vatheon | (no subject)

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(no subject)

Who: Orihara Izaya & All Of Vatheon
Where: The park
When: Sometime towards the evening but not at night
Style: Prose or action. I really don't care.
Status: Open

He looked like he hadn't slept in days. And really? He probably hadn't. He walked slowly, his shoulders drooped with a bit of a glazed expression on his face. He knew it wasn't safe to be out and about in a state like this but his day was coming to an end and he planned on sleeping tonight. Swinging from his hand was a small plastic bag and in his other hand was a bottle of what looked to be tea.

As he shuffled through the park along the path, he eventually stopped by a tree that was just a few feet away from the path. He walked on over and all but collapsed at the tree's base, leaning up against it and stretched his legs out in front of him. He closed his eyes for a moment and took a breath. A few minutes passed of him just sitting there before finally, he moved again and began to unpack his bag.

A box of ootoro. He began to eat his dinner with his fingers, the bottle of tea on his other side. Of which he occasionally took a sip from. The typically observant informant seemed to be...well. Not so observant tonight. He seemed to be, anyway.

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It was always the same - Izaya seeing through him, calling his bluff, igniting that familiar rage that sent Shizuo over the top. Even now, pitted against each other without the prospect of a chase, Izaya managed to get under his skin so perfectly, so piercingly. They had established that they wouldn't kill each other - that an inability existed between them - but that left a gap. A gap that Izaya was filling with words and taunts, instead of movement.

Shizuo narrowed his eyes as he towered over Izaya, tensing as he shifted as though to get up, as though expecting him to pull some sort of stunt. "I didn't tell you not to talk to her - tch, who's the stupid one?" he said, though the words were thick as Shizuo's temper increased, threatening to tip him over the scale into irrationality. "I just don't want to hear you say her name. It makes me sick, someone like you talking about someone like her." Zelda could do what she wanted and talk to whomever she wanted, but that didn't mean he wanted to hear Izaya talk about her.

Then Izaya did stand and Shizuo clenched his teeth together, pushed his fist even harder against the tree, waiting. But Izaya wasn't making a move - wasn't going to run. Instead, he faced him head one, their foreheads meeting. Shizuo glared over through his shades, pushed back with his head, body coming into a quiver as he tried to manage his rage long enough to throw back Izaya's taunts. Shizuo may have been less adept at word battles, but he could try, especially since Izaya wasn't giving him an alternative.

"I'm staying because you think you can chase me away," Shizuo replied with effort. It was difficult to stay focused when Izaya was spouting off about crushes and mocking him with the word cute. There was no outlet if Izaya did not plan on running - no way he could vent it, short of smashing Izaya into the tree. "It doesn't work that way, remember? You don't get to chase me off." He forced out a laugh.

"And who are you to talk about not being able to stay away? I don't creep into your bedroom at night." Never mind the discussion about needs and kinds and balance - that was still something to which Shizuo could lay claim. He didn't break into Izaya's home just to discuss philosophy or whatever other bullshit ran through the informant's mind. Shizuo didn't hunt him down, he only reacted when their paths happened to cross.

"I'll talk about whoever I like. And say their names too, Shizu-chan. It's a lawless city after all. Zelda." He rolled his eyes at Shizuo because he was such an idiot at times. Not to mention he really set himself up to be annoyed. Why would he ever tell Izaya not to do something? What did he think Izaya would do? Be polite and considerate of his request? Yeah, right.

Izaya had to smirk. He absolutely had to. One thing that had always impressed him about Shizuo was the fact that he could control himself without even meaning to around Izaya. He was at his angriest and yet he had these moments where his strength and rage did not get the better of him. Izaya knew Shizuo had a hell lot more control than he ever gave the blond credit for. It wasn't his fault that Shizuo couldn't see that though. Izaya could all but feel that power coming from Shizuo through his forehead. He knew that Shizuo could lurch his head back and then snap it forward and break Izaya's face if he wanted to.

Which brought him back to that eerie conclusion of their hate not being so deep.

"Yeah well I'm not being chased tonight. So either you can leave or you can stay. Either way, I'm sticking right here so you can deal with that how you like," Izaya said and leaned back from Shizuo only to flick him in the chest not a moment later. He leaned back against the tree, just under Shizuo's arm, and smiled confidentially at Shizuo, sliding his arms over his chest as though to reaffirm his position.

