Notes:
Sorry for the delay. Hopefully the next chapters won't take as long, but we'll see. Currently, I expect for the story to have 5 chapters, but there's a small chance for it to be more depending on how I split the following chapters.
There's a song mentioned later in this chapter. This is the version I was listening to when I wrote the scene in question: www . youtube .com (slash) watch?v=zsh_28rcW-c
Also a minor trigger warning for some disturbing and/or gruesome imagery. It's pretty brief, but it may be a bit much for some people.
Chapter 2: Peek-a-boo, I see you
The elevators were working. That did not reassure Izaya, however.
While he wasn't looking forward to the prospect of having to potentially crawl down the stairs, Kawasaki logically should have prevented the use of the elevators if there was a way out on a different floor.
He was getting a bad feeling about this...
Once the doors opened, Izaya pushed his wheelchair into the elevator, and he studied the floor choices. Based on the numbers in the elevator, Izaya had been on the third — and apparently highest — floor of the mall. He pressed the button for the first floor, predicting that that was the most likely place to have an exit from the building. He didn't actually know the layout of this place, so it was perfectly possible that the way out was on another floor, but he was just playing to the odds.
After a short elevator ride, Izaya arrived on the first floor, the elevator announcing his arrival with an annoyingly loud ding that he hoped Shizuo wouldn't hear. The noise it made prompted Izaya to move as far away from the elevators as possible. Having no idea where to go, he went off in a random direction, hoping to spot the exit.
This place was like a maze. While the first floor was a little easier to navigate than the third floor, it wasn't that much better.
Back on the third floor, Izaya had trouble finding his way around. It wasn't like more westernized malls that had only a few main walking paths with tightly packed stores of roughly equal size. No, the walking paths instead went between and around the stores, and the stores themselves were often a bit off-center from each other, making it hard to methodically take every possible path if you were looking for something.
Like, for example, a goddamned elevator.
The space was a little more open down on the first floor, and Izaya could even see large sections of the upper floors, but that would only make Izaya easier to spot if Shizuo happened to look over one of the balconies above him.
Izaya started to use the power controls on his wheelchair to move faster, but he quickly stopped when he deemed the mechanism was too loud, so he went back to pushing the wheels by hand. He should probably conserve the power anyway. His wheelchair had the ability to move quickly in case Izaya needed to escape, but that would only work as long as the battery didn't run out.
Izaya passed by store after store, many of which still had their lights on as if expecting customers to show up in this desolate place, and yet others had their lights shut off entirely, bathing them in darkness. It was a weird amalgamation of light and dark, and it gave everything this unpleasant, creepy vibe. While he had considered the atmosphere to be beautiful earlier, he now found that the same scene instead elicited fear and unease.
The vast majority of stores were cleared out and were nothing more than empty rooms, but a few of the stores had irregular wall structures that blocked the view of anyone passing by. Izaya noted them as possible hiding places for later.
Not all of the stores were empty, but those that still had items left inside were overrun with sale signs that listed their wares at heavy discounts. Everything had an old, musty smell to it. It didn't matter where in the mall Izaya went — the stale odor followed him everywhere, clinging to him. It even seemed to have gotten on his own clothes, somehow.
This whole thing was giving him a headache.
Izaya finally spotted an exit sign that pointed somewhere off to his right, and he followed the direction it indicated. Before long, he saw what looked like the exit to the building come into view and Izaya raced towards it, only to come to a sudden halt when he realized what he was looking at.
No.
He rolled closer to what should have been the exit, but instead...
Vending machines.
Rows and rows of vending machines stood right where the doors were, blocking the way out.
Breathing a little heavily, Izaya stood up from his wheelchair and tried to shove one of the vending machines out of the way, but it wouldn't budge. He tested several others, all equally as heavy and unmoving, and he tried to see if there were any gaps between them that could have been large enough for him to slide through, but they were all packed pretty close together.
"Fuck..." Izaya cursed under his breath.
He knew it wouldn't have been that easy.
Wait. Kawasaki wouldn't have had Shizuo's level of strength, and most people couldn't move vending machines on their own. They'd have to move it in a pallet jack or something, so there should be one around here, assuming it wasn't locked in a room somewhere.
Izaya tried scanning the immediate area for a pallet jack or similar tool, but he didn't see anything fitting the description. Well, so much for that.
