A hand emerging, cloaked in black with tan fur trim, made his heart drop to his feet. The other end of his string was tied, almost daintily, to the little finger.

…..No.

The rest of the coat emerged, followed by the remaining body, creamy peach-colored skin shone in the afternoon sunlight and bounced off inky tresses. Back still turned, he unfolded himself from the matching black car and twirled his fingers in a playful wave goodbye to someone inside.

No no no no no.

If Shizuo could've imagined Izaya being the one to step out of that car, he would have slapped himself repeatedly and devoted himself to living as a hermit, never allowing anyone to let him see the light of day if only he could avoid knowing what he knew now. It couldn't be possible. Maybe Tom had been wrong, or was just pulling his leg. Maybe "Fate" had made a mistake – yes, a very grave mistake.

Izaya wasn't supposed to be his destiny.

But Shizuo couldn't ignore the sight before him. He scanned their scarlet thread up and down over and over, pulled at his own and watched as it pulled in turn on the string around Izaya's finger.

Though the string seemed to have no physical effect on Izaya's sense of touch, he nonetheless turned his body as if he had heard a scuffle behind him. Shizuo quickly hid himself again, plastering his back against the wall. His heart thumped furiously against his chest, making him feel like he were watching a horror movie, waiting for the serial killer to pop around the corner with a baseball bat whenever you least expected it.

He didn't want to know what might happen now if he met that crimson gaze.

As he waited, Shizuo began to feel anger boiling through his veins. Only Izaya could have done this. Either Fate was wrong or the damned flea had donesomething – could he see the strings too? It would be crazy to ask, though it explained why he might enjoy manipulating people. But Shizuo nevertheless convinced himself that this was all wrong, wrong wrong wrong.

Mentally, he had reached that point: when every word on his mind played repeatedly until it began to flow from his lips, a mantra that did not calm him but rather fueled his rage until the bomb went off. Shizuo's fingernails were scraping the wall behind him, cement chipping off in large chunks until he'd made eight parallel lines up the wall beneath his palms.

"Shizu-chan?"

The blond jumped and snarled at the flea below him, jawbone protruding as he clenched his teeth in anger and hoped he didn't say anything revealing. Izaya would only laugh at him if he knew Shizuo was hallucinating (which Shizuo was fairly sure he was), and then he'd probably spread rumors around the Internet.

"Shizu-chan, why are you hiding? Are you trying to surprise me?" A smirk played across his lips as his eyes danced. "Oh, I dolove surprises!~"

On instinct, Shizuo's eyes were already about, taking every possible projectile into his mental inventory. A mailbox, a stop sign, a street lamp, and a few trash cans were scattered around. With any luck, Shizuo could kill Izaya here and now, and his string would have to find someone else.

"You're being unusually quiet, Shizu-chan. You haven't even said, sung or growled my name yet," Izaya purred, eyes narrowing over shady red as if he expected him to choose one of the three — like a math test, and Shizuo had never been very good at math.

He drew closer, and Shizuo recoiled in response. Maybe it was his only imagination, but he spotted a faint flicker of disgust in Izaya's soft, taunting glare.

Or was Shizuo just seeing a reflection of his own disgust in those ruby pools?

Shizuo glanced downward. Now that the informant had drawn closer, the string had retracted and hung gracefully, ends just a few inches apart. Its glow was far brighter, halo of light swelling but casting no glimmer or shadows on either hand.

Suddenly, without another word, without another thought, and with a small flit of hesitation, Shizuo removed himself from the wall and circled past Izaya. He had to get away before he did anything to compromise himself. Only when he had briskly traversed several blocks did he turn to look over his shoulder to see if Izaya had followed him. He hadn't. Shizuo kept walking, not quite sure of where he might end up. "None of the above" had been his final answer.

His sole quiet glimmer of relief came when he saw that the string between them was growing longer.

So I'm going on a bit of a trip (leaving on Sunday) for about two weeks. I'll be back at the beginning of August and I'll try to update as much as I can before I go!