Chapter 10

"I told you I won't repeat myself!" Tom's voice was turning even more menacing by the second. "What are you waiting for?"

Shazesh's men were so petrified that they barely managed to move their heads towards their leader, expecting the crucial reaction out of him. All of them could easily understand how extremely bad their position was, and talking their way out of it didn't seem like a possible choice. So they hung onto their leader for dear life, as they didn't have any clue which way they should react in order not to worsen their already catastrophic position. One of them tried talking: "Sha-"

"DON'T YOU FUCKING MOVE!" Shazesh himself roared, as he grabbed Shizuo by the hair and stuck the knife close to the skin of his neck, so close that he slightly cut him and blood ran out. "NOBODY MOVES, OR I'LL FUCKING CUT HIM LIKE A PIG! GOT IT?"

Nobody moved or said anything indeed, but it was clear inside Tom's narrowed eyes that his patience was running thin.

"Sha-Shazesh, maybe we should just… I mean, what do you hope to gain from this? What are we supposed to do?" One of his men stuttered, trying to interfere.

"SHUT UP! Put your tiny, nonexistent brains to work for once, just for once, you goddamn, fucking, stupid idiots!" Shazesh spat at them, his composure already gone. "What do you think is going to happen if we give ourselves up, huh? Undergo a fucking trial? Here? Do you even know where you are?" The desperation in his voice was well masked under his infuriation. "They'll shoot us in cold blood! That's what they are going to do!"

"Then we would just have shot you without warning you to stop." Tom informed him, as coldly as before. "Don't make me regret that decision now. I'm going to tell you for the last time-"

"Aye, Commander, sure. You've got your position to think about. But to us, those fake politics don't mean shit!" Shazesh said, as he grabbed Shizuo by the collar and lifted him up, as much as he could, because Shizuo had apparently lost too much blood to be able to stand on his own feet. Then, without ever removing the knife from his neck, he used his left arm and his left leg to support Shizuo's weight. It was like an absurd and horrid hug.

Tom's heart tightened as he watched his friend's body soaked in its own blood, barely containing his consciousness. His limbs in particular were wounded terribly. Seeing Shizuo like this, with someone else's knife on his neck, reminded him that Shizuo was indeed a human being. Strangely, Tom didn't like that. He didn't like seeing Shizuo weak.

Before he could say anything, Shazesh got to him: "So? My dear Commander? Do you want to know if your bullets are faster than my knife on his neck? You're welcome to try, but you know, my body MIGHT make an abrupt movement, you never know! Well?"

As Tom didn't do or say anything, Shazesh was frantically trying to look for some way to escape. Tom wouldn't listen to an order of lowering their guns. He couldn't due to his position as Commander. And it would be way too risky to order his men to pull their own guns out. On top of all that, more people had started gathering around, curious and then scandalized about the crisis that had occurred, forgetting even their women. He had to stall some more time, though he didn't know what to wait for.

"So, you won't move huh?" Shazesh finally decided to lay all of his cards down. "Of course you wouldn't! You wouldn't risk for that dear friend of yours! So dear, that you even covered for him when he beat up OUR pal! But you'd be willing to point your guns us, who are only serving justice!"

"Shizuo was acting in the line of his duty when he attacked your 'pal'!" Tom raised his voice, enraged but still maintaining his composure. "I ordered him to protect a certain man; your 'pal', and all of you, were about to harm the object of that order, so he acted! Enlighten me, how is this, the same as premeditated rape and murder, as well as theft of vital supplies?"

Then it dawned on Shazesh. There was also someone else in this game. "Well, then, you could always bring me that object, and everything would be peaceful and even again!" His face gleamed. "Go on! Bring him!" As Tom wasn't moving, he changed the tone: "BRING HIM, I said!" He roared, burying the knife deeper into Shizuo's neck and drawing out more blood. "Bring me that whore of his you so generously gave him! Bring me Izaya!"

Before Tom could harshly reply, he felt a hand grabbing momentarily his arm, softly and reassuringly.

"And I thought I heard my name."

