After a few minutes Shizuo left Izaya on his own. Shinra and Celty were already cleaning of the table, so Shizuo stepped in to help out. There was a lot of food left over. Celty had been generous for three people in the first place, and with just two actually eating something almost half of it was left. It was kind of a waste to throw it out, so Shizuo stored it in the refrigerator.
He thought about how Izaya had acted during dinner, and it still bothered him. He soon realized he actually preferred Izaya's usual annoying and teasing demeanor, even if it pissed him off every single time. Izaya acting all obedient and quiet was just too strange and generally creepy to watch.
They weren't even done yet when Shinra's ringtone broke through his usual endless blabbering. It was Shiki.
"Kishitani Shinra speaking, what's going on?"
"Another emergency, sorry, but please come as soon as possible." Shiki told Shinra the address and ended the rather short conversation.
Celty then fished her PDA out of nowhere, typed something on it, and nearly shoved it in Shinra's face.
[What's happening?]
Shinra sighed, seeming tired. "That was Shiki again, another one of his subordinates got attacked. Honestly, this has been happening non-stop for the past few days." He then turned to Shizuo, who was staring somewhat blankly at them. "Seems like we'll have to hurry, so I guess I'll see you later."
With that he took his medicine bag and hurried out of the apartment, Celty in tow. Celty still turned around to wave at Shizuo before she hurried after Shinra. A minute later the neigh of Celty's motor-shaped horse filled the air as they sped off into the night.
Shizuo watched them disappear into the darkness before he went back, closing the door behind him, lost in his own thoughts.
Shiki? What does that mean? Isn't he part of the Awakusu-kai?
So then… Somebody is attacking the Yakuza around here. What a crazy stunt to pull…
Who would do such a thing? Considering Izaya is here…
Oh. I see. That makes sense.
Shizuo, satisfied with his findings got back to doing the dishes. Barely had he done another plate or the doorbell rang.
When he opened the door he found a young brown haired woman on his porch. She was carrying a large sports-bag and had a rather bored look on her face when she held out her hand to Shizuo.
"Good evening. My name is Yagiri Namie. I brought Izaya's stuff."
So this is the woman Izaya called a while ago? I wonder how they know each other.
Shizuo shook her hand in a daze.
"Come in."
He held open the door and stepped aside to make some room.
Namie nodded and came in, slightly intimidated by the tall blond and his reputation. That however, didn't show in her face at all, nor in her voice.
"So where is Izaya?"
Shizuo made a gesture towards his bedroom.
"Sound asleep."
Namie walked over to the bedroom, thinking the Shizuo wasn't quite as bad as Izaya told her.
"Ha! I heard he goes crazy just hearing my name!" Izaya had told her, laughing like a mad man.
Well, that clearly wasn't happening today. She had mentioned him twice, and didn't get a reaction at all… Shizuo just quietly followed her, as if making sure she didn't do anything weird.
Namie went straight to Izaya's side of the bed and dropped the bag she was carrying at her feet, looking at Izaya's sleeping face. Confusion crept on Namie's face, some emotion finally showing, if only slightly, as she stared at the dark bruises. She suddenly grabbed the blanket and pulled it down, revealing the stark white bandages that made Izaya look like some sort of mummy.
Izaya muttered something in his sleep and curled up a little, trying to protect himself from the sudden cold in his sleep. But, he didn't wake up.
Namie looked downright shocked then, as she let go of the blankets and stared. The Izaya she knew couldn't possibly be dealt that much damage; moreover, he would have noticed somebody come in, whether he'd be asleep or not.
Shizuo looked at Namie's socked face, and wondered what was wrong with her.
"Are you ok?"
Namie broke out from her trance and recovered her usual bored expression.
"I've never been able to walk in on him sleeping…" She answered, poking Izaya's cheek with her index finger.
It made Izaya frown in his sleep, and move away from Namie. Namie couldn't help but smile a little at that.
"This is kind of fun." She commented as she watched her devilish employer sleeping soundly like a child. "I wouldn't mind if he could be like that a little more often."
Shizuo laughed quietly, unwilling to wake his sleeping nemesis. "I see your point."
