"Shinra..."

Shinra pulled the phone from his ear for a moment and then placed it against it again, straining to listen. "Izaya? is that you?" Shinra asked in confusion

"I fucked up...Shinra, I guess you were right..."

I knew it "What happened!? where are you!?" Shinra was beginning to become concerned for his long time friend.

Celty to turn her attention to him. [What's wrong?]

Shinra glanced at the pad but ignored it for the moment "Izaya, where are you?" he was beginning to panic more when Izaya wasn't replying

[What's going on?] Celty was getting annoyed, she didn't like being ignored, the black smoke from her neck puffed out with a quick burst.

"I think..." Izaya trailed off as he tried to get a glimpse of his surroundings, he remembered that he was in Ikebukuro, but he could be anywhere. He didn't much pay attention to the alleyway he'd run down, but he did remember getting a glimpse of what road they were on. His sight blurred, he didn't have a whole lot of time left before he knew that he'd pass out any moment. "Otome road...I'm near Otome road, down an alleyway." Izaya gradually informed him.

"How hurt are you?" Shinra asked as he grabbed his coat "Can you make your way here?"

"You were right...Shinra, maybe...I went too far this time..."

Shinra knew then that Izaya was likely too injured to barely move, he'd never admit so willingly his mistakes.

Izaya tried his hardest to ignore the pain

"Stay where you are! I'm coming to you!" Shinra shouted and then hung up. He then looked toward an impatient looking Celty

[What is it!?]

"You were right Celty, Gok is dangerous, I think he got to Izaya, I think he's hurt somewhere, can you take us there?" it wasn't like Shinra to be this worried about Izaya, which told her it was serious

Celty formed a helmet and chucked it at Shinra who caught it and they both ran out of the apartment. Celty and the doctor jumped onto the bike, Shinra held onto her tightly. Placing her pad inside her jacket she then rode off fast, Shinra squeezed his eyes shut and let out a scream that was drowned out by the wind and traffic noises whipping passed them.

Izaya shifted uncomfortably against the wall, he didn't know how much time had passed since he had contacted Shinra "Don't fuck with me huh? Well Gok, you're going to wish you had never messed...with me, you fucking ass hole" he said quietly between ragged breaths. He wasn't sure how big of a threat he'd be at the moment, but he didn't get feared and respect purely on his skills with a knife. A light smirk appeared on his face, despite the pain he was in, he was already coming up with something to get back at him.

He wasn't sure what had happened afterwards, but the last thing he remembered was seeing Shinra's frowning features and hearing him yelling and then he blacked out.

Izaya woke up to the faint sound of something bleeping beside him, his eyes wondered around a little, his sight slowly becoming clear. He noticed he was the only one in the room so he at least had privacy. He hissed when he sat up a little, the only piece of cloth that covered the top half of his body was a tight bandage that was wrapped around his small frame. He felt a little hungry, he took off the oxygen mask from his face just as the nurse came in. She smiled a friendly smile at him and walked toward the top of his bed. Izaya wondered where Shinra was, didn't they take him back to his place? It was likely Shinra didn't was to be involved in whatever mess he'd gotten himself into. Izaya was just grateful they'd come for him. Though he'd only admit that to himself.

"At last! You're awake! How are you feeling?" the nurse asked happily.

"Hungry" Izaya confessed.

She smiled as she gently pulled back the covers. "Well that's to be expected, you were in and out of consciousness for five days" she said as she motioned for him to sit up more.

"Five days?" Izaya hoped that no one else had found out about the incident. He wanted Gok and his men to believe that he was dead.

"Yes, but you look a lot healthier then when you first came in of course, I'm surprised you didn't die from blood loss" she exclaimed.

"When will I be released miss?"

"Not for at least another week, now lets check on your wound ok?"

Izaya wasn't sure how he could stay here for a whole week, he was bored already. The nurse gently unwrapped the bandage and then began to inspect the wound. Izaya couldn't help but look at it too, it was all stitched up of course, and there was spots of blood around the area.

"I'm going to clean that, we don't want it to become infected now do we? I'll be right back" The nurse left the room.

