[Closed] Life's gonna suck when you grow up...

[loves_humanity]

Characters: Izaya Orihara & Kanji Tatsumi.
Where: Death by Pastry.
Rating: PG-13? Will probably go up as soon as Izaya opens his mouth.
Time: August 9th
Description: Izaya decides to do some "IRL" trolling, for a change. Kanji just made eye-contact, the poor guy.

Comments

[needling]

Kanji wasn't sure why he had picked that day to go out for pastries. First of all, that Crane asshole was still on the loose, and his Meister was suffering because of it. It was advised not to go out, but he had been packing (though he didn't have much to pack) in preparation for moving in with Heather and had decided to go buy a pastry, instead of make one.

Browsing the selection at the front counter, he squatted and narrowed his eyes. His hand tapped his chin as he grunted in thought and finally decided. Standing up, he stretched and ordered a few pastries, one for himself, the other to take home - and pulled out his wallet.

Glancing around, he quickly glanced over the weird guy smiling at him, before looking back at the girl behind the counter. Wait...

Shaking the feeling off, he paid for his pastries.

[loves_humanity]

Izaya finished his treat leisurely, in the time it took Kanji to order and pay, and had stood up by the time the teenager had his purchases in hand.

And then ever so casually, Izaya ran into him, with just enough force to rattle him - sturdy one, this one, it almost reminded him of Shizu-chan, except Shizu-chan had never been this likable - but not enough for it be seen as intentional.

Even if it was.

Izaya let himself slide to the floor, gracefully enough to land on a sprawl, and blinked. The very picture of innocence.

"Oh my, I'm sorry."

[needling]

Kanji, of course, hadn't expected anyone to run into him. Stumbling back a bit, he nearly dropped his bag of pastries on the ground, but manage to catch himself (and his desserts) before he tripped. Quickly straightening himself, he rounded on the guy, full prepared to snap at him for not watching where he was going, before he actually got a good look at him.

And then felt kinda bad. It wasn't this guy's fault, he should've watched where he was going. At least he didn't fall or anything. "S-Shit, sorry about that," he said. "I shoulda watched where I was going."

And that innocent face too...

Squatting down again, he held out his free hand to the guy to help him up.

[loves_humanity]

Izaya took the hand gratefully, smille plastered over his features as he chuckled with a wry note.

"It's alright, I've always been a little clumsy," he pulled himself to his feet, casually dusting himself off, "two left feet, it's all I've got."

He kept his tone light and self-deprecating, since his little Lance was all the more prone to take up the pity cases. For all the tough he looked, Izaya had watched him act with extreme, sincere kindness towards strangers he seemed to perceive 'in need' of his help. Pretty cute, actually, and always useful.

[needling]

Kanji let his hand fall back to his side as he tucked his bag of pastries gently and securely underneath his arm as to not damage them. "It's okay, man, really," he said, rubbing his neck sheepishly. "I know how it is." Kinda.

Well, not entirely, but he wasn't exactly the most graceful guy around (though he knew a few people who would think otherwise. Tch, assholes).

"You sure you didn't hurt nothin'?" He looked a little concerned. After all, this guy didn't do anything to him, so there was no reason to act defensively.

[loves_humanity]

Izaya stuck his hands into his pockets, standing lightly on his feet, the effect reinforcing the idea of a happy, hyper if slightly clumsy guy. He shifted his body language with a tint of sheepishness and gave Kanji an easy-going grin.

"Sure, sure," he waved a hand dismissively, "but I feel bad I ran into you like that, I should make it up somehow~"

Izaya liked this one, good natured and not stupid, but not really shrewd enough to pick up on his schemes, he theorized. Well, it was time to find out for certain, too.

[needling]

Well, Kanji was fooled, at least. Little did he know. "Really, I uh. Shoulda watched where I was goin'," he said, fingers moving to scratch at his cheek thoughtfully. Usually people scrambled away whenever they bumped into him, not a lot of people actually stayed to chat, let alone offered to make it up to him.

This was new. He wasn't that good with new, though it wasn't at all unwelcome.

"But, if you want..." Man this was kinda awkward.

