This is the /third/ chapter in a row to be in Shizuo's pov (sorry if you guys are getting antsy by the lack of change), but it switches briefly at the end to Izaya's...and I actually think the next one will be in Shizuo's pov as well, so I apologize in advance that you will have to wait again... _ There's just a lot going on for him right now, lol. But there are a lot more Izaya chapters to come~ ;)
Anyway, enjoy the update!

Shizuo

I heaved a sigh, willing myself off the bed to sluggishly return to the bathroom.

"Antsy are we? Or have you finally decided to go masterbate?" the louse sneered from his bed as he continued typing on his laptop.

"Would you stop saying that? No, I'm going to brush my teeth and go to sleep."

I heard him click his tongue in disapproval. "Where's the fun in that? It's only half past eight."

I turned to look back at him and he watched me carefully, holding my gaze. His expression changed into something more playful. "I know! Why don't you and I spend some quality bonding time watching a movie together, ne? That can help take your mind off things."

I quirked a brow at the inquisition, not sure if he genuinely cared one way or the other if I stayed up with him. I decided he probably just wanted to see how far he could push my buttons tonight.

"Come now, Shizu-chan, don't give me that look," he tisked, canting his head to the side. "I wasted precious moments of my life napping the entire day away because of you, and quite frankly, I'm insulted that you would ensue further unnecessary boredom upon me. The least you can do is entertain me now that you have returned and I'm awake."

"Look, first of all, you don't sound convincing by telling me that you napped. And if you did, good for fucking you. Second, I'm not your babysitter, so don't look to me to be your personal source of amusement just because you can't find anything better to do."

He rolled his eyes as if he didn't need lecturing from the likes of me. "You're missing the point. I don't need your listlessness bringing me down with you. I'm simply trying to find a happy middle; all you have to do is sit through a movie or something."

I let out a heavy sigh again, running a hand through my damp hair. "Fine. But don't try anything funny," I warned.

The feeling of a small victory could be seen on the raven's expression as he stood up to follow me into the bathroom as I started to brush my teeth.

"Why are you here?" I mumbled with the obstruction between my jaws as I watched him hop up on the granite counter in front of me.

He shrugged apathetically and watched me as I awkwardly started to brush. He kept an observant eye on me as he slid over the glossy surface of the counter until he was perched directly in front of me. I was receptively more uncomfortable as his eyes darted all around my face, as if he were trying to take in every minute detail. I almost felt self conscious.

His gaze stopped at the top of my head and he smirked silently, reaching a hand out to mimic the same motion of running it through my hair. To my own surprise I didn't flinch or back away as I tentatively let him continue. He didn't seem dangerous, at least for the moment, judging by the now softened smile, as he stroked through my fringe. I found myself wondering curiously what could have possibly be going through his mind right then.

"Sometimes I forget you're a natural brunette." His voice was gentle, almost compassionate, as he spoke with his eyes fixed on my hair. "You'll need a retouch soon," he continued as he ran his nails along my scalp soothingly. "Your roots are growing in."

I was expecting a snide comment about it, but it never came. Instead, he leaned into me before I had a chance to move or back away, and rested his chin against my forehead. I heard him take a deep breath in through his nose.

"Mmm," he sighed, exhaling a sound of approval. "This smell is much more delightful than that gaudy body wash you were using before," he whispered in a thick, low voice. "I'm surprised though. Surely I thought you would prefer a fruity-scented shampoo." He chuckled, and the hand that was now holding onto the back of my head tightened its grip, pushing me harder against his chin. His thumb began to circle around in my hair as he continued to thoroughly inhale the tropical fragrant. "Coconut strangely suits you," he teased in another velvety tone.

I was so close to the flea's chest that I could hear his faint heartbeat layered under the fragility of his ribcage and flesh. It's pace was normal, though, mine certainly was not. The close proximity along with his touch was putting me off guard. However, I found myself unable to push him away. Even if I wanted to, my body had turned to stone.

