Shizuo runs and jumps out into the cold night air with his arms outstretched for the dark building he knows is there on Izaya's word. Just as Izaya said, he collides with the stone siding of a building within a millisecond of being in the air. With all the adrenaline and self-assurance he needs, he makes his own hold in the building by shoving his fingers into the wall.
Izaya lurches over Shizuo's shoulder from the sudden stop but he's stable. He laughs in Shizuo's ear, breathlessly amazed, and bounces on Shizuo's back.
"Yes, yes! Perfect!"
"Sit still and shut up, flea." Shizuo snarls, but his heart isn't really in it. "I'm not done with you yet."
He wrenches one aching hand from the wall and ignores the warm drip of what is probably blood from his skin breaking against the stone and reaches up to punch another hole in the wall for him to use.
"Mm good…" Izaya purrs, rubbing his cheek over the back of Shizuo's head and this is really not the time for him to be distracting.
Shizuo does his best to ignore Izaya's increasingly hot breath and the sirens and the shouting from the warehouse to focus on bringing them the last few feet up to the roof.
By the time he gets to the top his certain both of his hands are bleeding and at least one of his fingers are broken but he can hardly feel it because he's dumping Izaya onto the roof like a sack of flour.
"What the fuck were you doing?!"
Izaya lands gracelessly, yelping as he lands on his bad ankle. But Shizuo can't really feel bad because Izaya's bouncing right back. Reaching for the hem of Shizuo's shirt either in an attempt to pull himself up or pull Shizuo down with him.
"Why were you looking for me? How did you know where I was?"
He asks between unusually hot gulps of air and even though it really isn't the time Shizuo's letting himself be pulled down.
"I went over to your place to hang out with you and your sisters and they said you left dressed as a girl!" He sits on his knees but Izaya's still grabbing him. He's grabbing Shizuo by the front of his shirt and his shoulders and is still somewhere between pulling himself up and dragging Shizuo down and is really just succeeding in pulling himself closer. "And I… your sister said you were hanging around the Blue Squares and I knew something was wrong because damn it Izaya you can't just leave fucking kids alone." Shizuo's let himself fall forward into Izaya's pull onto his hands and knees over Izaya, who's still trying to climb him.
"So I brought them to my place for Kasuka to look after and went looking for you." Shizuo's panting as much as Izaya is now, they're faces are so close and hot as Izaya clings to his front. Izaya's not even touching the roof anymore. He's just hanging onto Shizuo with his legs wrapped around Shizuo's waist and he won't stop squirming for some reason. "And it-it's your fucking smell again. Wherever you go you leave a trail that stinks up the damn city…"
"Beast…" Izaya whispers rapturously, barely audible even though they're so close over the wail of the sirens.
"Izaya we need to get out of here…" Shizuo pleads. "Your sisters. The police."
He's begging Izaya to let them go. The force of Izaya's pull is like gravity and Shizuo can't fight it as Izaya's hands are tangling in Shizuo's hair. His nose is bumping Shizuo's jaw while he fits his lips to the curve of his neck and Shizuo isn't strong enough to do anything but keep himself from crushing Izaya while he collapses when Izaya whines.
"Shizu-chan…"
Izaya's voice cracks up into a high pitch over heat and desperation Shizuo doesn't fully understand. He's whithering with every brush of soft skin and every sharp inhale of that scent and Izaya still won't stop squirming. He's grabbing every inch of Shizuo he can reach and trying to pull it into his chest and is constantly shifting the angle of his legs around Shizuo's waist. Shizuo doesn't really understand Izaya's need to hold onto as much of Shizuo as possible or what exactly made the tension in him snap to make him try and devour Shizuo's neck, but he's starting to forget why he was trying to be anywhere but right here a moment ago. Izaya's right here and he's warm and he smells so good and he's clutching Shizuo so tightly.
"Shizu-chan… you came… you were looking for…"
He gasps between gulps of air and mouthfuls of the skin over Shizuo's pounding pulse.
And now Shizuo remembers what he was doing.
"Yes." He finally manages to move one hand to Izaya's hair to push Izaya away from him. If they're going to get anywhere Izaya needs to stop trying to eat him alive. He hisses as one of the broken or sprained fingers bumps into Izaya's forehead and Izaya keens at the touch. Extremely unhelpfully, Shizuo might add.
