Chapter Text
This was such a pain. Shizuo watched as the woman in front of him paged through his resume. She was an odd one, wearing a helmet in a place like this. Then again he couldn’t say much, considering the only fancy clothes he owned were the bartender uniforms his brother had given him from a few jobs ago.
Such a pain.
Was he hired or not? Shinra said that everything was taken care of, so why did he still have to go through all the formalities? He knew that he wouldn’t get in just on Shinra’s word alone, just irritating. Shizuo scanned the cafeteria, their meeting place for this interview. It was a bit unorthodox to have an interview for a future position in a large company in their staff cafeteria, not that he was complaining. He got up, walking over to one of the vending machines. This was his third coffee he’d had since starting this gruelling process. They didn’t have milk which was also a pain.
He looked over his shoulder, knowing that even if he asked he wouldn't get a response. Wonder if she’s disfigured? Maybe that’s the reason for the helmet?
The harsh thunk of the coffee can rang through the area but was apparently ignored by the few employees who also were sharing the space with them. He cracked open the can, but before he could sit down the woman stood up, tapping the papers on the table. She pulled out her phone and typed.
‘Alright! Everythings in order, now to show you to your new office.’
“Wait, seriously!?” He almost fell out of his chair, eyes wide.
She nodded, gesturing for him to follow as they headed towards the elevators. Shizuo watched her for a few seconds, disbelief turning into joy. He couldn’t help the smile that spread across his face as he followed after her, nor did he notice the spring in his step. He’d have to take Tom and Shinra out for drinks sometime, it was all thanks to them for Shizuo to even get this opportunity.
The office he was in was stationed pretty high as they passed the fifth floor. Shizuo felt his happiness slowly sink into the pit of his stomach as anxiety slowly moved in. What if he messed it up? What if his new boss didn’t like him the moment he stepped foot in that office? Wouldn’t be the first time that happened…
Shizuo found it hard to hold a steady job, something always seemed to happen. He would fall on something when he was a waiter, broke the popcorn machine at the movie theater, then tried to fix it by popping the broken piece back in, only to completely shut down the concessions altogether. A few of his bosses had understood and didn’t fault him for it, but after repeated incidents they had to let him go for liability reasons. His anger issues weren’t on his side either.
Shizuo learned rather quickly that he couldn’t deal with the public. Grumpy customers who didn’t know how to keep their mouths shut, bawling kids who couldn’t take no for an answer. Not to mention some jobs that didn’t hire him based on his appearance. He wouldn’t call himself a scary looking guy, just… not one to cross.
They reached their destination as the elevator dinged and the doors opened to the ninth floor. The whole room was open as people rushed past the two, snagging the elevator as soon as it was open. Phones rang continuously but no one bothered to answer.
The woman’s shoulders shook like she was laughing before beckoning Shizuo to follow. Shizuo could feel the tension in the air as an invisible weight seemed to press on his shoulders with every step. The atmosphere was different then the rest of the building. Who knew editing books was so stressful.
The woman stopped by an opening in some of the cubicles. It was pretty quiet on this side of the floor, hopefully that meant where Shizuo was working it would stay like that.
What he wasn’t expecting to see were four bodies splayed across the tables like corpses. Shizuo stiffened and looked between the bodies and the woman, who didn’t pay attention as she typed.
“What the hell?” Shizuo put a hand to his forehead, blinking rapidly like the scene would change any second now, like in those video games with cutscenes.
‘Welcome to the Ruby Shojo Manga Editing Department! Apologies, I must have gotten the cycles mixed up so they won’t be too much help your first week here.’
Shizuo stared at the screen for a long time, processing the words before they finally hit him.
“HUH!?” His loud outburst must have startled the corpses to life as one of them shifted and knocked over a stack of papers. “What the hell do you mean manga department? I thought this was an editing job for like, books and shit.”
She shook her head, typing up a new response, ‘I thought Shinra told you? We were looking for a manga editor. I’ll admit I wasn’t too sure about you when we first met, but it’s a pretty easy job. Plus we didn’t have anyone else who applied.’
She excused herself, shuffling past the mess of documents on the floor towards the backside of the room. Shizuo strained his neck to see what she was doing. She shook one of the corpses’ shoulders, the man easily tipping over into the mess, unresponsive. She looked more irritated then concerned as she continued her way through the office of the Ruby department. She reached behind some papers. Was there someone back there? How were they alive?
