Happy early Valentine.

"Please marry me."

"No."

Izaya's respond to the kneeling bespectacled boy was immediate. Even so, it was obvious that Shinra wasn't satisfied. He pouted before standing up and crossing his arms in front of his chest.

"Izaya, be serious."

"I am serious."

"Then stop fiddling with your knife and answer me seriously!"

Izaya, who was indeed fiddling with his switchblade, stopped, sighed, and turned to him.

"You seriously think that the expected respond from your dear beloved Celty isn't a kick to your abdomen?"

"... Good point."

"And there you have it. Can I go now?"

"NO!"

Izaya was not surprised.

He knew that to Shinra, the unbelievably silly thing was important, and so when he snapped, Izaya was not surprised. He was also not surprised to see him pointing something sharp at him.

It was that something sharp which did surprise him.

There was lots of sharp things in the laboratory, but Izaya had never seen what Shinra's holding in the room, nor in Shinra's possession. Where he hid a scalpel on his body was beyond Izaya. He didn't remember seeing him taking it out of his pocket, and he was sure that he'd seen Shinra taking off his jacket often. Surely not there.

"I'm not letting you go until you say yes!"

Shinra said as he pointed his scalpel at Izaya's face. From the way he held it, Izaya knew he'd been using it for a long time. It's different from the way thugs hold their knives. Shinra held it like a professional surgeon.

Even so, Izaya had no doubt that he could really attack people with it. He could also cut conscious moving people open, not only those who're drugged and lying on his couch.

With the power of love, for some reason that thought came to his mind, and so he laughed a bit because of it.

To an outsider, if there was any, it'd seem as if he's not worried at all, even though it's the farthest from the truth.

To tell the truth, Izaya was terrified.

Unlike Shinra, he had no confident in his skill with a knife. After the stabbing incident, he started carrying knife around to reinforce the rumor. He wanted everyone to think that he was a knifenut. When there's inspection few months back, he deliberately put it in his bag just for that reason.

Needless to say, Izaya's wielding skill was practically non-existent. He only used it to threat people after all.

And Shinra knew it. Izaya had no doubt that he knew.

"... the bell is ringing soon."

"There's nothing after this and you know it. No one is looking for us."

Izaya fixed his stance and flicked his switchblade.

"Are you holding me hostage, Shinra?"

"Yes."

With a smile, he raised his blade.

And then, surprisingly (later on that day, Izaya deemed he was enough surprised by humanity for a day and the fact that his daily surprise dose was given entirely by Shinra taught him who's to look when he's bored) Shinra tilted his head and with a wide smile ask, "Oh, I just noticed. Is it new?"

"I've had it since Christmas. And this is the first time I've seen you with your scalpel too."

He answered curtly.

"... ceramic. I'm guessing it's what you used in your story. You dissected Celty with it, didn't you?"

"Yep."

Shinra nodded enthusiastically. Izaya laughed at his reaction.

"You're good, Izaya. Hm... about your knife... Well, I don't know anything, really. I just know you started bringing knife around since after that unfortunate incident with Nakura. Poor guy. He must be scared out of his mind, not knowing you're not really used to wielding knives."

"... heh."

"But I know, Izaya. And I want to hurry home and propose Celty too! So, let's just lower our blades and continue, okay? I'll let you go after you say yes."

"You want me to be serious, don't you? I seriously doubt she'll ever say yes."

"Then help me."

Izaya forced himself to sigh. He could do this. He could talk Shinra out of this.

He made note to himself to look up videos of knife-wielding fighter later at home. He's so going to practice knife-wielding in case something like this happen again.

"Shinra, I'm acting as Celty now."

"Uhm, yeah?"

"Are you planning to threaten her with your scalpel when she kicked you? And I say when because I seriously doubt she'd say yes."

Shinra wavered a little. He gaped, seemingly horrified.

"I would never threaten her!"

"And here we are."

Izaya could feel sweat rolling down on his back, but he forced himself to smile.

They stood in silence for a while, pointing their blades to each other's faces, until finally, Shinra lowered his first and dropped it to the floor with a clang.

"... you're right."

Izaya tried hard not to sigh in relief, although he did allow himself to lower his blade.

"You're right... Please, one more time. Let me try one more time."

"One more time."

"Yeah. Whatever your respond will be, we can go back to class afterwards."

They're engulfed in silence again. Izaya eyed Shinra curiously. The boy was obviously planning something, and Izaya felt the need to scram for some odd reason. Bells were ringing in his mind. If only Shinra wasn't blocking the door...

After what felt like forever, Shinra moved.

And then, he hugged Izaya.

