It was so much simpler.
The chess pieces lay so plainly upon the board.
The cards were dealt so easily.
The numbers added to the expected outcomes.
Dear dealer, did you ignore the emotions?
The humanity running through your veins?
You let that temptress theft your mask,
Unveiling you to your opponents.
You crossed that vital line between your work and your passion.
Crossed that line like a soul in a foreign land…
Tell me soldier, do you know your way back home?
Can you still be delivered from the light?
Or will you be illuminated, your scars for all to see?
~.~
Whoops.
Izaya looked across the room, shrugging. "A lie?" He rolled his eyes. "I have no idea what you are referring to-"
"Don't pull that shit on me." Shizuo glared at him, "I've been agonizing over that lie of yours-"
"You poor thing, painting with Tsuki must be such a hardship. Imagine, the red paint, the symbolic blood spilt in many a figh-"
"Shut up!" Shizuo barked at him.
"Yes, you suffered so deeply. You got a son, found out how far your brother would go to keep you happy, had sex more than once, you even got to travel!"
A fist slammed into the wall, bits of drywall and insulation falling out, "I didn't care about any of that shit and you know it!"
"Aw, is this where you confess your undying love for me?" Izaya laughed, a cold vicious laugh that sent more wall crumbling to the ground as the ex-bartender shook. "Too bad, but I don't feel any of that towards you." It was just too amusing. Izaya was a trickster. A Loki among men, what had the brute expected? Flowers? Domestication?
Peace?
Izaya wanted to laugh at the very notion of those things. True, his mind had tried to boil up fantasies of those things during his nine months of pregnancy, but he had crushed them.
He wants it though…
And so Shizuo would have to be crushed as well. Izaya Orihara did not do the married, homebound mother role.
"Did you mean anything you said… when we were…"
"No. Not particularly." Izaya smirked at him, "why? Did you believe me? Did you want to come back to Ikebukuro and have me as your submissive? Have more man babies? Have me at home, cooking you dinner, impatiently counting down the minutes to your arrival?" The words flew from his mouth without thought. "Exactly how did you imagine the ending our old games? What happened to that hatred? Do I have competition to your abhorrence?"
Shizuo's knees buckled as he slid to the floor, his anger extinguished as he stared at the ground. His bangs covered his face, blocking Izaya from his prize of the blond's misery.
"So what was the ending to your fairy tale, Shizu-chan?"
"…"
"Embarrassed?" Izaya cursed his body's fatigue, keeping him from going over to stare into what had to be the most miserable face in the entire world. No kicked puppy or orphaned child's face could compare to the man's face. It was probably dripping in anguish.
Oh, but what a sight it had to be!
"Shizu-chan, look at me," Izaya cooed, attempting to coax his prize up to his level of vision.
"…It couldn't have been a complete lie."
"Mumbling is a terrible habit," Izaya tsked.
Shizuo's face looked up at him, shocking the brunet with the determination on his face, "I said, it wasn't a complete lie."
"Ne?" Oh, seconds, what a delicacy. Izaya was being given such entertainment this morning… evening… whatever the hell time it was."And tell me Shizu-chan, how would you know this."
"Because you gave in-"
"Intercourse, such a reliable source of information!" Izaya laughed at his own sarcasm.
"You were calling me in-"
"In the frozen tundra? Oh, that might have been from being in a death situation. I called a great many names. Hell, I even called out for the cop wanting to arrest me… and my twin demon siblings! Although whatever use they would be, I'm sure they would have enjoyed my death."
"You're lying."
"Shizu-chan the lie detector! Oh, but I should have you around for when I watch crime shows on television! I would always know who the culprit is-"
"I'm being serious here."
Izaya rolled his head away, looking out the window. "I'm sure you were, however, I have no desire to listen to the ramblings of a monster."
"Look if this is about Kasuka attacking you and Tsuki, he was-"
Izaya's laughter rang out into the room, interrupted quickly by him coughing and wheezing in pain. "Oh, too amusing! Unpredictable as always. You think this is about some young actor wishing to be an actual hero." Carmine eyes looked over, venomously searing the blond, "I just don't like you. It's as simple as that. It's not that your brother attempted in vain to kill my son and me; I went easy on him. It's not that you weren't a good fuck, you were average enough." A short chuckle escaped the brunet at that before he continued, "I just don't like you."
Shizuo remained silent, his gaze searching the informant. The man almost silently pleading the informant to take back his own words, Shizuo's body remained frozen.
This was it, Izaya thought. He had to stay confident. No loopholes. No evasive words. He had to be plain and blunt, otherwise he would just keep coming back.
…
…
And he didn't want that…
…
…
Because the brute was a monster…
…
…
And he hated monsters…
…
…
Izaya wanted to sigh in relief as the blond turned away, staring into a corner of the room, downtrodden. He almost had broken his mask.
He had almost recalled everything.
It has to be this way…
"You're a fucking liar, Izaya."
"oh?" Shit!
Shizuo stood up and closed the distance between them, his brows furrowed in seriousness. "I hate you."
Izaya blinked up at him, frowning, wide-eyed, completely taken aback by the statement. "What?"
"I hate you."
That's what he had thought he had heard… He laughed, "I thought we had gone over this, I hate you too."
"I hate your smug face. I hate your damn superiority complex-"
"Oh~ Shizu-chan knows fancy words-"
"I hate your condescending shit-"
"Wow, I think this is the first time I've heard you use a word with more than three syllables. Twice!"
"I hate you so fucking much."
Izaya nodded, "that sounds about right. Now then, onto the task at hand. I'm going to take Tsuki with me and leave the city a while, I'm sure it won't take him too long to forget about you. He's got the memory of a goldfish half the time."
"I hate you because I love you."
"And- …what?"
Shizuo shook his head, hovering above the informant as he shut his eyes, "I hate you because I love you, you damn fucking asshole. Dammit dammit DAMMIT!" He spun on his heels and sat down in the spare chair in the room, burying his face into his hands and growling monstrously.
"…I think I misheard you." Izaya stared up at the ceiling and frowned.
"You heard me you damn louse, just because I love you doesn't mean I won't beat the shit out of you for being an ass about my confession."
~.~
A/N: I feel like a jerk for making Shizuo confess like that… oh, and making you peeps wait for this… It's not LONG enough to be considered compensation for the wait… hmm, perhaps if I updated twic- NO NO! Things in this life are not free! –shot-
Anyway, thanks for the reviews so far peeps! The marriage proposal made me have to put my beloved Izaya coat in the wash and made me lose some delicious tea in shock. The sacrifices~! –hit with vending machine-
Okay~! On a serious note, thank you for the reviews, favs, and whatnot; by all means continue. REVIEW! …or you know, chill in my corner of fanfic and look forward to my updates. I'm feeling a great need to update EVERYTHING! As long as interest remains.
Review~