"Stop moving, I'm taking you home…"
But Izaya ignores him completely and decides that trying to crawl into Shizuo's shirt is a much better idea.
"Shizu-chan… Shizu-chan…"
Part of Shizuo agrees but… not now. Kasuka and his mom are looking after Mairu and Kururi and probably worried sick. They should be getting home as soon as possible.
With more willpower than physical strength he manages to pry Izaya off his chest first, then hold him down with one hand while working on unlocking Izaya's legs from around him. Izaya is consistently unhelpful with his bratty whining and attempts to latch back onto Shizuo the moment he slips up.
"Izaya, come on." He hisses. "I'm not going anywhere, okay? I'm just going to take you home."
… And interrogate you.
Finally, he manages to pin Izaya on his back under him. Izaya gives up on his useless struggle against Shizuo's strength and lays limp. He gasps for breath with his chin is tilted up towards the moon and now that the fighting has stopped everything is still.
Even at night, the city is always alive with speeding cars and neon signs and sirens and loud drunks. But on this roof, low as it is, most of the chaos is beneath them fading into the background. Watching Izaya stare up at the night sky filling his lungs with cold air while the blood from Shizuo's hands dries in his hair and in a smear on his forehead Shizuo realizes he never really notices how stressful perpetual noise is until it's gone.
Izaya's lips form around words again and it comes out as hushed breaths more than actual speech.
"Why did you come looking for me?"
Shizuo slowly lifts his right hand to tangle it in Izaya's dirty, congealing hair. More blood won't really make a difference other than making his voice come out unexpectedly tight.
"I was worried about you… you really thought no one would notice you were up to something? What the hell were you thinking?"
He's expecting a snarky comment. Maybe a jab at his intelligence. Hell, even silence. What he isn't expecting is the way Izaya's expression collapses and the storm of emotions never seen so clearly before this night. Desperation, pain, lust… His tips his head back, baring his throat to the moonlight, and Shizuo can see the whine that boils up and over.
"Shizuo."
The need is clear over every inch of Izaya and Shizuo's not sure if Izaya needs to be kissed breathless or if he needs to cry.
Shizuo is sure that this isn't the time or the place for either of those things.
"Okay," He rasps and even he doesn't know what he means by it. It just comes out. "Okay, just hang on…"
He pulls his fingers out of Izaya's hair with a low hiss. As the fog in his head clears and the adrenaline eases down to a simmer he can feel the pain in his fingers. When he shifts away from Izaya he's half expecting him to grab his shirt again, but he doesn't. Izaya lays perfectly still with his head back, his expression open, and his arms out horizontally with his palms up much like he did on Shizuo's bed all those weeks ago. He doesn't have to say anything for Shizuo to know that he's waiting for Shizuo to pick him back up and carry him.
He picks Izaya up like he's a child with one arm supporting his weight and the other around his shoulders to keep him upright. Thankfully, after Shizuo jumps down from the roof to the fire escape, Izaya wordlessly agrees to cooperate enough to allow Shizuo to shift him onto his back again and hold on.
The walk home is slow as he picks his way through alleys and over chain link fences but Izaya doesn't lift his face from Shizuo's shoulder the whole way.
Shizuo isn't thinking about the hour or how some of his fingers are broken or the blood in Izaya's face and hair. When he opens the front door and steps inside it occurs to him that maybe they should have played this more carefully.
:::
Izaya more or less shut his brain down as Shizuo carried him back to his house. All the lights and the sounds and the pain in his ankle and the cuts and Shizuo was too much stimulation. It felt like his brain was working triple-time to over-analyze every detail about the world around them and what happened on top of the crushing sensation of pure desire. He can't think right now. He's not ready to think right now.
But the rest of the world is being very inconsiderate about that.
Then Shizuo opens the front door of his home and it gets so much worse.
Shizuo's brother is sitting at the table with a woman Izaya can assume is Shizuo's mother and she looks absolutely sick with worry. The two of them look up the moment the front door opens to Shizuo carrying Izaya. In a skirt, holding a wig and a knife, bloody and bruised.
Not exactly how he wanted to be introduced to Shizuo's mother.
"Oh my goodness!" She gasps, jumping up from the table to immediately rush over to them. Izaya wishes she could just stay sitting there and ignore him. But unfortunately, this is Shizuo's mother they're dealing with right now, not his own father.
