They were standing in Izaya's office, facing off once again. It had been six months since they had stopped that, so it was pretty alien to them to be picking up the arguing again. The argument had started unexpectedly by a comment that hadn't had nearly as much weight behind it. Shizuo had mentioned, as they were walking back to his office from a date, that Izaya's job was dangerous. It didn't really mean anything, not really.

But that had sparked a response. Then a conversation. Then a debate. Then an argument. Then the slow breaking down of any feelings they had for one another, making it World War III in the middle of Shinjuku. So, sadly, this wasn't anything they could come back from easily.

Shizuo growled and gritted his teeth, staring down the man he loved, even though he knew this wasn't really anything that needed to be argued about. He wanted him to quit his job, as he had discovered in the midst of the argument. Taking it back now wasn't an option, he was too proud for that and Izaya wasn't going to allow it, he knew that.

"It's too dangerous," the blonde pointed out, his voice low.

"Less dangerous than yours. Most of the time, I just hang out in my office and get tips called in, but you go around collecting money from crazy people!"

"You were being threatened by the yakuza! And, as you so often point out, I'm a monster, so it doesn't matter," Shizuo replied.

"I am not quitting, and that's final. For god's sake, you are more dangerous than my job, and more nagging too."

"Maybe I should leave then," Shizuo said, a slight threatening undertone in his voice.

The smaller man, who was exceptionally tired of the fighting, snapped. "Maybe you should, if you're going to be like this. I don't want or need a bitchy monster around!"

"Just don't expect me to come back," he said, turning toward the door, giving his flea one last chance to at least end the argument. Not to quit being an informer, but to admit that this was just a stupid fight.

"I won't. In fact, I don't want you to. I never want to see you again," Izaya yelled. He regretted the words as soon as he said them, just like everything else he had said during the fight. He turned his back to him and walked behind his desk, falling back into the chair so that it scooted an inch or two back and twirled.

"That makes two of us," Shizuo said calmly, walking out. There was no stomping, or door slamming, or yelling, or anything else that the monster usually did. No, it was quiet. The fury behind it was so obvious that it crippled Izaya. As soon as the door shut silently behind his now ex-boyfriend, he started crying. And Izaya didn't cry easily.

He loved Shizuo, but he also loved his job. He loved the games he created and really everything about his life before the larger man had become more than just a play thing to him. Everything but the loneliness that he would never admit to anyone.

Shizuo had changed that, he had burst into his life in a way that he thought was rather funny now. By picking him up and dragging him back to his apartment, and giving him the most startling proposition he'd ever gotten. And it was the best night he'd had before then, and it had only gotten better since then.

His job and Shizuo were both extremely important to his life now, and he couldn't give up either without ripping a gaping hole in his life. If he did that, he would surely spiral into a depression that he wouldn't come out of quickly.

Izaya wiped the tears from his eyes and sat back in his chair, taking a series of deep breaths to calm himself. His face was still red, his eyes even redder. His finger twirled his short black hair as he thought. The only rational thing was to wait, right? He was too proud to apologize, so he was going to wait for Shizuo to do it. That, or for some interesting piece of information that could lead him into a good distraction from his woes.


Shizuo was pissed. Completely and absolutely. He didn't really want the flea to quit his job, he was just worried about him. Maybe the flea should try not to mess with people that he was sure he couldn't out run, out maneuver, or out fight. The blonde just cared too much about his little flea, and didn't want to get a call from the ICU one night and learn that Izaya had been shot eighteen times. Not like it was all that probable, but there was still a chance.

He was walking a quiet back street, with no one in sight and only the sound of a far away dog barking. He heard the sounds of running foot steps, but he ignored it, even though it was obvious that the sounds were coming closer. Shizuo's mind was preoccupied with Izaya anyway. How was he going to fix this?

No, he thought, he couldn't fix this. Izaya had said he never wanted to see him again, and he sounded like he meant it. It was probably all a game to him, just so that one day he could hurt him really really bad. Those sorts of thought filled his mind and swirled into a dense cloud of depression.

Someone yelled, "Now," making Shizuo turn from reflex.

The blonde got a quick glance at a couple dozen or so men dressed in suits, each holding a gun up. Then there were several flashes, loud bangs too. He jerked back three times, and then there was the slow realization of pain. He fell to his knees as he watched the men in suits run. He recognized them, since he had once beaten the living shit out of most of them.

They were the yakuza's henchmen.

Now, Shizuo had been in this position before, when the Blue Squares playing as Yellow Scarves had shot him. He had a moment of weakness, but he felt he could fight back. He could run after them, he thought. He could beat them, he thought. His stomach, leg, and shoulder were hurting, but not too bad.

That was when the dark thoughts caught up, as did the bleeding. What was the point in running after and beating them, if when he was done, Izaya wasn't going to be there to smile at him cheekily and taunt him? There was none, and he knew it. There was no point in living without the little louse to make him want it. Not many people would mourn him anyway. He was a monster, and being killed by bleeding out in the street fit that image.

So he fell forward and let go. Fading into unconsciousness, he saw a figure run toward him and kneel next to his body. Hysterical screaming filled his eardrums, and then it was all black.

Time didn't stop there though.

A girl knelt next to Shizuo's dying body, clutching a cell phone in one hand, and his hand in another. She talked with emergency services for several minutes until they showed up, crying as she saw the blood trickle out onto the road. When they showed up, they took Shizuo to Raira General Hospital, and the woman came along to oversee it.