His smile slid off of his face in the blink of an eye at the mention of him breaking into Shizuo's room at night. He scowled deeply and stared down at the ground between them. There really was no good lie for that. He could try and make something up to try and fool Shizuo- which in and of itself wasn't necessarily hard but...He also had a feeling that this wasn't something he could trick Shizuo with. "I didn't creep. I had come to see if I could kill you. And don't act so innocent. You've come to my apartment in Shinjuku before and that's a long ways away from 'Bukuro. How do you explain that?"

There. That was the best he had. And he hated it. He was too tired for this and too tired for Shizuo.

But the worst part of it all was that he felt excited and woken up by Shizuo being just two feet in front of him. It wasn't even fair. "Say, Shizu-chan, your birthday is coming up, isn't it? How old are you turning again? Twenty-five?"

Maybe Shizuo wanted to be pissed off even more - maybe that was a better alternative to casual conversation, when he couldn't have the chase he wanted. He turned Izaya's smirk all too quickly. The realization that he might be enjoying this hadn't set in yet, but he didn't shove Izaya like one might have expected. He grinned because he hated hearing him say Zelda's name and it fueled that fire that always seemed to be burning. Not animosity - no, hadn't they established that it wasn't purely hate? It was twisted need.

He almost wanted Izaya to say it again.

Izaya didn't want to run. Well, Shizuo didn't want to leave - not when he was able to make Izaya's smirk fall.

He didn't even move when Izaya caught him in the chest. In fact, he grinned even harder. If they could keep hatred between them, then they could keep revelations at bay.

"You did creep," he insisted. "I came to Shinjuku to beat you up. You came into my place to watch me sleep and discuss philosophical bullshit. That's more fucked up, don't you think?" He wanted to capitalize on that, twist the knife in deeper. "I wonder if you come try to kill me a lot." Because he wanted Izaya's smirk to stay gone, he wanted Izaya to keep staring at the ground.

And the talk of his birthday - it was even more ammo. Suddenly, Shizuo felt powerful without his rage. And that - that was amazing. It was as though he had found a non-physical vent through which he could shove his anger. He just hoped Izaya didn't clog it with his stupid talk.

"Hey, Izaya - why are you bothering to remember my birthday, anyway? I don't even know when yours is." Shizuo wanted to have this one. He was so often overcome by Izaya's stupid logic when Shizuo had never been entirely logical in this kind of frame of mind. This time, he wanted to win. "That says something, doesn't it?"

Izaya really was out of it tonight. He was too tired for Shizuo and he was too tired to talk to him. His tongue was loose and his head was foggy. He felt things a bit differently than he might otherwise and that damned grin of Shizuo's needed to leave. What did he look so cocky for? Did he honestly think that he was - what? Winning? Izaya's eyes rolled up and he sneered at the blond.

"It's called observation, Shizu-chan. I like to watch my enemy to know how to take him down and tear him apart," he explained almost impatiently. He didn't want to discuss this. "And you sleeping is when you're most vulnerable." It didn't really make sense. There was only so much he could learn from watching Shizuo sleep. Anyway, he had only done it a few times. He could count on his one hand how many times.

Izaya's eyes widened and he glanced up at Shizuo and then snorted, a slight grin growing in place of his sneer. "I know that you wouldn't know when my birthday is. You don't know anything about me," Izaya said flippantly and he rolled his eyes at Shizuo. "But I. I know everything about you. It's a matter of collecting and filing away potentially important information. You're not the only person I do this with," he said and he looked away from Shizuo and down the park's pathway. Yet he still didn't run. "Your birthday isn't exactly important but your age is and I like to keep a record of all of those kinds of things."

Yeah. That made sense. His file on Shizuo was huge. And it was to keep track of the blond brute. He couldn't just let Shizuo go without ever investigating him. "I probably know you better than anyone else you know. Your friends, your family...I'm sure that I could destroy you if I really wanted to but I don't feel like doing that just yet."

He reached his hand up and put it against the side of Shizuo's face. While the romantic in any other situation would have been romantic, it wasn't so here. He slid his thumb under Shizuo's eye but then started to push his face away with his hand, glaring at the ground as he did so.

"Just go away, Shizu-chan. I want to eat dinner without you around. And you're boring to talk to and I don't like to look at your dumb expressions. It makes me feel like I'm slowly draining my IQ."

