A/N: Sorry about the chapter repeat I posted yesterday! I hadn't realize I misclicked until some helpful reviewers pointed it out! Here's the real chapter!

On Monday morning Shizuo decides to head to the storage closet and visit Izaya, but when he knocks Izaya doesn't answer.

Shizuo frowns, wondering if their time spent over the weekend together really hadn't made them closer at all, but when he bluffs about getting the librarian this time there's no answer. Shizuo has never considered the possibility of Izaya hanging out somewhere else before, but this morning that seems to be the case.

Oh no… Shizuo can feel the blood drain from his face upon realizing a horrible possibility. What if Izaya noticed that I'm… like that about him? The guy always acts way more flirty than me but… what if I've just been imagining that because I'm hot for him?!

Before Shizuo can panic and think himself in circles, he hears that horrible nickname behind him.

"Shizu-chan?"

Shizuo turns to see Izaya, with his usual dark circles but no glasses around his eyes.

"Don't call me that." He growls, more out of routine than any anger. "Where've you been lurking this morning?"

Izaya chuckles, his laugh tinged with slightly more mania than usual. "Oh, here and there. Causing terror and all that." Shizuo isn't sure that his words are the joke he frames them to be. Izaya seems weirdly happy this morning. He pushes past Shizuo and towards the door but stops short of it to lean back on his heels and into Shizuo's chest. "What are you doing here so early?" Izaya asks, tipping his head back to look up at Shizuo with that same, awful smile. "Miss me?"

Shizuo pulls a disgusted face and hopes it covers for the involuntary tinge of pink in his cheeks at the close proximity. Close enough for Shizuo to just slip his arms around the other boy's waist. "As if." He snorts, and crosses his arms to keep from pulling Izaya into a hug.

Izaya smirks and says, "alright," in a sing-song voice that says he doesn't believe Shizuo. Instead of teasing him further, Izaya slips some hairpins out of his pocket and steps forward to crouch in front of the lock.

"I knew it…" Shizuo grumbles, mostly to himself at seeing a criminal skill of Izaya's first-hand.

Izaya scoffs at Shizuo's blatant disapproval. "Lock picking is not knowledge exclusive to 'bad' people. It's just a skill like speaking or cooking. Morally neutral on its own." The door clicks open and Izaya pushes it open, body to the side to allow Shizuo to enter first. "Besides, you're taking advantage of it too. Not like you're going to report me, eh?"

Shizuo huffs and pushes past him, unable to refute any of his points. Izaya is right on all accounts, but the last one is a bit unfair. Izaya had hit the nail on the head while they stood too close in his kitchen during their Friday evening together - Shizuo would let him get away with anything in the end.

As soon as Shizuo has settled in his usual corner Izaya tugs his blanket out from its usual place between the boxes under the lowest shelf and makes himself comfortable across from Shizuo, draping the blanket across the two of them. Shizuo stiffens at the close proximity while Izaya makes himself comfortable. Izaya is really in a weirdly good mood today. What's gotten into him?

Before Shizuo can ask or complain about Izaya's chipper attitude the fresh smell of bitter almonds encases Shizuo's senses. It permeates from Izaya and wafts up from the blanket covering Shizuo's legs. Direct contact with the fabric and Izaya's foot pressed into his shin makes it feel as though its toxicity is seeming into Shizuo's skin, and Shizuo can't remember what he was going to say anymore.

Izaya hums some cutesy sort of tune and pulls a thick, instructive book from his bag on Russian and a cheap pen. Shizuo blinks at the unexpected book but can't think of anything to say about it that wouldn't just sound like him babbling in amazement. He doesn't think Izaya will ever stop astounding him. Instead, Shizuo follows his example without a word and takes out his own book and pen.

Except Shizuo can't focus on the mystery at all. The rapid, confident scratches of the pen against paper compel Shizuo to watch from under his bangs as Izaya appears to effortlessly absorb a foreign language which doesn't even almost resemble Japanese characters or the English alphabet which Shizuo still hates having to use for class.

After several minutes of watching Izaya tear through page after page Shizuo, eventually, realizes that he and Izaya are facing each other and therefore do not share the same right side. So Izaya is left-handed… that's pretty cute…

Holy shit, I am so fucked.

The light brush of Izaya's for against his makes his stomach twist and every breath makes his head spin in a way that makes him want more. Makes Shizuo want to press his face into the crook of Izaya's neck or his shiny, black hair or wherever the smell is strongest and just breathe him in like a chain smoker. Shizuo is fully aware of how weird it is, he wishes that he could just stop feeling like this and stop craving Izaya so much that it's a conscious effort to keep from shaking his leg nervously whenever Shizuo so much as thinks about it.

Having a crush is the worst. I hate this guy for making me feel like this.

But something is missing from this scene, and it doesn't take much thought for Izaya to figure out what it is.

"Hey Izaya, how can you read that?"

The scratching of Izaya's pen doesn't pause even the slightest bit. "Well Shizu-chan, since this is meant to instruct the reader on how to read and write in a foreign language the entire book is, in fact, not in Russian."

"I know that!" Shizuo snaps, irritated by Izaya's condescending tone. What a jackass. "I mean, how can you see the words? Don't you need glasses?"

This makes Izaya's writing pace hiccup. "... My vision is not that bad."

Shizuo watches him a bit longer, remembering the rumor he meant to press Izaya about a few days ago. About some bullies' bags mysteriously catching fire. "Is that why you wear them whenever you read back here?"

Izaya stops working altogether and glares at Shizuo, guarded under his dark lashes. "What are you getting at, Shizu-chan?"

Shizuo shrugs and adjusts his posture, straightening a bit but not taking a defensive position. "Just wondering… used to seeing you in them is all." Used to seeing those ridiculously cute reading glasses, but seeing your eyes unobstructed is good too.

"They're just for reading." Izaya straightens his posture to match Shizuo.

Somewhere during their time of shared silence, Izaya pulled a black case out of his pocket and slipped his glasses on, glancing up at Shizuo so quickly he would've missed it if Shizuo hadn't already been watching him.

Shizuo fumbles around in his bag for a moment and pulls out his notebook, flipping to the section about Izaya. Maybe it's a little risky to take notes right in front of the person, but as long as Izaya can't see them, it'll be the last thing he'll expect.

He writes "Insecure about glasses." Right underneath the jumble of thoughts he's had about Izaya over the last few weeks of knowing him, a good deal of them scratched out or illegible. Shizuo isn't even sure he cares about figuring out what makes Izaya the villain or how he was so successful at - potentially - stalking him anymore. Right now, Shizuo looks over the list in some odd blend of embarrassment and fondness. If he and Izaya ever… get together. Would he show Izaya this? Honesty is best in a relationship but he wouldn't want Izaya to think he's got some creepy obsession. Because he isn't obsessed. Keeping notes on a person, on someone who was effectively a stranger through a good portion of these… Well. Izaya's not exactly a soft, sensitive, innocent young girl. Izaya's personality is every bit of creepy that this notebook is.

"nothing"

"I am nothing."

"bitter library smell = Red eyes?"

"being watched - stalker or going crazy"

"vanishing asshole"

"a memory"

"Creep. Future serial killer?"

"Smell = bitter almonds = poison = bad guy***

= closet?"

"closet is secret lair. Blanket smell is the worst"

"he is a scrawny nerd."

"13 hearts - full of hearts - a pack of playing cards"

"The human brain - the brain - being human…"

Orihara Izaya