I Need Your Help

[UndergroundGod]

"Yup, you got it," Izaya replied. He understood the necessity of repetition to people who were in distress. Like repeating 'everything will be okay' to someone who's injured, or telling a dying person that there's an afterlife. It was a sort of mental safety net to stop a person's fear from spiraling out of control, to give them some peace.

He was ready to give Shizuo whatever mental security he needed to keep his sanity in check, because the last thing he needed was to Shizuo to start freaking out.

Izaya leaned back in his chair and checked his cellphone. About twenty more minutes before he should head over. It was nice to show up a few minutes early, but show up too early and one seemed out of control with desperation. Izaya didn't need to seem out of control, so he sought to prevent that at all costs.

He took his coffee, now warm and raised it to his lip, taking a long smooth drink of it. One of the couples behind Shizuo had gotten up to leave, and now had been replaced by a younger giggly pair.

"Oh, one last thing," Izaya said, perking up and looking at Shizuo. It seemed as if it was a thought that was just occurring to him, though he’d been considering this from the beginning. It was all a matter of timing, of when he was going to ask Shizuo for certain things. He explained, "When I get in there, I'm going to have them prove to me that Kasuka is okay by calling wherever they're keeping him and asking him a few questions."

Izaya sipped at his coffee, finally downing the last of it before he continued, “So what I need from you is a few questions that only Kasuka would know the answer to. Personal stuff that kidnappers would never be able to guess, like stuff from your childhood. Two or three should be enough to prove that it's really Kasuka."

[tossingtrashcans]

Shizuo has relaxed a bit and casually sat there stirring at his iced coffee. Then Izaya had forgotten to mention something. He tensed, suddenly afraid of what he was going to say. When the words left his lips he relaxed a little.

He sat there and thought for a long while. Nothing came to his mind, it went totally blank. What was he going to use? He brought the drink closer to his mouth and took a quick drink before he set it back down. He continued to rattle his brain for things that he could say, thinks that only he and Kasuka knew. Then it finally hit him, he knew one for sure.

“The flavor of pudding that was mine that he ate, ask him that.” Shizuo said softly. “The answer is vanilla.” He then added so Izaya knew what kind it was. “If you need more than that, I’m going to need a little longer to think of something.” he said as he looked into Izaya’s eyes. He sat there trying to come up with something else. All that came to mind was thing from their childhood.

“Ask what I tried throwing at him for eating my pudding.” he said then after a few more minutes. “The answer of course is the fridge. I’m trying to something of something else, but I just keep going back to the things that I’ve done wrong to him in the past and these stupid little trivial things that almost anyone could guess.” He looked away from Izaya and sighed raising his hand up and running it through his blond hair. He sat there like that for a while, thinking.

[UndergroundGod]

It was fun watching Shizuo. He had such a… an interesting thinking face. Izaya liked the way his brows knitted together, the slight twitch at the corner of his mouth. He could practically see the gears turning slowly in Shizuo’s head as the man dug through his memories for some sort of personal information.

The pudding-flavor thing was actually pretty good. Very few people would know anything about something that specific.

Izaya was ridiculously amused to hear that it was vanilla pudding that had caused him to freak out.

“The flavor thing works, but I actually knew about the fridge,” Izaya commented in an amused voice, but before Shizuo could jump to some crazy conclusions, he added, “As you might already be aware, Shinra has quite the mouth. He was blabbing the whole story to me at one point, so who knows who else he’s told.”

From what Izaya could see from the depth of Shizuo’s apparent concentration, the blond was working incredibly hard to think of something useful, but it seemed as if he was coming up short. It made Izaya wonder how many memorable things Shizuo had actually done with his brother, if the task seemed to be so difficult.

Maybe Izaya was being a bit hard in his assessment of Shizuo’s relationship with his brother, though. If asked the same question about his sisters… Izaya wouldn’t have any clue what to say. Though realistically, if Mairu and Kururi were kidnapped, Izaya wouldn’t be trying to get them back; he wouldn’t even need to. The kidnappers would put up with those two for maybe a few hours before they were going out of their heads and would get as far away from the two girls as quickly as possible. Izaya would actually feel bad for the kidnappers.

Well, Izaya didn’t mind helping Shizuo brainstorm for ideas. “How about family trips? Did you go anywhere or do anything special? Or maybe you two played games together or had a secret hideout?”

