"If you don't want to fight then you should run."

[knkfics]

A/N: Hee. I really like this chapter. Everyone is in fine form. XD

Chapter Ten

By the time Izaya was heading back towards his office, his good mood had faded somewhat. He attributed this mostly to the fact that the painkillers were wearing off. He never planned to admit that to anyone, but he had done a lot of walking on his ankle that day, and a lot of typing with a broken hand. Shinra was probably right, he mused, and taking the splint off had been a terrible idea. But typing with the splint on had irritated him too much.

Celty’s head was now tucked away in a safety deposit box in a high-security bank. It was safer there than anywhere else he could think of, and he could retrieve it at any time. Izaya was physically, mentally, and emotionally exhausted, in addition to being sore and hungry. He decided to go home, order some takeout, and take a hot bath.

So when he found himself knocked on his ass by a trash can, he was not amused. What was worse was the way he automatically put his hand out to catch himself as he fell. His broken hand - still unsplinted, as he had never bothered to put it back on - collided hard with the pavement and immediately sent shockwaves of pain all the way up his arm. Izaya found himself unable to do anything for a few long moments other than lie on the ground, grit his teeth, and hope vaguely that he wasn’t in the road.

Shizuo followed not long after the trash can and looked down at Izaya. His head tilted like he didn't quite understand what he was seeing. "Huh."

“Rub it in,” Izaya said, fighting the urge to curl into fetal position and whimper. “Just stand there and gawk.”

Shizuo started to take a step back at the lack of normal cavalier attitude, but then he growled and stood his ground. "I didn't expect you to actually be damaged." He was having trouble remembering the last time he had ever managed to really hurt Izaya. This wasn't how things were supposed to work. Celty had told him that Izaya had been hurt, but it hadn’t really sunk in. Izaya didn’t get hurt, at least not in any way that he couldn’t just shake off.

After several deep breaths, Izaya managed to put away the pain and get back to his feet. At least his ankle was okay. “Well, you’re not the one who damaged me,” he said, with a light shrug. “So don’t think about it for another moment.”

Shizuo looked him up and down again. "Where's your jacket?" He looked wrong without it.

“Why’s everyone keep asking me about the damned jacket?” Izaya asked, though he already knew the answer. He just wanted to keep Shizuo calm and talking for a few moments while he caught his breath. As soon as he thought he could run without having to stop and puke from the pain, he was out of here. Hopefully that would be before Shizuo realized they were standing near a small park with all sorts of things he could uproot and throw.

Shizuo's eyes narrowed. "What's wrong with you?" This wasn't how things should work. Izaya was supposed to taunt and run. Shizuo was supposed to throw things and chase. He was supposed to be about burn off some of his aggression on him.

“Why, Shizu-chan,” Izaya said, “is that concern I detect in your voice? That’s sweet, but you don’t need to worry about me.”

Shizuo made another disgruntled noise and his hand closed around a nearby pole. "Don't call me that."

Izaya was starting to feel better about everything. Even the throbbing pain in his hand was fading a little. “What’re you going to do to me if I do, Shizu-chan?”

Shizuo yanked the poll free from its mooring, figuring that would be answer enough.

“Oh, scary!” Izaya said, laughing. “I thought you wouldn’t fight me when I’m damaged.”

"If you don't want to fight then you should run. I'm not in the mood."

“You’re not in the mood for a chat?” Izaya asked. “Be still my heart! I’m shocked to hear such a thing from you, Shizu-chan.” He wasn’t surprised when Shizuo responded to this comment by swinging the pole. He jumped backwards and landed on a nearby railing. “Because your life is so hard,” he added, rolling his eyes. “In the past week I’ve been abducted, beaten, starved, drugged and insulted by Shinra, pitied by teenagers, and to top it all off, I get to find out that I’m some sort of faerie or something. It’s been a great week for me. Better watch it, Shizu-chan - I might actually get serious for once.”

Shizuo stopped mid-swing as the last half of Izaya's tirade hit him. "What?"

“What, what?” Izaya replied, still balancing on top of the rail.

"That's what I asked you," Shizuo said, wondering if Izaya had been hit on the head.

“Obviously,” Izaya said, with another roll of his eyes. “I’m just wondering which part of that actually surprised you.”

"The faerie part." He planted the end of his pole on the sidewalk.

Izaya looked at the pole. He looked at Shizuo. “It’s funny, but I could swear you just stopped trying to kill me in favor of having a civil conversation.”

