Hello everyone, I'm back with another update! This is the last sequential chapter in Shizuo's pov. The next one will finally be in Izaya's so look forward to that! This chapter has a little bit of fanservice in it, so enjoy~
Also to answer a question asked about having any other stories planned, the answer is YES. GOD YES I DO.
There is a story I have been planning for 4 years that I keep pushing back because I am determined to finish this one. My reason being, I want to make sure I am putting my all into Love Like Winter before moving onto something else. Because let me tell you. My next story will be LONG. Tbh, this has been an experiment for me to grow as a writer before I am to make what I think will probably be my legacy lol. My next story will not be anything like this one. Honestly, I'm not entirely a fluffy person myself. I usually prefer angst and horror/psychological thrillers, which will exactly be what my next story is about! So enjoy the rainbows and flowers and fluff now before things take a turn for the worst in my next piece, haha. -
Shizuo
"Mmmnnh..."
Something was off. I was in that twilight phase of the morning where I was semi-coherent enough to be considered awake, but not by choice. I could already tell something was strange about the start of the day, and I groaned, slowly opening one of my groggy eyes to see how I would be disappointed this time.
The fuzzy view before me was familiar, but not what I had been used to seeing when I normally woke up. I had established mentally, that this was indeed the hotel room I had been living in the past, what, almost two weeks now? But I was looking up at the ceiling from a different angle. Judging by the discomfort of my shoulder and neck I slowly came to the conclusion.
Did I fall asleep...on the couch?
I looked up and sure enough, the black, leather armrest had been my pillow for the night. It only made sense after remembering what I could from the previous evening. The flea and I had stayed up watching a movie…
I felt something shrug off my side as my foot began to stir in a stretch. A blanket was covering me.
Guess this was Izaya's doing...
I used the the arm I had been sleeping awkwardly on as leverage to heave myself up, but felt a sharp pain shoot through my left shoulder.
"Ah, fuck—!"
"Nnngh...Good morning to you too." I heard a yawn come from Izaya's bed as he turned to face me. "Sleep well, princess?"
"I hadn't realized how uncomfortable I was until I woke up. 'Slept on my arm wrong, I think." I got up slowly, avoiding the use of my left side.
"How unfortunate...I slept just fine~," he said, sitting up to stretch as he looked at me grinning. I could see bags under his eyes though, so I doubted he slept as well as he had claimed.
"Good for you," I responded flatly, not bothering to point it out. "Why didn't you wake me up or something?"
He chuckled condescendingly. "Oh, don't think I didn't try...You sleep like a beached manatee or something. You're certainly heavy enough to be one."
"A beached...what?"
He looked at me with a raised eyebrow. "Do you even pay attention in biology?"
I attempted a shrug, but felt a jab in my shoulder again and winced. "'Sides, I'm only like 65 kilos. I'm not that heavy."
Izaya just rolled his eyes. "You're hopeless, that's what you are." He flipped his covers off and started walking towards the bathroom. "Wait there."
There was not much else to do, so I did as I was told, procrastinating movement for as long as I could to make the pain simmer. From the bathroom, I could hear him rummaging around looking for something. He appeared shortly after, sauntering back towards me.
"This will help, but you have to behave," he said pointedly.
I cocked an eyebrow as I watched him step up onto and take a seat on the back of the couch, positioning himself behind me with a leg on either side. I tried moving from sitting awkwardly between him but he grabbed me by my sore shoulder to pull me back. Pain sliced through my muscle, causing me to contort back into his grasp.
"The fuck?!"
"Calm down," he sighed in an agitated tone as he loosened his grip. "Lift up your right arm."
Still mad about the previous abuse, I obliged cautiously, not sure exactly what I was in for.
"Hey—!"
It caught me off guard when his hand grabbed the side of my shirt and pulled it swiftly over my raised arm and over my head. It dropped past my left shoulder, still hanging around my bicep.
"I said behave." He thumped me on the back of the head, and I felt his smirk burn through my skull. "Now relax," he commanded.
A new flavorful scent hit me as soon as I felt Izaya's thumb kneaded away at the pain's origin. I grimaced at first contact, but soon after felt the pressure as a relief. It was painful, yes, but the knot was subsiding under his fingertips. I sighed into his hand, relaxing, as I was told to do.
"What's that smell?" I asked after an appropriate time lapse, not to hint that I liked his actions.