[tossingtrashcans]

Shizuo nodded a few times as he sat there. He was still trying to come up with something else, anything else really. Then it hit him, how could he forget. Aside from his parents, Kasuka was the only other that knows about that. But, he shifted his eyes back to Izaya. This would mean he’d have to tell the darker haired male. He debated on if it was going to be worth it or not, he did already say that the pudding flavor was going to be good enough. This fact however was a bit more…personal so to say.

“I got…something else.” He said as he moved his legs and crossed them another way. He leaned forward a little and sighed deeply. ‘I have…” he started then stopped, rubbing his face and then his hair before he looked at Izaya. “There is something else.” Shizuo said lightly as he toyed with the straw that stuck out of his glass.

“I can’t believe I am going to say this out loud.” He muttered softly, “There is a mark…on-my-ass.” he said quickly and looked away from him. “It’s almost an um… perfect circle. Kasuka and my parents…they are the only ones that know about it.”

He sat there for a while, not looking at Izaya. Feeling somewhat embarrassed at sharing such information with the man he was always trying to kill. However if he had a slight doubt about the pudding answer then he had this to fall back on. No matter how crazy it was, it was true. He had a birth mark on the other-ish side of his left ass cheek. Just something that was always there.

Aside from feeling like a dumbass for having admitted to his birthmark, he hoped that would be enough information. Granted it wasn’t all that much, but it was enough. Or so he hoped anyway. There weren’t any family trips that he could remember or other occasions he could recall. So, the only information he had was the pudding flavor and the birthmark.

“I hope those facts are good enough.”

[UndergroundGod]

He got to sit there and watch Shizuo stew for another few minutes as he did what must have been a rapid mental review of his childhood for any sort of personal thing he had shared with Kasuka. It really was an interesting thing to watch scroll over someone’s face, the deep in thought look of someone metaphorically ripping through hundreds of file cabinets, looking for one tiny, private detail. It had to be something private enough that he was sure only Kasuka would know… but not something too private (aka something that could be used for the sake of manipulation) to tell Izaya.

But what the search turned up was actually surprising. Shizuo… had a mark on his ass? A perfect circular mark? Izaya wanted to pry and ask more about it—he could get away with it, if he wanted to, since he had to be ABSOLUTELY sure that Kasuka was really Kasuka and details were important—but that should be enough information to confirm such things. Izaya was desperately curious though. How big was this mark? What was it from? Was it a burn, a freckle, or a stain on the skin? Maybe it was a scar from some injury… or maybe a mole? “Mark” was such a generic term, but Izaya didn’t need to ask about that, not really.

There was an even more interesting thought proposed by that fact though. Because it had to be something that no one else would know… that heavily implied something to Izaya. If absolutely no one else could possibly know about the mark on Shizuo’s ass, it would have to mean that no one else had ever seen him naked. Really, if Shizuo had been around ANYONE naked AT ALL, it compromised the security of the mark and made it useless. Shizuo had to have some security in the secrecy of the mark to bring it up, and that would only make sense if Shizuo had never been naked around someone.

And if he’d never been naked around someone… well, it didn’t fully eliminate the possibility of any sexual activity, but it did specifically decrease the likelihood of such encounters.

Izaya grinned softly to himself at the thought; it wasn’t a teasing grin though, so much as a hopefully pleased one. Shizuo might be a virgin and Izaya was sort of tickled by the idea.

For the sake of security, Izaya absolutely needed to confirm that that was a safe question to ask. He didn’t really have a choice. Izaya leaned forward against the table and asked, unable to keep the curiosity out of his voice as he subtly asked the question, “It’s good as long as you’re sure it’s private information. Are you sure no one else would know about that?”

[tossingtrashcans]

Shizuo leaned forward a bit as he adjusted his sunglasses. He really should have seen this question coming, but there was a small part of him that didn't seem to think this tid bit of information through. It looked like he had to confess. To what, he wasn't really all that sure.

“Yes Izaya.” he said. “No one else has seen it aside from my parents and Kasuka.” This was true, there wasn't another sole alive that knew about his birth mark. Not that he was ashamed of it and it seemed rather manageable and it never bothered him. He's just never been naked in front of others all that often before. It was just that simple.

Granted there was that one girl back in high school. Though she'd never seen his bare ass. He fumbled around and sighed softly.

“Look if your unsure about the pudding flavor use that. It's all I really got.” Shizuo said softly. He hated that he didn't have more memories with his brother, that it was so hard to come up with something. What if- no. He stopped himself. He couldn't afford to what if himself into death. It really wasn't worth it and he knew it.