She was a nice girl, once who couldn't stand seeing someone in pain. Her name was Tabatha, and she was raised in America for the first ten years of her life. Short, chin-length, chestnut hair and a pair of twinkling gray-blue eyes that would widen when she was happy, excited, or interested, even only minutely, made people think she was a bit of an oddball. She was only fourteen too.


Izaya was sulking. He walked aimlessly around his office, staring at Celty's head, playing out games on his triangular game board that he thought might be fun to try, paging through his many books, trolling the Dollars website, and a lot of other pointless activities that only resulted in more boredom and disappointment.

While he was sipping his fourth cup of coffee that night, the phone rang. The shrill office phone beeped and blinked it's little red light. Izaya launched himself across the room and tackled the phone, picking it up off of the receiver on the fourth ring. "Hello? Who am I speaking with?"

"Is this Mr. Orihara?" A timid voice asked. It was a boy, probably late teens, early twenties, and he sounded nervous.

"Yes it is, and who am I speaking with?"

"Uh, my name's Officer Takahiko. I was told to make a call to you if anything came up on the police scanner that had to do with Shizuo Heiwajima...and something has."

"Well? Spit it out. What did Shizu-chan do this time?" He probably went and broke something again, Izaya thought.

There was a pause, then the voice resumed, "Uh, well...he got shot."

"He's gotten shot before, and he's been fine. Is there anything else?" On the outside, he sounded like he couldn't really give a shit. Inside, Izaya was having a melt down. He probably went to Shinra's again. He's just have to text Celty and ask, and everything would be in order.

"Um, well that's the thing. He's in the ICU at Raira General, and he might not pull through. He bled too much..."

"Give me the details. NOW." Izaya's voice got hard so suddenly that it produced another pause on the other line.

"A girl named...Tabatha heard a series of gunshots outside of her house an hour ago and went outside to investigate. She saw many suited men run from the premises, leaving a man shot in the street. She called emergency services and got him an ambulance, we got the call from the hospital a few minutes ago."

"Thank you, goodbye." Izaya hung up and grabbed his jacket as he dashed out the door. He ran down the flights of stairs, since that was much faster than the elevator. When he ran out the lobby doors, a couple were hailing a cab. The man opened the door for the woman, but Izaya shoved past them, hopped in, and shut the door.

"Raira General! Now!" He yelled, looking quite frantic. His entire body trembled, and he simply couldn't help it. Izaya's fear for his monstrosity of a love was colossal.

The driver, who really didn't care who was in the cab, as long as they paid, drove. And he drove fast, ignoring all traffic signals, crossing people, ect. as he made it to the hospital in record time. Izaya shoved a fistful of bills at the driver as he exited the cab, entering the building at break-neck speed.

"Where is Shizu-chan's room?" He asked at the front desk, breathless from running and the terror of his monster's well being.

"Excuse me?" The woman asked, arching an eyebrow at him as she said, "Visiting hours are over, sir. I can't tell you that."

"Tell me, dammit! My Shizu-chan was shot, and I am not leaving until I see him! So tell me!" His red eyes flashed with rage, startling her.

After a brief look at her computer, she stammered, "U-Uh, room...room 3-307."

"Finally," he growled, moving quickly through the hospital to the elevator. He hit the button for the 3rd floor and rode up impatiently. Izaya ran into room 307 and stopped short while he assessed the damage. Shizuo was asleep with only his torso exposed from the blankets. Bandages wrapped around him tightly, each were slightly stained with blood. The blonde was slightly sweaty, with a look of unease on his sleeping face.

Izaya pulled up a chair next to the bed and sat, resting his head on the mattress to wait for the monster of a man to wake up.


Sound came back first in this instance. The sound of distant hospital noise, the quiet hum of machines, the occasional cough, and the steps of passing nurses. Then the feeling of the slightly scratchy sheets and the pressure of someone holding his hand. Smells of disinfectant and the general strange, disgusting smell of a hospital. His eyes opened slowly, letting the bright flourescent light hurt his eyes as he stared up at the white ceiling. Moving slowly, he turned his head to see who was clutching his hand in a death grip.

Shizuo was surprised to see Izaya there. The flea's hand trembled slightly, even though the owner of it was asleep. He was curled up in a chair next to the bed, one that was pushed as close as possible to him. The poor man looked like he was troubled, and had been crying. After a quick glance at the clock, he wondered how the nurses hadn't thrown him out, and then he remembered the flea's temper.

"Flea. Wake up."

Izaya twitched and looked up blearily, a look of shock entering his face. Then a series of mood swings happened. Shock to happiness, happiness to confusion, and confusion to fury. And with fury, he lifted the hand that had held Shizuo's and smacked him hard across the face. The flea then crawled onto the bed and into his lap.

"You are such a stupid, arrogant, gawking, clumsy, short-tempered, exasperating, idiotic, useless, asshole of a monstrosity. Why the hell did you scare me like that? I thought you were going to die! I thought I was going to lose you for good! How selfish would that be? Don't you think about what I need? Because I need you, Shizu-chan. I need you alive and well and with me, because you are mine and I'm never EVER going to give you up. You remember that," he prodded Shizuo's chest with a finger tip before he flung his arms around the blonde's neck and started sobbing.

The flea clung to him for several minutes before he spoke again. "So promise me that you'll never pull this again. You'll never make me scared like this again."

Shizuo, who was amused by the flea being so straight forward, nodded. "Deal. I won't ever make you worry again."

"Good. I love you, Shizu-chan," Izaya said as he pressed a soft kiss to the blonde's lips.