This is the end of the least romantic love story ever. Shizuo/Tom is platonic to the point where they don't even hold hands and Kadota/Izaya , to me, is honestly more like father and son than anything really. The last chapter is in Izaya's POV and we finally get a glimpse of how everything turned out this way. The years have not been kind DD:
I don't own a thing.
XXX
Late Spring
XXX
He breathed out and came to a conclusion.
Orihara Izaya was not of this world.
The color black made a barren spreadsheet for everything else in his path.
Neon lights flashed as respectable business turned from open to close. But dead ahead, he could only see the moon and the white glow that washed over all the parts of him that no one else could see.
He smiled, shoulders brushing against a pedestrian on an Ikebukuro street. The anonymity to each step brought glee. As the boundaries snapped, he had grown from his past. Orihara Izaya was now a changed man and he knew the definite difference between the paths of stark black and starch white.
Because he now stood in the depths of a grey sinkhole that sucked the ground from beneath his feet.
Yet, he didn't have the heart to pull himself out. From each scratch into the concrete to each grave in the soil, this was human history and the final proof of their very existence.
But like the love that he felt wholeheartedly, hate was also dealing him a nasty card. Izaya was certain that if the world were left to itself, he would surely be eating dirt by now.
And nothing, not even him, dealt well with hate.
So he plotted with clear determination that history would repeat itself (and even if it didn't, he would make sure it did). Because this loop was his to weave from the very beginning.
The bud of his first seed.
There was a buzz in his pocket. Izaya fished out his cell phone, glanced at the contact name and cut off the call. He wasn't about to welcome a part of his lousy past with open arms. He was about to slip the phone back into his pocket but it was already buzzing once more.
The name was the same.
The consistency brought a grimace to his lips and he motioned to shut his cell off entirely.
His fingers pressed into the button like the warm palm that landed over his.
In replacement of the name, Kadota Kyouhei appeared instead.
Izaya looked up mechanically. His breath was caught in his own surprise but he had enough pride and dignity to brush off the hand that he had once held with sentiments better left in another man's arms.
"Dotachin." He greeted with a smile, the nickname had not changed, not even since the day they broke up. "How have you been?"
It had been months and months since they each saw the other.
Izaya's casualties were ignored and instead Kadota had his eyes set on seeking the truth beneath the layers of lies Izaya had build for himself, like a foreign castle stacked up high. "Why?"
"What are you trying to say?"
Izaya took a step back, gaze hardening even as his smile remained the same. Maybe that's why he could never let down his guard whenever he was near Dotachin. The man could dissect him, even without words.
"Why did you do this after so long?"
They both knew what he was referring to. This was their first spring away from Raijin. It had been a year since graduation and they hadn't seen each other since. But aside from the absence of their uniforms, they both looked exactly the same.
"I've been planning this since I've met him."
It had always been him, him as in the one and only that ever stood between them.
He was Heiwajima Shizuo.
"You're lying."
Ikebukuro was their backdrop. One had the entire world of love left to offer and the other had finally found the conscience to forfeit in their last attempt. Kadota looked straight at him, dark eyes piercing the red orbs as Izaya shrugged nonchalantly.
"It hardly matters. Its just a matter of time till he gets back out anyway."
It really didn't. People were selfish and lonely creatures, and he was the same himself. Izaya was never in any position to change for Dotachin. But he had finally learned to stop taking advantage of every single weakness he was trusted into taking a glimpse of.
"This is your revenge, isn't it, Izaya?"
Izaya may be human but he too was in love.
They both knew it, all too well. But Izaya continued to deny it all.
"No. It's a gift, to all of you."
His cell phone buzzed, he took the call without a second glance but the habitual soft whispers no longer existed. His eyes were downcast in concentration and a car passed them by.
Kadota waited and Izaya ended the call a few seconds later.
"Your uncles again, Izaya?"
The offhand comment was because of love while the rare reply may as well be considered to be the lingering aftertaste of a great romance. A memory of their high school days.
"No, it's the yakuza this time."