He jumped as his phone rang, he pulled it out looked at who was calling, ignored it then stuffed the phone back into his pocket. He couldn't understand why people called when he told them he didn't want to be bothered at a certain time. Was it really that hard for some people to follow simple instructions? Either way, he'd made a mental note to call that person back later. Nothing he could do for them now at this time. It was far to close to drop off time.

He shifted once again in his chair, his leg bouncing as he sat there, suddenly a bit nervous for Izaya. Granted he knew that the man would be able to handle his own. Or so he hoped anyway. It seemed only time would tell.

[UndergroundGod]

Izaya grinned at the response, nodded a little bit, and then sat back in his chair. He glanced at his watch… and it seemed it was time to go.

“Well, I’ll be back in a bit. Don’t go ripping your hair out or anything,” he said, waved casually to Shizuo and then headed towards the building next door.

The restaurant was busy, as expected, as Izaya headed towards the private rooms at the back of the place. He’d used these rooms himself, back during his string of fake suicide pacts, so he was familiar with them, with the restaurant. He knew they would have all the privacy they needed for whatever wheeling and dealing they were going to do.

He slid open the designated door, and the three heads inside turned to face him. Two of the men were wearing sunglasses, and they were all wearing expensive suits. The men with sunglasses were obviously lackeys—there was a smug grin on the look of the other man and he motioned for Izaya to take the seat on the opposite side of the table, which would place the men between Izaya and the door. It was the same seat Izaya would have taken, the seat of power.

Izaya pulled the $10,000 brick, his entrance fee, from his jacket pocket and tossed it unceremoniously onto the table. He plopped casually down into the seat he was directed towards and aimed a grin at the men.

“Thanks for letting us arrange all this, gentlemen,” Izaya began politely.

“You’re a hard man to argue with, Izaya Orihara,” the man across from him said with a smile. He extended his hand in greeting. “Hisao Takahashi. It’s a pleasure to meet you in person, Mr. Orihara.”

“Call me Izaya. I like to think we’re a bit too familiar, meeting on terms like this, for last names,” he said dismissively, taking Hisao’s hand into his own and shaking it. After letting go, Izaya leaned casually back in his seat and eyed Hisao lightly. “Ah, but enough small talk. I need some proof that our boy’s okay, hmm? I have a few nondescript questions for him.”

“Of course,” Hisao said with an understanding nod. He reached inside his jacket pocket and pulled out a cell phone. After dialing a number and speaking to some gruff sounding voice, he switched the phone to speaker and Izaya heard Kasuka’s voice on the other end.

Izaya asked Kasuka the questions he’d created with Shizuo earlier (which were answered without flaw) and a few more queries on his wellbeing. They were giving him food and drink and keeping him in some windowless, though fairly nice, motel room, so it seemed he was being treated well. It didn’t take long for Izaya’s need for knowledge to be sated.

Hisao hung up and then they were down to business. Ten minutes into negotiations, Izaya ordered a drink and a meal with the other men in the booth.

By the time the meal arrived, about fifteen minutes after that, they had already sorted things out. For an extra $100,000, the kidnappers would extend the deadline another forty eight hours, and they would make the exchange
in a warehouse near the old Yellow Scarves hangout. They started eating and the conversation was damn near casual, if there wasn’t still that tension hanging in the air between two people with the mindset that they had already won.

Ten minutes into the meal, Izaya suddenly felt ever so slightly lightheaded and after a minute, the feeling didn’t go away.

Shit.

Something of his had been drugged, probably his drink. Izaya hadn’t seen the other men anywhere near his drink, though, they hadn’t had a chance to slip anything into it… but it was surprising how easily a waiter could be swayed by a couple hundred or thousand dollars. Izaya didn’t doubt that their waiter could be so easily bought. He himself had talked others into such deals, sometimes just to see if he could. Regardless, he has consumed something drugged and the men in this room couldn’t have directly done it.

The difference between him and his countless victims was that Izaya knew what it felt like to be drugged, it was something he’d studied and had been trained for, and he now knew he had maybe two minutes before the full effect of the drug would hit him and he’d be rendered fairly useless.

As casually as he could, his face not slipping from the silly grin he’d been wearing, Izaya rose from his seat, “I need to use the bathroom, gentlemen. I’ll be right back~”

A look of vague displeasure twitched onto Hisao’s face, the look of a man who didn’t want to have to fetch an unconscious body from the bathroom, but the look was quickly covered up for fear of revealing itself. He waved Izaya off, “Of course.”

