Izaya got up, stretched and tossed him a fluffy towel.
"Hmm…love is complicated. Everyone has a different idea of what it is to the point of making the concept empty of meaning."
Kida draped the towel around his waist. There was only a faint pain in his back. Izaya dried himself and sauntered to the bedroom. Kida followed with a slow step.
"Do you have an idea of love as well? 'That which you cannot live without', 'What makes you willing to sacrifice all things'?"
Izaya settled comfortably in bed.
"You are asking what I love, not what love is for me."
Currently Kida drew no exact distinction between the two.
"I suppose."
"What could I not live without? Simple: my very own self. If you think about it, all other answers may lead one to suicide."
Kida sat next to him and Izaya threw him a pair of boxers. They reached to Kida's knees as he put them on so that he felt almost dressed. Izaya basked in glorious nakedness as one that dismissed convention altogether. His command was instinctive.
"Why?"
"Imagine that your treasured one without which you cannot live just so happens to be a person. People are mortal. If that person dies then so do you."
Kida started. On the verge of something.
"But that will never happen to me. Because you will live forever."
Izaya pulled the covers and rolled on his side, eyes closed as if dreaming.
"Even if I do, if you were to die yourself then you would still lose me."
"That's just the way it is."
Izaya smiled.
"Then perhaps this 'love' you speak of is not strong enough. If you would allow for death to interrupt it."
Suddenly, new horizons were visible to Kida. Breaking through.
"Do you mean…eternal love?"
"Its prime condition is of course-"
"Eternal life."
Kida was aware that he had been led to this conclusion step by step. But that did not make it any less true. Even if Izaya had deflected the original question. Kida pondered over all these things but thought receded as Izaya drew him into a kiss. Preparation was minimal but efficacious so that when Izaya mounted him, it hurt considerably less. Izaya had him on all fours and set for a slow pattern of sharp thrusts, slipping Kida a condom as he became fully hard. As much as Kida wanted to push back, he was too much under Izaya's control to do anything other than let him have his way. Izaya chuckled when he felt a sudden tightening and heard the raspy moan that made it clear that Kida's orgasm was upon him.
"You still don't last very long."
Izaya followed shortly after. He removed the condom and withdrew. Leaving Kida with a contented sense of emptiness.
"Sleepy again? I'm calling it a night as well. Goodnight, Masaomi."
"Goodnight…"
Kida fought off lethargy and watched Izaya. He lied close and paid a silent worship merely by watching. Izaya's smile did not fade with sleep, it merely grew abstract and more turned inwards. For most of the remaining night Kida watched his god slumber. In the soft darkness there was no notion of time passing. And he wondered if this was not a bit of eternity that he was experiencing.
Mikado did not expect Kida to come to school but he still checked with his class. He was unsure if going to Izaya's apartment had been the wisest thing to do. Having the hostilities out on the open was something that Izaya could all too easily turn against him. Mikado also realized that he had nothing to actually talk about to Anri when they were alone. The awkward silence between them was not that of those who have so much to tell each other but a blank space.
Mikado hurried home as soon as he could and spent some long hours going over his and Kida's chat logs. Izaya had hinted at some crisis of which Mikado knew absolutely nothing. So he now dug for clues in the meanderings of their conversations. He could not find anything amiss until he turned to the time. Kida typed as fast as he spoke which was saying a lot. Yet between Mikado's initial greetings there was always a pause that lasted up to one minute, at times a bit longer.