A/N: Hey, guys! Sorry for my absence. I have been in and out of the house, so writing has been difficult to do. I'm going to write a pretty long chapter today because I have an essay due. (insert sarcastic cheering)
Enjoy the chapter, guys!
P.S. Thank you so, so much for your kind words and lovely reviews. I really liked a particular idea one of you gave, and I know exactly how I'm going to develop the relationship between Shizuo and Izaya now. (non-sarcastic cheering)
_Shizuo watched Izaya as he slept, simply because he couldn't. He was incredibly awake, and he was frightened. His focus stayed on the raven, who's face seemed much more strained in his sleep than when he was awake. His watched his face go from calm and passive to a twitching scowl and shaking hands. The brunette hugged his legs and closed his eyes, trying to give a face to 1.
Izaya blinked, letting go of Shizuo's hand and almost letting him drop back to the ground.
"1..." Izaya breathed in, rubbing his thumb. He laughed, "1 is interesting, you know. Being who she is, it's insane to think she's even real. Some consider her a myth - I'm the strongest you can get, but they're lying to themselves. 1 is very real."
Shizuo watched the raven bite his lip.
"Have you ever lost control, Shizu? Have you ever been unable to control what you are doing?"
Shizuo nodded, remembering the times he got into fights as a kid when the human kids made fun of his brother. Izaya looked down and smiled.
"I was ranked number 2, but the soldiers had decided to see if I could go higher. So I got down there, and I was ready. I was prepared to win - to be a God amongst humans. No, a God amongst even monsters like us. But as soon I let the blades pop out of my arm, I had regretted doing so. Her... her eyes. They were red. And suddenly my arm was up to my neck, twisting slowly until the blades were close to my throat. I tried to shove my arm back down, but it pulled away from me and began..."
Izaya held his throat and rubbed it.
"We can't die, Shizu. Not like you guys. We have to have a clean shot to the brain or heart. You can literally," he breathed in, looking strained, "be decapitated."
Shizuo stepped back, grabbing at his own neck and trying to catch his breath.
"Her name is Anri. And she is rank 1. Reason being.. She decapitated me in 15 seconds. That was the longest fight she had ever been in. No one has ever seen her second ability." He laughed, rubbing his throat.
"Losing your head isn't like growing back another hand for most regeneration. You have to pick it up and stick it back on and let the neck regenerate. Imagine seeing your headless body. Imagine watching it fall over. Imagine having to see soldiers coming up and dragging your body back inside before picking up your head and telling you you'll be whole again in a minute." He sighed. "Imagine looking over and seeing a girl fix her glasses and wipe the tears off her face - even though she was the one who decapitated you."
Shizuo curled his toes. Originals were frightening, and he only heard about 3. Even Shinra sounded frightening. Although offspring like Shizuo didn't regenerate, it was hard to hurt them. One kid had once tried to beat him up, and he couldn't even break Shizuo's leg as he stomped on it and threw a large rock at his knee cap. It stung, but it didn't break his leg. It hurt enough for him to cry, but most of the tears were brought on by the fact that someone had tried to break his leg for being an offspring.
Izaya groaned, fingers clawing at the ground. Instantly, the brunette rushed over and shook Izaya, who slapped his hand away and gasped awake.
Shizuo fell backwards, staring at Izaya's iris'.
Or lack there of.
Izaya's eyebrows narrowed before realizing what Shizuo was looking at. He slapped his hand over his eye, shoving the brunette away.
"What did you want? Why'd you wake me up?"
"What's..wrong," Shizuo shook his head. "Nevermind. You looked like you were upset. Having a nightmare. I don't know. It was just an instinct."
"To make sure I don't have a bad dream? What a braindead brute you are."
Shizuo rolled his eyes, sighing before plopping back down on the ground.
"I can't sleep."
"Now I can't either, Shizu. And I'm hungry. Unwrap some of our food."
The brunette rolled over, taking some beef from the ripped off jacket sleeve. He tossed it at Izaya, who bit into eagerly. The raven got up and stretched, letting an audible 'pop' come from his back.
"I'm going to guess it's 6 in the morning considering the sky doesn't look too dark. Neither of us are going to sleep now, so let's start walking."
Shizuo grabbed the backpack, hopping up and following behind the raven.
_"Where are we going?"
"Ask me that, again, and I'll just leave you here."
Shizuo scowled, rolling his eyes and kicking a rock.
"Well, are we just aimlessly walking or do we have an actual place to go?"
Izaya groaned, stopping his fast paced walk, making Shizuo sigh in relief. He was tired, anyway.
"We're visiting someone. The town is hidden off, so they made sure it was far off from any other village or town." He sped up, again.