And Izaya skipped lightheartedly out of the room, though the last place he was heading was the bathroom. Instead, as soon as the door was closed behind him, he moved towards the front of the restaurant, already feeling the heady sensation of the roofie sinking into his brain, and seeping in to blur the edges of his vision.

He could only hope that Shizuo was still waiting outside where he’d left him, otherwise he’d collapse and just be laying there for those men to find in two minutes.

Izaya stumbled out of the restaurant—he was already losing his footing, he’d never had much of a tolerance for any sort of substance, not even caffeine—and headed in Shizuo’s direction, his eyes fixating on the man who was thankfully where Izaya had left him.

Now, either they had given him a bit extra or he really was intolerant of such drugs, because even in the distance of the half block walking quickly towards Shizuo, the sidewalk began to tilt beneath his feet and his vision began to blur and dim. When Shizuo was about fifteen feet away from him, he opened his mouth to speak, but his mouth wouldn’t form words any more.

His vision went black seconds before his legs gave up and he fell forward limply, dropping like a lifeless doll towards the sidewalk.

[tossingtrashcans]

Shizuo sighed as he watched Izaya leave. It didn’t take long for him to order a muffin. The soft warm blueberry muffin seemed to be like a breaded piece of something else to focus on for a moment. He finished his iced coffee around the time he finished the muffin. Perfect timing, he looked at the time and groaned softly. He paid for his drinks then grumbled as he filled out a bit more money for Izaya’s coffee.

He sat there a while with his head down not really paying attention. His head looking up he tilted it to the side. Surely that wasn’t Izaya. He had no idea how long it had been, or how long he’d actually been sitting there. Time seemed to just…lag on forever anymore. He moved around and nodded to the waitress as he got up and walked around the fence.

Shizuo moved around people grumbled as people suddenly gathered on the street.

“What’s going on?” He muttered out loud then moved people out of the way as he walked over and stopped.

Blinking a few times he stood there and stared at the fur that lined the male’s coat.

Damn.

He walked over then rolled Izaya over and looked at his face. He seemed to be pretty out of it. He didn’t have much time to wonder what he was given.

He then heard some commotion going on at the entrance to the restaurant. He watched as these two rather largerish men looked around.

“Damn it Izaya.” Shizuo groaned then reached down grabbed his arm and lifted him up off the sidewalk; he ended up carrying Izaya away bridal style. This was quite a site to say the least. Some people stopped even as they were walking down the street to stare. The side of Shizuo carrying Izaya was a site people were not used to at all. At least to the people that had known either of them or knew their reputation around Ikebukuro the others seemed to ignore them.

Shizuo glanced behind him and then ducked down a alley and sighed, he looked down at the knocked out Izaya.

“Great. So tell me how this fits into your brilliant plan oh master of falling for you own sick trick.”

[UndergroundGod]

Izaya hit the ground at full force, landed on his side, jamming his shoulder, but the blow was muted by the slowly oncoming unconsciousness. The forced of the fall did as much damage as it normally would, but the impact felt more like he was wrapped in cotton, hitting the ground in slow motion. He was vaguely aware of himself falling but he couldn’t do anything about it.

It only took a moment to realize that the darkness wasn’t complete. He wasn’t alert but he wasn’t unconscious. Lights and sounds were coming to him in bursts. The dull throbbing of his shoulder and elbow made blurry faces appear above him, people stopping to look at his fallen form. The crowd’s murmurs faded in and out, unclear. He was lying on the cold concrete of the sidewalk, but he couldn’t move, couldn’t roll over, couldn’t pull himself to his feet. His motor function was significantly impaired and he was useless.

And then as his fluttered eye lids managed to open, he found Shizuo standing about him, frowning, and then suddenly, he was being pulled like a ragdoll from the ground. There was a strange floating sensation as he was lifted into Shizuo’s arms, like he was weightless, before he was suddenly being held against the man chest, and the new warmth was the only thing he could think about. His face was against his chest, the same side that had been against the sidewalk and the difference was staggering, Shizuo’s chest was warm and comforting and his fingers gripped lightly at the folds in Shizuo’s shirt as the man carried him.

The jostling of movement as Shizuo moved them quickly away from the men who had come searching for him made his injured shoulder ache and soft pained mumbles escaped him periodically.

[tossingtrashcans]

Shizuo had to ignore the muffled noises he heard off and on coming from Izaya. His goal right now was to get them both out of here alive. After a moment he peeked out of the alley. Once the coast was clear he stepped out then stopped.

