Shizuo barely manages to settle himself into the comfortable silence of the back shelves when a whisper oozes between the shelves.

"What has 13 hearts, but no other organs?"

Shizuo's heart catches in his throat and he has to swallow it back down before he can reply.

"Izaya."

Izaya is silent for a moment and Shizuo likes to think that he may have surprised him.

"... front desk tell you that? I'm impressed Shizu-chan, not only did you manage to interact with a human civilly, but you also communicated in a way they could understand! Tell me, have you learned to parrot enough human words or do you think she was able to actually translate your primal grunts?"

"Shut up!" Shizuo snaps at him. "You're just nervous because I'm on your tail. You're not as clever as you think - that riddle sucks. It's a deck of playing cards."

"Well you haven't shown much proficiency in solving my riddles in the past, so I figured I should dumb it down for you."

"I did figure out the other riddle, asshole. It was a memory."

Izaya hums from the other side of the shelf and slides out a particularly large volume at eye level to peer through at Shizuo. "Ah, so you're a detective after all. Tell me, did you complete my challenge?"

Shizuo glares at him and reaches through the gap to flick Izaya on the forehead, making him jerk away with the unusual amount of strength. "Not yet, you said you'd give me time."

"Right, you were just making my expectations so high…" Izaya bites out sarcastically, rubbing the developing bruise on his forehead. "But giving you infinite time just wouldn't be fair either, now would it?"

Shizuo tenses in anticipation. He and Kasuka were already expecting a time limit to be imposed but now that it's coming he's nervous. What if it's something crazy, like three days? Heros can always save the world in three days in the movies but Shizuo's not so sure he can manage. He doesn't think he's got enough good Karma for that.

Izaya presses against the bookshelves again to look up at Shizuo, the same sly mischief as the last time he peered through the cracks in the shelf to capture Shizuo's gaze. "I'm thinking… a month."

A month? Shizuo leans against the shelf and considers Izaya's words. Shit, if I managed to get his name in a day… maybe I really can do this. "Deal. One month starting today." This bastard's over-confidence is going to be the death of him some day.

"Mmm, so confident you can catch me, Shi~zu~chan?" Izaya purrs through the shelf, voice curling low and heavy over seduction that makes the hair on the back of Shizuo's neck stand. "How scary… What are you going to make little old me do?" Shizuo's eyes nearly pop out of his head when they catch the sliver of tongue that licks over Izaya's pale, pink lips - giving them a soft, wet shine. "Oh, I just thinking of the possibilities of being subjugated to a beast like you gives me goosebumps…" Izaya's eyelids droop under those heavy, dark lashes but he doesn't break eye contact once. Not even when Izaya bites his lip, turning it a sinful cherry color.

What the fuck what the fuckwhatthefuckwhatthefuck.

Shizuo's mind scrambles to makes sense of what he's hearing, what he's seeing, and why the room suddenly feels too hot.

He can't make sense of it all. He refuses to make sense of it. Instead, Shizuo resorts to a tried and true method of dealing with his problems.

Shizuo's arm shoots through the space Izaya created between the books and grabs the front of the little freak's uniform before he can escape. The hole was at Izaya's eye level and he is much shorter than Shizuo, but Shizuo's arm is long and Izaya's body is light. Yanking Izaya up off his feet and holding him pressed against the shelf to stare him down through the small space at Shizuo's level is effortless.

"I'm going to make you say my name."

-
Izaya feels like little more than a rag doll in Shizuo's unbreakable grip. He feels helpless, vulnerable, and this rush is nothing like the power trip he experienced with Nakura. This is different. It takes his breath away, makes him feel hot again just like he did trapped in the closet with Shizuo. Again, the world spins, though not as fast as it had before. This time he can hear Shizuo's low, heady growl loud and clear.

I'm going to make you say my name…

Really, it does nothing to help cool the raw heat pounding through his blood.

Izaya brings his shaking hands up to grab Shizuo's arm, unsure if he wants to break free or hug it closer but it doesn't matter when either way he can simply enjoy the futility of his struggle to make Shizuo's arm budge.

Ahh, this is the best…

Izaya manages to choke out a reply, his own voice sounding far away in his ears.

"You'll have to catch me first…"

Shizuo's grip tightens and it reminds Izaya of how he twisted the fabric of his jacket around Nakura's neck and some frightening part of him wonders how it might feel to have Shizuo do that to him.

"Your ass is mine, Orihara Izaya…"

Shizuo's tone is menacing and his voice is quiet, low enough to fit neatly into the little bubble that has become their world. His growl is deep and heavy on the sincerity of his words, singing a tempting promise into Izaya's ears. Shizuo's eyes… the eyes of an apex predator… send a possessive rush through him. Izaya is sure that this monster is meant to be all his.

Izaya's lashes flutter around the pleasure buzzing through him, high on the danger and the contact. Finally, through the cotton in his head, he decides to wrap his arms around Shizuo's in a useless gesture to keep him close. Izaya strains his abdomen to tip his balance forward, bringing his face even closer to Shizuo's and rests his forehead on the cool metal of the upper shelf. After years of religiously distancing himself from others, Izaya wonders what has gotten into him when he feels as though the gap between them is unbearable. He presses his lips to the top edge of the spine of the book in front of him and wonders for the first time in his life what a kiss feels like when he whispers to Shizuo like he's sharing a deadly secret.

"I look forward to it… Shizu-chan… "

-
Panic shoots down Shizuo's spine and he drops Izaya like he's been burned. Like the heat of the other boy had suddenly become too much to bare. He doesn't even hear Izaya's yelp as the spell between the two of them is broken, just throws himself back into the opposite shelf in an attempt to steady his pounding heart.

This is like nothing he's ever experienced before. He's never felt like this, the constant adrenaline in his system has never thrummed to fast. Never before had intimidation backfired this much. Normally when he menaces people are afraid. That's how it works.

With Izaya all the rules have changed and Shizuo doesn't know what to do and he can't think of anything through the thick fog that clouded his mind from seeing Izaya looking like that. From the way the smell of bitter almonds saturated the space between them so dense and wet he could almost taste it...

"Ouch! How rude, stupid brute…" Izaya grumbles from the other side. Shizuo doesn't know how to respond except…

"Shut up!" And storm away with the excuse that lunch is almost over anyway.

Shizuo ducks into the nearest bathroom, slamming the door to a random stall closed behind him. He sits on the toilet and presses down hard on his crotch with both hands, squeezing his eyes shut and trying to will away being half-hard.

It's just a coincidence. I'm a teenager. It happens. It doesn't mean anything. It's fine