Namie then stepped away from the bed, straightening herself out, and turned towards Shizuo. "Well, I'm done here, so I think I'll enjoy my holiday now. I'll be off. Good luck putting up with his antics." And with that she turned on her heels and left just like that, walking straight out the door with uncharacteristic long steps.
Shizuo just watched her leave, not sure how to respond to the sudden goodbye.
After Namie left he covered Izaya up again and watched him relax under the warm blankets.
Finally Shizuo could get back to doing the dishes. The water had long cooled down and was now lukewarm at best. Shizuo sighed but let it be, since there was only a little bit left to do anyway. He quickly finished up and decided he would try to check if his theory about what had happened held some ground.
He picked up his laptop and opened it as he sat on the couch. It took a while before it had started up and was connected properly, but Shizuo wasn't in a hurry. Once he was connected Shizuo logged on to the dollars website. He had actually quit the dollars a while ago, but he hadn't bothered to close his account. The forum tended to be informative at times like this, so he considered that a good thing. He just hoped that none of the members that knew him personally would notice him being online.
He first browsed through the 'news' and 'daily happenings' boards, but neither contained anything like what he was looking for. So he went on to look at the 'rumors' board. He didn't like browsing this one… It was always full of people gossiping about somebody else's personal matters. Still, on an occasion like this, it was the most likely place to find the kind of information he was looking for.
There were some interesting threads… Although there was nothing concrete.
[WOW, I saw something incredible today! That informant seemed to be chained up somehow… What was his name again? Anyway, it was really scary, so I stayed away.]
[You saw it too? I thought I had seen it wrong… It really was scary~ There were so many people surrounding him… This Orihara person, is he really that strong? He looked pretty skinny to me…]
[Eh, I didn't see it… But didn't you know? Orihara-san frequently faces of that blond bartender! So I think he's probably stronger then he looks!]
Strong? Do these people use their brains at all? That flea ain't strong… He just fights dirty.
And he's fast… I'll admit that much.
The rest of the thread was just people conversing about their fighting and people voting on who could be the winner. Shizuo couldn't help but notice Izaya had more votes. He wondered briefly why people would think that way. Why'd they think either one would win either way, considering it had been undecided until now? Could it be they thought they were just playing around? Leaving that matter aside he searched though some other threads.
[Oi, have you guys heard about this? The Yakuza had been all over the place lately! I think they are searching from somebody… They were even asking normal people about it.]
This thread didn't have any answers yet…
[Something is going on in Ikebukuro… I saw the headless rider today, and yesterday too. He keeps racing around with a doctor of some sort. It was very strange! The cops were going after them just now.]
Hmmm… Maybe I should call Shinra to see if they're ok.
[WARNING. Awakusu-kai is being attacked. They don't know who did it. Be careful not to get into trouble, they might suspect you! –Admin]
[Eh, what's this, Awakusu-kai? It's that Yakuza or something?]
[Yeah, I think so. But they're being attacked? Scary!]
[Scary? Crazy, I'd say! Awakusu-kan are dangerous! Like, seriously dangerous.
If we get in trouble with them it will be nothing like that time with the yellow scarves…]
[Uwa! I think I'll stay off for a while… I don't want to be suspected by them!]
The rest was just a lot of [I'm scared!] and similar comments.
Hmm… This might not be very reliable, but seems like I might be right.
Satisfied, Shizuo closed the website and his laptop. He put it back at its usual spot on the dining table. Next to the flowers he got from Kasuka every once in a while.
He yawned then. Time to get ready for bed. Shizuo went through his customary course of doing things. He took a shower, brushed his teeth, and got dressed in his pajamas before he checked the gas and turned off the lights, and finally he got into bed. Or that's what he had planned.
However, Izaya had somehow managed to get completely tangled up in the blanket, looking like a bagworm. Shizuo couldn't see how he was going to untangle that without waking Izaya, so he decided on the easier way of grabbing the other blanket for himself. It was all clean and dry now, so he just had pull the cover over it. It was quite troublesome to get it done in the dark, but it didn't need to be perfect, so Shizuo took it as it came and pulled the fresh blanket over him as he laid down, curling up again, and soon falling asleep.
Izaya woke up in the middle of the night.
Great, NOW I feel hungry, what great timing... And I don't think shizu-chan told me where to find the toilet...
