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ஜ Chapter 21: Just don´t die ஜ
-Shizuo´s point of view-
His lips felt dry, and his head was throbbing.
When had the last time been he had gotten anything to drink?
To eat?
He knew a few gulps of water had found their way down his throat in the shower and later on at the gas station when he gathered all these useless things that were now in the crashed van.
But apart from that? He had felt too sick to even think about eating. His stomach was clenching painfully just at the thought of food.
It was as though he only noticed now how much he was starving and yet he still felt nauseous just thinking about these zombies surrounding their sword tent.
Pushing himself up from the hard ground he cringed, feeling his muscles and back and basically every single spot of his body ache. It couldn´t be helped after all he did get thrown out of that van yesterday.
It had been barely a few seconds since he woke up and yet he was already feeling shitty enough as it was. Opening his eyes slowly he scanned his surroundings.
The swords had been withdrawn just a bit, seeming more like a fence now than a tent, making him able to look at the sky above him.
The sun shone bright, only few clouds decorating the sky, warming his exhausted frame and reflecting from the cool silver that surrounded him. The swords that had been parting the tent into two halves for the girl, whose name he forgot, him and Izaya had also disappeared.
He could spot the woman sitting on the ground, a long, different, sword resting on her lap as she had her eyes closed, obviously enjoying the sun´s rays as well.
Twisting his head to his right he could spot the all too familiar coat of the flea next to him, sprawled on the ground- but with no flea in it.
Izaya?
He twisted his head into the other direction- with the same outcome-
Almost immediately the sleepiness and feeling of exhaustion wiped off the blond´s face as his senses sharpened.
"Where-" he looked towards the woman who was now opening one eye to glance at him, one eyebrow risen in confusion as he had spoken faster than his brain was able to keep up with.
"Excuse me?" She said, the blond already jumping to his feet as he tried to glance over the fence of swords.
"Where is Izaya?" The make shift tent of swords was too high to look beyond them. Desinterested the woman let her eye slip shut again, going back to her sunbathing without a care.
"Orihara-san should be back in a minute."
Back in a-
"What?!" Dread filled his senses and he felt as though someone had punched him in the stomach as he remembered yesterday´s last conversation- about how Izaya had said Shizuo would be better off if he just-
"He went out there?!" The woman scorned at him with a frown on her face.
"Could you please lower your voice-"
"Why did you let him?! What if one of the zombies kills him?!" Fuck what if he was already- "Where did he go?!"
The woman just sighed annoyed, getting to her feet as her precious little break was obviously over now.
"I don´t think I´m in any place to tell him what to do, Heiwajima-san." She couldn´t be serious-
"Where?!"
Izaya was injured for fucks sake! He was exhausted, he had looked as though he couldn´t even walk anymore the day before and now she said she wasn´t in any place to stop him?!
"I don't posses that piece of information." She didn´t-
"Get those swords down!" he barked, the woman not even flinching in the slightest. "Excuse me?"
"Are you fucking deaf?! Get the swords down! I´m going to-"
"Shizu-chaaan~!" The blond´s words got caught in his throat as he caught the all too familiar nickname.
Sighing somewhat relieved to regain the former peace the woman glanced towards the sword fence, only for her eyes to take on a vermillion color for but a second as a few of the swords lowered themselves into the ground.
The opening they created was just big enough for a certain raven haired flea to slip through before going up again.
"Izaya-" the feeling of relief that washed over Shizuo at the sight of the raven was overwhelming- for a second he really thought the flea had just left-
"Going on a rampage right in the morning, say weren´t you sleeping peacefully before?" Izaya sighed, already having heard the blond yell from afar- but the question only seemed to aggravate the blond even more.
"What the hell were you thinking?!"
What he was thinking, huh?
Well for one thing, he really didn´t think Shizu-chan would wake up before he returned- it were just a few minutes.
"Calm down, I just needed some stuff to fix me up," he informed the blond, only to receive a glance that seemed to spell it out for Izaya just how stupid Shizu-chan thought he was. What was he supposed to say? You looked like some more sleep would be good for you? He didn´t even need to try saying that because he could imagine Shizu-chan´s reaction.
Moreover he could really pass on Shizu-chan seeing him that pathetic. The blond already seemed to be convinced that Izaya was going to die sometime these days if he didn´t watch him.
