They stumble back to Shizuo's apartment, too invested in each other to take notice of much else. They're lucky not many people are out on the street this late at night, but for the few there, the cool bite of early autumn air gives them an excuse to huddle close. Izaya is warm against him, grinning mischievously most of the way. The closer they get, though, he'll catch something close to a frown on Izaya's face but dismisses it to worry about himself.
He has no idea what he's doing. He wants this, if the tent in his pants is any indication, but...with Izaya? To be fair, again, he's not in his real body and Izaya has no way of knowing it's him. And this is good, right? The gypsy had said Izaya was the key to figuring out how to change back. Plus, his pants are getting uncomfortably tight, and the way Izaya has started groping him when he's not looking isn't helping.
They reach his door, finally, and he lets them in quickly. They barely get their shoes off. Shizuo wastes no time in shoving Izaya back against the closed door and trying to kiss him senseless. When he turns his head away, however, Shizuo pauses.
"Actually," Izaya smiles innocently, fake, although he can only tell because he's known him so long. "My throat is awfully parched… could I have something to drink? Tea, maybe?"
"Oh... Uh, sure." Shizuo pauses, drawing away from the devil himself. "It'll-it'll take a few to make, is that okay?" He asks, drawing further back towards the kitchen. Izaya smiles and nods, moving to sit on Shizuo's couch with red eyes trained on him. He turns around, heads to the kitchen with the eerie tingle that comes from Izaya sliding his eyes away.
He feels like he's forgetting something, but he can't think of what.
Izaya waits till Naoki was in the kitchen, and then waits a few seconds more to be safe, before he moves. He draws his knife out, in his left hand which happens to be as skilled as his right, and goes into Shizuo's bedroom. He's been here a few times, snuck in and snooped just for fun, and now Naoki is claiming to live here?
'Lying scoundrel.'
"Doesn't look like you moved out, Shizu-chan…" He whispers, inspecting a torn bowtie on the floor and a cracked picture of Shizuo and his family atop the bedside table. There are no signs of struggle, which there would be of course, had Naoki attacked Shizuo. He briefly checks the bathroom; nothing to be found.
"Are you in my bedroom?" Naoki calls suddenly, and damn does he have great hearing. He heads silently back to the bedroom door, on edge but trying to relax.
"I am!" He calls back, smiling sweetly to help the effect carry to his voice. "Take your time, I have to..get ready~ Okay?" He purrs, shaking his jacket deliberately. If Naoki could hear his near silent footsteps, he'd hear that.
When no reply comes, he's sure he's bought some time. He walks around the bed, shucking off his jacket but laying it within reach. He glances around Shizuo's bedroom again, uneasy, and spots a closet.
'I have time.' He thinks, walking swiftly towards it. He opens it, hand slow as he can go and thankful when it doesn't creak. He peers inside, frowning at the darkness. There's a few coats off to the side, nothing special except Shizuo's shoes in the middle of the floor...
Except shoes didn't stand upright, did they? Unless they were on a foot. A foot attached to a leg clothed in dark pants he almost didn't see in the dark of the space. He shoves the coats aside, biting his tongue to keep a gasp at bay.
He drops to his knees, wincing at the tiny thud that makes, and feels for a pulse. Is it possible for a heart to pound so hard and sink like the titanic at the same time? Apparently so. He feels Shizuo's wrist, his neck, puts his palm under his nose and before his mouth praying for a puff of breath, and even lays his head against his chest to listen.
Nothing.
He drags the body-no not the body, Shizuo! He drags Shizuo forward, terrified with how stiff and cold he feels.
"Izaya-kun?" Naoki calls curiously.
"No, no, c'mon…" He whispers, and can't get his voice any higher than that. He considers chest compressions, but those wouldn't help someone so stiff and long gone. No wonder Naoki was so adamant about meeting him, how he knew so much. For some reason he had murderous intent towards Shizuo...and possibly himself.
