They had been waiting nearly two hours. Celty was pacing behind the couch where Izaya sat slumped forward, head resting in his hands as he attempted to stay conscious. The adrenaline rush was beginning to wear off and exhaustion was quickly catching up with him. But he couldn't rest yet. He needed to see for himself that Shizuo was okay. And then he needed to make a decision on how to deal with Jiro.
Izaya clenched his fists. He would be sure to make Jiro suffer for this. Izaya could feel his rage building once again. Jiro has crossed a line just by threatening to hurt Shizuo. Actually succeeding in injuring him so severely left Izaya seething. Plans began forming together in his mind as he considered his options. He now had all of the resources and connections he needed, so there was no point in letting this go on any longer.
The sound of the door into the hallway opening caught Izaya's attention. He shot upright, turning towards Shinra as he entered the room. Celty did the same, pausing her pacing as she looked expectantly at Shinra.
"He's going to be okay," Shinra said, causing Izaya to sag back into the couch in relief. "He's going to be out of commission for a bit though. The bullet managed to puncture and partially collapse a lung. That's mainly what took him out. But he's on oxygen now and I was able to repair the damage and re-inflate the lung with no complications."
"How long will he be down?" Izaya asked.
"Hard to say with him," Shinra replied with a shrug, "Normally I wouldn't recommend he do anything strenuous for at least a few weeks but knowing him he'll be up and about the moment he wakes up regardless of what I tell him. I'll have to keep an eye on him so he doesn't hurt himself."
Shinra was right. The moment Shizuo woke up he will likely want to finish Jiro off. Izaya clenched his fists again. He absolutely had to put a stop to this before Shizuo got hurt again. He'd come way too close to losing him. He wasn't going to let that happen again. He needed to end Jiro now, while the bastard was injured.
"Now then, let me take a look at you," Shinra's voice cut off his thoughts, "Adrenaline is a hell of a drug if Shizuo is any indication, so I really need to examine you and make sure you are actually okay. Take off your shirt."
Izaya's heart dropped into his stomach. "That's not necessary."
"Just humor me then?" Shinra said, sitting next to him on the couch, "With Shizuo hurt like that I find it hard to believe you got off with nothing."
"I told you, I'm fine," Izaya insisted.
"Oh come on, you've been like this ever since we got out of high school," Shinra pressed, "You never had a problem with me examining you after you guys fought in school."
"I don't have a problem with it," he argued, "I'm just telling you I don't need it."
Shinra sharply poked Izaya in the side making him wince hard.
"Yeah, totally fine," Shinra smirked, "Just let me see."
"No." Izaya said.
"Why are you being so difficult?" Shinra asked. Hereached out and grabbed at Izaya's shirt while Izaya violently jerked trying to get away. Unfortunately Shinra already grabbed him and the movement pulled his shirt half way up his back. He began to struggle when Celty suddenly grabbed his shoulder.
"[Wait, what's with that scar?]" She held the message out and Shinra caught a glimpse of it as well.
"Scar? Where?" Shinra tugged at his shirt again and Izaya's heart rate skyrocketed.
"Stop!" he yelled, smacking Shinra's hand away with a bit too much force which caught both him and Celty off guard causing them to stare for a moment.
Izaya's harsh breathing was the only sound in the room as he attempted to regain his composure.
"[Izaya… does this have anything to do with… what we were talking about before?]"
"Hm? What were you talking about before?" Shinra questioned, looking between Celty and Izaya.
"[You should let Shinra take a look. I… I can leave the room if you need me to.]"
"What do you mean, Celty? What did you two talk about? Oh, hold that thought, Izaya you should sit down, you actually look like you're going to pass out."
Shinra was right, he could see spots invading his vision for the second time that evening as panic crept over him. His rapid breathing exacerbated the pain in his ribs which he was sure were at least bruised, maybe cracked. Maybe if he let Shinra examine him he could convince him to hand over enough painkillers to make him forget this ever happened.
"Izaya, I'm serious, please sit down," Shinra's tone changed and Izaya realized he was also standing now, hands hovering ready to catch him if he were to fall. That concern in his eyes from earlier had returned full force.
Maybe if he did it fast. Fast enough not to think about it like what had happened when Shizuo walked in on him in the bathroom.
"Fucking hell," he said, quickly lifting his shirt over his head before he could think of another reason not to. The sudden movement hurt, but that didn't matter so much to him right now.
Celty immediately stepped back, hands clutching her PDA to her chest. From where she was standing she saw the marks on his back before Shinra. Once again he found himself thankful that she didn't have actual eyes to run up and down his exposed skin the way Shinra's did.
"Those are… old. When did… How did you get those?" Shinra's eyes dropped slightly, stopping at the tiny bit of exposed scar on Izaya's hip. Most of it was covered by his pants but with a resounding sigh, Izaya pushed the fabric down to reveal the burned in writing.
Shinra's eyes widened in shock for a second but he quickly recovered. "Sit. Now." he commanded.
Izaya finally did as he was told.
"Celty told me what happened with Anri-chan. She said you mentioned something about 'personal business' with the leader of a trafficking ring?" Shinra asked quietly, "Did that person do this to you? Is this why you hired Shizuo to be your bodyguard?"
"Yes," Izaya replied, staring at the floor. He couldn't dare look his friend in the eyes right now. The urge to run away before Shinra could ask more specific questions was building.
Shinra let out a long sigh before removing the stethoscope from his neck and putting it on. "For now I'd rather focus on your current injuries. We can discuss everything else later."
