Irritation; that was what Izaya could feel fizzing under his skin. It was hot and uncomfortable and he didn't like the way it made him feel.
He had joked that Shinozuka would be thanking him for his advice later when he had emailed him the previous night, but he had never expected that to be true. He had thought he had the man pegged down, he had thought that he had him all figured out, and yet this had happened, and Izaya found himself proved wrong. This man had been easy to figure out; Izaya had wasted little time finding out what made him tick, what made his blood boil, what filled his wildest dreams and dizziest nightmares. And yet, Shinozuka Heikichi was capable of surprises it seemed. Izaya hadn't factored that into the equation, that was a result he had never expected, and anomaly, something that broke the mould. Well, Izaya had said he wanted someone interesting to play with, and this surely proved that Shinozuka was up to the challenge.
'Guess you get to say I told you so, Nak.
Never expected that- well, thanks for the tips, I guess.
Seems they even help a guy like me to find someone, heh.
And I guess you were right, maybe I was missing out.
It was- well, you know what it's like.
You know I'm not good at this.'
What did those words even mean? No. That was a stupid question. Izaya knew what they meant. This was the surprise act that Shinozuka had managed to spring on the gleeful information broker. When he'd given him those tips, it had been nothing more than a way to make the other man uncomfortable, to coax him into embarrassment so that Izaya could see what a delicious reaction that emotion would be on a man as supposedly pure as Shinozuka. What he hadn't expected was for the man to take these little tips, the little tricks that Izaya had jokingly passed on, and actually make use of them. He tried to imagine the other man slipping into some bar somewhere, testing out his newfound skills and leaving at the end of the night with someone in tow; or was it the other way around? He didn't know, and it struck him now that maybe he didn't really know anything about Shinozuka. He had thought he had him all worked out, and then he had gone and sprung something like this on him.
This game was positively fascinating, so delightful that Izaya almost wanted to dance around his office in pleasure of the fact. Wasn't this just the thing he had been after? Wasn't this just the crowning jewel he had been looking for to stimulate his brain? It was a good thing, if the man had been as simply as Izaya had imagined then this game would be over all too soon, and then he would lose interest, or the man would just buckle early under the pressure and he'd have to find a new plaything. No, no, Shinozuka Heikichi was just the right man for the job. This was just the next stepping stone, the next piece of the puzzle. He had experienced love, well, no, not really, that was laughable, and it wasn't love, was it? The man had played with a single night of passion, or so Izaya was supposed to take from the email he got. That wasn't love. Izaya should know. He'd had enough single nights filled with the charm of lust to know there was a difference. Not love, never love. No, no, but this was a good thing, it really was. Now Izaya could play with that, he could tease this man; make him believe all sorts of twisted things. It was only a matter of time before he fell for him, and then Izaya could finish this game on a high note, and have Shinozuka crashing to his feet. They were more personal with each other now weren't they? This was just the step forward that Izaya needed really. It was.
And yet-
'Seems they even help a guy like me to find someone, heh.'
Irritated, that's what he was. It was a horrible emotion, and it burned through humans in a way that Izaya liked to mock. Was this what that dumb, hideous brute always felt? It was like a headache, like a bad migraine that wouldn't go away.
He was well aware that he was scowling at the computer screen in front of him as he leant back in the comfy arms of his office chair. Namie was sat across the room at her own, considerably smaller, desk, sorting through some sort of meaningless paperwork that he had tossed her way to keep her busy and her mouth shut. He couldn't stand it when she spoke, just the way the words left her mouth. It was mid-afternoon, and he knew that Shinozuka should be at work, so he guessed the man was on a break or something. That didn't matter, what mattered was the fact that Izaya could shake this. An empty mug sat on the table beside him, along with an empty box of rice and sushi that he'd had Namie fetch for him earlier at lunch time. Mocking and chilly, he tore his gaze away from them to stare at the computer screen, at the window, down, at his humans, scurrying here and there like ants, bugs ready to be squashed.
This other man, the one that Shinozuka had met, had gone home with, had shared that intimate night of passion and all the other things that came with it, who did he think he was? He had no right to be touching what belonged to Izaya, he had no right to be playing with his toys.
That was why he was irritated; annoyed at this other man who had defiled something that Izaya was playing with. Izaya didn't like the emotion. It was foreign and tasted badly in his mouth. Shinozuka had turned out to be one hell of a plaything, though he would never let the other man know just how much fun, but now someone had touched him; they'd kissed him and made his heart race and his skin heat up, they'd tasted his plaything, they'd made him cry out, moan, groan, beg for moan, lose himself to pleasure. Ha! Would he have done so if he knew that Shinozuka belonged to Izaya? Humans. They were his. All of them. Humankind, humanity, every single one of them belonged to him. He was their leader, their guardian, their owner. He pulled at their lives, twisted and tugged and played with them like a family of dolls or a puppeteer. That included Shinozuka Heikichi. The other man belonged to him; he was Izaya's, to do with as he pleased, as he saw fit to deal with him. But he was dirty now, someone else had been messing with him, and a toy isn't nearly as much fun when it's dirty, is it? Shinozuka had been so pure before, so innocent and naïve and it was Izaya's job to turn that around, to turn him into a primal creature and have him begging at his feet. If that other man ever came to Izaya's attention, he'd have to run before he ended up with a knife in his back, twisted and sharp.
Because Izaya was annoyed, he was irritated and angry and even Namie could tell from the way his shoulders hunched as he sat.
If there was one thing that Izaya Orihara hated, it was when filthy humans touched what belonged to him.