"I love you, Izaya," he said, because for some reason no matter how hard he tried he couldn't call him 'Celty', "please marry me."

Shinra's figure had hidden the view of the door, but now Izaya could see it clearly. He locked gaze with a boy, Izaya noticed that he was his junior, who had his hand in a fist an inch away from the door, as if he was about to knock. He probably was. His face was bright red.

Noticing that Izaya had seen him, the boy took a step back before running away.

"I'm... I'm sorry!"

Izaya sighed.

For some reason, his mood has changed drastically. It's like he'd been doused and what replaced his wariness was pure rage. So, he pushed Shinra away and smiled genuinely before punching his face and kicking his gut.

The bell signaling the start of class managed to hide Shinra's scream.

"Aochi~ Stop pouting will you? It's just a prank."

Izumii put on the most serious looking expression he had and responded to the younger twin by sticking his tongue out.

"Now you're just being childish."

"I'm six. I'm allowed to be childish."

"Well, that's true, huh."

After what happened in the rooftop, the twins had followed him back to class and ate their lunch at his table. Truthfully, he was rather glad that they did. If they hadn't, surely the boys would come at him and demand explanation.

Not that there was anything to explain.

It was just a misunderstanding.

For some reason, the fact annoyed him a bit though, and he realized that from the way he ate his onigiri everyone could sense his dark mood.

"... regret (I'm really sorry)"

"Don't worry, Kururi. It's entirely Mairu's fault."

"Guilt (it's my fault too)"

"Yep, yep. Kuru-nee isn't innocent here. After all, when we prank someone, we always act as one!"

Izumii eyed the twins. Kururi had nodded in agreement with her sister's words, and Mairu was smiling from ear to ear.

"Correct me if I'm wrong, but for some reason I have no doubt that the first person you pranked was Kojima."

They nodded in unison. Slight smile could be seen in Kururi's face, while Mairu was outright giggling. Izumii sighed. That would mean he was the second person. If it's Kojima, he could understand. But him... whatever had he done to them?

"And here I thought you think of me as your friend."

"We do."

"Normal (friends prank each other)."

"So that's why you approached Kojima after she came back to school? Whoever taught you that? No, wait. Don't answer. Let me guess. It's your brother."

They nodded once more, and Izumii sighed once more, audibly this time. He hadn't seen this brother of theirs, only hearing from the rumors, but even so he decided then that he hated this person called Orihara Izaya.

He stabbed his karage as he thought that. The twins winced slightly at the sight, but their smiles didn't falter.

"Forgive? (Are we good?)"

"... is it just me, or are you girls really don't want to promise you won't ever prank me again?"

"Of course we'll prank you again, Aochi. Let's face it, you're quite boring as a person. Nice, but boring. Pranks are necessary to spice things up!"

"True (what she said)"

He stabbed another karage.

What bad luck... He made a note for himself, to stay quiet in case some other bullying case got into teacher's attention. If what he'd get was a couple of prankster forcing themselves into him like this, really. No thank you.

He had enough on his hands.

Really... what he wanted was just some peace and quiet at school. Was it too much to ask?

"Can I just please stop being your friend then?"

Mairu gasped in horror, while Kururi seemed indifferent and just sipped her juice.

"WHAT?!"

"Really, not that I don't like your pranks and all, it's just... well, I don't like them."

Izumii wished he could see those two in the face as he said it, but for some reason he couldn't. Somehow, he found the content of his usual lunch box to be interesting.

"Aochi... are you serious?"

"Yep," he answered as he played with his karage.

"Aaah..."

Despite the obvious disappointment that could be heard in her tone, Izumii knew how this would turn out. He held his breath and closed his eyes as he waited the inevitable.

"Well, truthfully, we don't care either way, right, Kuru-nee?"

Kururi stayed silent, but judging from Mairu's giggle a second later, Izumii guessed that the older twin had nodded. Izumii sighed again.

"Please spare me..."

"You know that's impossible, right Aochi? Friends or not, we'll always be with you."

"Marriage (till death do us apart and all that)"

"Oh, good one, Kuru-nee. Yep yep. In sickness and health and all that. Well, in your case might be in sickness all the time. Bandages aside, we know deep inside you're sick after all."

"Similar (you're very much like our brother)."

"Uh huh. Maybe that's why we find you lovable."

"I'm pretty sure your mind is sicker than mine, Mairu."

"Hey! That's not fair. You should compliment Kuru-nee too! We're one after all."

"Want (yes, what she said)"

As he chewed on his karage, Izumii wondered what he could do to escape the mess he was in.

It'd take years before he could appreciate their words. When he could, it would already be forgotten.