Chapter Text
“Kida-kun, there’s always a guard in the front office, you know that,” Izaya chides the young blond, bored of the conversation he had just been dragged into. Kida responds with something about bathroom breaks but Izaya just picks at the loose threads on his chair's armrest. Kida has brought this conversation to him too many times to really pay much attention.
Shinra passes by the long window that separates the room with a hallway, a tall man wearing the plain garments of experimental subjects trailing behind him. Izaya's lips twist upward when he recognizes the man. Now this will be far more entertaining. Kida stops mid-sentence at Izaya's sudden change in expression.
Izaya leaves Kida without a thought and hurries out of the room to catch up with Shinra and his presumably new charge. Shinra smiles as Izaya approaches, “Ah, Izaya, have you met Shizuo?”
Izaya skips to a stop in front of Shizuo and smiles up at him. Really, that height difference is unfair. He remembers quite fondly all those fun times the monster had tried to murder him whenever they met in the cafeteria. “Of course I’ve met Shizu-chan. Is he yours now?”
Shizuo audibly grinds his teeth. That famous temper is clearly taking hold, which Izaya only finds more entertaining. “I told you to stop calling me that.”
Shinra laughs, completely unperturbed by the animosity now clouding the small space between the two. “He’s like Anri,” he says, “My father got tired of having to patch him up after experiments so he handed him off to me during down time.”
Izaya steps closer to Shizuo to examine the barely visible bandages underneath the sleeves of his shirt. He’s also testing how close he can get before the beast snaps. It hasn’t taken much in the past.
Sadly, showing surprising restraint, Shizuo takes a step back. His fists are shaking though, so Izaya knows he’s succeeding. “Leave me alone, ya damned flea.”
Letting out a chuckle, Izaya steps closer again. He catches Shinra shaking his head out of the corner of his eye, the doctor’s exasperation with his subject’s antics clear. “Why should I listen to a monster with brute strength?”
To Izaya’s delight, this finally cracks Shizuo’s control. He roars and launches himself at Izaya, who side steps out of the way. Shizuo swirls around to punch his opponent, but Izaya laughs, nearing manic, as he dodges Shizuo. “Silly beast! I know you like me oh so much, but I only love humans!”
“IZAYA!” Shizuo bellows, but is cut off by a beep of his collar before he can attempt another punch. The collar injects a sedative directly into his bloodstream and he can’t stop his momentum before it sends him face first to the floor. Izaya makes sure to file that image away for later enjoyment.
Shinra sighs, the remote to Shizuo’s collar in his hand. “Do you have to do that, Izaya?”
“Do what?” he asks innocently, but startles when a hand slaps around his ankle.
The beast is struggling to inflict some kind of harm to his target, still in the throes of his anger. His face contorts into a semblance of a smile. “Caught you, Flea.”
Before Shizuo can rip off his leg or something, Shinra thankfully presses the remote again. The second dose of sedative, which is already five times the usual amount, finally knocks the beast out.
“I know exactly how to punish you for this, Izaya,” Shinra says happily, humming as he signals a guard to drag Shizuo to the dorms.
~
Waking up is always a slow process for Shizuo, but it’s definitely exacerbated by the drugs. He blinks his eyes to bright light and a piece of board above his head. It takes a moment for him to settle into consciousness, so he takes stock of the state of his body. He’s so groggy from the drugs that it’s hard to even feel his limbs, but everything’s accounted for, even the vague ache in his upper arms from Shingen's morning tests. The drugs always make everything so… floaty.
“Ah! Is Shizu-chan awake?”
The high grating voice immediately floods anger through his brain. His hand grasps a metal pole and bends it before he can fully register what he’s doing.
“Hey! That’s my bed you’re deforming you know!” Izaya warns but doesn’t move closer. He’s sitting on the floor in front of the bed Shizuo’s in. “You really are a beast.”
Shizuo groans but manages to reign himself in. He lets go of the bed post that is now shaped like his knuckles. The drugs help mellow out his mood a bit, at least. His lethargic brain filters through fuzzy memories of trying to attack the flea and Shinra dosing him. He mulls over Izaya’s words.