Izaya looked around and then spotted his coat by the chair next to him, he groaned in discomfort as he stretched to grab the jacket and fish out his phone. He flipped it open, dead. "Well I have been out for days"

The nurse came back with a bowl and a white cloth. "No cell phones in the hospital please"

"I apologize, its dead anyway" he said as he leaned back a bit and lightly threw his phone on the chair

"This shouldn't take long, just relax" she began cleaning the area around the stitches with gentle dabs. "I'll put a fresh bandage on, do you feel any pain?" she asked while unravelling a long strip of the new white cloth.

"Not as much as I expected" He was too busy staring at the blank screen on the wall opposite him.

"I'll get you a little something anyway, just encase" She replied as she finished wrapping it up. "All done!"

"Is there a remote for that?" the nurse looked at the TV behind them and smiled

"Sure!" she walked over to the television and picked up the small remote and then handed to him. "Now that you're up, A Mr Kishitani asked me to inform him as soon as you awoke, he wants to come in and see how you're doing, is that ok?" she helped him lean back against the pillows.

"Fair enough, he'll barge in anyway". Izaya said with a slight smirk.

"Well, he is right outside already"

"Figures"

"I'll leave you to it and I'll be back in twenty minutes with some pain killers"

Shinra peeked around the corner with a wave the minute the nurse left the room.

Izaya turned toward him, he could tell that Shinra was a little annoyed with him. Izaya almost smirked, but he didn't, he couldn't. Not after he'd helped him. "Looks like I owe you one doesn't it?"

"Well I hate to say I told you so" replied Shinra with a smug look on his face. "I told you so"

"You and everybody else. You don't happen to have my laptop do you?" he sat up, ignoring the pain

Shinra laughed "No but Namie is bringing it over later"

"Who knows about this?"

"Just me, Celty and Namie. Oh and the good people at this hospital" said Shinra

Izaya nodded and then smirked, he leaned forward and whacked Shinra across the head.

"Ow!" Shinra screeched

"Calling Shizu-chan? That was kind of lame"

"I panicked!" laughed Shinra, then glanced down at Izaya's bandage "How many stitches?"

"Seven"

"They can probably come out after four weeks, so...come see me when the time comes, I'll be happy to do that"

Izaya laughed a little "Freak"

"Hey!" Izaya then laughed again

"They said I can go in a week, just what exactly am I supposed to do here for that long? I have information left undelivered"

"Namie will see to that" replied Shinra

"But I won't get to see any of they're reactions if I'm stuck in here"

"That kind of weird obsession is what put you here"

"But I'm bored" Izaya whined, Shinra laughed at the informant's sour face, it really didn't suit him. "By the way, did you find my switch-blade in the alley?"

"Oh the doctors have it for now, I told them to clean it"

"Does Celty know Gok's last name?"

"What does that have to do with your knife?"

"Nothing, I was just curious. And I as for Gok, I just need his last name"

Shinra frowned at him "What are you planning?"

Izaya grinned. "Well I can't do anything until I get my laptop anyway"

"I can just call up Namie and tell her not to bring it" Shinra gave him a smug smile. However that disappeared when he saw that Izaya was still smirking.

"Then you can also tell her that I can cancel her pay if she doesn't"

"Izaya, I really think you need to stay away from anything to do with Gok"

"Shinra, don't you know me by now? Ha ha ha "I" won't be going anywhere near him" he replied coyly.

"But still, he'll be after you once he finds out you're alive" said Shinra, trying to reason with the informant.

"And how exactly does he know? If you, Namie and Celty are the only ones- aside from the people here of course" Izaya switched on the television. ~local twenty year old Kenji Fook was found dead in the Ikebukuro park three days ago and police still have no suspects. The young man was found by three elders and their dog, it appeared that his neck had been broken~

"Huh. And he was a good kisser too" Shinra to whipped his head around to him.

"You mean that guy was- he was the one that-" Shinra couldn't really finish his sentence, so Izaya merely filled in the gaps and nodded with a shrug. "You got someone killed, again!" Shinra shouted

"How was I suppose to know that he- wait, what do you mean again?" he then smiled and added "The people that died in the past, died because they did it to themselves or because they're stupid, I didn't do anything except give them whatever it is they were after, while fishing for my own amusement too"

"This isn't funny Izaya! This could cause problems for everyone"

"You're acting like Gok is the only thing dangerous in this city, since when do you care?"

"Of course I care! But I suppose this is just one of those ordinary things that happen around the towns"

"And there you have it"

"Knock knock" said Namie with a bored tone. She walked into the room "Here's your laptop you stupid prick" she said as she practically shoved it into him, he suppressed a loud yelp which caused it to come out more of a whimper.

