Disclaimer: I do not own Durarara!
Pastorale - "a simple musical play with a rural subject"
"You have a place in the countryside, right? Gunma Prefecture?" Izaya asks one day out of the blue. Shiki looks up from the book he is reading, wondering just what has prompted such a question.
"I haven't been back for a while," he replies as he runs through a list of reasons for the informant's seemingly harmless inquiry. Izaya has calmed down considerably these past four years, but he can never be too careful when it comes to the man's insatiable curiosity and knack for causing unnecessary trouble. His eyes trail instinctively to the most recent casualty on Izaya's abdomen, hidden under soft black cotton.
"Hmm," Izaya hums, gaze still fixated on the laptop monitor. The man spends more time in Shiki's penthouse than Shinjuku these days, and it has been a while since either of them has had to make use of any of their safe houses. Shiki waits patiently for the other to continue, but all he hears is typing for a few minutes. He shrugs and returns to his book. Izaya will continue eventually.
"It must be super dusty," the man finally comments after pressing the enter key with an air of finality.
"I have a housekeeper visit every so often when I'm not there." Shiki wonders idly if Sayo-san is worried over his extended absence. He has never gone this long without some new tiresome client driving him insane enough to warrant a weekend trip, but Izaya has been surprisingly good stress relief on those occasions, not to say that the man doesn't add an additional layer of headaches during all the other times.
To be honest, Shiki hasn't thought about that particular "sanctuary" lately, a quiet place he bought years ago that he hopes to eventually retire to. The last time he went must have been just a short while before he invited Izaya out to that omakase restaurant. He holds back the sigh that threatens to escape from his lips. Time surely flies. He imagines Izaya's reaction if he were to suddenly take an unannounced vacation without telling the other but decides the repercussions are not worth the temporary solitude that he is not even certain he wants at this point of his life.
Instead, another sudden spark of inspiration hits him through his musings.
"Why do you ask?" He casts the bait.
"Just wondering." Izaya doesn't fall for it.
Shiki grimaces at his failed attempt at getting the other to ask to see his Gunma residence. He grabs his phone off the coffee table and scrolls through his calendar, ignoring the neverending list of pointless meetings. "Work's been lighter lately. I can take three days off next week."
The sparkle in Izaya's eyes as the man's head shoots up from the computer much too quickly is worth whatever complaints Mikiya will throw at him later.
Shiki decides to make use of his black sedan for the road trip instead of his usual driver. He tells himself that the inconvenience is for the sake of preventing one more person from knowing the location of his countryside retreat, rather than for enjoying Izaya's smug expression when he picks the other up with his personal vehicle.
Izaya subjugates him to the usual monologues about human observation for the first leg of the trip, but Shiki has since perfected his technique of letting the endless chatter wash over him and even offers his own input once in a while to keep the informant satiated. As long as Izaya doesn't spoil the ending for the current book he is reading, he can endure the rest that the man throws at him.
The highrises begin to melt into individual houses, their numbers eventually dwindling to the occasional family home that dots the changing landscape. Lush vegetation replaces concrete, extending up into the many hills they pass, and a small river runs close to the road, its crystal clear water occasionally crossing under them whenever they drive over a bridge.
It is around this time that Izaya becomes uncharacterstically silent, and Shiki looks over to see if the other has finally fallen asleep. He instead finds the informant staring out the window, eyes rather deep in reverie.
He remembers the first time catching Izaya in such a mood, when he had tried to mask his attraction to the other and stopped meeting the informant's eyes during their meetings. As nostalgic as that is, he does not particularly wish for a repeat of that scenario.
"What's on your mind?" he asks, hoping that Izaya doesn't have some strange new idea in his head. As brilliant as that mind is, Shiki has learned that self-destructive tendencies tend to appear more often than he is comfortable with.
"I was just wondering if you are going to have to catch our dinner. Your handgun isn't that good for hunting, right?"
Shiki snorts at the absurdity of the statement. "We're not that secluded. Are you even willing to butcher a boar?"
"I'll pass on that."
