Conversations & Conclusions

Mikado perambulated through the subway terminal in Shinjuku, attempting to find the exit to the street above amongst the growing evening crowd. He wasn't a fan of the subway, though this proved to be the fastest route from Ikebukuro, so he was getting used to it, given how often he found his way there lately. Finally, the teen had navigated his way out of the terminal and out of the bustling, chic, business crowd on their way home from the office. With a sigh of relief, the boy began his walk to Izaya's office.

Since the incident with the Midnight Man almost a month ago, the time he and the man had been spending together had been steadily increasing, much to his joy, but there was also a downside—as there always seemed to be when the informant was concerned. Simply, the more time they spent together, the better Mikado had become at reading the eccentric man and his bizarre mannerisms. Recently, the young gang leader had been sensing a great deal of hesitation and apprehension—all well-masked and denied by Izaya, of course—in the man's dealings with him.

Mikado grimaced when he realized it was a week day and Namie would still be at the informant's, 'working'. He still had issues in dealing with Izaya's secretary, Yagiri Namie, especially since she had once tried to kill him; the feeling between them was mutual and created a strained atmosphere. Much to Izaya's amusement—in fact, the older male seemed to provoke the situation more often than not.

As Mikado neared the building, he was surprised to see Izaya standing outside, waiting for him, and the man greeted him with, "Mikado, you're here so quickly today. I was thinking we could go for a walk and then dinner, ne?"

Instinctively, the teen became suspicious of the spontaneous date and the older male's behaviour. He decided it was easier to address the subject directly, "So, is there any particular reason for your lurking around outside and inviting me on a surprise date?"

"Mikado, you wound me! Can't I just take you to dinner? It can't be that suspicious an action," the man smirked, slinging an arm over Mikado's shoulders and leading him down the street.

To that, the teen had no immediate reply, but then he said in amusement, "You can, but it's out of character for you to do so without some kind of motive. Not to mention, you meticulously schedule most things." It was true; Izaya tended to plan a lot of their time together due to his spontaneous work schedule and odd hours.

After a silence and a bit of a surprised blink, the man cracked up laughing and answered, "Touché! So true. I believe it would be best to avoid Namie right now, though. She is so~ very angry with me at the moment, and your presence always seems to worsen her mood for some reason," Izaya giggled sarcastically. As he was waiting on the boy earlier, he could swear he heard Namie still yelling all the way up in his apartment.

"Eh? Why?" Mikado asked in surprise. It was no secret the woman fairly hated Izaya, but normally, their working relationship was decent, even if she got irritated with the man for his antics at times—no one could blame her for that, though.

"I was in the midst of a game and the table may have caught fire while I was playing," the man replied with a straight, almost contemplative face.

Part of Mikado wanted to laugh, but he'd seen Izaya light his chess board on fire once since they'd started unofficially going out. As a result, when the teen heard his date's reply, his response was to hold one hand to his suddenly aching head as he heaved a sigh of long suffering. Or rather, a sigh of short suffering which felt very long. When he heard Izaya laugh at his reaction, Mikado had to admit their relationship kept him jumping to the point of being harrowing, but at the same time, there was something oddly alluring about the whole situation. It worked. It worked so much more efficiently than he could have imagined that the boy was constantly on the alert for possible derailment.

It didn't take them long to get to Ikebukuro, and the teen had to ask, as he always did when they entered the city together, "Aren't you worried Shizuo will get angry and come after you when he figures out you're here?"

"I don't have a problem with that. If Shizu-chan really wants to waste his time, I'll let him; he's usually working at this hour, anyhow, so he would be missing part of his pay. Besides, it's fun to mess with that protozoan," Izaya smiled impishly.

"Speaking as someone who calls him an acquaintance, I can't exactly condone that attitude. I don't like seeing you two fight, you know."

The reply made Izaya snort, but before he could answer, a familiar voice quietly greeted the teen with, "Hello, Mikado." Turning, the two saw Anri standing a few feet away, gazing at them evenly as she apparently assessed something.

"Ah, hello, Sonohara!" Mikado fairly gasped, startled and nervous from seeing her there. Before the Midnight Man appeared, the nervousness would have come from him wanting a relationship with her, but now, he actually felt a bit like he was betraying her. Her stare did nothing to alleviate his guilt.

"I've seen you two together a lot lately," the girl commented, still fully calm.