"It's rosemary, a type of muscle relaxer." A long enough moment passed before he commented in a different tone. "Do you like it?"
I knew he didn't just mean if I liked the smell either, which was actually kind of pleasant this time around. His hands were surprisingly strong as he worked the tension out from between my shoulder blades. I couldn't help but get drunk off the sweet smell and the steady stimulation of his skilled finger tips. I simply grunted, not wanting to admit to anything.
He chuckled and proceeded his ministrations on both shoulders, slowly pressing and pulling at the nerves in my upper back, occasionally creeping his fingers up to my neck and into my hairline. The rhythm was methodic, and enough to make me want to fall back asleep. The tension in my shoulder was long gone, but those meticulous hands continued to work my entire posterior. I shifted awkwardly as his thumbs dug into my lower back, just above the hem of my sweatpants, but embarrassingly enough, it felt too good to break the contact. Instead, I think I accidentally leaned closer to him to increase the pressure.
The raven snickered again; his voice coming from right behind my ear. "Are you enjoying yourself?"
"I'd enjoy it more if you'd shut up."
He let out some kind of hum in approval. "But my voice is relaxing, ne?" His voice had backed off now, trailing further behind me.
I felt something soft and warm that certainly weren't fingers place themselves on the tender spot that had had been the cause of this whole ordeal. His hands shifted at my waist, sliding slowly along the surface to wrap around, but not quite interlock. The thin edges of his nails traced lazy, abstract shapes below my ribs, causing me to tense. He found that amusing.
"It seems that your impeccable reputation exceeds you..." His gentle scratching continued on my tensed abdominal muscles. "Building yourself up just to take me down, ne?" His low voice made my skin crawl as he poked the firmness of my abs. "I wonder...What does pain feel like to you, Shizu-chan? Do you really feel pain? Or is it perhaps...pleasure?" I felt his nails dig deep into my dermis and drag along my torso.
We both froze when a low, airy noise seeped through my lips.
...Did I just...?! Fuck.
"Mmm~, so the gentleman obtains pleasure~," he snickered, gently caressing the site of attempted detriment. "Duly noted."
"Fuckin' sadist," I growled under my breath.
He heard me of course, and chuckled darkly. "That makes you a masochist, you know~."
I turned my head immediately back to him. "I'm not a—!"
He clawed me again and my breath hitched. He was looking right at me with dark lashes half-lidded over his smoldering eyes. I felt myself wanting to squirm away from the hold I knew I could easily break. It was too damn early for this kind of physical interaction, I thought, as I felt as if my morning wood might return again.
"Not a...? Go ahead Shizu-chan," his crimson eyes were full of mischief as he damn near purred at too close a range. "Use your words."
I clenched my fists so hard my knuckles cracked.
This isn't the time to get a fucking boner, you idiot! I scolded myself.
Though I wasn't even half aroused, it wouldn't take long by the way things were going.
But it's...HIM!? I argued myself. At this point, though, I didn't know if that took away from or furthered the cause. Izaya was Izaya, but he could also be Izaya...
A knock on the door interrupted whatever had just been going on.
An irritated sigh sounded behind me and his hands dropped from around my sides.
The knock came again.
Put off by the now awkwardness of being disturbed from our little moment, combined with mixed feelings of relief and my own annoyance, I got up from the couch.
The knocking continued.
Whoever was outside was fucking persistent, that was for sure. If they knocked one more time...
I opened the door. "Oi, the fuck do you—Oh."
I looked down at the cheerful, hazel eyes staring up at me.
"Mornin' Erika." I shrugged, relaxing my death grip on the door handle.
"Shizu-oh my!" She brought a hand up to her lips to attempt to hold back a giggle. "I didn't mean to intrude—" She didn't even try to hide the fact that her eyes were zeroed in on my stomach.
"What are you...? Oh, fuck!" I looked down at the bright red welts that marked my torso; tiny beads of blood bubbled in their centers. I quickly wrapped an arm around myself to hide the scratches, averting my gaze.
"I never...imagined you'd be...a masochist...Shizuo!" She said in between her giggling fits.
I let out an extremely irritated sigh, "I'm not a damn—!"
"He really is~." Izaya's proud, matter-of-factually voice sounded from the couch behind us.
The door opened more as I turned to face him, eyes blazing. "No one fucking asked you!"
