Well, that was odd. Sleep well? Really Shizu-chan? If you keep acting this… cute, I might actually change my mind about you. Ah.. I don't like that at all. Don't mess with me shizu-chan… I'll make you regret it.
Izaya stared at the door, an unreadable expression twisting his features. He couldn't tell his owns feelings apart, and it irked him. Why should he, a perfect genius, be confused by a stupid protozoan like Shizu-chan? In the end his expression settled on a dark scowl as he picked up his phones and started going through the messages.
Most were from future clients, to which he simply replied.
[Currently unavailable, try again in a month or so.]
He figured he could probably get back to work in a few days, but with these injuries he'd still be locked indoors for a while, which would limit his abilities. At least with this he wouldn't be bother with hurried requests. Then there were some from Akabayashi, layered with threats.
[Come out come out, little mouse~]
[It's no use hiding Orihara-san, we will find you!]
[Don't think you're save yet.]
[We are not playing around Orihara-san, if you don't contact us on your own we have our own methods to find the necessary information.]
Izaya deleted them and went through messages from his current clients. He could manage more or less satisfying replies with the information he had gathered before all this, but a few did pose a problem for him. He'd at least have to make a few calls, but he wasn't sure if that would cut it, he thought he'd probably need full access to his network. After all, finding a small group of teens in a city the size of Tokyo wasn't that easy. If it was just Ikebukuro or Shinjuku it wouldn't be much of a problem though, because he had plenty of contacts there. Best check if they had appeared around these parts first. Izaya made a note to self about who to contact as he mused over the appearances and preferences of the kids he memorized. A girl with bright pink and green hair in long curls would've been easy to find anywhere else, but not in Tokyo. At least it would be easier than the generic 'thin girl with short black hair'; there were literally millions of those around. Her company was just that, extremely generic, so he hoped the girl hadn't painted her hair.
Izaya sighed deeply, relieved as well as disappointed. These jobs were so basic it was almost unbelievable, but he'd have been in a tight spot if anything big had flows his way in these past two days. That said; he had only checked his text messages so far. But it was unlikely that somebody would leave him a job on his voice messages. Still, there might be something important so he listened to the voicemail too, in the customary reserve order. The first one caused him to nearly fall of the bed in surprise as Erika's voice squeled in the phone.
"Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god, I saw you being carried of by ShizuShizu! I knew you guys were together, knew it, knew it! Neh, neh, how long has it been? Oh and could you sent me a video of your sweet love-hmppf! Dotachin~~ Let me go, I wanna-"
Izaya stared at his phone in utter bafflement. What the… She thought he and Shizu-chan were together... like what, lovers?!
She's obviously delusional, let's get on with this.
"Orihara-san, I am aware you are currently caught up in your game with my dear colleagues, but I do need to know why my men are being brought down, and I may consider your freedom if you contact me with adequate information. I am sure you are aware of my rules, Orihara-san, but I would like to remind you to play by them too. This is no longer your game."
Shiki… Hmm, so this is why they did that. Still, this means he must have realized this has nothing to do with me… I might stand a chance, though it's disappointing to think Shiki doesn't consider me capable of doing these things in my current state. So much for a perfect facade.
He sighed, sad that he apparently hadn't succeeded in raising Shiki's opinion on him yet.
"Eh… Izaya-san, I don't know what going on, but please… Keep me out of it. I have nothing to do with Yakuza, and I don't want to change that!" Masaomi's voice sounded nervous and cracked, despite the show of fake confidence.
Hmm… I could use him, but street wise as he is, I doubt they would leave a trail obvious enough for him to find.
"Orihara-san, please, I don't know what you see in them, and I don't care how you treat your 'beloved' employees, but keep the kids out of our business, especially in a serious situation like this."
Well that explains why Masaomi-kun sounded nervous. I guess he stuck his nose were it doesn't belong again. Still, for him to meet Shiki, that's… surprising, at least.
The rest of his messages consisted of Mairu and Kururi taking turns bothering him to take them out to an amusement park and to see Kasuka's newest movie. If only they knew where he was right now… Not that he would tell them.
Finally there was a short solemn sounding message from Mirae, one of his newest pawns who gathered info for him outside of Shinjuku.
"The new guy is in. Don't screw him over to much~ I like him."
Izaya rolled his eyes. That girl tended to be annoying and demanding… Still, she seemed to have ties with Aozaki somehow, so she might become useful in the near future. He frowned to himself, still somewhat annoyed he couldn't seem to find out how exactly she had made those ties with the Yakuza executive.
Meanwhile Shizuo wasn't doing much of anything, just watching tv, relaxing. Eventually he did get bored though, so he decided to go out for a bit, enjoy a sunny day… Maybe he could pick up dinner too, since he usually ate out on Saturdays… Hmm, Sushi sounded quite nice right now… But of course, he wasn't alone, so he went to the bedroom and knocked.