Izaya looked over at the top of the vending machines. He could still see some of the glass from the exit doors peeking out above them. It wasn't much, but if he could somehow climb to the top and break the glass, he may be able to shimmy out the small opening it would create. The broken glass would scratch him up a bit going through, but it was a possibility nonetheless.
Actually, if he started climbing one of the machines, could he just knock it off balance? He'd have to be careful not to let the machine fall on himself, but maybe he could knock the machine over, use the handle of his knife to break the glass of the doors behind it, step through, repeat for any other glass doors that may be on the other side, and then he'd be out in the parking lot. He wouldn't have his wheelchair, but if he knew Shizuo was right behind him, he'd certainly be motivated enough to ignore the pain and run.
Wanting to test it out, Izaya positioned himself in front of the nearest vending machine. He reached up, and the tips of his fingers just barely grasped the top. Even though it made his entire body hurt like hell, he lifted his legs off the ground so he could increase the weight on it.
Nothing happened.
Izaya tried to move up and down to jostle it, but he didn't seem to have enough weight to knock it over. Fuck.
Okay, back to the original plan. Climb to the top and smash your way out.
He tried pulling himself up, but his arms didn't seem to be cooperating. He wasn't sure if that was a result of his injuries or the fact that he was horribly out of shape. Either way, that method didn't look like it would work, either.
Izaya growled in frustration as he let himself back down to the floor and returned to his wheelchair, panting heavily from the exertion. He'd need some kind of tool to get around these things. A pallet jack, a platform he could climb on... Hell, even a crowbar could work if it would provide him with enough leverage to knock the machines over. But there was nothing like that here.
This was a dead end, at least for now. He'd have to look elsewhere.
Izaya started pushing himself away from the vending machines, intending to go off and explore the rest of this floor, but then he spotted movement in the distance. Oh, great, Shizuo was making his way down the stairs, to the same level Izaya was on.
Shizuo wasn't even looking in his direction yet, so it was probably pure coincidence that he was here, but how the hell did Shizuo keep getting this close to him? This place was huge. Izaya really shouldn't be finding him this often.
Izaya made a hasty retreat before Shizuo could spot him, and moved to another part of the floor. He soon found his way back to the elevator and pressed the button to go up. When it arrived, he chose to go back to the third floor, wanting to be as far away from Shizuo as possible.
When the elevator doors closed, Izaya leaned his head back with a sigh. This was a disaster. What, was he stuck wandering an abandoned shopping mall until Shizuo got bored and left? How long would that take?
And then he remembered the ultimatum that Kawasaki had given Shizuo over the phone, and all that nonsense of how Izaya will 'take it out' on Shizuo's friends and family if Shizuo dared to leave their game early.
Izaya winced. He'd probably be stuck here pretty damn long in that case. Crap.
Even so, Shizuo hadn't seen Izaya yet, had he? He was bound to think something was up if Izaya never showed himself. It shouldn't be long before Shizuo started to consider the possibility that maybe Izaya wasn't even here. Shizuo would assume that it was all just a ploy to piss him off, or maybe even a distraction to keep Shizuo occupied while Izaya was off doing nefarious things elsewhere.
None of it would be true, obviously, but all he needed was to plant some seeds of doubt in Shizuo's mind, and that may be all it would take for him to leave Izaya alone.
Izaya arrived back on the third floor, unsure what to do now. He had already explored most of this floor earlier when he was hunting for an elevator and hadn't found anything useful. The idea of just waiting here with nothing to do when Shizuo could potentially discover him at any moment made him antsy.
He hadn't checked out the second floor at all, but given how Shizuo kept managing to get back onto the same floor as him, Izaya was reluctant to get any closer to him than he had to be.
But Izaya had momentarily become so obsessed with the idea to keep searching for an exit that he'd even briefly considered making noise intentionally just to lure Shizuo back upstairs, and then wrote it off as insane. Not only would that ruin his plan of pretending that he wasn't here, but there was also no guarantee that Shizuo would come up, and if Izaya tried taking the elevator, he might wind up taking it to a floor that Shizuo still occupied.
No, Izaya couldn't take the elevators unless he was certain that Shizuo wouldn't be there when he arrived.
So in other words, Izaya was stuck on this floor until he spotted Shizuo all the way up here again.
