Izaya observed his face as it was reflected in the glinting, purely glimmering metal. What he saw gazing back at him was a visage that many called 'beautiful'. He was well known for his charcoal hair and stormy brown eyes, a slender physique and a smirk to go with it.

He felt it barely compared though. It hardly held any weight when pitted against what was sitting on the opposite side of this chess board from him.

“Haha...I don't know how many times I'm going to have to tell you before you finally get it.”

With a deft twirl, he finally pointed the weapon in your direction.

You weren't looking your best. Hours of crying and writhing around in these rough ropes had left you ragged. Your eyes were rimmed with red, lips still quivering from pent-up sobs that hadn't been released yet. You choked out a couple when he aimed for you, shutting those same eyes tight, and lowering your head. Hair already tousled by your frantic struggles, you obscured your own vision with it anyway.

“...Now that's no good. How are you supposed to play my little game if you can't even see it?”

Izaya rose up from his seat, reveling in how you seemed to tremble more and more the closer he came to you. His pale hand reached out and slipped under some of those matted strands, pushing them back away from your forehead and revealing the beauty he had come to know and love so much.

“That's better. Now-” Izaya took your chin in his hand and jerked it up, at the same time forcing you to open your eyes again. They tearfully stared ahead at the board, the pieces all arranged haphazardly in some manner that only someone like him could truly understand. It was like he had tipped out the dregs of a Monopoly box, you spied kings and queens, Othello and Shogi orphans intermingled with them.

“See that there? That's you.” he continued cupping your chin and cheek in one hand, leaning over from behind your seat and pressing his very fingertip to the top of a little pawn. “You're so...small...and weak...”

His nails pinched the top and he let the piece roll into his hand.

“Caught in my palm, with nowhere to go. So if I wanted to...I could just...”

Izaya didn't vocally finish his sentence, choosing instead to show you practically and clench his digits into a fist around the pawn. You could almost feel your heart twisting as he did so. Eventually he let it drop and clatter to the board, and fresh tears fell as you watched it roll limply to a stop, lying there as if it were truly useless to anyone.

“Understand?”

You jolted suddenly and inhaled sharply, as his voice abruptly spoke right by your ear. Frantically you nodded, and that dark chuckle only made its comeback.

“Hehehe...excellent. Then you're probably aware of the stakes here. But...you're not the only pawn being played...”

Watching him as he moved again to the other side, you felt as if the binds that had you wrapped up in this darkened room- wherever it was- had only gotten tighter.

“All your friends, all your family, everyone you've ever cared about, they're aaallll here, and you get to decide what happens to them.” he leaned over the chessboard and tilted his head curiously. Here came the dreaded question.

“So, what will it be? Either way, I'm going to untie you in exactly 1 minute. You can give in to me like I want you to, and accept that you're never going to see any of these people again. At the very least, they'll live if you choose that. But if you want to be stubborn and try to fight back against me then you can do that too.”

His head lowered a little, gaze darkening and focusing right in on you like a couple of rusted bullets.

“You can try at least, but I think you and I both know how things will end up.”

True. You did know.

They'd end up in a roadside ditch at best, and at worst...probably chained and at his command for eternity.

“But I know what you're thinking-” Izaya suddenly started mocking your typical tone of voice, softening his own for it, “-'It's better to die trying to save the ones I love, than to live as a prisoner', right? Well...there's this funny thing in chess called 'capturing'. Though I suppose I'm using the term loosely...as if you do decide to say no to me, and I do decide to go through with other means...then I'm not going to be 'capturing' any of your precious loved ones like I've done with you. No no...”

His soft lips split apart into a sharp grin that only seemed to mirror his blade, all in white. His eyes never left you as his fingers curled and flicked out against each and every piece that was laid there. He sent them flying and clattering to different points in the room, all the while accompanying his actions with more cruel talk.

“I don't care about any of them.”

Click!

“I only care about you...”

Clack!

“They mean nothing to me...”

SLAM!

