"Baseball?" Shizuo asks, frowning. He's walking alongside an eager flea. 'What the fuck, I don't know anything about that! '

"Yup! We're here to recruit some players." Izaya replies, glancing at him.

"Why can't we just play with Kadota? Wait, why are we playing at all!?" Shizuo snaps, gritting his teeth to keep from yelling too loud.

"Stupid. We need more than four players." Izaya says coolly, like it should be obvious that three players isn't enough. 'Tch, how would I know! Wait, four?'

"Four?" Shizuo echoes his own thoughts, confused. He, Izaya, and Dotachin make three right?

"Don't tell me you're forgetting Namie!" Izaya says, laughing.

"She's a girl."

"Wow, you figured that out all by yourself?" 'Asshole.' Shizuo thinks, glaring down at his slightly smaller friend. 'Ugh, friends with the pest...'

"Girls can't play baseball. At least, not against men." Shizuo snaps. "She'll get hurt." He says, but Izaya just laughs at him, red eyes bright and smiling now.

"Please, tell her that before we start." He says, amused, walking further onto the field. Shizuo sighed, walking behind him. 'Baseball? Seriously?'

"Doesn't baseball take a long time to play?" Shizuo questions. He remembers his dad watching a game every once in awhile, and it never seemed to end.

"You have somewhere to be?" Izaya asks him, not looking back as he strides further out onto the field.

"Uh, yeah. Class?" Izaya stops walking at that, shooting an annoyed look at him for asking stupid questions.

"Shizu-chan, the game isn't gonna take all night." Izaya sighs. Shizuo frowns back at Izaya, starting to feel uneasy.

"What?" Shizuo asked, staring hard at Izaya and carefully not at the field that suddenly looks bathed in rich afternoon light rather than bright morning light. The air feels warmer too, and his instincts scream wrong.

"It doesn't take all night," Izaya repeats slowly, annoyance fading away, being replaced by concern now. "Just an hour or two… are you feeling okay? You look pale."

"But it's the lunch hour." Shizuo insists, ignoring Izaya's question because no, he wasn't okay. His head was starting to hurt, he felt sick. "We won't have time to play now."

"Lunch? You mean dinner time? I didn't know you ate so early." Izaya tries to joke, but it fails with the way Shizuo chokes at his words. Izaya takes a step forward, placing a cool hand against Shizuo's forehead. "Shizu-chan, if you don't feel like playing then go change and sit down. It's okay, someone else can take your spot." He says, looking surprisingly concerned about Shizuo's health. It's then that Shizuo's brain registers the "go change" part.

"What!?" Shizuo gasps, taking a step back and looking down at himself in alarm. Sure enough, he's wearing a blue and white baseball uniform that says RAIRA across the front, with too tight white pants and borrowed cleats to match. Izaya's in the same outfit, staring at him worriedly, and Shizuo can't breathe.

Izaya is saying something, but Shizuo isn't listening over the rush of blood in his ears. He's sitting in the grass now, and in his peripheral vision he sees various things start twitching. Some of the kids too, they're twitching and convulsing violently. No one seems to notice, though. Like it's not happening, like everything is completely normal.

A baseball bat is lying next to him. It's stretching itself out and then shrinking rapidly like something out of a 3D game. Shizuo stares hard at it, willing it to stop. Like if he looks hard enough it will stop and be normal. The kids fall to the ground, eyes rolling up to reveal the whites and blood spilling past shaking lips. They're mouthing something but he can't make it out and he's too nauseous to think. He shuts his eyes, praying the kids will stop, stop, 'Stop already, I can't take it!'

A hand grips his chin then, and Shizuo opens his eyes again to see angry red eyes. It's blurry, everything is blurry and he is laying down somewhere. 'When did that happen...?' His thoughts are slow, muddled, like fog is spreading through his mind.

"Fight it, beast." Izaya says, and his face is older. It's not the playful teenager Shizuo is looking at but the man who never flinches and never backs down. It's the real Izaya.

"He can't!" Comes another voice, and a prick in his arm. Then another. And another. He's getting woozy at this point, head spinning and muscles going lax. Sedative. Shizuo focuses on those red eyes instead of thinking too hard about what's going on. He's always thought they were an unusual color, was surprised when he Shinra told him they weren't contacts not long after he'd introduced them. He'd die before he ever told Izaya, but he always thought they were attractive.

