Author's Comments:

First of all, I've decided to switch this story from third to first person. This chapter just refused to be written in third, and I do think I write better in first anyway, even though I don't generally use it. I hope you all don't mind the change.

I'll be re-writing the first three chapters in first person in the next couple of weeks, hopefully. I was going to wait to post this chapter until they were done, but I decided that was taking too long. So here you go.

Oh! And I can't believe I forgot the disclaimer until this chapter! I don't own Durarara! or any of it's characters. I'm writing this for my own entertainment and for that of others.

I'm still trying to figure out the plot for this story... I think it'll just evolve as I go. I have a bunch of scenes between Izaya and Edna planned in my head, but I'm not really sure about the actual plot. So, you have my apologies ahead of time for a sometimes meandering plot.

Chapter 4:

"Are you still sure you want to help me?"

I didn't really know what else to say to them.

Not that I trusted them. The man seemed to be enjoying himself far too much, and I could see his fingers playing with the flick blade now hidden in his coat pocket. Not to mention the dullahan, for crying out loud, standing not ten feet away from me. The fact that she wasn't trying to slash me to pieces made me more wary, but also extremely curious.

But on the slim chance this faerie, and whoever or whatever the other guy was, really didn't know who I was and were actually trying to help me, I felt I needed to give them a warning. I couldn't afford to refuse any help that was willingly offered, even if they might get killed by being near me. I was desperate enough to risk other people's lives for my own sake. Still, no matter how much I needed their help, I wasn't going to let them be killed without knowing what they'd gotten themselves into.

As I stood there waiting for their answers, I could only hope hope they wouldn't back out.

They didn't.

After a few moments of silence, man in the fur-rimmed coat burst into laughter.

Unsure whether this was a cue to run for my life or slam a palm into my forehead, I settled for asking, "what the hell are you laughing about?"

His brown eyes flashed crimson in the sunlight peeking into the alley as he hugged his stomach, trying to control his mirth. The dullahan had taken a step back from him and seemed to be staring at him, just as surprised as I was; I wasn't sure if that was good or bad.

The man waved a hand in my general direction, finally getting his breath back. "It's just... this is getting really good already. I wasn't expecting that little speech. Well done, well done!" He gave a short clap, as if I were putting on a show. Still chuckling, he straightened and turned to the dullahan. "What do you say? Still willing to hang around this girl after that warning?"

The dullahan stood still for a few moments, then said something to him via the PDA that I couldn't read from my angle. He gave a short chuckle, then the dullahan turned to me and asked, 'do you need a place to stay?'

I nodded.

She started to type something else, but the man sighed and spoke first, "I'm getting a little tired of this alley. Might we go somewhere else to talk, and worry about this later? It's a bit early in the day to be making sleeping arrangements."

The dullahan hesitated, then nodded and moved an arm in a controlled, yet lazy gesture. The shadow wall behind me melted away and I turned to look out toward the street. I could run away now, and probably manage to get away. The idea was tempting, but I stayed where I was. For one, I didn't want to bring that much attention to myself. If a dullahan was chasing me through the streets, the trackers definitely would notice. And two, I might actually have a chance at getting some help from these two.

As I glanced back to them over my shoulder, I saw the man watching me carefully, an amused smile tugging at the corners of his mouth.

"Expecting me to run, were you?" I asked, almost dryly.

The smirk, which had been cemented onto his face since my "little speech", widened. "It was a likely possibility," he said.

"So what is your name?" I asked, turning back to fully face him as I crossed my arms. "I've given you mine."

Just how wide could that smirk get? He gave a low, sweeping bow, and said, "Izaya Orihara, informant from Shinjuku."

My eyes widened. Here I was, in a metropolis I knew next to nothing about, wondering how on Earth I was going to find my father in this overpopulated country, and an informant walks right up to me?

Well, technically he chased and threatened me, but still.

He seemed to notice my sudden interest, eyes sparkling in amusement as he asked, "oh? Have you heard of me?"

I snorted, then returned his amused expression with a similar one. "I haven't actually, sorry to disappoint you, but I could use some information."

He raised an eyebrow and looked pointedly at my worn and dirty clothes. "I highly doubt you have the money to pay me for it."

"You wanted to catch me to find out why I'm here and who I am, right?" I asked, and he looked a little surprised that I'd figured that out. I hadn't the faintest idea why. He was an informant, after all. Assuming he was telling the truth. Of course he'd want to know about me. "I'll tell you whatever you want to know about me in exchange for the information I need." I still didn't know how they knew about me at all, but I doubted the trackers would risk my existence becoming public knowledge, so I could wait to have that question answered. However he'd found out about me, the trackers hadn't been the ones to tell him.

His surprise was replaced once again by his almost child-like smirk. "You're not too bad at this game, are you? Alright, though I'm sure we'd all prefer to go somewhere more comfortable to chat." He didn't wait for a comment before turning to the dullahan. "Mind giving her a ride to my office?" he tilted his head back to me, though he was still talking to her as he added, "I'm guessing someone other than us is after her, and the subway would give her too much exposure; isn't that right, Edna?"

That look he was giving me clearly said, "what do you think of that? You're not the only one with powers of deduction."

I returned his smile with one of my own. Did he really think I'd want information from him if he couldn't figure out something that obvious?

