Review replies

Kiyoumi: Thank you for your review, I very much appreciated it. Like I said before, I was really unsure about their personality's since I don't know exactly how they were as children. To your question, yes, it will be going on into their high school years later on.

RavenBlackRoses: Yes, I know. I tend to repeat things but word it differently. When I'm writing, I don't realize I'm doing this but after I read it over I'll notice... it annoys me but I guess its just how I write. Sorry if It bothered you, I'll try to work on it. Also thank you for reviewing, it meant a lot.

Magicalgirl100591: Thank you very much for your review. It made me happy to see that you enjoyed my writing so much. I'll try to keep it up. I've actually been writing for about three years, but I just don't post them on fanfiction.

Kuhruru: Thank you for your review. They do seem kind of depressed don't they? Well I'm sure things will get better~

VampieraGrave: Yes, for some reason I can't spell Shizuo. Thank you for telling me, I went back and fixed it. I'm sorry this caused confusion for you but thank you for reviewing and telling me.

A/N: Thank you again to those of you who reviewed, I'll keep posting chapters as long as I feel like the story is liked.

Enjoy~

~ Chapter 2 ~

-Snapped Second-

The classroom was almost completely silent, the only sounds were of pages turning and the slight movement of someone adjusting in their seat. Today was one of the days where they read in class, the stories were always extremely long and boring and Shizuo always had a hard time actually staying awake reading them. Maybe if they were about something he actually cared about or at least interesting then he wouldn't have this problem. In general he hated reading, it was boring and he had trouble really seeing the images in his head. He was kind of jealous of Shinra who was able to just dive into a book and not even realize you were talking to him unless you poked him a few times or shoved him over.

At hearing the classroom door suddenly open, Shizuo looked up from the book, desperately wanting to have something else to think about then that. Most of the class had also looked up and to the door to see a slightly out of breath Izaya. Shizuo had been wondering for a while if he was going to show up today, not that he didn't think he would, it was just weird for the new kid to be late to class on only their second day here. And he was breathing heavily, had he ran?

Without a word, Izaya walked silently through the desks of others who were staring at him and to his seat. Once he sat down, Mr. Hitajika was already in front of his desk. Placing down a book in front of him but giving him a not so friendly look.

"And why are you late?" he asked, Mr. Hitajika was always pretty strict with tardiness. He'd always mentioned something about how he was "preparing them for high school". Apparently if you were late there, it was much worse.

Izaya gazed up at him then back down at the book, he hid his face under his hair so that only his mouth was visible. But that barely gave off how he was feeling. "I'm sorry." Was all he said, not giving a reason for his tardiness.

Mr. Hitajika gazed down on him a moment longer then said "Page 25 to 35." before stepping away and back to his desk, continuing what he had been working on beforehand.

Shizuo couldn't help but glance over to Izaya. After a minute he lifted his head slightly and opened the book to the page they had been assigned to begin reading on. He wondered what could have caused him to be late; did he really live that far away? And couldn't his mom or dad bring him if he lived so far away? He wasn't sure exactly how late he was, but he was positive it had been at least ten minutes into class. Just before Shizuo looked away, Izaya shifted his shoulders slightly and it was then Shizuo noticed what looked like a bruise on his neck but it was mostly hid by the coat he wore. Had he gotten hurt? Maybe he'd fallen on the way here. He knew he would never actually ask Izaya about it, so all he could do was wonder.

Even though he couldn't see Izaya's face very well, he could tell something was wrong. Even though he was sitting now, his breathing was still uneven. Shizuo wasn't sure what had really happened to him, but it bothered him. The fact that he was late bothered him, the fact that he might have gotten hurt on his way here bothered him. And what made it all worse was he didn't know why it all bothered him so much. He wanted to know what was going on, but he would never ask. Maybe Shinra might bring it up over lunch since he was known to put his nose where it didn't belong anyways.

When Izaya finally caught onto Shizuo's staring, he glanced over to him with extremely dull eyes. His expression was one Shizuo had never seen before, he couldn't read it. He looked so… blank. There wasn't a single trace of emotion on his face yet he could tell something was wrong. Something was not right with him. Shizuo quickly looked away after that and down to his book, but he didn't start reading. His mind was filled with different questions and barely any reasonable answers to them. But he didn't like the feelings coursing through his body and mind right now, he felt uneasy. Just Izaya's presence was giving off some kind of strange vibe he had never felt before. He wasn't even sure of a word for it, but it didn't feel right at all.