"Um...Well..." Mikado began, already mentally floundering at the possible outcomes of such an awkward situation.

Only for Izaya to cut in with, "We're going out, and today's a date. Are we not supposed to spend time together if we're dating?" He was smirking wickedly at the young woman, almost daring her to argue. The man couldn't put aside his slight distaste for her; he loved her as a human, but knowing the demon sword was hidden inside of her body, Izaya felt a thrill of annoyance. Saika infringed on the territory he held with humans—it was in competition with his love, and the informant had meant it when he had declared 'war' on her in the midst of the gang chaos.

Again, Mikado held a hand to his head as he mumbled, "You're not helping, Izaya."

"Of course not. You would have taken over an hour to explain if I didn't step in," the man shot back with his trademark smirk. "Don't mind me, chat away!" He walked a polite distance ahead of the pair and took out his phone, frowning slightly at the message.

Groaning, the teen dreaded looking at Anri...until she asked, "Are you happy with this, Mikado?"

Blinking, he looked at her, and saw a very faint smile on her lips, so he said, honestly, "Well, y-yes, though I don't want to, um, complicate things between u-us."

"We're friends," she stated. "There's nothing complicated about that."

The words made Mikado's heart twist with a strange disappointment, even as he felt a weight lift off him, and one corner of his mouth turned up in an odd sort of strained, yet thankful smirk. The feeling was so mixed and strange to him, he had yet to reply. Something about this was so bittersweet; closure, he realized, was what he was feeling.

With a bit of a sigh, he smiled at her. "Thank you...Anri. I think we'll be able to be friends for a long time this way."

With a small smile, she replied, "Yes, I think so, too. Be careful with him, though." The girl hadn't revealed to Mikado just how intricately involved she knew Izaya to have been with the climax of the dispute between the Yellow Scarves and the Dollars back then, let alone the hit he'd taken out in Masaomi's name. Mikado was her friend, so it was only natural she was worried.

"I'm fine," he chuckled suddenly.

Anri nodded as she looked ahead to where the older man waited. "Enjoy your date." With that, she gave the boy a small bow and walked away.

"There, that wasn't so hard, was it, Mikado?" Izaya asked with a smirk as the boy approached.

"Not for you, anyway," the teen answered, making a face at his date.

"It shouldn't have been for you, either. You had accepted the fact that you wouldn't be able to be with her before we were even together. It was something you had to do, otherwise you would merely be mourning the loss of the fantasy without actually moving on," the man shrugged, then leaned towards Mikado.

Instinctively, the younger of the pair mimicked the action and leaned upwards a bit, connecting their lips. The actions didn't seem nearly as awkward anymore and had even become somewhat natural after all the time they had spent in one another's company in the past month, regardless of who initiated the kiss. Meeting in the middle was symbolism for both equality and some degree of respect, so for Izaya to abide by it was rather amazing to Mikado, but he sure wasn't going to complain. Until he felt that hesitation, that almost pulling back Izaya did at times when they were together; the occurrence seemed to happen more when in public together.

It ended the kiss on a somewhat sour note as Mikado was the one to actually pull back. In his frustration, the boy asked in a slightly annoyed tone, "Why do you keep hesitating when you're dealing with me?"

With a blink, the man asked with what Mikado now knew was a false smirk, "Tsk, Mikado, if I didn't know you to be so astute, I might think you're implying I'm nervous."

For a moment, the teen paused, then answered in amusement, "I'm sure 'nervous' isn't a word anyone would even consider associating with you, Izaya. That isn't exactly what I meant though, the kind of feeling you give off when you hesitate—which you do. It's like…like you're trying to go forward and pull back at the same time, so you stall in the middle...which leaves me to wonder, what about our relationship doesn't work for you?" The teen was irritated at how melancholic his voice had sounded upon the last question, though it was disheartening to think Izaya didn't agree on how well they were working out.

Needless to say, Izaya was stunned speechless for a moment as he contemplated how to answer the teen, who had picked up on something so minimal and slight. It was all part of what made the boy so interesting, his habit of being so observant and of being so unpredictable! Still, at the moment, there was no telling how he would react to any reply the man gave, so it was better to err on the side of caution.

"It's nothing that concerns you, Mikado. Don't worry about it," he settled for answering, his expression amused.

"But it is to do with me if it's an issue with our relationship. Which it is."