"You could have woken me up!" Izaya sighed, a bit annoyed.
Izaya knew himself that he had to be cautious, and god damn he was, he just went down the street to a supermarket. He could even see it form here, he just went in, got some band aids and patched himself up- and he wanted to do so before Shizu-chan woke up again, but no- of course the blond had to notice.
To be honest it was annoying. Just because he hurt a little bit and was exhausted didn´t mean he was completely unable to take care of himself.
Frowning the raven rubbed his temples.
"Shizu-chan-"
"I´m sorry to cut you off, but I will be leaving now." It was the woman who had interrupted the two, making Shizu-chan bite his tongue on whatever he was going to say.
"Already?" he asked instead, seemingly surprised about her statement.
"She only offered her Saika for the night in the first place, Shizu-chan," Izaya reminded the blond, while pulling off the backpack he had grabbed at the store. He had stuffed some things in, all on top, water and food as they were both seriously malnourished.
"This is correct. Well then," the woman said, her eyes flaring up as the swords disappeared just as quick as they had shown up the night before. Despite standing in the middle of the road in what seemed to have been a lively place, there were no zombies around.
At least none of the normal kind, Izaya had noticed so when he went to the store.
It made him remember the day in the hospital.
How there had been zombies inside that storeroom and how it had been ripped open from within. To him it only lead to two possible conclusions.
One, all of these creatures somehow turned into the nightly monsters after a certain amount of time passed from when they had first been infected-
Or two. The nightly monsters actually killed the daytime creatures and since they had seen so many the last night, they probably had already killed all the infected residents here.
"I will be taking my leave now," the woman informed, not even waiting for a response as she just bowed at the two and turned around, walking away.
"Thanks, really," Izaya thanked the leaving woman, glancing at the blond who had been oddly quiet since just now. He was just standing there, looking at their surroundings as though he had forgotten about the fight he broke loose.
Well not that Izaya would complain.
The raven glanced around, half expecting to see one of the nightly monsters strolling around or anything of that sort. But no, there was actually nothing.
"There are no zombies," the blond suddenly mumbled, a frown decorating his face just when Izaya was about to ask the blond what he was staring at.
...
"That´s what I noticed too when I walked down to the store," he said, already knowing that Shizu-chan had come to the same two conclusions as he had without even needing to ask. He might have said a lot of times that Shizu-chan was stupid, or behaved stupid, but it was one thing saying it and a completely different matter to actually think it.
Frowning Shizuo took in the landscape around them.
The empty street, the broken cars, litter everywhere and the store windows were almost all smashed in. It seemed as though they were the only ones in the entire city, but it was a disturbing silence that surrounded them.
Thinking of what that woman had said, the zombies from last night were just hiding in the shadows, inside the buildings, under bridges, he didn't even want to know.
Just the thought of these things being this close, even without being a threat was making Shizuo´s hair stand on ends.
"Seriously why didn´t you wait for me?" Thinking about how the raven could have walked around here, maybe have encountered one of these things, it just made his stomach churn. "Even if there are no zombies, I-"
"was exhausted," the raven suddenly threw in, interrupting the blond midsentence. The blond looked at the raven as though he wanted to protest, but Izaya wouldn´t let him. "Am I wrong?" he asked instead, knowing the blond wasn´t the type to lie, making him hesitate on whatever he had wanted to say.
Honestly ever since the incident with the monster in the hospital had occurred Shizu-chan just hadn´t been his real self anymore.
Not that Izaya minded the way he obviously tried to protect him, but this overbearing manner of his was just too much.
"Shizu-chan I appreciate you watching out for me, really, but did it ever occur to you that I´m doing just the same for you?" it was odd to put it that way since they had tried to kill each other seriously for the past 8 years, and yet, Izaya knew just how much had actually changed in the past few days.
"But you are injured," the blond argued, "I wasn´t so-"
"You flew out of that van yesterday at a speed I don´t even want to imagine and crashed against a wall, passing out." Just spelling it out loud like this made the raven realize in what kind of shape both of them were.
"What´s more, you didn´t sleep a wink these past, what, two days?" It had been bothering him on the car ride and it had bothered him again when he woke up. No matter what the blond was saying, he knew better than to just believe a simple, "I´m fine."