“Where...where do I go?” he asked himself before he looked at Izaya. Before he knew it really his feet were moving. He dodged and dart across town to the closest place.

He got about half way there when he heard the rumble of thunder,

“That is typical.” he muttered under his breath. He high tailed it as quick as he could then, wanting to make it safely under shelter before it started to pour down rain.

To bad it was only wishful thinking, he was about two minutes from his destination when it finally broke and started to sprinkle. Sadly that only lasted a moment. He tightened his embrace on Izaya as he ran for it. Running as quick as he could threw the rain.

Shizuo turned a corner, punched in a code right quick, ran threw the gate up the stairs down another way before he stopped before the door to his place. He pulled his keys from his pocket fumbled a little then kicked the door open, he walked in, stepped up then headed down the hallway. Finally into the living room he laid the sopping wet Izaya down on the couch.

Walking back he closed and locked the door, removed his shoes then socks and tossed them aside. He walked back to the living room and sighed.

He gathered towels and some of his extra sleeping clothes and pulled Izaya's coat off him. Taking it to the bathroom he hung it up over the tub before he headed back.

“Izaya. Can you hear me?” Shizuo looked the male over, he now had Izaya laying coat and shoeless on towels against the floor in his living room.

“Izaya.” He said firmly, waiting to see if he responded at all. He might need to help Izaya change. Not that he looked forward to that all that much. Or so he told himself.

[UndergroundGod]

Izaya was vaguely aware that they had started to move again. The movement stirred up the numbed pain in his shoulder, keeping him from completely drifting off in Shizuo’s arm as he carried him wherever they were going. He was barely aware of the rain that was falling on them. Things seemed heavier and colder, but with Shizuo holding him tightly, he couldn’t think about it.

It was only after he’d been set down on the couch that the damp chill set in. Izaya had never been good at handling the cold. It was the reason he always wore his cherished fur-trimmed coat. He loved that thing because it was incredibly warm, and without it, he was prone to shivering like an anemic twelve year old girl. His house was also littered with space heater, all to provide and extra dose of heat, in case he needed it.

Unfortunately, being drenched in cold rain didn’t help with that. He only had to sit there a few short moments before the chill set in and a slight tremor began to work its way through his body, his breathing coming a bit heavier, and his teeth chattering together slightly.

He was moved a bit more then, his shoes removed, though it was still cold and the shivering didn’t go down.

From a distance, he could hear a voice nagging for him, calling his name. It was a familiar voice, but it took longer than should have been necessary for Izaya’s mind to make any connections. Finally, his eyes opened up a bit, his head shifting unpleasantly as his eyes fell on the man above him and he muttered his name. “Shi…zu…”

[tossingtrashcans]

Shizuo blinked and looked at him before he nodded.

“Izaya. Yea it's me.” he looked the shivering man over and sighed. He needed to get him out of those wet clothes. The sooner the better. He started to move. Carefully he sat Izaya up and pulled his sopping wet shirt off and tossed it aside, he then carefully helped him into a dry shirt. Granted it was almost two sizes to big, but it was dry. He carefully laid him down after moving the towels under him.

Before he knew what he was doing he pulled the buckle off his pants and tugged them off him and threw them to join the shirt in the corner, he froze and carefully reached out and felt the boxers, a relaxed look graced his face. They were dry enough to leave on him. He reached over and grabbed the pj pants and helped dress Izaya into them, tying them around his waist.

Once that was all taken care of he gathered all the wet things up in a pile, got socks and pulled them onto Izaya's rather cold feet. After he got Izaya dry he then went to do the same.

Once he was changed into some dry clothes he walked over to Izaya and helped him up and carried him back into his bedroom. He laid him down on the bed and covered him up, he turned the heat up in the room then sighed. He wasn't able to really do much else since Izaya was still rather out of it.

He pulled the bedroom door closed then went about cleaning up his apartment.

Once things were taken care off he made himself a cup of tea and sat on his rather semi dry couch and laid his head back the cup warming his hands and then body.

[UndergroundGod]

Moments of vague clarity pierced the haze of disorientation, but they were just that; moments, flashes, sparks. None of it was lasting. He’d been able to discern that it was Shizuo above him, but, due to the confusion brought on by the drug, the conclusion didn’t stick. After a few minutes, his memory of Shizuo’s presence faded—the thought was completely knocked from his brain as the man moved him, pulled his shirt up, and consequently jolted the injured arm which, even in his haze, made it impossible to think about anything else for a long moment. He let out a vague whimper at the pain and it wiped his brain free of all thought.