"Oh! Good morning Iza-Iza!" Erika stuck her head through the door.
"Morning~," he waved happily from his perch.
Deep breaths, Shizuo, deep breaths...
I exhaled slowly as I turned back to the brunette who stepped out of the way. "Is there something you wanted, Erika?" I said in my very calmest possible tone.
"I just wanted to inform you of this morning's activities...I would tell you to come down to breakfast ASAP, but I think the others will understa—"
I stiffened at the word 'others' and cut her off: "We'll be down in five minutes." I closed and locked the door before she was able finish her sentence.
I didn't need to see him to know he was grinning like fucking kid on Christmas, as if he'd just gotten exactly what he wanted.
"That...was hilarious."
I felt my brow twitch at his voice and I turned to face him slowly.
He was leaning back in his seat with his arms crossed behind his head and a smug look on his face. He always acted cocky when he did things he knew would piss me off, and that look, along with the contentment that came with it, had ignited my anger since the day we met...However, admittedly, I had recently perceived it more as a mere irritation.
"This," I began, "is the third fucking time you've done this shit," I said, as I pinched the bridge of my nose. I guess I should have known going from completely relaxed to angry in seconds would bring on a headache.
"Done what, exactly?" He smiled, pretending to be oblivious to what I'd just gone through. Of course it didn't matter to him.
"Do you not think that enforcing her already made up fantasies are going to make her stop? And now she's going to tell them about...this?!" I gestured to my stomach.
He hopped down from the back of the couch gracefully, and was light on his feet as he waltzed toward me.
"Oh? And what exactly are you going to do about it?...'She knows too much, we'll have to get rid of her'?" He said sarcastically with a low chuckle. "Silly Shizu-chan, don't be so uptight." He rested his hand on my chest gently pressing me back further until I felt a wall behind me. "What did I tell you about relaxing?" His thick, long eyelashes and half-lidded eyes were lazily looking up at me. His voice was like velvet.
The fingers of his other hand barely graced the sensitive marks on my abdomen. I could feel the wetness as he smeared his fingers across the welted skin. He raised the extremity into view between us. The tips of his fingers had drops of a reddish liquid on them, which he examined carefully. The corners of his lips turned up in a smirk as he drew his hand to his lips. His tongue darted out to catch a drop, making eye contact all the while, never faltering his gaze.
"But sometimes it's good that you're uptight...It let's me know you don't have diseases," he smirked.
His smirk only grew when I felt my face burning and my mind felt as if it was short-circuiting. My only attempt to regain control was pushing him away, not hard, but enough for him to step out of the way for me to walk towards the bathroom.
I closed the door loudly, as if the resounding volume would actually separate me from the louse completely. I stood there for a while looking down at the floor. For some reason, the pristine, white tile calmed me down enough to finally getting around to cleaning myself off. There really hadn't been much blood. It had only continued to surface because I hadn't put pressure on it sooner.
I reached for one of the many hand towels and wet a corner to wipe what liquid hadn't already started to harden, away. I held it firmly to my skin for a minute to suppress the minor bleeding. When it stopped, I didn't bother finding some bandages or gauze. Instead I faced the mirror with a sigh, not willing to look myself in the eyes in my reflection. The scratches would probably fade in a day or two but…
I brought a hand up to the pale line that marked my sternum, feeling it's slight ridge. Some scars were made to last.
"Hey, Shizuo!"
Erika set her plate down in front of me at the breakfast table again. It was almost like nothing had happened. Or at least she played off like things were completely normal. The others hadn't said anything or given me strange looks either, so I assumed the otaku girl had kept her newly found discovery to herself. For that, I was thankful, but it wasn't enough to cool the edge of wariness of my surroundings.
"Yeah?"
"You don't have to tell me if you don't want to," she began, poking at her plate. "But...how did you get that scar on your chest?" She had asked her question in a polite, quiet tone to give us privacy from our friends sitting a few seats over.
I sighed. If I lied about it, surely it would come back to bite me in the ass.
"Would it surprise you if I said it was Izaya's fault?" I said, and took a sip of coffee.
Her eyes widened a bit, but she didn't say anything. Her look urged for me to go on.
"The first day we met—"
"It was a day I'll never forget."
I clenched my jaw when I heard Izaya's melodramatic voice as he pulled out the chair next to me and took a seat.
