Shizuo waited impatiently on Shinra's couch for the informant to finish dressing into his regular clothes; he had brought all his clothes and other things he would need to Izaya's the day before and had told his landlord he'd be out for a couple months. The blonde started reaching for his vest's breast pocket for his pack of cigarettes but stopped himself when he remembered Shinra didn't like when he smoked in the house.
"Here Shizuo, I found some books I think you should take a look at." Shizuo heard the familiar voice say; he glanced over and saw Shinra holding out a bag filled to the top with books. He reluctantly took them and placed them in his lap before starting to take the books out one by one to examine them. Shizuo's brow knitted together as he started to read the titles of the books with frustration.
"Why are you giving me all these damn pregnancy and parenting books? I don't need them." Shizuo said as he placed the books back in the bag and pushed them over to the side of him.
"I thought it would be good if you read them, you can learn about some ways to help Izaya with the pregnancy and how to care for a child. You don't want to go into this blindly; I really recommend you read them." Shinra said as he took a seat in the loveseat diagonal from where Shizuo was sitting.
"I'm not going to help that parasite with all this; I'm just going to tolerate him for the few months so I can spend some time with my kid afterwards." Shizuo said, feeling his hand try to reach for his cigarettes but stopped himself again.
A heavy sigh escaped the brunet's lips as he shook his head at the other. "Look Shizuo, Izaya wants you to prove to him you're capable of caring for a child. Do you really think just living with him and ignoring him is going to change his mind in the slightest? You have to show him you can handle this; understanding what he's going through and reading up on parenting will definitely be a step in the right direction. If you really do want to be in your baby's life then you're going to have to work for it because I agree with Izaya, if it doesn't look like you can keep yourself under control then I don't want you near the baby either."
Just as Shinra finished his sentence the door leading to the back operating room opened and Izaya stepped out, struggling to zip up his fur trimmed jacket. "This stupid thing wont zipper, I might have shrunken it in the wash." Izaya sighed with frustration as he gave up on trying to zipper the jacket; Shinra smiled softly at his childhood friend and stood up from where he was sitting.
"Don't worry Izaya-kun, it's just from your stomach getting bigger, you'll be able to fit in it after you have the baby." Shinra said, patting his friend's back comfortingly.
"Great." Izaya said, not even a small trace of enthusiasm in his voice as his expression turned into one of irritation. He glanced over at the unnatural blonde as he stood up from the semi comfortable spot where he was sitting, his right hand gripping what looked like a plastic bag filled with the books.
"What are those?" Izaya asked curiously as he stared at the bag of books the larger male was holding; Shizuo just shrugged casually and tried not to let his vision fall on the smaller male.
"Nothing...Are you ready to go flea?" Shizuo mumbled under his breath, refusing to let his eyes fall on the informant so he didn't get pissed off. Izaya was silent for a moment before curtly nodding and starting to walk towards the door, his ribs were still sore and healing so he walked slowly and slightly hunched over to keep from feeling more pain then he already was in.
"Thanks for everything Shinra; I'll come by in another two weeks for another sonogram." Izaya called over his shoulder as he swung the front door open and walked out with the ex-bartender following close behind.
The two walked in silence the way back to Izaya's apartment, which wasn't that far from the underground doctor's home. They had even let the awkward silence stay as they rode the elevator up to the floor the informant's home was on.
"I'm going to be working at my desk for a while; I don't care what you do as long as you don't mess up my apartment." Izaya said over his shoulder as he stepped into his apartment, not bothering to hear the other's answer as he walked over to his desk and sat down gently as to not agitate his injuries.
"Shinra said you should rest in bed for a few days, your fucked up plans can wait." Shizuo said as he slammed the door shut behind him, which Izaya had replaced earlier that day from the one Shizuo had smashed before. Izaya just rolled his eyes at him and continued to let his nimble fingers glide across the keyboard, not making any signs that he was about to stop working.
Shizuo felt his teeth grind together at being ignored; he hated being ignored, especially by the flea. He tossed the bag of books Shinra had given him on the half circle couch and walked over to the raven's desk, staring down at him with those brownish eyes of his.
"What's so damn important that you need to keep working with broken ribs?" The blonde asked, stuffing his fists into his pockets so he didn't try to punch Izaya's face in.
"If you want information you'll have to pay me." Izaya answered, hardly giving the other a glance as he opened up one of the drawers of his desk to start looking for a needed file. Shizuo 'tched' before turning and going back to plop down on the expensive looking couch, he knew if he continued to stand there he would eventually snap.
