Chapter 19: Appreciate What You Get
With the strength of a determined beast, the blond raced passed whatever stood in his sight. His senses spoke a relieving tone into his soul telling him everything is okay now, the one who he was seeking was right there, resting peacefully in his broad arms. But it never gave him happiness that Izaya was in pain bleeding out.
Although the rain hit harder and harder each time, Shizuo ran even faster and faster like a speeding bullet. No one was allowed to kill Izaya but him. No one was allowed to touch Izaya but him.
Mind confused by his own assumptions he did not know what else he could provide as an answer. The only one to touch the flea? The only one who was allowed to kill him.
His lungs burned with ice cold air quenching his throat into dry ice; the feeling setting his chest on fire but Shizuo didn't care. Right now, Izaya was the most injured of the two; blood staining his wounds ghostly white skin feeling exactly like ice.
"...W-why didn't you just... leave me to d-die?" The blond immediately came to a stop, shoes skidding friction across the concrete. Izaya's russet orbs were half lidded, boring a somnolent glare, lashes incredibly thick and long casting over them.
"Cuz you're not supposed to die that easily!"
"I'm the only one who can kill you damn it...!" He said through clenched teeth but he looked so desperate. "So typical with that neanderthal brain of yours, ne?..." the raven whispered quietly and gained a more comfortable spot in the ex-bartender's hold.
Like a vine slipping off of a tree branch, Izaya's arm slid off of his chest and dangled below the brute's arms, scarlet streams dripping from his slender fingers.
"Oi, flea!" He called but only the sound of rain surrounded them. Izaya's eyes slid back closed and his head turned sideways showing that he was no longer awake and responding. Within a blink of an eye, Shizuo blasted straight through the streets until he was recognizing the area and passage ways that were not the same as Shinra's but near his own apartment.
He turned over to the next part and headed up the stairs like a hurried animal and barged through his door hinges; thankfully not breaking it. The lightning booming and exploding around the timid grey skies never bothered or startled him nor did he care, but once he was inside his knees buckled underneath him onto the floor, unable to feel them. They were safe now, Izaya was found.
Taking him to Shinra would be a burden to him again although the fact that he was in no condition to care for another person since he needs to provide for himself, and especially hearing... that, he would rather keep him away at the time being, but possibly work things out with Shinra. Finding a new strength within his weak legs, Shizuo rose from his original position and carried the flea into his room.
The window was smeared with fog and dripping streaks of rain drops on the glass, bed sheets made up and it looked pretty neat to be of a monster's den. Shizuo lowered himself onto the soft comforter and slid the raven onto his bedding as carefully as he could.
The thought of blood staining his sheets didn't go flat with him so he went into the bathroom and returning with some cotton, tissue, and liquids he previously bought from the store but probably had no use for them since he was the Fortissimo of Ikebukuro; never gets injured to the need of using them.
Without hesitation, he lifted up part of Izaya's long sleeve to reveal the wound and rope bruised trailing along his arms making his heart sink with grief. What the hell did they do to him? He grabbed the alcohol and dubbed it with cotton. Shizuo brought it to the wound, surprisingly was not deep, and pressed upon it. He could've sworn through his golden eyes that the informant squirmed just a tad bit whether he was faking to be unconscious or truly out cold, it still pained his monstrous heart. He then smeared the drying blood away with his tissue and wrapped it up with genteelism.
The same went for his ankles, cuts and rope burns slithering all around them. Yet again repeating the process and bandaged his lower region.
To Shizuo, this all seemed like a bad dream he wanted to be done and over with or wished it being a prank the flea set up, but to no avail this was all very much real. Making sure that Izaya was fine and well cared for at the moment he pulled the covers over the informant and tucked him in making sure it was warm enough. Izaya's color was returning very sluggishly but that signified he was doing alright.
By that moment he walked out of his bedroom and closed the door behind him lightning flashed through his head.
Shizuo had a chance to finally rid his life of the stinking flea right here and now, and he still does. He ran his fingers through his dyed hair and sighed miserably. No matter how many times he tried to think on doing it,
He couldn't do it.
"What the fuck is wrong with me?" First strange habits that happened on their own and now this.