"I'm up."
Shizuo opened the door and peeked around the corner. Izaya was sitting up against puffed up pillows and looked quite energetic to him.
"I'm going out, thought I could pick up some sushi for dinner."
Izaya lit up, smiling widely like a kid. Shizuo's eyes widened at the sight which he'd never seen before.
"Great! Get me some Otoro~!"
Shizuo scratched behind his ear, a little awkwardly.
"I can't afford that."
Izaya's face fell for a moment and then shifted to a softer expression, like he was pondering about something.
"Hmm, since this is a special occasion… You can use my money."
Izaya leant over the side of the bed and fetched his parka, quickly pulling a few bills out of a hidden pocket.
Shizuo took the bills with some hesitation.
"You sure?"
Izaya shrugged and grinned up at the blonde.
"Yup. Can't live without my Otoro~!"
"Ah, fine then."
Shizuo walked off without another word and left, he didn't even lock his door.
The next few hours he spend enjoying the sun, lounging around in the park, eating ice cream (Izaya's unknowing treat) and eventually stopping by Russian Sushi and having a chat with Dennis.
Izaya spend the time making several phone calls, barely managing to complete another job. But he got stuck with two other open requests. He needed his network for this. He wondered if he could use Shizuo's laptop… Now only if he could reach it, he wouldn't have to bother asking. But when he tried out his feet once again he came to the conclusion that while his reaction speed was steadily increasing, the pain was just about unbearable without the medication. With a whole lot of nothing to do he eventually just fell asleep, although it was certainly a very restless and even painful sleep.
The sky was just starting to turn a warmer, yellowish color when Izaya woke up, hearing the front door opening and three pairs of familiar footsteps resounding in the hallway. The informant concluded Shizuo must've met Celty and Shinra outside and was letting them in. A few second later Shinra walked in on him, already rambling.
"Izaya-kun! I'm so sorry, It has been so busy for the past week and I couldn't even keep my eyes open anymore, and gomen nasai! I should have been here hours ago!"
Izaya sighed and rolled his eyes at the doctor.
"It's not like I was looking forward to it, and you're here now, aren't you?"
Shinra smiled apologetically once more but he nodded.
"True. Celty will bring me some tools and then I'll get on with it. How have you been feeling?"
"Crappy. He feet are getting better but this pain is unbearable… You didn't leave me enough meds!"
Shinra's eyes widened almost comically.
"Yes I did, enough to last until tomorrow even! IZAYA! You shouldn't take that many! They are really strong you know?! I left the prescription in the box, didn't you check?"
The raven scowled at him. He didn't check, but he was familiar with the pills. He kept them at home in case he got hit with heavy flying objects while he went out, so he knew the dose. But he was in way more pain than usual right now, so what was wrong with taking them a little more often, huh?
"Yeah I did." He lied easily to his friend.
Shinra sighed. "Fine, if you kill yourself because those things make it so you can't feel your any of own body's warning signals, namely, pain, it's not my fault, ok?"
The raven grinned and winked. "Got it~"
That was when Celty walked in, followed by a strange ball of shadows, and Shizuo. The later showed Izaya a plastic bag from Russian Shushi.
"Got your Otoro…"
Izaya just nodded and looked back at Celty's shadowy ball, which was now growing bigger and taking the shape of some sort of table, and then disappearing altogether, leaving behind an operations table, complete with sheets and hospital gown.
Shizuo left after witnessing the strange event, wordlessly accepting the fact his headless friend could fit large objects in much smaller spaces. Izaya just stared, but quickly gave up on rationalizing what just happened. Celty was a headless fairy that shouldn't exist in the first place, so perhaps it wasn't that strange to think she could so things that shouldn't be possible.
Next thing he knows Shinra inject something in his arm, some anesthetic he supposed, and the rest was blurry. He had let the doctor help him undress and remembered the feeling of cold metal against his chest and the doctor exclaiming something, although he couldn't make out the words.
"Shizuo! How could you?!" The young underground doctor nearly threw himself at a very surprised Shizuo once he was done fixing Izaya up as well as he could.
"What'd I do?!"
"That rib was NOT broken when I checked yesterday! It was a nasty break too, I can hardly believe it didn't puncture Izaya's lung!"
Shizuo turned somewhat red in the face, finally understanding what had happened.
"It wasn't on purpose! I wasn't even awake…"
Shinra shook his head. "Do me a favor and let him sleep alone tonight."
The blonde frowned. "I only have one bed… No futons either."