"I'm not finding much funny today." Shizuo glared. "Faerie, huh?"

“You have no sense of humor even on the best of days,” Izaya said. He resisted the urge to suggest they go out for tea or sushi or something. If he pushed Shizuo too hard, he really would wind up in a fight, and he was curious about why Shizuo was perseverating on this. “I’d think you wouldn’t be surprised to find out I’m not human. If I come down from here, will you try to kick my ass? Because I’d like to sit down. Damaged, remember?”

Shizuo gave up on working off his anger. "Fine, sit." He considered. "Celty told me the same thing."

Izaya hopped down off the railing and sat down on a bench with more of a thud than he really wanted. “What, that you have no sense of humor? Hardly surprising if hers is warped, after all those years with Shinra . . .”

"Not that, you idiot. That I'm not human." This clearly pissed Shizuo off.

Izaya’s face went blank. The pieces started to line up in his brain. The thugs calling Shizuo a troll. The way they retreated after one punch. Shizuo’s incredible strength and remarkable ability to bounce back from injury. Celty’s description of changelings. His mouth worked for a few moments. What came out was: “Oh.”

Shizuo gave him an incredulous look. He waited for Izaya to say something else. When nothing else was forthcoming, he asked, "Did I break you?"

“You may have broken my hand,” Izaya said, calmly deflecting the real question.

Shizuo pondered this. "Shinra is going to yell at me." He considered again. "That isn't what I meant. And you said I hadn't damaged you, so don't try and blame it on me now."

Izaya sighed, closing his eyes against the pain. “I think I preferred it when you were trying to beat me with the swingset you uprooted.”

Shizuo was a bit discomfited to realize that he was actually concerned. This wasn't how things were supposed to be. Granted, he certainly still disliked the trouble-making weasel, but that was right. That was how it was supposed to be. Shizuo liked things in his life to follow a pattern. He wasn't a fan of surprises. He wanted things to go back to normal and that meant getting Izaya fixed up. "Let’s go see Shinra before he refuses to speak to me for a month."

Izaya opened one eye and gave him a suspicious glance.

"What?" Shizuo glared.

“Five days ago,” Izaya said, “I woke up and everything was normal. I brushed my teeth and put on my favorite jacket and went out to find some innocent bystanders to torment. Then I got this stupid little card in the mail. Now I’m a puck and you’re a troll, my hand hurts like you don’t even fucking know, and you’re voluntarily being civil to me and trying to help me. I’m not sure exactly when things went so badly off the rails, but if this is a nightmare, I’d really like to wake the fuck up. You?”

Shizuo gave a disgruntled sigh and leaned back against the near by building and lit a cigarette. "Three days ago I find out there's a new gang in town and they've caught the one man who always seems to eel out of trouble. They pick a fight with me and then run in terror without cause, because I haven't even gotten going. Then I find out I'm actually not human, which has always worried me a bit. You may think it's fun to provoke me, but this has never been easy to live with. I'm not even related to my family and someone might have stolen their reasonable, normal son, who wouldn't have shamed them." He sucked the cigarette down in record time, put it out against the bottom of his shoe and tucked the filter into an envelope. Then he lit another. "And now you aren't acting right. It's throwing me off further and I don't like it. It seemed reasonable to get you fixed up so life can go back to normal."

Izaya studied him for a few long minutes, then gave a lazy shrug and a nod. “Okay.” He stood up, gingerly cradling his arm against his chest. “To Shinra’s we go.”

Shizuo nodded and stepped away from the building and started to head towards Shinra's, his pace slightly slower than normal to account for Izaya's shorter legs and slight, almost unnoticeable limp. "Celty figure you out?"

“Yeah.” Izaya held up one of his wrists to display. He glanced behind them to see several passersby stop and gawk to see two of Ikebukuro’s most famed enemies having a civil chat as they walked down the street. “She warn you about iron?”

Shizuo looked where Izaya was looking, and then glared. Everyone watching suddenly found their shoes or the sky fascinating. Then he shifted to look at the displayed wrist. "She did. She says I seem to be partially immune, though."

“I bet,” Izaya said, amused despite himself. “I suppose it’s not so bad in the long run.”

Shizuo tucked one hand in his pocket, the other holding his cigarette. "Celty was happy."

“At least somebody is,” Izaya replied.

"You're not?"