"Izaya-kun we can't force this, he has to get out on his own! I can't believe you messed with the controls!" The voice hisses. 'Shinra?'

"Fight it!" Izaya repeats, gripping Shizuo's jaw harder and ignoring the doctor. The fluff of his coat tickles Shizuo's neck, and he tries to say something. 'What's going on?' He thinks. 'Why do you look so scared?' But those crimson eyes are already starting to fade into the black spreading over his vision. He's heard Izaya described as a demon, he's heard girls whisper he was pretty despite his hellish red eyes, but to Shizuo they've always reminded him of something nice. When people said they were like bloodstains, he'd always feel stupid for thinking of a rose, or the leaves in autumn. He'd feel ashamed for thinking 'Pretty' instead of 'Evil' even though they were enemies.

Shizuo can't see anything anymore, can't hear Izaya anymore. He breathes out a faint "Sorry…" before his eyes close and even the hand on his jaw dissipates like smoke. He feels like he's hurt someone, but even that fades into static.

When his eyes open again, he's faced with greyish mud colored ones. They pull back, a cheerful voice welcoming him back to awareness.

"Shinra?" Shizuo asks, voice hoarse. His vision is clear now, and he takes a hurried look around the room. Thankfully, nothing is twitching or moving but Izaya isn't anywhere to be seen. Shinra is smiling at him, but Shizuo can see the hate in his eyes as clear as if he was glaring and snarling at him. Shizuo notices he's not wearing his doctor coat but a uniform. He's younger. 'Great.'

"I wish you wouldn't call me so familiarly. It's, quite frankly, disgusting." Shinra says, and Shizuo sighs.

"Why're you here…?" He asks, struggling to sit up some.

"I was curious about your condition, and Orihara wouldn't tell me what happened."

"Why do you care?"

"I don't. I'm merely curious." He said, smiling in a friendly way that didn't match his words. Shizuo sighed, running a hand through his hair. He felt like he should apologize to Izaya, knowing he probably scared the other boy.

"What time is it?" He asked, sitting up straighter. The room was fairly dim, late afternoon sun struggling to brighten the room past the curtains. 'Good, if it's still light then I haven't been out for too long…'

"I'd say around 30 minutes." Shinra says. "How are you feeling? What made you collapse on the field? I can't be sure but it looked like a panic attack!"

"...You don't have to be so damn cheerful about it." He says, ignoring Shinra's laugh.

"Oh c'mon. You can tell me, I'm planning to be a doctor you know." Shizuo, however, keeps quiet. What happened makes no sense, and he's not sure where he would even start if he were to explain. Not that he will. Still, he thinks about Izaya and telling him to fight. What did he mean fight? Was it a dream? Was he back, for a few moments, in his own world? He's not sure.

"Where's Izaya?" He asks Shinra, suddenly needing to see his friend/enemy. Shinra gives him a rather sheepish smile, glancing down at the floor. Shizuo follows his gaze to find Izaya unconscious on the floor.

"Fuck…!" Shizuo gasps, half shoving half falling out of the bed onto his knees beside Izaya. He pulls him into his lap, shaking the unresponsive teen to no avail. Izaya is out cold, no response even when Shizuo lightly slaps his cheek and yells his name.

"What the fuck did you do?" He snarls, turning on Shinra. He would upset at being worried for his longtime enemy, but anger is overtaking him too much to care about the little things. Shinra laughs, bringing his hands up defensively.

"He wouldn't let me in so…" He trails off, slowly pulling a syringe out of his pants pocket. It's empty. Shizuo growls, hand shooting out to grab a nearby textbook. He throws it hard at Shinra, the book smacking the future doctor hard in the face. The force of his throw throws Shinra off the bed, and Shizuo is suddenly glad that Izaya isn't awake to see it.

"What did you give him, bastard!?" He yells. It takes a moment, but Shinra struggles up to his feet, nose dripping blood onto the floor. He smiles, nervous, and backs towards the door quickly.

"Now Shizuo, patience is virtue.."

"WHAT DID YOU GIVE HIM!?" Shizuo roars, on his feet now and holding Izaya bridal style. There's no embarrassed yell from Izaya, no insults or fists, just limp silence and it makes Shizuo sick to think about all the things that could mean.

"Just a sedative! He tried to knife me when I came to see what happened, I had no choice okay?" He says quickly, and he's out the door, running like his life depends on it. Which is good, because it does.