"School had just let out for the day, the sun was setting in the distance, and blacked out soccer players were scattered all around him." He said in his theatrical tone, hand movements and all.
"Here we go..." I mumbled.
There was a certain sparkle in Erika's eyes as she listened intently.
"One man still stood in the center of the field - which was a wreck by the way; the metal was bent and the nets were torn from the goals, the turf was worn and muddy, and the soccer ball was flatter than Kadota's usual expression—"
"Stop making it sound so dramatic! You pissed me off, then you cut me." I rested my chin in my hand, annoyed at the conversation I didn't feel like touching with a ten foot pole.
"This is why no one talks to you, you fool. You don't know how to tell a good story," he scoffed.
There was silence before the girl spoke up. "What did he do to make you mad, Shizuo?"
"Yes, Shizu-chan, please elaborate on what I 'did' to make you angry?" He crossed his arms and smiled devilishly as if he knew I wouldn't have an answer.
I remembered back to that day. I recalled the feeling as I stood there in in the field I had just destroyed...
"Heh...heh..." I was out of breath. I could feel my heart slamming into my rib cage as my breathing pattern staggered for normality. Everything had gone quiet besides the faint clapping sound on the field side behind me.
Something reeked.
"That's Orihara Izaya," I heard Shinra behind me. "He's not a good guy...Actually, he's kind of an asshole," he laughed.
"That hurt, Shinra." This new voice sounded nasally and sarcastic. It made the hairs on my neck stand up and my skin crawl.
"No, no. I didn't mean it in a negative way—"
There was a time and place to talk to me...Standing in front of a field I had just mercilessly torn to pieces only seconds ago, was not a good time for introductions. It could have been the Emperor for all I had cared. My mindset was still focused on the punks who had just ruined what could have been a calm, peaceful afternoon for me.
"You piss me off." I snapped as I turned around to face them both.
Perhaps I really should work on my first impressions. It would help with the whole 'making friends' issue I seemed to struggle with. There was obviously no way I could go back and rethink my actions - not that it really mattered, since I was sure after the scene I had just caused, he would be just another one of those guys who, in the future, would hightail it back the second he saw me...But it would have been nice to meet someone new.
However, something about him seemed different. The way he presented himself, maybe...Nonetheless, the moment I saw him, I disliked him.
He reminded me of a demon that had managed to crawl up from the depths of Hell and disguise himself as a human being. The guy was around my age, by the looks of it, though, he wasn't wearing the same school uniform. He was pale and slender with black hair, reddish eyes—
Yup, he was a demon, alright.
"Oh? That's a shame," this Izaya person said, not looking the slightest bit let down at all. "I thought you and I could have some fun."
"Shut up." I felt my brow begin to twitch. This guy had really come at the wrong time.
"Don't be like that, Shizuo-kun," he said in a condescending manner with a sly smirk on his face.
That was it. That's when I snapped.
I turned around to punch him square in the jaw, but as soon as I was close enough, he jumped out of the way. I looked up and he wasn't anywhere in sight. He moved so fast that the next thing I knew, he was in front of me with a knife to my chest.
I didn't really feel it when he cut me, but instinctively brought a hand up to the wound.
"See? It's fun, isn't it?"
I smiled at the memory that would be soldered into my brain 'til the day I'd die.
"Because, as soon as I saw you...No, even before I turned to look at you, I could feel it. Smell it...Rancid, repulsive...I could already tell it was the scent of your shitty personality." I smirked. "Heh, everything about you reeked of cynical, maniacal, untrustworthy bastard."
He smiled, probably pleased at my description. "You didn't smell so charming either, Mister Cigarettes and B.O." He laughed. "But it's sweet of you to say I made such a memorable first impression...I suppose we both did."
He turned to Erika to address the question she hadn't needed to ask. "When I saw him for the first time, all I could feel was the adrenaline in my veins. I had heard stories of someone around my age being called the 'Fortissimo of Ikebukuro'. I had only hoped the school I was transferring to was the same school he attended...And then to see him upon the day of my arrival..." He turned his attention back to me with a relaxed expression on his face. "Talk about being at the right place at the right time."
He faced Erika again. "The stories didn't do him justice, however. He was even more of a freak of nature than I could have ever imagined. You couldn't blame me for being intrigued...I knew immediately that I wanted to make this person's life hell." He rested his cheek in his hand smiling thoughtfully as he looked at me.
