Fear of Falling (Izaya Orihara)

Chapter 3: Gossip

Shizuo had laid down on the sofa and fell asleep shortly after introducing me to Tanaka, but I wasn't mad at him for it. I appreciated the normalcy in the act. To me, he was treating me like nothing changed. He was giving me space and time to relax a little before grilling me with questions. But in reality, he was probably bored because I was talking with Tanaka. Oh well.

I learned more from Tanaka than Shizuo would have told me on his own. Tanaka told me how Shizuo had been for as long as he'd known him. He also said he was a debt collector and explained that Shizuo was his bodyguard/fear tactic to get people to pay up. I was happy Shizuo had finally found a job he could keep. Although it wasn't the job I would have suggested him, it seemed like it fit him better than any other job. There's almost no jobs you can do if you lose your temper a lot and beat people up. I was glad Tanaka didn't seem to care about that kind of stuff. Probably because it helped his reputation.

Eventually it got late. Not wanting to wake Shizuo up, Tanaka quickly showed me around the house and then we rolled out a spare futon in a guest room. He left after making sure I was comfortable enough that he could leave.

I changed clothes and walked back into the living room to see if Shizuo was still asleep. He was. I smiled and draped a blanket over him before turning off the lights in the living room and going back to my new room. I changed clothes, got ready to sleep, turned out the lights, and pulled out my phone. I wasn't just going to go straight to bed, I have internet stuff to do.

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Chatroom guide:

≺≻Hikaru. Username: Natsumi

[ ] Celty. Username: Setton

【】 Mikado. Username: Tarou Tanaka

《》Izaya. Username: Kanra

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―NATSUMI HAS ENTERED THE CHAT―

≺Hey guys. Natsu here. What's up?≻

【Good evening, Natsu.】

[Hello, Natsumi.]

【Setton and I were just talking about the black rider.】

【I saw the black rider was right outside Sunshine today. Did you see it?】

≺I didn't.≻

【Aww. It was really cool. Setton and I happened to see it at the same time. We could have run into each other without knowing!】

But . . . we already ran into each other today. . .

【Anyways, do either of you know someone named Izaya Orihara? I was talking to my friends and they said I should stay away from him.】

【You probably don't know him.】

Great, not this again. Since I had already given Mikado my thoughts earlier, I decided not to respond.

[. . .]

[Tarou Tanaka, are your friends . . . those kinds of people?]