Chapter 8: There is a Change

Izaya still wasn't sure how he should grasp this intrusion on his precious home. It had been a few weeks now since Shizuo's declaration of moving in with him and naturally, he opposed it. That however, did not stop the brute crashing in his guest bedroom, nor did it stop him barging into his room while he was changing. Like now.

"Dammit Shizu-chan! Don't you ever knock?!" Izaya shouted as he jumped a mile in the air scrunching his pants into a small balls as the blond who kicked in his door walked in.

"We're out of milk."

"And how is that my problem?! Get out! I'm changing you stupid brute! Out!" The raven snapped throwin one of his knives that was on top of the dresser, only to have it caught and snapped like a twig.

"I'm ganna buy milk, do you want anything?" Shizuo asked as he gazed at the long creamy legs presented to him, holding back a smirk.

"Get out and buy your stupid milk! Out!" Izaya hissed throwing another knife and a pillow at him his cheeks coloring as he discreetly put on his black skinny jeans and reached for a shirt remembering he was half nude.

"Nice legs…" Izaya heard the blond say making a splash a red appear on his face and grabbed the nearest item at his disposal. That item happen to be his precious copy of a psychological masterpiece of the human mind which he aimed at the idiotic blond, only to meet with the laughing blonde that left him speechless. It had to be a crime to look that attractive when laughing, there was no way his heart could take this! Doesn't this stupid brute know what he does to him or does he enjoy his out of character behavior? Oh how he wishes he never realized what he truly felt. Then he would be snarky and arrogant self without any hesitation, but no Shinra just had to open his big mouth.

The info broker sighed as he pinched the bridge of his nose feeling a headache approaching, he really could not take this much longer. As he walked out of his room and downstairs to his office he took account of the little things Shizuo left lying around. A bow tie on the side table, a vest on the floor, even a cute little purple monster plush was sitting in his usual seat on the couch. The purple monster had one blue button eye and one white button eye with a zigzagged smiled stitched onto his face. He was rather small about 12 inches in height with small fake leather claws on his nubs for hands and feet. How Shizuo came into possession of such a cute thing, was still a mystery, but he somehow felt his younger sisters were involved. Izaya grabbed the purple monster and brought it with him to his work area, still unable to understand how normal it felt to have someone else in his home. His large apartment no longer felt empty and cold like it previously did. It felt warm and inviting and it was all do to the monster in his home. A small grin graced the young man's pink lips as he squished the little monster in his hand and played with his little feet, maybe it wasn't so bad to have a monster around…

"You know your expression is going to make me puke. Please refrain from the mushy lovey dovey crap during work hours." Namie said in her deadpan voice, yet her eye reflected amusement as she saw the raven jump in his seat, and quickly let go of the monster in is hands.

"Namie, aren't you as pleasant as ever." Izaya grinned at her as he relaxed his posture into his chair and opened the files handed to him by his secretary. Glad that he managed to scold his features normally and not show a hint of embarrassment.

"You know," she paused as she crossed her arms over chest with an inquisitive pinch in her soft features, "I don't know if I miss the old Izaya or I like your new weird self."

"What do you mean? I haven't changed, I still play with my humans and love them dearly." The raven asked with a raised brow as he grabbed a red pen and began annotating his pervious notes he had on Enzu and his relations. He heard a small snort before looked up to see the swish of long flowing hair and frowned at her back.

"Keep telling yourself that." He heard her say before she sat down and set aside his papers to work on a few chemical equations for a new drug she wanted to develop. What could she mean by that? Just because he had the monster around his space didn't change him. He still acted like his normal god-like self. Nothing has changed, because nothing would change. He knew this, because even if he was aware of his feelings it meant nothing. Shizuo still thought of him as a pest even if he was living with him. He was only staying with him, because Eiji ordered him to guard his life. Once he discovers where the missing members are, he'll leave. It would be cold in his home once again, and their chases that rarely occur now would pick up to its normal speed. Nothing would change, so why would he act differently?