"Funny you say that," I grinned, "because the adrenaline rush I got when I saw you told me to beat you to a pulp."
"And you have my most sincere apology for stopping you," his sweet smile failed to cover his sarcasm.
"Ah, sometimes I regret introducing you two..." Shinra came over to where the flea and I were sitting and wrapped an arm around each of us. Both Izaya and I shrugged off the friendly gesture.
"We would have met one way or another, and I guarantee you would still be in the middle of it all, Shinra," Izaya said with a smile.
All the while, Erika sat in front of us with her hands clasped and eyes gleaming.
"The game will be played the same way as capture the flag."
We were outside now, gathered around our female friend as she gave us instructions for the game we were supposedly playing this morning. I guess she had dubbed herself our activity manager for the trip, seeing as things had been thus far. At least it was giving us something to do.
"The rules are simple. To win, you must capture flags from the opposing teams. Your flag has to be accessible within your fort. You can't carry it." She eyed Izaya who raised an eyebrow.
"You can design your fort however you like and put it wherever you like, since there's no place to hide with your footprints in the snow anyway. Any questions?"
"Do I have to play?" Izaya apathetically asked next to me with his hand raised.
"Do you have anything better to do?" she challenged with a hand on her hip.
The flea shrugged and we looked around for anyone else with a question. Kadota raised his hand next.
"There's an odd number of people. Is someone sitting out or will there be a group of three?"
"Well...Yumasaki and Togusa and I already agreed to be teammates so…"
"I'll gladly sit out of this stupid game if I—"
"No Izaya, you're not sitting out," Erika scolded him again.
He rolled his eyes and crossed his arms. "Fine. In any case, what's in it for the winning team?"
A new expression sparked in the girl's eyes as she grinned widely. "The losers are buying dinner for whoever wins."
Izaya studied her for a moment and everyone watched him think over the terms and conditions in silence. "Fine, then I'm teaming with Muscles, here," he smirked, pointing a thumb in my direction.
"Me?! Why me?" Everyone including myself shot the man next to me strange looks for his bizarre behavior.
"What? I'm no idiot. If we're playing to win, then obviously I'm going to pick the most physically capable player. I didn't plan on losing, even if it is a game as childish as this." He stood taller and put a hand on his hip. "Besides. Who else is willing to risk their life if a snowball comes my way?" he chuckled.
"Flea-!"
"Okay! Walker, Togusa and I will be team two!" Erika turned clapping her hands together to face the remaining two players. "Kadota and Shinra will be team three. Any objections?
"I feel like there are several unfair advanta—
"Good!" She didn't hesitate to interrupt Shinra as she dug for the items in her pocket. "Here are your flags." She walked over and handed me a green bandana, Kadota a blue one, and she kept a pink one.
She backed up and looked at us all seriously. "Prepare for battle, gentlemen. You have one hour to build your fort...Let the games BEGIN!"
Before I could even register what to do next, my hand was grabbed and I was being pulled behind me as Izaya started to run.
"Izaya?!"
"We're wasting no time with your dawdling! In order to succeed we're going to need your strength and my brains!"
We ran as quickly as possible toward the east end of the resort. It was strange to see the flea acting so serious over a game he had just deemed 'childish'. He was light on his feet as he ran in front of me. He had let go of my hand a few moments after I began to follow him, but I could still feel the small, gloved grip in my palm.
"Where are we going?" I called ahead. It felt like we had been running for over ten minutes.
"Somewhere where there's more room," he spoke ahead without looking back.
After reaching an open space, Izaya slowed down and we came to a stop.
"Okay," he panted and turned to face me as I clutched onto my knees. My legs felt like jelly after running in the thick snow. It wasn't like what I was used to when I chased the louse back in 'Bukuro. "I have a plan, but you need to agree to listen to me," he said trying to catch his breath.
I hadn't even thought of planning our next phase of action, but soon realized that he probably had the whole thing figured out.
"What is it?" I too, was trying to breathe normally.
His eyes narrowed and his lips drew up to flash his signature grin. There was a passionate fire burning in his carmine eyes that were bright from the rays of sun above us. I could have sworn he was more interested than just winning. Sure, he was a sore loser, everyone knew that, but from how things looked in his eyes, this was probably another amusing game for 'his humans'.
"Alright, first we—"