I Need Your Help

[UndergroundGod]

Izaya leaned forward against his desk, his chin resting on his hands as he watched Shizuo move around his office. Not for the first time, he felt overcome with the urge to just observe. Whether that was because this was still the rare treat of getting to observe Shizuo this close without the threat of imminent danger, or if the observation was just a good distraction from the frustration of being unsure that Izaya didn't normally have to deal with, Izaya wasn't quite sure.

Either way, Shizuo was such an interesting subject. Izaya's eyes lingered on Shizuo's face, his lips, as he watched him take a slow drag on the cigarette, watch the smoke unfurl from his lips as he exhaled.

Izaya didn't think he'd mind the lingering reminder of Shizuo having been in his office, not one bit.

He was quiet for a moment at Shizuo's next point, mulling it over himself. Until he had a better idea of the meet up location, he wasn't altogether sure what the best course of action was, though he certainly didn't plan on letting some Americans whisk Shizuo away from Ikebukuro without a fight.

"We have limited options," Izaya said frankly. "You'll have to go along with being captured until Kasuka is safe. I could probably have Celty waiting a safe distance away to pick him up and transport him to safety, if you'd feel comfortable disclosing some of the details to her." Which didn't address the questions as to how Shizuo would be safe, but did accelerate the timeframe in which they would give the kidnappers to entirely secure Shizuo. "As for you... well, I'm not sure if you'd rather risk the Americans overestimating their ability to contain you, or if you'd rather risk trying to bring back up."

Izaya gave him a grin that inevitably gave off a bit of mischief, even if he didn't actually mean it this time. "I'd assure you that I'll do anything in my power to make sure you escape, but I can imagine you're entirely unwilling to put all your trust in me."

[tossingtrashcans]

Shizuo raised his eyebrow and then rolled his eyes a bit. He snuffed out the cigarette on his shoe and set the bud on the coffee table before him. “Listen there is two things correct here. I trust Celty to wait for my brother and keep him safe. Yes.” He said and leaned forward.

“The other being you’re right, I don’t fully trust you to keep your word and not just let them take me because that gets me then off your back and out of the city.” He said and then leaned back on the couch and crossed his legs.

Eyeing Izaya a moment he sighed. “You’ve done nothing in my life that I can trust you with my life. I trust you to help me save my brother, but I doubt you wont toy with me a bit to just watch me squirm.” He shrugged. “So we need some sort of plan that we both can help with to make sure I don’t end up hauled away. “

If he ended up being taken, when he did get free he would finally just end Izaya’s life. Hopefully the Americans would underestimate his abilities. That party would be helpful.

[UndergroundGod]

As Shizuo confirmed his point about Celty, Izaya immediately opened the secure messaging app on his phone and shot her a message about her schedule the following night. Izaya had expected as much, and while he would have loved for her to operate as their back up on the mission, he acknowledged that getting Kasuka away from the kidnappers was the highest priority, and that she was the best one to do it.

Maybe if she got Kasuka somewhere secure she'd be able to double back afterwards to help in some other way, but Izaya didn't want to count on that.

As Shizuo continued... well, it wasn't as if it was anything that Izaya hadn't expected. He said it himself that he knew Shizuo didn't trust him, but... it wasn't that part of Shizuo's talk that sapped any hint of mischief from the grin on his face--his lips didn't technically move at all, but the gesture turned hollow and empty for a moment.

It wasn't like he hadn't outwardly complained about getting Shizuo to leave him alone, it wasn't like he hadn't done things to make it very much seem like he'd rather Shizuo be somewhere far, far away... and while Izaya would admit there were times when an unexpected encounter with Shizuo really threw off his schedule, it was far from true to say that Izaya wanted him gone.

No, Shizuo's presence in Ikebukuro was a staple, a delight, a necessity. Ikebukuro's charm, something that Izaya was fond of, was placed entirely in the hands of the strange and dramatic people who inhabited it, and Shizuo was close to the top of the list of people that Ikebukuro relied on for its particular brand of eccentricity. No, certainly, Ikebukuro wouldn't be the same without Shizuo.

Izaya wouldn't be either, though he wouldn't consider admitting it.

His expression softened into something more genuine as Shizuo continued, and he quipped with faux helplessness, "I think it's hardly my fault that you're so entertaining to watch squirm, Shizu-chan. How could anyone help themselves?"

There was no point in denying that, honestly, and Izaya couldn't say that he'd find no enjoyment in seeing what was going to go down at the exchange, however...

It was one thing to let Shizuo struggle, and another to let someone get the better of Izaya when it came to the success of the exchange and let them get away with Shizuo.