"Izaya-kun, what's wrong?" Footsteps start to sounds, and he carefully pushes Shizuo back into the closet and shuts the door. No signs of struggle, no visible wounds or blood on Shizuo's body. It had to have been poison, or possibly something else that wasn't messy, but Occam's razor would suggest poison.
"I-I'm okay." He breathes, hand pressed to the door for a few moments. He swears then to avenge his...to avenge Shizuo.
He moves to the bed and gets under the covers, just in time as Naoki enters. He ducked under enough that it appears as though he's nude under the covers, waiting for his lover.
"I heard a door close…?" He says, moving towards the bed with hesitation. There's no tea in his hands, abandoned in the kitchen. 'Tch, it was probably poisoned.'
"The bathroom." Izaya purrs weakly, shifting a little and readying his knife. Naoki is looking at him, with an almost worried look. "I told you I was preparing." He coos, but he stills looks worried.
"Are you okay?" Naoki questions, giving Izaya room to pause. He steps closer and sits on the bed, eyes trained on his like he's talking to a frightened child.
"...what?" Izaya breathes, grip around his knife loosening as he draws in a shaky breath.
"We don't have to do this." He murmurs, handsome face sincere. "I'll let you get dressed, and we can just talk." He offers, and it almost sounds nice. Naoki sounds nice, warm and playful when he wants, if a bit strange.
"We could have that tea." Naoki smiles at him, sweet like the poison he probably have Shizuo, and Izaya scowls hard. It's all the warning he gets.
He lunges at Naoki, knocking the both of them off the bed, and he pins the taller man down on the floor with a knife at his throat and knees on either side of his stomach. Naoki goes perfectly still, arms pinned under Izaya's legs and face hardened. He grabs for his hair with his free hand, yanking Naoki's head back forcefully and a sinister grin.
"Would we have fucked first, just like this?" He snarls, watching the emotions flickers over Naoki's face. "Would you let me ride you, then get strangled in my sleep?!"
"What?" He gasps, struggling now. Izaya tights his hold, slamming his head back against Shizuo's hard and uncarpeted floor.
"You knw, before you killed me?!" He tries to keep his voice below a shout, lest the neighbors hear.
"You're so fucking insane!" Naoki growls louder than Izaya, and he starts laughing. A crazed, manic, pained laughter.
"Says the murderer!" He gasps through crazed giggles, feeling his prey stiffen. Those stormy blue eyes (he'd wondered if they were contacts, but never dismissed them as real when his own were such a deep blood red) are so sincere and confused that he almost believes it. It might not have been Naoki, he might be working for someone and not have a clue there's a dead man in the closet, but Izaya is too fueled by grei-by resentment and, and...fuck!
"What are you talking about?!" Naoki demands, and Izaya is done playing games.
He yanks the blanket off Shizuo's bed and holds in over himself as a sort of protection. He slits Naoki's throat with his left hand, only serving one of the arteries so he'll have time to talk. Blood gushes, spraying some, but the blanket saves him from getting drenched. He places it over Naoki's neck, smiling at the terror he sees in those stupid blue eyes.
That greyish color was ugly anyway.
He stands up, listening to Naoki gasp and grunt in pain. He opens the closet door and pulls Shizuo's body out, smiling warily with a glance at one extremely wide eyed man.
"I wasn't in the bathroom." He says, pointing out the obvious as he crouches down and pulls Shizuo's head onto his lap. He strokes his fingers through limp blonde locks, glad golden brown eyes are closed.
"G-guh…" Naoki is starting to lose consciousness, but Izaya doesn't look over. He'd wanted to question him, find out why he killed Shizuo and what his plans were, but looking down at Shizuo… he can't look away. His vision is a little blurry, if you can believe it, and he swallows down a lump.
Click. Click click.
Izaya frowns when he hears something. He glances around the room, over Naoki's unconscious body, but can't find a source. The bedroom is still, no signs of anything suspicious.
Click click! Click!
A faint green glow draws his eyes back to Naoki, just enough light shining to see a bloodied black insect crawling out from the slit in Naoki's throat. The man is likely only unconscious, but it won't be long till he's dead.