Izaya gave another shrug and then looked back at the crowds that were surreptitiously following them. He saw someone take a picture with their phone, and arched his eyebrows at them. Said person disappeared into the mass of people. “I suppose with time I probably will be.”

"I thought you'd be happy about having an advantage." Shizuo paused long enough to put his cigarette.

“I like challenges better than advantages,” Izaya said, with more honesty than he would have expected from himself.

Shizuo nodded. The conversation wasn't so bad now that he had just resigned himself to the oddity of the situation. "I'm not sure much around here will change, really. This is a strange city."

“Oh, really?” Izaya asked, amused. “When did you notice?”

Shizuo's eye twitched, but he said nothing.

Seeing the glint of murder in Shizuo’s eye, feeling the twinge in his ankle and the throb in his hand, Izaya declared, “Screw it. Let’s get a taxi.”

Shizuo nodded and stepped to the curb. Less than two minutes later they were on their way. Izaya had considered calling to say they were coming, but decided it would be more fun to catch Celty off guard. Certainly seeing the two of them show up together, both of them relatively unmauled, was probably going to give everyone inside an aneurysm. That made Izaya feel a little better about things, and some of the bounce returned to his step as they took the elevator up. Shizuo eyed him, not sure he wanted to be trapped in an elevator with a suddenly cheerful Izaya. It seemed like a dangerous place to be.

“Shall we?” Izaya asked, with a smirk, as he exited the elevator and knocked on Shinra’s door without waiting for a reply.

“Coming!” Shinra called from inside. He pulled the door open, blinked at them, and announced in a voice that was far too loud to be necessary, “Orihara-kun, Shizuo-kun! What a surprise!”

There was a clatter as though something inside the apartment had been dropped, and then Saki called out, "Celty-san, are you all right?"

Shizuo, as usual, didn't bother with formalities. "I think I broke Izaya-kun."

“You . . . broke . . .?” Shinra asked.

Izaya held up his hand and said, matter-of-factly, “I landed on it when he knocked me over with a trash can.”

“I see, I see.” Shinra stood back to let them in and closed the door after them. “Funny thing, I seem to remember telling you very specifically that you were not to fight Shizuo-kun while you were in this condition.”

"I stopped as soon as I knew he was already damaged," Shizuo said in a defensive tone.

“It’s true,” Izaya said lazily. “And I only taunted him a little.”

Shinra’s eyes narrowed. “Where’s the splint?”

“I took it off,” Izaya said, in a ‘well duh’ tone of voice.

Celty peeked around the corner, only the top of her neck and the wispy shadows visible. Then she disappeared again. Meanwhile, Masaomi was a little slack-jawed in his seat on the sofa. Shizuo and Izaya, but no blood or mayhem. He wondered if the world was ending. A quick look at the other teenagers revealed that they were just as surprised.

With another annoyed look, Shinra grabbed Izaya by the hand and prodded at it. Izaya made an altogether undignified noise between grit teeth. “I’m going to have to set one of these again,” Shinra said. “What were you thinking?”

“It made it hard to type.”

“That’s ridiculous; Mikado-kun has been typing all day with his arm in a sling - ”

Mikado sank into the sofa, hoping desperately to go unnoticed.

“Just fix it, okay?” Izaya asked. “If Shizu-chan is civil to me much longer, I might go crazy.”

Shizuo snorted, thinking that it would be a short trip.

“Laugh it up,” Izaya said, as his temper slipped a little further. “When I’m feeling better I’m going to kick your ass all the way to Okinawa. We’ll see exactly how much immunity you’ve got to steel.”

"More than you." It came out in a challenging growl. Masaomi ducked, pulling the others down with him in case something came flying in their direction.

Izaya laughed. “Like you’d ever manage to get that close.”

Shizuo's jaw tightened and his hand came up in a fist to prove just how close he could get.

“Cut it out!” Shinra dug his thumb into Izaya’s injured hand, provoking another wounded noise from the other man. “Geez! You two are worse than children. And Orihara-kun, if you’re in enough pain that you’re going to let me get the better of you, you’re definitely in no position to be picking fights with Shizuo-kun!”

The hurt noise startled Shizuo into backing down. It only reinforced how off things were at the moment.

“Okay, you know what?” Izaya asked, and dropped the glamour. Shedding the human skin brought the usual changes, and the pain in his hand immediately lessened. It helped him think a little more clearly as he held the offending limb against his chest. He was peripherally aware of the four teenagers in the living room staring at him in shock. “Now just set the bones, will you?”

