Chapter Text
“Are you going to spend the entire night staring at your phone? You finally get invited out for once in your life; you’d think you’d make better use of what might be the only opportunity you’ll ever get to pretend people can stand to be around you,” Namie sneered. It wasn’t the first comment of that nature she’d made that evening, but it was certainly the most direct.
Izaya let his mouth stretch into an easy smile as he continued to flick through a chat log on his phone, almost not deigning to answer at all. “Why, Namie, could it be that you’re lonely without me? You’d better get used to it. I won’t be around to hold your hand forever.” He flicked his eyes up at the mass of young bodies around them, some moving to the music, some standing stationary, getting in the way, many holding drinks of what he had earlier ascertained to be some sad excuse for punch that had been spiked early on in the night, the results of which could be observed in some of the room’s darker corners if one cared to look. He was momentarily distracted by the sight, but soon regained his train of thought, his attention snagging on a likely suspect. “You’re certainly not lacking for attention. That man’s retinas may as well be attached to your breasts permanently considering how long he’s been staring.”
He caught Namie’s scowl out of the corner of his eye, saw her struggle not to turn and fail, apparently locating someone of the sort actually looking at her or caught up enough in his description and her own ego to believe it without needing visible proof because her expression transformed into something of a snarl. “Fine. I’ve wasted enough energy on you tonight already,” she snapped and stalked off into the crowd which quickly swallowed up her retreating form.
Izaya’s grin grew momentarily. She was frightfully easy to play with, something that had at first been amusing to him but now was growing somewhat tiresome. Izaya Orihara preferred a challenge, and neither Namie nor any of the other students at his most recent school had provided anything close to his standards. Luckily, his parents moved his family around so often that there was always next year. Sighing, he pressed the power button on his phone, drawing his eyes back up to the noise and heat of the party around him. He supposed he could at least take a look around the room. Who knew what interesting things he might find? As irritating as Namie was, she had a point. It wasn’t like he attended such mundane little functions very often.
Lithely getting to his feet, he stretched, tucking his phone into his pocket and starting off across the room.
*
“Shizuo…” The sudden voice in the quiet of the gym caused the other boy to jump, throwing off the trajectory of his shot and causing the basketball to go bouncing off across the court.
“Oh hey, Kasuka,” Shizuo greeted his brother, jogging off after the ball, his irritation at the interruption fading immediately after seeing who the voice belonged to. “What’s up?”
Kasuka’s eyes tracked his movements as he dribbled over. Basketball had never really been his thing—actually nothing had ever really been his thing—but Vorona had somehow talked him into joining a co-ed team she’d discovered right before break. She had a way of convincing him to do things he would never do otherwise that involved talking too quickly for him to follow and using such technical language that he ended up simply nodding along. Then he'd nodded his way unknowingly right into a spot on the team, apparently. He didn’t have the heart to tell her he really wasn’t interested when her face lit up after thinking he’d agreed. So, he’d been practicing over winter break the best that he could. His aim was still shit but if he could get up close enough he was tall enough that it was sort of hard to miss.
Maybe it would be fun, he kept suggesting to himself. Maybe he wouldn’t ruin it somehow. He really appreciated Vorona and he didn’t want to mess up their friendship over some stupid game. She’d insisted that the rest of the team was fairly easy-going though, so maybe that was a good sign. She’d also tried to explain all the rules and history of the game to him in ten minutes which hadn’t gone over too well. Shizuo knew all he figured he needed to know: You put the ball in the hoop and tried to keep the other guys away from it. Pretty simple.
So there he was, taking advantage of the fact that no one could stare at him while he practiced because they were all out partying or getting drunk or whatever people did on New Year’s Eve. He wasn’t really sure how his family had scraped up enough money to come to this fancy lodge in the first place, but he had been doing his best to keep his distance from people so his short temper wouldn’t get in the way of them enjoying their stay the best they could. He was surprised, then, that his brother had come all the way over just to talk to him.
“Did something happen?” he asked, his eyebrows drawing together.
“Nothing,” Kasuka said. “Just wanted to see what you were doing.”
Affection for the other boy swelled in his chest and Shizuo tried not to let it show on his face. Such simple reassurances of his brother’s concern always made him happy and embarrassed and surprised in equal parts. “Just shooting some hoops.” The words sounded weird on his tongue, so he hurried to move on from the statement. “You shouldn’t have come all the way over here just for me. You should be up there enjoying the party.”