Tom simply watched as the black haired man, clothed in those black robes, walked past him and headed slowly but confidently forward. He couldn't exactly place what he was reminding him of, not right at that moment.

"Good thing you said the name Izaya of course, but I had a feeling it was about me since the 'whore' pronunciation, to be frank." Izaya nonchalantly commented. "So?" He turned at Shazesh.

He didn't have to talk loudly for Shazesh to understand what he wanted to say. Shazesh was certain that Izaya was blaming him for the failure, and looking like a failure to Izaya's eyes, was more depressing and humiliating than he had ever thought. "You're coming with us!"

"Really?" Izaya chuckled. "And where exactly do you plan on going?" He said, as he folded his arms across his chest.

"Somewhere that I can drop you on all fours, and fuck you like a bitch, dreaming that I'm fucking his cute little brother!" He said, as his grip on Shizuo tightened even more.

It didn't need much more.

Suddenly, Shazesh felt the hand that was holding the knife to Shizuo's neck being seized, effectively immobilized. He could only watch in a few moments of terror, as Shizuo opened his eyes and glared bloody death at him, literally also baring his fangs. In the next moments, Shizuo's legs had a firm hold of the ground, as he got up and with one swift movement, threw Shazesh's body on top of some of his men, like it belonged to a ragdoll.

The image of the bloody, tortured and drugged Shizuo, managing to stand up and displaying such an overwhelming form of violence, like a beast that had climbed its way straight from the depths of hell, would forever be engraved in the memories of everyone who saw him that day. Izaya felt again that shiver running through his spine, as he couldn't take his eyes off of Shizuo, yet again. He was admiring how much non-human his reactions, no, his entire nature was. Shazesh's reactions were much more humane. But Shizuo was way out of everybody else's league, thing that Izaya already knew and hated from the bottom of his heart.

Humans are interesting. Humans are loveable.

Animals are not. And they can't be this beautiful.

Monsters can't be this beautiful.

The moment, however, was short lived, as that very image was a step more terrifying than anything even soldiers like them ever had to face. Seeing their boss thrown in the air, two of his men couldn't restrain themselves. They screamed in utter terror and desperation, as they pulled out their guns and pointed them at Shizuo.

"MORONS!" Shazesh managed to shoot himself up from his landing position in a matter of milliseconds, when he saw what they had just done, and tried to start running towards them. "STO-"

"FIRE!"

Tom didn't have to repeat this order. The same moment it rained bullets mercilessly on that half dozen of men, without any of them managing to pull the trigger at Shizuo, needless to say about defending themselves. Shazesh's body took the most damage and it shook violently before finally falling face down unceremoniously, having sustained injuries from so many bullets that he was beyond any hope of salvation.

When every single one of them fell, everything suddenly got quiet. For some moments, nobody dared to move, until Shizuo, barely registering that the immediate danger was over, let his body give itself up in exhaustion and fell down as well.

"Shizuo!" Kadota yelled and ran towards him, with many others following his example. Izaya observed them with a slight interest but casually walked past them. He had something a bit more interesting to see.

Most of Shazesh's men were already dead. Some soldiers had started giving them the final headshots, in order to either ensure they were dead, or spare them the torture of a slow death. But Izaya was interested in only one.

And as expected, the worst dogs always die last.

Shazesh was barely clinging to life when Izaya came and stood in front of him, his feet only a step away from the other guy's face. Shazesh understood and tried to look up, struggling while coughing blood and convulsing. The pain was so intense that it just didn't feel real at the moment.

So close. He was so close!

That was the only thing he could think of as his eyes traveled up to Izaya's body, finally reaching his unreadable face. He was so close of achieving undeniable recognition! He was so close of standing on top of everyone! He was so close of obtaining everything! He was so close of taking Izaya and making him his!

Where? Where had it gone wrong?