So when Shizuo’s hands moved to innocently remove his pants, Izaya couldn’t conclude that this was simply the next step in changing him into dry clothes. He couldn’t remember that it was Shizuo doing this and he didn’t know that they were just in Shizuo’s apartment that he was safe and that Shizuo was just trying to keep him from freezing to death in his sopping wet clothes. It was too complex a task for his disoriented brain to connect the dots.

All he was suddenly aware of was that he was drugged and immobile and someone was trying to take off his pants.

He’d been trained as he was growing up, groomed for the position of being an information broker, and he’d been train to handle the dangers that came with the position. His brain had instinctively come to know what it felt like to be drugged, and his mentor had told him horror stories of what should happen should he ever play into someone else’s trap. Even as a male, he wasn’t safe, and so he had been taught to notice when a drug was taking over his brain and, more importantly, he’d been taught how to avoid getting drugged in the first place.

Well, the first part of his training had failed him today, but all that could flash across his mind as his pants were being removed was horrible flashes of what would happen, thoughts that were making his heart pound with adrenaline that could do nothing for him because he couldn’t move, he couldn’t move, he COULDN’T MOVE. Other than the trembling becoming more violent and a soft whine forming in his throat, he couldn’t do anything to stop what was happening as his brain raced and raced and he hoped for the drug to pull him down from any level of consciousness so that he wouldn’t think about what was about to happen. His breaths became short and shaky and shallow and the hands were on his underwear and then…

Then Shizuo was sliding the new pants onto him, and the near-panic attack he’d had began to settle, his breathing calming itself after a moment. Before he knew it, he was in Shizuo’s arms, then in Shizuo’s bed, wrapped in a blanket in a warm room, and he only grasped at consciousness for a few more moments before he let sleep take him.

Sometime over the next few hours, the effects of the drug began to fade, though it would probably take a good 24 hours for the disorientation to disappear completely. It was midmorning when Izaya rolled over, onto the injured shoulder, waking himself up with the pain of it and groaning heavily.

[tossingtrashcans]

It was around half way through the night that Shizuo nearly fell off the couch. He sat up and ran his hand through his hair before he shivered a bit. Standing up he turned the TV off, the light then headed back to his bedroom. He slid the door open and froze, he'd forgotten that Izaya was there. He walked in, left the door cracked and reached in behind a sliding door near the top of the room, he pulled out two blankets and a spare pillow.

Careful not to drop them on Izaya he walked over and curled up with the blankets and pillow on the corner of the room and quickly found himself asleep.

Shizuo jerked and hit his head on the wall as he heard Izaya the following morning. He sat up slowly and rubbed the top of his head muttering to himself. He opened his eyes finally and looked over at the dark haired male that laid in his bed.

The blankets pooled around his waist as he then got up and walked over and looked down at Izaya, with a heavy sigh he spoke.

“Izaya. Does anything hurt?” He asked softly wondering how he was feeling. He really needed him to tell him what all happened.

[UndergroundGod]

He immediately rolled off the injured shoulder and flopped onto his back to alleviate the immediate pain. It ached dully even as he lay there, but he didn’t know what he could do about it.

The disorientation was still swirling about his brain, making it hard to think clearly. He wasn’t sure where he was or what was going on. The bed he was laying in was strange, the blankets smelled different from his own—he wasn’t even wearing his own clothes. The events of the previous night were hazy at best, but he worked hard for a minute to begin to put the picture together.

Suddenly, there was a familiar voice hanging over him. Shizuo. More images flashed back of the previous night, sitting in a café with him, waiting to meet with the men who had kidnapped his brother. As he was trying to put the pieces together, Shizuo asked him a question, derailing his train of thought.

Did anything hurt? Well, yeah, his shoulder… no actually, his whole arm hurt, his elbow was stinging lightly as well… and there was a dull pain in his hips. He wondered vaguely what happened, before it occurred to him that he probably fell. Shizuo asked the question, and Izaya meant to answer him… but it was still difficult to find his words. They were buried underneath piles of other pieces of information, like a burglar had snuck into his brain and tossed everything around, creating a clutter.

Finally, he managed to remember the words for what was hurting and groaned out, “…shoulder.” He winced slightly, and sucked in a sharp breath, trying to formulate a sentence and failing, “What… where… where… are we?”