She places one hand on Shizuo's chest and cups his face with the other to look at him carefully. She looks so concerned. So open and so loving that Izaya's blinded and he has to hide his face in Shizuo's back.
"Oh, Shizuo we were so worried! You've never been out so late before and Kasuka told me that one of your friends was in danger and-" She looks over Izaya's broad shoulder and gasps again. She can;t see Izaya's face and she's a small woman, but Izaya's sure she can see Shizuo's blood crusted on the top of his hair and the bloody knife clenched in Izaya's hand that's braced around Shizuo's shoulders.
"Is that-! Oh, oh come inside already." She steps to the side to let them into the warm home but all Izaya can feel is a bone-deep cold. "I demand an explanation from both of you! After we fix you up and oh, it's freezing outside! Go sit!"
Izaya doesn't even realize he's shaking until Shizuo reaches up to cover his white-knuckled hand with his own.
"We're okay mom, it's not as bad as it looks," Shizuo mumbles but doesn't hesitate to do as he's told. He brings Izaya around to the other side of the table, probably trying to cover up the whole skirt thing, and gently sits him down after squeezing his hand reassuringly. Izaya isn't even reassured as Shizuo sits right next to him close enough for their shoulders to brush.
Finally, Izaya looks up to see Kasuka already opening a massive first-aid kit and his mother standing over them with her arms crossed.
"Not that bad? That boy's head is covered in blood!" She snaps and reaches out across Shizuo's body to try and touch Izaya. No doubt to examine his head gently with the calloused, self-assured hands of a hard-working mother. Before Izaya can compose himself to control his reaction, he flinches away.
"Ah, no mom," Shizuo cuts in as her hand curls back from Izaya's silent rejection. "No, he's okay. That's my blood, it's-" He lifts his hands to show her and before he can finish his explanation she's grabbing his hands as carefully as she can, given her growing concern.
"Oh, Shizuo, what happened?" She sounds like she doesn't believe what she's seeing as she waves at Kasuka to bring the medical supplies closer. Izaya understands her disbelief. Shizuo's body gets more and more indestructible every day and while Shizuo's medical records showed that he broke bones all the time as a child that stopped happening during his pre-teen years. He imagines she hasn't seen her tank of a son hurt in years.
"I uh, I shoved my hand in concrete…" Shizuo says quietly. He doesn't look at her while he grits his teeth and sets the few fingers that look out of place, only grunting when he snaps the bones back to where they're supposed to be while his mother and Izaya flinch at every one of them. Once they're set he lets her clean the blood from the scrapes and wrap tight splints around them.
Kasuka, who appears to be at least a step ahead of all of them, has already gotten a wet hand-towel for Izaya to clean his face with. Izaya's grateful to get the crusty mess off and hopefully look less like a corpse sitting at the Heiwajima's table.
"But we're okay mom, can we please just… Can we please talk about this tomorrow?"
"Absolutely not!" She snaps and without prompting Kasuka brings him and Shizuo some water. "As if I'm going to give you boys a chance to get your story straight. You're going to tell me right now!"
Ah, smart lady.
Unfortunately for her and Shizuo, Izaya already has his story straight. And it should be confirmed in the local news very soon.
Shizuo glances at Izaya, looking openly anxious. He couldn't lie right now even if he had one prepared. But Izaya was expecting him to be honest with him mother and brother, so it won't be a problem.
"Your mother's right," Izaya says. He sounds as shaky as he feels and right now that's good. That'll make him look more honest right now.
He looks up her and can see the honey brown eyes that belong to Shizuo and Kasuka's nose.
"I'm so sorry we had to meet like this, I'm not normally…" He glances up at Shizuo for support. This first part isn't a lie and Shizuo can back him up. "I'm not normally involved in fighting."
Shizuo nods, watching Izaya more so than his mother because he must want an explanation too.
"And I'm sorry for getting Shizuo-san involved. I didn't want him to know because I knew he'd try to help."
He continues the explanation and knows he's not explaining everything to Shizuo's mom, but it should be enough pieces for Shizuo. He's really just explaining for Shizuo.
