Chapter Text
Izaya doesn’t have friends.
Yes he often draws people to himself, but he drives them away just as quickly. As he moves from Elementary School into Middle School, Izaya does so alone. There are no tearful goodbyes with friends because he doesn’t have any. Izaya strikes fear in the hearts of those around him, he doesn’t exactly invite companionship.
And at the outset of middle school, as he discovers his love for humans and the existence of his own emotions, Izaya fully expects this to remain the same. He loves humanity as a whole, he doesn’t want or need anything closer. If he’s being perfectly honest with himself, the idea of opening up to another individual, a tenant of what seems like most friendships that he’s observed, is entirely horrible.
If there’s one thing his life has taught him, it’s that opening up and revealing just who he really is only ever brings him grief. No, Izaya has more important things to do than invite any possible complications into it.
He’s still working with the city’s underworld when he heads into middle school, more so than ever actually, keeping most of it on the down low simply for convenience's sake. Those who need to know who he is do, but Izaya’s not quite ready to get that kind of reputation. He’s got this thought in his head that at some point, he might be able to take this information trading and turn it into a legitimate line of work. As an informant if you will.
But then his admittedly lonely days at the pristine middle school begin and Izaya puts those lofty goals on a back burner so he can focus more on bringing this new place into line, right under his thumb where they belong. It’s a highly detestable aim but Izaya knows deep down it’s because he loves his humans and he doesn’t want to see them stray to far from the flock.
Much better to let him pull the strings than to wander around aimlessly after all.
Because of this self made task, Izaya doesn’t bother looking for people to talk to or, for that matter, people to be friends with. He ignores everyone.
But that doesn’t mean that everyone ignores him.
The boy is far too happy, with glasses that slip down his nose a bit and hair that falls in his eyes, Izaya doesn’t much care for him. He’s a human so Izaya figures he’s probably amusing, but that doesn’t mean he has to enjoy being approached like this.
“Hey, you! Want to join the Biology club?”
Izaya can’t even start to think of a response before the boy is amending his own question.
“I mean do you want to start one.”
The notion of starting a club or even joining one sounds like utter nonsense. Izaya’s got far better things to do with his time than a silly club. He thinks about the important meeting he has later that evening and decides that really, even this conversation isn’t worth his time.
“Sorry,” Izaya says, keeping his tone neutral. “But I’m not interested.”
He doesn’t understand why someone would ask him something like that, but it’s taken care of so Izaya walks off. Of course the boy follows but Izaya has two sisters and he’s very very good at ignoring people.
Nevertheless, the boy hurries to keep up.
“You don’t have to be interested, okay?”
It’s an utterly stupid statement but Izaya’s already just simply assuming that everything that comes from this boy’s mouth will be stupid in some way so he’s unsurprised.
“Let’s start one! A Biology Club!”
The repeated insistence almost manages to irk Izaya, but he’s not easily perturbed so he simply sighs.
“Kishitani, was it?”
Izaya drags the name from earlier in the day when he heard it. He’s not not interested in this human, but he’s got too much stress currently on his shoulders to deal with him. But that’s being unfair so he attempts to pull whatever impatience he might be showing back in.
“You can call me Shinra!” the boy announces excitedly before pausing and looking confused. Izaya wants to equate him to a puppy, but somehow, he looks to maniacal for that. “Um… Sorry,” he apologizes, laughing awkwardly. “What was your name again?”
Izaya’s feathers ruffle. This boy, Shirna, wants him to be part of a club but he can’t even remember his name? Oh he’ll remember it now, is what Izaya thinks as he answers the question.
“I’m Izaya Orihara.”
It almost sounds benign.
Shinra claps his hands together in delight as if this is the best day of his life. If Izaya were so inclined to think things like this, he would have called it adorable. But he isn’t and so he doesn’t.
“Oh, yeah, right!” he effuses. “Orihara, right?”
When Izaya doesn’t answer, Shinra continues on regardless. It leaves Izaya wondering if perhaps he could just leave and Shinra would be satisfied with talking to himself.
“I’m going to call you Orihara, but you can call me Shinra, okay?”
Izaya sighs, unsure why this conversation has gone on as long as it has but ready for it to end. He doesn’t want to join a club and he wants Shinra to leave him alone but apparently, it’s not that easy.
“Why would you ask me to start a Biology Club with you when you don’t even know my name?” Izaya points out reasonably.
