "Come in! Want a doughnut?" She gestured to a box stock full of the sweets, and he shook his head.
"So what brings you to me, Shizuo-san?" She asked, shoving the doughnut in her grip into her mouth.
Trying to ignore the rather atrocious way the girl ate, he replied back with, "Have you found a job yet?"
Immediately, the girl's whole body seemed to droop down. "No luck today. I was feeling rather pathetic, you see, and that's why I bought all these doughnuts – makes me feel a little better – but there's always tomorrow!" She sniffed before grabbing another one.
Easy enough, Shizuo figured. "Tomorrow. If you want a job, you'll come to the office tomorrow at nine."
Nanase gulped down the jelly doughnut before staring at him with what he swore were stars in her eyes. "You're giving me...? Does this mean...! I'm employed?"
He sighed. "If you do well the first few days... yes." All he heard was a squeal of happiness before she barreled into him; if he wasn't Heiwajima Shizuo, he was sure she might squeeze him to death.
"Oh, thank you! Thank you!" She finally backed away, only to awkwardly brush crumbs off from his vest. Shizuo glanced down at his clothes, slightly miffed. "So... where is this office? And what exactly am I doing, anyway? I mean, I'm not very scary, and that's what you're there for, right? And Tom-san seems to be a really good talker. A smooth operator, you know? And me, I'm really not-"
His eye twitched. Well, if Tom was wrong in this situation, he was at least sure she could blab the money out of them.
It had to be a fluke.
Three days had passed since they'd brought Nanase to tag along with them. In those three days of what Tom had started calling her detection skills, she had pretty much passed the trial run. The ones she said were lying – by the next day, they would find out they were. The ones she'd declared honest had actually had money for them the next day; it beat him as to how she was able to see through the same teary-eyed explanations.
Tom, on the other hand, seemed to be relieved. It cut out a lot of time and trouble from fruitlessly hunting ones down that didn't have the money; and then when there were the ones who said they didn't have the money and did, she'd figure that out too, and they usually submitted under the unsaid threat of a beating from the one and only Heiwajima Shizuo.
"How do you do it?" Tom asked her curiously, sitting across from her in a booth at Russia Sushi. She was settled next to Shizuo, and though he didn't really appreciate the close proximity, he was at least grateful she wasn't trashed out of her mind again.
Nanase, in reply, merely fidgeted with her chopsticks. "Erm... I don't know ! Good intuition, ahah..."
It wasn't a lie on her part, not really. She really didn't know why she could detect such things, but she had stopped questioning it years ago. Thankfully, Simon interrupted by bringing the platters of food they ordered, and Nanase breathed a sigh of relief.
When she accepted the job, she had no idea what she'd be doing, though her first guess was an office worker. And though she needed the money (she had spent most of it on depression doughnuts, after all), she wasn't so sure if taking a job that exploited the secret she tried hard to keep hidden was a good idea.
But the two of them seemed to be decent people – Tom, on his part, was fairly honest. And Nanase discovered that when he wasn't being truthful, it was usually something to this effect: Smoothly dealing out threats, usually to frighten the clients' money out of their pockets, (even though Shizuo should have been enough, she had realized) only to see that he didn't mean said threats at all.
Shizuo, on the other hand...
He carried through with threats, not like he bothered to use them much – it seemed his doled out punishments came quickly like a sparking of a flame in a gas riddled environment, sudden and at any given moment. Nanase had never been one for violence, and his was a crazy version of it – but he was, at the least, honest. In few days she'd been around him, he had yet to lie. He either always spoke his mind, or just didn't speak at all.
Really, the only problem she had was the fact she couldn't really tell them why. Wouldn't they think she was crazy? She could always just pass as an extra intuitive person, and that's what she had been going along with – but she would always have a part of her that was a non-intuitive ditz, and she was sure they could see that.
Besides, what was the worst that could happen?
"... It smells." Shizuo abruptly said, fingers tightening on his chopsticks.
"Smells?" Nanase echoed, looking from him to Tom. Shizuo stood up quickly, slipping his sunglasses off of his face to tuck them into his vest. He stalked out of Russia Sushi, ignoring Simon's accented goodbyes; Tom got to his feet as well, motioning for her to do the same.
"Tom-san? What's-"
Tom merely threw some money down on the table before following Shizuo, Nanase behind him. "If you're going to be working with us, you should probably just see for yourself. This tends to happen a lot. I'd stay a good distance away, though."
"Ah... okay?" She replied, confused.
Once they were outside, Nanase stared in a strange sort of awe as she surveyed the surrounding area. It had been crowded before they had gone into the restaurant, and now it looked like a portion of a ghost town. Her eyes sought out Shizuo, who did not look happy at all; he was panting, hand clutching a street light.
"Iiiizaaayaaa..." He growled out, tossing the streetlight in his hand so he had it in a position where he looked as if he were about to throw a spear. Nanase followed the path that Shizuo's eyes were glaring, blinking when they landed on a tall, slender dark haired man. It was hard to distinguish any of his other features, except for his dark fur trimmed coat.
"What's going on, Tom-san? Will that guy be okay?" She pointed to the man – Izaya? - Shizuo was baring his teeth at, looking much the part of an angry, rabid dog.