It might just be him, he might just be imagining all of this, but he felt like something had happened to Izaya. Not just that he was late, something else. And it bothered him, irritated him that he didn't know what it was. And it was even more aggravating that he was acting like he cared so much about Izaya when he barely even knew him. He didn't know what kind of life he had, so how could he make any assumptions like that? He didn't even have a right to. But he still couldn't help but care. Even though Izaya was kind of annoying to him, he couldn't stop feeling this way. There was something deep down that wanted to take whatever had caused this to happen to Izaya and smash it to pieces. He wanted to destroy whatever it was so that it would never happen again, because he didn't like Izaya like this. He didn't like it at all.

xXxXx

"So did you bring a lunch this time?" Shizuo asked as soon as Izaya and Shinra sat down in front of him.

Izaya shook his head just like the day before.

Shizuo gazed at him a moment, trying to figure out if he should ask what that was about but decided against it. Instead he pulled out a container of another vegetable he hated, spinach, and placed it down in front of Izaya along with the chopsticks his mom had packed. He quickly turned his attention to Shinra and glared to insure this time he didn't say anything about him sharing his food again. He couldn't help that he just felt bad for Izaya. He knew he'd hate if he didn't have anything to eat for lunch, and he didn't like spinach anyhow. So it was like a win, win situation. There was no need for Shinra to have any input on this at all. So he was sharing his lunch, big deal.

Izaya stared at the container a minute then gazed up at Shizuo. "You don't have to keep giving me your food."

Shizuo turned his attention back to Izaya. "I know."

Izaya watched him for a few seconds then smiled more than he had the other day. "Thanks." he said then picked up the chopsticks, removed the lid on the container, and started eating silently.

Shizuo shrugged off his thanks as best he could but again felt his cheeks slightly reddened from the single word. He glared to himself while pulling out a container of noodles that had some vegetables and meat mixed into it. He didn't get why he reacted that way, but he couldn't help it. Again this was something else that he questioned about himself and didn't understand at all. He'd never acted this way around anyone; his face had never gotten red from hearing a "thanks". But he tried to just not think too much on it right now.

"So what was up with you running into the classroom like that?" Shinra asked curiously. "Did you have to run from home?"

Shizuo cautiously looked up from his lunch to listen more intently into their conversation. He knew Shinra would ask, but would Izaya actually tell him the real reason? He didn't seem like one to just talk about his life freely. There was still so much about Izaya he didn't know, and he couldn't deny how curious it made him. Izaya wasn't like an open book; he couldn't tell what kind of personality he really had. It was like he was just one big mystery.

Izaya stayed silent, like debating on what to say for many moments. He then looked up at Shinra and replied. "Yeah."

"Oh? Really? Your mom or dad couldn't take you?" he asked, sticking some food in his mouth but still looked at Izaya with a surprised expression. Why was he so surprised? It was pretty obvious that's what had happened.

Izaya then looked back down to his food. "No." he mumbled then began eating slowly again.

Shizuo couldn't help but think of his brother with his responses. It was almost as if he was just trying to drop the conversation all together. With his brother he was used to it since that was how he was, but he could tell that Izaya wasn't like that. He was really starting to wonder what Izaya was really like, what kind of parents did he go home to? Did he have any siblings? He sort of wondered if he would ever know these things.

It wasn't like he wanted to be friends with Izaya though! No way. He just… was really curious. That was all. Who wouldn't be curious of someone like him though? He was a new kid, it was pretty normal to be curious about him. But Shizuo wasn't one to go around asking everything about him, that was Shinra's job and he was surprised he hadn't bombarded him with questions yesterday. Maybe Shinra was getting the same kind of vibe that he was getting. He wondered if he ever even asked Izaya about his life, if he would even give him a straight answer, or the truth. He didn't exactly think that Izaya was a liar, but he could imagine why he might bend the truth.

Shizuo wasn't even sure what he should feel towards Izaya. He was annoyed by him, yet he cared about him. So he couldn't call him an enemy, but he couldn't call him a friend either. He was just stuck in between. He wondered which way Izaya would go, would he become his friend? Or would be become his worst nightmare?

xXxXx

Unfortunately, Kasuka had gotten sick with food poisoning so he had stayed home today. And Shizuo had to admit, that walking out of the school's doors and not seeing his brother waiting for him in the courtyard was… weird. He was so use to him always being there, that it didn't feel right walking home without him. He knew it was probably going to be an extremely long walk too. At least with his brother there he was able to just talk about whatever, even if Kasuka didn't respond that much at least he was getting it off his chest.

