Story: Read Between the Lines, Chapter 7(I know it said 8 before, but it was 7)
Disclaimer: I don't own Durarara!/DRRR!
It had honestly been a while since Shinra had seen Izaya face to face, so, when he had found him, of all people, knocking on his door, he hadn't quite known what to think right at first.
"Orihara-kun? What are you doing here?" He started to ask, uncertain.
"Ah, it's so good to see you, too, my friend~! It's been a while, ne~?" Izaya rose an eyebrow, smiling. "And you wound me so very much, Shinra~! I'm actually suppose to have a reason to visit a friend~? Alas, that is so mean and cold of you, to insinuate such a thing, Shinra~"
"I'm not insinuating, Orihara-kun. I just know, because you always have a reason for coming here, don't you? You never go anywhere at all, or do anything without a reason in mind, do you?" Shinra questioned nonchalantly, knowing that Izaya knew full well that everything he had said was true.
"Ah... So true~ You really read me so well~! Ne, Shinra~?" Izaya chirped, however, turning around a bit to hide a oddly sad smile from being scene. "Anyway, since I see I'm not all that welcome here, after all, I'll just make quick for my friend, ne? I came here to deliver something from the awakusu-kai; from Shiki-san, to be specific~ It's a chemical or such left at a crime scene. He said he couldn't get up with you."
"Sir Shiki wanted to talk to me...?" Shinra paused for a minute, thinking about it.
Izaya began to speak, but was cut off before he could.
"Sorry, I only talk to people if I want to talk to them the moment, so, anyway, what is it you came to deliver, Mr. Infodealer?" Shinra smirked a bit, holding up his his hands, gesturing quotations with his fingers in mockery.
The information broker honestly didn't know what to think, but the brunette's attitude towards Shiki sort of both unsettled and amused him at the same time.
"Hey, aren't you acting of ornery today? Or maybe it's just me," Izaya chirped, walking in before Shinra could tell him to leave. "but there's really no need to be so hostile towards me, ne? I really didn't come here to irritate you~ I think my wrist is broken, too, so there's also that~"
"Wait, you think your wrist is broken? I bet Shizuo-kun did it to you, then? You provoked him again, didn't you?"
"Ah, so perceptive, Shinra~! In fact, you're so perceptive that it's even scary~ but you are far from right to say that I'm the one who provoked him. Hahaha! You're so amusing~ but, if I may ask, how did you even know~?" Izaya chimed, smirking.
"I'm actually not that perceptive, Izaya. I'm just perceptive of you. But you already know that, don't you?"
"Of course, it's because we're practically the exact opposite of each another, ne?"
"Yeah, we are. That's why I know you so well, and why you don't understand me at all, Orihara-kun. I would have to say your position in our 'friendship' must feel rather unfair to someone like yourself, huh? Since you like to understand humans and all, it must really be agony." Shinra was taunting him, and Izaya knew this. It had hurt his pride enough to have to come here and even show his face around him, but the fact that the illegal doctor knew him so damn well... it... stung him to the core, because he didn't know anything hardly about Shinra, or in comparison to the former at least.
Plus, Shinra's detatchment from the world only made it that much easier for him to read Izaya like he was just a walking book, and that was honestly only making him feel more pathetic and more irritated than when he had even arrived.
"Well, now~ I guess I'm not all that welcome here, after all, ne, Shinra~?" He teased, a wry smirk plastered on his face, to simply spite the annoying lump in his throat that just wouldn't leave no matter what he did. Taking out the bag from earilier, he held it out the Shinra, obviously forcing a smile. "...So I'll just have to leave this piece of evidence in your trustworthy hands. Here~ And for you, I'm gonna leave now, since yo-"
"Celty!"
However, right as Izaya was about to leave, half-welcomed shadows, which had not been calcuated for at all, surrounded him. He smirked, but sighed in defeat.
"Oh dear~ It seems the Headless Rider caught me~ What to do~? What to do~?" He hummed, but was actually seething inside. He wanted to get away from this place. No, he needed to get away from Ikebukuro in general, and she was standing in his way. "Alas, it's so flattering to know that you want to keep me here, though, courier~!"
In all honestly, he actually didn't expect Celty to be come there at all while he was there, so he assumed that she had, unfortunately for him, finished the most recent job he had hired her for a lot sooner than expected.
"Orihara-kun-"
"It's so hard to believe people think my face is so attractive to the point they would want to keep me-"
He didn't even care anymore to hear what Shinra had to say. He wasn't thinking straight. He didn't want to be here at all.
Interrupting him, a PDA was suddenly shoved into his face.
[After all the things you came here for, you're not just gonna leave. I don't like you very much, no, but that's really not the issue here, you... I really don't want to hurt a human, so quit trying to provoke, already, will you?!]
"Mn~? What's this~? Am I feeling you worrying for me~? Hahaha, honestly, you're becoming more human every day, ne, dullahan~? I honestly don't understand how Shinra can accept you into his life so well~ but I accept that as his choice as a human~ On the other hand, I'll never except /you/ as a human, just so you know~! So just mind your own business, Dullahan~! Hahah-ouch! Damn that hurt... Well what are you waiting waiting for, monster~? Why don't you go ahead and finish me off?! I insist~! HAHAHA! The looks on your face is priceless even if you don't have a face."
