Chapter 10: Winner Winner, Chicken Dinner. MHMM Finger Lickin' Good
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The line for the KFC is abysmally long, but there is nothing Orihara Izaya can't achieve if he sets his mind to it. Being the stubborn and obsessive individual that he is, if he wants to get KFC with Shizuo on Christmas, then by god he will do just that no matter what it takes. In this case, it really doesn't take a lot. Humans are incredibly predictable, and all Izaya has to do is stride his way inside like he owns the establishment, because realistically speaking, he very much could if he so wanted to. He doesn't, of course, since why would he have any need for a fast food chain in the first place, unless it was just a front for some business of dubious legality? Although considering how packed the restaurant is, he truly debates just buying out the entire place for the next hour or two.
Shizuo trudges behind him and gives him skeptical looks as Izaya bypasses all the customers waiting patiently in line to place their order. He's not immediately defensive, even when people give Izaya annoyed looks on account of his blatant disregard for the queue. It is a possibility that Izaya could very well have had a prior reservation, after all. However, the moment Izaya starts waving around wads of money, Shizuo sends him a sharp glare, implying that if Izaya continues to act inappropriately, Shizuo would have the incentive to break their truce and begin pursuing him with intentions to kill.
But Izaya, being the sly person that he is, has a retort for any qualms Shizuo may have.
"How can you call this shady? I don't force anyone to do anything, they do it of their own accord."
And really, Shizuo should just be glad that Izaya hadn't stooped to more unorthodox methods of getting his way. Yet instead of listening to logic, he continues to glare at him as Izaya proceeds to order the full Christmas special, with chocolate cake included and everything. A few moments later, their order is ready and the cashier hands him a tray with a bucket of chicken, a box of cake, some sides, and a cup of coffee, all of which he promptly shoves into Shizuo's hands because Izaya, despite being the generous god that he is and providing the poor with essential nourishment, isn't about to stoop so low as to actually carry said nutrition for the said poor as well.
They quickly find a table, mostly because all it takes is for Izaya to shoot one glare at an unsuspecting couple to make them grab all their belongings and flee. The table itself is next to the window, so presumably the couple had also witnessed his and Shizuo's little tiff outside, and not wanting to suffer a similar fate as the concrete, decided to do the responsible thing and give the two excessively violent idiots their space. The table itself was also conveniently placed in the very front of the restaurant, allowing Izaya to have a perfect view of the entire establishment.
As soon as they sit in the booth, Izaya looks away, his eyes glazing over the various interesting humans in front of him, as far as the eye can see. He watches them intently, studies their reactions while they remain oblivious to his observations. Couples. Couples everywhere. That's the main thing he can see and it's…admittedly a little boring. He scowls. This is precisely another reason why he hates the holidays; everything is so boring, so predictable. Time just stands still while he feels stuck on the inside of a snow globe; a picture perfect little scene encompassing the winter spirit. No drama, no corruption, just a mantelpiece decoration.
If not for Shizuo, he would have stirred up some drama by now or started some controversy, proclaiming to the whole restaurant that the chicken they were consuming was poisoned or something just to see the reaction. Anything, really, instead of having to sit with all these lovey dovey couples feeding each other bits of chicken. He looks back to Shizuo who is chewing on a piece of chicken, his eyes watching Izaya intently like a hawk, but still keeping true to his word and not attacking him. Izaya leans back against his seat, crossing his arms over his chest.
"You keep watching me, expecting me to do something… I don't even know what. I'm not going to do anything, so why not just enjoy yourself while you still can?" Izaya comments, cocking his head to the side.
"If you're not up to something, then why did you want to come here, huh?" Shizuo interrogates, before biting into a chicken wing. Izaya sniggers a little just at how apprehensive Shizuo was acting. His eyes shift to the window, glazing over the swarm of couples just past the thin glass. At this point, even his own reflection is more amusing to watch. After a moment, he snaps his attention back to Shizuo and takes the lid off his coffee.
"Call it a Christmas tradition or whatever. I wanted to try it at least once, since I suppose you could say it is a big deal in Japan. Isn't it customary to have KFC during the holidays?" Izaya muses as he looks down and starts trailing his finger along the outer rim of the cup. He can feel the heat from the steam radiating off the hot beverage, but given his ever shifting motions, it doesn't bother him all that greatly.
"Then why aren't you eating?" Shizuo badgers, and Izaya looks up again to meet his gaze. His honey brown eyes are narrowed, watching the way his finger twirls around the cup. The corner of Izaya's lip twitches upwards for a moment.
"I'll have you know, my body is a temple. You can't expect me to just pump it full of any old junk," Izaya answers with mock offense, as if the mere notion of Izaya eating deep fried chicken was enough to make him sick, let alone actually eating it.
"And that's why you're such a bean sprout," Shizuo grumbles under his breath. Izaya is a little taken aback. The last time he checked, his BMI was in the correct range so joke's on you, Shizuo. As if that was the most accurate measure of health… Still, he should have expected that comment. In comparison to Shizuo, the 6 foot tall beast, Izaya is just a bean sprout.