Izaya felt a bit relieved to hear that, but it didn't help how exposed he felt. When the stethoscope touched his chest Izaya knew his heart was pounding.
"Calm down," Shinra said gently, "can you take a deep breath for me?"
"I can't," Izaya mumbled.
"As deep as you can then?"
Izaya inhaled as much as he could before the sharp pain made him stop. His exhale was a bit more shaky than he would have liked.
"Does it hurt?"
Izaya nodded, prompting Shinra to set aside the stethoscope and begin feeling his chest in different places, pressing certain areas and observing every wince Izaya couldn't hold back.
"Well, your ribs don't feel noticeably broken, but you're definitely going to have a nasty bruise. It's hard to tell if they're fractured at all without an x-ray, but either way the treatment would be the same. I can give you something for the pain, but for the most part you really just need to rest. Let me just clean and bandage up some of those other scrapes and you can get dressed."
Shinra took his time to carefully tend to Izaya's injuries. Every once in a while his eyes flickered to one of the many scars on his body, often being drawn back down to the mostly covered one on his hip. When he was finished he handed Izaya his shirt back which Izaya quickly threw back on, happy to block line of sight to his scars.
While he got dressed, Shinra slipped into the kitchen, rummaging through a cabinet for a moment before returning with a couple pills.
"It's just painkillers, don't worry." He said when Izaya eyed the pills suspiciously. "Whatever you were drugged with before seems to be out of your system by now, so I have no problem giving you something stronger than over the counter stuff."
Izaya took the pills, hoping they'd kick in fast.
"I could probably fix some of those, you know?" Shinra said, sitting down next to him again, "Or at least make them less visible. Is the one on your hip a burn?"
"I'd really like to drop the subject for now, Shinra," Izaya replied. "But thanks for the offer. If you don't mind, I'd like to go see Shizu-chan."
"Go ahead," Shinra said with a smile, "If he wakes up let me know."
Izaya nodded, getting up and slipping into the hallway.
…~-~...
Shinra watched as Izaya left the room. He hadn't missed the look of relief when he'd told him about Shizuo. It was clear Izaya had been worried, which in and of itself was strange enough, but the bigger picture was coming together after what had just happened. Shinra actually had been quite shocked at the scars littering Izaya's body. He could identify several burns, the worst being on his hip. The scars on his back however it seemed as if the burns were used to help seal the wounds there. The rough edges of the scar showed they had likely been stitched up, albeit haphazardly. Definitely not professional especially if the person had chosen to burn the flesh so sloppily.
But the burns must have been well tended to if they didn't get infected. Still there was no doubt it would have been painful. He could only assume Izaya hadn't been anesthetized or given any type of pain relief. It had clearly been done to hurt as much as possible.
The burn on his hip had filled him in on everything else he needed to know to understand what exactly was going on. Izaya had personal business with a sex trafficker. He was covered in old scars, one of which literally said the word "slave". The panic in his eyes and the way his heart sounded like it was about to explode when he examined him… and lastly the fact that Izaya had reached out to Shizuo of all people for help.
Izaya was afraid. Very afraid. He didn't like the implication behind that. He'd rather run to the man that had smashed his bones and nearly killed him than face this other person alone?
He could only imagine the specifics of what this man did to Izaya, but it wasn't hard to put the basic puzzle together even if he was missing the details. It seemed Celty was on the same page as him. Her body language revealed her horrified concern that someone could not only physically hurt Izaya like that, but also leave such a strong psychological impact.
"[Is Izaya going to be alright?]" Celty finally asked, breaking the tension between them.
"I think so. This clearly happened a long time ago and we are only just now learning about it so he's been living with it for a while without a problem. I have to assume this person was out of the picture for a while and only recently resurfaced which would explain his strange behavior. I'm guessing he has some level of PTSD, so facing this person again is probably very difficult, hence why Shizuo is now involved."
"[Shizuo definitely knows everything. Remember how he told me he knew something about Izaya but couldn't say what it was? Shizuo is a good person. He might have hated Izaya but he wouldn't wish that on him.]"
"I guess that leads us to where we are now," Shinra sighed, leaning back on the couch, "Has Shizuo mentioned anything about what their relationship is now? It's not like Izaya to worry about other people that much, especially Shizuo."
"[Shizuo said he has been seeing another side of Izaya… they definitely like each other and they've been spending a lot of time together. Izaya just told me he loved him.]"
"Interesting… I wouldn't expect him to reveal something that personal so easily… Though I guess he's not thinking straight right now. I've never seen Izaya like this. Even when I got stabbed in middle school he wasn't that upset… Come to think of it, I don't want to leave him alone for too long."
"[Why not?]"
"Do you remember what I told you about Nakura? He stabbed me by mistake and Izaya is still making him suffer for it to this day. If Izaya already had a grudge against this guy and he hurt Shizuo this badly… I'm actually a bit concerned he might do something stupid."
Celty stiffened at the thought. "[I'll go check on him,]" She typed, immediately heading towards the spare room.
Shinra sighed again. Shizuo was difficult enough to deal with, but Izaya in crisis was a whole other problem. He didn't doubt Izaya would be out for revenge, but from what he'd gleaned from their conversation Izaya wasn't exactly mentally stable enough to face this head on at the moment. But he also knew that once Izaya got an idea in his head there was no stopping him. He could only hope Izaya had enough sense left in him to know he should rest before attempting vengeance. Unfortunately, the way Celty burst back into the room took away any hopes he'd had even before she held up her PDA.
"[Izaya's gone!]"