Before I forget, I thank kyokichii (who is also a writer here) for motivating me greatly in this fic =)

Also, I swear, I'm probably the only person on this planet who has written a nonpairing fluffy Izaya fic. I didn't realize it was actually fluff until it was done. What the hell? (Then again, animal!Izaya fics aren't exactly ... common either?)

Edit: This is the rewritten Chapter 3, though it's more of a reordering. This was originally a gaiden chapter.

Chapter 03

He was being watched, he was sure of it. He swiveled back around, as fast as he could … but still nothing.

"Brother, are you being paranoid again?"

Shizuo sighed and looked at his younger brother, Kasuka. "I'm telling you, there's something following us!"

"You've said that for the past ten minutes. I haven't seen anything yet," murmured Kasuka.

"Well, that's just because I'm better at this stuff than you," Shizuo argued back.

"And that's why you haven't found whoever's following us, right?"

Damn Kasuka . He was always better at these arguments. He himself had always hated words, or wordplay, or the intricacies of communication. It was all so annoying, just so annoying that he'd like to get something heavy – a brick, maybe? – and just smash it! Smash it, something, anything. Could he smash words? Maybe he could smash the one talking, and then—

"Brother, you're doing it again."

Shizuo froze in his steps. One, two, three. Slow counting, breath in, and out. He visibly relaxed after a minute or so. "Thanks."

"Don't mention it. I don't want my head spread over the street either."

Well, there was nothing he could say to that.

"You're doing better, though. Last time you didn't stop for an hour, and wrecked the entire kitchen before you stopped."

Shizuo grunted. That had been a particularly ugly incident. He was just this close to putting a refrigerator on Kasuka's head. He hated how he lost control all the time. It was terribly annoying, and one day he was just going to do something he'd regret for the rest of his life.

What was worst, anything he did to try and help just didn't work. Or rather, some would work at first, but then stop working, and others would never work in the first place, and yet others would keep him calm for only a little bit before the anger stole out of him like a river and inundated everything in his vicinity.

The two walked on in companionable silence once again, until Shizuo felt that damnable shiver run up his back. Once again.

"Gaaaaargh! Stop hiding around and show yourself!" Shizuo roared at the top of his lungs, there was no one in the alleyway besides him and his brother.

"Brother, you're breaking my eardrums."

"I swear, that'll be the last time – last time! – that creeper follows us. I'll make sure of it. Because it's annoying me. A. Lot." Harsh pants punctuated every syllable towards the end of his rant.

Kasuka put his hand on Shizuo's elbow, and though his brother managed to calm down fractionally, the anger still remained on his face. Shizuo had always tried to keep his younger sibling out of this whole mess, and the touch had a minor calming effect on him.

The two were about to turn around before they heard a loud "caw."

"What the—"

The crowing came in rapid succession. Kasuka looked around, and eventually spotted the perpetrator. "There, on the fence."

And there, sitting on the cement wall circling someone's backyard, was the most sinister-looking little damn bird you could imagine. Shizuo didn't like birds. They were too loud, and loud just brought on headaches. But this went far beyond that. After the damnable guffaw had stopped (because that's what it was doing! It was laughing at him!), the jet-black bird had remained staring straight at Shizuo. Its head was tiled to the right, so that its eye had full focus on the two, and gods, were those pupils red?

"What an unsettling bird…"

Truer words have never been said, Brother. Shizuo just let out an affirmative grunt in agreement.

The three of them stood like that, eye on eyes, for a good minute before Shizuo broke the contact. He cursed again and shoved Kasuka behind the shoulders, causing him to stumble forward, almost falling on his face. "Come on, let's get going. This is a waste of time."

Kasuka didn't make any protests, and the two continued on their way home. It would have been a relief, except the stupid bird followed them and started circling over their heads, cawing all the while.

"Shut up, you stupid chicken, or I'll get up there and pluck you dry! And then I'll cook you and beat you and grind you up and feed you to the wolves before I drown you and burn you and—"

"Brother, I don't think some of those things would work, chronologically."

Shizuo put his fist down and tried to ignore the screams overhead as he followed Kasuka.

It was only a good thing he knew nothing on how to discern emotions from a crow because up above, Izaya was having a high time guffawing his heart out.