Refraining from sighing, something he caught himself doing too much lately he went back to annotating his documents. The one document he was looking over were of pervious locations Enzu kept his headquarters, each of which was a possibility to the wear bouts of the missing members. However there were a few locations in which the building were burned down so this narrowed it down to five possible areas. Two of which were located in Hokkaido, one in Tokyo and the last two were situated in Kyoto, but these were for Emzu, he also has to cross check with the Rosco group which is an even larger mystery. What he knew of the Rosco group was limited because they were so new to Japan, their origins are in Russia, yet the Russian groups located in Tokyo have no relation to them, which baffled him greatly. How can one Russian group out of all the Russian groups not have a single relation with each other? Many Russian groups are partners with each other or enemies; there were a few mutual parties, but even then the neutral parties had enemies. To have no association with any one partnership out the dozens that are present was bizarre. The Rosco group seemed to keep trades within Tokyo, China and in certain parts in Germany it completely by passed were they are originally located.

Izaya rolled his chair to one of his computers and typed into one of his many search engines and began to research once again any other affiliation the Rosco group had with Enzu. The only link he had between the two was Higarashi who only recently transferred into the group. He didn't know much about him, but what he did know about him bothered him. It seemed so insignificant that he was half Japanese and half Russian, but he couldn't help the nagging feeling that this will come to bite him in the ass in the end. As he looked over some of the files he requested from Eiji and their pervious dealings with Rosco a slow smirk began to spread across his face.

"Found you~ Can't hide from me any longer I know you've kept them in Kyoto" He giggled to himself as he quickly highlighted the address of one of Enzu's headquarters in Kyoto. Leaning back smugly into his seat, as he began to piece together little things from what he knew. It was quiet simple really, Higarashi previously situated in Russia came into the Japanese branch by request, he then became associated with Enzu and became good partners with him. He most likely has a vendetta and wants Izaya dead for killing his partner. He laughed a little louder as he realized that Higarashi was one of many who wanted him dead. It wasn't his fault that Enzu trusted him, he should have known that his trust is subjectified or else he wouldn't be so successful in his job. It wasn't his fault either that Enzu left such large crumbs a toddler could find that led back to his stealing and other crimes against one of Shiki's partners Asuka. He wasn't even the one who killed Enzu, he could have but one Asuka's men took the shot for him thinking he was in danger. He did have things under control it wouldn't have taken much to avoid the bullet pointed at his head, but Asuka's men were always caring. Such a strange organization run by a fearsome woman, be he came to highly respect her after the incident.

Even with these pieces of the puzzle discovered he could not shake off the impending doom settling on him. Almost as if what he found was not all there was to know, but he had other matters to attend to. Like finding out why the members were taken in the first place, they must have witnessed something they shouldn't have. It had to be some sort of dealing they did, or maybe they saw a murder… Izaya thought to himself as he began to gently poke the purple monster on his desk with his pen. Watching as the monster tipped back and would settle back to its original position with each prodding.

"Oi, I brought you fatty tuna."

"It's rude to interrupt someone while they are working Shizu-chan." Izaya replied as he was startled out of his musings when a tray take out sushi was placed in front of him.

"Whatever eat before you shrink anymore tiny flea." Shizu shrugged as he took his own larger tray of sushi with him to the couch ignoring the fierce glare directed to him.

"Itadakimasu~" The raven drawled as he broke a part his chopsticks, hearing the mimicking prayer from the blonde as he dug in not realizing how hungry he truly was. As he lazily dipped his fatty tuna in soy sauce he took account that it was near 5 o'clock in the afternoon, he had spent over 3 hours working on Eiji's case. He had a meeting with a client in half an hour that he needed to prepare for as well as another one at 7. The info broker decided to take a glance at the blonde on the couch as he took a nibble on his fourth sushi piece expecting to see blonde hair only to be met with a pair of brown eyes.