Perhaps Izaya should hold off on exploring the place and just hide out somewhere until Shizuo gave up on looking for him. Izaya may not be able to leave the building, but despite all of Kawasaki's planning, there was no way to physically stop Shizuo from leaving the building if he truly wanted to. And ultimatum or not, Shizuo wouldn't keep hunting for Izaya forever.
...Would he?
Izaya's stomach churned when he considered the possibility of Shizuo potentially being so determined to kill him that he would stick around the place hunting for him for days, weeks, or even months, and that was assuming Izaya could even survive that long.
Even so, there was no point dwelling on what might happen over the next few days when Izaya was increasingly doubtful he'd even survive the next hour.
He noticed a relatively large clothing store nearby. It still looked fully stocked, and it struck him as the kind of place that would be difficult to spot somebody in, so he opted to hide out there.
Izaya went inside, keeping an eye out for any spots that would provide him with sufficient cover. The store had a wide selection of clothing items to choose from. Many items had tags putting them at a deep discount, but it seemed like it wasn't enough to draw customers in.
At some point, he saw some fur-lined coats that looked suspiciously similar to the one he was currently wearing. Maybe Kawasaki had even chosen it from this very store.
That brought Izaya back to his thoughts from earlier in the evening. Why was he wearing a fur-lined coat? He'd stopped wearing those kinds of things years ago, so it seemed like an intentional design choice on Kawasaki's part, and it only just now occurred to Izaya that maybe it was because that was what Shizuo would be looking for.
Izaya's coats had become a bit iconic in that, until recently, he very rarely wore anything else once he'd gotten in the habit of wearing them. Aside from school uniforms, Shizuo wouldn't have seen Izaya wearing any other outfit, just as he rarely saw Shizuo wearing anything other than a bartender uniform.
In other words, Shizuo was probably more likely to spot him as long as Izaya was wearing this coat. While Izaya could simply take the coat off, the mall did not seem to be particularly well-heated, and he was chilly enough even with the coat on.
Maybe Izaya should consider trading the coat in for something else...
But he didn't have much time to dwell on that thought when a figure in a bartender outfit suddenly appeared to his left, and Izaya choked off a scream.
It...
It was a mannequin.
And it was wearing a tuxedo, not a bartender outfit.
Relief mingled with frustration. Why the fuck did these things even exist? It was like their entire point was to be creepy.
Izaya normally didn't mind mannequins, but this whole thing was making him jumpy and on edge. He glared at it for a moment before venturing deeper inside the store. Unfortunately, that wasn't the only mannequin he encountered, and they were frustratingly hard to ignore. Every time he'd see one out of the corner of his eye, he'd flinch, thinking it was Shizuo. He was extremely tempted to rip these things to shreds.
But despite his frustrations with the mannequins, they may actually work to his advantage here. Being in a sea of human-like figures may make Shizuo more likely to overlook the fact that Izaya himself was among them. To hide a tree, use a forest. Or in this case, mannequins.
If Izaya could hide well enough, Shizuo might eventually lose patience hunting him down and leave on his own. Plus, if Shizuo left the building, he'd likely have to move those damned vending machines that were blocking the doors downstairs, unwittingly making an exit for Izaya in the process.
Izaya smiled. Yes, he was liking this plan.
He finally found a nice, secluded part of the store near the shoe section. From here, Izaya could not only see the store entrance, but he also couldn't be cornered if Shizuo decided to show up.
Sufficiently pleased with his choice of hiding place, he made himself comfortable. Izaya then looked over at one of the nearby mannequins, which was dressed in athletic wear. It looked relatively buff and in shape. It must have been working out.
"You can stand guard," he told it. "If Shizu-chan shows up, jump out and attack him. We good?"
No response from the mannequin.
Izaya nodded as if it had agreed. "Alright. We have a plan. Don't fall asleep on me now, because we're in for a long night."
The mannequin seemed to agree with this sentiment.
• • • • •
Elsewhere in the mall, Shizuo's phone started ringing.
Shizuo closed his eyes in annoyance and took a couple of deep breaths. He was getting really tired of listening to Izaya talk at this point.
He reluctantly answered the phone, and sure enough, it was Izaya again. "Yo, Shizu-chan! You looking for something?"
Shizuo grit his teeth. "You know full well what I'm looking for."
"A new wardrobe, surely. How long have you been wearing those ratty outfits of yours?"