"If it's any reassurance, you are not the only thing at stake here. I'm not exactly planning on letting a hostage exchange I'm overseeing go poorly; it'd be bad for my reputation." It was, technically, an honest answer, even if it wasn't the only reason he wasn't going to let Shizuo get carted off to America. "The backlash of some Americans traipsing into Tokyo and successfully taking my money and kidnapping my client? No thanks. They're not going to win this."

[tossingtrashcans]

“Right heaven forbid your poor reputation be hurt.” Shizuo scoffed and rolled his eyes and he rubbed his hand down his thigh and breathed out. “Look, I’m not saying we have to come up with every single detail. There is no way we can know for sure what they’ll do to me once they have me. I just need to know we have some sort of plan to get me away from them.” He said and looked around a little.

“You got some tea or something? Smoking isn’t taking the edge off as it usually does.” Truth is, he’d been smoking more and more each day these damn people have had his brother. However, smoking isn’t helping much at the moment. Plus he doesn’t wanna smoke in his office, even if he hates the man. He’s not cruel in that way.

He actually expected Izaya to laugh in his face and tell him if he wanted tea to leave.

[UndergroundGod]

The grin slid sharply off of Izaya's face at Shizuo's remark, vaguely irritated by it. Izaya had only said anything about his reputation because Shizuo was stressed out and didn't trust him for personal reasons, and Izaya figured that a comment around Izaya's determination to succeed for a different purpose may be more believable for Shizuo and therefore offer him some sort of reassurance...

But apparently not.

Izaya probably shouldn't be surprised. He wasn't exactly used to reassuring people, at least not genuinely, so of course he wasn't very good at it.

He huffed out a little breath, frowning a little more solidly as Shizuo asked about tea. For most other clients, he might have done exactly as Shizuo expected, might have laughed and shrugged it off, told them to go find a cafe or convenience store... but this was Shizuo, and if Shizuo wanted tea and that meant Izaya could keep him here for a little longer, then sure, he could make some tea.

He could probably use something himself. He'd slept a good portion of the day after all. He was going to have a harder time than usual sleeping tonight.

After pushing himself away from his desk and spinning once around in his chair, he got to his feet and walked wordlessly away from Shizuo to head over to the kitchen, where he filled his kettle with water and pressed a button to get it boiling. He got out a tray, tea cups, spoons, tea bags of chamomile tea, sugar (he'd be shocked if Shizuo took his tea without sugar, after what he witnessed at the cafe the other day). He took his time, letting the irritation slid off of him as he waited for the water to come to a boil. Once it had, he filled the cups, dumped the rest of the water, idly looked into his unfortunately rather bare fridge. He killed a couple more minutes while the tea steeped, before finally grabbing the tray and carrying it back out to the sunked living room area.

He set the tray down on the coffee table in front of Shizuo before taking his own seat on the other end of the couch, and getting back to the topic at hand uninterrupted.

"We have no idea how they plan to contain you, and I'm not sure there's anyway to figure that out before we're there. So unless you have some bright idea, I don't know what to tell you beyond just hoping it's not as strong as they think it is," he said bluntly. "Beyond that, we're talking possible escape routes. I'll have to pull records of the specific warehouse for details, but there's only three ways out of the city as I see it. Either they load you into a truck and cut onto the highway, they find an entrance into the sewers, or they have a helicopter and fly you away."

[tossingtrashcans]

Shizuo sat forward and raised a brow as he watched Izaya get up and move out of view. He shrugged, sitting back on the couch. Hearing the sound of the dishes moving and clanging about confirmed his request for tea. Well good, he could fulfill a simple task.

Taking out his phone he flipped it open and checked his messages. Nothing. No contact. Sighing deeply he pushed the phone back in his pocket and closed his eyes.

He woke with a small jolt and looked up to see Izaya carrying a tray into view.

Listening to Izaya rattle on about them and plans and the ways out of the city he reached forward and took the cup into his hands and sipped. Easing back he nodded as he thought.

“Let's assume the highway, they’d still have to get to a tarmac to get me into a plane and out of Japan.” He said. “So perhaps planes are the end goal. Or helicopters. Damn it. Way too many things fly.” He grumbled and took another drink of the tea, watching Izaya get comfortable on the other end of the couch.

[UndergroundGod]

Izaya was pleasantly surprised as Shizuo reached for his cup of tea and took a sip without even bothering with the sugar. He followed suite a beat later, lifting the cup to his lips to take a sip. The heat was reassuring in both his mouth and his throat, and he let out a slow breath, relaxing ever so slightly.