Izaya turned to walk off. This may be his last attempt at salvation but it was most certainly his first offering of the truth to anyone else other than himself.
000
It had been two weeks since Kadota had placed his heart in his hands with a confession that was laced with more honesty than Izaya was born with.
Waiting, he acted normal and interacted as though nothing had changed.
Unconsciously, he was weighing the options and the spiral of consequences that followed. Kadota had seen too many of his lies and the webs that he was capable of weaving, there were no benefits to accepting the offer. Izaya could only see the plan forming in his head, nothing else should waver from its set course and Kadota should just take Izaya's promise as a joke and another lie to add to his collection.
He rested his eyes on Kadota and he was set on carrying out his rejection.
The bell rung.
There was a commotion, one that was just for him and him.
Kadota turned around at the soft gasp that came from behind him and he knew that he was the only one to notice.
Izaya was falling.
He clenched his eyes shut, his black uniform stood in contrast to the blue of Raira's usual dress code and his hand was outstretched in his last attempt to help himself. He had been running to catch up and it had been raining, this entire week.
No one in the stairwell made a move but everyone had their eyes trained on his black silhouette, he could feel it against the strong upheaval of human instincts that rested heavily on his chest.
Kadota wasn't a hero and Izaya patiently waited for the pain.
There wasn't a single expectation that surfaced to mind because Kadota had played pedestrian all his life. Only this time, he had reached out from the crowd and caught Izaya's out stretched hand in his.
His fingers wrapped around his wrist.
His heart was caught in his throat.
Kadota pulled him back on to the safety of the stair's landing and Izaya opened his eyes. His wrist was in his palm and warmth spread along each vein. Blood pulsed and their adrenaline left them cold.
"Watch it."
Izaya's heart was pounding. It could have been the shock that Kadota Kyouhei had caught him falling but Kadota had already let go of his hand and he was turning to walk away.
Izaya stared after him, eyes wide as an unsuspecting feeling surfaced to just beneath the red. It was impulse and it was now or never.
"Dotachin!"
Kadota turned around, he didn't know why.
"I like you too."
It was inaudible but Kadota could read the way his lips had curved. Izaya was sure the other understood, it was the way that he had cared for him when no one else would. It could have been fate or it could have been a coincidence but Izaya accepted his love because he might just like him above the rest.
"Izaya, don't call me that."
And he laughed wholeheartedly at the reply but the only thing that remained was a bitter smile.
Or not. Because that day was also the day Dotachin figured him out. Izaya may be in a sick and loving relationship with the entire human race but he was human too. Love could change him and Kadota had placed the bets that one day, love would change him for the better.
Izaya didn't mind because he was wishing for the same.
That had been three months before the end of their first year at Raijin.
000
His high school life had always been short of respectable and acceptable, there wasn't a single element of surprise to that. And then one month back, Dotachin saw something no one should ever have to see.
It was the day where he unravelled into something human, someone with a heart and soul.
And then he was paving his future with his own two hands.
Standing up with a small stretch, he stepped out of the art room without another word. Past Dotachin by the door and made his way right down the hall, through the staircase where he had accepted Dotachin's confession and out into the solid stretch of Ikebukuro territory.
Days went by where he was out on the streets more than he was in class, conversing with people twice his age and entering places no one proper would take a step into. But no one said a thing, not even his teachers and especially not his three counts of make-believe friends.
And then it had been their last day at Raijin.
Kadota confronted him by the opened gates. Izaya wasn't surprised, he had been anticipating it.
"He rejected you, didn't he, Izaya?"
There was no hello, no greetings, just a few words that struck him right to the core. Izaya knew he should just walk away but he was betraying himself, his conscience had fell in love with a man named Kadota Kyouhei and it had finally learned to sell himself out.
"Why do you even ask?" You saw. You saw.
His accusations stayed with him and he continued, he couldn't help himself anymore. The words were coming out of his mouth and he knew what they meant even if he wished he were just speaking nonsense.
"You don't know him, Dotachin."
Him as in the one and only, Heiwajima Shizuo.