The blond didn´t seem to take his statement seriously at all, however.
"You nearly died..." Shizu-chan said instead, obviously still not getting what Izaya was trying to point out.
"It´s a miracle you aren´t dead after what happened yesterday, Shizu-chan." He knew just how strong Shizu-chan was. He also knew just how much he could take- but yesterday just had unsettled him in a manner he wished he had never experienced. "I really thought that´s it you know."
That feeling when he saw the blood- he wasn´t going to forget what it had been like for a long time. "When I saw you laying there. You didn´t move. And there was a lot of blood on your face."
What was he supposed to do after realizing that Shizu-chan could actually really die? Was he supposed to keep treating Shizu-chan like a monster? Like some kind of entity that no one could defeat, not even the creatures or the virus, when that wasn´t the case?
"I just don´t want to see that again." Noticing the blond had stopped complaining he glanced at him, meeting his eyes. An expression he couldn´t quite pinpoint had made its way on his face.
"Okay," the blond mumbled, sighing softly as he ruffled through his hair, "I got it." It made the flea next to him blink a bit confused.
"Really? Because I don´t really get what I'm trying to say myself."
…
No, he was quite sure Izaya knew what he was trying to say. The flea had never been someone to say things without any sort of meaning.
"No, I get it," he repeated. He couldn´t really explain what it was but he knew what Izaya wanted, and he understood why. Not wanting to see him dead, huh? It was the same for Shizuo, just thinking about the incident in the hospital made him feel what he suspected Izaya had felt when he saw him on the ground.
"Still, don´t head off on me while I don´t know it, okay?" The raven sighed, taking his coat from the ground as he slipped it on. Well, he guessed it wasn´t the smartest move, even if it wasn´t dangerous.
"Okay." He had no intention of leaving to anywhere in the first place. Pulling the backpack back on he took a few tentative steps forward. The wound on his chest stung, but it was bearable. Wrapped up in the new band aids and with some ointment on top to heal it faster it definitely felt better.
"Now let´s go." Confusion took over the blond´s expression as he watched Izaya starting to walk down the street.
"Go?" Honestly speaking he hadn´t get wasted a thought on what they were going to do.
"We need to find somewhere safe, don´t you think?" Izaya explained, knowing that at least for once he was suggesting something that the blond would like. "A place where I can try create that antidote in peace." And where the nightly monsters couldn´t get them, Izaya added as a mental note.
Relieved that Izaya didn´t suggest something unsettling like going to another hospital the blond nodded eagerly. A safe place, that was certainly the best idea he had so far.
"And where would you find that kind of place?" No matter how much they had gotten around, no where seemed quite as save as the place the flea seemed to search for.
The shops around them were all destroyed, same for the houses and apartments they had seen. Honestly speaking Shizuo didn't want to enter an of these either. Just the thought of encountering a dark room, where one or more of these things could be hiding was sending shivers down his spine. That and a certain amount of rage, directed at these assholes.
Just thinking about how they were at fault that Izaya was in this state made his blood boil in a manner he hadn´t felt for a while.
"Maybe some sort of cellar, or a military institution, let´s just look around what we can find," Izaya shrugged, suddenly setting the backpack he had been carrying down on the ground again. "But first-" He reached inside the leathery object, pulling out a bottle of water. "Take a swing. I haven´t seen you drink anything recently. Well I don´t know about your inhuman body, but I do suspect you need water."
It was worrying him how much they were not taking care of themselves. Until now Izaya hadn´t really paid attention to it. The clenching feeling in his stomach had become something he was used to feel during the past days. And ever since Mairu died he hadn´t even remotely thought about such trivial matters.
"You didn´t do anything to it right?" Shizu-chan asked with a hint of a smile on his face as he took the bottle. Izaya knew the question itself was just a joke, but the nostalgia of their seemingly lost pure hatred kind of cheered him up.
"Please, Shizu-chan, it´s just water," he grinned, and even though he had always loved angering the brute and making him destroy the city, he couldn´t help but think that this kind of interaction with him wasn´t too bad either.
Less destructive for one thing.
It made him wonder how things would have developed if they hadn´t been fighting all these years. Storing the bottle back into his backpack as the blond handed it back, the raven let his eyes trail around the scenery.
