"It's not the same 'ya'…and he's gone."
Izaya did not mind being grounded all that much. It was rather annoying not to have anything at all to entertain himself in the hospital but he was debt free, with a lot of things to turn over his mind such as to dismantle Shizuo's power, and one of the nurses was really hot. So all and all it was not at all a bad arrangement.
He was thinking about Shizuo (nowadays Izaya spent more time thinking about Shizuo than most people did about their actual sweethearts) when said Shizuo materialized before his eyes.
"Hi there, Shizu-chan!"
Shizuo almost went on a rant about how evil it was that someone was forced to sell himself and that he would of course protect Iza-chan. But on his way to the hospital he had figured out a few things that fit in his crazy theory. If Shizuo was not exactly the most sensible of human people, to put it mildly, he had reached the conclusion that Izaya would not exactly be very open to discuss the horrors of his traumatic upbringing. As such, there was only one solution: to show Iza-chan the true power of family.
"Hello! I've been thinking, when you're better, will you meet my family?"
Normally Izaya would obviously turn down the offer but he remembered the little brother and the fridge incident. He could gain precious information.
"Sure!"
"You do realize…he'll be introducing you as his girlfriend, maybe even wife to be, right…?"
Shinra wished he had not bothered visiting Izaya.
"Doesn't matter. Have you ever heard about what came to be known as Matsuda effect?"
"I have no idea."
"Remember Death Note? There is a theory that the real mastermind behind the whole thing was that apparently dumb cop Matsuda, the one who lands in a mattress. If you stop and think about it how did he survive even though he kept making blunder after blunder? The answer: he is actually so intelligent that he can make it appear as if he is a goofball. He could predict that there would be a convenient borderline plot device mattress when he needed one. It's the same way with Shizu-chan."
"I think I give up."
"You're just jealous."
"Of what…?"
"You're jealous that I realized Shizuo's true skills."
"This again…"
"You know that I am right."
"If you mean his skills in bed then I'm glad I don't know."
"Aha, very funny."
Izaya was discharged soon enough and Shizuo's nerves kicked a notch. It occurred to him that his parents might say a few not too nice things about their son. So he half backpedalled.
"Looks like my folks are away for the weekend, what a shame! But I still have my little brother here! Kasuka, come meet Iza-chan!"
Kasuka had seen Izaya's picture and heard Shizuo blabber about him at length. And despite Shizuo's tendency to give the wrong idea about people Kasuka could see through it. Enough for Kasuka to be rather fond of this Orihara Izaya person.
Izaya was curious about Shizuo's little brother. Turns out that the boy was small, rather cute and strangely serious for his age. He did not at all look like Shizuo for which Izaya was very grateful.
"Hi there."
"Kasuka. It's me. Don't like onii-chan."
"Really? That's great, I don't like him either!"
Kasuka nodded in his tight lipped solemn way. Izaya ruffled his hair.
"Shizu-chan, your brother is so not like you."
"Fortunately. Bad genes, onii-chan got them."
"Smart, too!"
Shizuo had not predicted this reaction but Izaya seemed happy which was good.
"Yeah…it's all about family, you know?"
Before Shizuo could go off on some rant Izaya cut him short.
"I'm thirsty. There's this vending machine in 'bukuro that sells my favorite kind of cold tea. Be a dear and fetch it for me. Neh?"
"But that's so far…"
Izaya batted his eyes.
"Okay, I'll be back as soon as I can. Don't go anywhere!"
"Bye bee!"
Izaya waited until Shizuo was gone.
"So, Kasuka. I can see you're a smart kid so why don't you tell me, does Shizu-chan have some sort of secret? A weak point. Something like that. You should tell me, remember how he threw a fridge at you. What kind of a big brother would do that?"
Kasuka saw an opportunity here. He did not have a clue about what this secret could be but clearly it was something he could use to string Izaya along.