The future that never was

There was a strange human sitting in front of him. Izaya had no ID for him, but the man acted like he should be here. He knew the type and usually it meant illegal trouble. The guy had short spiked blond hair, designer jeans and a tee, as well as sun glasses and an old looking fur trimmed parka.

"Your name was?" Izaya asked.

The man smirked. Izaya put him at about twenty. "I didn't say. Look I know you like puzzles so I need you to solve this one. I'll pay you whatever."

The unnamed guy set a journal on the table. It was tricky not to react given he had the same one locked in a drawer but looking much newer.

"What exactly is it you're after?" Izaya asked.

The mystery guy sighed. "My mother is going to be kidnapped. She's pregnant with my little sister. Dad can't find her, so he sent me to you." Mystery guy slid across a storage box address. "Anything you find, put in here please."

"You don't want me handing it to you?" Izaya asked.

"It's not for me. My brother will need it." Mystery guy stood to leave.

"I haven't agreed yet."

"You will. Dad said so."

Shizuo frowned. He usually had an instant judge of someone. The Izaya look alike was something else. Shizuo's mouth thinned. His instincts were screaming protect rather than chase off. It was Izaya's coat and the man certainly smelt a little like him. So why was the guy following him?

Shizuo sighed and took out his phone choosing to dial the nuisance. He had a feeling if he confronted the mystery man, things would change.

"Shizu-chan, look at that the beast can learn." Izaya's chipper annoying self said.

"Shut it, flea." Shizuo snapped. "Why are you having me followed?"

There was a minute pause that spoke volumes. "I'm not. What do they look like?"

"He's wearing your damn coat."

"Shizu-chan, someone else can have the same-

"It's your damn coat. It's got your damn scent. Who is he? He feels like you."

"Interesting. Apparently his father sent him to me. His pregnant mother has gone missing."

Shizuo frowned. "So not your coat?"

"I'm wearing mine, Shizu-chan. I don't yet have an ID…"

Shizuo wasn't listening. It was Izaya's coat but the scent was faint. Besides that the guy felt a little like Izaya, but his hair was dyed blond and he felt like…

"Hey flea," Shizuo said warily. "What would you name your kid if it was a boy?"

"Strange question, Shizu-chan." Izaya responded. "Hypothetically if I have one, I'd guess I'd go for Psyche."

Shizuo sighed lowered the phone and looked over at the young man trying not to get caught watching him. Raising his voice he called out loud enough to be heard and startle the guy. "PSYCHE!"

The guy grinned and waved. Shizuo groaned lifting the phone back to his ear. "You won't find his mother or anything about it."

"Why not, Shizu-chan?" Izaya asked curious, always so damn curious.

"Because it hasn't happened yet." Shizuo answered walking over to the man. Psyche didn't move but had a beaming smile as he removed his sunglasses. His eyes were red but in the light they looked almost pink. "He's called Psyche."

Shizuo ended the call and pocketed the phone. With a sigh he looked at Izaya's son. Their son. "You like sweets?" He asked still processing.

The young man smiled. "Yeah mom. I love sweets."

Why did Shizuo know so much about the mystery human? Izaya sighed watching the two sitting happily in a bakery, table piled high with sweets. He knew what his enemy was getting at. Psyche was apparently his son from the future. So why then did the two look like they were getting along so well?

Both of them looked up as he walked through the door, nose crinkling at the strong sugary scent. Neither one of them said anything as he joined them, choosing to sit next to Shizuo, rather than his apparent future son.

"Why couldn't your dad figure it out?" Shizuo asked continuing an ongoing conversation it seemed.

"He was distracted. Auntie Kuri was killed. Two days later mom went missing. Shinra had to sedate dad."

Shizuo sighed. "A mental break?"

"Yeah. Things got bad. It didn't help aunt M went nuts."

"So why the worry…" Shizuo's glanced at Izaya and sighed. "…about your mother?"

Psyche grinned pulling a folder from his bag. "Because mom didn't have her strength."

Izaya's fingers froze on the file. "Strength? You got a sister I don't know about, Shizu-chan?"