And suddenly, Izaya's lips twisted it up in a wide, wolfish grin, as his eyes narrowed in pure malice. In the next two seconds Shazesh had left to live, he understood everything, but he didn't even have the time to get angry. As he watched in terror the devil smiling down at him, with eyes that gleamed red, he passed away drown in feelings of betrayal and self-loathing, and the image of his older sister, with a cigarette in her hands, telling him she would reward his pure love if he just got her those dreamy blue pills that take you up away in the sky.

When Izaya watched the light extinguishing from the other man's eyes, he had the irresistible urge to laugh like there was no tomorrow. It was extremely hard to restrain himself. It was even harder to stop himself from starting stomping on Shazesh's head and bashing it into the ground. He had hoped for an infuriated reaction instead of an awed one, but the man hadn't had that much time to live, as it seemed.

Well, whatever. He could go and apologize to all that 'meat', as he had said, in the depths of hell, if it existed. Izaya had now other, more important things to occupy himself with, as he glanced towards Shizuo's side.

It would be one day later that Shizuo would open his eyes. Of course, he couldn't know how much time had passed. He just opened his eyes and found himself looking at the ceiling of the tent. He tried to stand up in a sitting position but his body felt uncharacteristically heavy as he rose. He looked down and found himself covered all over in bandages.

"Uh-uh, Shizu-chan, you shouldn't get up yet!" A very familiar voice chirped next to him.

"Huuuh? I told you to not call me by that name, you fucking bastard!" Shizuo turned right and came face to face with the object of his eternal, as it seemed, irritation, which was sitting next to him and smiling like Christmas had arrived six months earlier… not that he knew what Christmas was. "What the hell happened? Why do I look like the fucking mummy?"

"Whose mom?" Izaya was momentarily taken aback.

"Not THAT mommy! Mummy! It… forget it!" Shizuo could easily forget that Izaya still didn't know everything about his world. As he shook his head, he realized that he had bandages wrapped even around his neck. Then he remembered the feeling of the knife on his throat, and everything slowly started falling back into place. "Shit…" He whispered, as he closed his eyes, reminiscing of those appalling memories. "Shit… Those bastards…"

"I see your vocabulary is as rich as always."

"Do you want to die, HUH?" Shizuo reacted automatically at the usual sarcasm, but when he tried to raise his hand to threaten that insect with a punch, it felt like it weighted tones. "What the FUCK! I can't even-"

"No, Shizu-chan was injured quite heavily in this incident." Izaya said, unable to refrain from smiling and not willing to hide it either. "That being said, I'm under the pleasant position to take care of you until you recover! Shizu-chan might be a monster so he doesn't feel any pain, but the doctor said that your condition is actually pretty bad, so you need to let yourself in my hands for now! Amazing, isn't it?"

"Please, hide your tears. Your concern about my wellbeing is so heart breaking, I don't know if I can handle it!" Shizuo replied, with a vein popping dangerously on his forehead. "You bastard! Is it so pleasant for you that I ended up in this mess, huh?"

"Now you're offending me!" Izaya said as he got up, and dusted himself off a bit, still smiling. "I told you that I need you, Shizu-chan. Why would I enjoy it if something bad happened to you?" He said as he turned around, and headed towards where they kept their supplies. "Although I admit," he cut Shizuo off the moment he opened his mouth to retort, "that it was nice to see you in my place for a change. Well… not exactly… nice… but you know what I mean." He concluded, the smile barely remaining on his lips, as he looked through the food they had.

Shizuo huffed. "And just what's telling you that I hadn't already been in that place."

He watched Izaya's back as the black haired man completely froze. "What do you mean?" His merry tone was suddenly gone.

"Get real! I came in this place when I was sixteen!" Shizuo shot at him, while suddenly wishing for a cigarette. "I've lost count of the times scums have tried to get me! When I first came here, that must have been the time when I was most scolded. I kept beating them next to death. Most of them gave up when I grew up a little, but from time to time there are idiots like that… where did you put my cigarettes?"

"Did anyone succeed?" Izaya's voice was unusually serious.

"What? Do you know me? Of course not!" Shizuo exclaimed. " …But I have to confess that this last one was a closer call than anything ever before." He involuntarily shuddered at the thought, but he was capable of hiding it. Izaya had his back turned at him anyway. "That damn Shazesh… stealing that grenade… this was far more serious for the army than doing me or getting me out of the way. I can't tell if he was being brave or plain stupid!"