Tom sighed. "Unfortunately for Shizuo, probably." Turning her attention back to the men, she realized they had starting fighting – well, more than they already had, she guessed.
The fight carried on, and they were quick – they seemed to be all over the place, and though Shizuo was fast, the streetlight wasn't, and the other man dodged easily. The scuffle began to get closer and closer to where they were standing, Shizuo directly in front of them, his back to her.
"Shizu-chan, I'm so sad to see you still haven't controlled that horrid anger problem you've had for so long!" The dark-haired man goaded, smirk now visible to her since they'd gotten closer. "Really, it breaks my heart!"
"Tom-san, he's bleeding," She noted worriedly, now able to see the blood stains seeping through his once crisp white shirt. "As strong as he is, that can't be good..."
"Shut the hell up, ya goddamn flea," Shizuo spit out, "Get the hell out of here before I kill you-"
"Hey! You! What do you think you're doing?!" Nanase interrupted, ignoring Tom's warnings and flouncing up to the blond and his antagonist. 'Good intuition' she may have had, but street smarts tended to be something she lacked in.
"Nanase-san, don't!" Tom yelled out, but she was already too close to the fray.
"And Shizuo-san, you're bleeding, you should-!" She cried out, now a few feet behind him, and Shizuo's brow twitched.
"Get the hell away," He warned her, shooting her a look from over his shoulder. He didn't need anyone, much less the new girl, getting caught up in one of their fights. As annoying as she was, he'd rather not have to deal with hospital bills or her whining, or the guilt he was sure he'd feel afterwards.
"But..."
"Shizu-chan, who is this? You made a new friend and you didn't tell me?" Izaya pouted, pointing at the girl with the blade in his hand.
"She's no one," Shizuo tried, his attention now back on Izaya. "This is between you and me, don't forget that!"
Izaya ignored him, now looking her over interestedly; his eyes roved back to Shizuo's face, and he lowered his arm. "No one, hmm? Well, I suppose you wouldn't mind if this bystander accidentally got hurt-" As the last word left his mouth, his arm shot out, and the blade was suddenly flying straight for her face.
Her eyes widened, and she could only stare at the quickly nearing knife – when there was a sick sounding sort of thud, and she realized Shizuo's hand had flew out just as quickly as his opponent's. The knife was jammed straight through his palm, the pointed end dripping blood.
"Ah, how interesting!" Izaya crowed, and Nanase's breath escaped her in a huge breath.
"S-Shizuo..." She mumbled out, forgetting the suffix in her shock. What kind of terrible person could do something like that? Bystander or not, Shizuo or someone else entirely, something like that was unforgivable. He could've killed someone! They were knives, for crying out loud!
"Damn bastard..." Shizuo muttered, with what Nanase thought was even more anger bubbling beneath his quiet tone.
Knife still lodged in his hand, he jumped towards Izaya with his good hand outstretched in a fist – but all Izaya did was leap out of the way, darting about until he was right in front of her face. Nanase sputtered in surprise, taking steps back. He only leaned closer, white teeth glimmering at her in his grin.
"Who might you be? For you to try and interrupt, you must be someone." He laughed a bit. Across the street, Shizuo was currently uprooting a street sign with his uninjured hand, clearly intending to throw it at Izaya.
"Well? I just want to be friends!" His smile widened, and Nanase didn't need any kind of quirk to know he was lying. "What's your name?"
Suddenly, he grabbed her and spun on his heel to avoid a street sign that was now wobbling in the ground it had impaled, where the two of them had been standing a few seconds ago.
"I just saved your life, didn't I?" He lilted, "So what's the name of Shizu-chan's mysterious friend?"
"I..." She snapped out of the haze, frowning at the man still holding onto her.
Sure, Shizuo was violent; but it seemed to be more of his body going on auto pilot, not pre-meditated actions like the man in front of her. And the few minutes she had seen them fight, she'd heard the man taunt him. How else was he supposed to react with an already short fuse? Not to mention that Shizuo had taken a knife through the hand for her – and the fact that everything about this man screamed shady and dishonest; she didn't like it one bit.
"Maybe you did just now, but you almost ended it a few seconds ago!" As an afterthought, she added, "I won't be telling you my name, either! Masukawa Nanase isn't that stupid!" She wailed... then she realized what she'd said.
Masukawa Nanase apparently was that stupid, she thought sheepishly.
Before she could even lift a finger to push her away, he flew to the side, releasing her, and she toddled back into Shizuo, who had sent the other man reeling. He tightened his fist, stalking towards Izaya.
The dark haired man quickly got to his feet, however, and straightened out his jacket. "I guess it's time to leave, isn't it?" Nanase noticed with a bit of happiness that the side of his face was already starting to swell up.
"See you next time, Shizu-chan! And," His eyes, an eerie looking murky red as she'd seen up close, settled on her, "I'm looking forward to seeing you again, as well!" A smirk and a wave, and he was vaulting himself onto the low roof of a store and higher, until he was out of sight.
She watched Shizuo stare into the distance where the man had vanished, grumbling.
"... Need some glue."
A/N: Chapter has been edited!