The hallway in the hospital has a strange glow to it. It's dark but the fluorescent lights wash everything too hazy, too white. There are people milling around who are completely grey and faceless. He wonders if some kind of epidemic has spread. Did Shinra tamper with the fourth floor water fountain again?

It must be so because why else is he holding a giant syringe? The grey blobs part away from him, like formless jellyfish. Maybe he's the one who is hallucinating?

His sleeve catches on something. It's only then that he realizes someone messed with uniforms. He's wearing bubblegum pink scrubs and he knows the bastard who's responsible for this. He begins his search.

He passes an open doorway and stops because something pink catches his eye. It's Izaya and for some reason he's wearing pink as well. He has a pink stethoscope that he has against one of the grey blobs he's examining. He's smiling as he removes the stethoscope from his ears.

"– –san," Izaya says to the patient. "Oh my, this isn't good at all. Breathe in again, please. Ah, there it is again. It's already reached your lungs. There's not much I can do at this point. Not when it's already at the terminal stage. It's too bad–"

All at once, Shizuo knows what's going on. It's him. It's all this man's fault. Somehow since he came to the hospital he's been infecting everything and everyone. The whole place smells like shit and the source is right here.

"Izaya!" Shizuo yells.

When Izaya turns, his white coats flutters. "Ah, Shizu-chan. I see you brought the serum."

"I'm gonna kill you!"

"Did I do something wrong this time?"

"My uniform! You broke into my apartment! You dyed all of my clothes pink!"

"Pink? Are you sure?"

Shizuo looks down again. The pink is bleeding into a red color. When he looks up again Izaya is running. Shizuo sprints after him and lifts his giant syringe. Oh, he's going to get him. Shizuo's going to give him a shot he'll never forget. His face splits in anticipation.

He's knocking people over as he runs. Izaya turns at the corner and by the time Shizuo reaches the same corner, he's stepping into an empty room with a single curtain that covers a bed. Everything glows eerily. He doesn't hesitate as he hears something, an alarm, going off. The curtain makes a vrrrr sound as he throws them back.

The bed's empty and he doesn't know why he's both pissed and relieved.

"Looking for me?"

Shizuo jumps. He hadn't heard anyone come up behind him. When he turns and brings up the syringe, it gets caught in the curtain and he drops it. He doesn't understand why his clothes are shrinking or why he's in short shorts all of a sudden. But what's worse is the nurse uniform Izaya is wearing. It's tight like a surgical glove and just as see through and something that should be straight out of a nightmare, but—what the fuck is this? What the fuck? What the fuck? Whatthefuck!?

Alarms are going off in his head.

Vrrrvrrrvrrrvrrrvrrvrrrvrrrrvrrrrvrrrr

An alarm was vibrating in his bed.

Shizuo groaned. "What the fuck?" He blinked unseeingly in the dark. He was pretty sure he had been dreaming up something awful, but already it was beginning to fade. Good.

It was darker than he was used to. Every morning, sunlight streamed through his paper thin curtains. Still heavy with sleep, Shizuo grouped around in the dark trying to find his phone. His hand hit against something that was warm and most definitely not his phone.

"Ow! Do you always hit the person you wake up next to?"

Yesterday's events came to him like a bad hangover, in bits and pieces without the faintest idea how he had ended up like this. The blanket moved and finally the alarm was turned off. "What the hell, Izaya?"

"Good morning to you as well, Shizu-chan."

All the sleep left him instantly. While he couldn't remember much, there certainly hadn't been any fleas when he dove under the covers.

"Ugh. What's going on? What are you doing in my bed?"

Izaya stretched. "Actually," he drawled out each syllable, "the funny thing is, this is my bed. Last night you accidentally went to my room. I tried to wake you up, really I did, but you were completely out of it and tried to sleep punch and kick me away, so I gave up. Anyway, you can sleep longer if you'd like. I'm going to make breakfast. Do you want anything specific?"

"Uh," Shizuo didn't even know he slept punched and thought for sure it was bullshit. "You don't have to make me anything."

"Oh, I insist. Does pancakes sound good?"

Pancakes sounded amazing. "Yeah, sure." He said, grudgingly.

Izaya got up, pulled some clothes from a walk-in closet, and left. When the door closed, Shizuo threw a hand over his eyes and groaned. He was probably playing right into Izaya's hands like a complete dumbass. Well, he couldn't be too hard on himself. It was pancakes after all.