He was close enough that I could smell the hint ginger on him from his meal, after his sushi. I felt the heat of his breath draw nearer against my forehead, and it wasn't until after the moment had passed, had I felt two, soft lips slowly place themselves against my warm skin. His hand gave one final squeeze of my hair before he distanced our faces to look at me thoughtfully. His hand brushed the bangs out of of my eyes and caressed it's fingers down my cheek to my chin.

I let out the breath I didn't know I was holding, at the very least, having enough control of myself to stop the shudder that threatened to run down my spine. However, I felt my stomach flipping as I was still lost in the moment. I hadn't noticed that all the while I had stopped brushing, but as soon as I came to the realization, I started again more vigorously, averting my gaze.

The raven hopped off the ledge of where he had been sitting and walked behind me. His fingers grazed the muscles across the width of my bare back and shoulders as he exited the room. When he was finally out of the way, I met my gaze in the mirror, not at all surprised at the sudden redness that flushed my cheeks. My heart beat rapidly at the odd sensation that had built up inside me, and when I was sure he was gone, I slowed down my aggressive brushing no longer able to look at the man staring back at me.

When I finished, I pulled on the clean shirt that was still neatly folded on the shelf where I had left it from my shower. I exited the bathroom only to find the flea sprawled out on the couch — that was more of a love seat, to be honest — with a remote in one hand, looking up at me with what I hardly ever saw to be an innocent smile. I didn't know just what I was in for when I took a seat next to him after he got up from his lying position. I distanced myself enough to have breathing room between us, hoping that he would respect the space.

"Anything in particular you're in the mood for?" he asked, without any hint of suspicion.

"Doesn't matter," I answered automatically, staring straight ahead at the screen as he continued to surf through different channels.

We finally settled on some kind of Japanese subbed thriller movie that had originally been an American flick. When I said it didn't matter what we watched, I really did mean it. However, I think the flea took that as an opportunity to choose the most graphic movie he could possibly find on demand. I hadn't expected to find myself sitting with my ex-arch-nemesis watching a foreign film about a man who ate people as a pastime. At about a quarter of a way into the movie, I could at least predict that there would be no surprise sex scenes, thankfully.

Why Izaya thought it was entertaining? I couldn't tell you. There were a lot of things I couldn't and also didn't want to understand about the flea. All that I needed to know was that the louse wasn't right in the head, and that was that.

"Aren't humans just FASCINATING, Shizu-chan!" he exclaimed excitedly, as another man on the screen was being skinned alive. He was screaming in agony as the shaved skin fell to the floor with a solid splat.

"Do people like this actually exist?" I cringed, more than a little disturbed as I watched the flesh of the character's face peeling off as easily as one could manage with a vegetable. I blame myself for actually investing interest in the movie. These weren't the images I should be showing myself at eleven o'clock at night.

"But of course! Clearly you don't keep up with any worldwide news articles or media...Or read a textbook for that matter," he countered, mockingly. "People all over the world are doing astonishing, inhumane things like this every day," he said gesturing to the screen. "Don't let yourself be so ignorant to other cultures and history," he scolded.

"The fuck kinds of cultures are those?! This is exactly the kind of shit I want to stay in the dark about. How can you say stuff like that so cheerfully when you claim that these things are still happening in this day and age?" I retorted in disbelief. "Don't you even feel like that's just a little more than fucked up?"

"To each their own, as they say," he sighed nonchalantly. "It's not like it affects me one way or the other. So what if there are cannibals living among us? Quite frankly, I'm sure there are several in the neighborhood back home…" he drifted the thought into what sounded like an amused tone. "You never know~." It was as if he was purposely trying to create those unnecessary worries for me.

"If that's true," I responded, solely to entertain the idea, "it wouldn't surprise me if Shinra knew someone like that. 'Specially in his father's line of business."

The man next to me let out a whimsical laugh. "You know, maybe I was wrong about your sense of humor. You certainly are full of surprises, Shizu-chan," he smiled, leaning against the back of the couch to look at me.

I couldn't help but kind of smirk. This was maybe one of a handful of times the flea had actually complimented me and meant it. If you could even count it as that, that is.

