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The day couldn't have been any more perfect if the heavens themselves opened up and shined down on Izaya. The sun gleamed brilliantly, the warmth of its rays seeping into his skin, and the buzz of the city sent exhilaration coursing through his veins. He had finished observing his lovely humans struggles for the day, completed gathering information for a few clients, and all of his plans were falling together quite nicely.
To make things even better, Shizuo had yet to track him down to try and kick him out of Ikebukuro!
'Yes,' Izaya pondered as he skipped cheerily down the street towards Shinjuku with a big smirk stretched across his face, 'nothing can go wrong today. Everything’s just perfect.'
As Izaya approached a side street, he heard faint voices echoing farther down the upcoming alleyway.
Voices that he recognized. Voices that should have nothing to do with each other.
He thought he had heard Shizuo and… Namie talking to each other. That couldn't be right. What would Namie and Shizuo have to say to each other? When had they even met ? Izaya couldn’t think of any possible scenario where their paths would cross. Of course, Namie knew about Shizuo what with him being Izaya’s most hated enemy and all, but they didn’t exactly run in the same circles.
Izaya frowned deeply to himself. He was confused and slightly concerned. The only thing he could think of was that Namie had sought Shizuo out herself, but that didn't make sense, unless… Namie wasn't selling him out to Shizu-chan was she? Izaya quietly made his way over to the alley their voices drifted along the walls from.
He had to know what they were talking about. Namie couldn’t be betraying him, not after everything he had done for her. She just couldn’t be. Izaya didn’t know if he would be able to take it if she was.
"Why stay with a guy like that?” Shizuo’s baritone voice reached Izaya’s ears into something intelligible as he got closer, “I mean he's crazy and he can't be treating you well, can he? I’m sure you can easily find a better job than with that parasite."
Is he questioning the way he treated his employees? That would not do, Izaya was fairly kind to… Well, okay, maybe not so much. But he paid very well and he at least treated them better than he treated everybody else. Then again, he supposed one could argue that extended exposure to him was more harmful than not and by being his employee, the exposure was sort of mandatory…
Izaya came up to the lip of the alleyway and cautiously peered over the corner of the wall. There he spotted Shizuo casually leaning against a brick wall, surprisingly not with a cigarette in his hands and standing a few feet from him with her arms crossed elegantly below her breasts and raven hair gleaming as it reflected off sunbeams was Namie. Izaya’s breath caught in his throat at the sight of her.
"Oh, Izaya's not so bad once you get used to him," Namie laughed huskily and smiled at Shizuo from the side, and not one of those mean-spirited smiles she gifted Izaya many an occasion, but a soft, melt-your-heart sort of smile. Izaya felt the beginnings of jealousy burning in his chest.
Why was Namie smiling at that monster like that? What had he done to deserve such a warm response from Namie. She never smiled at Izaya with anything but cold contempt in her eyes, so why…?
"He's kind of like a parrot,” her usually detached voice now intoned with amusement, snarky and biting to the subject of their conversation, “They're annoying at first, but then you get used to it."
Great, Izaya had been demoted to some stupid bird. He thinks he preferred being referred to as a psychopath instead. At least that didn’t feel as degrading as this.
"You get used to him? I've known the flea for, what… eight years now? I still can't stand the guy," Shizuo gave a disgusted look at the very thought of Izaya, "The idiot thinks he's in control of the whole world and that he's some sort of god or something. He makes me sick."
'Well, touché Shizu-chan, same goes for you.' Izaya thought bitterly and glared holes into Shizuo, clenching his hands so tightly his fingers began to ache.
And then, he heard it again. Namie laughed beautifully and Izaya hated how she laughed so freely when he wasn't around. He wished he could make her laugh and smile like that as well. Instead, she was restrained, controlled, like every action had to be precisely planned around him or he would use it against her. He sometimes wished he wasn’t exactly that kind of person. At least, not when it came to her.
"You just don't understand him like I do. Nobody does. No one has even tried to get to know him like I've been forced to and you know what, I'm glad I did," Namie spoke softly now, like she didn't want anyone to hear, "I've found out that he's really not as bad as he pretends to be. He's actually quite sweet. And very lonely."
Izaya had conflicting emotions as he listened to Namie’s words. He was angry that Namie would tell these things to Shizuo of all people as good as selling him out as he had feared, but on the other hand… Namie was glad she'd been forced to know him? He knew humans could be unpredictable at times, but this was beyond anything he could have imagined.
Izaya was so lost in his musings he almost missed it as Namie turned to walk away and leave the alleyway, but before she could get far and catch Izaya unaware Shizuo stopped her.
"You should come over to Shinra's house. We're having Hotpot. Everyone's going." Shizuo said as he reached for a cigarette and Namie looked back.
"I don't suppose Izaya's invited?" Namie queried with a raised eyebrow, that single action conveying her disbelief.
"'Course not, he'd ruin it," Shizuo replied gruffly, confirming Namie’s suspicions.
As Namie opened her mouth to answer, Izaya felt a stab of hurt at what would no doubt be an acceptance of the invitation with how friendly Namie had been with Shizuo. Maybe her affection had finally shifted from her brother like Izaya had advised after all. Maybe it had shifted to Shizuo and Izaya would once again find himself all alone in his apartment, left out of hotpot parties while everyone else partied together. He knew it would be futile in the end, but for just one more day, just one day, he wanted to keep Namie where she was. By his side.
Before Namie could get her answer out to Shizuo, Izaya came out of his hiding place, grabbed her wrist, and dragged her far away from the alleyway, not hearing the angry protests from Shizuo passed the sound of his blood rushing in his ears. When he got far enough away, he let go of her hand and turned to face her abruptly.
Namie had been too shocked to say anything until now. "Izaya, wha…"
She never got to finish her sentence before Izaya wrapped his arms around her neck, pushed her against the wall, his body flush against her and kissed her.
Namie's eyes widened with shock and Izaya narrowed his with hurt and pain as he glowered into her stupefied umber eyes. She was about to leave and join the hotpot party without him. He wanted Namie to see just how betrayed he felt by that.
And she did.
Her eyes softened when she noticed the pain in Izaya's eyes and instead of the punch Izaya expected when he pulled her into the kiss, Namie enfolded one of her arms around his waist, trailing the other between his shoulder blades before resting it on his nape, pulling him even closer to deepen the kiss as she closed her eyes. Izaya closed his eyes in reaction to Namie’s responsiveness.
It astonished Izaya when Namie started to kiss him back, she kept surprising him today and he was glad for it. It somehow made him feel better. Like everything was okay again and he had someone around who cared about him.
When they finally broke the kiss, Izaya buried his face in Namie's shoulder and she gently rubbed her hand up and down his back in a comforting motion.
She spoke softly to him as though speaking any louder would scare him off, "I wasn't going to go. I wasn't going to leave you. I wouldn't do that."
"You weren't?" Izaya mumbled into her shoulder, his voice muffled by the fabric of her sweater.
Namie laughed softly, causing warmth to rise up inside of Izaya’s chest and reddening the tips of his ears, "No, of course not, you dolt. Who else is going to listen to you ramble about your love of humanity?"
Izaya felt his lips pull into a huge grin, seen only by Namie’s shirt. He got his wish after all. He got to hear Namie’s wonderful laugh.