"Staring is rude Shizu-chan. Don't you have manners?" He teased with his signature smirk in place ignoring the annoying flutters in his stomach.

"I was going to ask if you gotten any closer to finding out where Akia-chan, Hitsu-san, and Masa-san are." The taller man asked as he stuffed three pieces of yellow tail sushi in his mouth resembling a chipmunk.

"Maybe~ or maybe I haven't Shizu-chan." He teased easily as he plopped another piece of sushi in his mouth giggling a little of the annoyed scowl he received. "Yes I have found them, they are in Kyoto." He said plainly as he glance back to his computer typing in a few notes about the location and pulled up a GPS to get the fastest route motioning Shizuo to come over. Once he felt the prickly sensation on his back that came with the brute's presence he pointed at the picture of the monitor.

"There in this building, I haven't looked at the schematics of the building yet, so I haven't narrowed down their exact location. That shouldn't take too long, but it'll have to wait I have a meeting in 10 minutes." The info broker said as he glanced at the clock in front of him, his chopsticks pausing on the bottom lip in he glanced at the ex-bartender. He was slightly startled to see how close they were and the stubble sent of his cologne that he breathed. Shizuo was leaning over him with the tips of his hair brushing his cheeks lightly that caused a light pink color to rise and attempted to scoot away. Though of course that was impossible since the brute was holding onto his chair, and humming to himself as he looked over his notes he had.

"So do you know why he took them? Or what he's doing with them?" Shizuo asked as he tilted his head to look at him that caused Izaya to hum and look to the side to compose himself once again.

"Your guess is as good as mine." He said easily and his eyes widened at the realization of how easy it was to talk to Shizuo. He shouldn't be revealing this information to him so easily. He should be teasing him and giving him half answers to drive him insane and leave himself in a fit of laughter. Yet here he was, telling the monster everything. God, he really needs to get a handle of himself around him this was beyond unacceptable.

"Izaya, Manabu-san is here to see you." Namie said as she walked in and stood a few feet away startling Izaya even more because he could already feel the teasing vibe coming from her. He truly hated how perceptive this woman was at times, couldn't she give him a break? He took notice to the middle aged woman next to her wringing her hands together in nervousness.

"What can I do for you Manabu-san? You only spoke of needing my assistance over the phone." He said as got up from his chair, Shizuo taking a step back to allow room. He rubbed the titanium ring on his left finger as he gestured for her to sit down on the couch. He took his own seat and analyzed the woman in front of him. Her black hair had grey streaks running through them and were held back in a tight bun. She wore minimal make up, a dash of blush on her slightly sunken cheeks due to age and a hint of liner to highlight her warm brown eyes. Manabu's clothing was simple a pair of slacks with a comfortable white dress shirt and black slip on flats, the attire of a desk job. He hummed in patience as he took a sip of warm tea that Namie placed in front of them.

It wasn't until another few minutes past by did Manabu parted her lips and softly began to speak, "My son…" she whispered hesitantly looking up from her cup of tea to gaze at the man in front of her.

"What about your son, may I ask?" The information dealer asked with pleasant ease as he relaxed into his couch a coy smile on his lips.

"He said you were the best, and that if I wanted anyone to get the job done it had to be you." She said with more determination in her gaze with each word.

"I do hope your son mentioned that my information is not cheap." He teased as he sat forward bringing his hands together and laying his chin on them. "What do you wish to know?"

"I know this story is one you hear daily, but I believe my husband is cheating on me. But it's not that simple I think he is getting himself into unnecessary trouble…"She sighed heavily clenching the cup in her hand in mild annoyance.

"What kind of trouble is your husband getting into?" He asked his curiosity getting the best of him. This assignment may not be so boring after all…

"I don't care for the price I just want to know what kind of bind that lose woman is getting him into. It's beginning to follow me home and I am worried for my younger daughter. She has been stalked lately by large men, and was nearly taken in broad day light. My son takes her to and from school, and she is too scared to go out with friends. Find out what that woman has done to my husband to ruin our marriage and put my daughter in danger." She hissed lowly reaching into her purse and getting her check book. "Money is not a problem."