"Yeah well...I'm just sayin'..." I mumbled silently turning my attention back to the screen.

It was hard to stay focused on the movie when I knew the louse was still watching me from the corner of his eye.

At least he had been right about one thing. My mind had been sidetracked from the few times I felt myself shift uncomfortably whenever the strong scent of mint wafted from under my shirt. I was hyper aware that whenever I remembered how sensitive my nervous system was being, I always thought the flea knew it too. Not that he mentioned it of course, when I sunk down further into the cushions of the couch.

The movie went on, and we were totally absorbed in the film. When it was over, the sequel was playing right after. By that time though, I felt myself starting to nod off. It wasn't like I had been inside sleeping all day, so unlike the Izaya, I was exhausted. I don't know how many times I had fallen asleep only to come to for a few moments before my eyes would protest against the bright lights of the flashing screen and close themselves again. I also hadn't noticed the flea had closed the space between us until his shoulder brushed mine. Or maybe I had slowly leaned too far to the side to where I was putting a large part of my body weight against him.

When I felt the contact I didn't move away, not wanting to disturb the quiet between us. I figured if I stayed still enough he would think I was asleep. From what coherency I had, he let me stay like that for a while, but after a few minutes I felt him wrap an arm behind me. I couldn't help it when my body tensed, and I knew he felt it because he snickered softly under his breath. He weaved his fingers through my hair once again, slowly brushing through what tangles had decided to unreasonably form within the last hour as I had left my hair air dry. Why did hair even do that anyway?

After feeling lost in his touch for what seemed like ten minutes - though it was probably a matter of seconds - I slowly, sank into his side, allowing most of my weight to depend on him to keep us both sitting up as I continued to lean into him. Not gonna lie, it felt pretty damn good when the blunts of his nails raked across my sensitive skin. He didn't seem phased when I slouched down to his level allowing him a more comfortable access to my hair. As sad as it was, I felt like some kind of animal. No wonder dogs and cats liked being pet so much. I had never had anyone, except maybe my mother, approach me this closely...this...affectionately. My heart raced at the realization that this was probably the most intimate I had ever been with another human being, and for the love of all that was holy, it had to be him.

He continued his ministrations, slowly dragging his long, thin, perfectly manicured fingers along my scalp, occasionally giving a slight tug on little tufts of hair before returning to scratch my head. I gave in and relaxed fully into him, not caring when I heard him quickly inhale as he was pushed into the couch with me. I was on the edge of passing out and I blamed him for making it so damn easy.

Izaya

I had tested my theory in the bathroom. I was curious to know more about just how far I could push our overcoming limits to physical boundaries. Now that we had established a groundbreaking truce as allies, I hypothesized that there were more liberties to be unlocked than merely speaking to each other in a civil manner. Little did I know, all it would take were a few minor experiments between my taunts and crude comments to slowly vanquish the surrender of the blonde's hostile tendencies towards skin to skin contact. Likewise, I found myself drawn more dangerously to testing how easily I could provoke Shizuo from being extremely irritable to fully flustered solely based on effortless teasing. It was child's play, really. But recently, words weren't doing nearly enough damage, in my opinion. Those kinds of reactions were almost too predictable. Yet, I hadn't realized until now, just how thrilling it would be to break Shizuo's composure in other ways, granted this new access.

Each time he moved closer I felt like I was taming a wild animal. You had to be cautious and let them sniff your hand first, before you could pet them. Then, once they've grown used to you, you can eventually make them obey you upon command. Afterall, animals could certainly be loyal, little things.

But then there was my current position; being squashed between the stiff arm rest of the couch and the suffocating heaviness of the very brute himself. He was practically laying on top of me at this point, and I had no way of knowing just how soon I was going to get out of my situation.

I sighed, huffing my bangs away from my eyes as I turned my attention back to the rolling credits of the movie. The remote was still in a barely reachable distance, and it took all the will of extending my fingertips to their max to finally pull the device towards me. I figured for the time being I could find something else to watch while the brute was asleep. Maybe, if I was lucky, he would roll over and fall off the couch altogether.

