[PRP] An Exchange of Information

[insidiousEnigma]

Orihara Izaya.

It had been a very, very long time since he'd heard that particular name. So long in fact, that he'd had to look back all the way back to his junior high school records. Time didn't seem to change much for the dark haired man though, if being in jail for being a member of Team Rocket was anything to go by. Izaya had always been a trouble maker (not that he had a particularly clean slate either) and it seemed that it had followed him into adulthood. But he supposed that was a good thing, a very good thing indeed.

"Hello, I was hoping I'd be able to have a talk with Izaya Orihara?"

Andre flashed his most his most pathetic smile and nervously fiddled with the ends of his hair. "It's just...we had been such good friends back in school and I just-" He paused to suck in a sharp breath, as if hold back a sob. "I just...I need to know why." His fingers clenched against the smooth wood of the desk as he ducked his head. He was motioned to go sit in the waiting area until the inmate had been prepared. Excellent, it seems he didn't have to do too much acting to get what he wanted. Always a pleasant turn of events. So the purple haired man lowered himself to sit prim and proper in an uncomfortable wooden seat to wait. He hoped it wouldn't be a particularly long wait. While he had patience to spare for most aspects of his life when it came to getting information on his baby brother....he had zero tolerance for anyone's bullshit. Though he knew if Izaya acted the same way he did when they were younger...he would need all of his strength not to loose his cool.  

[lZAYA ORlHARA]

First Rosie, now what? Izaya was glad to have breaks in his boredom to talk to people for sure, but due to his situation, he was wary of who would choose to come visit. After his partner's sister, he wouldn't have thought anyone else could have surprised him, but he was wrong yet again.

This both delighted and perturbed him - the former because humans had yet again exceeded his expectations, but the latter when he realized exactly which member of the human race it was. Rosie's reason for coming to see him he could understand somewhat, but why this man?

Despite his initial confusion and puzzlement, the info broker wore his usual, emotion-concealing smile as he entered the room, taking the time to make observations in order to get a better grip on the situation. Initially, the Rocket had thought it was Zacharie with his bangs finally out of his eyes. Upon closer inspection, however, he realized that this was a vaguely familiar face - more familiar than Zacharie's, even. The close resemblance could not be ignored, however.

Suddenly, the reason for the newcomer's appearance didn't seem any more mysterious than Izaya's previous visitor after all. In fact, if his guess was right, it hardly seemed any different than the reasoning a majority of his previous clients had come to him - for information about a loved one.

The black-haired man sat down before the glass wall that separated him from his purple-haired peer, grinning from ear to ear. "Senpai!" he cried happily as he picked up the phone that connected him to his visitor. It didn't seem to matter to him if said visitor had picked up his own phone yet, so long as they could read the looks on one another's faces. "It's been so long~! Have I really been so hard to track down that you had to wait for me to be incarcerated to get in touch?"  

[insidiousEnigma]

Izaya's enthusiastic smile was met with a raised eyebrow as Andre straightened out his vest and settled himself into his seat on the opposite side of the glass. He didn't need the phone to know the annoying moniker that the dark haired man was likely chirping, he could read it on his lips. The phone was plucked from its holder between forefinger and thumb and slowly brought up to his ear. "Hello Izaya, long time no see.~" He cocked his head as a wide smile slid across his face. He wasn't surprised to note that the other remembered him, from what he'd heard it was his job to know and remember things about seemingly everyone. Well, that was one thing they had in common. "I suppose the same could be asked of you." He pouted, letting the hand not currently holding the phone to his ear drop into his lap. "No letters, no calls, you didn't even come to play over at my house when I left school." His shoulders slumped ever so slightly as if genuinely upset by the other's lack of communication over the years.

To be honest with himself, he had forgotten about his former classmate until he had been brought to his attention. Not surprising though, he tended not to give a s**t about people who weren't of use to him.

"Imagine my surprise when I hear that you've gone and joined Team Rocket!" He shook his head sadly and gave a heavy sigh. "I just...I can't believe someone that I went to school with joined such a horrible, organization. It's such dreadful business." He raised his head slightly to give the dark haired male a confused look.  