There was a long silence. Then Shinra said, all in a rush, “Will you let me dissect you a bit in return?”

“No!”

"Just fix him," Shizuo said.

Saki recovered first. "You have pointed ears!" She sounded entirely too pleased by this.

“Your powers of observation continue to serve you well, my fine protégé,” Izaya said. He looked expectantly at Shinra, who sighed, dramatically, and then waved for Izaya to follow him back to the treatment room.

This left Shizuo standing rather awkwardly, not sure what to do with himself. The four teenagers looked at each other. Anri stood, gave a slight bow, and said, “It’s nice to see you again, Heiwajima-san.”

Shizuo turned his gaze on he girl. Nice to see him again. That meant he should know her. His head tilted as he tried to puzzle this out. She looked a little familiar. For some reason he thought of rabbits. "Do I know you?"

“Ah, well, you’ve saved my life twice . . .” Anri said, and her voice trailed off. She didn’t bother to mention that they had met at least once more after that as well.

"Ah." A pause. "Then it's nice to see you again."

“Would you like some tea?” Saki asked, trying not to smile at Shizuo’s terrible memory.

"Yes, please." He came over and folded himself down onto the sofa. He gave a nod to Masaomi and Mikado.

“Nice to see you again,” Mikado said. He was still somewhat nervous around Shizuo, despite his understanding that Shizuo was really only dangerous when provoked, and was actually a pretty nice guy underneath it all. “Uh, so, are you getting along with Izaya-san better?” he added, somewhat hopefully, as Saki retrieved another tea mug and set it down in front of Shizuo.

Shizuo gave a nod of thanks and picked it up. "No. But he's injured so I can't bring myself to kill him right now."

“Oh,” Mikado said. “I see.” He looked at the others, unable to think of anything else he could possibly say in reply to that.

Shizuo raised his mug to his lips and looked over the teens, taking note of Mikado's obvious injuries and the unusually stiff way Masaomi was moving. "Are you two all right?"

Mikado opened his mouth to ask Shizuo if he had seen any of the texts during the brief time that he had been missing, but then thought better of it. “We’re fine. Just a little roughed up, is all. I think tomorrow everything will be back to normal.” He frowned slightly, then said, “Which means I have to go back to school.”

Masaomi thought about arguing over going back to school. Ceallach clearly knew where to find them, as evidenced by the invitation he had found in his locker. It simply wasn't safe. If it was just himself, he would cheerfully walk back into Raira and let things fall where they would. If trouble came, he would face it. But it wasn't just him. He would play fast and loose with his own life, but not Mikado's or Anri's. So he wanted to argue, to flail, protest, dig his heels in and any number of other things to make his displeasure known. But he didn't, because Mikado had a stubborn streak a kilometer wide, and he might as well just save his breath. He slumped back into the sofa cushions.

"You go to Raira, right?" Shizuo took another sip from his mug and wondered where Celty was.

“Yes,” Mikado said, giving Masaomi a sideways glance, clearly wondering if the other teenager was feeling ill.

Masaomi eyed him right back.

Shizuo, who was not as oblivious as a lot of people thought he was, only said, "Hn."

Nobody seemed to know what to say after that.

Saki clanked her mug down. "Men."

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Mikado asked, somewhat nervously. When Saki got that look on her face, someone was in trouble. It was usually Masaomi, but sometimes it was him. Or it could be both of them. The possibilities were endless.

"It means that instead of talking to each other you're just going to stare at each other. Idiots."

"Hey!" Masaomi protested.

Mikado set down his mug of tea, feeling somewhat miffed. “We don’t need to talk to each other. We both know what the other is thinking. He doesn’t want me going back to school but he knows that he can’t stop me and that it wouldn’t be fair to stop me. I don’t want to hurt his feelings but school is important to me and I refuse to hide here forever and let Ceallach drive me away from the things I love or need to do. Talking about it would just rile Masaomi up and end with both of us feeling bad. I thought just looking at each other was a good alternative.”

Saki considered this. Then she looked at Anri. "They are so married."

Shizuo decided to continue to stay out of it.

Mikado grumbled something unintelligible as Anri giggled, and suddenly became very invested in checking his text messages.

There was a long pause before Masaomi suddenly busted out with, "So which one of us is the bride?"