Shizuo's fingers tightened on the phone, and he heard the sound of it cracking under the pressure. "Stop messing around, or I'm leaving."
"Aw, you already know you can't leave without there being consequences, Shizu-chan."
"Then get out here and fight me, already. That's what we're here for, right? Why are you dragging this out?"
Izaya sighed. "You're no fun, Shizu-chan. Why don't you just relax and explore a bit more? Like I said, those bartender outfits of yours are getting a little old at this point, aren't they? Maybe you should go do a little clothes shopping."
Shizuo narrowed his eyes.
So he's in a clothing store, huh?
He remembered passing by one earlier...
• • • • •
Meanwhile...
"Do you like Beethoven?" Izaya asked the mannequin.
Izaya put his hands out and started playing Für Elise on an imaginary piano. He could still see the store's entrance in his peripheral vision, so he wasn't too concerned about potentially missing something. He just made sure not to close his eyes or look away for too long.
Izaya deliberately kept the pace of the song slow and peaceful in an attempt to relax. His heart was still racing a little from anxiety, but it had slowed significantly since he started playing.
He played through the full song a few times before he finally got bored. Izaya leaned forward and braced his chin with his hand as he stared up at the mannequin. "So... what's a fine thing like you doing working in a store like this, hm?"
The mannequin said nothing.
"Is it the medical benefits?" Izaya asked. "You can't honestly tell me that they aren't making you work overtime. I mean, come on, when was the last time you went home and saw your family?"
The mannequin stood in awkward silence, clearly hesitant to answer.
And then Izaya realized something. How could he have been so clueless?
"...They're working in the store, too, aren't they? Don't lie to me; I saw that baby mannequin hanging about in the children's section. Don't you know there are child labor laws against that sort of thing?" Izaya shook his head in disappointment. "For shame, Tsuchida-san. For shame."
And then Izaya spotted a flash of movement in his peripheral vision, and he tensed.
Shizuo had shown up.
Izaya held his breath, hoping that by remaining absolutely still that maybe Shizuo would pass the place by without incident. But it seemed that fate was not so kind to him, because after giving the place a brief once-over, Shizuo stepped inside the store.
Izaya cursed his luck. Shizuo had already been on this floor. Wouldn't he have already looked through the place?
Shizuo walked around the store aimlessly for a bit, looking a bit lost... only to suddenly glare at a nearby clothing rack as if it had offended him personally.
The scene that followed was incredibly disturbing for Izaya to witness. Shizuo let out an animalistic growl as he tore apart the defenseless display until it was nothing but a mess of scattered shirts and a pile of mangled scrap metal. From the wreckage, Shizuo pulled out a relatively solid-looking pole that he probably intended to use as a weapon on Izaya himself.
While Shizuo's actions weren't exactly gory in the sense that there was literal blood or guts, Izaya couldn't help but imagine himself as that clothing rack. Shizuo grabbing him and preventing him from escaping. Shizuo squeezing so hard that he'd tear flesh from bone.
And the metal pole was his spine.
Izaya held a hand to his mouth as he fought back the sudden urge to vomit.
No, breathe in, and out. Slowly, through the nose. Everything's fine. That was nothing. He was just... playing with the clothes. It's fine.
He wasn't sure why he had such a visceral reaction to seeing Shizuo destroy a clothing rack of all things, but his body's responses to things were becoming extremely unhelpful.
Izaya watched carefully as Shizuo wandered off to another part of the store, and Izaya debated whether he should stay here or not. It was possible that Shizuo would overlook him in his current hiding spot, but if Shizuo was doing a more calculated sweep of the place, then it was only a matter of time before he was discovered.
Not wanting to risk it, Izaya slowly made his way back out of the store, careful to avoid letting his wheelchair bump into anything that may attract Shizuo's attention. Once he was sure he wouldn't be in Shizuo's line of sight, Izaya exited the store to head back to the elevator.
The whole thing was suspicious. Shizuo kept getting drawn to him like a magnet, and it was getting more and more difficult to just write it off as a mere coincidence.
A horrifying thought occurred to him when Izaya remembered that Shizuo had on several occasions accused him of having some kind of 'stench.' Nobody else had ever claimed such a thing, so Izaya had initially brushed the comments aside, assuming that Shizuo was just making stuff up to insult him. But what if he wasn't lying? What if, with all of the other abilities that Shizuo had, he had also somehow acquired the ability to smell him from a distance?