Shinra sighed. "Fine. I have to hurry and catch some sleep now, but I'll be back in a few days, if he's any worse than he is today you'll be my live subject for any experiments I come up with, got it?"
Shizuo blinked at the doctor, wondering how such a small skinny man managed to sound so menacing. He grumbled a bit at the thought. "… Got it."
Celty then came out, followed by the strange ball of shadows, she had just finished packing.
[Be a little bit more careful, okay, Shizuo? I know you don't like him… But it would be a lot of wasted effort if Izaya died now, wouldn't it?]
Shizuo nodded. "He'll be fine."
When the odd black and white couple finally left he grabbed the bag with Sushi and made his way to Izaya.
"Oi, Fleabag, you awake?"
Said flea's eyes flutter a bit behind closed lids. Yet Izaya remains still, lying on his back, arms lying unnaturally straight by his side. Shizuo frowned and set himself on his side of the bed fluffing a pillow up behind his back to set more comfortable as he crosses his legs.
For a while he simple stared at the still knocked out informant. The guy looked awfully harmless like this… Stupid flea.
Who'd figured the louse was so freakin' fragile? It's not like I always miss either, so how come he'd always stand up? Since he breaks so easily and all…
Finally he lost his patience and pinched Izaya's nose, causing the other's eyes to flicker open hazily as he flailed. But the blonde dept collector let go immediately, no harm done. Izaya blinked a little bit confused, eyes hazy as he stared at Shizuo, not seeming to recognize him.
Shizuo stared back, wondering what was wrong, not realizing Shinra had no way to measuring the appropriate amount of sedative with Izaya being all secretive about his personal information. The raven simply hadn't recovered from being sedated yet, but now the haze was slowly fading.
"Shizu-chan?"
Shizuo tore his eyes off and grabbed the bag. "Hungry?"
Izaya laughed very lightly and without any humor. "Hardly but.. Ah, I can't resist my sweet, sweet Otoro~"
Shizuo frowned and unpacked the food, holding up a piece of said Otoro and almost glaring at it. "Doesn't smell sweet to me."
Izaya chuckled and carefully pushed himself up, eating the piece directly from Shizuo's hand, causing the later to startle and move away a bit, staring at Izaya in confusion. The blond was doing a lot of staring today. But hell, if only SOMETHING would make sense!
"Hnnn~" Izaya moaned happily, savoring the taste of his piece of Sushi. "Ah~ this truly is the best~!" He continued with a satisfied smile gracing his lips.
Shizuo blinked and took another piece of Izaya's favorite sushi and took a small curious bite, and almost gagged. "Yuck, how can you eat this? It's downright terrible."
Izaya pouted and grabbed the rest from Shizuo's hand. "Just because your protozoan taste buds can't appreciate the best taste in the world doesn't make it bad!" and with that he popped it in his mouth and savored the taste of the tuna melting on his tongue once more.
Meanwhile Shizuo simply looked confused, not entirely sure if that was supposed to be an insult. But then he just shrugged and but the bag with sushi in between them and ate a bit of his own; Sweet shrimp, his favorite. But he got himself one of those California rolls too, since it looked tasty enough.
Izaya took a few more pieces of otoro before laying down again, sighing deeply.
"Don't want anymore?"
Izaya gave Shizuo a sad look. "Ay~ As much as I'd love to eat more I don't want to end up throwing all my lovely otoro back out due to eating too much so quickly after being under for a while."
Shizuo nodded and quietly repacked Izaya's sushi after finishing his own.
"Mind bringing me some water? I feel like I'll die tonight if I don't take some of those meds." Izaya asked, looking up at Shizuo.
"Sure… Don't take too many again." Shizuo left the bed, making Izaya wonder once more how come Shizuo was so concerned about him. But then he was back again, with water, as promised. He watched as the raven took his medicine, making sure he didn't take too many, and then went away again to clean up and smoke in the living room.
His smoking had almost halved since Izaya was here… The smell of smoke was fainter than before, and Shizuo wondering why he felt so much less stressed with Izaya here. After all, his job was still annoying as always, and Ikebukurou was going crazy even without Izaya pulling any strings. Moreover, the streets were buzzing with rumors that he had killed the flea, so being less stressed than usual could most definitely be registered as strange. But Shizuo figured it was just because he didn't have to worry about the flea appearing randomly and ruining his day, and thus he didn't have to search the crowds for random bits of fur. Not that he did that normally! Right…?
After a while he figured didn't really matter anyway. He felt good about himself and his stress had lessened, no reason to be unhappy. So he went with his new found routine of sleeping next to so called 'flea' and curled up happily on his side of the bed, after changing of course.
Izaya still lay awake and watching Shizuo sleep soundly, remembering he hadn't managed to ask Shinra about the showering and stuff yet. Damn.