After what felt like hours a voice finally called out in the tense atmosphere, “Ah Celty. My beauty sleep is ruined now. Can’t this wait another three days?”
The voice sounded feminine at first but dipped lower. A man? Curiosity got the best of Shizuo as he started to make his way through the war zone. He didn’t get far as one of the corpses opposite of him lifted his head.
“Isa….we have that new hire, remember?”
What the hell kinda name is Isa? Who the hell is that?
The woman stepped aside as the rustling of papers next to her shifted. From behind the mountain of dead trees came a small form. His body lithe with clothes clinging onto his limbs for dear life. A messy mop of dark hair fell over his face with small framed glasses that did that dumb anime thing to hide the persons eyes.
“New hire? Celty, why didn’t you warn me? I would have at least cleaned up around here.” The figure turned to the woman, who now Shizuo felt guilty for not remembering her name, typing on her cell furiously. Isa looked at it before laughing. It made Shizuo’s stomach do flips and his mouth run dry. Why did that laugh sound familiar?
“Okay okay, I get it sorry for the inconvenience.” Isa now turned his attention to Shizuo. “It’s nice to meet you Hewajima-san. Glad to have extra back up in our time of crisis.”
‘I’d hardly call this a crisis. Don’t worry, he’s harmless. Sure the rumors so far have been true but whatever gets the job done.’ Celty had made her way back to a shocked Shizuo. He barely processed her message before she gave them a wave and headed back to the elevator.
“H-hey! Wait!” Shizuo turned too quickly and slipped on the scattered papers, tearing some of them as he landed hard on his back. He groaned in pain, shielding his eyes from the now spinning office area.
How did this happen? A manga editing job. Shinra conveniently forgot that part and he was sure he read over the application form before turning it in, right? Well, he may have tried reading it through a drunken stupor but, a manga editor seemed like it would stick out even when he was drunk. Could this get any worse?
A sharp whistle made him wince, head still reeling from the impact, “Man, already the first day and you ruin our only manuscript that was finished.”
Shizuo’s blood ran cold as he slowly moved his arm away from his face. Isa was leaning over him. He couldn’t help the blush that spread across his cheeks, they were so close… The new angle allowed Shizuo to get a better look at his new boss. His eyes were a deep brown color and his dark lashes seemed out of place on a man.
“Now what should I do to punish you? That manuscript is due by the end of the day.” Isa grinned, holding out a hand. Shizuo quickly took it, careful not to tear anymore of the papers, in case they could be salvaged.
“S-sorry. I think I can find my way out if-.” Isa snapped his fingers, cutting Shizuo off.
“I know! Masume, can you get Miss Hanaki to come in right now? Oh and ask her to bring her supplies. I had a few edits anyway.”
One of the corpses gave Isa a thumbs up before slapping blindly at his desk for the phone. Isa turned on his heels, wading through the papers back to his desk. Shizuo stood in the middle of the office stunned. No lecture? No screams and degrading comments about his failures?
“Wait! Am I…” The words formed a lump in his throat. He didn’t want to ask because if he did then he would have to face the reality of those words.
Hired and fired all in the same day, that had to be a record.
“Are you in trouble? Yes.” Isa grabbed a stack of manilla folders, shoving a stack of magazines onto the floor for more room. “Are you going to fix it? Yes as well.” He wrote something on the cover. Shizuo watched as Isa walked over to him, patted him on the shoulder and headed towards the elevators. It took a few seconds for the blond to register to follow, scrambling after his boss who was already pushing the button.
“So I’m not fired?” Shizuo sputtered out, clasping his hands behind his back to hide his nerves.
“Fired? Over ripping some paper, Asumi has done way worse than that and they’ve been working here for years.” Isa chuckled, stepping in as the doors opened. Shizuo let out a sigh of relief, following after. Maybe this job will be different.
The elevator brought them down to the third floor. Shizuo remembered from the tour he had before the interview this was where most of the conference rooms for the magazines and smaller literature publishers hosted their meetings. Along the southern side had a small open lounge that had floor to ceiling windows and large plants that gave the longue a balcony feeling.