"Unlike Shizu-chan, who shovels food into his mouth as if he were a trash can," Izaya retorts in a teasing way, and Shizuo instantly stops his movements, his hands raised with a piece of chicken halfway between his plate and mouth.
"Or knowing you, you tampered with the food. You haven't even touched that coffee, even though you like bitter things," Shizuo snaps back and throws the piece of chicken into the already chewed through pile of bones, causing them to splatter and fall across the table. One piece even lands on Izaya's side of the table and he looks at it with disdain, making a disgusted face as he tentatively brings the tip of his finger against it and flicks it back in Shizuo's direction, before wiping his fingernail against a napkin. He can't help but be slightly offended. This is the second time Shizuo had accused him of poisoning food when he'd been, in fact innocent. Plus, if Izaya were to poison anyone, he would surely do it though carbon monoxide inhalation, not food poisoning which would take much longer to kill someone.
"Geez Shizu-chan, you're such a child. Got any more interesting theories for me? With such great deduction skills, you should have considered being a detective," Izaya says sarcastically with a roll of his eyes. Instead of taking great offense at Izaya's mocking tone, Shizuo decides to take his words at face value, giving a serious response to a rhetorical question,
"I have, actually. When I was a kid," he mutters. Even despite not receiving Izaya's formal denial of having tampered with the food, he picks up the piece of chicken he'd dropped and continues eating. Izaya merely raises his eyebrows, his curiosity piqued. He shifts in his seat, uncomfortable as it is (but what else can one expect from a fast food restaurant). He then rests his elbows against the table and rests his chin against his entwined fingers. He takes this sudden shift to a more serious atmosphere as a way to ask the question that's been bothering ever since he'd started having his strange dreams.
"And did you, by any chance, also break your bones often when you were a kid? Spent more time in hospitals than at home?" he asks, his voice dropping by a few decibels. Shizuo narrows his eyes again but luckily doesn't go into a rage induced frenzy, as he so often would. It's not like Izaya is purposefully trying to provoke him, and perhaps Shizuo can read that from his expression and the calmness of his voice.
"What does that have to do with anything?" Shizuo snaps back, chewing aggressively in the process. Typical Shizuo, difficult as always. Izaya lets out an irritated sigh. This is precisely why he hates actually trying to have a civil conversation with Shizuo. Always so apprehensive, never giving Izaya what he wants. If only Shizuo could be a little easier to handle, without immediately jumping to conclusions… perhaps then they could actually, potentially almost, maybe be friends.
"I'm just curious, that's all," Izaya persists. Shizuo glosses him over, watching his body movement and looking for any signs of malicious intent. Surely, even he should be aware of how unusually diffident and sincere Izaya was acting. Surely, even he should realize the importance of Izaya's question in the first place. Thankfully, he does. At least he answers honestly this time.
"Being the shady guy you are, don't you already know everything there is to know about me?" Shizuo huffs out. Izaya lets out a small chuckle. The irony of it all is that Shizuo is the only person that Izaya can't quite figure out, which is why he never considers him to be a person to begin with. He's just an unintelligible monster Izaya could never quite understand. So no, Izaya doesn't know everything about Shizuo. Sure, he had him looked into a little out of curiosity, but it's not exactly like every single event in Shizuo's life was laid out on a piece of paper for him to read over.
"I don't, not at all," he answers.
"But I would like to."
The way in which Izaya says this is borderline flirting, as if they were out on a date and trying to get to know each other. He hadn't meant for it to come out that way, yet it had. Shizuo just continues to stare at him, his eyes widening bit by a bit as he tries to process Izaya's actions. To him, Izaya truly must be acting strange and very much unlike himself.
"So could you just answer my question?" Izaya then quickly adds, as if to divert Shizuo's attention from the strange way he'd uttered his previous words. Shizuo purses his lips and shifts his eyes downwards before bringing them up again to stare at Izaya.
"Yea, I did. Every damn bone in my body at least three times. Are you satisfied now?" he snaps. Izaya nods his head along. Normally, he'd find it fascinating, curious even. He wouldn't exactly be empathetic to Shizuo's experiences and would brush them off, instead opting to laugh at this revelation because it would only serve to showcase more of Shizuo's abnormalities. Yet the first thing that pops into his mind is the sensation of all those bones breaking, over and over. He'd been dreaming about it, night after night. He's woken up in a cold sweat, his body numb from the aftershock. He'd be lying if he said he'd never broken a bone as a kid. Hell, he'd broken his finger just a two months ago, and that in itself had been painful enough. But to always be breaking his bones with no rest? To be bound to a hospital bed with no personal autonomy, having to rely on others to constantly care for you? Being left alone with no one else?
In this moment, Izaya thinks that maybe he could very well sympathize with Shizuo. It's at this moment he's suddenly hit with the realization that Shizuo's monstrous strength had actually come with a price. A price that Izaya had never really thought about before. His mind wanders to one other scene from his dreams, the one at the bakery.