"Why is a grenade more serious?" Izaya asked, as he returned next to Shizuo, holding a canteen. "In your world, objects are weighing more than human lives?" He asked as he sat beside him again.

Shizuo looked at him like he knew that Izaya was mocking him, thing that he ninety-nine per cent did. "Why? In your world it was different?"

Izaya looked at him. "Shizu-chan says some good stuff from time to time." He said, as he untapped the canteen.

"What the hell was good from what you heard." Shizuo commented but without any irritation in his voice. "To make things short; my life wouldn't cost one tenth of what one of those grenades would."

"Then Shizu-chan is lucky to have such good friends that rushed to his rescue. Even with the grenade used… right?"

Shizuo didn't say anything. He didn't like Izaya's tone, and more, he absolutely hated his roundabout ways. He kept looking at him with narrowed eyes, until Izaya opened his mouth to speak again, swiftly beating him to it. "When you said you needed me… before I left…" He questioned. "What did you mean by that?"

"I don't know. What could I have possibly meant?"

"Answer me."

"I'm not answering things you already know." Izaya maintained his smile, but his eyes hardened imperceptibly. "If you cease to be here, I'll become a fuck toy of nearly five hundred men. Or if you simply decide to give me away. I need you. I can't save myself in any other way. You are not fucking me, though, and that means you don't actually need me, in any way, so I'm left depending on the good will of a monster. That's what I meant."

"I'll never be a human being for you, will I? Not that I care." Shizuo shrugged. "It's fine. I'm not asking you to change your opinion, in fact, that would be weird." In absolute fact, his own words were weird to Shizuo's ears, since it wasn't even his opinion. "Where did you put my cigarettes?" He asked again.

Izaya was left speechless for some seconds, but then decided to lessen the tension a bit. "I'll give them to you later. Now you've got to eat something." He handed him the canteen. "Drink, it's soup. You've been out cold for an entire day, they said it's better if you drink that first."

Shizuo silently took the canteen and started drinking, first quietly and then, unbelievably hungrily. He had forgotten how much hungry he actually was, he hadn't even eaten anything after the battle. As he drunk, he couldn't help but think that he was extremely lucky to be able to taste this soup. He might have died back then. He was a soldier and yet he hadn't learned that every day could be his last, as it seemed. And he had never before thought about it. Due to his strength, he found himself under the illusion of safety, and that proved to be very wrong. He didn't have anything particular to do with his life, but still, he wanted to live another day. He felt like he had things he wanted to do, even if he didn't know them exactly yet.

When he finished, he gave the canteen at Izaya, and turned his attention back at him. They might not be alive to see the next day, either one of them. And then… what?

When Izaya tried to get up and put the object in his hands back in his place, Shizuo grabbed him by the hand, right above the wrist. "What?" Izaya asked, a bit bewildered. "Oh!" He realized. "I'll get your cigarettes, don't worry."

"I don't want any cigarettes."

Izaya lifted up his eyebrow. "Really? Since when?"

"Okay, I DO, but that's not what I meant!" Damn him and his games with words. "Izaya…"

"What do you want, Shizu-chan?" Izaya sighed, exasperated. From time to time, Shizuo acted like a child.

"I have been wondering… what do you like the most?"

"Humans and fatty tuna, and you're neither." Izaya gave a deadpan reply, as he shook his hand away from Shizuo's grasp with a swift movement. Of course that would have been impossible if Shizuo hadn't let go of his own. "What does Shizu-chan like the most though? Not that I really care." He asked as he got up to finally put the canteen back.

Shizuo mumbled something that Izaya didn't hear, and since he was convinced that it was curses towards his person, he didn't even ask again. He simply returned, handed Shizuo his cigarettes, and then casually tried to get into the sheets and lie next to him. "What are you doing?" Shizuo asked, a bit surprised.