There were still no zombies in sight. He wasn´t going to act rash or incautious, however, after all they didn´t know when these things might return. Just because they didn´t see any didn´t mean they weren´t hiding somewhere.
Shouldering the not too heavy bag, filled with not only food but also certain substances he looked into what he suspected to be the direction in which the destroyed van was in.
"Once we found a good place we should eat something as well," he announced walking down the street. Something akin to protests reached his ears as the blond followed right up.
"I´m not hungry."
"Believe me, me neither Shizu-chan." He could imagine a ton of things he would love to do rather than forcing something down his throat. Maybe it was the constant stench of death in the air, or the bile taste in his mouth, maybe even the gurgling sounds these creatures made that seemed to be caught in his ears, but he really didn´t feel like eating at all. Of course that kind of childish behavior couldn't do. "Just like water food is a necessity too. And seeing how you puked your guts out every now and then your body will be craving for something too."
The blond sighed, seemingly getting what the raven had said.
"Alright, I got it."
"Also, we should get all that stuff from the van. We didn't collect it for nothing, ne?" Despite having had a fever at the time, the raven clearly remembered what useful things the blond had gathered in there.
"So that´s where we are heading," Shizuo hummed, speeding his steps up just so much he was able to walk right beside the flea.
"Exactly."
And it didn't take long for them to reach the spot either.
They had barely walked a minute when the van came into sight.
Well considering that Shizuo hadn´t exactly run very far before he found Izaya it was to be expected.
The scenery looked worse than what Shizuo had expected, or remembered.
The van was turned over, the metal frame bent in a way that didn´t suggest any person had left that van alive.
It made Shizuo think about how they might have ended up dead if the glass hadn´t already been broken. He couldn´t remember the accident all too clearly anymore, but the moment the van left the road he remembered being thrown out of it before it turned around its own axe five times. Same accounted to Izaya, the sheer power of the vehicle suddenly twisting to the left had sent them both flying.
But while he hit the wall of what seemed to be a construction place, Izaya seemed to have landed in a pile of sand.
Moving over to the destroyed van he tore the backdoors open. They gave off an unsettling loud screech as he did, and he turned around just in case, to check if maybe there were still some zombies waiting somewhere that would be attracted by the noise.
But there were none. Not even a single one.
Cans, water bottles and all the things they had gathered at the gas station rolled out of the van right on the ground. Some of them were destroyed, some just had a dent or two.
The flea shuffled to the front, pulling out the blanket that seemed to be the only undamaged survivor of the accident and handed it the blond.
"Have fun tying it up again father Christmas," he stated with a grin, making the blond raise an eyebrow in confusion.
"What?"
"The way you held the bundle last time," Izaya explained, taking on a pose that resembled how Shizu-chan had carried the supplies to the van. ",over your back, it really reminded me of Santa Claus." The blond snorted in disbelieve.
Seriously- "Only you could think of something like that." The raven just shrugged, spreading the blanket on the ground to create space for Shizuo to lay the goods upon.
"Well, be glad you have me then, would be boring without me." The blond shook his head, yet couldn´t help but agree with Izaya in his mind as he grasped a few cans that seemed to have been let undamaged, and clean, and threw them on the blanket.
It was an odd thought, but it really just struck him at the moment that if he were to be stuck with anyone that Izaya certainly would be the only one that still managed to make jokes and act as carefree as he did at the moment.
After all that happened, to both of them, after all the things they saw, he really wondered how Izaya could stay this positive. With Tom, Kasuka and that girl he could still remember the tension.
They were scared, they were sad, they tried to find some of their friends or at least some survivors but everything with such a tranquility and tension- the only one that remained his usual self was Kasuka…
Thinking about his brother the blond paused for a second, twisting one of the damaged cans in his hand before throwing it away.
His brother had looked out for him. He hadn´t relied on him to be protected. It was as though he was trying to take care of Shizuo instead of the other way round.
Even when he got infected and he saw him show fear for the first time, he just told Shizuo to keep going.
He wondered if that was why he walked away after he died.
He just walked down the streets. To be honest he didn´t even care if any of the zombies saw him. Maybe he would have gotten killed before too long, but that was when he ran into Izaya.
He almost ended up killing them both with his screaming and yet Izaya helped him out without hesitation.
