Chapter 78: Dark times
Izaya had never been the type to get up late, but being woken by a fucking rooster was a new experience entirely. The sun's kiss, a soft knock to the door- alright maybe a harsh one depending on who was trying to wake them, but he expected something a little less startling at least.
Screaming as if it were trying to gain access to a metal band's group, the bastard had to be sitting beyond the wall where Izaya was sleeping and he groaned against the pillow that was Shizuo's chest.
Last night had been too eventful to feel alive yet. The fact that they time traveled, the deaths they had witnessed and were trying to prevent alongside the acts they had to come up with on the spot were the more gruesome parts. It had taken Izaya a lot to remain in control of everyone present as well as himself. As for the more pleasant parts-
Looking at the quietly snoring entity next to him, Izaya reached out to poke Shizuo's cheek. A soft frown was all that he triggered and the hand that had rested to his side suddenly pulled Izaya close as though he was a pillow meant for comfort only.
It caused Izaya to snort, but he resisted struggling.
Too nice had the end of their time been.
After everything that happened, Hachiro, being hunted by the police, being locked up in prison, drugged, caught off guard by Vincent's second appearance and his similarly quick death, Izaya had thought he had finally witnessed all that there was to his life.
Which had already been eventful enough, really, but the killing spree back at the monastery shown by both the police as well as Shizuo had driven the final nail in his exhaustion.
As for the monastery-
Looking at the ceiling Izaya hummed for a second as he reassessed their current situation. Last night's plans had by no means been discardable or useless, but he had viewed them with a highly negative lens.
Times had changed, quite literally, but didn't that work in his favor?
Namie, his siblings, Leo- hell, even Shizuo was ahead in knowledge on various levels.
Not to mention their abilities. Time stopping was already as unique and overpowered as it was, especially with Shizuo close by to make sure he never overused his energy levels. And Shizuo? He was the true joker that would get them out of anything, should they get into trouble.
Their current surroundings were as easy as they could be.
If their time had been the endgame, then this was the developing stage. A child's play. With cheat codes on top.
Pushing himself off Shizuo, Izaya reached for the clothes they had been handed the day before.
Seeing as they had been sleeping with the blankets they stole there had been no need nor the time to really try them on.
Well, not that there had been a lot of time to sleep at all.
Casting a quick glance towards Shizuo, Izaya couldn't help but smile.
His actions were unpredictable. As always. But incredibly well chosen.
Surprised by the quality of their clothes, Izaya grasped the breeches meant to serve as undergarment. It was made of simple linen and considering their times he would have expected every piece of fabric to itch and irritate his skin- but he was surprised by the opposite.
It was surprisingly soft and smooth to the touch. Same went for the shirt of the same material and a belt that looked like a modern designer's top product. Well, it probably was considering it was made of real leather and not any artificial substances.
All about these clothes screamed naturalness and Izaya almost felt bad for saying that their modern clothes would stick out like a sore thumb because these clothes were so much worse.
They weren't worse actually.
Just different.
And probably not produced in masses, but carefully sewn by a single woman in a chamber. Quality over quantity seemed to be the prevailing nature and Izaya snorted before tossing the second set of clothes into Shizuo's face.
"Hey, time to get up."
It wasn't like the clothes didn't suit him, but seeing as his favorite color was black and slim fitting attires, he was pretty sure he had to present a laughable impression.
Soft groans followed from underneath the pile of white and Shizuo surfaced like a fish from the sea.
Confused glances were cast around and for a second he really looked like he was wondering where he was or who.
It was amazing in the most hilarious way and Izaya snorted before putting on a pair of leather shoes held by a string.
He didn't know whether they had been dropped into their rooms while they slept, or whether they simply belonged to the respective owners of this chamber, but fact was that two pairs had been prepared at some point.
"What's this?" Shizuo suddenly voiced aloud and Izaya snorted at the avid reaction to the clothes he had been handed.
"Our new outfits. I know it's not your usual attire, but they are more comfortable than they look," Izaya shrugged, and it was as if Shizuo had only bothered to look into Izaya's direction at that point as his expression showed mild amusement and joy.
"You look good."
Misschief laid in Shizuo's eyes as he slipped out of the bed and Izaya shrugged with faked lack of interest.
"I always do."
Quicker than expected Shizuo's arms had sneaked around Izaya's waist and he found himself pulled into a sweet morning kiss.
A hand sneaked its way up to Izaya's ear, playfully twirling a strand of hair poking forth. It was pleasant, but-
"Shizu-chan, you should stop," Izaya chuckled against Shizuo's lips.
But he didn't seem to be all too convinced by his request.
"Is anyone waiting for us?" Shizuo asked and Izaya snorted as that hand kept doing whatever it pleased.
"No, but I want to start investigating. We need to find out where the priest is and when he will return. As for the demon he made a contract wi-" his voice faded out without Izaya wanting it to, as Shizuo suddenly leant forward and kissed his neck.
Softly.
Alluring.
It was an invitation no one needed to spell aloud and the way Izaya grew quiet drew a smirk onto Shizuo's lips.
"Stop time?" he suggested, but Izaya pushed him away. A flick to the forehead, that's what he got and Izaya snorted.
"Later."
There was nothing Izaya would have loved more than to spend the entire day inside this chamber, but they had to start digging around for information.
The sooner they learned about their new surroundings, the better they would be able to maneuver themselves within this time's rules.
A soft groan left Shizuo's lips at the unfavorable response, but in all honesty he couldn't have been happier at the moment.