"Who is it? Is it another Original? Is it a human? Who-"
Around Shizuo, the desert changed into a large forest, accompanied by the complete set of rain forest animal noises.
"Okay, okay. No more questions about it. I'm going to get lost in this."
Shizuo groaned, punching at a tree, expecting his hand to go right through it. Sadly, his knuckles hit a hard trunk, and he yelped, shaking his hand.
"That hurt, eh? I thought you were big-n'-strong."
Shizuo growled, looking around for Izaya. He spotted him, leaning on a tree and smiling.
In reality, the yelp was more of surprise than pain, but he was too impatient to explain this. Instead, he walked up to the smaller man and lifted him to his face.
"Listen here, flea. I'm hungry and tired, and I just wanted to know what I'm in for."
Izaya laughed, watching Shizuo gape as the forest disintegrated back into the desert. The brunette dropped Izaya and waited for him to get back up so they could continue on their way.
_Shizuo did not expect for the raven to be greeted by being punched in the face, but he still couldn't help but laugh when the Original flew across the room.
"I thought I told you to leave me alone, Izaya?"
"What, an old friend can't visit?"
"We're not friends, asshole."
Shizuo watched the two go at it and couldn't help but be amused that Izaya wasn't admired by everyone like he had imagined. The blond kid looked pretty annoyed that Izaya had stepped foot past the wall that hid off their underground village. The place was filled with women who all seemed invested in actively ignoring the kid Izaya had called "Bakyura." The kid didn't seem to pleased to be called such, but he didn't correct the raven.
"Uh, Bakyura," Shizuo interrupted, watching Izaya's grin become much wider and Bakyura's face get much more irritated looking.
"My name is Kida. What do you want?"
Shizuo's eyebrow twitched. He sure was getting tired of all the pretentious comments addressed at him.
Kida seemed to take notice and lifted his hands up in the air before smiling.
"Sorry, sorry. This scumbag always put me in a bad mood," he stuck his thumb towards Izaya. The raven's grin slightly twitched, much to Shizuo's amusement. "What can I help you with, my man? Food? Bathroom? Hookups?" He called out to a nearby girl, who simply gagged at him and continued on. "She's just playing. She'd be totally heart broken if I suggested she date you instead, but I'm a pl-"
"Actually, a bathroom would be perfect. I really have to go."
Izaya smiled, poking his head between them. "Perfect. Give me more time to speak with my favorite Bak-yu-ra.~"
Kida shoved the man's face away before calling out for someone to escort Shizuo to restroom. The blond thanked him and followed the girl.
As soon as Shizuo was out of ear shot, the raven's face turned much more grave.
"Do you have a private place?"
"What about your friend?"
"I'll find him later. I need a favor."
Kida sighed, adjusting his scarf.
_"You know I haven't talked to them in ages, right?" Kida sipped his tea, eying the higher ranking Original with aloofness. Izaya adjusted his ring, smiling to himself.
"Do you not have contact with either of them?"
"No. Saki and I ran off. The only person who still has contact with either Mikado or Anri is Shinra, and he'd still have to go through Celty just to be able to talk to someone that works under them."
Izaya sighed, knocking a chess piece over and mumbling 'checkmate,' causing Kida to groan. He set the pieces back up and signaled towards to board to gesture a rematch offer. Izaya moved his piece.
"Then let me talk to Shinra."
"Izaya..." Kida moved a piece as well, putting his cup down. "I want you to listen to me very closely. No one is pleased that you are here. Most of them hate you, and I'm one of them. You abandoned us when we needed you. We have to send off one of the strongest people we have to go out and talk to them just to survive. And we still have to do God awful things to avoid getting ratted out. Thank God for dirty cops, but they aren't the most secure people to rely on."
Izaya stared at his untouched cup and smirked.
"I was kicked out, since you can't recall correctly." He moved another piece.
Kida stood, knocking his drink over onto the board. His fists clenched up, and he seemed much more agitated than before.
"You did that to yourself. Hiding behind your damn berzerk is a one way trip to being alone. We take plenty of precautions to avoid that ever happening again, but you coming back here is just reminding us all why we have to live this way in the first place."
"Is everyone calling it berzerk but me?"
"If you didn't have that damn mental breakdown, you'd know what it's called." Kida sighed, brushing his hair back. "Look, Izaya, if what you were asking wasn't so risky for the rest of us, I'd have no problem trying to help you this one time. But taking out the Core? The elites amongst elites of officers? That's a suicide mission. They have Anri and Mikado, Izaya, and you can't take out Anri. And I wouldn't let you do it, anyway."
"If they don't cooperate, I'd have no choice. And if you tried to stop me, I'd have to take you down, too."
Kida looked over, knowing full well Izaya could do it, too. When he had lost control, he had nearly killed Saki to make a point. Well, no. To be fair to Izaya, it had almost killed Saki. But Kida couldn't help but pin the blame on the raven. He had let it happen. He was beginning to have a migraine.
"I just need you to contact Mikado, at the very least."
Kida bit his lip, looking out the window and tapping his foot.
"I can't do that, and you know it. But I can't leave, either, Izaya. We have so many offspring here. They'd be defenseless without Shinra, Saki, and I. We need to be here. We have to protect them."
Izaya leaned back, staring at the blond with eyes that made Kida feel weak and exposed.
"You know that's a lie, Kida. You know you can hide the town. You know I can hide the town. If you help me, I help you."
Kida folded his arms.
"We haven't fought since the first break out. And, remember, the Originals here aren't just us ranked. We have the other guys here, too. Remember? The people we released to protect and the ones you abandoned? Do you think they are just going to line up to help you?"
"Then let's get to training. I need to get Shizuo -"
"The big guy you brought along?"
"Yeah. I need to get him to be less...stupid, to put gently."
"Gently..."
"Kida," the raven put his hand on the boy's shoulder and smiled, "if we do this, we can win. We can take them down. We're stronger than them when we are prepared and ready for anything. We can get you your friends back, and I can leave you guys in peace. If we do this, we can actually live."
Kida leaned his head against the window, staring at the citizens of the city he, Izaya, Shinra, and Celty had built together for the Originals to be safe. He took his scarf off, rubbing at the 10 on his neck to remind him why he had built this city in the first place. Protect and grow stronger. Protect and grow stronger. He had the intentions of taking the Core down in the first place in order to save his friends. Finally, he nodded.
"I'll have to get word on where Shinra went. The town's grown since you left. It's more of a city if you haven't noticed."
"I have, but I didn't know if it was my bad memory or not. So you're in?"
Kida sighed and signaled for the raven to follow him. Finally, he reached a large, empty plot and stepped back, letting the blond get to work.
"We have this whole system," he mumbled, getting on his knees and placing his hands on the ground. "A lot of the offspring try to build things or have some kind of responsibility to feel useful." The ground rumbled underneath him. "But I usually have to go around and fix it. Give me some metal or something."
Izaya slipped off his ring and tossed towards Kida. The blond put his hand over the ring, and the metal melted under his hand. The metal expanded and burst upwards, forming into a small home.
Kida huffed, getting up and popping his back. He gestured towards the home, pouting.
"Best I could do. It's been awhile since I had to make something out of basically nothing."
"Still the master creator. It looks good. Where will Shizuo be a-"
The blond laughed, raising an eyebrow.
"In there with you, of course. I'm not going to go out of my way to please you."
Izaya puffed his cheeks, trying to ignore his annoyance with having to sleep with the restless kid.
_Shizuo thanked Kida for the blanket, denying his offer for a 'real girl to act as a pillow.' He smiled, sitting on the couch Kida made just 'big enough for one.' Izaya tapped his foot impatiently, trying to convince Shizuo to let him sit down.
"Pop up your own couch."
"It's not the same," the raven cried, pulling at the boy's shirt in an attempt to get him out of the chair. Instead, his feet slipped from under him, and he fell over.
Shizuo smirked at him, staring down at the man.
"You can have the couch when I go to bed."
Izaya's mouth fell open, shaking his head.
"Kida made one bed, for me. ME, Shizu. You sleep on the couch, understood?"
_"Stop hogging the blanket."
"You stop hogging the blanket, you stupid flea. I'm cold."
Izaya rubbed his face, trying to ignore the fact that the brute was basically pushing him off the bed with his leg. The couch was way to uncomfortable for the brunette's back, apparently, and he had crawled into the bed and pushed Izaya out.
"I'm sleeping in here now, flea. You can have the couch."
Izaya swallowed his pride and shut his eyes, trying to sleep. He had a long day tomorrow, and Shizuo did, too. He just didn't know it, yet.
_HI. This took forever, omg. I hope you enjoyed the chapter, and I'm very, very sorry I promised two a day and not doing so the last two updates. The semester is almost over, so all the work is getting piled on top of me. BUT as soon as I stop having such a heavy work load, the story WILL have more chapters.
Okay, okay. Hope you enjoyed! I'll see ya, tomorrow.
(If you're worried about the summary, I didn't think there was anything triggering this chapter, but if I'm wrong, I'm very sorry. Please tell me, and I'll edit the update. :))