"I don't want to eliminate any possibilities," Izaya said with a light wave of his hand. "Highway does seem the most likely, but this is a multi-million dollar organization, so they have nearly unlimited resources. A private jet to take you from Tokyo to America is nothing for them, so a helicopter is less than nothing. Though airlifting you away from the warehouse would be the most annoying option to deal with for sure."

Izaya shook his head, sipped the tea again, then said, "We still have about 20 hours between now and the meet up, there's still time. I'll look into the warehouse tomorrow, and see if I can't make a few calls to figure out a little more information."

Not that she'd ben happy to help him, but maybe Namie, as an ex-high up employee at a pharma company would have some insight into Phizenica that Izaya hadn't been able to find through his normal routes. He hadn't exhausted every one of his strings yet, so he supposed he was going to have to work a little harder to get the upper hand here.

[tossingtrashcans]

Shizuo sipped the tea and nodded while listening to Izaya talk. He was just honestly hoping they were underestimating his strength and that he’d be able to break free and run away before things got too far. Course he’d have to wait for the Celty text to make sure his brother was safe first.

But going over a plan to get out was smart.

“Do you and I need to agree on a phrase or sound or something if things start to get a little out of hand?” Shizuo asked and looked into the cup before finishing the tea. Setting the cup down as he leaned forward.

Suddenly he was tired as hell. Cozy as hell too.

[UndergroundGod]

The question impressed Izaya to an extent. Shizuo really did have a habit of surprising him now and again. Some moments he seemed as thick as a rock and others he was surprisingly sharp--having some sort of established cues wasn't a bad idea at all.

"We can do that," Izaya said with a light nod. "I guess the first step is addressing Celty getting Kasuka to a safe point. She can text us to let us know, but you may not be able to access your phone at that point and I probably shouldn't enter the warehouse at the same time as you, otherwise we may both be restrained. I may actually be able to sneak in beforehand, depending on the layout, find a perch somewhere in the rafters or something. So, I guess depending on how you're restrained, I can make a gesture or a sound to let you know he's safe and you can start punching people without discretion."

Speaking of Celty, his phone buzzed, with a reply text saying that she would be available the following evening, so he'd have to text her whatever details they worked out to get her on board. Once she knew it was to help Shizuo, Izaya may not even have to worry about paying her.

"What sort of signal were you thinking?" he continued, wondering what a situation "getting a little out of hand" meant for a person like Shizu-chan. "I imagine we'll want a signal, or even a couple possible signals, for 'shit these restraints are too strong and I actually cannot break out, please intervene,' right?"

[tossingtrashcans]

Must be something soothing in this tea or something. Shizuo finished it and leaned forward to set the empty cup down then snuggled into the couch a bit more as he listened to Izaya talk. He nodded a few times and shifted to reach next to him and grab the pillow. Pressing the pillow to his chest he leaned back and closed his eyes before opening them and looking at the male.

“Might need something both verbal and physical incase they gag me.” He offered with a sigh. “I could throw out the word trash cans. “ He chuckled to himself. “Or like tapping my elbow or nose. “ He offered.

Damn this couch was comfortable. He was sure that Izaya’s furniture was all quality and expensive. He didn’t seem the type to thrift as he was. His brother was always offering to buy him new things, maybe he should get this couch. The pillow he was holding was soft too, and had a nice smell to it. Like line dried clothes and cedar.

Shizuo blinked ever so slowly a few times before he didn’t open his eyes again.

[UndergroundGod]

Again another brilliant point from Shizu-chan. Izaya had just the same thing in mind. Since they wouldn't know exactly what or how Shizuo's capture would ensure, they should have multiple signals to fall back on.

Izaya wasn't looking directly at Shizuo at the moment, so other than the movement of grabbing his pillow, Izaya hadn't noticed that Shizuo had started to actually nod off on his couch.

"Multiple signals is for the best," he agreed, sipped his tea and settling back against the couch a little more. "Tapping your hand or your foot can be good if you can move enough to tap. Snapping is a good alternative too, in case you can't move enough to tap. And if for some reason you can't move at all, you can use a verbal cue."

He'd normally want to use something a little more subtle than "trash cans," but he supposed that was good enough for their purposes.

[tossingtrashcans]

Shizuo hummed softly in response back to Izaya. His hold on the pillow loosening a bit as he relaxed more into the couch. His brain mulled over signals as he drifted a little.

Foot tapping, elbow taping, finger snapping and even a verbal phrase. All good things, Yes very good.

Shizuo shifted a bit and felt himself sliding down the couch sideways. Laying with his head right beside Izaya. His hold on the pillow shifted it up under his head and he snuggled down with a sigh.