"That was a bit uncalled for Namie" said Shinra as the two sitting on the bed watched her walk back out again. Shinra looked nervously back at Izaya "Wow...you ok over there?"

"She's soooo boring!" exclaimed Izaya making Shinra laugh.

One week later...

Izaya searched every little detail on the full name of Gok that Celty eventually gave him. Gok Arasaki. It turned out that Gok was quite private, and hardly anyone really knew who he was so it was hard to figure him out. Izaya soon begin going onto the dollars forum sight, spreading all different sorts of stories on him and whoever else worked for him. Pretty soon, most of the two popular towns were talking about it, Shinjuku and Ikebukuro, Izaya smirked. His plan was coming into play, but the internet wireless connection kept bugging out.

"Tst, there's not a lot I can do while I'm in this place" He got up from the bed slowly at first and then took off the hospital gown. He grabbed the new black top from the chair and managed to place it over himself, with that he changed into the black jeans that had been left and his favourite black jacket with the fur. Carrying his laptop, he walked out of the room that had been his isolation for almost two weeks. He walked to the reception desk laughing as the couple of nurses that were nearby stared at him with shocked faces.

"What are you doing Mr Orihara!? You can't-"

"I'll be checking out now" he walked nearer to the desk and held out his hand. "I believe you have my switch-blade"

"Are you discharging yourself?" asked the receptionist.

"I am, I'll be fine, if you hand over the blade, I'll be on my way"

The woman behind the desk handed over the weapon to Izaya and he smiled and then waved at them as he walked toward the exit. "Mind your stitches!" a nurse shouted after him.

It was quarter past seven when he got to his studio apartment, he smiled when he saw his complicated game still where he left off. He moved the king piece of the chess and scanned the board. "Beware Gok, because when I trap you, its going to be check-" he placed the piece on a black square "Mate" He then walked over to the computer and booted it up, whilst he was busy browsing he let his phone charge up. Izaya opened up a draw, he pulled out a small black usb stick and plugged It into the drive. He smirked when he saw the data appear on the screen. "Ah Kenji, thank you for Gok's email address, in return. I will get him back, more so for me but the idea of it sounds noble enough doesn't? Ha ha ha" the informant laughed as he jotted down the email address on a note pad.

Although being an informant, he wasn't all that skilled in the hacking department, however, he knew someone in Shinjuku who was and didn't mind paying someone else for a change to get what he needed. Turning his attention to his cell phone, he flipped open the front and scrolled down to find the name Satoshi. He happily dialled the number and waited until someone picked up on the other end. "It's been a week broker, was starting to think my business was unwanted" said Satoshi

"Ha ha ha, well now, lets not get too carried away, didn't anyone tell you that one shouldn't assume hmm?" replied Izaya in his usual sly tone.

"Touché my know it all acquaintance, now then, what can I do for you?"

"Write this email address down and once you can decipher the password, let me know" Izaya practically told the hacker on the other end.

"So its my hacking skills you're after, well now, why am I not surprised, you know the saying don't you Izaya? Curiosity killed the cat" Satoshi exclaimed.

How ironic he thought, considering I was pretty close

"Lets discuss prices shall we?" Satoshi, always right to the point.

"Ten thousand yen should be sufficient enough right?"

"Geez, how important is this email?" he was a little shocked by the amount.

"I can always lower it"

"No no, that'll be fine, I should have it for you by the end of tomorrow"

"Fair enough, I'll be in touch Satoshi" then Izaya hung up with a smirk. He slightly yawned and then stood up with a little wince, he was far from being fully healed yet; but he was well enough to almost take care of himself. He walked into the kitchen, opened up the fridge and took out a bottle of water, went to the cupboards and cocked his head to the side. There was hardly anything in there, which meant Namie had pretty much helped herself damn. He shrugged and took the bottle of water to the bedroom and took his black top off, his bandages an instant reminder of what happened. He sat on the bed, placing the water on the night stand and kicked off his shoes. He sighed in content when he laid out flat across his 150,000 yen futon, then the doorbell rang. Fuck. the only people that knew the building's code were Shinra and Namie. He hardly doubted Namie would be visiting at this hour, so that only left Shinra. He contemplated on just laying there, hoping somehow Shinra would get the hint and go away. It rang again, and again, now that he had actually laid down to rest he realized he was quite tired. Hearing the bell again, he got up from the comfy mattress and placed his top back on before walking to the door. Sure enough, there stood Shinra, Izaya could see him through the peep hole. Seeing that he was alone, he unlocked the door and opened it. "Are you out of your mind!? You shouldn't even be out of hospital yet!" Shinra shouted. "Don't be like that, it's not anyone is going to get in trouble for it, least of all you" Izaya stated cockily.

