Part 12 – Lively Temper
"I-I'm sorry I bumped into you! I-I wasn't looking where I was going..!", he stuttered out panicked, seeing the blond give an irritated 'che'.
Trembling, Mikado squeezed his eyes shut, awaiting a punch sure to come that would knock out his living daylights; but it never came. Slowly, he opened his eyed to peek up at the blond again, just to find the man eyeing him with confused expression.
"Calm down, kid..I ain't gonna hit you." Still looking slightly disgruntled, he offered the teen a hand. Mikado took it hesitantly and let the man pull him to his feet; maybe a bit too energetic, because the pull caused Mikado to fall against the man's chest. He quickly mumbled an apology and stepped away from the blonde, looking at his feet.
"Oi, kid…", Heiwajima Shizuo spoke up, but he was interrupted by a shrill woman's voice, screaming through the city.
"DON'T THINK YOU GET AWAY FROM ME, YOU LITTLE PIECE OF-!"
Recognizing the voice, Mikado jumped in fear and ducked in the corner of a side alley, hiding behind a vending machine.
From his hiding spot he couldn't see what was going on, but he could hear the woman's footsteps approaching. Mikado closed his eyes and tried to calm down his breathing; his heart was beating so hard in his chest that he was sure the sound of it would give him away. Just when he heard the woman's footsteps being just a few meters away, he realized that Heiwajima Shizuo saw him hiding. His eyes cracked opened in shock and his heart pace increased at least tenfold. Probably he was going to die of a heart attack before that Yagiri woman could get him.
"Hey, you!"
Mikado fought down a startled whimper when he heard the woman speak up, standing literally next to him.
"What?", came the annoyed response.
He was so done for. Why the hell didn't he just run for his life when he heard the woman?! At least that was a better end than to crunch in the corner like this and wait to be discovered. Silently, Mikado started praying to himself.
"Have you seen a little highschool runt; about this high, scrawny and pathetic?", Mikado heard the woman say. Shit. Shit Shit Shit. He was so dead.
"No, did not. Now stop screeching like a psycho, it hurts my ears." , the blonde brute answered, sounding seemingly irritated by the second.
Wait…what? Mikado's eyes widened in surprise.
The woman just gave a displeased scoff, then he heard her storm off.
The teen sighed in relief and sank down against the wall. He couldn't believe he actually lived. It was a miracle.
"Hey…"
Mikado opened his eyes and glanced up to see Heiwajima Shizuo standing right in front of him.
"That woman was after you, right?"
The teen just smiled apologetically at the blond, standing up straight again.
"I-I guess..? T-thanks for not telling her I was here…"
"No problem." , came the mumbled reply. The blonde took out his cigarettes and lit one, taking a deep drag.
Mikado was about to step out of the alley, when he heard the second least voice he wanted to hear today.
"Ara, Hi Shizu-chan~!"
A frown appeared on the blonde's face immediately.
"Whaddya want here, flea?!"
The informant just chuckled. "I live here, Shizu-chan. Dumb as ever, I see. The question should more be: 'What are YOU doing here~?'"
"Work. Now piss off."
Another laugh. "I see you haven't lost your street mutt charm. I just wanted to ask if you have seen a psychotic woman trying to kill a cute teenager?"
Shizuo just shrugged his shoulders, then pointed in the direction Yagiri Namie ran off to.
"I'll kill you another time, Shizu-chan, I have some business to take care of~" The raven grinned and was about to skip away.
"Hey, flea…the heck happened to your nose?"
"Oh, that? My wife just has a rather lively temper~!"
Part 13 – A Strange Kid
Shizuo watched the raven skip away, then he turned back to the teen, who was now crouching behind the vending machine as if trying to become one with it.
"Hey kid…I think you have some explaining to do."
The teen gave him an apologetic smile and stood up, brushing some dirt off his clothes.
"I-I'm not sure where to start…", Mikado half-smiled to the blonde. This was about the 2nd most embarrassing situation in his life. Number one was yet to come when he was going to meet Kida again, and the teen was so not looking forward to this.
"Why did the flea call you cute?"
Mikado blinked in surprise. Of all the questions he had expected the man to ask him, this was the last he'd think of.
"Uh…" Was everything that came into Mikado's mind.
"Oh..I mean..not that you're NOT cute..! Yo-you are in fact very cute..", The blonde stuttered out, blushing slightly.
Mikado looked at the man surprised. Did Heiwajima Shizuo just stutter? More importantly…did Heiwajima Shizuo just call him cute..?
"Well…I don't exactly know why he called me that, but for the woman: her name is Yagiri Namie and apparently Iza-…I mean Orihara-san hired her as his secretary. She's after me, because I was the one responsible for the shut-down of Yagiri Pharmaceuticals here in Ikebukuro. They were conducting experiments on humans. She recognized me and tried to attack me, so I ran away…"
After finishing his explanation, Mikado let out a deep sigh. He had to be really careful, so no one would find out about him and Izaya…h-he meant the fact, that he had been forced to marry the man, it wasn't like there was anything between them! Geez..now he was defending himself in his own thoughts. And even though it wasn't his fault that he was now living with the Informant, and it really wasn't like he wanted this..but he doubted ikebukuros most powerful and most short-tempered man would listen to his explanations if he knew about that. He'd be probably buried under a vending machine faster than he could say 'I was forced to!'…
Completely lost in his thoughts, he almost missed out on the blonde staring at him bewildered.