He'd never had food poisoning before, so he didn't know what it was really like. But it must be horrible because his brother had been throwing up most of last night and this morning he couldn't even get out of bed. He felt really bad for him, and he wished there was more that he could do to make it go away. But there wasn't. His mom had said that he should be well enough to actually be able to get out of his bed. Though Shizuo wasn't sure, he had seemed really sick this morning when saying goodbye to him before going to school.

Shizuo sighed, beginning his walk towards the school's gates. He was already dreading this walk, he hated walking home alone. It wasn't like he was afraid; it was just kind of lonely since he was so use to his brother always being with him.

Just before he reached the school gates, he realized he'd forgotten to grab his book from class today. They had homework to read a few pages and he'd been trying really hard not to fail this year. Shizuo stopped, glared at the ground then kicked his foot against the pavement angrily and turned back around, heading back inside the school.

He hated when he forgot things, especially when it was something to do with school. Normally he wouldn't have even thought twice and just kept walking, but he'd promised his mom he'd do better this year and actually try harder. So that was what he was doing.

Pushing past the doors he nearly ran into Shinra who happened to be leaving.

"Hey, Shizuo-kun! Whatcha doin' going back into the school? I would have thought you would be home by now!" he asked with a laugh.

Shizuo didn't stop walking, he wanted to be home right now but he had to go and forget his book. "I forgot something." he yelled over his shoulder then proceeded up the stairs towards the classroom.

It was only about ten minutes after school let out and he was amazed that the hallways were so barren. Normally they were pretty lively, so seeing no one was a surprise. There didn't seem to be any other students around, it was like once the day had ended they'd all but evaporated. He would glance inside each classroom he passed and to see it empty was strange, only because he was so use to them being completely full during school hours.

Shizuo walked as fast as he could back to the classroom, hopefully the door was still open so he could get his book and just get out of here. He just wanted to get home, check on his brother, and go to his room. Doing this was probably on the very bottom of the list of things he didn't like or want to do.

When he noticed he was about three classrooms away from his he almost felt relived. But it was then he heard a scraping sound, like one of the metal chairs being dragged on the ground and then a noisy crash right after that. And it sounded close. Shizuo stopped walking for a moment before he could hear what sounded like laughter. He glanced into the classroom window he was standing next to and didn't see anyone, so he walked slowly up to the next classroom but moved closer to the wall so that if someone was inside, they couldn't see him.

When Shizuo looked inside the second classroom his brown eyes widened. There were about three boys standing in front of another boy who was sitting down on his knees in front of them. He stared at the scene a little bit longer, listening to the insults and teasing the boys were saying and noticing how one of them was kicking the boy sitting on the ground. When Shizuo caught a glimpse of the boy who was being teased, every emotion except one quickly drained out of his body.

He only felt complete rage. Shizuo gritted his teeth and tightened his hands together so tight that his knuckles turned white. He dropped his bag onto the ground and walked in front of the closed door. Without a second thought he kicked it in, the door flying through the room and landing on the opposite wall near the boys. When they turned to look at him, Shizuo was already holding a desk above his head and was completely seething with anger.

"Get out!" he shouted angrily, throwing the desk towards them but it missed one by only a few inches.

They didn't hesitate quickly running past Shizuo with terrified expressions and out of the classroom.

Shizuo then focused his attention to Izaya, who was still silently sitting in the corner of the classroom and gazing down at the ground. How could he have just taken all of that? Letting them insult him that way and hurt him! He wanted to kill those stupid boys! They were so lucky the desk had missed and they had left or he might have seriously hurt them. But now that it was all over, and his anger was subsiding, his foot was starting to throb and his arms felt incredibly sore. Especially the left one that had already been broken. If he wasn't so use to this by now, it would have been a lot worse.

When Izaya looked up, he gazed around the room like he'd been asleep. Seeing the door on the other side of the room and the desk sitting near it. He then turned his attention to Shizuo.

Instantly, Shizuo regretted it all. He'd done exactly what he hadn't wanted to. He hadn't wanted Izaya to know about this. He wanted Izaya to think he was normal. Shizuo's eyes slowly widened in the realization of all of this. What had he done? A new feeling was swelling inside of him, slowly growing and taking over him. He wasn't sure what this feeling was, but it was incredibly uncomfortable. His heart started beating twice as fast as normal, he almost felt afraid.

No. He was afraid. He was terrified of what Izaya would think of him now. Their relationship was about to completely change no matter what happened, and Shizuo had a feeling he already knew what was going to happen.