The insect, a beetle on horrified closer inspection, tumbles down the bloody man's neck and onto the floor. It rights itself with some struggle, and crawls towards he and Shizuo's body. It's a dung beetle by the looks of it, or a Scarab beetle as the Egyptians called it.
"How in the hell…" Izaya whispers, no explanation as to how it was alive inside that man's neck. Or what it was even doing in Japan, in the heart of Ikebukuro! The bright green glow didn't make sense either, of course.
Clickclickclick!
Did they even make that clicking noise? Izaya wasn't sure, but the closer it got the more it clicked and the more it glowed. It was headed in a straight path for Shizuo, bloody armored body shining. The green light started to swirl around the room, warm when it brushed past Izaya and rustled his hair. The beetle's creepy little legs latched onto Shizuo's hair, though Izaya was quick to knock it away and pull his… pull Shizuo's limp closer to him. Strange, how he seemed to be getting less stiff the more the lights swirled, but Izaya was too preoccupied by a naughty little beetle to think about it.
"Oh no." He tsks at it, shaking a finger at the bug flailing to get upright again. "You're not climbing in his neck. If you want a dead body so much, go back to him." He points at Naoki, frowning when the now upright beetle seems to almost...shake his head? It's hard to tell, considering he's small and doesn't technically have a neck (does it?) and tries to climb onto Shizuo again.
"You'd best let him, loverboy." Izaya's head snaps up, finding an old woman smiling at him. She's dressed up like a gypsy, and the green swirls of light are centered around her. She's got the same eyes as Naoki, same skin tone too, but no accent.
"...what!?" He hisses, hugging Shizuo's body like a child might a teddy bear. He feels warm, startlingly so, and Izaya is having a hard time breathing past the shock. 'I'm losing it. I've gone and snapped!'
"Oh you were always on the crazy side!" She laughs, waving a hand like he's said something silly when he hasn't said anything at all. "Why worry about snapping now? You're fine, and that touch of insanity won't stop him from adoring you a few months down the line."
"Stop who…?" He asks, bristling a little when she gives him a look.
"I think you know."
"He's dead!" Izaya protests, and she laughs.
"He is. Until my little friend gets in there." She points at the beetle, arched up on it's sticky little legs like it's annoyed with Izaya's stubbornness. He relaxes his arms after a moment of hesitation, allowing Shizuo's pretty blond locks to brush the floor. The beetle scurries forward, latching onto his hair and starting to climb.
"Do you know what animal you remind me of?" The old gypsy woman asks, sitting down in front of him. The lights swirl around them like a shield, warm and safe.
"A spider?" He jokes, smiling warily at the beetle traveling up Shizuo's chin. "A louse? Maybe even a flea…?" He jokes, laugh cut short when she strikes the back of his head with surprising strength.
"I said an ANIMAL!" She snaps, old face wrinkled more with her irritation. "I have no idea why this dummy thinks you're so smart."
"A snake." He hisses back with narrowed eyes. "A black cat. A pig. Something unpleasant or disturbing, right?" He flinches when she raps her knuckles against his head, rather hard too. Izaya considers flashing his knife at her, and she actually slaps him.
"Do it and you'll regret it." She snaps, the glowing balls of green energy puffing angrily
behind her, and he backs down.
"Now, then…" She sighs, posing his temple again. "Where's that narcissism? That manic energy? Hmm? You're being awfully mild and bitter."
"I think you know why." He snaps back, feeling caged and alone suddenly. She smiles.
"A bird."
"...what?"
"You remind me most of a bird." She coos, almost literally. There's a flash, all the colors you could name exploding from Shizuo in a brilliant array of beauty. A glance at the gypsy and his heart stops dead for a moment. An elderly gypsy woman's body had been turned young and clothed like that of a goddess. The green swirls, standing out among the rest of the brilliant lights, are hiding her face from view as she stands with her arms spread wide.