“Because of what the teacher just said!” Shinra exclaims, proving beyond a shadow of a doubt that logic is not going to win in this situation. As if that fact were even up for debate...
When Izaya gives him a blank look, Shinra hurries to explain, “At this school, you can start a club with two people or more.”
And for whatever reason, he wants me? Izaya finds it patently ridiculous, so he says as much.
“No, what I’m saying is, why me?”
Shinra grins stupidly and Izaya already dislikes the answer that’s coming. He might have only spent a few minutes with Shinra but he can already tell that the boy is actually really smart and potentially a force to be reckoned with. Or he’s at least smart enough to trap someone who isn’t watching. So he waits for Shirna to drop some sort of bomb on him that’ll leave him flabbergasted.
But he doesn’t, he simply asks, “Well, you like observing living creatures, don’t you?”
Whatever Izaya’s expecting, this isn’t it.
“That’s what you said when you introduced yourself, right?” Shirna insists. “That you liked observing all kinds of living creatures.”
Failing to see the train of thought that brought them to this, Izaya tilts his head to the side. “And that leads us to a biology club how?”
Shinra’s eyes light up, like he’s got a trump card that he’s about to play.
“Humans are living creatures too!”
After spending a moment blinking at Shinra, Izaya remembers that he’s supposed to be online talking to a contact. Turning, effectively cutting off any further conversation, Izaya calls back, “Like I said, I’m not interested in starting a Biology Club.”
“I see,” Shinra sighs, and Izaya’s distinctly relieved that he’s not going to be pestered anymore.
”Then it can’t be helped.”
Wait, what?
“I’m going to ask you again tomorrow, alright!”
Shinra Kishitani. He doesn’t confuse Izaya, encouraging further investigation, so much as pester him into giving in. Of course Izaya will say till he’s blue in the face that he did it all for his own benefit but sometimes he has to wonder if Shinra simply won out through pure attrition. The boy is very persistent after all.
When he first meets this curious creature, he goes about things like he always does. Carefully and methodically, gathering information where he can and using it as he sees fit. Except Shinra isn’t exactly quiet so already all of Izaya’s skills are basically rendered useless. Izaya doesn’t know what to make of it, other than to stick around.
He likes to babble, Izaya discovers within the first week of knowing him. Shirna can talk for hours given the opportunity and does. Like Izaya, he’s naturally curious, but his studies take him in a very different direction from Izaya so the boy doesn’t bother trying to equate the two. Unlike Izaya however, Shinra apparently never learned to keep his mouth shut about his observations.
The result is an admittedly interesting, if rather continuous, stream of concious that Izaya dedicates an embarrassing amount of his mind to listening to. Not only does Shinra know a lot, he has a lot to offer. This Izaya seizes on. It gives him an excuse to stick around.
His father is a scientist. Izaya doesn’t really care about that though, what he does care about are the man’s strong ties to various underground organizations. Seeing as Shinra hears things and doesn’t have a filter through which that potentially sensitive information would be stopped by, Izaya gets to learn things. Most of the time of course is spent listening to useless drabble but Izaya’s strangely not all that averse to it.
Shinra likes to talk about everything, but he obsesses over only two as far as Izaya can tell.
The first is something Izaya can almost relate to. Taking after his father, Shinra loves to conduct experiments. Of course his aren’t illegal yet, but Izaya can only assume it’s going to get there in the future. Most of these tests are rather normal, but the boy wants to do them on humans which is where things start getting a little tricky. Not that Izaya cares. He likes the idea of having a mad scientist around, no matter how many times Shinra asks if he can inject him with this or that chemical.
And while Izaya’s interest in humans stems from his love of them, he can definitely relate to Shinra’s desire to figure out what makes them tick. In this way, they almost have something in common.
But that’s where the similarities, in Izaya’s mind, end.
The other obsession of Shinra’s is Celty, a supposedly headless woman who Shirna is madly in love with. Izaya has to roll his eyes at this. He thinks Shirna is insane for letting love control his mind so completely, especially when it’s so clearly obsession more than anything, but Shinra is not easy dissuaded. And really, Izaya doesn’t try very hard.
Maybe it’s because it’s this one particular point that makes Shinra so interesting. Most humans claim to like a fair number of other humans, just on principle or they delude themselves into hating them. Shinra is neutral to the world. Whereas Izaya loves all humans, it could be said that Shinra loves none of them. He watches them through the lense of a microscope or the glass of a test tube and that’s really the extent of his feelings towards humans.