Psyche frowned looking between them. "You don't know? Mom is a woman."

Well obviously that was the case, but it didn't answer his question. Shizuo snatched the file from him. "…Psyche is talking about me, flea. So what happened?" Shizuo turned back to Psyche. "I'm on testosterone. I don't have any female genitalia."

"That's your medical file. I swiped it from Shinra." Psyche grinned. "You have a womb. You told- tell me- that you have a one way system, a thin wall of skin, the doctors didn't notice until you were pregnant."

Shizuo handed the file back to him and sighed. "Guess that was pointless then."

"Your parents knew. They didn't say anything because they didn't know you were gay." Psyche shrugged. "The doctors had you fiddled with so you wouldn't ovulate until you had sex."

Izaya watched Shizuo clench his teeth and shrug. "Guess so. Guess being a virgin is a good thing."

Psyche grinned. "But then you wouldn't have me or Delic. Twins run in the family."

Shizuo paled. Izaya opened the file, seeing the dates and scans. "This is a years time."

"Yeah. The rule for time travel is that you can't be in the same time zone as your past or future self. This was the closest I could get. I'll have to get back before y'know."

Shizuo snorted. "You'll be here a long time then. Not happening."

"It does." Psyche shrugged. "All you can do mom, is change the father."

"No more hiding things." Izaya interrupted. "Tell me straight."

Psyche rolled his eyes and smirked. It was a shock. "Alright. You're my dad, Shizuo is my mom. You conceive me and my twin within the next year. When mom gets pregnant again two decades later, aunt K gets murdered, aunt M goes nuts and mom goes missing. You can't think rationally and sent me to someone who can. The past you."

Psyche pulled out more files and handed them over. "That's everything." Psyche looked down at his lap, twiddling his thumbs. "So, um mom can we hang out?"

"If you want." Shizuo shrugged. "I'll be out smoking."

Izaya said nothing waiting until Shizuo had left the store. "What aren't you saying?"

Psyche chomped on the sugary pastry. "Alright. It wasn't a happy marriage. You and mom were constantly breaking up, making up and fighting for custody. You married three times and divorced twice. The third time mom gave you divorce papers, you got her pregnant. Most of the time Delic was with mom and I was with you."

"Who wanted to get married?" Izaya asked.

"You did. Every time mom got pissed off, she threatened divorce. But you both sabotaged each other's relationships. You didn't let anyone else touch mom. Delic told me mom was the same."

"So there were other people then?"

"If you can call them relationships, sure."

"I'll need information-

Psyche groaned. "But I wanna hang out with mom."

"Tomorrow morning, my office." Izaya decided.

Psyche grinned. "Thanks dad." He watched his son run outside and hug Shizuo. Then he opened the file and stared at his younger sister's mutilated body.

Izaya focused on his sister's murder. From the family photos it was easy to see she'd become a beautiful adult. Single and staying with her twin, as he'd expected. So they hadn't managed to kidnap Kasuka and keep him.

Shizuo looked happy in the picture despite what Psyche had said. Their two children stood in the centre, whilst he and Shizuo stood either side. Shizuo looked docile and had a ring. Izaya looked the same. Psyche and Delic were holding hands. He could guess their relationship.

Unlike his future self, he looked at everything clinically and logically. So he slept just fine and woke to psyche already writing up a time line on the murder board he'd spread across the room.

"Why didn't your brother come with you?" Izaya asked in greeting.

The squeak of a marker stopped. "Because Delic thinks you did it." Psyche said. "According to him, mom tried to go out on her own a week before her disappearance. You got overprotective and told her the only way she'd leave you this time was dead."

Izaya winced. "Well it is usually the spouse. In this case I'm sure it's not me."

"I know that but Delic was mainly raised by mom. He didn't want anything to do with you."

"Because we argued?"

"Because mom didn't get pregnant by choice the first time."

Izaya fumbled the marker, hearing it hit the floor. "I definitely wouldn't do that."