"The Egyptians only got one thing wrong,"She speaks, and Izaya's eyes blow wide on shock as the light moves away.
"No way…" He whispers, heart pounding painfully in the brilliantly lit, warm bedroom.
"The sun God Ra, creator of the world and a symbol of creation, was a woman!" She's got the head of a bird now, beady black eyes blinking rapidly as her beak opens to somehow speak to him. "Little known fact, I'm also quite the matchmaker." She/they/it winks. In his arms Shizuo lurches, coughing, body shaking with the force. Izaya turns his eyes away from the Bird Goddess, drawn to perhaps the only person who could distract him from a God.
Shizuo is hacking, clutching his throat with one hand and the other braced against the floor. The beetle flies from his mouth, scurrying away, and for a heart stopping moment Izaya thinks he'll drop dead again. But instead, Shizuo turns to look at him with wide golden brown eyes.
They stare at each other, alone in the world for a few brief moments. Then Ra touches him, lays her hand on his shoulder, and his mind is transported elsewhere. Time speeds through Izaya's head as he stares at Shizuo. When they first met, all their silly little fights, his time with Naoki, his date with Naoki, this moment, and then..it carries on.
He sees them having a date, first at a cute little restaurant, then an aquarium, then a picnic on a rooftop, and many more. They fight, and tease, and have sex, and get older along with their friends and families. They eventually take a trip to Canada, have an over the top wedding in red and navy suits, destroy the cake, kiss while covered in frosting.
There are more trips, more time spent together, till they pass in each others arms later in life. He doesn't see the cause, but it doesn't end there. As if looking at hundreds- no, thousands!- of TV screens, he sees their lives playing out across all universes and timelines.
He sees them as women, sees them as animals, sees them in the afterlife together, sees them alongside a gang of kids in red, sees himself in his teenage years as a private tutor for the idiot, sees them trapped together on an island, sees them in prison, traveling to alternate worlds, dating as teenagers, as werewolves, fighting titans, as doctors, a few zombie apocalypses, and as different people with similar faces.
Psyche and Tsugaru, Delic and Hibiya, Kanra and Shizuka- to name a few. Every time he sees them fall in love, sometimes sweetly and sometimes painfully, they're always together. A universal constant. Well, there is one timeline where his legs are broken in a fight and they're both lost, but it's gone and drowned under better endings before he can really think about it.
"Izaya, breathe!" Someone, Shizuo, yells, and does. The room is quiet, still and dark like it should be, and he's the one in Shizuo's arms now. He's warm, like Izaya always imagined he would be. He glances around the room, finding Ra and the beetle gone, and no sign of "Naoki" to be found.
"You have a lot of explaining to do." Izaya whispers, buzzing with excitement. The things he saw are already starting to fade away, but a clear imagine of Canada and suits and cake still lingers in the sweetest way.
"Yeah?" Shizuo laughs a little, smiling down at him almost cheekily. "In exchange for what?"
"A date." He promises, smirking back.
"Deal."
FINALLY RIGHT?
Proof, that I can actually complete stories.
Well...what did you think? I'm SO excited to see if you guys liked the end, so I'm really really really looking forward to comments!
Also I've been binge watching Doctor Who (David tenant and a little Christopher E) so if this had a sort of "preachy, complicated everything is beautiful and strange" kind of feel...that's why XD And also the wordings a bit britishy too but oh well,not like that's a bad thing
(I've also been dying to write a crossover between doctor who and Durarara so no one encourage me I have enough shitty stories to work on)
For Pities Sake SHOULD update soon. I know I've said that before but I dearly love that story and it won't be abandoned. I also have a start on the next chapter of Nooses Around Necks so keep an eye out for that.
As for The Bachelor...I might not finish that. Ever. I'm just out of ideas and wanting to work on more serious stuff.
As for Spoontasti's gift work (can't remember the title, but it's the Christmas one) I think I might wait till around next Christmas to pick it back up. It's halfway done, and what's another 10-11 months? lol