A/N: Please, note that 'Italics' here are Izaya`s memories and I`m SO sorry for the late update again, but things can get extremely busy sometimes. Anyway, hope you`ll enjoy this chapter as well. BTW I was wondering if it`s okay to keep writing the story in dialogues or you prefer more narration? Just review and tell me what you think, ne?(^-^)
~Pieces from the past~
As soon as the door closed behind him the raven`s mask cracked and finally painful tears began rolling down his pale cheeks. He knew that he was Samebito`s prisoner and remembered the tortures he had been through by him and his men clear as day. But nobody believed him, so he had to stay to his new prison until he proved his innocence to the navy or find a way to escape. Just the mere thought made him gloom even more.
"Stupid humans. They only bring me troubles." He murmured bitterly.
"Uh, sir, are you alright?" A voice timidly said behind the raven, startling him.
Instantly the raven did his best to recollect himself before he turned around to meet the owner of the low voice. "Oh, Mikado-kun , right? Nori-san finished today`s questioning so he sends me back to my cell and wants you to escort me."
The said boy nodded "A-alright, but why were you crying, sir?" he asked timidly.
"How unprofessional of you to try sympathizing with an enemy, Mikado-kun." The raven patronized the shorter raven in a cheerful tone, yet smirking dangerously at him.
After the young commander nodded once more in agreement, the red-eyed raven started walking, followed closely by the other.
They had walked only a small distance before the older raven stopped on his tracks and without facing the shorter male he spoke his threat calmly out. "And one last advice. Never talk about what you saw earlier to anybody or I`ll kill you."
The raven haired teen just stared horrified at the prisoner`s back, not speaking a work.
"That`s the right answer. Now let`s go or do you want me to escape?" Izaya said teasingly, returning to his usual playful character, and then he began moving again not waiting for the other`s response.
After half an hour or less the auburn eyed raven found himself sitting on the stone floor of his cell watching aimlessly through the cell`s small window up to the starry sky.
He had spent almost all of his day in the admiral`s office answering meaningless questions. However, what enraged him was that the brutish blond had miraculously managed to tame him for a moment and forced his name out of him. That simply proved his sneaking suspicions about the blonde`s monstrosity, but also remind him about his own exceptional case.
Ordinary humans couldn`t order a Cat Sid-he like it was a pet cat. Cat Sid-hes were unrestricted, strong willed beings, albeit he was the only bonded Cat Sid-he he knew. He had a human master to which he was obliged to submit and that was his thoughtless ancestor`s fault.
He might didn`t remember much from his childhood, but he would always remember the day he had learned about his horrible fate.
It had happened at my sixth spring, if I recalled correctly. It was a sunny yet bit chilly day since spring had started only few weeks ago. I was sitting with my father at our favorite spot under the shade of the recently bloomed cherry tree in our small garden in front of our house drinking our tea peacefully. It was then when my father, Shirou, had announced me the unpleasant news.
"Izaya-kun, since you have started talking you were always asking me for your mother, where she is and if she would ever return to back to us. Today I will answer you, so listen to me carefully." He had told me serious, while he was looking up to the beautiful, pure white flowers that decorated the branches of the cherry tree spreading above our heads in elaborate patterns.
As every normal kid that had missed its mother, I had nodded positively, eager to hear more about her. Now days I simply blaspheme my childish naivety, Better if I had never learned anything about her at all.
"Your mother is a Cat Sid-he like me, you know that already, though you didn`t know that Kyouko is a unique one. She has a human master that she serves, that`s her reason for not living with us." He had said emotionless, however, even as a child, I had caught a glimpse of sadness in his voice.
"She has a h-human master? Dad, weren`t you always telling me that we are prideful creatures, so why mom has a master? And why her master is a human, aren`t we superior to the human kind?" I had asked back rather confused over my mother`s position, since it was contradicted with all of my knowledge over our genre.
"You know well or kind, Izaya you are such a smart boy." he had praised me and he had ruffled my hairs gently making me giggle, before he had continued with his explanation. "To make a long story short I will tell you what Kyouko herself had told me before she had left me and you once she had given birth to you. She was the last of her clan so she had to carry out the promise her grand-grandmother had with a human."