Today, this entire time when that night happened, things began for unfold strangely.
Like the invisible thin string of fate that was already tied around them ever since they met finally began tugging them closer.
The flea should be grateful that Shizuo is sheltering him.
Even though time passed, he continued to walk around and listen to the soothing sound of dripping rain from outside.
The new idea now settling in the blond's noggin, he paced to the phone sluggish like taking his time. It was still better to let the doctor know everything was alright, and so he braced himself for pushing in his number, for hesitation sank deeper in his being.
He couldn't let Shinra worry more but... he was mad at the man earlier and didn't know whether he should try reaching out again.
But this was for Izaya's sake; him also being a dear friend of Shinra's.
Shoving the flooding hesitation from him, he pushed in the numbers letting it ring.
It dialed with its buzzing sound of a bee.
Click.
"Um... Hello?" Shizuo answered sheepishly and ran a hand through his tangled shaggy hair and rested it there.
No one answered but he heard things like a television in the background and assumed it was Celty at the phone.
"Hey, if this is Celty, can you please lend Shinra the phone please?"
Although he couldn't hear a hum or a noise if acknowledgement but heard a faint knocking from where she was and a door opening.
"Yes, hello?" He finally answered.
Whether the words got stuck in his throat or not, he tried to speak. "Shizuo?" He called again.
"...Yeah, sorry. I'm here."
"Surprising. I thought you were done with me." He said nonchalantly with no amusement in his voice, but if Shizuo were to see Shinra's actual expression that lit his face, it was in a calm stating way. "Not really, I just had to tell you I found the louse and..."
"What!? You found him? And?"
"And yeah. He's was out cold and bleeding from some cuts he had but I got it. He's fine." A soft sigh slipped from the blond although it was more like an exhausted groan.
"That's good. Really good..." Shinra let out a relieved murmur almost as if he was holding his breath.
Time seemed to be going at a reasonable pace and things looked well. Well enough that Shizuo didn't feel that awkward tension he felt before when trying to speak to this person.
After a small silence, Shinra's voice grew loud again. "Hey Shizuo, can I ask you a question?" he quickly cut himself off-"No, a favor." correcting himself.
"A favor?" Shizuo questioned. "What for?"
"I want you to take care of Izaya." The sudden favor caught Shizuo's words in his neck and trapped them, eyes widening. "What do you mean 'Take care of him?"
"I mean what I said. I can't do anything at the moment for him, but you," Silence rippled through the air for seconds to come "you can look after and protect him."
"Why can't it be anyone else?" His hand clenched the phone with a strong hold almost breaking it, but he found his calming nature and suppressed the urge to obliterate it into pieces. "Because I can't really trust anyone else to do this, and you've been the one bringing him here safely and protecting him."
"Just do this one task. You might even bond with him."
"Fine," Shizuo sneered. He could hear the man's sighs of happiness and constant thanking. "Well, take care!" Shinra spoke with enthusiasm and joy before hanging up like nothing ever happened.
Shizuo ran his fingers through his hair again brushing back his bangs and snaked all the way to the nape of his neck, and released a held in sigh.
Just my luck.
He now had to take care of the flea, which probably would be degrading as always.
But unusually, his anger did not arise.
He changed into a regular white t-shirt and navy blue sweat pants.
The wind crept upon the windows and chilled the edges with frost as the stars blinked and twinkle continuously. The ex-bartender dragged his feat towards the couch and fell back onto it without any care.
Well, Izaya is sleeping and it's pretty late since he was running around for a good hour because of Izaya. Shit, everything is always Izaya's fault.
But those guys... what they did to him? That was disrupting his peaceful state even more than just looking at Izaya and feeling hatred could do.
He grit his teeth and narrowed his eyes into deadly slits.
Izaya may be a bastard who deserves a good beat down, but what they did to him was the worst.
Shizuo laid his head down, eyelids heavy and sliding down closed. He slipped into a sweet slumber with the thought 'How can we ever get along? I'm just gonna end up killing the bastard, that's for sure, but...'
'Why does my body deny that? Second thoughts? Could it be because of how much he suffered?'
...
It's too quiet, and yet, this feeling...