[lZAYA ORlHARA]

Having anticipated Andre's lip-reading, Izaya was not disappointed when he received a reply. Twisting the phone cord around his finger like an infatuated school girl, he gushed, "Senpai was waiting for me to contact him? And all this time I didn't even realize he knew I existed!"

He seemed to have read along the same lines as the purple-haired young man. It was as if they were speaking in code; a language all their own. Since they had similar thought processes, it wasn't that difficult for Izaya to guess at the reality of things, such as Andre's prior lack of interest in him. As much as he loved humans, the upperclassman hadn't crossed his mind since they'd last attended school together and he could bet it was the same for Andre.

"But you know, even if I did, I've been too busy evading idiots like Shizu-chan to try to get Senpai to notice me." He winked flirtatiously. "Now, though, it seems I have your attention. I don't think I could be happier!" A pause, his smile faltering. "...Unless, perhaps, Senpai's come to me for some other reason?"

The wavering smile transformed into a wicked grin, but only for an instant before reverting to its innocent facade. "Ehh? Surely Senpai doesn't believe everything he hears?" Izaya leaned forward on the table to rest his chin in his palm. "Besides...I'm not the only one who seemed to disappear off the face of the planet. I wonder what Senpai's been up to all this time..."  

[insidiousEnigma]

"You certainly know how to flatter a man." Andre purred, bringing his hand up so he could rest his chin in his upturned palm. "I wouldn't say that I was waiting for you though." He flashed a bright (i.e. fake) smile before blowing his bangs out of his face. "More so...expecting, to run into you one day. The world is such a small place after all." A lie but now that he knew a bit more about the other male he'd likely be bumping into him a lot more. Well, if he got out of jail that is. "And I did, though I do wish that it could be under better circumstances." He turned his head to glance over his shoulder at the guard standing near the door a few feet away from them. "It must be dreadfully boring in here." He'd much rather die than be thrown into prison.

Hopefully it would never come to that, he was quite fond of himself.

"Other reasons?" The purple haired man felt his own smile widen almost unnaturally as he caught sight of Izaya's dropped facade before he leaned back a bit to tap his chin thoughtfully. "Maybe I just heard that you were here and I thought I'd come pay you a visit? Is that really so hard to believe?" He asked with a shrug before his lips parted in a surprised 'oh'. "Are you curious as to what I've been doing?" He smiled slyly. "Because I'll admit I've been up to quite a lot, though I suppose you have been too, Nakura." A slender eyebrow rose. "Didn't we go to school with a boy of the same name?"  

[lZAYA ORlHARA]

"Ah, so you had faith that our destinies would once again meet one day," Izaya crooned, clasping his hands together against his cheek with a tilt of his head and a dreamy look in his eyes. "How romantic."

Giggling, the captive dropped his hands to the table top. "Actually, you may find this hard to believe, but I chose to be arrested," he confessed, grinning his usual grin. "Sure, it may be boring in here, but it's safer than where I was. And I actually wasn't finding it much more interesting in my previous prison with the same dull individuals keeping me confined under such close scrutiny. I needed a change of scenery. And faces," he added, almost as an afterthought.

"Speaking of which, yours almost looks like another one I was just getting acquainted with before I left. But you couldn't possibly know him, given that I saw nothing about you or anything connecting you to him when I looked him up. Strange, isn't it?"

He laughed mirthlessly at Andre's claim. "Oh, right, you just happened to drop by. Right after Rosie-chan did to ask about her Rocket sister. I wouldn't doubt you've made an acquaintance of her and her little friends as well, so I won't bother going into specifics. I don't know about you, but I'm not an information broker who gained the network, money, and reputation I did by passing odd occurrences off as coincidences."

Izaya flourished a hand. "Even fictional characters like Crobatman, V for Venonat Vendetta, and Bartimaeus the Tornadus know better than to believe in coincidences. You can't really think that little of me, can you, Senpai? Though I suppose if you think I got here by accident instead of by choice, perhaps I overestimated you and you shouldn't be so quick to underestimate me."