“So should you,” Kasuka responded immediately. “It’ll be midnight soon.”
Shizuo frowned, looking away and tossing the ball between his hands a few times. “That’s fine. It’d probably be better if I stay here.”
Despite his refusal to meet the other’s eyes, Shizuo didn’t miss the way the corner of Kasuka’s mouth twitched down just slightly, almost as if in disappointment. Guilt bubbled up in his stomach, heavy as always when it came to his family. “Mom and Dad miss you.” A brief pause. “So do I.” Shizuo sighed, knowing where this was going. He couldn’t say no to his kid brother. “What if you came up for a few minutes? Just to do the countdown. Not too long.”
Yeah, right when everything would be the craziest and people would be the drunkest and everyone would be pushing and yelling and being generally obnoxious. Perfect. But Shizuo swallowed down his paranoia and tried to force his face into something more like begrudging agreement. “Well…just for a little bit, I guess.”
Kasuka’s lips twitched up slightly and he held up his hands so Shizuo would pass him the ball. “Sounds good.”
“I’ll clean up and then be over in a bit.” He’d been practicing for a while and the more he thought about it the more he could feel the sweat dripping down his skin. He really wasn’t in any state to be going to some party, nor did he have any desire to be doing so, but he forced himself to start walking off toward the showers anyway.
*
So far the party was as ordinary as Izaya expected it would be. He’d seen a few mildly interesting things, overheard a couple choice conversations, but had ultimately decided he was better off observing from the side after all. He could hardly see much when he was being shoved around in the crowd, most of which had bunched up around a stage when the lodge started up a game of karaoke. As much as Izaya enjoyed humans, he wasn’t as much a fan of their vocal abilities.
He was beginning to slip back over to where he’d been sitting before, keeping an eye out for Namie along the way when he was suddenly blinded by a bright light.
Bringing a hand up, he tried to shield his eyes, wondering if he’d perhaps been caught in someone’s ill-timed photographic endeavor. But the light stream appeared to be continuous and an explanation was soon offered by the overly-loud voice of the announcer who had been emceeing the karaoke thus far.
Meanwhile, Shizuo found himself caught in a similar predicament. He’d made himself as presentable as he could before slouching up to the lounge where Kasuka said he’d been spending his time. The party was in full-swing by the time he arrived, so luckily no one paid any attention to his entrance. Unfortunately, the noise of it all was almost ear-splitting and he was immediately knocked into only seconds after he’d stepped into the room. He’d managed to step away, trying to scan the room to find Kasuka or maybe his parents when he was also blinded by a spotlight.
“Looks like our next pair has been randomly selected! Come on up here, guys!”
Izaya frowned, stepping out of the beam. He had no desire to sing, no desire to pander to the arbitrary decisions of these people. He was not the observed, after all, but the observer. He was about to decline and make his exit when he caught sight of his supposed partner who looked far more irritated about this whole thing than he felt. It was clear that the other boy was handsome in a rough-edged sort of way, but it was the way his eyebrows pinched together so naturally and the way something in his eyes spoke of unknown danger that made Izaya reconsider.
He could tell the other had the same idea in mind he’d had a couple of seconds ago so he knew he needed to move fast. To his amusement the spotlight tracked him as he slipped through the crowd over to where the boy was standing, seemingly arguing with the emcee.
“No fucking way,” he was growling when Izaya finally stepped up next to him. He looks better close-up, Izaya noted idly. He also noted the way the boy’s hands were clenched into fists. Against what might have been his better judgement he reached over to grab onto his wrist.
The boy’s head snapped up, fixing him with so harsh a glare that he felt his face heat up slightly. He jerked his hand back as well, not particularly wanting it detached from his body which, he thought, was a perfectly reasonable possibility considering the venom in the other’s eyes when he flicked them down toward the point of contact. Pulling his expression and body back under his control, Izaya put on a faux-innocent tone. “What’s wrong? Don’t want to sing with me?”
“Who the hell are you?” the other boy growled.
Izaya grinned as if he were talking to an old friend. “You don’t have stage fright do you?” He began pacing back toward the stage and was gratified to see that the other followed him instinctively, matching him step for step. He couldn’t help but feel like he was being stalked by some sort of large predator, backing away as he was.
