Author's Note: Fuck, wow, I am going to grovel for forgiveness for how overdue this update is. Normally I don't like to let it go more than a few days, but I know it's been over a week, nearly two or something since this was last updated. SORRY, SORRY, SORRY. I've had a crazy workload of college work piled on me in the last couple of weeks and important deadlines to meet so I've really, really not had the time to sit down and write, even though I have really been wanting too. And then I went to the gym for a work out and ended up pulling some muscles in my leg which was really NOT fun at all. ;_;
It's a good thing a little bit of Shizaya fluff fixes all of that, right? I've also got a proper plan all typed up for that original fiction I have planned, so that should be posted within the next week too if you'd like to check it out. Lastly, I want to send a big thank you to everyone who has reviewed the past couple of chapters. I always love reading what you guys have to say, even if it's just telling me that you're looking forward to the next update. It's really what keeps me going sometimes~.
Now, enough of my babbling and on with the update! I hope you all like it, and don't forget those cute little reviews, ya hear?
"They're endlessly irritating," admitted Izaya, lowering his fingers to curl around a delicate looking piece of china, filled with the coffee that he'd ordered to end their meal. Shizuo himself had gone for a glass of milk, which Izaya had laughed at and the waitress had seemed to find simply adorable. The blonde's ears had tinged pink at that and Izaya mused it was a wonder the table they sat at wasn't upturned in his embarrassment.
"I can't imagine why," the blonde replied, in a simple monotone voice filled with sarcasm and half concealed amusement. His eyes were closed for the moment, sipping at his glass and leaning back in his chair. Izaya half raised a brow at the tone; the Shizuo that had started to peak through was different to the one he knew. It wasn't often that this new monster was showing, but the glances and teasing flashes were enough to intrigue him even more. The dark passenger crouching in the back of his own mind was lowering to its haunches, ready to pounce on this new brute that he was seeing, ready to play, to tease, to do whatever the hell. The two of them had somehow ended up on the topic of siblings, though Shizuo had lost track of the conversation that had led them there and didn't really want to discuss Kasuka all that much. The subject had always been a little touchy.
They had chatted for a while when they'd been ordering and waiting for their food to arrive, rather awkwardly on Shizuo's part, who still seemed to be having a hard time of really relaxing completely with where he was. Izaya guessed that was natural, because even he could still feel the knots of doubt pinching at his spine, tingling in his fingers, whispering in his head. This situation was still foreign, of course, still vastly outside of what either of them were used to. Nearly ten years had passed with them both hating the other with such passion that it seemed like they were bursting with it; to decide that maybe they didn't hate each other was going to be a shock to the system, no matter who they were or how fast or slow they went. When their food had arrived at the table, carried over by a bubbly waitress who didn't seem to recognise either of them, thankfully, the two of them lapsed into silence in favour of eating. That had seemed to suit them fine too, better perhaps without the awkward small talk that they'd never been that good at to get in the way, and soon they'd finished their meal and turned to the end delights of coffee.
"Oh, of course. How could I forget how well you and those horrors get along?" the raven hummed, taking another sip of the steaming liquid within. He wasn't usually a big fan of coffee, tea was so much more refined, but every now and then he allowed himself to indulge in the stronger drink. Variety is the spice of life, or so he'd always heard. Shizuo's eyes opened, and he took another sip from his glass, finishing it and setting it back onto the table. He didn't reply, just shrugged. He'd run into Izaya's younger siblings before, and even when he and the louse had been at each other's throats, the blonde had never found the two girls any more irritating than anyone else on the street; once or twice he'd even felt sorry for the two having a brother such as Izaya, at least until they'd dashed off in search of his own brother, and then all that pity vanished.
More and more people had left the restaurant while they'd been eating and half talking and breathing and just surviving, hardly surprising seeing as they'd met later than most people on dates normally did; they were only one table out of a handful of others left. The room was getting quieter, couples dotted around leaning in toward one another to continue their conversations in close, hushed voices and velvet whispers. Shizuo and Izaya sat as far apart as they had done at the start of the meal, simply allowing silence to rule whenever the sounds in the room dipped too low. Izaya continued to sip at his coffee, until it was all gone and Shizuo stared back at him or at his hands. And that suited them just fine.
"Let's get out of here," Shizuo mumbled, a little while after Izaya had lowered his coffee cup back to its little saucer on the table. The two had fallen into silence again, simply staring back at each other as if daring the other to be the one to break the silence. It worked for them though. It did. Shizuo felt content. Izaya felt content. They never had been good at small talk, and the silence was such a change from what they were used to that it peaceful and pleasant.