He paused a minute at the mention of his alias and its original owner. "Mmm...at least you recall that much. But as it's me and not him taking the fall under the name 'Rocket Grunt Nakura', I'd say that's kind of a moot point at the moment, wouldn't you?"  

[insidiousEnigma]

Andre didn't care about why the other man had ended up in prison. In fact, Izaya could waste away in this drab place and continue to stay out of his way for all that he cared. Though...he supposed he would get a certain form of satisfaction in dissecting his brain. Some truly interesting chemical reactions must be going on inside that head of his.

He felt his fingers twitch and then tighten around the phone at the thought.

"I think...." He began slowly, his pleasant smile morphing into something a bit more condescending, "That you didn't know where to look if you couldn't find anything connecting us." If one looked hard enough there was no missing Andre's involvement in his baby brother's life. Though it seemed that Izaya had indeed been in contact with Zacharie at some point after he'd left Camphoreon with Jerome.

Good to know.

"Ahhh, you caught me. Nothing gets past you Iza-chan~" He held up his free hand in surrender. Pale eyes fluttered open to fix the other information broker with a clinical gaze. "I'm not much of a fatalist." He admitted with an amused smile. "Timing and knowing where to look will definitely get you further ahead in life than waiting around for happy coincidences." With a soft yawn, he leaned back in his seat. Though his eyes stayed intent on his conversational partner.

"But yes you're right. Nakura is such old news; why bother bringing up the past, however interesting yours happens to be? Why don't we talk about..." He lifted his eyes up to stare at the ceiling thoughtfully before leveling the other with his gaze once more. "Jerome Knox."  

[lZAYA ORlHARA]

It may have been of some amusement to Andre that he was not the first person to have considered such morbid methods of dealing with Izaya had he had his way. But as other individuals, such as 'Frosty-chan', had not disclosed said daydreams to the intended victim, the crimson-eyed man was blissfully unaware.

"Hahaha! Senpai, I hadn't even realized you two had any resemblance whatsoever until our fond reunion just minutes ago. It was the sight of you that had reminded me of him, not the other way around. I hadn't even thought to look for anything connecting the pair of you. But now that I know, I've no farther to look than your face." He snickered. "You're so similar that you both even hide the color of your eyes, even if you have different ways of going about it."

At the sight of said eyes, however, the black-haired man's brows narrowed, his default smile still fixed on his lips. "Jerry-kun?" he giggled. "Neh, first people want to know about my partner, now my roommate as well? I just seem to be getting in with all the right people, don't I? I guess the information I've collected over the past few years has been more valuable than I realized." He allowed his giggles to die down a bit before relaxing into a more casual, if serious, tone.

"So...Tyron Jerome Knox. I can't imagine what you might want with him, knowing his background. Unless, of course, you're transparent enough to simply want him because he was the last person seen in the company of Zachie-chan." He tapped his cheek thoughtfully. "Now now, Senpai, you know how this works. Even in jail, I don't give information out just like that. Don't you have anything for me in return~?"  

[insidiousEnigma]

Andre was silent for a few moments, his eyes roving over Izaya's face before he smiled cheerfully. "I've always been quite fond of our similar appearances." He sighed wistfully as he reached up to tug on a strand of his hair. "His eyes are a few shades lighter than my own, did you know? Maybe not, he's been so defensive about them...children can be so cruel. They know nothing of perfection." At this, a scowl tugged at the corners of his lips. "I suppose it can be forgiven though because he looks absolutely precious with that haircut." He gushed, perking up at the mere thought.

Oh how he loved his darling, perfect, baby brother.