“What?” he demanded, his impressive rage fixed abruptly and entirely on Izaya. Meanwhile the crowd was parting for them, aiding Izaya’s cause a great deal. The other details blurred together as all his attention was drawn, inexplicably, to the boy opposite him.
“I said,” Izaya repeated sweetly, making sure to talk just slow enough to make it insulting. “Are you scared?”
“Like hell,” Shizuo snapped. He wasn’t sure what was going on, but he sure as hell wasn’t going to be talked down to by this irritating pretty-boy and his shit-eating smile. There was something in the way the other stood, the way he held himself, the way he talked that made it blatantly clear he thought himself better than everyone around him, especially Shizuo. All of his instincts were screaming that this kid was bad news, and they were rarely wrong. He knew he was worked up due to the ridiculous situation he’d found himself in, but he had a feeling even if he’d run into the guy at a grocery store he’d immediately feel like putting his fist through his face.
“Then what’s the hold up?” Izaya chanced a quick second of distraction where he broke eye contact so he could jump up onto the small stage. He offered his hand out the other boy as if he needed help up.
And Shizuo, much to his later chagrin, caught up in the moment, only growled under his breath and dragged himself up on stage next to the brat, ignoring his hand, only to find a microphone being shoved into his hands a few moments later. And, unfortunately, he was surprised enough that he held on to it.
Izaya was genuinely beaming then and accepted the microphone willingly. His heart hadn’t pounded so quickly in quite a long time. He watched with growing satisfaction as the other fumbled briefly with the microphone and jolted as the song began—some silly stupid love song: lovely—before fixing the intensity of his gaze on him once more. Izaya was so caught up in the fact he might have finally found what he was looking for that he almost forgot to start singing.
Shizuo couldn’t believe this was happening, but he figured it’d be even more embarrassing at this point if he didn’t sing, so he forced himself to read the lyrics on the screen and try to follow along with his voice. The song was equally as obnoxious as the boy singing next to him, overly happy and hopeful. Shizuo had a feeling that if he took his eyes off his “partner” he’d do something suspicious. The dark-haired boy kept getting too close, kept meeting his gaze like he was trying to challenge him to something, kept smirking the whole damn time, and Shizuo made sure to pin him down with his eyes for the entirety of the song in return.
He’d sort of hoped the other’s singing voice would be as annoying as his personality or his cocky expressions, but it was actually pretty nice. A little nasally maybe, but he carried the tune well and his tone was interesting enough to make it unique. It was over, surprisingly, before he knew it. He could hardly remember what happened it had gone by so fast. But some stagehands were stepping out to take the microphones back and the crowd seemed to have been okay with the performance, not that he really cared, and there was some weird rustling in his pocket and—
“Hey!” Shizuo spun to catch his little shit of a singing partner hightailing it off with his goddamn cellphone of all things. Rather than spending more time parsing words, he immediately began to chase after him, shoving through the crowd, some of which attempted to say something to him, until he was lead out onto a more scarcely populated balcony. The cold of the night immediately bit into his skin but he didn’t stop until he’d cornered the other boy up against the railing, bracketing him with his arms for good measure. “What the hell do you think you’re doing?”
Izaya blinked innocently back at him, smiling in a way that looked almost flirtatious. Shizuo, still hearing his blood rush in his ears, feeling the afterburn of adrenaline in his blood, already on edge, recoiled immediately when he felt cool, soft fingers trailing over his own. “You have a surprisingly nice singing voice. Nice and deep. I think we put on a pretty good show together, don’t you?”
Shizuo frowned deeper although the compliment caught him a bit off guard. “I don’t care. Just give me my phone back.”
“What phone?” Izaya asked, raising his eyebrows and making a show of looking around. “Did someone take it? That’s really too bad. Want me to help you look for it?”
“I know you have it. I felt you take it. Just give it back.” Shizuo stepped closer, attempting to intimidate the other who seemed to be immune to it his efforts, even going as far as to step forward so that they were far too close together again. He was pretty ballsy for being such a skinny little thing. Shizuo could see his bones pressing sharp through his skin in several places like they could cut through at any second. He sort of wondered what it’d be like to touch them.
“All in good time,” Izaya said, contradicting his earlier claims of innocence entirely and hardly seeming to care. “But first…” He extended a hand between them. A stray light caught off the silver of a ring on his pointer finger. “Izaya Orihara. Pleasure.”
Shizuo slapped his hand away. “I’m not about to introduce myself to a thief. Now give it. Back.”