Izaya held up his hand chuckling lightly, "Payments come after I get the needed information to my clients. I will look into it and will contact you for our next meeting Manabu-san." He said as he stood up and went over to his desk and sat on his chair to begin the assignment immediately.

"But don't you need me to tell you my husband's work schedule or anything?" She asked putting her things away and rushing over to him.

"Manabu Tooru, works at Maya's industries on the 35th floor in designs. His shifts are from Monday-Friday at 7 in the morning to 6 at night. His salary is begins at 2945.62 yen an hour, should I continue?" He asked teasingly as a huge grin spread across his face when he witnessed the uncomfortable look on his clients face.

"No that is enough, just find what that woman is doing with him and put a stop to it. Thank you for your time Orihara-san." Manabu said quietly and bowed before leaving. Bowing at Shizuo and Namie as she passed them and left without a sound.

"It's really creepy how you can find stuff so fast like that tiny flea." Shizuo said coming up to his desk ad glaring at him in mild confusion. "How do you do it?" He grumbled out, sounding annoyed from his own curiosity.

"If I told you, your poor ameba brain might combust from my brilliance Shizu-chan." Izaya said giving him a quick wink before furiously typing on his keyboard as he hacked into servers and began his informations copying and pasting information on a separate document.

The raven heard a growl from the man standing in front of him that cause a giggle to escape his lips but never paused his work. As he went through all of Manabu Tooru's banking information and phone bills and hacked into several of his media accounts and chuckled some more at the naughty messages he found between him and a woman he called Kii-chan. After several cross checkings he discovered the identity of "Kii-chan," and noted that her real name was Tamaki Hatakiiri, and she was trouble. His smile was lost as he quickly wrote down the address of the Manabu household and waved the paper in front of Shizuo snapping the monster out of his daze.

"Stop standing their like a Neanderthal and make yourself useful." Izaya said flatly holding out the paper to him still and typed with the other. "Give it to Namie, and tell her to contact Shiki and have one of his goons watch over the residence and escort Mai-chan to and from school, as well as Manabu Tsukimo-san. Tell Namie it's Hatakiiri that should be enough." He said went back to typing with two hands when the paper was taken and hacked into surveillance to see what Manabu Tooru was up to. It shouldn't surprise him what men would do for a coy smile and eagerly spread legs, but sometimes it really gets boring how predictable middle aged business men acted. How Tooru met Hatakiiri was easily discovered in his social media hacking, when he got into the trafficking dealings is another story. He could see that Tooru was very new to the business, but didn't seem to care that his daughter was being targeted.

"You know, I always thought you were an asshole set on making people's lives miserable, but I was wrong. In your weird fucked up twisted way you help these people don't you?" Shizuo said quietly as he gazed at Izaya, startling him from his investigation.

"What do you mean? All my humans are my toys, I'm just playing with them when I work." The informant defended his shoulders bunching together.

"You're giving me this paper to hand over to Namie, your helping Manabu-san. You're offering her protection from really bad people. Why would you go to such lengths? All those suicides that were happening a year ago…they began to stop with your meddling, didn't they? That girl, you forced her to jump, but you knew she wouldn't die." Shizuo said leaning against the desk and scrunched up his eyebrows as he gazed deeply into Izaya's eyes.

"It was a coincidence that Celty was there…" Izaya muttered shifting in his seat uneasily. How is this debt collector reading into him so much? How could he possibly know any of this, he has an image to uphold. He was the arrogant, self-centered, egoistical informant that loved to fuck with people's lives, and claimed to love all of humanity. He made several enemies and was hated by many that was the image that he up held. No one was supposed to know why he really did this work, or how he got into this work in the first place. How the fuck did Shizuo figure it out? Not even Namie knows! Or does she and she keeps it to herself?