"Oh?" He cocked his head slightly as the other started to giggle. "I suppose to some people your information is useful." He conceded with a nod, though he turned his attention down to inspect his nails. "But I don't care much for Mr. Knox's history, I simply needed some verification." He raised his head to give Izaya a pleasant smile though it morphed into an annoyed scowl at the nickname. "His name is Zacharie, don't ruin it with your idiotic nickname." He hated nicknames, even more so when they were applied to himself or his brother. Taking a calming breath, he plastered a polite smile onto his face. "So you were apart of Team Rocket, partnered with Rosie's sister and rooming with Jerome, who brought Zacharie in off of the streets where you met him." He cocked his head slightly. "Thank you, Izaya. Your cooperation means a lot to me." He droned. "If you have any information on Zacharie that I would actually find useful I would love to hear it. I may be willing to part with some information of your choosing if I don't already know what you have to tell me."  

[lZAYA ORlHARA]

Though Izaya continued to exhibit a neutral smile, inwardly his thoughts turned to disgust and a faint flicker of it shone in his gaze. As he had claimed his own twin sisters to be 'unlovable' and harbored a great revulsion for the brotherly affection that the Heiwajima siblings seemed to share, the man found Andre's talk of Zacharie to be utterly sickening.

"'Perfection'? Is that what you call it?" the man laughed. "I wonder if you'd still consider it that with the blood caked in the bangs covering those eyes. Who knows if they're even still there~" Whether or not Andre already knew about the blood or the reason for it was anyone's guess, but the human-lover decided to throw those little details in for good measure. After all, his favorite reason for observing people was their reactions, and if anything was bound to get a reaction out of Andre, it was likely to be talk of Zacharie. Particularly with intimate details such as blood, bangs, and being close enough to make note of them.

"You sound like you don't want my information when you're not even aware of all I have to offer! I'm offended you're underestimating me again, Senpai," the Rocket sighed. "Oh well; your loss. I can tell you currently seem to be suffering from tunnel vision involving your 'precious' ...whatever he is to you, so I guess I might as well stick to that." That scowl...that was what he'd been waiting for. Looking for. An opening; a weakness. A crack in that sly, fox-faced mask of his.

"Pardon me; he rather seemed to like it!" the grunt answered defensively, sounding and appearing to be disconcerted that he had upset Andre. At least he had, for certain, confirmed that the Zacharie they were talking about was one and the same. "Maybe you'd cheer up too, if you had one. Jerry-kun uses nothing but nicknames, you know. Mostly because he can't remember people's real names, as he claims, but it's actually really useful in the same way codenames are. Let's see...hmm?" He was abruptly interrupted in his pondering of a fitting nickname for his senpai by the man himself.

Izaya made a dismissive gesture. "I never said that, exactly. You must have jumped to all those conclusions yourself. Naughty naughty, going around making assumptions without proper proof," he said, playfully wagging a finger. But it seemed he was losing his listener. Frowning, the crimson-eyed man sat up and spoke up more seriously.

"You know, for someone who calls themselves an information broker, you're leaving yourself awfully vulnerable," he said, his usual smile vanishing to reveal a rare, impassive countenance on his features. "Still keeping obvious ties to people you love...not bothering who sees your physical resemblance...tch. Even Shizu-chan was smart enough to know he had to change his hair color and stay away from his famous actor of a brother in order to keep him safe. You, though...you're far too confident for any sort of caution like that, aren't you?" He crossed his legs and sat back, expression still neutral. "You don't even know his whereabouts or the condition he's currently in. What kind of info broker has to go to another to get information he wants?"

"In the end, you know what Zacharie is to you?" It was then that Izaya allowed himself the smallest of smirks. "Since you don't seem to get it, I'll give you a free bit of advice. All he is for you is a big, fat weakness; a target sign on your back that says 'shoot me'. The sooner you realize and change that, the better off you'll be. Take it from someone who knows. Because as it stands now," he continued, leaning back in his chair and folding his arms behind his head, "your confidence is going to get either him, you, or the pair of you killed, Andre-puu."  

[insidiousEnigma]

"Now you're just trying to get a rise out of me, Iza-chan." Andre gave the dark haired man a disapproving frown and tsked. "I'm well aware of what happened to his face." Their troublesome parents had been dealt with for their indiscretion already. "Call it what you will but I have my reasons for my intense interest." He hummed lightly as he reached up to switch the phone to his other ear.

