So, this is the companion piece to "I Don't Like You"! Honestly, even before all the positive feedback and clamors for Shizuo's side of things I had planned to write this part. You guys just gave me the incentive to write it faster than I would have.

If you are coming in not having read "I Don't Like You", you don't need to read it before reading this. These pieces are meant to be able to be read separately, so knowledge of one isn't needed for the other. The only reason that I would suggest reading "I Don't Like You" at some point would be simply because it provides a little more world building for the soulmate logic that is within this au.

That being said, I hope everyone enjoys "That's Too Bad"!

Disclaimer: I do not own Durarara

"That's Too Bad"

Some people are born with tattoos that show the first words that their soulmate says to them. On some, these tattoos appear later in life. Heiwajima Shizuo never expected to be one such person. Companion to "I Don't Like You"

Shizuo had never thought much of soulmate tattoos before. They had never really mattered all that much to him considering that he wasn't born with one like a few of the kids in his year at school were. Sure, it would have been nice to have one, to have that reassurance that there was someone out there for him who would love him despite his monstrous strength, but he didn't lose too much sleep over not having a soulmate tattoo. After all, just because someone did have a soulmate tattoo didn't mean that they would run into that person right away.

Still, telling himself that he was okay not having one did not prepare Shizuo for the eventuality that one day he may wake up with a soulmate tattoo on his person.

It had always been a possibility. True, while most people who had soulmate tattoos were born with them, there was a percentage of the population who simply woke up one morning and found the tattoo somewhere upon their person. According to the ever increasing 'specialists' in the field of soulmate tattoos, most tattoos appeared on people somewhere before their twenty-fifth or thirtieth birthdays (depending on who you listened to). The words could appear anywhere on a person's body, meaning it was completely possible for someone to completely miss the words appearing on their body unless they were actively looking for them.

Shizuo was one such person who missed the words appearing on his body, which was incredible considering the fact that they weren't exactly hidden. In fact, he probably would never have realized he had the tattoo if it wasn't, unfortunately, for Shinra, and his habit of invading people's personal space.

"Whoa, Shizuo-kun, what's that on your wrist?" The only reason he had swung by the two's shared apartment to begin with was because he had wanted to talk with Celty about something or another. Shinra actually being home at the time was just a slight inconvenience.

[What is it?] Celty typed on her PDA, coming closer as Shizuo's wrist became Shinra's captive. Really, it wouldn't take much effort for Shizuo to break free, but Shinra hadn't tried anything weird yet, so he was fine with standing still for the time being.

"How should I know?" Shizuo looked down at his wrist as well, watching as Shinra twisted it this way and that, studying the blackness that was now circling his wrist like a strange decorative bracelet.

"I think it's a soulmate tattoo!" Shinra announced at last, shifting Shizuo's hand so it was palm up.

"A what?" Shizuo was a bit surprised, not really sure if he heard Shinra right. Seriously, he couldn't have just said…

[A soulmate tattoo?] Celty echoed, both her and Shizuo staring at Shinra.

"A soulmate tattoo!" Shinra repeated himself, lightly tapping the tip of his index finger on Shizuo's pulse, the mid-section of the first artfully drawn letter. "I mean, unless you got a tattoo without telling anyone, but that's unlikely."

"Huh," Shizuo stared at the tattoo, eyes tracing over the words. "How're you sure? That it's a soulmate tattoo, I mean." Shizuo had never really seen one in real life before. He had seen them in movies before, that type of genre increasing in popularity – Kasuka had starred in a few of them, which was really the only reason why Shizuo had actually sat down and watched them.

"Ah, it's more of a strong hypothesis, really," Shinra hummed, idly turning Shizuo's arm as he continued, "I mean, the best indicator at the moment is that you were unaware of the tattoo's existence before I pointed it out to you – I know you don't feel pain like normal people, but I'm pretty sure even you would notice getting a tattoo. Besides," He tapped the tattoo decorating Shizuo's wrist again, "I doubt this is the sort of phrase you'd get tattooed onto your wrist, Shizuo-kun. It makes more sense that this is a soulmate tattoo – seems more like something someone would say, rather than something someone would get as a regular tattoo."

"What kind of person would say something like this as their first words to some? 'Specially to their soulmate?" It's more of a rhetorical question, Shizuo thinking aloud as he stared at the words. Had he met the person who had said these words to him already? Or did he have yet to run into them? What was the context behind the exchange, what had Shizuo said to incite this reply? Or what had he said in response? If it was a future exchange, what would the context be, how would this exchange start?

"Who knows?" Shinra shrugged unhelpfully without sympathy. "But really, you have it easier than some with your first words from your soulmate. I mean, you should see the soulmate tattoo that Orihara-kun has –" Shinra froze, laughing nervously as he realized he had said the magic words, quickly removing his hands as Shizuo clenched his into fists.

"Man, just saying the flea's name pisses me off," Shizuo grumbled, eyes darkening just at the mere thought of the flea. "And the fact that he has a soulmate tattoo pisses me off even more. Who the hell would love a scheming bastard like him?"

"Ah, that's the ten million yen question, isn't it?" Laughed Shinra, but it fell upon deaf ears as Shizuo was already stomping off towards the door. "H-Hey, where are you going Shizuo-kun?"

"To Shinjuku, to pound the louse's face in," Shizuo's response was casual, as if this was a commonplace occurrence. Which, considering the fact that it was Heiwajima Shizuo they were talking to, it actually was.