He stayed in bed for a bit longer, appreciating the comfort now that he was alone. Izaya may be a pest, but his bed was out of this world good. Shit, he hadn't felt this well rested in a long time. Maybe he needed to invest in a better mattress. His was the same piece of shit lump of a futon that he had since his time in medical school and at this point it wasn't doing his back any favors.

It was the smell of pancakes that finally got him up. His clothes were dried and when he changed into them, they were wrinkle free. Though the detergent wasn't what he was used to, it was fresh and didn't have any of that gross chemical smell. He left the used clothes with a pile of Izaya's own laundry.

He went to the bathroom to check his reflection and wash his face. The fatigue darkening under his eyes had left. He ran a hand through his hair to keep it down. The smell of cooking food wafted over, and Shizuo followed it to the kitchen.

A pancake was flipping through the air just as Shizuo walked in. It landed in the frying pan in one circular piece. Steam was coming from the rice cooker and on the front of the machine the numbers read 6:23. Still too damn early.

Izaya flipped the pancake once more. He wore a striped beige apron while he cooked and cat face slippers. "I called your landlord last night," Izaya said as he put the pancake on a plate with a stack of other golden brown pancakes. "To let him know that there will be a cleaning crew coming in. The blood has been wiped off, but there still needs a lot of repair work. They gave me an estimate of up to five days for everything to be completely fixed."

"Five days?" Why the hell would it take that long? Now he had to find a place to crash for five freaking days? Shit. He hated bothering people and Shizuo was sure no one would be thrilled to be walking on eggshells around him for five days. He might just have to call his parents.

"If you need a bed, I do have an extra one or you can crash in mine again." Izaya may be facing away, but there was no mistake that there was a shitty grin on his face.

"Not happening."

"Heh." He flipped a new pancake over on the frying pan.

Grumbling, Shizuo opened the refrigerator to see if there was any milk. He spotted the carton on the side of the door. The table was already set with empty glasses, and he picked one up and poured himself some milk. From over the glass, Shizuo was wary of the amused expression sent his way. "Whatever you say."

Fuck. 6:25 in the morning was too early for this shit. He downed the rest of the milk. Like hell he was going to stay here longer than he had to. He was about to leave for the other room when Izaya said, "There, done."

An array of jams, all unopened, a leaf shaped container of maple syrup, butter, and some cut up strawberries and bananas all sat prettily on the table. Shizuo hoped that this wasn't all prepared just for him, because there was only so much that he could take in one morning.

"The jam was a gift set, a housewarming present." Izaya explained as if he had read his thoughts. He set the stack of pancakes in between them and sat across the table. "I figured now would be a good time as any to use them."

"Sure." Shizuo, however, didn't believe him at all. "Thanks for the food," he said under his breath. The pancakes were near perfection and while he enjoyed pancakes, he never had the time or motivation to make them. Izaya served him one and Shizuo spread butter, a random red jam, and syrup over his pancake.

He took a bite and fucking hell was it fluffy and sweet goodness. He chewed quickly because it was just what he needed. Every morning he should be eating this. The last time he had eaten pancakes was years ago when he was still living at home and going to school.

He tried a new jar of jam, this one orange, and scooped a good amount onto his quickly disappearing pancake. He didn't think it could get any better.

"This is chocolate and caramel." Izaya pointed to two plastic containers. Shizuo had forgotten he was even there, but didn't mind it so much now that he was eating. For his second pancake, he added a good mound of chocolate and caramel. Shizuo didn't think he'd had a breakfast this good in forever.

It reminded him of that one time he had made pancakes for Kasuka for his birthday, except all of the pancakes had turned out a little misshapen and had little air bubbles in them and were slightly too overcooked. They still ate them, and his brother had said he liked them, and that had made him incredibly happy back then. Maybe he should do that again for him. He smiled without realizing it.

"How is it?" Izaya asked.

But then he remembered his company. "It's all right."

"Only all right? I tried to find the best recipe with the healthiest ingredients." On Izaya's plate, the pancake had banana and strawberry pieces and the barest of any other toppings. He ate delicately with his fork and knife.

"Do you usually make pancakes?"

"No, but I enjoy making them. What about you?" Izaya finished his first pancake.

"Nah, too busy." Shizuo said between a mouthful. "It's too messy, anyway."

Izaya took one more pancake and the one underneath it had some kind of design on it, like a smiley face. He had to angle his head to read the words: let's have a good time today.

