Shizuo was right. After he left the closet and the fog in his head cleared he wanted to punch himself in the face for basically wasting an entire day which he could've spent investigating… what was it again?

How Orihara Izaya knows my secret, childhood dream.

Right.

And if he fails?

I don't get my demand and Izaya keeps being a nuisance.

When Shizuo struck that deal it seemed much more important, but as time passes, it just seems silly. What a shitty deal.

That's what I get for making deals when I'm pissed. I'm such a fucking idiot.

Shizuo could, of course, forget the whole thing and return his life to normal. Forget Izaya, save for some library riddles until he gets bored with Shizuo. That would be the sensible thing to do.

But…

Shizuo sighs and lights his second cigarette on his walk home, dragging his feet despite the winter chill for more time alone.

But that's not going to happen.

Izaya knowing that stupid kid dream isn't really a big deal, but Shizuo has to know how he knows. It's a blend of curiosity, pride, and a growing refusal to lose.

Shizuo isn't so sure he wants Izaya out of his life anymore - this game isn't about that anymore. He isn't so sure he could stay away from Izaya. That thought alone is terrifying to Shizuo. But he can't let Izaya win. That's out of the question. He cannot let the bad guy win.

Even if the bad guy is really… charismatic. That's the most dangerous kind of bad guy.

Shizuo nods to himself, quickly losing the world around him to his imagination as he walks on autopilot.

He imagines chasing down his villain through bookshelves that grow into dark skyscrapers that make a maze of the city at night, the villain's scent muted by the rain and exhaust fumes but still fresh as long as he stays hot on Izaya's tail.

Can't let him get away from me this time.

Shizuo's been tracking his crimes for months and finally figured out where the red-eyed…

demon? Mastermind? Kitten? No! Not kitten. Um…

After months of tracking the red-eyed panther-

Yeah, panthers are pretty cool. They're supposed to be almost impossible to find and super dangerous. That sounds like him.

After tracking down the infamous Red-Eyed Panther, cut-throat Detective Heiwajima finally found his secret lair and was able to get one step ahead of the supposed mastermind to intercept him at his next crime. The rest of the police department was taken down by this fiend's henchmen so there's no calling for backup. It's just between the two of them.

The Panther attempts to lose him in the dark alleyways but Detective Heiwajima is undeterred. Then, the Panther tries to out-maneuver him by climbing a fire escape, but that's just the window Shizuo needs to catch up.

At the last moment, Detective Heiwajima grabs his sworn enemy by his ankle and drags him to the ground. The little kitten-

No!

The Panther is no match for Detective Heiwajima's strength and is trapped! Even this tricky villain cannot escape justice in the end.

"Red-Eyed Panther. Or should I say - Orihara Izaya!" Detective Heiwajima says, pinning the smaller man beneath him face-down into the cracked, wet asphalt as he forces the villain's hands behind his back to cuff him. "You're under arrest for multiple accounts of breaking and entering, assault, arson, and-"

Uh…

"Torture!"

Izaya struggles to no avail, small body barely able to jerk more than a few centimeters in either direction before meeting the hard wall of muscle trapping him. As each of his attempts at freedom fail his struggles becomes more superficial. Like he's humoring the detective. Eventually, he stills. Slowly, he turns his head to look up at Shizuo, revealing the smooth, pale plains of his cheekbones tinted with the dirty street and murky city light. A single, infamous red eye entrances Shizuo with a glimmer that has nothing to do with the streetlights. The villain's big, crooked grin splits across his face as he locks eyes with Shizuo and licks his pouty, swollen lips. Instead of struggling, Izaya pushes his ass up into Shizuo's hips and his eye droop under his thick, black lashes as his lips part to speak what will only be poison.

Shizuo's body is much too hot despite the wind chill. Absent-mindedly, he loosens the scarf his mom gave him and sucks in a lungful of crisp air around the heat of his smoldering cigarette.

"Oh, Shizu-chan…" Izaya purrs, arching like a kitten. "Handcuffs already? Mmm, I can't wait…"

CRACK!

Shizuo is wrenched from his daydream by the sound of a wooden bat shattering against his skull more than the impact itself. But it's not the attempt on his life that makes Shizuo put the assailant in intensive care rather than just knock him out. It's the fact that he made Shizuo stain the scarf from his mother with the blood from his head wound.