"You and mom didn't talk about it. There's a reporter working with a personal investigator. They wanted dirt on uncle Kasuka. The reporter asks him live on air about Shizuo's rare condition. The reporter got fired but the information was already out. Mom's enemies try to take her down with a different method." Psyche's gaze flicked to him. "Who better to use than her most hated."

"So we were drugged."

"Correct." Psyche continued writing. "Three days after, everyone finds out the truth. But you weren't mom's first."

"You know who was there?"

"Sure. Someone killed them. It was a serial killer."

Sure enough everything was in the files. "I could stop this."

"You can try."

Shizuo opened his eyes feeling there was someone in the room with him. It was the middle of the night. "Izaya? Psyche?" Reaching over he clicked on the light. It was a teenager, probably freshman.

"Hey mom." The plain looking teen climbed onto the bed and snuggled against him.

"Delic?" Shizuo guessed. No that was wrong.

"I'm Tsuki mom."

"Pretty name." Shizuo murmured.

"It was all you could see. A pale moon through a small window in a blacked out room." Tsuki said softly. "I'm here to protect you. I won't let anyone touch you."

"That's our job." Shizuo sighed.

Tsuki said nothing. Shizuo thought he might be asleep.

Shizuo willingly went to Izaya's apartment. He had to see what they'd found and why his youngest son looked like he'd fade away. Psyche greeted him with a hug, dragging him inside.

Izaya had a coffee, scribbling across the white board. "What's that?" Shizuo asked seeing pictures and names.

"Victims of a serial killer." Izaya said not looking at him.

"So we're drugged." Shizuo broke the strange silence. "Makes sense." Walking over he looked down at the gory murders on file. "What's this?"

"The killer's trademark."

"Eyes?" Shizuo frowned studying the picture. A face? Flicking through the victims he went to the newer ones, noticing the trademark become more pronounced, more practiced. It wasn't eyes in a circle. "…eyes of the moon." Shizuo whispered.

"Huh?" Psyche frowned leaning over his shoulder. "Guess it could be."

"You have the addresses?" Shizuo snapped at Izaya.

"Shizu-chan…"

"Addresses now!"

Shizuo snatched up the file and ran.

"What was that about?" Psyche frowned. Izaya was already following.

"Why don't we find out."

Shizuo was easy to follow. He barrelled straight for the nearest apartment, up the stairs and through the door. They'd interrupted a murder. A hooded figure with a switchblade, carving a clearer pattern into a dead body.

"You shouldn't be here." The boy spoke. Izaya put him at about fifteen.

"Tsuki, why?" Shizuo was already stepping forward. So they knew one another.

The boy looked up, standing slowly. Brown hair, red eyes. "They won't hurt you this time."

Shizuo reached out but the boy skipped back out of the way and ran for the balcony throwing himself out into the air. Shizuo rushed for the window, Izaya watched the boy smoothly get to the ground using rails and footholds.

"Shizu-chan, that would be…"

"Our youngest son. Tsuki." Shizuo murmured. "Named because that's all his mom could see through a small window in a blackout room." Shizuo grimaced clutching the list and walking past them. "I'll track him down."

"Shizu-chan, this is a cr-

"Shut it flea." Shizuo grumbled storming away.

Psyche whistled. "Must be the wrong time of the month."

Izaya winced.

"So that was my little brother." Psyche whistled skipping after him. Izaya wondered just how much influence he'd had. "A serial killer. I mean it's pretty cool. That definitely makes Delic the boring one."

"He didn't look happy to see us." Izaya voiced his concern, stopping outside his apartment block. There was another look alike, same age, with a much gloomier persona. Izaya studied the scars across the boy's wrists.

"Oh wow. Hey, any chance you're-

"Roppi. I'm Roppi." The teen interrupted sounding defeated. "I'm looking for my brother Tsuki."

That answered that question.

"And you thought he'd be here?" Izaya asked.

"No. I knew he wouldn't be." Roppi said. "But you have information I need."

"Which is?" Psyche piped up. Roppi barely glanced at psyche.

"Locations." Roppi said.

"On your brother's victims?" Izaya asked.