Bored, he was getting so bored. He loathed being bored.

"As I said, if you have any information that you think I would find particularly interesting pertaining to Zacharie then I would love to hear it. Unless..." He smiled, his eyes sliding shut once more. "You'd like to talk to me about Team Rocket? My information for your information." If Izaya wouldn't talk it wouldn't take him too long to search for the information himself...but it'd be so much more convenient if he knew now. He was made sure that his thoughts on the matter were made obvious in his body language as he picked at his nails and chewing lightly on his bottom lip.

Though...it was hard to appear uninterested during the others little talking to. It was hard to hold back his smile, his lips twitched and his shoulders shook in restrained laughter. "...Eheh." He couldn't hold it back. The purple haired man lurched forward in his seat as a sharp laugh tore out of him unrestrained. His free hand came up to slap over his mouth to muffle his manic laughter as he stared mirthfully at Izaya through the glass. Only once he calmed down did he lower his hand and let out a long, giggling sigh. "Thank you, Izaya." He giggled. "I haven't genuinely laughed like that in quite some time." With shaking fingers he pushed his hair back off of his face as he settled back into his seat. "It's not that I'm over confident, darling." His shoulders trembled with another restrained chuckle. "I just don't care. And I'm well aware that Zacharie is a weakness, I've known that since the moment I first laid eyes on him." He rolled his eyes and returned to picking out his nails. "I'll let you know something, love. I am physically unable to care." He shrugged and gave Izaya a sad, little frown. "I'm not afraid of death, or Zacharie's death, and I'm certainly not even remotely concerned about anyone else's death. I will step on and crush whoever I need to to get what I want. Being an information broker is just a hobby for me, Iza-chan. Nothing more, nothing less." He yawned lightly. "But enough about that. Are you willing to exchange information or not?"  

[lZAYA ORlHARA]

In response to Andre's spoken assessment of his intentions, Izaya stuck out his tongue at the other man. "No fun at all~" he complained, irked that his small hope fors some entertainment was spoiled. Andre wasn't the only one who detested boredom, it seemed.

"That's what it was - it's not Shizu-chan you remind me of," he stated, pointing a finger at the purple-haired broker. "It was Namie! Of course, how could I have forgotten! That nasty obsession with incest...tsk, tsk. What a shame." Shaking his head, he fixed his gaze elsewhere in the room as he continued.

"Since I, personally, have no first-hand knowledge of that kind of 'love', I don't know what sort of information you'd want about him. That Jerry-kun calls him 'Twitchy', that he shared a room with us, or that he didn't know what 'cuddling' meant are hardly things I'd deem worthy of sharing, but perhaps they'd mean more to you than they do to me. If you're not even going to give me a show for my troubles, I don't know why I should give you anything more than that."

He paused as his elder mentioned Team Rocket before his mouth split into a great smile. "You know, if they're monitoring this call, I think the police would be a great deal more interested in that knowledge than I would. After all, that's what they have me in here for." Izaya's eyebrows both shot up. "In fact, you might even be able to take my place. Is that what you want? Because it's certainly sounding like it. I'm sure they'd love to know why a supposedly innocent civilian seems to think he knows more about Team Rocket than an accused Rocket himself."

Most of all, however, Izaya wanted to test just how much Andre thought he knew that Izaya didn't and would want to know. He doubted the guy who was coming to him for confirmation on Zacharie's whereabouts could have learned more about the fate of that organization than he himself...unless he had had something to do with it. Maybe it was public information; something he'd be able to obtain with time. But whatever he knew that Andre wanted was likely to be obtainable in the same way.

As he considered this, Andre began to laugh and the inmate looked up to see his visitor trying and failing to restrain himself. He smiled a little perplexedly, nodding as he was thanked and responding with, "my pleasure~" before waiting to hear what his senpai found so humorous.