Shizuo held onto that feeling of triumph, even as Izaya tried to tear it down. He needed to. It kept him confident.

"You could have just said that was the first time," he told Izaya, shaking his head. "You pretty much just told me that you've done it more than that one time." He should be disturbed but he was too excited by the prospect of cutting Izaya down further. Later, he'd take the time to dissect that fact. Shizuo was too in the moment - too caught up.

"You sound like a stalker." This time, it was said with disgust, grin faltering some. True, that was a petty insult. Izaya's job was to know everything about everyone so it only made sense that he would have such information, but it did make Shizuo uncomfortable to hear.

When Izaya's hand pressed against his face and started to push away, Shizuo held firm and tensed against it. Then, he put his hand over Izaya's, squeezing only slightly - not to hurt, but to dare. There was something intimately dangerous - Izaya's thumb so close to his eye, Shizuo's hand over his.

"You're wrong, Izaya. I know some things about you. I know that you haven't destroyed me. You won't destroy me. Maybe we can't kill each other - but you can't even fuck up my life."

He let his hand drop. "You're the boring one. You're not even running. I should probably find someone else to chase." Like he would ever find someone of Izaya's caliber. That was a ridiculous notion. But maybe he could find someone that knew how to run from him. Conversations just weren't up his alley. Even his anger was slowly fading, now.

Izaya didn't respond to the accusation. He had been called a stalker plenty of times but it seemed like no one knew how to appropriately use the term 'stalker'. His job was to be an informant. He collected data on everyone. It had given him a name worthy of fear in Ikebukuro and among the yakuza and it also paid him well. Shizuo was just another person worth stalking. Despite this, he did not tell Shizuo about the fact that he knew things about Shizuo that were always going to be irrelevant. Things like the type of sweets he liked.

It wasn't important. It had simply been information Izaya digested. And Shizuo would take that the wrong way.

He kept his hand on Shizuo's face, his eyes narrowed somewhat when Shizuo's hand came down over Izaya's and it burned. Yet he found himself frozen under that hand and he didn't know how to react. Shizuo's hand was heavy. Warm. Threatening. He loathed its very presence.

"Tch," Izaya scoffed right in Shizuo's face and he leaned in close. "You think that's knowing anything about me, Shizuo? You're more stupid than I thought if that's the case. Anyone could see that, you idiot, that's not knowing anything- and-"

He couldn't fuck up his life? Izaya's hand withdrew but not very far, his fingers curled and his face twisted into an expression of disgusted surprise.

"What do you mean I can't fuck up your life? I like to think I shook it up a lot over the past few years. Of course I can destroy your life. If I wanted to, I could have made it so you were evicted from your apartment and fired from your job and incapable of getting any jobs in the future. I would've hurt your brother in such a crippling way that he may as well not have been your brother anymore. Don't think that I can't ruin your life and don't think that I won't. Because I would- happily." He dropped his hand and curled it into a fist.

Shizuo was a lot more irritating when he was talking.

But then...Someone else to chase. Izaya's eyes widened and for some reason, that felt like a stab that shouldn't have been. It was a threat that should have never applied to them. His mouth twisted into one of his classic, messed up smiles that was subtle and quiet but with his eyes carefully blank, dead.

"Shizu-chan," he said quietly, "You could never replace me. It wouldn't be the same. And you'd probably feel guilty for harassing some potentially innocent person afterwards and then you'd feel mad at me because you would know that it was my fault because I didn't run that you went after someone else. And they wouldn't know how to get to you like I do. I'm not running. I told you I wasn't. But here you are, still talking to me, so what's wrong, Shizu-chan?" he asked, leaning forward into Shizuo's personal space. He butted his head up against Shizuo's again and that gentle smile dissolved into a mildly crazed smirk.

"Don't want to leave me? I'm flattered!" he taunted wildly, almost yelling in Shizuo's face but he calmed down at once and sank back onto the tree, slouching down against the bark. "Say, you know what's funny? I was the first person you noticed when you entered Raijin Academy. What's with that?"

Shizuo hadn't been talking potential. Sure, Izaya could fuck up his life, but he didn't. That was the point. He screwed with it plenty, but he didn't get him evicted. He didn't make it incapable for Shizuo to find employment. He didn't hurt his brother - but oh, even hearing that was enough to bring his anger right back to the surface. His brother - his brother.