"Its not about that! Geez Izaya, you're not even healed properly"

"I can take care of myself, I have a very important job to my humans, I can't lay around for weeks in a hospital, besides, the internet connection sucks there" the informant claimed. "I'm better off here, and it's not like you to be this worried about me, now if you don't mind, I was going to sleep" he added.

Shinra frowned as he pushed up his glasses. "Izaya-" he began. Izaya held up his hand and then pushed Shinra to the door.

"You have something to look forward to, my stitches need to come out in three weeks and I promise that I'll come see you" he said excitedly.

"But-" nope, the door was already slammed In his face.

"That was fun!" the informant laughed and then ran and jumped on the bed, only to be met with a shot of pain. He groaned as he held his injury and moved onto his side to try and lessen it. He moved slowly and took off his top, he looked down at the bandages and sighed with a little relief that he hadn't tore any stitches. "You won't get in my way" he vowed and then laid on his back to let sleep take over.

Eleven thirty in the morning, Izaya walked out of his bedroom after great difficulty getting a shower. He had on his usual attire, he grabbed his trademark fur jacket and just before he reached for the door handle the bell rang. He sighed, and opened the door to find Namie standing there looking pissed off as usual. "Finally, I called you like three times, I have files to like – file!" Namie nagged.

"You need to seriously learn how to be more laid back, you'll get wrinkles ha ha ha" Izaya said while laughing.

"Argh! And you need to learn how to be less laid back!" he laughed again and by passed her to get to the door. She turned around and folded her arms. "From what I hear your not even meant to be out of the hospital" she stated coldly.

"Shinra tell you that? That crazy freak may be a great doctor, but I believe that only I am in control of my limits" he told her confidently.

"And there's where the problem lies, you think you have no limits" she said, like she was stating a fact. He laughed and then walked out of the door, she shook her head and then got to work.

Remembering that he still needed to eat something since there was nothing in the house. He decided to venture to Ikebukuro and get some of the delicious sushi he liked. He hadn't had it in almost two weeks so he thought that he deserved it. He about managed to skip a little and then got into a cab to take him to the streets of the city. When he got out of the cab, he walked a couple of minutes down the path and it wasn't long before he could hear faint whispers.

'Hey, isn't that Izaya Orihara'

'Yeh, I haven't seen him in a while here'

'Lets get out of here, if that scary bartender sees him, shit is going down'

Izaya smirked while fiddling with the switch-blade in his pocket. Oh how their reputation of chasing and trying to kill each other expanded like a ripple. Well, actually it was more like Shizuo trying to kill him and Izaya doing everything possible to provoke him and then stay alive. He was about ten feet away from the Russian sushi bar that he loved so much when a loud yell from the sidelines caught his attention. Izaya turned to his left and spotted the angry blonde straight away, Shizuo Heiwajima. The man practically threw a hissy fit every time he saw the informant, the man began to furiously stalk up to him. "Hey Shizu-chan, how's it going?" Izaya said with a sarcastic tone, knowing full well that would annoy him.

Shizuo stopped for a second "Are you serious!? You haven't been here in two weeks! and I was finally starting to think I could get some damn peace! How dare you show your face here Izaya!" Shizuo loudly shouted, soon catching the attention of the people nearby who looked on in fear but didn't want to miss the action. Most had missed the excitement, however; the cities finance didn't. Shizuo caused way more destruction then necessary when he chased Izaya down. Whether it be a big sign, a vending machine, a bench...things like this didn't go untouched most of the time.

"Missed me?" the informant asked while trying not to laugh. That was pretty much all it took to send Shizuo into an angry fit, the blonde growled loudly and picked up the closest thing to him which happened to be a bench. The poor object was defenceless as it was lunged into the air and crashed a few centimetres short of hitting its target. Izaya had side stepped enough to avoid collision, he had enough experience to calculate the distances of Shizuo's throws. There were only a few times he'd got hit, but that was when he wasn't actually paying attention or looking out for it.

