Where Is The Fire

Don't Call Me That

It's a little hard to write a good fanfic without getting too OOC I've noticed🙃

-Arikesona

Chapter 7
Izaya

Izaya watched Shizuo leave. It had been a long day for both of them, and the memory of what Shinra had told him hours before was still lingering in his mind. He didn't know when that piece of information would fade away like dust in the wind. Izaya was afraid; no, he was terrified. There was no way he could even imagine dying by forgetting how to breathe. He didn't want to go that way.

Izaya reached to pull out his phone when he remembered what Shinra had told him.

"Really? Because that looks like a sad, old tube of toothpaste that's been through a lot."

Was his phone really a tube of toothpaste all along?

In fact, where was he? Was this place where he was born? Izaya remembered nothing before the room he woke up in and the building he was living in now, so it was a possibility.

Who was he before he woke up? He knew he was an information broker and he knew he had a thing for Shizuo Heiwajima. That he could tell before he got to know him; the emotions he felt and the escalation of his heart rate didn't lie.

The old me must've been pathetic. Shizuo doesn't know that I liked him before my memory less...what kept me from telling him?

There was so much turmoil in the informant's mind that he decided to go out and about for a breath of fresh air. With ease, he reached for him wheelchair and pulled himself into it. The past him must have been awfully athletic for him to be able to get himself from a bed to a wheelchair using only his upper body strength.

Wheeling out into the hallway, he saw things he hasn't remembered taking notice to. A middle-aged man sat on a bench and stared open mouthed into the other side of the wall. A young lady about the age of 18 stood with her back against the wall and sang a soft lullaby.

Where was this place?

Izaya decided to take matter into his own hands. When no one was looking, he grabbed a small handheld cellphone from a nurse's pocket, surprisingly stealthily. Wheeling away, he began searching the Internet, plugging in the words he saw and described around him. "White uniforms. Memory loss. Strict nurses. Hourly visits. Nearby."

Izaya closed the door to his room and read the results on the small glowing screen.

The Ikebukuro Home for the Mentally Impaired...?

Izaya froze. Mentally impaired. As in for crazy people? The loony bin? He didn't belong with these people. The cellphone fell out of his hand and made a sharp and brittle noise as it hit the ground. His head started ringing and pulsing. It felt like his brain was growing larger, much too large for his skull, and trying to escape. Izaya grasped the side of his head and groaned in pain. Slipping out of his wheelchair, he fell next to the phone, still glowing in the dark room.

Groups of nurses flooded his room and picked him up, a flutter of noises and hands and panic in the air.

Izaya blacked out.

•••

The informant woke to the sound of a door slamming hard into the wall.

"Where is he?"

A familiar voice...Shinra? That one doctor....

Shinra walked over to Izaya, eyes filled with hope.

"Izaya, hey, do you remember me? I'm Shinra!"

"Yeah, I remember you," Izaya mumbled. "You told me I was going to die, didn't you."

"Oh good, you even remember that," Shinra laughed. "That's a great sign, Izaya, and I have some other news too! It turns out that because you finally had a physical reaction to your memory loss, the doctors said they could actually turn to neurosurgery to fix it! I don't really know the details yet but it put it in simple terms, there's a possibility you could get your memories back!"

Izaya's eyes lit up. If he could remember everything in his past he could get out of this "home for the mentally impaired." Where ever he lived before he could live again. He could visit Shizuo for a change.

"But," Shinra continued. "There is a dark side to this option. You could definitely die in the operation but since you would die without it anyway you might as well take the chance."

"All I know is that I don't want to die and if there's a possibility I could live then I'll take any chance I can get."

"Good," Shinra beamed. He handed Izaya a small stack of papers. "Just fill these out to confirm and permit the surgery. The doctors couldn't find any other family member of yours except for two underage girls. Hardly of the age to make a life or death decision."

After a few days, it was finally time for the surgery. Shizuo had come to visit Izaya at the same time everyday but hadn't been informed about Izaya's chance. If it was a success, Izaya had a plan to rush over to Shizuo's apartment to surprise him with his change.

Izaya sat in a cold metal chair, his head secured tightly. Blinding lights shone down on him and many doctors lingered on the room preparing for the procedure. Around him, the informant spotted many machines whose function was unknown. The walls were blank and the floor was covered with a smooth white metal.

Suddenly, the doors to the operation room slammed open and Shizuo Heiwajima stormed inside.

"How dare you, you stupid fleabag?!"

Izaya was dumbfounded.

"What?"

Shizuo walked towards the informant and knelt in front of him.

"How could you not tell me you were getting brain surgery? There's a chance you can die..."

"I would've died anyway...I'm sorry for not telling you. But my memories would've kept gradually fading until eventually-"

"Eventually you'd forget how to breathe..." Shizuo finished.

It was uncanny how similar Shizuo's reaction was to Izaya's.

"Yeah..."

Shizuo stood, expressionless. Then, he smiled down at him.

"Come visit me when you get outta here, whether or not it kills you."

"Of course."

Shizuo was on his way out the door when Izaya shot out the words he had longed to shout out for weeks, words he decided would be suitable as last words.

"I love you, Shizuo!"

Shizuo stopped and turned his head.

"Dumbass," he chuckled. "Don't call me that. Call me Shizu-chan."

"Okay! Then, I love you, Shizu-chan."

The bartender smiled and with that, he closed the door behind him.

"Are you ready Mr. Orihara?" A doctor in a teal uniform and mask leaned over him. "We're going to give you the anesthesia now, okay?"

Izaya nodded and a large mask was placed over his nose and mouth. As quickly as it was set, Izaya's vision grew fuzzy.

Shizu-chan...