"Whatever, I don't care." He growled between his teeth as he grabbed one of the books out of the bag and opened it up to the first page, nearly tearing the book as he did so. He already started to feel a vein in the side of his head start to pulse with the beat of his rapidly beating heart; his fingers made indents in the cover of the book as he tried to focus on reading.
The book he had taken out was one of the pregnancy books; most of the information was what symptoms you would start feeling through the pregnancy as well as ways to help relieve some of the symptoms. There were a few recipes and tricks to induce labor and ways to tell if the baby would be a boy or girl without having a sonogram. After a few minutes of reading Shizuo felt himself start to calm down a little; he leaned back against the seat and tried to get in a relaxed position as he continued to read the information. He had figured all this pregnancy and baby stuff would bore him to sleep, but surprisingly it wasn't that bad.
Meanwhile while Shizuo relaxed with the books he had been given, Izaya was sitting uncomfortably in his desk chair with his eyes glued to the multiple screen. His back was intensely sore and throbbing with pain as well as where his healing ribs were. Izaya stood up with irritation after he had shut down all his computer screens, the pain had become too much to just ignore so he decided to stop for the day.
"Happy? I'm resting now, my ribs and back hurt too damn much." Izaya said irritably as he took a seat a little away from the blonde who was still busy reading. Shizuo just grunted in response to the informant as he flipped the page of his book; it was the first time he had actually been able to ignore the annoying raven.
"Are you actually reading, Shizu-chan? Heh, I didn't know you could." The brunet said with a smirk; his grin quickly fading to a frown when all he got was another grunt for a response. He glanced over curiously at what the larger male was reading and soon snickered in surprise.
"Is that what type of books Shinra gave you? Why would you need them, it's not like you plan to help me with any of this." Izaya commented, letting his hands rest on the not-so-small baby bump.
"You said you wanted me to prove I could handle having a child around, so what better way to start then to help you with the pregnancy, right? You can't say you want me to do that and not even give me a chance." Shizuo retorted, closing the book and placing it to the side of him. Izaya's brow knitted together in thought of the other's response. He supposed he was right; he should give him at least a chance before he started judging him.
"So what were you whining about? You're in pain or something? I can't help with making your ribs feel better but I could probably help with your back. Turn around and I'll work out the knots or whatever." Shizuo said as he turned to face the other; the thought of actually touching Izaya made him want to gag. The only thing that had made him even consider helping the brunet was what he had just read, that the better the mother felt the better the baby felt. Even though he despised the informant right down to the very pit of his soul, he had already started to really care for their baby, and if helping Izaya with his back pain would possibly make the baby feel better too then he would do it.
Izaya was about to decline but the throbbing pain in his back was starting to really grind at his nerves, he slowly and reluctantly slid off his fur trimmed jacket and turned around so his back was facing the brute. "Just don't break my back." He mumbled; after a moment of waiting he suddenly felt two large hands gently place themselves on his back and start kneading into his sore spots. He was tense for a few minutes until he finally started to relax and let Shizuo work out the painful knots in his back; he soon even found himself closing his eyes and enjoying the small massage he was getting.
Shizuo was surprised at how warm Izaya's body actually felt; he had always figured it would be cold as ice like that flea heart of his. He had started off gently kneading his thumbs under Izaya's shoulder blades before slowly working his way down, making sure to work out any knot he felt the best he could. Touching the other's body like this made a strange churning feeling start to form in his very core, he couldn't tell if it was complete disgust or something else…he didn't want to think about it too hard.
"There, better?" Shizuo asked after he had taken his hands away, Izaya was so focused on the release of pain he had felt it took him a moment to respond to the blonde.
"Yea…thanks." Izaya said as he relaxed against the couch again; Shizuo nodded his welcome before picking the book back up again and opening to where he had left off. After the strange feeling had completely faded he found himself wondering if the feeling he felt was a good one or bad one. After a moment Shizuo shook his head and tried not to think about it anymore, having a feeling that he wouldn't like the answer to that question.
Author's Note: Sorry this took so long; I've been very busy with a lot of things. I hope you all enjoyed this. Thank you for reading!
Sex of the baby News:
Girl: 13 votes
Boy: 7 votes
The poll will be up until the chapter before the sex of the baby is revealed so keep voting! ~ Also give me some ideas for names please~