"W-what..?", he stuttered nervously.
"Nothing…I just thought you don't look exactly like someone who'd get in situations like that…"
You don't know the half of it…, Mikado thought bitter to himself, but just gave the man a crooked smile.
xxx
Shizuo couldn't help but to think there was more behind the story the kid told him, but it wasn't like he was the person to dig into people's private matter; he despised it himself if someone would get too curious. But somehow, he felt drawn to this kid. Though reacting a bit strange sometimes, the kid had been talking to him normally for about 10 minutes now without running away or making him lose his temper. To the blonde, this was something new and it filled with him with something he hadn't felt in a long time now: joy.
Before he had even realized it, he found himself walking through the town together with the kid, telling him stories of his job which would make the teen chuckle adorably. The boy had a really beautiful laugh; somehow he recalled Kasuka laughing like that before he started growing up to be the silent person he still was.
"Well, and then this little flea appeared…and as I was chasing the little scum out of Ikebukuro, guess what he did?! He actually flirted with a group of school kids..! About your age I s'ppose…"
Mikado flinched slightly when he heard the bartender ramble about the incident from this afternoon; he was just glad that the man in bartender clothing hadn't recognized him…
The teen was doing his best to keep up with the blonde's large steps; for every one the man took, Mikado had to make two. Suddenly, something caught the boy's attention; a movement in a pile of trash next to tagged dumpster. He stopped in his tracks and stepped closer to the garbage; when the blonde realized the teen was no longer next to him, he turned around to find the boy rummaging through someone trash. That kid was certainly strange…
"Ano…kid..? Whatcha doing there..?", he asked stepping closer to the teen.
Mikado didn't answer, just showed the blonde what he had found in between the trash.
Shizuo looked at the thing in disbelief; there in the teen's hands was a kitten, more or less alive, though quite dirty.
"How'd you know it was in there..?", he asked the teen surprised.
Mikado stood up, the kitten in his arms. "I saw it moving…When I was younger, my childhood friend and me used to play hide-and-seek together, and somehow Kida-kun's favorite hiding place was the trash can…"
"Gee, kid…your friends are at least as strange as you are…", the blonde mumbled, running a hand through his hair.
Mikado stared at the brute, then cracked up in laughter.
Shizuo looked at the teen puzzled. "What..?"
"It's nothing.", the boy chuckled. "It's just been a while since someone weird called me strange."
The brute clad in a bartender uniform looked at the laughing boy confused; he realized the teen had just called him weird, but somehow it didn't make him mad. Instead he grinned at the highschooler, who was holding a mewling kitten smelling of trash and rotten fish.
"So? What do people call you usually? Cheeky?"
The boy laughed his adorable laugh again and shook his head. "No..more like 'boring'!"
Shizuo chuckled. "Now that would be the least fitting word to describe you. What's your name by the way, kid?"
The teen smiled at him. "It's Ryuugamine Mikado."
Shizuo smiled back and offered Mikado his hand. "Heiwajima Shizuo; nice to meet you."
Mikado took the kitten on one arm and took the blonde's hand with his other.
"Nice to meet you, Heiwajima-san."
The blond shook his head displeased. "Call me Shizuo. It's what my friends call me."
Mikado flashed the man a bright smile. "Shizuo (Quiet Hero)? Very fitting, I think.", he smiled.
The teen looked up when he heard at the entrance to the underground station a voice announce the time through the speakers.
"I got to go now. I hope we'll meet again soon, Shizuo-san!", he said to the man and bowed with a smile, which caused the kitten on his arm give a displeased hiss.
"See ya round, kid-..I mean..Mikado-kun."
Mikado waved back at the blonde as he made his way back home. He held the black-white spotted kitten in an arm's width to look at it.
"What do you think, is Izaya-san still angry at me for breaking his nose?", he asked the cat.
"Nyaaaaaaa~"
Mikado sweatdropped. "Yeah…I think so too. Maybe going home isn't the best idea after all…", he chuckled.
From boring to strange in less than a week, and he already regretted it.
How do you guys like the updates? Sorry I haven't been updating in a while! A lot of stuff came up I while I have been busy with school and stuff…
First of all, I'd like to introduce you all to my new lovely beta: ManniaOnna11OtakuHpFan~! x33
Please give love to her, as she is doing an awesome job and doesn't have it very easy with me as author! ^^'
Second: OP!anon from the original prompt has found this fill! YAAAY! I'd like to thank you for this awesome request and am glad you like the way I'm filling it! x3
And the last point: I'd like to thank all the favers, followers, and especially THE REVIEWERS! Thank you guys, you keep me going! This is my first project this long, and you guys are a great help
And don't be afraid, this unnecessarily long A/N does not mean I intend on ending this fic here; on the contrary: I still have plenty of nice ideas and I want to hear yours too!
Be prepared for new updates, I hope I can get them done soon
Love, KnuxadowManiac