"I've been watching this gang for a while because there have been rumors about them assaulting girls. I have two sisters and… I just couldn't stand the thought of them growing up in a neighborhood where people could get away with that sort of thing. But no girls came forward about it and I figured it was because they were scared so I had to get proof. And… this gang didn't like that." He lets his voice trail off over the suggestion of violence and attempted heroism.
"Ah, but I did call the police so they could catch them tonight. Hopefully, they'll have the evidence they need to put these monsters away for a long time." He finishes, sitting up a little taller and speaking more confidently. At least, they'll have the evidence when I give them the photos.
For a minute all three Heiwajimas stare him down and he feels like he's under the watch of three lie detectors. Shizuo breaks the silence first.
"You idiot…" he breathes and wraps one arm around Izaya's shoulders to pull him in for a hug, tucking his face in Izaya's hair in an open display of affection Izaya was not prepared for. "That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard."
Izaya's not sure if he's saying that because Izaya's attempt at heroics was stupid or because he is seeing through the lie. If he does, thankfully he doesn't call Izaya out on it in front of his family.
Shizuo's response seems to be enough to disarm his mom and… maybe Kasuka? It's hard to tell with Kasuka.
She sighs and leans against the table, suddenly looking older. "Yes, it was… are you hurt, dear?"
"Ah, not really." Izaya tries to wave her off with a smile and tries to subtly pull himself out of Shizuo's hold with no success. This hug is embarrassingly long, right? It can't just be Izaya who thinks that. "Just a few cuts, nothing nearly as serious as broken fingers." Except for the dull ache in his ankle. It's definitely not broken, but it's probably sprained. Nothing he wants fixed enough to show off the skirt they probably already got a glimpse of.
He lets the three Heiwajimas clean and closes the cut on his collar bone with a few butterfly band-aids before he asks about his sisters.
Finally, Kasuka speaks up.
"They're asleep upstairs in Shizuo's room." He turns to his brother. "I was sure you wouldn't mind."
"Not at all," Shizuo says with a smile.
Izaya smiles as well. The soft, relieved smile of a protective brother who only wants the best for his precious sisters. "I hope they weren't too much trouble. Can I go see them?"
:::
Mairu and Kururi are curled up together on Shizuo's twin-sized bed. Their little arms and legs are knitted together with practiced ease. More often than not they share a bed just like this at home, even though they both have their own beds. Izaya has never really cared to try and separate them before. Izaya and Shizuo step into the dark room, only illuminated by a sliver of light from the hallway.
He sits on the edge of Shizuo's bed, combing his fingers through his sisters' hair. They're completely dead to the world and Izaya knows they only sleep like this after being thoroughly tired out. This kind of sleep comes from being played with until they crash. Kasuka and Shizuo's mother must have had their hands full with these two.
Shizuo stands over them in shared silence with Izaya. Izaya knows he has questions. He can feel them weighing down Shizuo's gaze and keeping the scene from the perfection it almost is. He had hoped Shizuo would be entirely convinced, and maybe he is. Maybe he did fully believe Izaya's story and just wants to ask about the details like who Akihito is. Izaya expects that much at least. But Shizuo had proven to be good at timing when he asks important questions.
He takes his time arranging the girls' wild hair around their sleeping faces. After he's fidgeted with a strand of Kururi, short hair for at least a full minute Shizuo wordlessly tells him that enough is enough by reaching over him and pulling the blanket up to their chins. He places one hand on Izaya's shoulder and leads him out of the room.
The sleeping arrangements for the last few hours of the night were agreed upon after much debate. The Heiwagima's are too polite for their own good but eventually, Izaya managed to convince him that he would be just fine on the couch alone. Shizuo's mother would be in her own bed with her husband who had passed out there drunk hours before Izaya and Shizuo arrived and Shizuo would share Kasuka's room. Well, as far as Shizuo's mother knows.
Kasuka knows the nature of their relationship and has agreed that it's a secret for Shizuo and Izaya to tell if they want to. Although, the way he looked at Izaya when he told them to "stay safe" had a much heavier meaning to it than using condoms.
So instead of sleeping on Kasuka's floor, he's tangled up with Izaya on the couch and neither of them is sleeping in during the last few hours of darkness.