Isa claimed a table near one of the windows, sprawling out the papers before him. Shizuo sat next to him, dazed from the rush of events from the last hour. His body moved on autopilot at this point, taking a seat next to him.
Isa took out a pen, circling paper after paper. Shizuo leaned back, getting a better look at what his boss was doing. The papers were storyboard pages for comics, or he guessed manga in this case. All the drawings looked like shit to him. They were doodles at best with lines hastily scribbled in places that didn’t make sense. He noticed Isa didn’t mark them, instead focused on the shitty figures that kinda looked like people. Shizuo shifted closer, watching to see why. He barely noticed that the pen stopped moving.
“Can I help you with understanding something, Heiwajima-san?”
The blond jumped, looking away, “Uh, sorry. I didn’t mean to hover.”
Isa chuckled, tapping the pen on the paper. “No reason to apologize. I believe you didn’t want to be put in our department.” Shizuo felt his face heat up in embarrassment. “But as long as you’re here, you should at least know what to do.”
Isa slid the papers in front of him. The first thing he noticed was not all of the pages were heavily marked, some even untouched. He flipped through them, not making much sense of it all, but understanding that they were corrections. Some of the language needed work along with whatever those scribbles were in the background.
“It’s a submission for one of our contests in the zine department. Not the best, but we didn’t have many entries in the first place. Your first assignment is to see why I made my choices and to fix anything that I may have missed.”
“Wait,” He snapped his gaze to Isa, who had moved closer. “You want me to edit this? I can’t! I mean… I don’t have the experience to do so.”
“Learn.” Isa smirked, moving away and getting to his feet, “Ah, Miss Hanaki, glad you could see me at such short notice.”
A beautiful woman waved, making her way over to the two men. Shizuo quickly got to his feet, the papers on his lap scattered themselves all over the table. He cursed under his breath, pulling them into a haphazard pile. Isa sighed at the display while Miss Hanaki chuckled.
“It was no issue. I had some time before my other appointments, so it ended up working out.” She shook Isa’s hand before turning her attention to Shizuo. It took a total of a half second for his brain to process the outstretched hand.
“Uh sorry, hand shakes are a little complicated.” He bowed in respect.
Miss Hanaki nodded, taking a seat across from them, “I don’t believe we’ve met.”
“I just started today actually. Heiwajima Shizuo.” He followed suit after them. Isa took the file they were working on earlier and placed it away from them. Miss Hanaki took out a different folder and a small tray that held odd pens.
“Well it’s nice to meet you, Mister Heiwajima. I’m Hanaki Ana.”
“Now that pleasantries are out of the way, can we get to the task at hand?” Isa grabbed the file and flipped through it. “Hmmm, is this the finished manuscript?”
“Ah, sorry. I didn’t have another copy of it, so I grabbed the one before the last alterations. I did my best to fix it to fit the final product.”
Isa frowned, shifting the papers around before laying some in front of her, “Fix this. The position isn’t working for the scene anymore. It’s awkward.”
“Awkward?” Hanaki grabbed her tools, quickly falling into a rhythm. Shizuo watched in awe at how fast she worked, especially with Isa looming over her.
“No no. The angle of her face is wrong. Her nose is almost morphed into his face.” Isa erased what she just drew, “Again.”
That’s a bit harsh. Shizuo crossed his arms, seeing Hanaki nod and repeating the process. But the frown never left Isa’s face. He looked even more irritated as he erased once more.
“Again.”
“Hey don’t you think-”
“Miss Hanaki, can I ask you something?” Isa cutting off Shizuo. He didn’t even look up.
“O-Of course!” Hanaki’s voice cracked, not taking her own eyes off the paper.
The mood shifted dramatically from the beginning. Shizuo felt a pressure weighing down on his shoulders. Isa was completely different when business was happening. It was kinda terrifying.
“Have you ever kissed someone or been involved with anyone romantically?”
Shizuo choked on air. Hanaki’s face turned red as both her and Shizuo looked up at Isa with shocked expressions.
“Oi! Is that even allowed? You can’t just-”
“Have you, Miss Hanaki?” Isa cut him off once more. He glanced at Shizuo. It sent a shiver down his spine at the serious look, but something else peeked through in his expression. And then it was gone as he looked back.