Because he saw it. Izaya's expression. The way he moved, the way he acted.
He was back to normal. Or at least as normal as he could be.
All signs of insecurities from the day before seemed to have disappeared and within a few minutes he found himself following Izaya into the hall.
Not much had changed compared to how the monastery had looked in their own time. Sure it was looking a bit better, less run down and stuff since a few hundred years had shown in the building's structure, but all in all? It was pretty.
"So, what am I supposed to do?" Shizuo whispered, just in case so no one would be able to eavesdrop on their conversation.
He wanted to help too.
His role as the ace up Izaya's sleeve was one he graciously accepted, but not acting until there was no other option than to destroy the place seemed a bit off.
"You?" Izaya asked, and Shizuo couldn't tell whether he was surprised he was offering or doubting his acting skills.
"Yeah. Me. Should I talk to someone, or…?" he faded out, not really knowing what else to put.
Slowing down Izaya seemed to contemplate his offer at least.
"You can ask around for Leo and his wound," Izaya mumbled, as if talking to himself and confirmed his sentence with a nod. "I hope they didn't mess with it, but I doubt they would touch an already tended wound in the first place."
"Why not?" Surprise was written all across Shizuo's expression and Izaya sighed.
"Fear of infection. Death in itself," these times consisted of psychological terror and untreated disorders and accordingly the mind of the general population on the decline when it came to fear and suspicions. "There are a lot of people who think touching someone dead will cause their own end date to arrive sooner than later," Izaya explained as simply as he could without diving into the topic of medieval age's superstitions too much.
But it seemed his words had served enough intel for Shizuo to understand anyway as a deep frown grazed his face.
"Ah. So they are that kind of bastards."
It was a statement as simple and meaningless as it could be, and yet it carried the vast variety of Izaya's knowledge in a way only Shizuo could and he laughed at the simplicity of his mind.
"You didn't realize from what the children told us?" he asked, and Shizuo shrugged.
"I did, I just thought they had some really bad luck going to end up like that. Like villagers who hated them and searched for an excuse to get rid of them or something."
Ah. So he had figured they were liars instead of actually fearful. It was a viable conclusion at least, even if not the right one.
"As much as I would like to blame the villagers and everyone around it's probably superstitions that really forced them to do this," Izaya sighed and moved on as he had somewhat half heartedly stopped in the middle of the corridor. "Fear does strange things to the human mind. And in this age it's the prevailing emotion."
Humming softly, Shizuo followed.
"Good thing you don't have anything to worry about with me around," he announced, and Izaya snorted.
"I certainly don't." And finally the door leading to their destination came into reach. "Now come on, I am curious to learn more about this place," Izaya announced, and with that he pushed it open.
Entering the big hall connected to the altar Shizuo recognized the area as the one Roy and Maria had used for dinner and handing out food.
The purpose seemed to have remained the same, as he spotted sister Monica and the two monks feeding what appeared to be people in need.
The only vast difference seemed to be the state of the people visiting.
He had heard about medieval times in school at some point. And the way they were the darkest times. Somehow he had only thought about the absence of electric light and comfort of mild trust in other people as a society.
Because at the end of the day, running around in a city might get you killed if you were unlucky enough to run into a maniac. But in these times he imagined the odds to walk through a village and return unscathed were reversed.
That's what he had expected.
But the smell was not part of it.
A stench, wafting over from many tables, told about the number of days they hadn't taken a bath. Untreated wounds and decaying teeth merged into a sour note that caused Shizuo to almost retch.
Huddled together to capture a bit of warmth between their bodies, he spotted a couple women at the altar. Praying with closed eyes he couldn't tell whether they were thanking god for their meal, or praying for better times overall.
Who were all these people?
The church had been set aflame just the day before. Shizuo thought everyone hated the priest.
"You look for Leo, I will try my luck here," Izaya suddenly whispered, and Shizuo could tell he was equally surprised by the amount of humans inside this hall.
A quick nod was all he gave, before circling off to the right.
The door leading to the garden. He knew it was connected to most other parts of the monastery even if half of it still needed to be built.
Looking after his black haired lover, and announced brother, Izaya turned his eyes back to the hall as soon as Shizuo disappeared behind the door.
The sooner they got out of this shithole, the better.
But who to approach?
The praying ladies at the altar seemed anything but willing to speak. Sister Monica was running around too.
Serving something that looked like stale soup, Izaya internally retched.
Always having had the best grades in school and having paid attention came in handy, really, but remembering how people in these times used to eat stew cooked in the same pot over days and never washed that very same pot, was not something Izaya considered an advantage.
The people eating it seemed happy to even have anything to put between their teeth and Izaya's eyes trailed to the back.
It was a table, holding three men of old age that caught his attention the most.
Skin wrinkled to the point where their folds were wearing folds, they clung to what appeared to be cups of water. Missing hair and ragged clothes might have made them seem like beggars, but Izaya was smart enough to understand that these people were probably the ebay shot he had at attaining precious information.
Not because of their appearance, but their age.
"Good morning, gentlemen," Izaya moved over, greeting as polite as he could.
But, having been in the middle of a conversation, the three elders turned to look at Izaya as though he was a cockroach that had just happened to crawl forth from the pottery and Izaya realized that talking to people in this age was probably going to be much harder than back in modern times.
to be continued~
Sorry had to cut here xD but this conversation is one you need to read as a whole hahahaha I'm really having fun here, writing up some old men xDDDDD
See you next friday everyone~ C: