Touch and Go

The Third Visit

Soo this blew up on AO3 in the 2 days it's been on which means lotsa chapters quickly. 

"Shizu~Chan!" Izaya announces Shizuo's return sultry, excited voice. The bartender glances down at him with an irked frown, setting the coffee on the table with hands so tense they're shuddering. 

"The name's Shizuo Hewajima," he states tersely, not minding the spitting hatred in his voice. "You wanted to go into Ikebukoro? With me?" his voice only confusion now. Traces of anger vanished behind the incredulity of someone voluntarily spending time with him. All he does is drive people away, that's his trademark. Yet Izaya is immune to whatever infectious pathogens make up his toxic personality. Maybe becasue he mirrors that toxicity. 

"Yes, I think it'll be fun don't you?" 

"Oh, we'll be going in that case," Shinra smiles pleasantly down at them as he stands up, Celty following. 

"You aren't coming with us?" 

Both of us have work to do, Celty politely declines, slipping an arm into her boyfriend's, her other hand across his waist in his lab coat pocket. Shinra gives Izaya a wink over his shoulder as they leave. 

Left in silence, Izaya feels compelled to break it with a clap. Silence is the enemy of the curious. Deprivation of an entire sense's worth of potential information! "I'll need to choose a coat - it's cold out there. Would you come and help me?" 

"Why?" behind his sunglasses, Shizuo's eyes narrow in suspicion. 

"I require your expertise - you're a sharply dressed gentleman after all," Izaya wheels himself into the corridor, down to his room. Shizuo wonders why he doesn't get an electric scooter. It'd be easier for the small man to get around. It must hurt his arms to push himself forward like that. 

Izaya pulls open the doors to reveal the consternate closet housing the most outrageously abhorrent fashion choices Shizuo's ever seen. Several black and dark coats each boasting their own style. Some long, some cropped. Some adorned in metal buckles and sleeves cuffed with fur matching that lining the hood. "Which one do you like best?" 

"They're all horrible," Shizuo crosses his arms indignantly, a hand instinctively making its way to his lip. He rests his chin on his wrist as if in contemplation. Really he's desperate for a smoke. Izaya watches closely which coat he looks at the most, just which one his eyes naturally land on. One of his least bold designs, plain black, thin but thick material with the odd silver button. One he considers boring but Shizuo hates it the least. The first step to love is hating less, right? 

"Can you get that one down for me?" Izaya points to it. He can't reach the bar. 

It's only now Shizuo realises the power he has over his man. Izaya is entirely dependant on him in this scenario. It should excite him, instead it saddens him. Izaya isn't one you naturally pity. Even now he can't pity him. He just seems so strong on his own way, yet he can't even get his own coat. Shizuo reaches up and hands it down to him, which he slides on over the thin V-neck, which had also has several of in this closet, stuffed at the bottom. He would never pity Izaya, but he does feel sympathy for him in this moment. 

The train to Ikebukoro is a new experience for both. Neither have previously paid attention to the old rattling cars and screeching wheels when the brakes hit at stations. Yet today their sense are heightened, absorbing each and every little detail. On the walls of the train cars brown sludge stains the metal. Shizuo stares at it to stop himself staring at Izaya as he contemplates him. Izaya represents everything he hates about the world. Unfounded claims of overconfidence and smug manipulation of the mind. Lies and facades forming a false personality.