They eventually reach the town in the late afternoon. Shiki drives past the small train station that connects it to the outside world, noting that not much has changed since the last time he visited. He can see Izaya eyeing the modest shopping street from the corner of his eye and is content when the other doesn't comment on the lack of humans. Shiki pulls into a side street and maneuvers through the tight corners for a few minutes before finally reaching the wooden gates of their destination.
The dwelling itself, an older Japanese home nestled at the edge of town, is empty when they arrive, and as predicted, spotless floors greet them as they heave their luggage into the genkan.
"Your housekeeper's very thorough," Izaya comments as Shiki pulls out two pairs of house slippers for them.
"She lives in the area. An older lady."
The informant's lips turn up into a smirk. "Does she know what you do for a living?"
"She doesn't ask. Please don't try anything. She's been a good housekeeper," he warns the man just in case.
Izaya cackles knowingly while sliding his feet into the slippers. The man is then waltzing down the corridor before Shiki can even offer the other a tour. "This place is huge!" Shiki can hear the informant's voice echoing through the wooden floors and paper walls and gives up on keeping the other in check. He has already accepted the fact that Izaya will scour the entire house from top to bottom during this trip. It's not like he keeps Awakusu-kai secrets in a safe house he has not visited for over four years.
Shiki takes it upon himself to deposit their luggage in the master bedroom before heading into the kitchen to check on the groceries he had requested Sayo-san to leave for them. He smiles slightly when he spots an assortment of mountain vegetables she has left him in addition to his grocery list.
He slides open the window to let some fresh air into the kitchen before he sets off to work picking out the ingredients for tonight's dinner. Shiki has been far too busy lately to cook anything proper. As much as he enjoys watching Izaya scarf down anything he can whip up from whatever is in his freezer back in Tokyo, fresh ingredients always go a long way.
The pork Sayo-san brought is already cut into thin slices so he sets that aside in the refrigerator after separating out two portions on a large plate. Shiki prepares a dashi stock broth first and adds some mirin and sake to the mixture before setting it aside on the stove. He begins washing the vegetables when Izaya finally peeks his head in.
"What's for dinner?"
"Hot pot. Want to help cut vegetables?"
"Sure!"
He can never understand Izaya's obsession with knives, having seen the man's unhealthy collection of switchblades hidden back in Shinjuku. He supposes the other needed many replacements in the past given the nature of Izaya's skirmishes with a certain bodyguard, but the man's skill with them is uncanny even when it came to kitchen.
Despite Izaya's initial shy declaration that he cannot cook when Shiki had first asked, the man is all too keen on helping out whenever it is something that involves cutting up ingredients, with the exception of whole fish. Shiki still feels a little guilty for laughing at the man's dislike for dead fish eyes.
"Is the house to your liking?" he asks, not without amusement. Izaya has been gone for a long enough time, so he knows something must have caught the man's eye.
"It reminds me of you," Izaya replies simply before setting off to work on the napa cabbage.
He can't help but watch those delicate fingers dismantle the pile of vegetables and is satisfied with his choice for dinner. Whenever Shiki is feeling rather tired or wishes for a group effort in the kitchen, hot pot is always the way to go.
The amount of food also satisfies Izaya's occasional monstrous diet.
Thus, dinner is ready in record time, and the two of them pick at the pot between them in the living room.
"Delicious!" Izaya sighs as he chews on a piece of pork.
"It's supposedly fresh from the farm."
"Is that so?" Izaya swallows before shoveling some rice into his face.
"Disappointed that I didn't go hunting for our dinner?"
"Meh, this is still good," the man mumbles between bites.
Shiki holds back a smile at the contentment radiating off of the informant's face and instead goes for a piece of cabbage. He aspires to set some more time aside for this type of cooking when he returns to Tokyo.
"Do you used to eat like this all the time?" Izaya asks before tossing some more meat into the pot.
Now that was a nostalgic memory. "My grandmother would make this the few times I've visited." Shiki wishes he had gone back after his mother's death, but he supposes it is for the best. The Awakusu-kai had many more enemies back then.
He looks up when he realizes that Izaya has fallen silent at the mention of his grandmother.
