Prompt by fozzie on Tumblr: "something w trans girl izaya & the van gang…"
Pairing: everyone has a crush on Izaya, who is dating Shizuo
No warnings.
Side-snippet from my completed fic Made A Fool Out Of Us.


"So," Saburo says, looking pointedly and Karisawa and Yumasaki and a little less pointedly at Kadota. "Care to tell what happened?"

Orihara's smile is as insincere as it is bright. She's sitting sideways on the driver's seat of his van—his van—with her feet out through the open door, the heels of her boots brushing against the ground. In the dark of the parking lot only the silver bracelet around her wrist and the very obvious ring at her left hand shine, but Saburo thinks he could have seen the unkindness on her from a mile away anyway.

Kadota is staring at her with a hopeless sort of affection.

Orihara kicks against the broken door lightly. "Just an accident. I'll pay for the reparations, of course."

Saburo sucks in an angry, desperate breath, a scream already at the tip of his tongue, filling his mouth like bile—Karisawa puts a hand against his lips before he can let it out.

"Don't be a killjoy, Togucchi," she admonishes. Her voice is trembling with mirth. "We had so much fun."

"Who the fuck broke my car?"

"It was collateral damage," Yumasaki adds, nodding evenly. "No one here is at fault."

"Orihara wouldn't be here if she wasn't fucking involved—"

"Oh, I am definitely involved," the wretched woman answers. Her voice is kind but her eyes look bored. "I may have deflected some violence aimed at me onto it."

Saburo takes a second to breathe in, then out. "Deflected?" he questions dryly.

"An unsatisfied client of mine had his own car busted, you see. Naturally, he wanted to take it out on me, and I might… have implied that your van, conveniently near, was mine."

She sounds so poised as she says it. So uncaring. Saburo has never known her to be any sort of ruffled or unsettled, even when he was hanging out with Kadota in high school and came to know her for the first time, looking much less like herself.

Everything has always been a game with her. Including Kadota. Saburo can only think of one person that Orihara sees as more than amusement fodder.

The memory makes Saburo's mouth turn downward and his chest feel restless and frustrated in a way he hasn't experienced since those years.

Orihara herself is worrying enough that he doesn't really want to attack her in any way, even if she made someone bust his van, but it's truly the ring at her finger that stops him before he can start throwing insults.

Kadota looks at him and shrugs lightly. "It took the four of us to make the guy stop trying to destroy the van," he says. He's smiling as he says it, and behind Saburo, Karisawa lets out a very frightening chuckle. "Izaya said she'll pay anyway. Better forget it happened."

"Who drove it here anyway?"

"I did," Yumasaki says. "Don't worry, Togusa-san, I was very careful."

Saburo can't imagine a worst nightmare than that of his wheels under Yumasaki's command, but he doesn't say anything. He pales, and tries to focus on the fact that at least Yumasaki can drive.

Orihara pushes herself on her feet. Her steps echo in the empty lot as she approaches and puts one hand on Saburo's shoulder.

He hates that she's a couple inches taller than him. She must know it, because she smiles again, and this time no one with a brain could have mistaken it for kindness.

"I appreciate your sacrifice, Togusa," she tells him. Some of her hair is framing her face, falling from the bun at the back of her head—she's pretty like this. A little disheveled. She always looks good. "Have Dotachin text me the bill and I'll pay you back right away."

"Don't call me that," Kadota says without heat.

She laughs, and she leaves, boots clicking on the pavement.

"A shame," Karisawa says, as soon as they're all back inside the van. "Izaya-chan is always so fun to be around. You should've seen the size of that guy."

"He was more of an elephant than a man."

"Yumacchi, I think we can go even further and call him whalish."

"You okay?" Kadota asks him softly.

It takes some difficulty, but the bent door does close. Saburo leans back into his seat and rubs a hand over his face. "Yeah. Fuck. I thought she was too busy dealing with yakuza to bother lowlives like us now."

"I don't think she thinks like that," Kadota replies with sympathy.

"I wish she didn't have a boyfriend," Karisawa whines from the back. "She's ridiculously pretty."

"She's very taken."

"I know that, Dotachin. Let a girl dream."

It makes a weird sort of shadow fall over Kadota's face. Saburo feels his guts clench. "Whatever," he declares. "As long as she pays."

He turns on the ignition, and tries to forget the entire evening.