Izaya will do a lot of things for you, Kanji

[loves_humanity]

Ah, the shy type. Izaya could work with that. He needed to fortify his web in the city some more, and Kanji struck him as a perfect point for that, from what he'd gathered on him. Some people in his line of job tended to form their webs with threats and violence, but Izaya considered that so... uncouth. (Another reason Shizu-chan made him twitch, good lord.) But Izaya preferred webs more carefully taken care of, with impressions of friendship and good will that made people all the more willing to cooperate.

It was amazing how far people would go to justify a friend's actions, really.

"Sure I do!" Izaya grinned. "Maybe we could get something to eat?"

And of course, friends gave friends things. Izaya was never against giving first - because he was also always giving last.

...s-so creepy

[needling]

Shrugging his shoulders, Kanji looked over at the guy. He didn't want to make him pay for anything, but, then again, they didn't pay for much here anyway. It wasn't like he had anything to do that day anyway, aside from run more errands and pack up what little he did have in his apartment. So it wouldn't hurt him to get something to eat with this guy.

Whatever made cleared his conscience.

"Yeah, sure. Why not?" Though he did have the pastries, they weren't exactly sustenance. And he hadn't eaten anything since breakfast. "I'm down."

/CREEEEEEEEEPS

[loves_humanity]

Izaya grinned, but not nearly as widely as he wanted to. He tilted his head to the side and could almost see the ropes closing in on Kanji, tying him down to his web.

"C'mon, then," he said, tone easy going and light, "I know a great place to eat."

/S-SOBS

[needling]

Kanji had no idea what he was getting himself in to.

Grabbing his pastry bag, he held it under one arm as he slid his hands into the pockets of his jacket, he nodded to this new guy. "Well, lead the way then," he said and then paused.

"Uh, did I catch your name?"

[loves_humanity]

"Oh, right!" Izaya laughed, as if it was natural and common for him to forget such things. He looked at Kanji and smiled, remembering a certain someone. "Ryugamine Mikado," he said, even adding a little bow to it, "pleased to meet you, Kanji-san."

But not giving Kanji time to process whether he'd introduced himself or not, Izaya started walking towards the... fun part of town. He acted naturally, hands in the pockets of his jacket and feet relatively light, though he did purposely stumble twice, to corroborate his "clumsy, me" persona.

This was gonna be fun.

[needling]

Kanji just moved to catch up with Mikado, his hands still in his pockets. "It's nice to meet you too," he said sincerely. He had never gotten out this much in Inaba, it felt nice to meet new people, especially since most of the people he had met in Death City were a lot more welcoming than the people he was used to back home. It was refreshing, if anything. He found he enjoyed making friends.

But damn if this guy was clumsy.

"So, where are we going?"

[loves_humanity]

Izaya, hands stuck inside his pockets and smile firmly planted on his face, continued to lead Kanji in a careful mix of brisk and clumsy, so as to make sure Kanji didn't realize how fast they were actually going.

"Oh, just a little place I found," Izaya shrugged, "I like their fries."

He wondered if Kanji recognized the signs of what sort of district this was, but privately he doubted it. The kid seemed big and bad, but his mannerisms lead Izaya to conclude he was everything but what he appeared to be. Which was just about perfect for him, really.

[needling]

"Oh, alright," Kanji said, seemingly placated by that vague answer. Following after Mikado, he was too busy trying to keep up with him to bother looking around. He didn't seem to notice how fast they were going either as he maintained a swift stride and made sure he didn't crush or drop the contents of his pastry box. That alone was pretty distracting.

"So uh. Are you from Japan?" he asked suddenly. His name did sound pretty Japanese. In fact, a lot of the people he met had Japanese-sound names, and yet they came from different worlds? He really couldn't wrap his mind around that concept.

[loves_humanity]

Izaya loved the naive, trusting ones. They were most fun to play with. He looked sideways at Kanji with a shrug as in the distance, he saw their objective appear. As he'd known, beneath the idyllic air of Death City there existed a plentiful, lovely underworld that Izaya found quite to his tastes. Of course, not as entertaining and lively as Tokyo's - and particularly Ikebukuro's - but still enough to entertain him.

"Me? Yeah," he laughed lightly again, shrugging, "I'm from Ikebukuro. You?"