I could feel the warmth off of his skin. The blood and sweat. I still won't accept that he's human. He can't be. He's my favorite monster, a protozoan, a beast... Why was he acting like a human for once...? I'll never understand why he does the things that he does... That magnificent rage of his was fading... Why?

It all started this morning at about 9:38 AM. I was making my rounds about Ikebukuro, and I had a job I needed to set up to take care of a particularly irritating gang that had just reformed and was trying to take over again. My task was to eliminate the remainder of the "Blue Squares" that remained in Ikebukuro. And as fast as I crossed into the city I could hear him. He is as keen as a dog with those senses of his. Hahaha.

"IZAYA-KUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUNNN!" I looked over my shoulder to see a yield sign flying through the air towards my head. Jumping on to it and then off I pulled my flick-knife from my pocket and gave shizu-chan my trademark smirk.

"Oh hello shizu-chan~ you're not going to start so early in the morning again are you? I'm only here on business~." I skipped past him, my jacket trailing behind me like a cape and I could see the rage in his face.

"YOU DAMN FLEA! I DONT GIVE A DAMN WHY YOUR HERE BUT I TOLD YOU NEVER TO COME BACK TO IKEBUKURO! YOU BASTARD!" I couldn't help but snicker. Sometimes it's TOO easy to mess with him. I managed to get behind him and brought my knife across his cheek, leaving a thin line of blood. I licked the blade of my knife with a grin. And soon I realized I had stepped a bit too close. I tried to jump back but that monster, shizu-chan, managed to grab the hem of my jacket. He had that sadistic smile of his. He pulled me towards him and grinned at me, I could smell the tobacco on his breath.

"Like hell your getting away, you flea." I didn't even have time to swing at him with my knife before he threw me through the air right into the wall of a nearby building. I think a few of my ribs cracked. I slid down the wall and landed on my side. I managed to pull myself into a sitting position and I was leaning against the wall coughing up blood as he marched up to me dragging a mangled stop sign. I felt the edges of my vision start to blur, and I dug my fingernails onto my palm, trying to grasp conciousness. He was laughing. A grin spread across his face and his eyes carried murderous desire. I watched him and a question rang through my mind. Why did he hate me...? Why did he hate me so much he wanted to kill me? I remembered that first day we had met and the way he had hated me from our first encounter. I just smiled, trying to be civil, but he had thrown a punch and in response I had cut him. He started this all... so why? Why did he hate me? I spit a mouthful of blood onto the ground and wrapped one of my arms around my abdomen, clutching my ribcage. My other arm felt numb, but I still clung onto my knife. I felt something sticky running down the side of my face. My smirk turned to a scowl.

"Well? What are you waiting for, you beast? Aren't you going to kill me like you always wanted? You've only wanted to kill me since we met! WHY THE HELL? WHY? I'll never understand it!" For some reason he stopped. He just looked at me now, his smile had vanished just that fast. He dropped the sign and put his sunglasses on, the light making his eyes impossible to see. I heard him mutter something about me not being worth his time. I forced myself up from the ground, almost gasping from the pain.

"Take off your glasses." I said. I think he glared at me.

"Take them off," I repeated firmly.

"Why the hell should I?" Shizuo crossed his arms across his chest.

"I hate talking to people when I can't see their eyes." I let go of my ribs to reach up and take the glasses from his face. He looked like he was going to punch me for a second, but something was causing him to restrain...

"It was your fault." He said, with a "matter-of-fact" tone, I looked up at his face feeling confused.

"What was my fault?" I glared at him, and grasped my ribs again.

"It's your fault that I hate you. You started it." He was glaring back.

"No, you tried to punch me, and I cut you. In fact, you didn't stop chasing me until you ended up getting hit by a truck." I remembered that day, perfectly. There was no way that he WASN'T to blame.

"That's not what I'm talking about. You know why it's your fault. It's that annoying ass smirk of yours. You know you were trying to mock me. I fucking HATE IT!" I could see him opening and closing his right hand, looking for something to crush. I didn't have much longer before I was going to lose consciousness, I felt the dizziness affecting me and I allowed my body to slide down the wall, I coughed up another mouthful of blood, I could feel a trail of blood dripping from the corner of my mouth off my chin. I'm not sure if it was the dizziness or something else but it felt like I was listening to myself talk rather than actually speaking.

"I'm sorry for everything I've ever done to upset you shizu-chan." As I was slipping into the black void of unconsciousness I heard him say "My name's Shizuo." And I felt something picking me up.

I woke up with a cast on my right arm and bandages covering my abdomen. I could also feel bandages on my forehead.

My shirt and coat were clean and draped over a chair to my left and I could tell exactly where I was by the look of the room.

"Shinra! Where are you?" I called out to my childhood friend and soon his brown hair appeared in the doorway.

"Oh, Izaya! You're awake? Oh, Celty! He woke up!" I tried to get up into a sitting position and Shinra ran over shouting at me to lie back down.

"No, Izaya, you can't get up yet. You broke four ribs and your arm's broken too, not to mention you had a minor concussion." Shinra was still grinning. "Well, really you're lucky to be alive! Isn't that great? I mean the "you-alive" thing. Well, you blood loss was pretty significant so I had to give you an IV so I hope you don't mind..." I couldn't focus on his words anymore. The dizziness had already passed but my mind was somewhere else. Damn, his face kept flashing into my thoughts. Why the hell couldn't I focus on anything? Shinra snapped my focus back to reality.

"Izaya? Is something bothering you?" I could see his concern growing behind his glasses and I shook my head as Celty came into the room.

"I'm fine, like you said; it's just a few ribs and my arm. Hmm, though how will I do my job like this..." I tried to put my thoughts elsewhere but soon a question popped into my mind. A question that an information broker must know.

"How did I get here? Did you or Celty find me? I was sure that shizu-chan was going to off me right then." I gave a stern look to Shinra then to Celty. My gaze shifted back to Shinra as I could see him start to crack under the pressure of that knowledge. Obviously it was neither of them.

"Wellll, you seeeee..." Celty quickly tapped out her response on her phone then flashed up the screen. [Actually, it was neither of us. Someone else was carrying you here and I helped him carry you upstairs.] I could tell Shinra was about to break and give me my answer.

"Him?" A small part of me was ecstatic, SHIZUO? SHIZUO? I had to know if it was him. But in the analytical section of my mind I knew it couldn't be him. Shinra knew my mind was searching for an answer and he gave me what I needed. I couldn't believe it.

"It was Shizuo."