The man blinks, seeming to catch himself. "You never talk about your past," Izaya points out.
"But you've looked." He almost dares Izaya to comment on the old photos the man has surely gone through already in the office, albums he has not cared to touch for many years now but do not have the heart to throw away. They are the remaining attachment he has to his childhood, after all.
"There wasn't much," Izaya huffs.
"There wasn't much to begin with. They're all long gone now." He takes a sip of the soup and is satisfied with the additional flavor the meat has added. "It's not like you've talked about your family either with me."
Izaya shrugs. "What's there to know? Mom and Dad are overseas somewhere, and you've had the pleasure of meeting my sisters at the dojo, unless you want to set up a formal meeting…"
"There's no need to go to such lengths," he interrupts smoothly. He already has his hands full with one Orihara and only hopes that Akane will be able to handle the other two on her own. He is fairly certain of Izaya's involvement in a certain "incident" with the young heir and is secretly relieved that the informant hasn't tried anything since.
Izaya chuckles at his reaction and they manage to continue the rest of their meal with lighter topics.
Shiki finally makes use of the giant cypress bathtub he has installed in the garden after shoving everything into the dishwasher, relishing in the warmth that surrounds him as he relaxes muscles he didn't even know he had been tensing.
"Are you sure this isn't a ryokan?" Izaya asks with a laugh while sinking into the steaming water next to him. Shiki finds himself staring at a certain scar on the informant's abdomen as it disappears under the surface.
"It's just using heated faucet water," Shiki explains when the other brushes a toe over his thigh. The invitation is tempting, but he suddenly remembers their last "adventure" in a certain onsen. "Oi, I don't want to drag your overheated ass out if you overexert yourself again."
"Boo," Izaya retorts and settles for leaning against him instead, clearly pouting. He chuckles and runs his fingers through the man's silky black hair.
Shiki pays for it later when Izaya insists on bringing out the futons instead of sleeping on the king sized mattress he has in the master bedroom.
"I don't see the need for the extra work," he grumbles as he neatly lays out the sheets on the tatami in the adjacent room.
"It's for a change of scenery," Izaya explains while lighting some incense on the drawer. "And the smaller the area, the better this is supposed to work."
"Where did you get that?" He doesn't remember anything like that in the house.
"Shinra gave it to me. It's supposed to be 'relaxing.' Or, was it something else?" Izaya trails off before successfully tackling Shiki onto the blankets. He lands on his back with a thud as the man hovers above him with a Cheshire grin.
"Well, which is it?" Shiki breathes against Izaya's ear.
Shiki wakes the next day in a tangle of limbs; Izaya's tendency to grab onto him while sleeping is not deterred by the presence of two separate futon beds. He stares lazily at the ceiling, deciding that he might as well enjoy the peace and quiet. Akabayashi has graciously accepted to take care of any urgent calls in exchange for a bottle of local sake, so any phone calls that come his way either means someone important has died or a subordinate will wish for death once he returns to Ikebukuro.
A light snore on his chest brings his attention back to the man that is still stuck to him. He is actually surprised that Izaya is still sleeping given that the man is usually up before him and texting away while making coffee.
They finally roll out of bed around noon after an impressive growl from Izaya's stomach prompts Shiki to make them a light lunch of udon noodles. The man inhales the meal in record time, and Shiki is not surprised when Izaya asks to walk around town. He supposes he can only keep the man away from his beloved humans for so long.
"You're not going to wear your suit again?" Izaya gasps when Shiki emerges from the bedroom in a deep maroon sweater and jeans.
"I'm supposed to be the heir to a respectable family visiting his summer home." He wrinkles his nose in disgust even as the words leave his mouth, but he knows his stark white suit has no place in town, especially if he wants to keep a low profile.
Izaya laughs at this. "Ready to go then, young master?"
As predicted, no eyes follow them as they stroll through the town's one small shopping street. Shiki is able to buy the bottle of sake for Akabayashi and is surprised when Izaya picks out a few boxes of confectioneries from one of the old shopkeepers.
"Who are those for?" he asks. He knows the man dislikes sweets.