I flipped apathetically through the channels, eventually stopping on some cooking infomercial. After about five minutes, I learned about all the possibilities one could create with this new, second generation, high-tech crockpot. 'All for a reasonably low price~,' I thought sarcastically to myself.

Unlike most people though, I didn't seem to mind infomercials. In fact, I kind of liked them. What wasn't to like about the bits of footage they showed of people failing miserably at everyday things in comparison to how all of these habits could improve through the roof, with an astonishing new invention? But that wasn't even the best part. The best part was how the host will consistently lie to the audience to sell the item, and the public would hilariously believe how all of these 'as seen on TV' products really work. They would make up some skyrocketing number on how it's made the world of a difference in the lives of so many fortunate families, and how necessary it is for you to have in your own home as well.

I was lost in thought when I heard the sound of the door opening from across the room.

"Hey, Kadota had his old room key, and since neither of you were answering your phones, we thought something might have—oh!" The nosy quack stopped in his tracks upon entering the threshold of the room when he saw the sight before him. "I uh..."

"Hello, Shinra." I smiled pleasantly back at him but venom laced my too-polite composure. "What can I do for you this evening?"

I could tell he was still taking in the situation by how his mouth hung open as he stared back at me where I was sandwiched between cushions and Shizuo's deadweight body, still petting him like the overgrown housepet he was. I felt like one of those mobsters with their grumpy cats on their laps, only mine was a bit more vicious and significantly more grumpy.

If our current situation were to be animated, he would have visible beads of sweat rolling down his face by now. "I texted you...I thought maybe we could...but since you're uh, preoccupied, I think I'll just go back to my—"

"I think it's best if you leave that extra key here, ne? Wouldn't want you walking in if we were really preoccupied, now would we?" My friendly tone didn't falter when my eyes narrowed.

"Haha, oh, well now," he chuckled as he awkwardly rubbed the back of his neck, averting my gaze. "That's something I really do not want to think about. I'll just leave this right here..." he set down the card on the kitchen table and turned on his heel toward the direction of the door.

"Oh, and Shinra?"

He froze in his tracks, slowly turning to look behind him to hold my gaze. "Yes, Izaya?" he asked frivolously, but I could sense the underlying nervousness of his aura.

"Let's keep him in the dark about this little chat we had, hmm?"

"That's probably for the best," he called, scampering towards the door. "Goodnight, Izaya, don't let Shizuo bite~," he cooed testingly, as if he couldn't shut the door fast enough behind him.

I clicked my tongue at the nerve that man sometimes had, but I let it slide for tonight. I knew too many things about the other that I could blackmail him with at the touch of a button, but he thought he held some kind of significance over my usual victims. I smiled inwardly to myself, thinking about how easily friendships were taken for granted. How it took so much time and investment to build trusts with people and relationships, but betrayal was almost instant. Something about having that power at my fingertips raised my confidence again, and I tossed the idea of getting back at Shinra aside for now.

About the same time, Shizuo moved a little restlessly in his slumber, and that was the last damn thing I needed right now. The blonde could freely have those kinds of dreams, but not while he was on top of me.

Somewhere in the midst of him turning over, I was able to slip out from under him. I stood up and looked down at the man sprawled on the couch, completely unconscious. I scrutinized just how relaxed his expression was and how even he was breathing. It made me uncomfortable and fidgety just to look at. Finally, after a few minutes of watching his uneventful sleeping, I was getting tired of seeing him so...normal. I let out a sigh as I walked over to his bed and pulled off the top layer of the stacked blankets. I tossed the white comforter over him, covering the face of the man who had never had such a right being as calm as he was now.

"Stop pretending you're human, protozoan…" I mumbled to myself as I crawled into my own bed alone, for the first time in days.

I laid awake listening to Shizuo's lack of snoring, listing off reasons why he was so annoying to help me fall asleep. After some tossing and turning, at some point I lost count, and eventually fell into a deep slumber.