Izaya's clothes and wig are folded away in an old plastic shopping bag and instead, he's wearing some of Shizuo's clothes -gray sweatpants rolled around his hips at least four times and a white tee-shirt - which are far too large and far too comfortable. The rest of his cuts were treated between the two of them and his ankle has finally been wrapped as has a bag of frozen vegetables on it for the swelling. It's the only part of his body left outside their huddle.
Izaya's head rests on Shizuo's shoulder and his other leg is woven through Shizuo's. Shizuo has one hand on Izaya's lower back and the other is alternating between Izaya's hair and his shoulders while he asks all of the questions that come to mind and Izaya recounts the details of being on the inside of the gang.
"Why pretend to be a girl?"
"Because it was easier to get in as someone's clueless girlfriend. I wouldn't have to be initiated or participate in any gang activity for them to let their guards down."
"Oh… that makes sense I guess. It's just not something a lot of guys would have thought to do… I just wasn't sure… I'm mean, it's not because you're…? I mean it's okay if you are I just-"
Izaya lets out a dry laugh to cut Shizuo off.
"Shizu-chan, are you trying to ask if I feel like a girl inside?"
Izaya doesn't have to be looking at Shizuo to feel the blush radiating off his face.
"I don't. I'll confess that I've enjoyed playing dress-up with my sisters more than the average older brother, but having an interest in makeup isn't what makes a woman."
"Okay… I just wanted to know cause… I want to respect you, y'know?"
Izaya nods and for once can't find it in him to tease Shizuo's lack of skill with language, because even though he is a man, it's still nice to hear Shizuo would be with him either way. In fact, it's a huge load off his shoulders. He was agonizing for so long if Shizuo would prefer him as a woman and this is just the final confirmation that his neither his gender nor his anatomy will change things between them.
However, Izaya's actions still might.
"So I'm guessing Akihito is the other guy…"
"The one who Izumii so crudely said I was 'whoring it up' with? Yes."
Shizuo tenses and Izaya can hear him swallow.
"Did you… what did you do?"
"Nothing that would have made him find out that I actually have a penis." He says, trying to lighten the mood. Nothing breaks the ice with a teenage boy quite like using the word "penis."
And Shizuo does laugh. Kind of. And it sounds a little forced.
"Okay but… there's still a lot of things…"
"I kissed him on the cheek once."
Technically, neither of them agreed to be in a monogamous relationship, but there was something unspoken between them which Izaya may have tainted by faking another relationship. But the line is blurry.
"He wanted more, of course, but I didn't. So I strung him along and would tide him over with lies and such."
Izaya can feel Shizuo's disappointed sigh before it comes out.
"Izaya, that's wrong. That's really wrong."
Izaya tightens his grip on Shizuo and tries to find the warmth he always felt in Shizuo's arms.
"It was just once on the cheek. He didn't mean anything to me and it was just-"
"That's what's wrong." Shizuo cuts off Izaya's desperate attempts to convince him that he was never playing with him. Well, never like that.
"You can't just lead someone on like that, it sounds like he really liked you."
"He really liked Kanra." Izaya corrects. "He liked all the lies and none of me."
Shizuo sighs again and Izaya wants to catch it and stuff it back into Shizuo's mouth. He doesn't want to be reprimanded for being clever. It's Akihito's fault for being an idiot.
"I just feel bad for him."
"He was part of a gang that sexually assaulted unconscious girls. I have the pictures they took, I already told you."
"But he was trying to keep you safe from that. He probably didn't do it."
"Guilt by association."
"Yeah… but not everyone joins a gang because they're a bad guy."
Izaya hums. It seems Shizuo has grown to appreciate some of the finer intricacies of morality after all.
"But he still knew, or at least suspected, and did nothing."
"... Yeah, that is wrong."
Izaya relaxes again, snuggling deeper into Shizuo. So Shizuo isn't mad about that… not very mad, anyway. Nothing they can't come back from.
"... why didn't you tell me you were doing this? I could have helped you."
"Because you wouldn't have liked this plan."
"Yeah, but you could've made a new plan. You're too smart not to have found a use for me."
Ah, so he is suspicious.
Izaya's thinking through his next answer. He's carefully selecting words and truths but before he can finish his thoughts are interrupted by the thudding of loud, uneven footsteps approaching and they can't untangle fast enough with how careful Shizuo is being with his ankle.
Shizuo's father stumbles into the living room and the two of them still are far closer than friends should be.