“I...uhm.” She fidgeted in her seat, her fingers trembled.
“No matter.” Isa pulled back, “It’ll be easier to work with a model to show you what I mean.”
Model? Oh right, they had wooden figurines at shops before for mangaka’s and other artists to help with poses.
“Should I get one? Where do we keep-” Shizuo stood up, trying to remember if he had seen one up in the office. There was a tug at his tie, twisting his body around and something soft touching his lips.
Shizuo wasn’t an overly smart guy about a lot of things. It was probably one of the main reasons he got fired from places. Today continues to surprise him. His body frozen in place, eyes staring down at the man kissing him. It was gentle and all too familiar, but his mind couldn’t process anything at that moment.
Hanaki stared wide eyed, the pencil rolling on the table from where she dropped it. Shizuo was still held in place as Isa’s eyes opened. Their lips still connected. Shizuo didn’t believe he could feel anymore embarrassed or warm from his cheeks heating up. Isa lingered longer, before pulling away.
“Did you get that Miss Hanaki?” His dark eyes not leaving Shizuo’s.
“Y-yes! Just a second.” She recovered quicker than the blond. Isa smiled, returning to his seat and watching her draw. Shizuo stood in astonishment.
What the hell just happened?
---------------------------------------------------
Karchunk!
Shizuo groaned, his head in his hands. Today was a rollercoaster. How the fuck was he going to do this for the rest of his life? Or until he gets fired. He could feel his heartbeat in his ears and it started to hurt. Something cool grazed his fingers.
“Here, as payment.”
He glanced through his bangs at the coffee can tapping on his knuckles. He took it as Isa landed in the spot opposite on the couch, opening his own can.
“Thanks.” Shizuo mumbled, taking a long swig. At least this will stave off the headache for a while.
“You did a great job on your first day. A few bumps but that’s expected.” Isa chuckled.
Should he bring it up? Was that weird since it already happened? Isa didn’t seem like the kiss bothered him.
Why the hell would it? He was the one who kissed me!
But it had been for the artist to get a better visual, right? Yeah that was it! They were bickering before about the scene. Though…
“Hey,” he mumbled, half hoping his boss didn’t hear him. Unfortunately Isa turned his attention to him, “Was it…really appropriate for you to ask such a personal question?”
Shizuo’s lungs suffocated on the tense harshness of the silence that hung between them.
“Eh? It’s fine. My point got across and in the end we managed to fix your screw up. Besides, Miss Hanaki has been working with me for years now.” He got up, setting the can down, stretching his arms over his head.
“It’s getting late so I think I’m going to head home. You should do the same, I heard it’s supposed to rain.”
“O-oh… yeah I’ll head out soon.” Shizuo chugged the rest of the can, wanting the questions to stop bugging him. Since meeting his boss, something felt oddly familiar. His words, the way he carried himself, his dark eyes hooded under lashes too long for a guy.
Isa had grabbed his coat and bag. He stopped at the edge of the cubicle, doubling back a few steps, “Oh by the way Heiwajima-san. I thought you should know.”
Shizuo cocked an eyebrow, “Know what?”
“My name isn’t Isa. That’s a nickname everyone has given me since I started working here. Also people pronounce it wrong. It’s Iza actually.” He smiled, “I’ll see you tomorrow!~ Oh and one other thing,” he glanced around before putting a hand up to his mouth like he was telling Shizuo a secret. “You might want to practice a little more. It felt like I was kissing a fish.”
Shizuo blinked a few times, mouth agape. What?
“Bye bye!” Isa waved and headed towards the elevators.
Shizuo was left alone in the Ruby Department, the empty can in his hand matching his empty head. The name bounced off the blank walls.
Iza.
Iza.
Iz…
“Haha, Shizu-chan kisses like a fish. Haven’t you kissed anyone before?”
Iza.
Iza-ya.
Shizuo burst through the cubicles as the man he thought he would never see again stepped into the elevator. No way! Why here, why now!? How long has it been? 5 years, 10 more likely. Shizuo never kept track of those things. God, how stupid could he be not to notice sooner.
But now, after all this time wondering what happened, where did he go? Why did he run? Shizuo could possibly get the answers to all of them.
“Izaya!” He shouted, getting to the doors that only showed those dark eyes before closing.