A/N: Takes place a few years after the series. Masaomi POV on first part, Mikado on second.

As mad as I was with him, I couldn't help but be more pissed with myself. He'd set up the charade, yeah, but I was the idiot who fell into his trap.

I wonder, sometimes, if Izaya Orihara is capable of love. Affection, even. Anything but the cold indifferance he shows every person eventually. Or maybe, does he see that as affection, as love? I am familiar with tough love, but to that extreme just seems unneeded.

I tell myself the thoughts aren't worth the time I use to think them, but still they come.

Maybe because he's the first person I have truly come to hate that he occupies my head like this; a thin line between love and hate and all that.

...Wait. Did that mean...? No. No, it didn't. If that were so, Izaya and Shizuo Heiwajima would never stop screwing.

Right?

I'm gonna assume so, cus there is no way I'm asking either of them. Shizuo would kill me on the spot, and Izaya... well, I don't really see how he could make my life worse, but I certainly don't doubt he could.

Mikado thinks I haven't noticed the two of them getting together and talking. I've been keeping low since I got back into town, something most wouldn't think possible of me, but I'm managing. I just had to see if what I had been hearing was true.

Was my closest friend really dating the person I hated most?

Mikado sighed, eyes flicking upstairs in annoyance whilst sitting at Izaya's computer. "At it again," he muttered of said male and the equally unscrupulous (and annoying) Namie Yagiri. Glancing down the screen at the time, a small smile graced his lips; Anri would be here soon to pick him up- the two of them could really give those upstairs a run for their money, if his girlfriend had the time.

The doorbell rang, and maintaining the grin, Mikado went to answer it. The person on the other side was not the well-endowed young woman, or even female, but the grin became a wide smile all the same. "Masaomi! When did you get back? Wait, why are you here?"

"Could ask you that myself," was the surly reply as the blonde entered. "Oh, tell me he's paying for that," was the added cringe when he heard the noise.

"Wish I could," his friend grimaced. "She's just as fucked up as he is. And Izaya's computer brings me here. It has some valuable information on it. If I get here while they're busy, I don't even have to deal with him to get to it. It's even better if he leaves his phone down here; apparently our voices sound similar."

Finally, Masaomi chuckled. "Well, that's better than what I was thinking..."

"Did you think I was his apprentice or something?"

"...Something like that..."

"Something... lik- aw!" he makes a face as if he's just eaten something old and moldy. Masaomi! How could you think that?"

"Hey, a guy hears things, and he just doesn't know what to think. Come on, let's take Saki and Anri out for dinner!"

"I'm actually just waiting for Anri..."

"She's downstairs; she and Saki are probably trading stories about us!" Masaomi grinned.

"Wonderful," Mikado rolled his eyes. "Beats the hell out of this place, anyway," he said, exiting the room with the other.

"My friend, those are easily the wisest words you have ever spoken!"