It was an accusation that was shot right back at him.
"And I wish you hadn't."
There was no remorse and it was like Kadota was never a part of all their affairs. Even though he had stood in the centre of it, watching with skepticism three hundred and sixty degrees all around.
Like his wish for Izaya, he was wishing the same for himself.
Izaya was short of doing what he did best, turn and run the other way. He stared hard, blunt fingernails nipping into his skin because what he saw was just the thing that he wished he could have never seen.
Dotachin offered unconditional love.
But the offer was never his to accept, his conscience caught up with him or maybe he had spent too much time with the righteous Kadota Kyouhei after all.
It was unfair and for once, he couldn't accept the too-good-to-be-true offer that Dotachin had made. He was selfish and he knew that he would never change even if he could.
He didn't turn away. Izaya looked up to face Kadota for one last time.
"You are too good for me."
The last bitter smile he pulled for Dotachin was the last of his humanity.
000
Their graduation marked the end of their wild days.
And no one said good-bye.
There could have been regrets in any one of them but Izaya had none. Not even when they all retreated back to their ordinary lives, back to a time when they didn't know each other and then back before their worlds collided with a sharp pang to the heart.
Apart they could have been considered as everyday people with odd job abilities. Together they were the extraordinary that made history skeptical in comparison because they were real and they were present now.
Their existence would mar every street corner and even they themselves could not forget one for the other.
Because during the short three years at Raijin, they had all managed to accomplish something.
Shizuo created a monster, Kadota fell in love with the devil, Izaya became human, and Shinra stepped down as Ikebukuro's moderator. Whether it was something they should be proud of or not, it was still an action that made a lasting impact on all of them.
Orihara Izaya was across the street and Ikebukuro was dark but he saw it all.
Shizuo was released from custody (far too soon) and the police station's bright lights made blonde locks glimmer gold.
Izaya may not be a lot of things but he was a self-aware individual who knew his flaws. He was a boy with a good-looking face. He was also the boy with the ugly personality. Izaya was never the type to deny himself, especially not if he understood himself the best.
His eyes were a shimmering red.
And then another man stepped into the picture.
Still, love brought out the very worst in him.
He had dark eyes and brown dreadlocks. A simple set of wired frames rested on the bridge of his nose and Izaya recognized him, it was Tanaka Tom but that had been all that Izaya could remember.
He was not someone that was part of their world, their as in him and Shizu-chan of course.
Even though his network expanded outwards like an intertwining spider web, he had never anticipated that the two knew each other. He had only been faintly aware of Tanaka Tom's existence.
But this man's impact far outweighed any of his expectations.
The expression on Shizuo's face was different, the anger in his eyes, the concentration that would firmly knit his brows, they were all gone. And Heiwajima Shizuo was looking too gentle for a ticking time bomb with a hair-trigger temper.
Shizuo was his monster, a terror only he could handle.
He thought he had moved on from his high school days but the clench in his chest was telling him otherwise. He could not forget, the red paint could have been Shizuo's blood and his confession could have been him, strung up high on toxic art supplies.
He watched the two walk down the street, Shizu-chan was smiling and so was Tanaka Tom.
He didn't like it but as he had told Dotachin, it hardly mattered anymore.
The meaning of everything he had done finally came to him. Shizuo had Tom, and then Izaya wanted Dotachin. His logic may have been twisted all around but he had only been in high school.
It was the time of their lives, a short three years where any of them could have changed for the other.
But it was too late, it was all over now.
And Orihara Izaya was the same as he had always been.
Lifting his head to gaze the challenge eye to eye, the late spring breeze caressed his cheek and the gentleness to the touch made him sick. This was only the start of his revenge, there was much more to go. His disgust twisted into genuine hate and his smirk had never been so convincing.
After all, this was all for him.
"I hope you're going to like what I've planned for you, Ikebukuro."
000
The day after, Orihara Izaya had already left for Shinjuku.
XXX Kuro
This was a blast. And I am still pondering whether I should add Izaya/Ikebukuro into the summary. XD