"No. I need the locations for Shizuo Heiwajima and Mikado Ryugamine." The last name caught Izaya off guard.

"Why Mikado-kun?"

"Because Tsuki has a crush on him." Roppi sighed. "Ryugamine wasn't interested,
But there's no age gap in this current time."

"So Tsuki is fifteen and Mikado is…"

"Fifty." Roppi said. "Yeah. So where is he?"

"At school." Izaya said. "Where you two should be."

Roppi snorted. "No. You don't get to do that. You're not my father."

Izaya raised a brow. "Well according-" Roppi shook his head and walked away. "Any more siblings you have?" He asked Psyche.

"Not that I know of. Two sets of twins, twenty years apart." Psyche whistled.

Shizuo could feel his world crumbling around him. His focus was on the interview. It would seem things had sped up.

"You support various charities, except for any LGBTQ ones. Why is that?"

"I support the ones close to my heart." Kasuka said perfectly deadpan.

"But isn't your brother a trans person?" The reporter asked. "Your sister was born with male genitalia, in which case your parents had her dosed with testosterone. How do you feel about the ethics and morals of doing that to a child?"

Shizuo felt sick. Switching off the television, he called the one person that understood what he was currently going through.

"Shizu-chan, had another visit?" Izaya asked sounding busy.

"The dates changed." Shizuo said hearing his voice sound hollow. "The interview was today. I just watched it." Shizuo shook, taking a deep breath. "So I guess just be careful."

"We know what'll happen Shizu-chan, we won't get taken off guard."

Shizuo hoped that was the case.

Izaya caught up to Tsuki first, the more dangerous of the younger twins. "Your brother is looking for you." He said in greeting watching Tsuki stake out Shizuo.

"I have nothing to say to Psyche or Delic if he's here."

"I meant your twin." Izaya said. Tsuki's head whipped around. "I don't have a twin. What was his name?"

"Roppi."

Tsuki's face twisted with rage. "That bastard is here too?"

Whoever Roppi was had clearly angered Tsuki. "Who is he? He said he was your brother."

Tsuki spat in disgust. "Roppi Ryugamine. He was conceived a year after I was born. Unfortunately we share a mother."

"Mikado-kun took Shizu-chan?" Izaya questioned.

"Yeah. He didn't like me. But mom wouldn't let him touch me. That was the price. I wouldn't be hurt as long as that fucker got what he wanted. So mom let him touch her until she got pregnant. She was already three months in before he told her. Even then he didn't stop. So yeah Mikado took her."

"Why?" Izaya asked.

Tsuki shot him a glare. "Because he's a greedy fucker lurking in the shadows, always wanting the best. You were the best and you had Shizuo. That's why he took her. He had the numbers to do it as well."

Izaya thought about his next question. "You don't like me, do you?"

Tsuki's face shuttered with pain. "You killed mom. When I was five. You found us but mom asked you to kill her and you did." Tsuki sniffled. "Mom made me promise I wouldn't hate you, but it's hard."

"Tell me what you can. We'll stop it happening."

Tsuki frowned. "If you really want to stop it, then you either get mom out of Japan or you make her get rid of her womb. We exist now, so nothing will change. We'll just remain here. But it's mom's choice and you're out of time."

Tsuki perked up frowning as Shizuo's door opened. "Tsuki, get in here."

Izaya watched the shock on the boy's face, the wide eyed longing. "Go." Tsuki flinched away when he pushed his back. "Shizu-chan wants to spend time with you. You're his daughter aren't you?"

Tsuki flinched and gaped at him. "I- I'm not-"

"I'm not going to say anything." Izaya promised easily. "Go."

Tsuki blinked, nodding wordlessly before walking away stiffly. Izaya watched Shizuo pull Tsuki into the apartment and close the door.

Shizuo walked into the bathroom with clean towels, freezing at his future son getting undressed. "Sorry." He murmured handing the towels over and turning away.

"It's alright mom. Both you and dad know now. It was easier to be a guy."

"Is that something we made you do?" Shizuo asked.

"Dad tried to raise me but it didn't go well. I was raised by auntie M."