"One is for Shinra for stitching me up that last time, one is for Mairu and Kururi to remind them that I didn't die, and one is for Shizu-chan in the event he feels left out and wants to throw a mailbox at me."
"All vastly different reasons, I see," he remarks and holds back a grimace.
Shiki does not want to think of "that last time" at the moment, or ever again, for that matter. It is one of the few times he has lost his composure, and he knows in their line of work the possibility of Izaya being stabbed again is fairly high.
"Look, we'll have matching scars now!" Shiki remembers the first words out of Izaya's mouth once the man regained consciousness, right before he proceeded to slap the informant in front of Kishitani and Heiwajima. He has lost count of the number of times Izaya has had to reassure the underground doctor afterwards to even allow Shiki to visit.
He pushes the memory to the back of his mind as they arrive at a small shrine at the end of the street. The two of them pass under the old wooden gate before stopping at the offertory box. Shiki tosses in a coin to pay his respects and goes through the motions while Izaya peers around the rest of the compound. He idly wonders when the two of them will be back here, perhaps one of the new years if they want to escape the crowds.
"Neh, if you had a past life, what do you think you did for a living?" Izaya asks out of the blue as they walk past the old graves on their way out.
"I wouldn't be surprised if you were some troublesome kitsune."
"I was asking about you," Izaya huffs. "Probably a magistrate. Or, a priest of my shrine sounds nice too if I'm going to be some fox."
Shiki is unable to hide the smirk on his face when he imagines how fitting fox ears would look on the other. "Well, what does my little fox want for dinner tonight?"
He decides he likes the pet name when Izaya turns the other way in exasperation, the tips of the man's ears slightly red.
Shiki makes use of the rest of the vegetables and pork for dinner with some rice and miso soup when they return to the house. As usual, Izaya somehow manages to engulf everything he cooks like a black hole, and he can only chuckle at the man's remorse when Izaya groans on the tatami and complains about being too full as he loads the dishwasher.
The last rays of the sun finally disappear behind the mountains as he turns on the machine, and Shiki suddenly has a spark of inspiration when he notices the absence of the moon in the sky.
"Izaya…" he turns to see the man already stripping for the bath in the middle of the living room. "Put your clothes back on. I want to show you something," Shiki tells him, likely interrupting whatever lewd plans the man had been devising in his mind. He already knows there is no leaving the bedroom once they start, and there would be plenty of time for that after they return.
He tactfully ignores the informant's protests and drives them a little ways up the mountain, leaving the lights from the village behind them as pure darkness eventually engulfs the car. Shiki stops in what he supposes will be a suitable location and beckons the other out into the chilly air.
"What's up here?" Izaya quivers as he throws one of the blankets he has grabbed from the house over the man's shoulders.
"Give it a few minutes."
He waits patiently for his eyes to adjust to the darkness, the sky slowly becoming an expanse of stars. Shiki takes a deep breath of the fresh mountain air, reminiscing just a little on those visits to his grandparents' house so many years ago. He looks down at the shivering pile in his arms, slightly surprised that Izaya has not made a jabbing remark about the experience yet outside the initial complaints when they left the house.
"What do you think?" he asks.
The man shifts slightly. "You don't get to see stars in the city," Izaya replies. "There's too much light pollution wherever there are humans."
"Do you prefer this?" he asks, although he knows the answer.
Izaya smiles wryly and leans against him. "I can see how many consider this romantic," the informant says instead.
The next day, the two of them pack up and start the long drive back down to Ikebukuro after a modest breakfast of fish and soup.
"Do you miss your humans already?" He doesn't tell Izaya that he plans to settle out here eventually, away from the complications that always come with recognition and power. The lack of people out to knife him in the gut is also a plus.
Delicate fingers curl around his in response.
"I don't mind coming out here every once in a while."
Shiki watches as the houses begin to increase and eventually melt into highrises. The river tapers and flows off into the distance, and concrete replaces the rolling farms they have been driving through before.
He smiles, running a finger over Izaya's bony knuckles.
They have time.
Hello again! Ah, I wanted to write something light without any tension, and this weird thing was the result. I hope you derived some enjoyment out of it regardless!