Mikado’s cheeks flushed bright pink, and he said, “Anyone who answers that is going to get it; I don’t even care which answer they give!” He remembered belatedly whose company he was in and diverted his gaze from Shizuo, who thankfully did not look as though he were about to offer an opinion. Shizuo was, in fact, very quietly trying not to laugh, or as close as he ever came. He remembered how fragile the teenaged ego was.

Fortunately, before the argument could continue, Shinra came back out of the spare room with Izaya on his heels. He looked smug. Izaya looked irritated. His hand was splinted, and then on top of that was wrapped in what looked like several yards of bandages, covered by a layer of masking tape on which Shinra had scrawled ‘DO NOT REMOVE’ in hot pink marker.

Masaomi bit his lip hard. He figured Izaya might just murder him if he laughed. Saki was much braver. There was a giggle behind her mug. Then a wide grin. "I'm sorry."

“You are not sorry one little bit,” Izaya said, “and if Shinra hadn’t given me painkillers, I might actually give a damn.”

Saki just laughed again and then patted the seat beside her. "Come sit down then."

“Sure,” Izaya said. He went over and flopped down next to her, draping an almost proprietary arm around her shoulders, then propped his boots up on the arm of Shizuo’s chair. In doing so he managed to irritate every single person in the room for a variety of reasons, with a minimum of effort. Izaya reflected to himself that he really was a genius, then wondered vaguely what the hell Shinra had given him. His inner monologue wasn’t normally so . . . bubbly.

Shizuo looked at Izaya's feet like he was considering taking them off at the ankles.

Masaomi looked at the arm around Saki like he was considering taking Izaya’s head off at the shoulders.

Saki, meanwhile, considered Izaya for a long moment. "You're high, aren't you?"

“Oh, yeah,” Izaya said. “Big time. Like I would have let him mummify my arm if I wasn’t. So therefore I’m medically excused for anything I do or say for the next however long. Right, sensei?”

“Right,” Shinra said, beaming.

Saki shook her head a little, entirely amused. "Just don't push your luck too badly."

Shizuo pushed Izaya's feet off the chair and then turned to Shinra. "Where's Celty?"

“Yeah,” Izaya drawled. “Where is Celty? She’s hiding, right?”

There was another startled rattle from the kitchen and then silence.

Shinra laughed. “C’mon, Celty! Orihara-kun is too drugged to do anything to you and Shizuo-kun is too nice. The longer you hide, the harder it’ll be!”

Celty edged out of the kitchen and stood awkwardly for a moment. Then the PDA came up. 'I have to go.' She tried to eel around Shinra. He grabbed her by the elbow and kept her from going anywhere, still with the same cheerful smile on his face. Celty wilted.

"What?" Masaomi asked curiously.

“Lemme guess,” Izaya said, propping his feet back up. Shizuo immediately batted them back down. “You figured out we were both fae right around the same time and managed to tell each of us but didn’t know how to tell us about each other.”

'I didn't know what to do!' The PDA was held out.

“Well, it wasn’t like it was exactly any of their business,” Shinra pointed out, folding his arms across his chest. “It probably would have come out eventually, but I figured we would wait until you had had a little time to let it settle.”

Mikado opened his mouth, shut it, then hesitantly asked, “Not that it’s any of our business either, but . . . what?”

Celty laid a hand on Shizuo's shoulder. He shrugged. 'Shizuo is a fae too.' She showed the message to Mikado.

“And . . . there are different types? Because . . . Izaya-san’s ears are pointed, and . . .” Mikado felt like he was at something of a loss.

“I,” Izaya declared grandly, “am a puck. And don’t worry, I’m still getting used to it, too.” Since putting his feet on the arm of Shizuo’s chair wasn’t doing him any good, he deposited them into the blonde’s lap.

"Do you want to die?" Saki asked.

Shizuo growled and batted his feet away again.

“Whatever you gave him, I don’t think you should give it to him ever again,” Mikado said to Shinra.

'I agree.' Celty told Shinra and then turned back to Mikado. 'There are different types. Many, many different types.'

“For example,” Izaya said, putting his feet back in Shizuo’s lap. “I am nothing like Shizu-chan. At all. For which we are probably both very glad.”

Shizuo calmly wrapped a hand around each of Izaya's ankles and squeezed. Just a bit. Enough to make a point, but not injure. "If you put your feet in my lap again I'll break them. Shinra's right here to fix you afterwards." Izaya's feet were deposited on the floor.

