Chapter 69: Crescent

He had dreaded it. The moment someone would question his hesitation back on the road. For more reasons than just one.

Eyes hard and void of any emotion, Namie looked at Izaya.

"Something is fishy here, don't try to tell me it isn't." Now that she asked the question everyone else picked up on the suspicion.

Vorona's gaze dipped into a frown as she seemed to recall what she had seen upon arrival.

Kadota too.

Only Shinra had not much to react to as he had come to his own conclusion.

Feeling the unpleasant sensation of hot and cold racing up and down Izaya's back he tried to play it cool.

"I don't know what you´re talking about." His words hadn't been the best choice.

Eyes narrowed to slits and Namie rose from the desk with enough effort to toppler her chair over.

"Oh, really?" she spat, "Then how about we use your blood for the next transfusion?"

"Namie, stop." Shinra quickly interrupted and his body moved as if trying to stand up. It was a useless attempt, one that forced him back down quicker than a shove could have and Namie clicked her tongue.

"Come on, give Shinra some here right now if everything is alright," Namie hissed. She was talking about blood of course.

A transfusion.

It wasn't even a joke. Because if anything then a blood transfusion was a number one priority on Shinra's list. Just because Karisawa had been injured worse and treated first, didn't mean he wasn't off as bad as her.

Broad shoulders moved their way between Izaya and Namie as Shizuo interrupted the fight.

"He won´t." He announced with a security that caused Izaya's mind to dip into guilt.

"Shizu-chan-" Izaya tried, but one glance from Shizuo was enough to seal his lips.

He couldn't bring himself to say it out loud.

But there was no time to talk anyway, because suddenly Namie moved.

Quicker than Vorona could have expected her actions the woman had reached for the still loaded gun on top of the desk.

How many bullets were left?

Namie didn't know. But she didn't need more than one.

Aiming straight at Izaya all members of the group jerked.

Shizuo pulled Izaya behind his back, Kadota jumped to his feet and Vorona reached for Namie's palm-

A mistake.

With not a shred of conscience or remorse Namie simply aimed at the blond haired woman causing her to come to an instant standstill.

"Namie-" Kadota tried, but there was no talking to the woman of science. She had already been out of it from the moment she had seen Karisawa get shot in front of her eyes, but now with what she viewed to be nothing but immediate danger there was just no talking sense into her.

"We have to kill him. He has been bitten hasn't he?!" she screamed, and at that point they were all bitterly aware of how hysteric the woman had become.

Shinra's body tensed and Kadota's expression churned.

It wasn't even that they doubted her words. Shinra for different reasons than Kadota, but they knew what she was trying to do wasn't going to help anyone.

"He wasn't bitten!" Shizuo barked, but not even his hallowing voice seemed to calm her down as she glared.

"Oh really, then what the hell is going on?!"

"He tried to create an antidote-!"

Silence.

Compared to the screams resounding through the library the silence that now filtered the air brimming with rage was almost worse.

Shizuo knew he was supposed to keep his mouth shut about what Izaya had done. But what other choice did they have?

Namie wanted to shoot Izaya.

The gun that had been aimed at Vorona lowered just a little bit as Namie brought it close to her body.

A doubting expression grazed her eyes, but she was smart enough to not just cast Shizuo's words aside as a lie.

Izaya was the type to lie. And despite not really having known Shizuo for ages she could tell that he was the honest type. No one to try and bullshit his way out of a situation at least.

Kadota showed a similar expression of surprise as he looked towards their two members.

"Explain." She demanded with controlled calmth. Vorona was still by her side, in range to take the gun. Yet she didn't as this revelation had come too unpredictable to cast aside.

Careful.

Shizuo had to be careful about how he worded his next sentences.

"He tried to create something to make himself immune against the zombie bites. He failed. A lot of times. But one day by pure chance his antidote seemed to work. But there was no time to test it and…", swallowing hard Shizuo tried to ignore the pictures that the retelling brought to mind. "...and injected that stuff in his blood."

It was there again.

The devastation.

As strong as it had been the moment he saw the needle pierce Izaya's skin. Izaya had chosen himself as a test subject because he figured they wouldn't make it much longer in this kind of environment anyway.

… and he was right.

Shizuo had known he was somewhat right all along. Yet seeing Izaya risk his life had caused a kind of hole in his guts to appear that had yet to properly close. "That was a week ago," he finished quickly. Hoping that it would be enough for Namie to understand and just stop acting irrational.

Shizuo wasn't stupid. He knew Izaya could very well transform into one of those fungi soon, but he wasn't going to change his mind.

Until Izaya was one of them he would protect him.

