Chapter 2

The next morning, Izaya was in the middle of preparing breakfast when a rather laud bang was heard at his front door. He frowned a little. He didn't want little Shizu-chan to wake up just yet.

He looked up at the small figure still sleeping on his couch and he went to open the door. He thought that the cleaning company has arrived and in any scenario he wasn't prepared to see the face that was looking at him from the other side of the door frame.

Words were lost as he tightened his hand around the handle of his wheelchair. He wasn't prepared for this; at least, not yet.

He started to tremble. What will the monster to him today? Break his arms again, another leg...? And, he was defenseless; so defenseless... He couldn't run; he couldn't fight; his knife was long forgotten and sitting on the nightstand in his bedroom... and, there were all those stairs separating him from it... He couldn't make it there even if he could walk. His legs were trembling; he was afraid.

"Don't look at me like that..." a rough voice was talking to him. He hadn't heard that voice in so long. His heart skipped a beat and he told himself that it was because of the fear.

"Shizu-chan..." it was barely louder than a whisper. He was fighting with himself in order to speak and his throat was dry, eyes big...

"Where is the kid?"

He was rudely interrupted; not that he had much to say anyway.

"What kid?"

"Don't play games with me, flea. I know that he is here."

"And how do you know that, Shizu-chan?"

He couldn't even lie anymore. The other has always seen thru him, as if all of his masks were made from nothing more then a thin air. He hated it.

"I just know. Please, don't ask me to say how."

"Oh." Izaya sighted. He understood now. The kid was Shizuo, and Shizuo knew things that are going to happen because he had seen them when he was just a child; he remembered them.

Izaya felt a wave of anger washing over him as he realized that Shizuo has known about this entire fucked up situation the whole time and didn't say anything about it. He has kept his mouth silent for twenty years. They have fought countless times and Shizuo has "tried" to kill him while knowing that he wouldn't succeed.

And, even worse, this whole time Shizu-chan knew who he was; he knew the taste of Izaya's food; the sound of his silent, barely possible steps; he knew that he would end up in a wheelchair. Shizuo knew what would that final fight do to him, and he still went for it. However, the worst of all was the fact that Shizuo knew who Izaya was even before they have met.

"You knew who I was before we met." It wasn't a question. It was just a statement; a plain old fact.

"Yes."

"And you didn't think to say anything to me; why?"

"You are smart; you guess."

Shizuo had hated him, that's why he didn't say anything. He wanted to see Izaya suffering; right? No... That wasn't right... And then, he had realized.

"You didn't want to mess up with the time line."

"Yes."

Izaya couldn't take it anymore. If he would hear one more time one-word response from the beast, he would strangle the blond with his bare hands. Fuck the fear; fuck everything. The simpleton knew the future for all this time and was silent about all of it.

Izaya tried to slam up the door in front of Shizuo's face but stopped in the middle of it as the small figure was rising from the couch; waking up.

"Onii-chan..." Young Shizuo was calling for him.

He turned around, leaving the door open. If the monster wanted to come in let him came in. In either way he couldn't do a thing in order to stop him.

"Hey, you are awake..." he turned around and spoke gently to the kid. "I am making breakfast. Come wait in the kitchen."

And then, he turned back around looking at the same eyes he was looking just a second before. However, the person who they belonged to was all grown up now.

"You can stay as well I guess. It's not like you haven't seen me like this before." he said showing his form in a wheelchair and waving towards the boy. Fuck everything; this whole situation was too much for him. He gave up and he was going to let the monster do whatever it desires to do.

"I was intending to. I am not leaving you alone with the kid; I mean me..." Shizuo quickly corrected himself and continued.

"Seeing how demented you are someone needs to stay in order to make sure that you don't kill the boy. That would solve all of your problems; right? Well, it's not going to happen, Izaya-kun."

Oh, how Izaya hated the other at that moment. It was like he could read his mind and know exactly what he has thought only yesterday. And, he hated himself for it; both for allowing Shizuo to see under his masks, and for having that weak moment and thinking about killing the boy.

He still wasn't sure how he could even think about ending an innocent life; destroying a creature that was so nice to him. Nevertheless, the fact that the boy was human didn't change things for the adult Shizuo at all. He was still a monster in Izaya's eyes and it was a fair game to kill him. After all, monsters exist to be slain.

"This changes nothing." Izaya said thru his teeth while turning around in the direction of the kitchen.

"Oh, but this changes everything." Shizuo whispered to himself and gently smiled.

He waited for this for so long. A massive secret was now reviled and he could finally stop pretending to hate the other. He had waited for this for twenty years; the whole time hating himself for it and lying to the entire world about everything. And now, after having this day circled in his calendar for so long, the torture was over.