I had looked to my father even more confused than before and had asked him the obvious. "What promise?"
"According to your mother both her grand-grandmother and the human were deeply in love with each other, but the human had been already engaged with another woman. As you can guess they couldn`t be together as they wanted to, so they had made a promise to silently continue their platonic love and stay together as master and his loyal maid. Unfortunately, their promise somehow had turn into a contract and all of their children`s inherited it too. On more simple words, your mother now is the servant of one of this human`s descendants until her death and once she would pass away, you are going to carry on the duty to serve your own master as well."
His last words were bearable audible and tinted with sorrow, yet I had caught them. I recall him looking down to me with hurt eyes while I was staring at him with wide eyes speechless from my shock. He had reached his hand out trying to comfort me, but I had crawled back to escape him.
"N-no, y-you are lying…you h-had told me that n-nobody can p-part us, y-you had t-t old me that we a-are like E-earth-gods...Why I h-have to become a h-human`s s-slave?" I had screamed extremely disturbed by the news I had just heard.
Thick, salty water drops were rolling down my cheeks as I had stood up and had run inside our home to lock myself in my room.
The raven let out a light growl as he recalled those unpleasant memories from his younger age. "Tch, what a foolish woman I don`t get love at all."
"Me neither."
At the sound of this deep, rich voice the raven snapped his head around to look at the blond captain leaning against the cell`s bars smoking lazily another of his cigarettes.
"Huh? What the...? Why are you here?" The raven asked confused and somehow curious.
On the other hand, the blond glanced down to him over his shoulder and after he blew out some smoke he said bored. "Just want to confirm something."
That rose even more the raven`s curiosity, who stood up quickly and skipped toward the cell`s door, where the blond was standing.
Once he was a few feet away from the other, he purred his question with a wide smirk covered his face. "And what that may be, Shizu-chan~?"
The blond as soon as he heard the raven`s soft steps on the floor he turned to face him. His amber orbs glared at auburn ones as he spoke. "From which city were you kidnapped?"
That question took the raven by surprise. However he didn`t show it and instead he asked. "No asking in which woman I was referring to, Shizu-chan? How boring."
The blond rolled his eyes at the raven`s words. "I don`t give a shit about your love affairs, flea. I only care about what I have asked you."
"Ah, so mean Shizu-chan" The raven pouted. "And this woman is not my …"
"I said don`t care. Answer from which city were you taken?" The blond intruded not caring for the raven`s babbling.
The raven`s eyebrows knitted, not liking that the other didn`t let go of the subject. "Why you want to know?" He asked coldly.
The blond shrugged lazily, before he answered. "Reasons."
Once hearing that the raven grinned dangerously, he was getting agitated by the blonde`s words. "Ha? Do you expect me to share my personal information with you willingly? You are such a fool Shizu-chan."
"I don`t particularly expect anything, especially from you, just answer me and after that I will leave." The taller male stated, before he took one last drag of his cancer stick and then he threw the burned butt down, stepping on it to switch it off.
"What you mean by especially me, Shizu-chan?" The raven demanded to know, his eyes turned into small slits and a frown replaced his smirk.
"What else? I mean what should I expect from a scum, from a pirate?" The blond clarified his previous words.
When the raven heard the blond charactering him like that again he barely contained his composure. He could tolerate being called louse or flea by the blond, but not pirate, that was far more insulting for the raven after all he had passed in the pirates` hands.
He clenched his fists to restrain himself from yelling and then he asked quietly yet hatefully the blond. "What did you just called me?"
Seeing the raven`s reaction the blond smirked, "What did I strike your hordes kitty-pirate?" he joked.
That was the last drop for the raven before he lost it. "I. AM. NOT. A. PIRATE. Got it memorized in your stupid, thick-walled head at last!" He shouted frustrated at the blond, who only stared at him satisfied.
"As if you will admit it, if you were one." The blond finally snorted cynically.