Celty took a step back, wondering if Izaya had suddenly lost his mind.
But then-
Smack.
Izaya looked above him, holding his extremely weak hand to his face, silent as a dead man suddenly.
She had never once seem him loose his composure like that before, so it was actually really unsettling to herself. She hadn't known what to do to calm him down. He didn't even really seem to be focusing on her, but, rather, past her... Something inside her told her that he was probably in his own world at the moment. It was the only she could thing she could think to do.
"Thanks for that, Celty... I was actually about to do the same thing..." Shinra had gotten up, and was now standing in front of Izaya.
[...Have you calmed down now..?]
He suddenly glowered at her, with an amused, but rather cynical, expression.
"I say, you actually did that to that to make me 'calm down'~? That just won't do! I really don't know why you would tell me such nonsense, even though I'm just as serene and fine as I always am~ I'm completely calm, ne~? Hahahah... Ah Damn it" he suddenly grew tense when he felt hot tears pricking his eye lashes and welling up in the corners of his eyes.
"Say Shinra..., can you please just hurry up and examine my arm, already? I really don't have all day, ne?" Izaya tried to smile, but it was so incredibly forced that it wasn't funny to him. In fact, it hurt like hell to it up, and that was all he knew. He despised that habit.
[Shinra..., has he always been this messed up?] Celty had suddenly asked.
"No, I don't think so, maybe something happened between him and Shizuo-kun? My guess is that Shizuo-kun did something really unexpected, or at least did something that Izaya didn't expect him to do...?"
Shinra ignored the cold glance that was suddenly sent in his direction which also proved he was right. Even though... Shinra was usually always right, without even trying, when it came to Izaya.
"Oh, right. You said you came here about your arm, too, right? Celty, you can let him go, now."
[Eh? Are you sure he won't do anything?], she asked, observing Izaya from the side of her view.
"Yeah, I wouldn't worry too much about it. Orihara-kun won't really do anything."
And she did just that, but, despite her expectations, Izaya made no attempt to stand or get up. He just sat there, smirking coldly as if everything in the world was just a game right now.
"As if I could," he said spitefully, a forced and daring smirk plastered on his face.
"with a monster like Celty around here who would choke me to death or break my fragile human neck if I did, ne?"
Glaring at them, he just dared Shinra or Celty to say one more thing to break him even more, especially Shinra though.
"I hate that about you so damn much, Shinra. Why can I never see through you like you can me~? It's really so unfair~~" He clutched his pocket knife sitting in his pocket, itching to just cut something, particularly his own body right now.
The anxiety right now was practically unbearable.
What did Shinra think of him right now, as he looked down at him?
Where was Shizuo?
How much longer until Shizuo finally came to finish him of?
Did Shinra know...?
"...Hate and love are strong words, Orihara-kun. I'll be honest with you. I don't like you."
His eyes widened a slight bit when Shinra said that, and, in that moment, he was rendered speechless. His friend... Probably... his only friend hated him, then. And that was all there was to it. He'd always known, but, for some reason, to actually hear those words come out of Shinra's mouth... It hurt...
How sad and ironic was that?
"...I understa-"
"But I don't hate you."
"...Huh? Shit... That..." he swallowed, letting his bangs cover his eyes, as he suddenly began tittering, tears now rolling down his cheeks. "That wasn't even remotely funny, Shinra..."
'Why do humans always have this kind of affect on me, no matter what I do or where I go? I guess I can't avoid it, after all, huh? I was really always afraid of this happening...'
"I know." Shinra shrugged. "It wasn't meant to be funny."
"...Heh. That's so typical of you, Shinra... Honestly, how can you not care about anything, like you do..?"
"Because I only care about Celty." Shinra replied with ease to his question.
"Tch... figures~ I really should have know that...
"What about you, Izaya? You only care about Shizuo, don't you? You-"
"Shut up, Shinra..." the raven hissed, cutting him off, before he looked back up, the same mocking malicious smirk pastered on his face as usual. To spite the tears currently streaming down his face, he cursed them. He tried to suck them back, but miserably failed at doing so, in his own opinion. "You really do talk too much, you know? Naa, I'm leaving..."
"Izaya..., you're doing it again, aren't you?" Shinra suddenly asked him, an odd look in his eyes that she never seen before. But Celty couldn't read it.
"Yeah," Izaya muttered, not turning around."but I always was, Shinra. You just didn't know..."
"I see..." Shinra hummed. "Well... just so you know, if you died, I would have just lost a good friend..."
"...No, I completely disagree; I'm not a good person, Shinra... I'm not a good a good person at all. None of us are."
"Well, I have to admit you're right about that one," the bespectacled man but you know you were still always a good friend to me, you know...? Orihara-kun? Do pro-"
"I'll try not to."
"Well..., that's better than nothing, I guess... See you later." Shinra sighed in defeat. Shinra would have offered to look at his hand, but he knew Izaya needed space right now.
But, once again, Celty felt plain lost. She didn't know what to think or say, because she had never thought of Izaya as one to so easily be torn down and apart by Shinra, of all people.
She still never could fully understand humans at all, even to this day.
- End of Chapter.
A/N: What did yer think?~ Bad, probably. I feel this was horrible, but please review, anyway, and tell me what you think? Ne? Onegai? ^^
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