"Would you mind telling me why you brought me here, monster?" He said with a threatening voice.
The blond laid there silently not moving. The knife's tip pressed against his neck but he didn't care at all.
The raven towered over his body like a predator stalking its prey.
The informant was sitting on top of him and aimed his weapon at Shizuo's throat, blood red eyes pouring into his golden honey ones.
"You were injured. Where else would you have wanted to go, flea?"
A low chuckle bubbled from Izaya. Shizuo only glared with that serious glare of a tiger's at the man sitting on top of him.
"Or maybe you could've left me on my own, ne?" He mused through his smirk. "I guess you really can't think; not with that single brain cell~"
The black haired man pressed his knife further but not enough to fracture a monster's skin. "Shut the hell up. You were basically close to dying on that bridge near the end of 'bukuro. So you should be happy I let you live." He growled.
"Let me live? Don't make me laugh! You could've killed me right then and there, but," he leaned closer to the Heiwajima's face "you let me live."
Anytime, right now, a couple a seconds from now he could just shove the flea off his waste and strangle him now. But yet, his body told him no. He was trapped in stone from his thoughts and what was happening now. Shizuo knew Izaya was just trying to piss him off but at the moment his body still said no. "Ne, Shizu-chan. Why did you let me live?"
"You've had numerous amount of times to end my whole existence, and yet, you refuse everytime. It's funny, really."
"Tell me why."
The silent roar of lightning tore the clouds apart from the outside. Rain slamming against the window and fog hiding the view.
Still, Shizuo didn't dare move and let himself play victim. He was so unfazed by all of this.
He went through this much trouble to bring the flea to his own home, stitch him up and for what? To wake up greeted with a knife to his Adam's Apple.
"Shinra told me to." He said with a stern face.
Again, that annoying maniacal laugh burst from Izaya's lips, trying to gain his self control from uncontrollable laughter. "Good one, Shizu-chan! But you see," the raven leaned so close that his lips were a few centimeters from the blond's ear, "I don't need saving. I'm very much fine on my own."
Fine on your own?
A spark shocked within his brain and anger finally decided to appear from its shadows.
Like a tiger lashing out, Shizuo immediately rose sliding the flea off of his waist and snatched the his wrist. "Let go...!" The raven spat and tried to yank from the brute's strong hold.
"Shut up! Fucking fine on your own!?"
"You got hurt the first time, you almost got yourself into more trouble by those men in the alley, you got yourself kidnapped and now you're telling me this shit? FINE ON YOUR OWN!?" His grip turned into a deadly trap that squeezed Izaya's wrist, close enough of fracturing it.
"S-Shizu-chan stop- that hurts!" Izaya even used his other hand and pushed violently against the blond's chest.
"I'M NOT LETTING GO UNTIL YOU REALIZE THAT YOU'RE WRONG!" He yelled and squeezed even tighter seeing those red eyes squint shut in pain. He was hurting him and though he felt a pang of senses telling him to stop, his anger ruled over his conscious.
Lightning fast, Izaya took a swing with his dagger but was stopped by Shizuo's hand. The blond immediately took the knife and pelted it across the room, sliding across the floor.
He yanked the informant towards him until he was towering straight over his small frame. Izaya was surprisingly light but that didn't even stay for seconds in the monster's mind.
"You're gonna appreciate the things people do for your sorry ass!"
Izaya felt all his heat leave and turn him ice cold as a glacier.
"Shizu-chan if you'll be willing to just let go-!"
"Like I said," Izaya flinched when he felt large hands grab his arms and felt a slight squeeze.
"APPRECIATE THE THINGS PEOPLE DO FOR YOU!"
Red eyes widened in shock. Izaya couldn't feel his body anymore and as soon as he couldn't, his constant flailing came to an end and was left speechless. This man was towering straight over him and yet... he says this.
The raven lowered his head until his glossy eyes were no longer seen, black bangs casting a shadow over them.
Awkward silence slipped in and mocked both of them as they just sat there for what seemed like eternity.
Shizuo let go of his arms a few minutes later.
He wanted to apologize but he knew he couldn't. Time passed and Izaya just walked into his room and was never seen for the rest of the night.