He loved a good couch nap from time to time, maybe just a few moments.

Shizuo’s breath evened out and a soft snore left him.

[UndergroundGod]

Izaya didn't notice what had happened until, rather suddenly (or so it seemed to Izaya), Shizuo slumped over onto the couch.

Realizing Shizuo had passed out, Izaya's eyes flickered to his own cup of tea first, wondering if somehow, the bags of tea had been tainted with a sleeping drug of some sort, if Shizuo had fallen asleep because he drank his tea faster... but Izaya had drank half of his own cup and wasn’t feeling any of the effects, so that couldn't be it. He then wondered if he’d accidentally drugged Shizuo without realizing it somehow, but no, that wasn’t right either, he was sure...

And after just a moment of considering the possibilities, he realized, somehow, that the best possible answer was simply that Shizuo... had fallen asleep.

Izaya’s lips quirked up as he looked down at Shizuo. As expected, his face had gone lax, peaceful, his breathing calm and steady. He didn’t know how Shizuo had managed to let himself fall asleep in enemy territory, but it was impossible to question what Izaya was seeing. Shizuo was very much asleep.

For a brief moment, he contemplated doing something mischievous. What did college aged people (people barely more than a couple years younger than Izaya) do when their friends passed out? Draw penises on their faces? Izaya laughed silently to himself at the thought of it, then casually considered leaving Shizuo’s hand in a glass of warm water, or getting some shaving cream to put on his hand before tickling his face...

In the end, they were just funny thoughts, mental enrichment, really. He abandoned any thought of actually messing with Shizuo after amusing himself for a few minutes with the idea of it. Maybe under different circumstances he'd have done something, but... well, there was a part of him that didn't want to discourage Shizuo from being vulnerable around him, and pranking him would almost certainly make sure Shizuo never fell asleep around him again.

So instead, Izaya finished his tea, then set the cup down and grabbed his laptop from next to the couch, searching around for maps, blueprints--he sent a couple messages out to contacts to see if anyone could send him current photos of the inside of the warehouse just to try to get a better feel of it, then tried to look a little deeper into Phizenica to see if there was anything he could uncover on his own before going to Namie...

A couple hours later, Izaya's eyelids were finally starting to droop, and he set the laptop aside, leaned back against the couch as he opened his phone and tried to skim over emails or messages related to his regular streams of business... before even that was too much. He closed his eyes, told himself it was just for a minute... but before he knew it, he had somehow managed to nod off as well.

At some point during the night, he shifted from his upright position, sliding down sideways onto the couch, attracted in his sleep to the source of heat he could feel nearby. His upper body ended up draped halfway over Shizuo's, his head resting on his waist, his arm draped down over the front of him.

[tossingtrashcans]

Shizuo slowly opened his eyes, damn it. He fell asleep, and he slept well. Wait, he wasn’t home? Nor was he at his brother's apartment, where in the…

Izaya’s apartment. He fell asleep at Izaya’s. On his couch, which would mean that warm presence he felt behind him and the arm he now saw draped over him was…

“Izaya!” He sat up suddenly and stood up. Damn it, he can't believe he let his guard down so much he fell asleep at Izaya' of all things.

Checking his phone he sighed, okay till plenty of time to meet up. Well, there was no denying that, that was the best sleep he had since his brother got taken. Stupid Izaya.

[UndergroundGod]

Izaya slept... surprisingly well. That was a rare treat for Izaya, honestly. He was an insomniac on the best of nights, taking ages to falls asleep, and typically sleeping fitfully. At best, he may get four or five hours before he was up, tossing and turning, usually needing to spend an hour or two scrolling on his phone before he could fall back asleep for another few hours.

Though laying draped across someone, half-hanging off the couch, probably shouldn't be a comfortable position... once he'd falled asleep, he'd stayed that way. He was warm, warmer than he ever usually felt while sleeping, and the scent wafting into his nose was... masculine, reassuring somehow. Izaya couldn't say exactly why he slept as well as he did, and he wasn't going to spend any time thinking about it because it wasn't like he was ever going to have the opportunity to sleep like this again.

He awoke with an abrupt start as Shizuo, who had been more or less acting as his pillow, yanked himself out from under him, plopping down onto the couch, and letting out a sleepy noise of protest.

As he rose to consciousness, he did feel a little stiff from the awkward position, and he stretched suddenly as a yawn over took him, arching back against the couch as he covered his yawn with a hand. Once the yawn had had its way with him, he rubbed lightly at his eyes to help wake himself up a bit more.