"So this is what caused us to crash," snapping out of his thoughts the blond twisted his head to look at the flea that was now looking at that red sign they had seen to late the day before. It was a warning sign, its purpose to tell people that the street was under construction. The pavement had been ripped up and it seemed they had been fixing it before the virus spread.
"Yeah, I tried to warn you but it was too late," the blond said, continuing to pack everything they could need. The raven hummed, shoving his hands into his coat´s pockets as he looked around.
His sight got stuck on a wall a wall with a blood blotch on it. There was no doubt it was Shizu-chan´s blood that was sticking to the surface. All dried up and brown by now.
"And you are really alright?" he mumbled, half to himself, half to the blond in question.
Taking the edges of the blanket the man threw the bundle over his shoulder. He had finished packing.
"Come on flea, you know how sturdy I am." The raven chuckled, the image reminding him too much of Christmas after all.
"True." It was when he glanced past the blond that he spotted a familiar snake and bowl. "There is a pharmacy," he voiced, walking over, and past the blond as he stepped over some broken walls.
The building looked awfully damaged, dirt was clinging to every spot and the glass windows had been smashed in like every other of this city. Electricity had stopped working ages ago, so the inside of the room was half lit by the sun´s intense rays, and half in the dark shadow. A door was at the back of the pharmacy, probably leading to the store´s storage.
Stepping over the shards he hear some swearing as a can had dropped out of the blond´s bundle and he couldn´t help but chuckle at the sight of the swearing brute.
"Just leave it out there Shizu-chan, I want to take some more medicine and band aids with us." Seeing as half the shelves had fallen over and spilled the contents on the ground he crouched with a sigh to inspect the contents of the little white packages. "Wished we wouldn´t need it, but who knows what´s gonna happen."
The blond nodded, taking a stock of what looked like all kinds of different pills. He had no idea what they were for, but considering pills had a fairly long expiration date it couldn´t be bad to take them with them.
The raven lurked around right next to him, on the ground, reading and sorting through the packages that had fallen to the ground. The sun was illuminating the store, shining upon some packages that ended up being thrown onto a pile that Shizuo suspected to be the expired pile of medicine.
It was when he wanted to reach for a bottle of cough syrup that didn´t get heated up by the light and check its date that a soft click caught his attention.
Putting the package down again he glanced around. Izaya was still crouching on the ground, reading- so not doing anything to produce any noise.
Again- he heard the click.
"Did you hear that?" He asked, making the raven tilt his head back to look at him.
"Hear what?"
…
No sound. Now it was quiet again all of a sudden.
Shizuo didn´t like it one bit. He had heard something and his guts were screaming at him to get out of here.
"I don´t hear anythi-" The flea yelped when he was suddenly being grabbed by the hem of his shirt and pulled away from the shelf.
"Shizu-chan-"
"I think there is something behind that door."
To be continued~ C:
xD Ahahah I bet you hate me for ending it there lmao xD but I had reason to C':
mainly because next chapter is going to well- ahh you will see C':
Now I promised a sweet chapter but somehow I still didn´t get to the part of the sweetest chapter yet xDDD
Gah I wasted too much time on this x'D Give me one more chapter! xD one more and THEN the fluffy greatness and funny time will begin C':
Guest 2: thank you C': you are the wizard of ozzzz xDD omfg what xDDD ahah I´m dying xD daww yes- yes you got it perfectly- now that I think about it, that's probably what Izaya was trying to say in this chapter lmao I was writing so long on it I ended up confusing myself here xDDDD Hmmm about the love- well, I can´t spoil anything yet, but let´s just say you are almost right C: now shhh no huge spoilers anymore geez xDDD/but yes you are right xDDD
RandomReader: xD Sorry xD I had to move the fluff a tiny bit backwards x'DD But it is there! Just will take one more chapter till I get to write it C': but I promise it will make your heart melt xD
Shufflepink: Shhhh, he didn´t leave, no worries -pets you and hands you a cookie- Now let´s enjoy the show of a zombie tearing them all apart mwahahahahahah C':
Well then, see you in 14 days~! xD
PS.: I apologize if there are more errors but seeing as I SUDDENLY got internet I didn´t wanna risk waiting with posting and not being able to post at all xDDDD