"IZAYA-KUN!" The Fortissimo of Ikebukuro howled when he came across the object of his ire merrily skipping through the streets of Ikebukuro with nary a care in the world. He grabbed the nearest projectile – a red trashcan – and took aim. "I THOUGHT I TOLD YOU STAY THE HELL OUT OF IKEBUKURO?"

Shizuo hurled the trash can at Izaya, who jumped nimbly out of the way of its curving arc through the air.

"Ah, Shizu-chan!" Izaya greeted with a chipper tone and a smile that didn't quite reach his eyes. As he spoke, he pulled a switchblade from his pocket, brandishing it in front of him, pointed at the other male. "Just the last person I wanted to see! Can you do me a favor and return to whatever hole you crawled out of today, ne? I have important business to take care of."

"Like I'm going to let you get up to whatever shady shit you have planned this time, I-za-ya-kun," His fist crumpled around a street sign, ripping it from the ground with as much ease as breaking a toothpick. It was the seventh this week. Shizuo adjusted his grip on it, before swinging it like a bat at his rival, continuing with, "Why don't you just go crawling back to Shinjuku, hah?"

Ducking backwards out of the range of Shizuo's wild swing, Izaya gave a manic chuckle before turning and running in the opposite direction. Not even a second had passed before Shizuo was following, hot in pursuit.

"Ne, Shizu-chan really is a monster, isn't he, attacking somebody for no reason?" Crowed Izaya sometime later, barely out of breath, as the two faced off at a standstill, the wreckage of the part of Ikebukuro they had been duking it out in this time surrounding them. "Makes you pity the poor thing that ends up having a beast like you as their soulmate."

Grinding his teeth with enough force that it was surprising he didn't break them, Shizuo clenched his fist tighter around the stop sign pole he was holding. Unsurprisingly, it snapped in half, falling with a piercing clatter on the asphalt.

"Like hell you'd know anything," He ground out, storming his way to close the distance between himself and Izaya.

"Wouldn't I?" Izaya responded coyly, a demented look in his eyes as he gave an over exaggerated shrug. He didn't flee from Shizuo however, standing his ground even as Shizuo got closer and closer. "Really, I'd go so far as to say that I'm in a position to know better than yourself, Shizu-chan."

"Just because you have one of these damn tattoos too doesn't mean you know anything about who's my soulmate," Shizuo barked, his fist closing around Izaya's shirt collar moments before Izaya could move out of the way. With how close Shizuo was to Izaya, he didn't miss the way that Izaya's eyes widened in surprise for a fraction of a second before hardening into a cold dark glare.

"Ah, and how did Shizu-chan come across that information?" Izaya's words and tone were light and overly cheery, a direct contrast to his current appearance and demeanor. "Wait, don't tell me – it was our dear friend, Shinra, wasn't it?" He gave an annoyed sighed, like it was something he had expected, but didn't appreciate none too much. "That's too bad. And here I thought we shared something of a mutual respect for each other's secrets."

Something in Izaya's words sent a jolt down Shizuo's spine for some reason, a warm burn that wasn't quite as unpleasant as it should have been. It was something so quick that Shizuo almost missed it, but he didn't have much time to ponder it as the louse was still speaking. Not that Shizuo really cared much about whatever the flea had to say, but it did matter when the flea decided to point another of those toothpicks of his at him.

"–really was fun playing with you Shizu-chan," The flea was prattling when Shizuo tuned back in. "But I do have work I need to be getting to, so why don't we continue this next time, ne?"

With a flurry of motion Izaya swung the knife up, drawing a cut open through Shizuo's wrist. Shizuo released Izaya more from surprise at the other's sudden movement rather than pain from what was essentially the equivalent of a rather big papercut. As soon as Izaya was free, he was jumping away and vanishing like a particularly annoying gnat.

"Fucking louse," Shizuo grumbled after Izaya had disappeared down a side street, fumbling through his pockets to procure his cigarette pack and lighter, already having decided not to resume in chasing the louse. This time, anyways. Lighting the cigarette, he waited until he had taken a drag of nicotine before actually looking at the slash that the flea had inflicted upon him.

The wound wasn't worth a trip to see Shinra to fix it up. It wasn't bleeding that badly, and Shizuo still had superglue back at his apartment that would work to seal it up if it was still bleeding later. What really incensed Shizuo about it was that the line the flea drew on him this time scored right through his newly formed soulmate tattoo. Part of him wanted to track Izaya down on principle, to beat the other up for marring the words that symbolized his first meeting with the person who was destined to be his soulmate, but Shizuo managed to restrain himself as his fingers wiped away the blood, eyes tracing the delicately inscribed sentence circling his wrist. Reading the phrase, he thought maybe that that was why there was something about the louse's earlier words that startled him – the feeling obviously being disgust when he reflected back on it, because that was the only feeling that it logically could have been.

(Later, he would give a casual inquiry to Shinra about scars over soulmate tattoos. Shizuo would be told that the words would show no scarring over them, and that the tattoo, essentially, would be unmarred as if no trauma had occurred. When Shizuo would follow up with a question about how Shinra came about that knowledge, the other would hesitate nervously for a moment too long that told Shizuo exactly how, even though the underground doctor wouldn't admit to anything.

But really, how fucked up did the flea have to be to try and destroy his own soulmate tattoo?)

After all, revulsion was the only explanation Shizuo could come up with for how he reacted when he thought of the words comprising his soulmate tattoo spilling from Izaya's lips, of all people.

"That's too bad."

Please read and review~!