Beauty is Within the Eye of the Beholder

"Nmph…stop it…"

"What? I thought you liked it?"

"I do, but not…not there…"

This angered an already very antsy Shizuo Heiwajima. "And why not there? It's a perfectly good spot."

"It's too public! Everyone will be staring at it!"

"Isn't that what you want?"

"Of course not! It's embarrassing! Put it somewhere else!"

"Izaya, this is where it's going!"

"Shizu-chan, if you put it there, I will cut you," Izaya Orihara warned, eyes darkening with an eerie glow.

Boom! Boom! BOOM!

"Shizu-chan, noooooooo!" the informant whined, falling to his knees in desperation.

"'ey, stop bein' such a crybaby about it. It'll look just fine," Shizuo scoffed, teeth grinding against the rusted nail within his mouth.

"It looks terrible…" Izaya whispered with sulking shoulders, causing the twenty-three year old to look much more like a tormented soul. "You've ruined its beauty…its value."

"Izaya, you had me ask the old lady next door if you could have it, because you wanted it for your apartment. She was about to put it on the side of the road! If it was going to become trash, I don't think it has very much value to begin with," the blond huffed, continuing to pound his set of nails into the wall.

"You don't understand the concept of art do you, Shizu-chan?" Izaya sighed, raising to his feet and strolling over to where Shizuo stood working very diligently at doing something that the broker didn't even want him to be doing.

"I don't understand somethin', alright, but that somethin' ain't art. It's yo—tch! Ow! What was that for?" the bodyguard spat, turning on his socked heel, only to be faced with the silvery metal of Izaya's switchblade.

"I warned you before, but you didn't listen to me, Shizu-chan," Izaya breathed. With a flick of his wrist, the blade was concealed. "I told you that if you did it, I would cut you."

"Yeah, yeah, whatever. Just go get me some bandages, or somethin'. You drew blood."

With a small nod to the injury, Izaya scurried up the stairs of his penthouse apartment, his destination being the bathroom's medicine cabinet.

"Too big…" he hummed, tossing aside some heavy-duty bandages. "Too small…" he sighed, sifting through the bandages that he used specifically for paper cuts. "…This could work," he affirmed, finding a rather medium-sized bandage, one that wasn't too big, yet not too small, either.

Talking as he made his descent down the stairs, the informant began, "Hey, Shizu-chan, I found a bandage for—" but cut short with what his eyes had come across. The painting. Shizuo had already hung it into place, not the place that Izaya had wanted ( because who knows wherever that was ), but into place nonetheless. "Shizu-chan, it looks—"

"Great, right? You like it there, don't ya?" Shizuo butted in, features smug with a cheeky grin.

"Hideous."

"…Come again?"

"I said it looks hideous. Take it down and throw it away."

Shizuo stared. He stared long and hard at the informant, comprehending, yet not comprehending what in this forsaken world he was talking about. "You want me to take it down…?"

"Yes. Now, please. Get it out of my sight." To emphasize his point, Izaya covered his eyes with the palm of his hand.

"How about I knock out your eyeballs instead? That way you won't have to look at it, huh!" Shizuo spat, anger raging deep within his bones. To think, he put up with all of Izaya's interior decorative fuss just for him to take the painting down and throw it away? Nuh-uh. That wasn't happening.

"That's a rather ghastly thing to say, Shizu-chan. Very unpleasant. Just take it down," Izaya huffed, becoming somewhat irritated himself.

"No! It's staying right where it is!"

"Shizu-chan!"

"NO!" With a balled fist, Shizuo punched his hand straight into the wall, though with a few miscalculations, the blond had ended up placing a nice hole into the corner most edge of the painting's canvas.

"Great, now look what you've done!" Izaya yelled, stomping over to the disaster zone. "You've made it look worse!"

"I think it looks better than it did before! Gives the damn thing some depth!" Shizuo growled, turning his back to the raven.

"Depth, huh? Well then, how about some of this for 'depth'!" Izaya shot back, retrieving his switchblade that rested in safe dormancy within his back pocket. Slicing through the thin canvas of the painting, creating x's and zigzags, the broker almost jumped out of his skin when Shizuo landed another swift punch right into the center of the painting.

"You missed a spot," Shizuo grinned teasingly.

"So did you," Izaya replied, a cunning smile curling the edges of his lips as his index finger tapped the side of his own cheek, a clear indication for Shizuo to punch it.

Grabbing a fist full of Izaya's shirt, Shizuo pulled the raven close. With both chests flush up against each other, a kindling heat of battle was formed between the two.

"You wanna die?" Shizuo snarled in a low tone.

Being as close as they were, Izaya could feel the gentle vibrations of the blond's voice, a notion that sent chills racing up and down his spinal cord.

"You first."

"Npmh…Shizu-chan…not…not there!"

"Shut up. I can put 'em wherever the Hell I want."

"No, don't…sto…stop it-!"

Sucking and lapping at the now battered and bruised skin of Izaya's neck, Shizuo let out a soft chuckle. "See? I know a little something about art, flea."

"Tch," Izaya scoffed, rolling his eyes as he sat up from his laying position on the floor. "I'm not a canvas, you know."

"You're right," Shizuo whispered gently, surprising the broker when he had captured his face and locked their lips, making for the softest of all kisses to be given by such an unruly beast. "You're a masterpiece."

It wasn't common for Izaya to blush, but having been caught so unawares, a pretty shade of pink began powdering the informant's cheeks. "Whatever…"

Struggling to stand after being all but thrown onto the hard floor of his apartment, the informant audibly sighed and looked at painting, or rather, what was once a painting now a very messy and torn canvas that just so happened to be painted.

"Shizu-chan?"

"Yeah?" the blond said in question, letting out a small huff as he too came to a stand.

"I've changed my mind."

"About what?"

"About the painting, you protozoan."

Looking at the wall hanging, Shizuo rose a curious brow. "You want to keep it?"

"Yeah, I do, actually."

"But it's all…ripped and stuff."

"It's beautiful."

Shizuo switched his footing and fit a hand into his hip. "Beautiful, huh?"

"Yes," Izaya nodded, smiling brightly as he turned to face Shizuo.

"It's a masterpiece."

Hello there! Chappy here! :D

I'm terribly sorry about not writing anything for a while...D: This has been a crazy summer for me!

As an apology to you guys, I wrote this quicky one-shot. I hope you've enjoyed it! :D

It's so much more light-hearted than my other works for Shizaya, so it was a nice change of pace for me. XD

Anywho, that's all for me! Thank you for reading! :D

- Chappy