Perhaps this is why he puts up with Izaya, no matter how morally detestable some of the things he does are. He doesn’t care how Izaya makes his money, he doesn’t care how the boy finds entertainment. To a certain level, he doesn’t even care that Izaya’s clearly observing him like he’s a specimen of sorts which honestly does confuse Izaya.
Most people care about that sort of thing.
So when the gambling ring starts, Izaya actually has a purpose for it, not that he’ll ever admit this is what his purpose is. He’ll tell anyone who asks that he wants money and power but the simple fact is, he already has those things. Izaya doesn’t need anymore blackmail because he already possesses the ability to destroy almost everyone in the school with just a word. It also isn’t as he claims, a way to examine how easily humans can be lead into destructive vices which can then be used to control them.
Those are, naturally, perfectly good reasons. But Izaya actually wants to see if he can make Shinra dislike him. Prove to Izaya that the boy is actually just like everyone else. Except he doesn’t hate Izaya. He’s upset, understandably, but he never actually abandons Izaya. This is perhaps the most perplexing thing of all.
Izaya doesn’t have friends, but he’s doing a piss poor job of driving Shinra away.
But as the situation develops, Izaya’s forced to question whether or not he actually wants to drive Shinra away at all. Because for whatever else you can say about the boy, Shinra is different and Izaya, who’s been spending the last several years striving to treat all humans equally, finds that this throws a wrench in his system.
From what Izaya can see, the most obvious example of this is the fact that he still hasn’t tried to manipulate Shinra in any way. Izaya doesn’t for a moment doubt that he could he just sees no reason to. And this is entirely strange because Izaya’s relationships with the world have come to be built on manipulation. Shinra is the only exception.
Mostly, this is because Izaya has a strong feeling that attempting to control Shirna would be pointless. He could do it, but all it would result in is the same thing that just asking would produce. In this instance, Izaya sees nothing to be gained. And though this usually wouldn't stop him, it stops him here.
Despite Izaya not really looking for friends, he’s found companionship and though he tells himself he doesn’t care, the day everything comes to a head, he acts like he does. It’s not even a conscious decision, Izaya just moves.
Or rather, Shinra moves and Izaya simply acts afterwards.
“Orihara!”
“Oh, is that you Nakura?” Izaya stares at the boy in the door of the classroom and twirls his fingers playfully. “We’ve closed all bets you know?”
The boy is upset about the amount of debts he’s accumulated through Izaya’s gambling ring. Izaya doesn’t exactly care how he feels, in fact, he’s having fun watching this human crumble before him. Later, he’ll admit that he should have been a little bit more attentive to what was going on, it’s his fault it happened.
“Hey… Please…” He’s begging, Izaya’s always enjoyed watching people beg. There’s something highly satisfying in watching a human prostrate themselves willingly. “The money I bet till yesterday… Give it back to me, I’m in trouble!”
He looks like he’s in trouble, not that Izaya is bothered. The look on Nakura’s face is so entertaining, Izaya can hardly resist.
“Unless I get it back my dad’s gonna find out that I took money from his wallet…” Nakura babbles, shaking as he speaks. Izaya just smiles slightly, sweetly almost. Except it’s so many kinds of twisted that only a fool would think it’s sincere.
“You only have yourself to blame, don’t you?”
And though Izaya doesn’t care when it happens, he’s definitely not okay.
Shinra is in the back of the empty classroom they use for their club when the boy shows up. Izaya never expects him to so much as turn around. After all, Shinra doesn’t care about Izaya, that fact’s already been established. All he cares about is his ‘beloved’ and his research and the second one’s sort of iffy. Intervention is out of the question as far as Izaya’s concerned.
“I never once forced you to place any bets, you know!” Izaya lilts.
Then Nakura draws a knife and Izaya’s smirk widens as he reaches for a stool, just in case he has to fend the boy off.
“Are you serious Nakura?” Izaya asks, trying to sound disappointed but failing miserably. He’s so delighted to be getting such a reaction, he can hardly help it. Finally, he gets to indulge in some choice entertainment, watching a human fall apart.
“Hand it over, I said hand it over!”
The blade in Nakura’s hand shakes. Izaya’s not scared. There’s no way for this to backfire on him.
“To be honest-” Izaya starts, ignoring Nakura’s loud wail of give it back! “I don’t see any value in giving that money back to you. I know all about it.” He smirks yet wider, so happy to be getting to use this information against the fellow student. “You’ve followed people who won several times, right? We’ve been getting complaints.”