A terrible smile drew upon Namie's features as she glanced at the raven in question.

Izaya had remained awfully quiet throughout the explanation and her eyes narrowed.

"Hahaha that's a good joke Heiwajima," she laughed, and the barrel of the gun was lifted back to its initial aim.

"It's not a joke-" Shizuo quickly confirmed again. His head turned, he looked at Izaya-

But Izaya averted his eyes.

Why?

Confusion wrecked Shizuo's senses for a moment.

Why did Izaya not explain what exactly he did? Namie should be able to understand right? Or was it that he just didn't know?

"If what you say is true then Izaya is nothing but a walking time bomb. Set to go off at an undefined moment and a threat to us all." Namie quickly concluded and Shizuo's eye refocused on the danger up front.

She was right. There was no denying that fact.

"But so far he hasn't changed, that means it probably worked, so-" clicking her tongue Namie wasn't willing to listen to the end of his plea as she aimed at Izaya once more. It was a task that was quite hard to achieve as Shizuo was blocking most of her view.

"Move aside-" she hissed, and the awful sound of the gun being unlocked tore through the library.

"You are not killing Izaya! What the fuck?! He is not a zombie!" Shizuo barked, and Namie returned the aggression. "But he will turn into one!" she yelled, and her eyes turned into a bitter frown, "Isn't that what you did with Seiji too? Huh?" she whispered and suddenly her care and goal of damage prevention turned into nothing but malice as she glared at Izaya. "Killed him before he turned?"

"You can't just shoot him-" Shinra was the one to raise his voice next. "He didn't even turn-" but the plea was shut down as quickly as it came as Namie's eyes narrowed.

"Shut the fuck up, you have been in on this all along haven't you?"

Eyes looking at Vorona, Shinra hoped that she would act in his stead. Because Shinra was in no condition to take that gun from her hands. Kadota was too far, if anyone was close enough then it was Vorona.

But his hopes died down the moment she spoke.

"She is right. Better now than him turning when no one is watching." Vorona announced with a voice cold as ice and Shinra froze.

Shizuo did too, but his lips moved nonetheless.

"And I keep telling you he isn't going to-!" he barked only to find a hand on his shoulder.

"Shizuo-" Izaya started, but whatever it was that had been on his lips and mind, he didn't get to tell it. Shizuo had moved. Just slightly.

Turned his body in a way that revealed just a bit of Izaya's.

And Namie was no one to pass up a chance when it was presented.

Louder than they were supposed to be in the middle of the night, the sound of the gun going off tore through the air.

Shinra's expression fell- Kadota's too and even Vorona seemed to have not quite expected Namie to shoot already.

What had she been doing? Had she been trying to make Namie believe she was on her side in order to take the gun into her own possession?

A smart move.

But too late.

Blood sprinkled the carpet inside the library and without having seen where the woman had managed to hit Izaya, Shizuo's guts dropped down to the first floor.

Turning on the spot all sound and noise was blocked from his ears as his eyes grew wide.

Izaya-

No-

Izaya had sunken to the ground.

Crouching he was there- his expression churned, and his palm covered what appeared to be his upper arm.

Blood seeped forth between the tight grip of his fingers and he groaned.

His arm.

The bullet had just grazed his upper arm.

A tongue was clicked and Shizuo's attention turned back to the manic woman in front. Namie realized she had missed any vital parts and lifted the gun once more.

Her worst mistake.

Not hesitating for even a shred of a second Shizuo dashed forward. His fist connected with her face in a way that would have definitely been frowned upon in their society. But right now Shizuo did not care as he punched her square in the face. The gun went flying somewhere to the right, Vorona screamed something that was probably supposed to be questions of Shizuo's sanity, but he couldn't really bring himself to care.

Shoving the blonde woman aside, it was Izaya's wrist that he grabbed next, followed by the door to the library.

And so they ran.

Izaya didn't even really know where to or what Shizuo's goal was. But he understood that he wanted to get away from the group.

Away from the aggression on both sides.

Namie had shot Izaya, that was a fact he was never going to forgive her for, but he had probably knocked her out if not even injured her with his actions and neither Vorona nor Kadota were going to be amused by that either.

It was a fucked up situation.

Away.

He just wanted to get away from that bullshit.

Izaya and him. That had been the true form of their survival.

As long as they had been on their own nothing of these sorts happened. No one would even think about the option of shooting the other.

"Shizuo." Hearing Izaya's voice whisper in the dark, Shizuo suddenly realized how reckless he was behaving.

He had run out of the library. Sure they were still inside the school building, but that didn't mean there were no fungi or worms waiting for them.

