"Is it done?"

"Yes."

"Good, saves me the trouble of killing him."

"I just want you to know that what you did was unforgivable."

"I know. You say that every time."

"I'm doing this to save us all, not just you. Not even the devil will forgive you, Izaya."

"I know that too."

Shizuo groaned, the voices of people he didn't know echoed in his ears. Everything sounded particularly loud, like he was hearing it for the first time.

"I think he's awake." The talking was finally too loud for him to deal with. He opened his eyes, squinting at the light. Above him stood two strangers, one had brown hair wore a lab coat and had glasses. The other had raven black hair and rusty red eyes.

"Shizuo?" The brown haired man stated almost as a question.

"Can you understand me?"

What was he talking about? Why would he not be able to understand him, was he not able to speak English? That's where it hit him. Who was he?

The first thought that came to his mind was Shizuo Heiwajima, but beyond that he had no idea.

"Shizuo, you were injured in an accident, all your memory was lost."

Huh?

What was this man talking about?

The raven haired man stayed silent, looking down at him with... Distain? He couldn't tell.

"Who am I?" He asked, his own voice sounding foreign to his ears.

"You're Shizuo Heiwajima," The raven said, his voice didn't have the distain that his face showed. He sounded like he pitied him.

"I knew that much."

Shizuo surveyed his surroundings. He found that there was one other person in the room. A woman clad in completely in black sat at the back of the room. Her head, which was covered with a biker helmet, was in her hands like she was crying.

"You went to high school at RAIRA? Academy. You love sweets. You have a very short temper. You work as a bodyguard. Shinra and I where your high school friends. There really isn't much else."

"Who are you?" Shizuo asked.

"Izaya Orihara, this idiot is Shinra and the woman at the back of the room is Celty."

He replied, looking in the other direction as if trying to avoid eye contact.

"What happened?"

"You were hit in the head by a steel beam that fell on you. It's lucky you survived."

Shinra replied quietly. Celty got up abruptly typing something on her phone and showing it to Shinra who nodded.

"It sounds like something from a manga," He said with a shaky laugh.

"Just rest now," Shinra said somberly, leaving the room. Izaya followed him after quickly waving him goodbye.

It was funny, he felt like he knew these people well even though he didn't remember them and all of his instincts screamed at him not to trust Izaya Orihara.

Shinra buried his head in his hands as he sat next to Celty, adopting the same positon.

"The funeral is today."

He whispered to Izaya, he felt like he was being ripped apart from the inside. He wanted to tell Shizuo everything but couldn't.

"Are you going to go?" He continued, feeling himself sink lower into despair.

"I highly doubt they would want me, after everything I did."

"You can still try! You owe it to them!" He cried.

"I honestly couldn't care less." Izaya said inspecting his nails.

"You bastard." Shinra could feel his tears where about to overflow. He clenched his fists.

"This is all your fault! How many times have we done this over and over! It's all your screw up! Next time I'm not helping you!"

Izaya sighed, "You know what will happen then. The monster of Ikebukero will destroy everything. All that will be left is the ruins of a city. You know he can do it."

Shinra knew Izaya was right. As much as he hated to admit it.

"What do you propose we do this time?" He asked, his voice monotone. Devoid of the emotion he so dearly wanted to express by bashing in the ravens skull.

"This time I'll look after Shizu-Chan. Your apartment has suffered enough abuse." Izaya said, referring to the wreak of what used to be a civil dining area.

Izaya started to walk to the door. "I'll go get the stuff I need. I'm not used to having house guests."

"I hope he kills you."

"Huh?" Izaya said turning around question.

"I hope Shizuo kills you."

"Whatever you say, Shinra."

Celty took to the streets soon after Izaya did. The apartment seemed too constricting. Each memory of which she wanted to forget was triggered by just looking at her surroundings. The city was much freer. It lacked those monstrous nightmares of memories. The wind brushed parts her like a feather brushing her skin. She felt like she could just keep riding until all her troubles went away. She knew she could but then everything that was good about her life would be gone. She had considered taking Shinra and running from the nightmare but she couldn't abandon her friend. Shizuo was suffering even if he didn't know it himself.

But she knew that sooner or later she wouldn't be able to take it. This was going to kill them. She just had to wait a little longer, she couldn't abandon the hope of a miracle just yet.

They had decided to take a taxi to Izaya's apartment as Shizuo was still possibly suffering from head trauma and shouldn't walk around much. Like Shizuo suspected Izaya's apartment was devoid of any personal items like photos or trinkets.

Actually he was wrong, there was one photo. It was placed in a silver frame high on a book shelf, like Izaya didn't want to see it. He grabbed it down to look at the photo. It looked several years old. Izaya was there, clad in a red shirt and jeans. He was laughing and it looked like he was genuinely on the verge of tears from how much fun he was having. He was being chased down a hall by a blue and blonde blur. He wondered, was that him? He could barely remember his own face.

He pulled the photo out of the frame, there was writing on the back.

Happy Birthday Izaya!

I hope you had a great year being chased around by Shizuo. (Not that you don't deserve it)

This was the only picture I could find where you looked genuinely happy, so I decided to give it to you as a reminder that smiling like that suits you.

My words of wisdom are that you need to stop pissing off Shizuo (I can't keep patching you up my entire life)

From

Shinra (and Shizuo 'cos I know he isn't going to give you a card so this might as well be from him too)

Shizuo replaced the photo in the frame, putting it back in its spot. He felt like he read something between friends that he shouldn't have. He wondered, was he really such good friends with them. If he was he must have been lucky, they seemed like great friends.

AN/ I hope it wasn't too confusing! I'm not good at writing this sort of things. Please review! Reviews fuel the fire of inspiration! (Or something like that...) Bye for now!