Touch and Go

The First Visit

Izaya stares out the window at the boring world laid out before him. What a drag, having to wile away his time behind these glass bars in chains of blankets with the guards in blue nurse uniforms there to remind him just how feeble he is. His life is dull, so much so he contemplates ending it on a daily basis. Though suicide is so often committed by the confused or the cowardly he feels it's his duty to stay alive just to show them how moronic they are. You should only kill yourself if you want to die and most suicidal people don't. He doesn't either really. The humans of this world are too entertaining to leave it behind. 

Entertaining humans like this one, Shinra Kishitani who sits by his beside on his thrice-weekly visit. "How's work going?" Izaya asks his best friend. Like the others here, Izaya uses stories to mentally escape this prison of the wheelchair. Stories he manipulates and spreads like a virus to cause havoc across the city from the safty of his bed. Though he does miss being part of the action sometimes. 

"Huh? Work is going okay, I keep getting called to help out the victims of some maniac!" Shinra emits a little gasp from his throat. 

"Maniac, hm?" Izaya smirks slyly. This could be fun, he needs all the information about this. He's getting involved one way or another, just try and stop him. 

"Yeah! He's been attacking members of the Yellow Scarves gang with a stop sign!" 

"Is that right?" it amuses Izaya how truly unpredictable most humans are. 

"Oh, I think you know him actually!" Shinra declares with jubilance. It doesn't take much to make this human smile, one of the reasons Izaya likes him so much. "Shizuo Hewajima, we went to middle school together!" 

"He must not have been very memorable," Izaya frowns. He has no recollection of this person, especially when Shinra describes him as a blonde in a crisp bartender suit, fitted in all the right places. While unfamiliar, such a human sounds particularly entrancing. "Tell you what, why don't we go into the city together this weekend? You can show me him in the flesh," 

"That's a great idea!" Shinra agrees. "Sounds like fun!" 

Fun, maybe, But not at all necessary as the new temp nurse arrives. 

~~~

If you kill someone, you must be willing to die yourself. That sentence is the deciding factor on Shizuo's entire life. That gang were being dicks, therefore... they must be willing to take a stop sign to the face. That's not his fault, it's simply derivative. The court disagreed, which is the reason he's stuck here, grumbling by the reception desk of this... what did they call this dump again? Oh yeah, 'supported accommodation for disabled adults'. It's a fucking care home. 

"Here's you uniform," the smiling assistant hands him his clothes. What do you got to be fucking happy about, huh? He asks in his head, but stops himself saying out loud. He needs to sign his hours off, after all. The judge thought giving him time serving 'vulnerable adults' might teach him some empathy. Fuck that. The last thing he needs is other people's bullshit feelings piling atop his own, just increasing the ever present intracranial pressure ready to squeeze his brain to death. 

Shizuo changes into the uniform, and he feels really stupid. "I better not have to give any of them a sponge bath," he grumbles. 

The lounge isn't much of a lounge at all. A bunch of random people playing cards or watching TV. Some with crutches, some in wheelchairs or breathing apparatus. Shifting uncomfortably, he asks one of the volunteers what he can do. A real task will make the time go by faster. 

"Go around the rooms, see if anyone needs help," 

Damn, he wanted a real task. Once away from the prying eyes of the volunteers in the lounge Shizuo lights up a quick smoke, blowing up into the ceiling. He awaits blaring alarms and red lighting but nothing comes. So much for empathy, people in wheelchairs live here and the fire alarm doesn't even work.