Feeling his hair stand immediately at the reminder of their situation he looked at Izaya.

Holding his upper arm, his eyes glanced around carefully before meeting Shizuo's gaze.

He knew why Shizuo wanted to remove himself from the situation upstairs.

And frankly- Izaya found himself wishing for the same.

Nodding forward, Izaya remembered the back of the cafeteria. Having gone down to the hall in order to grab some coffee he had seen the back.

A small room, made for the staff of school to rest.

It was funny, they were still all inside the same building yet the two of them felt as though they had arrived at a completely new destination.

Quiet steps were taken, no fungi or flatworms seen, and before the two knew it they had arrived at the small chamber.

Small was almost an overestimation.

It was a cubic space filled with nothing but a small table and a couch.

Hands grazing along the top of a small cupboard in the dark, Izaya quickly found what he was looking for. A match.

Piles of ashes had gathered in an ashtray sitting on the small table and someone, probably the cafeteria ladies, had even bothered to set up a scented candle.

Probably to thin out the smell of cigarettes being smoked on their brakes.

The door to the small room closed and for a few moments nothing but deafening silence filled it as the dim light of a candle lit up the walls.

Shadows danced happily up and down undeserving of the mess they had gotten themselves into.

Sitting down on top of the couch Shizuo quickly followed. Hands, gentle and undeservingly careful, moved Izaya's palm aside as he looked at the wound.

Izaya couldn't bring himself to look Shizuo in the eye.

"... I thought you don't hit girls," he mumbled quietly, but Shizuo's anger didn't seem to have dissipated yet.

"Shut up-" he hissed, but lacked malice.

He was scared. For Izaya's well being.

Izaya understood. And it only made his chest feel so much heavier.

A pained expression not resulting from the injury grazed Izaya's face as he spoke. "You should go back. They are perfect for you. The perfect little happy group. Even Shinra is there. He might discover something sooner than I could. Your chances of surviving are way higher there and-"

"How bad is it?"

… stopping short, Izaya blinked, before a bitter smile grazed his lips.

Ah.

Right.

Shizuo couldn't care less about all of that. They were meant to stay together. No matter what. A certain kind of warmth filled Izaya's chest and the frown on his face deepened.

Ah.

Right.

That's what it felt like to be loved.

Swallowing the taunts and complaints on the verge of his lips his eyes flickered to his fresh wound.

"It hurts like hell but I think it just grazed me," he answered quietly, and Shizuo nodded. Whipping his head around he searched for anything of use inside this tiny chamber.

"We have to clean it," he announced curtly and Izaya couldn't help but feel proud of Shizuo. For the way he remained level headed.

Not too long ago Shizuo had freaked out over Izaya developing a fever. He could still remember how frantic Shizuo had behaved.

But now?

He was awfully calm.

Collected.

Almost as if they were back in time, back to their old days. It made Izaya imagine a bartender suit on his body and his eyes grew dire at the nostalgia.

"Shizuo. Go back."

This time it wasn't a suggestion, but an order. Shizuo knew how to discern Izaya's words from casual jokes and he paused in his search.

Izaya looked awfully beaten. As if he had been the one to punch Namie in her smug face.

"Are you still going on about that?" he found himself asking. He still remembered it. The way Izaya had tried to get rid of him in order to keep Shizuo safe.

Getting to his knees Shizuo met Izaya's lowered gaze. "I'm not going to leave. You should know that already."

He did.

Izaya really did.

And it was exactly that knowledge that forced a bitter smile onto his lips.

"The reason I didn't want them to use my blood-" he started slowly while wishing he could take back what he was about to say. "It wasn't because of the antidote in my veins."

And suddenly it was as though someone had poured an infinite amount of ice into the small room as Izaya moved and Shizuo's eyes followed.

The arm that had been shot was removed from the shirt that confined it. For a single second Shizuo feared for the wound to have been way worse than he had thought it to be. Because Izaya's expression wasn't speaking of a minor inconvenience. It was speaking of death.

And it caused his throat to choke.

But the wound was alright. It was really just a graze. Had even stopped bleeding already.

And then Izaya lifted his wrist and Shizuo wished it had been the bullet wound that Izaya had talked about as he looked at a pattern of a moon's crescent sitting on Izaya's skin.

Izaya's expression showed a smile, yet his eyes didn't as his lips confirmed what Shizuo was seeing.

"I have been bitten."

to be continued~

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See you next Saturday~ C:

Ps.: I was sick half the week and couldn't quite concentrate enopugh to write, so, SnS, SD and Impostor sadly won't get an update C':