"Since someone was in bad condition for so many hours, I actually haven't had enough sleep since then." Izaya informed him. "Smoke in here if you want, I'm used to it anyway. Just let me sleep for some time, okay?"

"Okay. I will." Shizuo nodded. "If you answer me two questions."

"What." Izaya said through gritted teeth. He really hadn't slept at all. He had spent all those hours next to Shizuo, hoping that no one who would be suddenly feeling sympathetic towards Shazesh would come to deal with them both. It was an absurd thought, but not one he could suppress with logic, even if he was willing to take the risk from the start. And now, for a reason, he suddenly felt extremely tired, even though he was so hyper when Shizuo finally woke up.

"What happened to Shazesh and his gang?"

"They all died. Commander Tom ordered to shoot them the moment they pointed their guns at you. Nobody survived."

"I see." Shizuo simply said. "And one last thing." Izaya kept silent so he continued: "What job did you do before we came here? What did you work as?"

Izaya turned and looked up at him from his lying down position, genuinely surprised. "What good would it do for you to know that?"

"I just want to know. Is it that bad?"

"You know, it is, since you pretty much came and destroyed everything!"

"Don't start acting all sentimental on me! Like you cared!"

"Hmm? So Shizu-chan has such a bad opinion of me that he thinks I'm fine even if you barge into my world, kill and rape everyone around me, taking away my freedom and preventing me from seeing everyone I ever knew ever again. Is that right?" Beneath Izaya's calm façade, his boiling anger was slowly emerging. He knew that he shouldn't keep up with it, because otherwise, even if Shizuo was injured, he could easily end up with his head bashed into the ground.

"Not fine, but…" This was one of the rarest times Shizuo didn't want to start a fight. "Whatever, just go to sleep." He eventually gave up, lighting up his cigarette and trying to exhale the smoke away from Izaya. He was too wounded to get up and get out, that he could understand, but he also just had too much sleep to lie down again. Plus, the sun was up and it bothered him to no end. So he just decided he would stay sitting next to Izaya for the time being.

"Shizu-chan."

"What?"

"Nothing."

"Are you TRYING to make me hit you?" Shizuo finally snapped. "Okay! Alright! Enough! I get it! I'm not asking you anything ever again! Happy? Now, are you happy?"

When Izaya started laughing, it baffled Shizuo to no end. Like many things Izaya did, but Shizuo had the vague feeling that if he always assumed the worst, it would be the right guess. And now the worst guess was that Izaya was just messing with him, like always, as he kept laughing on and on and on. "Really, Shizu-chan, you're so cute sometimes!"

"Fuck you!"

"Yeah, yeah, okay!" Izaya managed to say between giggles, wiping slightly the corners of his eyes were tears from the intense laughter had gathered, while Shizuo was doing an internal countdown until the punch would escape him. "Anyway. I wasn't doing anything flashy, or grandiose like your kind. I was just… let's say… running some errands for some people slightly more important than me? It's not that much different than what I'm… trying to do now."

Shizuo narrowed his eyes. "You know the word 'grandiose' after two months and then you're trying to make me believe that you weren't doing something important?"

"Ah, I told you Shizu-chan. We're not the same as you. The fact that I wasn't working in the fields to grow a grain of rice or wrestle with the waves to catch a tiny fish all year long, in order to have something to eat, is saying something. Plus, I thought I told you; Fear is one of the greatest teachers."

"You didn't have to be afraid. I told you I would protect you!" Shizuo protested. Okay they fought a lot but Tom had given him a certain order.

Izaya buried his face in the pillow in pure exasperation. "Yes, Shizu-chan. You're so reliable! I think we still have that one crater you opened in the ground next to my ear last time."

"You can dodge. It's fine."

"Yeah, yeah…"

"And you're asking for it."

"We've had this conversation before and it didn't end well. Let me sleep."

"IIIIIIIZAAAAAAYAAA YOU BASTARD, YOU ARE THE ONE WHO-"

As Kadota happened to walk near the tent, the voices reached his ears once again. One day break was over, now things would start to get livelier once again. God help them.