“You know something, Shizu-chan?” Izaya asked calmly. “You have no sense of humor.” But his feet stayed where Shizuo had put them.

"I do. I just don't think you're funny."

“Anyway,” Shinra said, interrupting them, “Celty, why don’t you let me explain things to the kids? It would take too long to type it all out, right?” She gave him a thumbs up, and Shinra turned to the four teenagers. “Okay,” he said, “settle in. This may take a while.”

~ ~ ~ ~

Kadota wasn’t sure exactly when he had decided to take up a career in laying tile. He found it relaxing. It paid well enough, though money wasn’t something he really cared a lot about. He often wondered where Yumasaki and Karisawa got enough cash to support their manga habit, but whenever that thought crossed his mind, he quickly banished it. No matter the answer, he was sure he didn’t want to know.

Sometimes they even bought a decent manga, and he would flip through them (when they weren’t looking, of course), but the problem was that they bought anything. Everything. It was really a wonder that they had the space for all of them. Then again, he didn’t really want to know what they did with the discards, either. Sold them? Or maybe Yumasaki just used them as tinder.

Yeah. He definitely did not want to know. He also didn’t want to know why Karisawa was trotting up to him with sparkles in her eyes, waving her arms around like a lunatic. At times like this, Kadota seriously considered taking up drinking as a hobby. It had to be more calming than tiles.

"It's so romantic" Karisawa did her own version of a ballet spin. "A clandestine taxi to a secret love hotel! I knew it was true love. Izaya and Shizuo were made for each other and now we have proof!" She was not at all bothering to keep her voice down.

“What? Quiet!” Kadota said automatically, feeling a blush darken his cheeks the instant the words ‘secret love hotel’ escaped her lips. “Don’t say stuff like that so loudly!”

Karisawa was completely unfazed. "I need photographic proof!" A pause. "But first I need to find their love nest. . ."

“Yeah, sure,” Kadota said, hoping that their love nest would be far away from him. “You go do that. Just - wait, what?” The rest of what she had said caught up with him. “Whose lo - ” He couldn’t force himself to speak the words. “Who got in a taxi again?”

"Shizuo and Izaya!"

“Got in a taxi together?” Kadota was mystified. It wasn’t like Karisawa to have her facts wrong, but she had been known to bend them in order to fit her perfect universe. He gave her a look, chewing on his lower lip. “Are you messing with me?”

"Nope." Her hands folded in front of her and she beamed up at her friend. "Shizuo hailed a cab and they both got in. After a stroll down the sidewalk talking to each other."

“A stroll down the - now I know you’re just messing with me.”

She shook her head, ear tails whipping, then pulled out her phone. Soon a photo was shoved into Kadota's face. He looked at it. He had to admit that it looked an awful lot like Shizuo and Izaya walking down the street together. Beyond the fading bruises on Izaya’s face - the one gracing Shizuo’s jaw had already disappeared - there was no evidence that any violence had taken place.

He stared at it for a long time before offering his opinion: “Huh.”

The sparkles in her eyes might have been heart shaped. "They're in love!"

“No,” Kadota said, firmly. He wasn’t quite sure what was going on, but he was very, very sure that that wasn’t it.

"Yes!" She waved the phone at him.

“Two people can walk down the street together and take taxis together without being in love or going to clandestine . . .” Kadota felt the blush spring back into his cheeks. “Anywheres,” he hastily finished. “You and Yumasaki have taken taxis together, and you aren’t in love.” He didn’t think. He honestly wasn’t sure of the extent of their relationship. That was another thing about them that he had no interest in finding out.

"But they're so pretty!"

Kadota rolled his eyes. “Sure. Whatever you say. Just say it quietly.”

"Now I have to tell Yumachi!" There was a pause and then, "Where's Yumachi?"

“How should I know?” Kadota asked, feeling unsettled. And somewhat like a parent. “Where’d you leave him?”

This seemed like a reasonable question to her. "I'll go get him." And then she was off.

Kadota sighed and leaned back against the van. Since he was very, very sure that Izaya and Shizuo were not having a clandestine affair, there could be only one explanation for what had happened. As unlikely as it seemed, they had put aside their differences long enough to team up against the Green Nights.

Good in the long term.

In the short term, Kadota was thinking about building a bomb shelter.

~ ~ ~ ~