Hope you'll enjoy the fluff~


Shizuo

The next thing I knew, I was standing too close to the flea in the spacious bathroom in front of the mirror. Izaya was laying the makeup out neatly on the counter, organizing them into small groups of items that looked similar to each other. I waited beside him, watching anxiously in the mirror not knowing just what I was in for. He looked focused, reading labels of things, opening each of them and trying out a patch on the back of his hand. I nervously cleared my throat to speak up.

"Shouldn't we, you know...look up tutorials for this?"

"No need," he replied curtly, without looking up.

I didn't say anything after that, not wanting to press any farther, and instead just sat down on the closed toilet seat and waited for him to finish up whatever he was doing.

Once he had finished putting things into a system that I was pretty sure only he could decipher, he walked over to me with some kind of coloured pallet and a brush. I leaned away before he made contact with my skin.

"Wait…"

He sighed impatiently, moving back.

"Are you sure you know what you're doing? I thought you didn't own makeup, 'cause of your 'genetics' or whatever?"

"Yes, well you see, those genes skipped over my sisters, sadly. I've watched them do it to themselves and to each other countless times. I know what I'm doing."

This time I didn't back away and let him start to brush over my neck.

"You shouldn't say that kind of stuff, louse. Those two are your family."

"Just because we are related by blood, doesn't make them any more special than other humans." Despite the menace of his words, he said it cooly, without even batting an eye.

"You're fucked up, flea. Whether you actually mean that — which I don't think is true, and you're just lying to yourself. Bottom line is, don't say those kinds of things. Especially about girls."

"You always did have a soft spot for women."

"It's not a soft spot, bastard, it's called morals. Something you obviously don't have."

He smirked as he continued to dip the brush in the coloured mixture and dab it on the other side of my neck. I leaned to the side to allow him more access.

"By the way, those two wanted to wish you a happy birthday. It's a little awkward now, isn't it? Knowing what you've done with their beloved brother~."

"..."

"Speaking of, have you told Kasuka how you celebrated yet? I wouldn't be surprised if you did; you and your ill-bred brother complex," he sneered.

"Absolutely not!" I growled, quickly backing away and putting up a hand to stop his movements, glaring in disgust.

He simply shrugged went back to the sink to grab another tube of makeup.

"So this will be our dirty little secret, then?" he asked in a voice without it's usual demeanor.

"It's nobody else's business…" I scoffed, looking away.

He came back over with a neutral expression, now using his fingers to apply some cool, creamy liquid to my skin. He worked in silence for a while, going back and forth between me and the sink using different products, dabbing them each gently against the square of my jaw. Finally, he patted a nude coloured powder and stood back with a hand on his hip to examine his work.

"Well," he sighed outwardly, "if all else fails, I could change my profession to work in the makeup industry. Look for yourself."

I got up hesitantly to look in the mirror. To my surprise, it was as if the marks had completely vanished. Bringing myself forward to get a closer look, there weren't even any lines of discolouration. It blended in perfectly, I had to hand it to him.

My gaze crept over to him in the mirror, as I watched him putting some of that creamy stuff under his eyes. I smirked, thinking that Erika's comment actually had bothered him.

I studied him for a while, dabbing the nude liquid on his closed eyelid with the pad of his ring finger. His extensive, inky lashes feathered over his lower lid, casting a shadow that swept over the crest of his high cheekbones, occasionally fluttering at the sensitive touch. His hands, pale and skeletal, with skin gaunt to the bone; delicate, yet precise, caressing and blending the pallid cream into flawlessly smooth, milky skin. I noticed the back of his hand hovering close to his face, was an off shade of pale green. A pang of guilt struck my chest as I remembered why the slowly fading bruises were there.

He opened both eyes and stood back to further inspect his work, shifting and angling his face in different positions where the light would hit just right, to the point where he was satisfied enough to move on to the next eye, in an almost feminine manner. He was standing under the brightest, fluorescent spot in the room, making his keen, mahogany eyes dazzle their flecks of scarlet in the most alluring way. My eyes fixated on the detail of his stunning irises, almost unimaginably genetic, if I hadn't known him for so long.

His eyes slowly wandered to where they met mine in our reflections. I felt a tingle run down my vertebra, for I had never met anyone else with such a cunning gaze. A crooked smirk made its way across the thin line of his lips.

"Now no one will confuse me for the walking dead, ne?"

Our eyes were still locked in the mirror as I spoke, "what about your hands?"

His gaze dropped down in contemplation, scrutinizing the small imperfection and shrugged.

"I fell on the floor...Well, to the floor, that is. It isn't a complete lie, right?"

"...'spose you could say that," I said not sounding convinced.

"You're such a worry wart," he scolded. "It's an entirely believable excuse." He turned his back to the mirror, leaning against the counter with crossed arms and continued. "This is the difference between you and me; You let your emotions cloud your thoughts preventing you from finding simple solutions. It's always 'me, me, me' with you. 'What am I going to do?', 'What are others going to think of me?', 'Why does this always happen to me?'. It's quite selfish, really." He adjusted himself against the granite, crossing one leg over the other and gesturing to himself in the most confident of ways. "Where as I look at the bigger picture. When you can see all aspects of the situation, your answer tends to be right in front of you. These are all skills I have honed and mastered after years of observing humanity. I figure, instead of making the mistake myself, why not let others make it for me? You could say I'm a visual learner...Ah, I really should start charging people for my advice, shouldn't I?"