His hand, down upon the table and smashing the game board in two. He stared at you from two inches away, his body already crawling halfway onto that surface just so he could come so closely. You gazed back, utterly frightened, into those cold eyes of his.

“[Y/N]...I'll kill anyone and everyone that I have to, until I get what I want.” his scalding breath exhaled upon your lips with every callous word, “I'll admit it...you've tried to see the good in me before, but that was your mistake. You made it easier. But in the end, you can still win. Just surrender to me, and I won't have any reason to hurt the ones you care about. They won't matter anymore, because neither of us will ever have to see them again.”

Kida. Ryuu. Shizuo.

Shizuo.

Shizuo.

Shizuo.

Shizuo.

Izaya raised the last piece he hadn't yet knocked down. He dangled it temptingly before both you and himself, king at his command.

“He's the one who's making you so indecisive, isn't he? But what's worse, [Y/N]? Breaking his heart by abandoning him for me?” Izaya smirked again, before his lips came to hover by your ear.

“Or letting me break him in his entirety?”

Your mouth only parted wider as you watched him practically crumble the chess piece into dust, cracking and breaking it apart in his remarkably solid grip. The veins on his hand were prominent, there was an unbridled rage there that he was barely holding back. A passion he had never known before meeting you.

“N-no...!” you gasped out, and he simply smiled in a soft and eerie fashion, pulling back again and dusting his hands off.

“So.” he glanced at his black watch, then back at you again, “Decision time.”

“W-wait! W—ait I—I'm not ready yet I--!!”

No waiting. It was go time, and Izaya signaled that clearly by slicing the ropes off you and hauling you up by your collar. He held you just like that, continuing to toy with his knife in the other hand. You stumbled closer to him unwillingly, and he just tugged you even tighter against his body.

The fur from his jacket tickled your skin. You could only really see his eyes as they looked at you expectantly, awaiting your answer without even asking for it. Izaya felt he had made it clear enough already. Lose everything you cared about, and possibly your own life? Or simply choose to love him as much as he undoubtedly loved you...

The only one. You were the only one he felt this way about. It was remarkable really, to think that he had spent so much time observing and studying humans, and yet this facet of their...well...humanity, had eluded him for so long. He wasn't the type who'd have much trouble getting a date, and he'd even spent time pretending to be a girl online before. It wasn't like he didn't understand the concept either.

But...to truly love another. To be willing to do so much for one person.

That really was a first.

His hand only gripped you tighter as the silenced dragged on. Why were you just gaping at him like that? Fuck, you looked like you were about to burst into tears again, and he didn't know if he could be bothered with another half hour just waiting for you to calm down. If you forced his hand then you forced his hand, but things would be so much simpler if you just said...

“Y-yes.”

Izaya blinked once, before his smile grew again, teeth relaxing from their grinding posture concealed by those lips of his. Of course you said 'yes'. Someone who deserved to be with him would never act like such a fool.

“That's what I thought. Well played, [Y/N]...”

His teeth emerged a little only to bite down on his bottom lip. Now that he had the go ahead he could finally do what he had been waiting to do for so long. He tugged it harshly then let it pop back again, just in time for pressing the pair right against yours. His kiss was thrust upon you in an instant, his hands cupping your cheeks firmly and holding your head in place.

You weren't going anywhere now. You'd never leave him, never leave his sight. The thought of how well this had all worked out just made him groan and thrust his tongue harder against yours, entangling the two and taking complete control. As if he hadn't possessed it already regardless...

Yes, this was perfection. The best way that things could have panned out.

Plus...Izaya didn't technically make any promises, nor sign any deals. There was no contract, no fancy slip of paper that said he couldn't bash Shizuo's fucking brains in if he was feeling like it. These were all his rules, and you were playing by them whether you liked it or not.

As he pulled back from the kiss, his arms wrapped around your middle and squeezed you like a snake. His chin rested on your shoulder, the corners of his lips tugging smugly, before you heard something being whispered, just under his breath.

A single, simple word.

“Checkmate.”