"Ah...so you claim apathy," the crimson-eyed man noted. "A lack of empathy. How reckless. And stupid. You know that means you can't possibly know what love is, then, right?" Izaya said matter-of-factly, his emotionless smile still on his face. "How sad. So then Zachie-chan...he doesn't really mean anything to you. Other than, perhaps, an instrument to get what you want." He scratched his head quizzically. "But then...if you don't care about anything or anyone, what could you possibly want?"  

[insidiousEnigma]

"I only know what anyone would know who happened to be apart of the raid on Team Rocket's headquarters would be privy to." Andre grinned, brushing off the other's attempt at aggravating him. "Just information on what happened to the base and the members that were captured. Nothing suspicious." He gave the other a hurt expression. "I'm just a concerned citizen who answered the call of his homeland." No one had any reason to believe that he had any connection to the organization, except maybe the concern that his baby brother might have gotten caught up in the crossfire.

"I don't really need your information, since it's likely outdated since the organization has scattered." He rolled his shoulders to get rid of some of the stiffness. "I'm just curious as to where you think they've scattered off to." If he had a general idea then he wouldn't need to waste his time looking all over the island. He wasn't in a hurry to find Zacharie, per say, but he would like to be heading home sooner rather than later. He was beginning to remember why he disliked Kodo in the first place.

"It's not that I can help it." He pouted with a soft huff. "Not that I particularly care. Keep up Iza-chan, I just said as much." He gave the other a disappointed look. He did hate to repeat himself. "Oh goodness me, really?" He gasped in response to the other's question about knowing what love was. "I had absolutely no idea." He tsked and shook his head. "I wouldn't expect you to understand." Not even Vincent, the one person who knew him completely, could understand his feelings towards Zacharie. "But I suppose you could say that what I feel for him is about as close to 'love' as I can get." The man cocked his head slightly in thought. "Not that it really means anything to tell you this. If you happen to see him before I do you'll likely just tell him nasty, terrible lies." He snorted out a laugh.  

[lZAYA ORlHARA]

"Is that it? Because if that's all, what makes you think you can tell me anything that Rosie Ewell hasn't already? You should have come to me sooner." Izaya repeatedly drummed the fingertips of his free hand against the table top out of impatience, his expression dull.

He heaved a sigh. "Good luck with that. Listen, it's not that easy to keep track of a constantly-moving aircraft base. They made it so that if a member got separated and captured or decided to turn traitor, they'd be on their own. With a base in perpetual motion, a Rocket cut off from the organization wouldn't be able to tell anyone its location even if they wanted to. If such a Rocket managed to escape from the captors, even then they'd have a hard time finding it because the base would have to find them. And given the risk of re-admitting a traitor or spy into the organization, very few Rockets are considered important enough to reclaim. If I were a Rocket - and I'm not saying I am - why would they bother with a mere Grunt Nakura?"

As little faith as he had in Team Rocket, Izaya had even less faith in outsiders hunting it down, even an information broker like Andre. It had been one of the reasons that he'd accepted the job offer Aila had given him years ago. As a member of Team Rocket, there was so much more information he had access to that he could have ever hoped to find as a non-Rocket. If Andre had been on a raid against the organization and was still coming to Izaya for hints, this only supported his suspicions.

"I never said you could help not caring any more than you could help being stupid or reckless," the crimson-eyed man retorted, shrugging. "It was just a spoken observation; nothing more, nothing less. Mm...perhaps your 'love' is more like Shinra's for Celty's or Saika's for humans, since those involve inhuman beings..." he pondered aloud. "Or maybe it's more comparable to me and my love of humans. But of course I wouldn't ever be able to understand your twisted, obsessive love for only just a single person."

"Lies?!" It was Izaya's turn to feign shock. "It may not be spotless, but I've still got a reputation to keep, you know. If anyone's likely to be feeding Zachie-chan lies, it'd be you. Not that you might even recognize them as such. You might actually think what you tell him is the truth, being too crippled in your judgement and lack of empathy to distinguish reality from what you want to believe." He shook his head pityingly. "Kawaisou ne. You poor, pathetic, inhuman being. As unlovable as you are unable to love."