"Oh Shizzy," the raven chortled, "I didn't know you were so forward,"
The sound of Shizuo's chocked intake of breath was worth making the joke, Izaya noted, letting his laughter fill the air once again.
The two of them had left the restaurant, but had yet to leave Sunshine 60 and its many floors.
Shizuo had made to head for the lift, in a grouchy mood after the dispute the pair had gotten into over paying the bill. His pride had insisted not to let the louse pay, on principle and some warped rule that he knew to be true of dates. Reality however had dealt him a different hand, and the bill had cost more than Shizuo had on him, or even in his bank at that time he was sure, leading the raven to step in with what the blonde knew was a smug smirk in his direction to pay. Shizuo had commented to the informant it was lucky he hadn't tossed him down the stairs in payback for that little look. Izaya had just laughed, and followed after the blonde as he stalked out of the door. Same old Shizuo, same old Izaya, same old, same old, just with a few new tricks to spice things up.
The blonde had obviously been heading back toward the elevator when Izaya had stepped in, curling a hand around the brute's arm to tug him back away towards the stairs leading up, up, up to floor sixty, the final one, bucking up into the sky.
"You're going the wrong way," Izaya had said when Shizuo raised a brow at the contact. His innocence in matters like this was almost funny, even now. The oaf had such a cliché notion of love and dating and whatever, even when it came to someone he was supposed to hate. Izaya wasn't sure whether he ought to find that endearing now or if he was still supposed to mock the blonde. Clearly Shizuo was used to the idea that people were to go out for dinner and then leave and that was that. Yeah, it was almost cute how foolish he was to the real ways of the world, the ways of his world. For now though, he didn't care, had just pushed it to the back of his mind, as the two had made their way up, up, up to the top floor.
The sixtieth floor of Sunshine 60 held no restaurant. It held no office, no café or no post office. The only thing on the sixtieth floor of Sunshine 60 was the observation deck, and that was as simple as that. From the sixtieth floor of Sunshine 60, one could look out at the city below for as far as their eyes could see, as far as the buildings stretched and skyscrapers kicked back against the sky or the lights twinkled on the horizon.
Heights weren't quite that bad, Shizuo Heiwajima quickly decided on stepping foot onto the floor behind the raven, and that maybe he'd been a little too quick to judge them when they could present him with views such as the one he was witnessing now; the entirety of the city spread out as far as his eyes could see. He'd not been expecting this to greet the two of them when they arrived there, had half wondered if Izaya had not been doing it to wind him up and take him somewhere they weren't meant to be in order for a quickie on some poor soul's office desk.
The blonde forgot the louse for a minute, stepping swiftly across the room until he was stood right at the other side, pressed against the railing and looking out over the city as if he would almost tumble right over into it. He'd lived in Tokyo for his entire life, Ikebukuro was his home, the only place he'd ever known, and yet he'd never known it could be so—
"Beautiful, hm?" came a voice at his side. Shizuo didn't even turn, but Izaya wasn't worried about that, simply staring at the blonde's face, lit with the lights of the city streaming up at them. He often came here when he needed to think. His loft offered him a good view of Shinjuku, but nothing like this, nothing like seeing the whole of the city, almost offered up to him as if it were in the palm of his hand. It cleared his mind, helped him think. Shizuo certainly needed a push to get his brain sorting through the muddle of what they were, what this was, and the raven had guessed maybe this would work for him too. They weren't all that different, after all, not really.
Shizuo didn't answer, his eyes roving over each light, as if by doing so he could see each person behind it, their lives, their stories.
"Ignoring me again?" the raven teased, turning around so that he faced the room in order to watch the others milling around, his back to the city. "What a way to treat your—"
"What are we doing?" the blonde questioned suddenly. Izaya cocked a brow. How many times had the two of them asked that question? How many times had both said they didn't know? Shizuo didn't seem to remember that though or didn't care if he did remember, continuing on regardless of either. "How can we just pretend all of a sudden that we don't hate each other, just go on fucking dates like we're normal people and— and this is all so— so—"
"Complicated?" Izaya offered when Shizuo seemed to be unable to find the word. He turned again, to face Shizuo, who was still staring out at the city below. Lithe fingers curled around one of his wrists, tugging him away from the scene below to face the raven stood beside him with a wicked smirk. The monster blinked, little lights dancing in his eyes, lighting the face of the dark creature stood before him. Hopeless complicated, the louse was right, it was. And yet—
"All good things are, Shizuo," Izaya added, simply, unassumingly, flashing a grin of white teeth and pulling the blonde's mouth down to his without another word. Shizuo saw no reason to protest. Hadn't he already decided he had lost his mind?
The city lights continued to twinkle in the back, each one hiding a person, a life, and their beautiful, twisted, complex little story.