His fork bent at an angle. He decided to skip that pancake and go for the one underneath it. He half expected there to be another crude drawing on the second pancake, maybe something annoying with an angry face and that dumb-as-shit nickname written on top, but there was no design. He brought the plain pancake to his plate.

"What's wrong with this one?" Izaya said as he pointed to the smiling pancake. "Is the grin too lopsided? It's not so easy to make as it looks you know. But there's added chocolate chips just for you."

Now that he mentioned it, there were indeed chocolate pieces dotted around the grinning smiley face. It looked hideous. "No thanks. I like my pancakes without them smiling at me."

Izaya chuckled as he took the smiley faced pancake to his own plate. "I'll keep that in mind then." He said as if this would happen again. Which it wouldn't. Maybe he purposely stabbed the eye down before cutting into the pancake flesh with his knife. Before he didn't like pancakes with smiley faces, by the time Izaya had eaten the poor pancake, he absolutely detested pancakes with faces. Or maybe it was just pesky pests that he hated, but it was a shame thinking about things that annoyed him when he had a plate of perfectly good pancakes in front of him.

He went simple with this next one. He opted for butter and a good dousing of syrup so that the pancake could soak in it. It was perfect. Just what he needed to forget about the fact he was eating with an eyesore. He collected all the remaining syrup on the last piece and ate it slowly. Finishing up with another glass of milk, Shizuo said his thanks and brought the dishes to the sink to wash as quickly as he could. He retreated to the living room to collect his cellphone, wallet, and keys.

Izaya was washing the dishes when he came back. "I'm going to head out early."

"So soon? Work doesn't start for another hour and a half."

It was creepy that he knew his schedule, but then again he was the one who had change it. "Yeah. Thanks for letting me stay the night."

"All right. I'll need the keys to your place to pass over."

"Oh, right." He took it from his pocket and brought it over to Izaya's waiting hand.

"I'll see you in a bit, Shizu-chan."

Shizuo glowered. "Don't call me that." He left not wanting to breathe the same air a second longer. It was close to seven in the morning and many of the stores weren't open. There was a Lawson convenience store around the corner and he was lucky that they had some single item clothes in stock. He picked up socks, a white undershirt, a pair of dark green boxers, a carton of cigarettes, and a phone charger. He'd have to pull out more cash soon, though there wasn't much to go around.

Back outside he wondered what exactly he should do now. He knew where there was a park and headed for that direction. The only other person was an elderly woman walking her tiny grey dog there. He said good morning in passing before spotting a designated smoking area and while leaning against the glass wall, he smoked.

He'd have to call his parents, see if his or Kasuka's old room was still available. There should be a spare futon. Already he was coming up with a lie he'd tell his mom. He'd call her first. Tell her there was something wrong with the pipes and it leaked through his apartment. She wouldn't worry needlessly then.

His phone was at 25 percent battery life. It was still too early to call so he sent her a simple text. Her response came right away with his phone ringing. He frowned as he answered. It didn't go as he hoped.

It was unavoidable that she would be worried so he only gave vague answers, but his mom was good at knowing when something was up. He assured her that everything was alright and when he asked about his old room she told him that his grandmother was due to stay for a few months. She still wanted him to come, but Shizuo declined thinking that his mom would have her hands too full. He promised that he'd visit.

Shizuo went through his contact list, admittedly there weren't a whole lot of people there. Shinra and Celty's place was a no go since Shinra's dad was visiting and he was less trustworthy than Shinra was, which was saying something.

He passed over Kadota Kyouhei's contact since he already had a full apartment with two roommates and one of them rambled way too much on things he had no idea about.

He stopped on the contact of his senpai from middle school. He hadn't contacted Tom for awhile and it was kind of a shitty thing to spring up on a friend, but he did remember that Tom had said to call if he ever needed help. He sent a text then put away his phone to smoke another cigarette. He'd probably need a few more for the headache this day was already becoming.

Finishing the cigarette, he went to an unoccupied bench in the sun. The few cherry trees had lost most of the blossoms, but the ground had a nice pink to it. He closed his eyes and tried to relax in the warmth of the sun. It was almost peaceful.

But the peace didn't last very long, not when he forced himself to leave the comfort of the bench and go to work where he would spend the entirety of the day in the pest's presence.

Shizuo knew it was going to be a bad day, but it wasn't until the third victim was admitted to their care that he began to identify that something was off. It was almost like a foul stink grew in the halls of his hospital with each new laceration he saw. It wasn't the usual sterile or metallic smell he was used to for these kinds of patients. He also couldn't shake the feeling that Izaya was somehow connected to it all.