At the words, Izaya realized the teen really had caught on to something, and he wasn't about to let go of it any time soon. Step two: arrogance. "I believe we've touched on the issue before: I'm supposed to be above all my humans, as something to be worshipped—like a God. Gods don't exactly fraternize with those in their charge." Izaya was unsure how the answer would be received by the boy, but hopefully it would shift the subject. The informant was a bit taken aback when the teen started laughing! "...What?" the older brunette deadpanned, obviously not happy with the elicited reaction.

"That's your problem?" the boy chuckled. "You think your God complex means you have no emotions? Well, most of the 'Gods' around the world had a significant other they both cherished and trusted, regardless of their status as a 'God' or a 'human'."

"Not the Gods of the monotheistic religions," Izaya practically pouted.

"But, you're not like one of them, since they never interact with humans directly, and you do, to quite a large extent, even if it's often through the use of technology," Mikado laughed again. "You're more similar to the deities talked about in the polytheistic religions, the deities who become directly involved with humans, which means by default it's acceptable for you to have a relationship." After laughing lightly again for a moment, he commented, "This must be the first time you've been the one slow on the draw, and didn't take something important into your calculations."

"...Very funny," the man replied, more than a little vexed.

Suddenly, a dark-coloured car pulled up next to them and a man called from the open window, "Orihara, we need to talk. Ditch the kid and get in."

"Who's that?" Mikado murmured to his date, especially concerned when he saw a cold look in the man's eyes. The situation already held a strong inauspiciousness.

Izaya hated being caught on the spot like this by his employer; he had attempted to dissuade a meeting with the group earlier when they messaged him. With a faltering bit of impulsiveness, Izaya caught Mikado's wrist and dragged him to the car, opened the back door, and climbed in, pulling the teen with him as said teen yelped. He then reached over the teen sprawled in his lap to pull the door closed, and said, "Shiki, you can speak freely in front of Mikado."

A long silence followed as a faintly blushing Mikado pushed himself up to sit properly in the seat beside Izaya, then the man called Shiki said, "My business is with you, not him."

"Well, he's going to be included, regardless of if he's informed of the situation now or later, as he will be helping me," Izaya answered smoothly, not wanting to outright refuse the man's request. This was something which needed to be done though; Mikado had to get a glimpse of the big picture he would now be involved in.

"Why does it feel like you're playing chess right now?" Mikado murmured, sighing. "With me as a pawn?"

Startled silence fell while the yakuza executive looked the boy over, then Shiki sighed and said, "If we're betrayed, you're going to die, Orihara."

"You won't be betrayed," Izaya retorted simply with an innocent smile.

"Fine. This is a direct request from the head of Awakusu-kai." Pausing there as Mikado's eyes widened, the man tossed a manilla folder into the back seat. "Have a look, then I'll explain more."

"Seriously, Izaya, you're dragging me into yakuza business now?" Mikado whispered harshly as Izaya opened the envelope.

"This is my life. You're involved now, too. Unless you have some sort of hesitation," the informant replied without looking up, making certain to put emphasis on the last word, then set three photographs down across his and Mikado's knees. "And here's where the chess game starts in full force." There, he leaned down to whisper in Mikado's ear, "And you're my Queen, not a mere pawn, Mikado."

As the teen flushed red and Shiki raised a brow as he watched them through the rear-view mirror, the two young men turned their full attention to the pictures.

"And we're aiming for a quick Checkmate," Izaya smirked.

*Snow Leopard Pasha basically wrote this entire epilogue, I just tweaked some of the character presentation and made a bit more my style. I loved what she wrote :)

Thank you so much for reading, please leave a review!

*As hesitant as I am to even put the idea out there, I must ask, what do you readers think of the possibility of a sequel? It would be something that would not be up for a while, as I plan to get a good portion of it written before I begin uploading it to avoid the random hiatuses that occurred with this one. Obviously, Snow Leopard Pasha did the epilogue leaving it very open to a possible continuation, but it is very capable of providing an ending as well.

(I never remember to check the poll so I will just ask here and you may either message me your answer or leave it in a review. No time constraint on this, so even if you send me a message ages from now it will still be taken into consideration.) Would you want a sequel?

-No, no sequel

-Yes, sequel centring around real life problems

-Yes, sequel centring around supernatural elements (differing from anything in 10 seconds)

-Yes, combination of supernatural and real world issues