The rest of the gang that decided to jump him tonight are just getting sent to the hospital.

While Shizuo is in a rage, tearing up public property and tossing around men like paper airplanes, he doesn't usually notice much. Any sight, sound, or thought beyond the immediate reach of his fist vanishes for the duration of the fight, and he can't even remember how much he hates violence while becoming blissfully unaware of everything but the rage inside of him. But lately, Shizuo had been very observant.

Just observant enough to notice a pattern among his attackers.

Not bad attitudes and false bravo and broken noses - none of that is unusual.

All of them are in blue.

—

All of the women around him are sorely mistaken if they believe the dirty looks they're throwing him are going to make Izaya try to control his sisters. If they want to terrorize the supermarket while Izaya checks off items on his shopping list - alleviating the pressure of figuring out a way to deny them a million kinds of candy - then he's not going to stop them.

He's not much of a cook but over the last few shopping trips he's taken to browsing the fresh produce section in search of inspiration. Normally he just buys frozen and instant food for the girls to avoid the hassle of cooking, but that stuff is really disgusting. The girls seem to like it. Izaya does not.

'Not much of a cook' doesn't quite cover it. He's not burn down the house bad, but he's never liked a single thing he's made. The real trouble is: Izaya has no idea what he's doing wrong. He has recipe books, he knows how to read, he follows the instructions perfectly, the food comes out fine, the girls eat it, but he hates his own cooking. Hates it to the point of letting perfectly good ingredients spoil while procrastinating using them because it feels like it's better to let it waste away than ruin it by touching it.

Izaya thinks that maybe he just hasn't been inspired enough yet. Cooking is an art, after all. Inspiration is necessary. So, here he is, in the produce section, looking for inspiration.

But he's got nothing. No ideas. Even looking into the carts of mothers and grandmothers around him doesn't give him any. Izaya shudders, instant ramen it is…

He knows his preferred types of food, but he's never eaten something and loved it. Most likely because all he ate as a kid was what he could manage to microwave by himself. The budget his parents send him covers bills and groceries fine, but it's not enough to try any fine dining. So, processed food and whatever he attempts to make is all he's experienced so far.

Izaya is the kind of person who, generally, does not do what he does not want to do. He does not want to eat gross, over-processed food or his own cooking. Therefore, Izaya does not eat until he must. He's skinny and maybe won't grow as tall as he could, but he can accept those consequences.

When Mairu and Kururi start tugging on his jacket, begging to go to the pastry isle, he knows he's spent long enough staring at ingredients he'll procrastinate using until they rot and decides it's time to go.

With his arms full of cloth shopping bags and his bus seat full of two toddlers telling him a disjointed story about recess that he pretends to listen to the Orihara family is finally on their way home for the day. Izaya is exhausted. This day has been jam-packed with more interaction than he's had in months and that's taking its toll on Izaya. He blinks slowly, feeling the fumes he's been running on start to vanish and involuntarily relaxes into the crusty bus seat. Izaya takes a deep breath through his nose when the bus stops at a red light a few blocks from their stop and lets his eyes slide away from his sisters for just a moment to glance out the window.

On a suspiciously clear patch of sidewalk a bloody, staggering Shizuo is walking in the same direction as their bus and is out of sight in a flash as the traffic light turns green.

Izaya lurches forward to catch the bags he almost lets slip from his arms in shock, completely awake now and blinking rapidly to clear his vision.

Sure, it shouldn't really be that surprising to see Shizuo outside of school as they live in the same city, but it's still a jarring thing to experience. That, and the obvious fact that Shizuo has a bleeding head wound. That was a bit unsettling to see.

Izaya, of course, knows all about his Shizu-chan's reputation, but it's different seeing someone - some monster - appear so damaged yet so unaffected, and it's been a full month since Shizuo's had a fight. Especially a big one. What happened?

The bus can't arrive at their stop fast enough. Mairu and Kururi can barely keep up with the pace of his stride as he rushes them back home. Setting them up with dinner and a movie as a whirlwind but Izaya can't get out the door fast enough.

It's disturbing to think about seeing Shizu-chan outside of their usual area of interaction, Izaya's desire to find him and figure out what happened is so much greater.

Who touched my monster?