His smile only widened at the sight of mine.

The dullahan nodded to him, then walked over to me. A helmet made of shadow appeared in her hands and she handed it to me. I looked it over for a moment, then glanced back to her.

"Where's your head?" I asked. I'd never seen a dullahan up close before, but I knew that headless didn't mean no head at all. I highly doubted she'd put it under her helmet.

'I lost it,' was all she said, then she turned back toward her bike, which I had to admit was a clever disguise for a headless horse. I took a deep breath and followed her to the bike. I wasn't really comfortable riding with her, but it had been years since I was comfortable with much of anything. Things could definitely be worse.

"See you in Shinjuku, Edna-san! Don't run off on me!" Izaya called, jogging out to the street with a cheerful wave. He locked eyes with me for a moment, then he was around the corner and out of sight.

I gazed after him for a moment, then slipped on the helmet.

A dull anger had been burning in my chest since the previous afternoon.

I puffed at my cigarette, my back pressed against a concrete wall next to the Tokyo Metropolitan Art Space. I still had a few hours before I had to work, so I was using the time to just relax and think. I might have even been feeling peaceful, if not for the flea occupying my thoughts.

I'd been chasing him out of Ikebukuro fairly regularly the last couple of months; I had a feeling he'd been getting bored. But no matter how much his presence in 'Bukuro infuriated me, it wasn't exactly what was bothering me. The problem was that I'd managed to actually hit him last time. That alone was rare enough. But even after that, he hadn't stuck around to taunt me or try to slash me to pieces to get back at me for injuring him. He hadn't been too injured to fight, so why did he run? He'd seemed... distracted, almost. Izaya was never distracted.

I started to feel the anger building in my chest and I did my best to squash it before it got out of hand.

"Excuse me, are you Heiwajima Shizuo-san?"

I glanced to my left to see two people, a man and a woman, standing a half a dozen feet away and looking at me with interest. They weren't Asian, but they didn't seem to be tourists either, and the man had spoken in well-accented Japanese.

"And who might you be?" I asked. It was so unusual for someone to walk up to me and actually try to be civil that I couldn't help but be curious.

The woman waved a hand in dismissal. "No one important. We're in Japan on a business trip, but we heard about an urban legend here in Ikebukuro that was too interesting to pass up."

Screw curiosity; these people were annoying me. I didn't appreciate being called an urban legend.

But she wasn't referring to me. "Apparently there's supposed to be a woman who rides around the city on a silent black motorcycle," she said. "A black motorcycle without headlights or sounds of an engine."

I raised an eyebrow. They were curious about Celty? I couldn't remember anyone ever coming to me about her before. I took a deep puff of my cigarette. "What about her?" I asked when the woman didn't say anything else.

The man spoke up this time. "We asked around; apparently she spends a lot of time with a certain tall blond-haired man by the name of Heiwajima Shizuo who tends to wear bartender suits." My eyebrow twitched as the man chuckled at the description. The humor didn't seem to be directed at me, but I still felt irked. Not to mention that these two were starting to make me uneasy. Everything about this situation felt off.

"We saw you here and couldn't pass up the opportunity to ask about her," the man continued. "Are you friends with her?"

I decided to tell them as little as I could without avoiding their questions. "I talk to her occasionally." I said simply. I didn't feel like talking much anyway. They were interrupting my moment of relative peace.

"Could you tell us about her?" the woman asked.

I shrugged. "Anything she's told me about her I doubt she'd want me relaying to just anyone who happens to be curious," which was true enough, I supposed, though she'd been a lot less hesitant when telling people about herself recently.

"That's understandable. Do you have a way for us to contact her?"

"Again, I doubt she'd want me giving that information away." I said, then to hopefully end the conversation, since I was really starting to get irritated, I added, "though the next time I see her I'll let her know you were wanting to talk. Do you have a business card I can pass on to her?"

"Unfortunately, no, although if you could give her this," the man pulled a folded sheet of paper out of a pocket and handed it to me, "we would appreciate it."

I glanced at the paper before shoving it into a pocket, unfolded. "I'll give it to her." The two bowed and I gave them a polite nod in return.

"We thank you for your time, Heiwajuma-san. We hope to run in to you again soon."

I wasn't sure if anyone had ever said something like that to me before. Did they even know who I was, other than my name?

I gave them another nod, then leaned back against the wall behind me as I watched them walk away. Why would they want to know about Celty? They didn't look like the kind of people who would ask just out of curiosity.

Maybe I was just over thinking it.

Or maybe Izaya had gotten tired of being bored and started something. I growled around my cigarette, then realized I'd be throwing things soon if I didn't find something to occupy myself.

With an irritable sigh, I stuck my hands in my pockets and marched off to find some lunch.

Author's Comments:

Gah, Shizuo's part was giving me a hard time. I can't figure out how he thinks. Is everyone still mostly in character?

Next chapter will be up in just a couple of days, to make up for the long gap between the last one and this one. ^^'

Replies to Reviews:

nA-chan525: Thank you! Glad you like it. And I'll try to finish it. I'm still having a lot of fun writing it, so there's hope!

LaughingDjinn: That's good, I'm glad they don't seem OOC. That's been worrying me a bit. And Izaya will have a manipulative phase eventually, he's just getting his facts straight first.