“Never mind that!” Nakura yells. “Give it back! Give it back!”
How pathetic…
As the man charges, Izaya simply states, “You really are a moron.”
He would have avoided the blade just fine is what he tells himself in an attempt to make Shinra’s actions out to be pathetic and reckless. Izaya would never have done something like that for someone else after all, self-sacrifice is one of the stupidest things to exist in his mind and who, in Izaya’s mind, is worth of his sacrifice anyway?
“Wait-!”
He doesn’t care about the knife, but Shirna does.
The boy gets between Izaya and the angered student. Izaya doesn’t even have time to react before Shinra’s falling to the floor, blood soaking the front of his jacket. But Izaya doesn’t have time to act stunned, never even bothers because well, he isn’t, how dare someone suggest that he didn’t see this coming. Instead he just looks at the idiotic boy who dared to draw a knife on him and then proceeded to stab someone who wasn’t even part of the discussion with all the rage and fire that he never shows.
Izaya’s anger is a quiet anger. It’s not even really anger, it’s just the promise that he’s going to make this student’s life hell, not just for his time at school, but forever. It’s stupid and it’s vengeful and it’s not like him at all but as damning words drip through Izaya’s mind and the student runs from the room, he realizes that it doesn’t matter because it’s Shinra and that has started to mean something.
As Shirna falls to the ground, Izaya finally moves. “Hang on, I’ll call for an ambulance!” His voice isn’t shaking, Izaya’s voice doesn’t shake. He just shuts off that stupid part of himself and goes back into a logical frame of mind. He has to deal with this, he has to stay calm. It’s only a human, they’re highly replaceable.
“Before you do that, duct tape…” Shirna manages, smiling for whatever goddamned reason that Izaya will never understand. “For now… I have to stop the bleeding…”
As he helps Shinra staunch the worst of the bleeding because damnit he’s not going to let the boy die and then as he’s calling the ambulance, Izaya’s thinking. He’s good at this part, like this, he doesn’t have to worry about Shinra because he’s already working through how he’s going to turn this around. How best to get revenge.
He’s not like this, but right at that moment, he realizes that he’s good at it. Izaya is naturally patient and he’s willing to take his time to achieve the maximum effect.
“Let me take the blame for it.” He phrases it like a request but he’s not going to take no for an answer. Shinra lets him, wonder of all wonders, and Izaya’s distinctly glad. This is going to be easier than he at first thought. It’ll be worth it in the end too because someday, he’s going to be able to haunt that student, Nakura, forever.
It’s amazing how easily people swallow the story. No one ever questions whether Izaya actually was the one who hurt Shinra because there was no doubt in their minds that he could and would do it anyway. Once again, Izaya’s parents don’t care. They pretend to, they act like they are upset but they aren’t. Izaya’s sisters think he’s disgusting for it, which in Izaya’s mind means they at least care enough to hate him for being so morally detestable.
Shinra knows the truth and once he’s back from the hospital, he goes right back to Izaya. Everyone thinks he’s crazy. Hell, Izaya thinks he’s crazy, but he’s almost happy to have that mildly irritating occasionally amusing presence back in his life. Nakura fades into obscurity just as Izaya hoped he would, living in fear of the truth coming out.
The rest of the school just stays away. When it happens, Izaya tells himself that he’s not really doing this because of Shinra, that’s all just a cover, it’s really because he wants to make others fear him. And if that’s what he’s going for then it’s working. Everyone who walks by him looks at him with fear in their eyes. They keep their heads down and speak in hushed voices. Unless Izaya speaks to them, then they babble like children who are afraid of a beating.
It’s what he’s wanted for a long time, a reputation as someone not to be trifled with. Even the teachers fear him, even they cave under his crafty tongue and the rumors that precede him. It couldn’t have worked out better.
And as he watches children cower in fear around him, Izaya tells himself that this is what he wanted. He doesn’t care that everyone hates him or is terrified of him. Because he never wanted friends in the first place. The whole thing with Shinra is just a fluke, one Izaya’s not going to repeat. Any relationships he forms thus far will be as superficial as possible. He doesn’t need deep connections, he just needs his humans to see him as the god he is.
Shinra’s not a friend, sometimes Izaya wonders if he’s even human, but Izaya realizes that he’d really miss the boy if he weren't around.
And that’s as close to human as Izaya’s willing to get.