The idea that Shizuo might very well be literally sniffing him out like a dog was incredibly disturbing.
Izaya tried to shake off the thought. Whatever, it didn't matter now. All he had to do was take the elevator back to the first floor, and—
Uh.
Izaya looked around, a little disoriented.
...Where was the elevator?
It should have been right here. He was certain of it! Two lefts and a right.
Or—or was it two rights and a left?
He couldn't remember which it was now. Crap. He lost track of the elevator.
Okay, don't panic. If it was two rights and a left, then all he'd have to do is turn around and go straight, and he should find it.
He'd be heading back in Shizuo's direction, but he was probably still in the clothing store. If Izaya was fast enough, then he should probably be able to sneak by before Shizuo left the store.
Not wanting to stay on the same floor as Shizuo, Izaya decided to go for it, but tried to be quick about it.
But as he was approaching nearer to where the store was, Izaya heard Shizuo's voice.
"You said you were here! Will you stop fucking around?!"
Izaya flinched, thinking he had been spotted. But when he tried to locate him, Shizuo was nowhere to be seen.
It took Izaya far too long to parse what Shizuo just said.
'You said you were here.'
A sinking feeling settled in Izaya's stomach when he realized what was happening. Shizuo still had his phone. Kawasaki must have been leaking Izaya's location to him this entire time, and Izaya never even considered the possibility.
Izaya seethed. What, was he not dying fast enough for Kawasaki's taste?
This was going to make things infinitely harder. He evidently couldn't just wait Shizuo out. He'd have to keep moving so Shizuo wouldn't have time to investigate Kawasaki's tips.
And the fact that Shizuo was seemingly talking to Kawasaki right now meant that he was already being fed new information, and Izaya may only have a few seconds to get out of sight before Shizuo showed up.
Izaya hesitated. Should he backtrack, or race forward in an attempt to reach the elevator? Maybe he should hide in one of these stores? He was only a couple of feet away from one that looked promising.
But before he could come to a decision on what to do, Shizuo came into view, and Izaya completely froze.
Shizuo was still holding the metal pole from the clothing rack. At first glance, Izaya thought it was a street sign, and even after remembering what it actually was, he couldn't see it as anything else.
A crumpled street sign uprooted for the simple goal of beating Izaya to a bloody pulp.
Izaya's mouth went dry. Shizuo looked too similar to the way Izaya remembered him in Ikebukuro. Too much like the beast that would scream his name and hunt him down for the minor infraction of daring to step into the other's territory.
It reminded him of the times where Izaya had purposely gone to Ikebukuro just to rile him up. To enjoy the thrill of the chase, knowing that if Izaya so much as slipped, his life would be over. Even when Izaya didn't make any mistakes, Shizuo would often only be a hair slower than him, and Izaya had once or twice felt those extremely lethal fingers brush up against the back of his coat before the resulting adrenaline rush would push Izaya to go even faster. On those days, Izaya felt the most alive.
Now, he felt only dread, the adrenaline making him feel sick rather than elated. Izaya was already at a disadvantage back in Ikebukuro. In his current state, there was nothing he could do to dodge Shizuo's attacks.
But miraculously, Shizuo still hadn't noticed him yet, and was instead poking his head into other stores, no doubt looking for him.
And yet, despite the opportunity that had presented itself, Izaya remained frozen. His body had locked up again, just like before when he first saw Shizuo in the mall.
No, not again! Dammit!
Scowling, Shizuo stepped away from the store with an audible huff as he continued searching.
Fuck! Why? Why did his body have to lock up now?! There was a store Izaya could hide in just a few feet away. Why couldn't he just go there?
Come on, move! Now!
Shizuo walked by another store, only giving it a passing glance when he saw it was just an empty room.
Izaya tried to replicate what he did before as he began to painfully pry his fingers from the armrests of his wheelchair so he could grab the wheels.
But then Shizuo turned, and they locked eyes. Izaya felt like his heart stopped.
Run.
Shizuo paused, seemingly a little stunned that he'd actually managed to find him.
Run.
But then Shizuo's face contorted in familiar anger.
Run run run run run—
"IIIZAAAYAAA!"
Run, you fucking idiot!