"Izayaaaaaaa!" Shizuo yelled the informant's name and then began to run after him, Izaya grinned and then began to run in the opposite direction. The two ran in every direction possible, Izaya was usually quick on his feet which allowed him to always escape the angry blonde that was chasing him. However, due to his recent injury he wasn't as fast as he should be. They ran down the right side of the path all the while Shizuo was trying to throw other objects at him. An object crash landed near his feet and he jumped up on top of it and jumped over it. When he landed on his feet again he stumbled a bit, he wasn't quite ready for this. He grunted as he almost ran into a lamp post, Shizuo kept up the pace but noticed Izaya wasn't on top form like he usually was. He didn't really pay it a second thought though as he was solely focused on catching him. Izaya winced as he quickly ran to the side to avoid another oncoming object. He lifted his top up as he ran to see there was blood quickly seeping through the bandages. Shit he knew he had to make a distraction long enough to lose Shizuo to escape. He held his abdomen for a second and then stopped abruptly and drew his switch-blade, he turned around in a more then necessary quick motion and swiped Shizuo across the chest. Shizuo stumbled backwards a little startled, Izaya took the opportunity and ran for it, he made sure that he moved into the crowd of people so that he was less easy to spot.

Shizuo growled, and in his anger he pushed a few people out of the way and stepped onto the path.

Izaya ducked into an alleyway, almost like deja vu, Shizuo tried his best to follow him, but he'd lost sight of him when he was slashed. He gritted his teeth as he looked around frantically for his enemy. Izaya finally stopped to catch his breath, he had pulled his stitches. He placed his hand across his wound and tried to take a deep breath, he leaned against the wall and then glanced down, his eyes widened a little. Spots of blood decorated the pavement from the top of the alley way, he hoped Shizuo was as dumb as he dubbed him to be. Pushing himself from the wall he withdrew his switch-blade and placed it back in his pocket. Izaya knew the ins and outs of the back alleys like his own home. He walked further down trying to locate a back exit to lead out the other side.

Shizuo searched angrily, he was so fuming that he almost didn't see the young girl right in front of him. His eyebrow twitched in annoyance as he looked down at her, she had long brown hair and wore a blueish kind of hoodie that almost covered her black trousers, her name was Kururi. She smiled widely at him and jumped into the air with excitement, then another girl, almost a spitting image ran up toward him also, her name was Mairu. This one wore glasses and had her hair in plaits and wore a yellow hoodie. Shizuo pushed up his sunglasses and gritted his teeth. "I'll tell ya where brother went if ya get yours to meet us!" Kururi exclaimed. Yes, the two sisters of Izaya Orihara, twins. They had an obsession with Shizuo's younger brother, who happened to be an actor, so much so that they were willing to give up their own brothers whereabouts for the sake of meeting someone Else's. Oh how tempting that offer was to Shizuo, really it was, but he felt obligated to decline; that even though he hated Izaya with so much passion. He couldn't imagine knowing that if it was his brother who would give him away so easily like they were doing, he actually didn't know how he'd feel.

"I'll find him myself, now get lost" Shizuo growled back to them as he began walking away

"Aww no fun!"

"When was the last time you actually caught him anyway 'Shizu-chan'" Mairu piped up.

Shizuo tensed, trying to keep his anger focused on Izaya and no one else. "You don't hit girls, they're just brats" he mumbled to himself, sticking his hands in his pockets and walking further away. As he did so, he stopped and bent down to get a closer look at the ground and grinned and began to follow the trail of blood.

Izaya cursed Shizuo's name over and over as he swayed, feeling dizziness take over, all he wanted was some sushi and to go back home and await the email address from Satoshi "Dumb brute..." was the last thing he could say before his body decided it was time to rest. He collapsed with no resistance, his mind wouldn't cooperate with the rest of his body. His brain telling him to get the hell up and run, but his body apparently had other plans. Shizuo stormed down the alleyway like a raging bull. "Izaya! You fucking louse! I'm going to kill-" he was cut short of his sentence when he spotted the informant he was after. Izaya had collapsed and blacked out near the wall of an old abandoned shop. Shizuo walked up to him, looking down on his still form, he growled and clenched his fists in his pockets. He could have his chance, he could finally rid himself of the 'flea' that had been making his life miserable. "God knows he fucking deserves it" he scoffed. He took one of his hands out, outstretching it and reaching for Izaya's throat...