"You're just weird, and that's that," I scoffed.

"It's nice to know my wisdom is appreciated, Shizu-chan."

There was a knock on the door, conveniently ending a very much one-sided conversation.

"Coming~!" Izaya sang, sending me a wink and wide grin as he strode out of the room.

From in the bathroom I could hear the chime in the flea's voice as he addressed who I expected to be our visitor.

"Ah, Shinra, how nice to see you, come in."

I stepped out of the smaller room to face our friend and he was as happy-go-lucky as ever.

"Shizuo! You're not hungover are you? To be honest, I figured Izaya would be in much worse shape, but maybe he has better genetic enzymes for breaking down alcohol than most people," he said, laughing lightly, pushing up his glasses. "And of course we all know that you're, well, you."

"Don't give him more reasons to be a cocky bastard, Shinra. Everything you say will just go to his head."

"Wow," Shinra awed, immediately changing the subject and looking around the room, "I didn't imagine it would be so tidy in here. I'm kind of surprised that nothing's you know, broken...unless you're just hiding things. If I remember correctly, the last time I was in here it was dark, so I couldn't see— whoops!"

Izaya was sending him a bone chilling glare, despite the mischievous smile he constantly wore.

"Shinra, it really isn't nice to intrude on people's naps. I need my beauty sleep, after all."

They exchanged glances in silence, seeming to have a telepathic conversation only they could comprehend. Feeling very left out, I asked:

"Am I...missing something here?" I questioned, utterly confused.

"Four eyes here, simply woke me up when you were out of the room a few days ago. Didn't you?" he looked at our bespectacled friend expectantly.

"Yep, and he's not a very pleasant person to be around when you wake him up," he chuckled awkwardly.

"Don't I know it…" I muttered and brushed their side conversation off to walk over to the mini-fridge to grab some water.

In the corner of my eye I noticed Izaya's smile had drawn into a small frown.

"Anyway, Shizuo, get changed, we're trying something new today upon Erika's request."

"Oh? And what camp activities does our counselor have in mind now?" the louse inquired, sounding almost rhetorical.

"There's another chain of restaurants down at the east wing of the resort by the gym. Since it's almost noon anyway, I figured we could skip breakfast and get lunch."

"Sounds okay to me," I said with a shrug, taking a drink and the raven nodded.

"After that, we were going to go to the pool next to the gym."

I felt my body tense and in my peripheral Izaya was watching me with an unreadable expression. Before I could even think clearly, Izaya's quick mind had already thought of a response.

"This is a winter resort, is it not? There are plenty of things to do here that we don't have access to back in Tokyo. Even Rajin has a pool."

"Yeah, but that's only open for the swim team in the spring. It's still January, so it won't be open for our gym classes until after they've received their practice schedules," he responded totally unaware of our current predicament.

Izaya sighed dramatically massaging his temple. "We don't even have swim trunks, so—"

"There's a gift shop downstairs that sells them. I guess they kind of expect for people not to bring their own. Hmm, quite the moneymaker, I presume, with all the 'extra activities'. No wonder this place is so fancy."

"Shinra, do we really have to go swimming?" I cut in. "I mean...I'm not gonna admit I agree with the louse, but…"

"...Did you two have something else in mind…?" he said in a curious voice with a smirk.

"No!" both of us interjected at the same time.

Shinra blinked in surprise and Izaya spoke first.

"You know what, the pool sounds just fine."

"Flea—!"

"Shizu-chan, make yourself look somewhat presentable," he addressed me. "We'll meet up with you 15 minutes."

"Sounds great!" Shinra clapped, pleased at our response. "I'll drag Kadota out of bed. I gave him some painkillers when he woke up for his headache so he's kind of lethargic right now, but he should be fine!"

"Perfect, let's put our incompetent friend in an enclosed body of water. Now out you go," the raven said, shooing Shinra out of the room and closing it softly before the brunette could continue.

He stood there with his back facing me as he spoke, "I'm going to return Erika's makeup. Just get ready and act casually around the others."

When he turned around, he walked up to me to look me in the eye.

"I'll think of something...Just act how you normally would, as if nothing's happened," he said in what was supposed to be an even voice, but I could tell there was somewhat dejection in his tone.

He quickly turned to the restroom and I heard him rummaging through the cosmetics. I stood there, deep in thought, as I wondered what had caused his sudden change of spirit. He stepped out of the room, bag at hand, as he was about to reach for the door handle.

"Hey," I caught him gently by the arm and he stopped to look back over his shoulder at me. "Thanks for...a lot of stuff." I subconsciously brushed my thumb in a caressing manner over his bicep in my grip. "I mean it."

Dark lashes swept his gaze away concealing whatever emotion swarmed in those crimson eyes. He smiled, however, answering me with a soft voice. "Anything for Shizu-chan."

He pulled away from my grasp and I watched him disappear down the hall, the door creeping to a close. I lowered my hand slowly, standing unblinking at the thought of what I must have imagined the flea being flustered.


ヽ(´o`;