Only after Shizuo had started sprinting in his direction did Izaya's body finally unlock itself. Izaya immediately launched himself up and out of the wheelchair with such force that he had knocked it over backwards in his haste to get away. Feeling all too reminded of his chases back in Ikebukuro, Izaya started running for his life.
Wait. Wait a second, he just left his—
Izaya hadn't even been running for a full second before he realized his mistake. Running from Shizuo was so instinctual, so innate, that it didn't even occur to him that it might be the wrong thing to do.
His wheelchair had modifications. Ones that would allow him to move at high speeds in order to escape a pursuer.
The ones he'd specifically added for this exact kind of situation.
Izaya mentally kicked himself so hard that it felt like he'd give himself a concussion. He shouldn't have left his wheelchair. How the fuck was he so stupid?! Was he trying to get himself killed?!
In the end, it didn't matter how quickly Izaya caught his mistake. It didn't matter that his wheelchair was still only a few feet away from him, because it was already too late to do anything about it.
So Izaya doubled down on his decision, pushing himself to run even faster as he cut all mental ties to his wheelchair. The wheelchair didn't exist now. Izaya suspected that he wouldn't be using it ever again anyway.
And yet, Izaya was actually running a little faster than he'd been expecting. Granted, he wasn't normally capable of running at all ever since that night, but considering that he hadn't had to run from Shizuo in over three years, he was surprisingly light on his feet.
Izaya started winding his way between the shops in a zig-zag pattern, trying to lose him. His shoes would make an annoyingly loud squeak whenever he made a sharp turn, undoubtedly giving away his location and making it harder for him to lose Shizuo.
Izaya didn't dare to look behind him. It would only slow him down, and he worried that it may distract him and cause him to stumble. While it wasn't unusual for him to be pumped full of adrenaline when running from Shizuo, this went far beyond what his body was used to.
His chest was burning, and Izaya seriously worried that he was going to give himself a heart attack. Every breath he took was like inhaling fire.
He couldn't keep running for much longer.
Izaya was passing by the stairs. On any other occasion, he would have bypassed them, but as of this moment, it was his only chance to escape.
Izaya made a sharp turn to take the stairs, flying down several steps at a time. As he reached the bottom, he gripped the railing and looped around the stairs, using his momentum to perform an almost complete 180 as he took off running again.
He used to pull that move all the time back in Ikebukuro. Izaya had been worried that he'd be too out of shape to pull it off correctly, or that he might injure his still-weak arms in the process, but it seemed like he managed it well enough.
Izaya continued running, briefly checking behind him to make sure he'd gained some distance over Shizuo before he turned down a long hallway. At the end of the hallway were some bathrooms, one for men and one for women. He opted for the women's bathroom, hoping that it may disincline Shizuo enough from following him there.
Of course, if Shizuo saw him go in there, he'd probably be even more murderous than he already was, but Izaya figured that the degree of how homicidal Shizuo was didn't really matter past a certain point.
Izaya shoved the door open and ran inside.
• • • • •
Shizuo slammed his fist into a wall.
"Dammit! He got away..." he muttered.
He saw Izaya take the stairs, but by the time Shizuo got to the next floor, Izaya was nowhere to be seen.
This was going to take forever at this rate. For a while, he was convinced that Izaya wasn't even here and was simply messing with him over the phone. Normally, Izaya would make his presence known way before this, but sure enough, there he was, sitting in a chair like he had been waiting there all night.
Just remembering it pissed Shizuo off. It was too dark to see Izaya's face, but he was undoubtedly giving Shizuo one of his signature smirks he often wore. The bastard was probably looking forward to the thrill of the chase they always wound up doing.
Still, what was the point of that? Didn't Izaya say that he was going to ambush him and attack him? Was he just taunting him? Or maybe the flea was feeling nostalgic and wanted to recreate their old dynamic?
Izaya was clearly trying to drag this out for as long as possible. For what purpose, Shizuo wasn't sure.
Whatever the reason, Shizuo needed to end this quickly. If Izaya was trying to keep Shizuo occupied, it couldn't have been for anything good. The question now was where to look for him.
All of the stores nearest to the stairs were empty and Izaya shouldn't have had enough time to get beyond the ones that Shizuo had already checked, so he couldn't have gotten far. Shizuo looked around a bit more before his gaze finally settled on the bathrooms.
There were only so many places to hide, after all.