At this point the raven just gave up on trying to change the blonde`s mind, so instead he moved back deeper in his cell and told. "I don`t need your blind hate for pirates Shizu-chan. My life is already miserable enough. Just leave."
"I don`t think so. You haven`t answered my question yet." The blond told firmly, crossing his arms on his chest.
"Oh, about the city?" The raven looked back to the blond with uninteresting, tired eyes, before he added. "It was a coast city named Umison1, thought now days it has a different name, Gyoson2, if I remember correct."
The blonde`s eyes widened upon hearing his old city`s name and a mix of emotions filled him instantly. "You just made it up!" he accused the raven.
"No, I didn`t." The raven defended himself.
"Yes, you did. No one went missing from the attack in Umison. You are just a big liar." The blond retorted confidently.
"And how you know that? Did you count the population and found it the same after the pirates` leave?" The raven questioned clearly insulted.
Looking at the raven`s offended face made the blond furious. The raven was still acting like the victim here, but the blond knew what he had saw with his own eyes thirteen years ago.
"Not exactly, but I was hiding behind some crates on the dock and I remember very well that the pirates didn`t took any hostages on their ship." The blond said in matter of fact tone.
"You what?!" The raven asked shocked as he stepped forward so he could see the taller man`s face better.
"Don`t make me repeat myself. I said I didn`t witness any hostages taken." The blond growled annoyed.
The raven smiled a bit at the blonde`s last words, which made the latter looking at the raven puzzled, he had always been witnessing the raven smirking, never smiling.
"Didn`t you see the captain caring a silver cage with him, about this size?" The raven asked eagerly and moved his hands around to show the cage`s size to the blond. This was his only chance to prove that he was telling the truth all this time and probably save his life from the gallows.
The blond stayed silent for a while trying to recall if he had saw something like that. Unfortunately, he couldn`t.
"No, I don`t remember such a thing. I wasn`t pay attention on the treasures the pirates were caring with them, I only focused on making sure that they wouldn`t find me and if they had taken hostages, so later I would ask the navy to free them." The blond explained.
At those words the raven`s shoulders fall. He was far disappointed, but he didn`t want the other to see that, so he bend his head a bit for his long bangs to cover most of his upper face and with the most cheerful voice he could summon at the moment he spoke. "Well, seems Lady Luck hates me, too, Shizu-chan. I`m sure you are extremely happy now that I have lost any chance to prove my words, ne?"
The blond looked at the raven disturbed, "What the hell flea, I don`t..?" but soon he stopped talking since those rusty-red eyes only daggers didn`t shout at him.
"You don`t what, Shizu-chan? You don`t want me dead? " The raven questioned the blond with venom nearly dripping of his lips. " As if I don`t know how much you hate me, so don`t play the kind-hearted man to me, I won`t fall from your act."
"Shut it, flea. I may hate your guts, but I don`t enjoy killing people." The blond defended himself.
The raven just snorted at the other`s reply. "Really? Because I had witness a bloodthirsty look in your eyes when you had executed Samebito and his men back then." His voice was full of sarcasm as he spoke, but his next words were spelled with dead seriousness.
"You are a monster in human form just like me, Shizu-chan, don`t fool yourself."
The blond starred at the raven speechless for quite time, but before he could regain his voice, the raven spoke again.
"Good night Shizu-chan. You`ve gotten your answer, so it`s time to take your leave as well." And with that said the raven waved a bye at the captain and headed to the corner of his cell to sleep, not glancing back at the other not even once.
Even after the raven had curled up in the corner, the blond continued glaring at his thin frame for some more minutes, his wrangling with the raven left him a bitter aftertaste. But he hadn`t the time to continue arguing, it was getting late and an early wakening was waiting him tomorrow morning, so in the end he let out a low swear and then walked away, leaving the raven alone in his cell.
A/N:1Umison doesn`t exist it derives from the kanji for sea (海) umi and village (村) son.
2Gyoson is the same case as Umison, it`s not a real place, and it comes from gyo (魚) fish and guess the second kanji. Yes, the same as the one above, son (村) village.