Izaya made a show of pouting and flipping his hand to act as though he’d only stuck it out to observe his ring in the first place. “False accusations are nothing to be taken lightly, you know.”
Shizuo was beginning to think it really would be easier to just knock this kid out, devil take the hindmost, but was distracted before he could decide to go through with it by a sudden burst of sound from the crowd still gathering around them. He’d almost forgotten they were there, strangely enough. It seemed like they were counting down the last twenty seconds or so until the New Year finally arrived. Shizuo took a couple seconds to regret that this was how he was starting this new year out, his phone stolen, about to beat up some skinny douchebag to get it back, but he couldn’t think of much to do about it at the moment, so he wrenched his attention away from the obnoxious crowd only to find the other boy had slipped off in the meantime.
Growling in irritation, Shizuo turned away from the balcony even as fireworks began to go off outside, so many brilliant flashes of light drawing the other people in room toward him. He got caught up in the crowd for a good couple of agonizing minutes until he finally managed to escape, thankfully without causing much permanent damage to any of the other partygoers. At least with most of them in one place he could better scan the room.
He couldn’t believe the guy had actually robbed him and gotten away without even a scratch on his pretty face. The thought made him angry enough that he felt the sudden need to lash out at a wall or at least something that couldn’t fight back until he found him—and he would find him, even if it took all night—but was distracted again by a light tap on his shoulder.
Spinning around, he found himself face to face with the thief himself, dangling his cell phone between his thumb and forefinger right in front of him. He reached out and snatched it back, shoving it in his pocket without much thought at the moment. “What the fuck is wrong with you? I could report you to the staff.”
Izaya tilted his head to the side, blinking slowly at Shizuo, and smiled that lazy smile that made Shizuo’s blood boil. “For what? Finding your phone? Pretty nice of me to help a guy who isn’t even polite enough to introduce himself.”
Shizuo actually took a swing at him without thinking much about it. His fist moved without him telling it to do so, as was often the case, but he couldn’t help it. Someone needed to put this asshole in his place, and he would be happy to have the satisfaction of being the one to do it. To his surprise and irritation the other ducked the potential blow so easily they might as well have been doing a coordinated fight scene and smoothly enough to make it look like some kind of a dance. Shizuo ground his teeth and went to take another shot when he was blinded for a second time.
What a shitty night this was turning out to be. He knew he should have just stayed in the gym.
After blinking the light from his eyes, he realized Izaya had seemingly taken a photo of him with his own cell phone and was already tucking it back away in his pocket. At that point the crowd was trickling back in from the balcony weaving around and between the two of them without much thought. Izaya snickered at Shizuo’s expression. “Now I can remember this night forever. Happy New Year, Shizu-chan!” he called, dropping an obnoxiously obvious wink before he disappeared into the crowd like smoke.
It happened so quickly Shizuo took a few seconds to react, and by the time he did Izaya was nowhere to be found. Shizuo couldn’t remember the last time he’d felt so furious. His heart was pounding up into his throat, and his limbs shook with excess energy. He scoured the room a while longer, stalking around and scaring some lingering partygoers, but eventually had to cut his losses.
That asshole—Izaya Orihara, he remembered—was gone. He huffed irritably, slumping up against a wall and deciding he ought to head back to find his family. At least he’d gotten his phone back at all. It wasn’t until he was brushing his teeth that night that he realized what exactly was wrong with Izaya’s farewell, other than its existence in entirety.
I never told him my name.
It took Shizuo even longer to find that the gaudy prick had had the gall to take a picture of himself with Shizuo’s phone, earning him a few strange glances from Kasuka when he’d only been trying to flip through and find a picture he’d taken a few months ago. It was promptly deleted but Shizuo’s blood sizzled for hours afterwards.
At least I’ll never have to see him again, he mused, bending to tie his shoe as he got ready for basketball practice. The relief was enough to calm him for a brief time afterwards, making it almost as if he’d forgotten his first meeting with Izaya Orihara ever happened.
*
Izaya himself was not so quick to let go, but he had other things to worry about than Shizuo Heiwajima, as he’d discovered the other boy’s name was. The possibility of them ever meeting again was slim, especially when he discovered that his family was moving yet again that week, in the middle of the year no less. He sometimes wondered what went on his parents’ minds. He’d be entering Raijin Academy soon and while past memories were sweet, even they began to fade in midst of so much commotion.