"But not me."

"It took dad five years to find us. When he did, you begged him to kill you. He did."

"Oh."

Tsuki touched his shoulder. "You don't seem bothered by it."

Shizuo sighed. "None of it has happened. What would happen if I had my womb removed?"

Tsuki squeezed him. "We'd remain. We already exist."

"Then that's enough." Shizuo grumbled.

Izaya walked into Shizuo's apartment two days later to find Shizuo brushing through Tsuki's hair. Their daughter was wearing a dress and looked like they'd have to beat the guys away with a stick.

"Ready to go?" He asked. His part was done once Shizuo had gone through with the operation.

"Yeah. You're staying with me or Psyche?" Shizuo asked.

"I'm staying with you mom." Tsuki said fingering the pocket of her hoody. Knives no doubt.

"That would be best." Izaya agreed. "Let's get this over with."

Knowing the details of the future, it was easy to plan. Tsuki had wanted to kill everyone on the list but Izaya had them dealt with. Psyche sent a letter along with everything they'd discovered and Delic joined them.

Shizuo had his womb removed, whilst Izaya dealt with the fallout of the reporter on Kasuka's interview. For the most part it went smoothly. There had been hesitation from Shizuo, worry that he'd lose the kids that had shown up.

They didn't. Psyche and Delic lived together, constantly in contact with him and Shizuo. Tsuki lived with Shizuo. Roppi seemed to have vanished and Mikado had dropped out of school. They had their problems but for the most part it was civil.

Four years later things changed. Izaya didn't get a call, Shizuo burst into his office instead. "Tsuki is missing."

Mikado couldn't have Shizuo, not the way he wanted, not the way Roppi-his apparent future son- had told him. He'd followed Shizuo and Izaya's kids. Psyche and Delic the twins and Tsuki, the youngest under Shizuo's protective wing. Roppi had advised him to hide, to go off grid whilst Izaya stopped the future from happening.

Life went on. His attention gravitated to the beautiful girl holding both Izaya and Shizuo's dna. Tsuki got along with her brothers and she was spoiled by her parents. She could also carry his child. Not Roppi, another one.

Tsuki was on her way home when he grabbed her. Both of them were nearing twenty and he'd been working on a plan for a long time. Tsuki struggled in his arms but he subdued her easily and lifted her into his car. With no one the wiser he drove.

He took her to somewhere new outside of Ikebukuro, moving further from Izaya's reach. They moved into a house with a small room. The walls Roppi had painted were black and only a small window gave a glimpse at the sky.

Mikado stepped into what would be Tsuki's room and froze at the sight of the duo on the bed. "Hi, what are you doing with our niece?"

"Our brother told us something interesting, that you're planning on killing my Kururi."

Mikado swallowed looking back to see Psyche and Delic standing at the main door holding Roppi between them.

Izaya watched Shizuo panic. They'd both adjusted to their children. Shizuo was the more doting of them. "It's fine, Shizu-chan."

Shizuo snarled at him lifting him up and slamming him into the wall. "How is it fine? She's our daughter and-

Izaya wrapped his legs around Shizuo's waist and kissed the brute. Psyche had told him tales and he'd thought he give them a shot. Shizuo froze, melting beneath him. Izaya felt his strength falter. He kissed him again, this time leaning his weight into it, his arms around Shizuo's neck.

"I-

"We're alone. Why is that?" Izaya murmured biting and sucking at Shizuo's jaw. "Tsuki is safe. It's Mikado-kun walking into a trap."

Shizuo stared at him and visibly relaxed. Izaya kissed Shizuo again. Shizuo kissed him back carrying him towards the desk.

Their family didn't return until the following day, but Psyche had kept him updated.

Tsuki eyed her brothers sitting across from her. She would've thought they'd take her straight to mom, but instead they'd taken her for ice cream. "Where's mom and dad?"

Psyche grinned and wiggled his brows. Tsuki's mouth dropped open. "No way!"

"Yep." Delic confirmed.

Tsuki grinned. It looked like they'd be a happy family after all.

End