He had to keep control. Because losing it would be an overall loss. Shizuo couldn't get caught up.

"All those things - you haven't done them yet. What are you waiting for?" But the words faltered, were thick and difficult to form, because his of that button Izaya had pushed. It was an express ticket to blind anger, and Shizuo's control faltered.

And yet - it had no where to go. Izaya wasn't running. Shizuo had to swallow it or kill Izaya, and they had already established he wouldn't do the latter.

Izaya was always so good at pointing out the flaws in Shizuo's way of thinking. He would feel guilty at choosing someone else - he was still there, talking as though compelled, stuck, even wanting. Still, he forced himself to think, hard and quickly, to retort to -

"You don't want me to replace you." But this was trudging on dangerous ground, too close to the discussion of need, and Shizuo thought about what Zelda had said. About how he had looked happy, chasing Izaya.

Shizuo didn't want to replace him, either.

Mess. One big convoluted mess, and Izaya was screwing it up even more, talking about Raijin. Who cared about what happened then? It was so long ago.

"All I remember is hating you."

But noticing came first.

"Well I can't do them anymore, Shizu-chan. Not in Vatheon," Izaya said and gave the blond a look to suggest that he was an idiot for thinking otherwise. Now that much was true. Before, Izaya had been waiting for the right time to break apart Shizuo. But now that they were relocated to a place where his brother wasn't around or anyone else who mattered and Shizuo didn't have a job...Then there wasn't much for Izaya to needle in and destroy. Except for maybe Shizuo's emotional well-being and any shred of self-esteem that he had.

Izaya jerked back at the blunt accusation and instantly pressed back against the tree. Damn it. He loathed how Shizuo made him react. He hated how much he showed and felt around the bastard. No one else could crack into him but Shizuo could. Just like he could tear up under Shizuo's skin, the blond did a pretty damn good job of repaying the favor. Izaya tsk'd in annoyance and glared at Shizuo from the corner of his eye.

He didn't deny it.

He simply didn't acknowledge it.

Although Shizuo's words made Izaya grimace yet again. He huffed and bent down to snatch up his tea. He twisted the lid off and sipped at the green tea, staring coolly at Shizuo while he did so. He still had a full bottle of tea left. The liquid sloshed around in the glass bottle and then Izaya removed it from his mouth.

"I just remember being instantly interested in you. It was hard not to notice a tall, blond boy walking in among a bunch of short, ugly boys, don't you think? Heh. I just didn't think you'd notice me so quickly! Ah, you were so violent. Hey, hey, did you scar?" he asked, curious, and reached a finger out and put it directly against Shizuo's chest at one point and then slid it over his chest to another- sliding right over where he remembered slicing Shizuo that first day. He had cut deep. And a part of him hoped to God he had scarred Shizuo. Give him a reminder every time he looked in the mirror shirtless of Izaya.

Maybe he was an idiot, but Shizuo was trying hard to grasp anything that would bother Izaya - anything that might make him react. Shizuo knew that he'd never be able to match the informant in wit and speech, but he clung to anything that might work. That look - hearing that he couldn't screw up his life now - it put Shizuo on a thought-loop back to thinking about his brother. He felt like hitting Izaya.

When Izaya reacted and pushed himself against the tree, it restored some of Shizuo's volatile control. That was what he wanted to see - that grimace.

But then Izaya opened and drank his tea like they were having a casual conversation. As though a pause were easy for him.

"Shut up," Shizuo growled, suddenly taking a step back, away from Izaya, feeling the need for space. He didn't want to reminisce about school, didn't want to hear what Izaya had to say about it. "I don't want to hear that." As Izaya traced that line across his chest, Shizuo grabbed his hand - technically holding it against his chest, though that wasn't the point - the point was to stop Izaya, to squeeze so that it hurt, feeling those fragile bones in his hand. He could crush them. He could...

He did have a scar, but it was faint. A thin line across his chest, faded with time, difficult to see in certain lighting. In fact, he had a number of small, indiscriminate scars from Izaya, which he acquired over the years - less from the way Izaya managed to catch him and more from lack of proper cleaning and care. Shizuo was stronger and more tolerant of pain than most men, but he wasn't invincible. He could be marked.

He didn't say any of this. He just let go of Izaya's hand, tired of the game.

"I'm done. I don't want to see your face anymore."

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