After untangling himself from the blankets Izaya stood up from the bed. He almost tripped over the bag Namie had left on the floor, but he managed to hold on to the IV he was still forced to drag around.
I suppose this means Namie already stopped by... I wonder what she brought.
Izaya carefully stepped over the bag, and proceeded to the bathroom as fast as he could without falling, only to be disappointed as he didn't find what he was looking for. Like the rest of the apartment the bathroom was small, and minimal. There was a shower, a sink, a washing machine and a basket that held the laundry, and with that the space was pretty much filled up. No toilet...
Izaya sighed and looked around, wondering where it could be. He then remembered the two doors in the hallway, one with a handle, one with a key. He stumbled over there and opened the door with the handle, finally finding what he was searching for.
When he was done Izaya's curiosity got the better of him, and he checked what was behind the other door. It was a closet that housed the boiler and the main electricity circuit. It also served as a storage for shopping bags, some repair tools and a few cleaning tools, like a mop and a vacuum cleaner. Izaya mused over the fact this was probably the only messy place in this whole apartment and then wondered if it wasn't dangerous to keep a boiler right next to the electric circuit.
Then again, there's doesn't seem to be any other place to keep them…
Still, all in all it wasn't all that interesting and Izaya soon went back to the bedroom. He paused in the doorway and took a look at Shizuo's sleeping face. It reminded him of their conversation earlier. He couldn't resist the urge to snap a picture.
So he got on to his side of the bed, picked up Shizuo's forgotten cell phone from his nightstand and got up on his knees t try and get a decent angle. Shizuo steered in his sleep, alarming Izaya, who rushed to snap the picture quickly. The flash was pretty strong and Izaya sincerely hoped it hadn't woken Shizuo… He didn't want to thrown out of the window in the middle of the night. The tall blond merely grumbled something and turned, but seemingly remained asleep.
Izaya sighed in relief, closing his eyes, waiting for sleep to take his again. However, it wouldn't, and it took barely half an hour for Izaya to run out of patience. Rather than sleepy, he was feeling hungry… and bored. So he decided to find some entertainment for himself, and picked up Shizuo's phone again. He went through the contacts, wondering who would be crazy enough to give his easily flammable nemesis their phone numbers. Not many apparently, as Shizuo had awfully few contacts, with the entire dollars list gone. Izaya actually knew most of the people on it personally. "Shinra, Celty, Simon, Dennis, Kadota Kyohei, Kasuka, Tom-san, Ryugamine…
Eh, why would shizu-chan have Mikado's number?
Then there were a few numbers Izaya wasn't familiar with, but their titles easily explained why; Manager, Mom, Dad and granny.
Haha~ It's just like a kid's contacts.
Finally Izaya found one of his own numbers, all the way down, under the name 'Flea'.
Tsk, tsk, that's not very nice Shizu-chan~
Izaya smirked deviously as he changed the display name of his number. It said 'Orihara-sama' when he was done.
Done with the contacts Izaya moved on to take a look at Shizuo's photos. He didn't have a lot of those. The first Izaya saw were a few pictures of Shinra and Celty, taken at Shinra's house. Then there were some older pictures, obviously from high school, as he recognized himself in the background on quite a few.
Eh… How'd this monster keep his cell alive that long?
There were also some recent photos of Tom and a blond woman Izaya recognized as the Russian who recently came into town. Finally there was the picture of Shizuo's sleeping face he just took. Izaya sent that one to one of his own numbers, thinking it might prove useful some day, even if just for taunting Shizu-chan with it.
The games on Shizuo's old cell phone were not all that interesting, so Izaya stopped toying with the cell phone that he didn't own, and put it back on the nightstand. He then wrapped himself in the blankets.
He'd have liked to check the stuff Namie brought over, but the dark room didn't lent itself that well for recognizing clothes, especially not now that Izaya's eyes had adapted to the light from Shizuo's cell phone.
So Izaya once again closed his eyes. It took longer than he would have liked, but eventually he was off to dreamland.
Thank you for your kind words everyone! I hope you do not expect me to update too fast.. but I'll do my best!
For those of you that write about the same fandom: I'd love to hear what your version of the characters think of my story!