"Did you also used to walk by a bakery on your way home from school? A bakery that you ultimately ended up destroying with your tremendous strength…even as a kid?" He asks quietly, silently begging Shizuo to just answer normally without any freaking out. Of course, Shizuo does just the opposite. His eyes narrow and his breath becomes heavy. He snaps the chicken bone in his hand with ease. Even for a normal human, breaking a chicken bone is far from an impressive feat, yet the actual sound of the bone being crushed ends up echoing in Izaya's ears, making his head feel dizzy. Just the mere sound is enough to trigger a flash back to his dreams, and he flinches slightly upon hearing it, his heart rate accelerating slightly and his forehead dampening with sweat. He's suddenly overcome with a feeling of fear bordering on terror as he comes to terms with the fact that it could have very well been his bone. That for Shizuo, snapping a human bone was just as easy as snapping a chicken bone.
"What in the hell are you getting at, flea?" He growls, tone so ice cold and laced with venom that it sends a shiver shooting down Izaya's spine. Not that he lets it show. He would love to give Shizuo a multitude of sly replies yet all that comes out of his mouth is a slew of slurred words.
"N-nothing! I'm not getting at anything! J-just forget I ever said anything look are you done yet can we go?" He stutters out while defensively waving his hands in front of his chest. Shizuo looks to be at the edge of his limits. His hands are digging into the table between them, forcing the brittle wood to crack and crumble under the pressure he's exerting over it. Izaya just proceeds to shift uncomfortably in his seat, not sure how he should feel. At this point, he just wants to leave already and not be locked under Shizuo's gaze as if he were an organism taped to a slide under the lens of a microscope. Yet the more Shizuo stares at Izaya and actually watches him, the more his grip on the table relaxes.
"No way. You paid for the damn cake so I'm going to eat the damn cake," Shizuo mumbles stubbornly. By now, the chicken is all gone and the only thing remaining is the cake. For a moment, Izaya's mind completely shuts off and does a full reboot as he attempts to comprehend the sudden shift in Shizuo's demeanor. The previously heavy and tense atmosphere between them is suddenly not so unpleasant anymore, and just like that, all negative emotions seem to dissipate. He can't help it. He starts laughing, watching Shizuo as he unwraps the chocolate cake. The look on his face: eyes downcast shrouded by his golden locks, lips held closely together and pouting innocently. It really does make him look childish and it's... positively adorable.
"You seriously are just like a little kid, Shizu-chan. Gotta have your dessert, ne?" he chortles. Shizuo shoots him a quick glare.
"Shut up and drink your stupid coffee already," Shizuo grumbles, and Izaya finally calms down. He looks back to the untouched cup of coffee in front of him. By now it had cooled off significantly to the point that it was no longer radiating off steam.
"Sure sure. Don't mind me, just eat your cake," Izaya smiles. He picks up the cup and brings it to his lips, deeply inhaling the aroma of the coffee. It doesn't smell all that amazing. Cheap, even, yet he still drinks it. It's very bitter and leaves an unpleasant aftertaste in his mouth. He quickly sets the cup back down and instead decides to intently watch Shizuo devour his cake. Izaya doesn't remember a time he's witnessed Shizuo being so calm before. Like a hungry animal, suddenly satiated and too occupied by its food to lash out. What's more, Shizuo isn't just being docile. Instead, it's as if he's actually enjoying himself.
For once, a genuine smile graces Izaya's lips as his eyes track the movement of Shizuo's hand, going back and forth between the cake and his lips. Back and forth, back and forth, until Izaya stops following the clockwork routine and instead fixates his gaze on Shizuo's lips, watching them move in rhythm to his chewing. Then he stops chewing entirely, swallows, and opens his mouth to speak.
"Stop staring at me like that. It's creepy," those parted lips say, snapping Izaya out of his daze. He blinks a few times, shaking his head before looking away to the side and focusing once again at the window.
"Why would I ever want to stop?" he murmurs absentmindedly.
The reflection of his own maroon eyes stares back at him and suddenly, he becomes increasingly aware of the expression he's been making while he'd been staring at Shizuo. It's an expression he hadn't been aware he could make, especially in public: a fond look, showcasing just how sensitive he truly is at heart. Shocked by his own vulnerability, he flinches back slightly. He can see his cheeks take on a slightly dusty pink hue. Moreover, he can feel his face heat up more and more with each passing second. He quickly sneaks a peek at Shizuo out of the corner of his peripheral vision and notices the light pink flush grazing across Shizuo's nose. Must be the heat, he reasons. The restaurant is quite stuffy with so many people around.
Shizuo doesn't say anything else, choosing to instead shut up, look down, and continue eating his cake in absolute silence while trying to ignore the subtle gazes Izaya shoots his way. Because indeed, Izaya can't peel his eyes away. Somehow, the sight of Shizuo looking flushed and embarrassed is much more satisfying to watch than anything his precious humans could ever possibly do.
Who would have thought?