“This is your bed?” he asks.
“No, the one above you is. I would have much preferred you as far away from me as possible, but, unfortunately, this is the only open bed in Shinra’s dorm.” Izaya’s eyes roam over Shizuo’s head, probably assessing the damage to his own bed.
Shizuo takes another moment to process this information. Shingen hadn’t given him much warning about a reassignment. Just handed him off to Shinra and waltzed away. At least he has an actual bed now. His old one had been more of a cubbyhole. He remembers Izaya’s presence when those unsettling maroon eyes dart back to him.
“Why were you watching me sleep?” he asks, sitting up slowly. He tests out his limbs one by one, trying to shake out the heaviness.
Izaya lets out an exaggerated groan. “Shinra told me I had to explain his rules to you because he’s too busy and he hates me.” He pouts for a bit but continues with a sigh when Shizuo only stares at him expectantly. “I’m assuming Shingen was your previous torturer because of the blue shirt, which also explains the blond hair. That one has a bit of a hang up. I think it has to do with his blonde wife.”
Shizuo catches a strand of hair in his eyes to examine it. He hadn’t really thought about why Shingen had bleached his hair. Just some kind of tactic to mark him as Shingen’s property, maybe. He also hadn’t noticed the color coded shirts, which brought him to the question of who Izaya belongs to, given his red shirt. Shingen had at least explained some time ago that his son was more of a doctor than a scientist, and was only around to keep the other scientists' subjects from dying.
The flea continues before he has time to ask, though. “Shinra’s pretty different from Shingen, or any of the other scientists really. You’re allowed anywhere in his section without supervision aside from the procedure rooms and his office. There’s a rec room with a small library and some games, board and video. This is Shinra’s only dorm, I’ll show you the showers later, and you know the cafeteria, obviously. I think that’s it?” he pauses for a moment to consider, then tacks on, “Shingen will come by whenever he feels like it for experiments, and Shinra then can patch up your monstrous flesh afterword!”
A growl escapes from Shizuo’s throat, but he decides to stretch out his arms in order to distract himself from the anger. Being drugged again really doesn’t seem like a great idea. Even if there’s no one around at the moment, there’s security cameras and guards everywhere. He knows from experience that his collar can be activated remotely. The stretching feels nice, even though his muscles are still sore. Shingen had made him lift some weights that morning, but after a certain weight his arms had started to tear themselves apart.
A young girl with black hair quietly enters the room. She barely glances at Shizuo and Izaya before slipping into a bed on the other side of the room without a word. Shizuo notes that she has a red shirt.
“Be careful of that one, she can control minds to some extent,” Izaya informs him. He watches the small girl for a moment longer. He had been about her age when he was taken here. What she must be going through... He glances back to the flea, who has that irritating grin on his stupid face. This is the most helpful he’s ever been, weirdly enough. He's only ever goaded Shizuo into violence whenever they met in the cafeteria or some group experiment. “Her name’s Anri. She’s like you, an experimental success. Shinra mostly gets put in charge of failures that still have some potential. I’m sure you know what happens to experiments that are damaged beyond repair.” He actually doesn't, but doesn't want to ask. “She doesn’t like me much.”
“I doubt anyone likes you much,” Shizuo mutters. “Why am I stuck with Shinra if I’m a success then?” The thought of being a “success” kind of pissed him off. Theres nothing successful about being turned into something that hurts others.
“You don’t know?” Izaya mock gasps, shaking his head. Shizuo has to resist reaching out to throttle the little roach again. Of course he doesnt know, Shingen kept him mostly isolated and barely explained anything to him. “Your experiments harm you too much. Even if Shingen managed to achieve what he set out to do, for example your beastly strength, which is what makes you a success, you have too many injuries because of it. So Shinra is in charge of healing you up for more tests. Technically you are now under his charge, even though you’re still considered Shingen’s subject.”
Shizuo hates that subject is interchangeable with property. “Are you a failure then?”
Izaya merely tsks at him and smiles. “Could you fix my bed?”