"No it wasn't. You planned it." Shizuo grinned and cupped the ravens left cheek letting his thumb brush across the soft skin, watching as he left pink in his wake. "I think I really misjudged you. And I'll find out the real reason why you sent me all those bastard gangs after me." He chuckled shaking his head as he went over to Namie's desk and did what was instructed of him.

The raven was left stunned and he put a hand to his previously held cheek, feeling the warmth as he stared blankly to the screen. Misjudged? What could he possibly mean by that? He has never in his life been analyzed by his actions. Yes he loved all humans, he loved toying with them it is what he is known for. But to have his actions analyzed to such a degree was unheard of, even Shinra believed him to be the manipulated bastard that he set out himself to be. His actions have never been questions like that, he knew why he did it but he didn't think Shizuo of people would figure it out. Yes he loved his humans because they were so easy to manipulate, but he also wished to protect them… After he saw what he did in the past, the reason he started this job was because of that incident in the early winter of his last middle school year…

He shook his head to clear his head from the invading morbid thoughts, he had a job to do, and he will do it right. Manabu Tooru was the subject to be studied for the hour, he needed to predict his next move having a sinking feeling that his family would be the primary targets. How such a successful man who had a caring family would turn on his family so easily, was not up for interpretations. At least not for now, on his free time he may take a crack at and add more theories out of the dozens used for human behavior to the list.

"Oi flea," The blonde called out standing in front of Izaya, making him peel away his gaze from the screen to him. " I'm going to head out now, Kasuka doesn't get much free time in between shoots so…" he trailed off tensing a little feeling off.

"Go Shizu-chan. Enjoy your valued time with your precious little brother." Izaya said boredly looking down at the purple monster again, it's not like he'd miss him anyways… "You in your brother-complex." He said plainly getting a growl in return that made him giggle.

"Whatever, just don't do anything stupid. I…" Shizuo huffed looking away from the informant, "Just call me if something goes wrong with the next meeting." He muttered as he stuffed his hands into his pockets and walked out the door, making Izaya smile a little. Maybe the monster did care a little. He poked the purple monster on his desk again watching it teeter on its bottom before continuing his work, knowing he had another appointment in 15 minutes.

15 minutes turned into 20 which then turned into half an hour. He frowned as he checked his many phones to see if he had received any cancelation of a meeting, when he saw that he did he rescheduled a new meeting time and shrugged and went back to work he was initialing doing. It wasn't until 45 minutes later he heard a knock on the door did he pause in his work, glancing at Namie. She stared right back at him, and he narrowed his eyes at her making the long haired woman huff in annoyance losing the staring battle and went to the door. Izaya chuckled happily as he bounced a little in his seat returning to his work. He twitched when he heard a large bang against the wall the set him on edge and reached for one of the switch blade he had in his drawer and stood flicking it open as he stood.

What greeted him made him narrow his eyes and grip the switch blade tighter. Namie stood before him, but her mouth was covered by a large hand and her body was restricted by a large man a build on par with Simon's pointing knife at her throat. She struggled but it was minute in comparison of the hulking man, she seemed to be screaming something at him but it was muffled.

"My what a way to treat a lady. Didn't your mother teach her better? Now let her go before things get messy." Izaya said in his sing song voice a sinister smirk over taking his features as he walked around his desk as he pointed his blade at him. Two more men appeared from behind the man, smaller in comparison but still large than Izaya's lean form. "Oh you have friends! What do I owe the visit?" he asked airily twirling the blade in his hand reaching into his back pocket to produce another blade.

He received no answer and avoided the tackle directed to him. He laughed as the man hit his knee on his side table and slashed the other on the arm as he approached him. The hurt man limped and swung a fist at him which he avoided easily while avoiding a kick towards his left leg. He slashed each in random intervals while keeping an eye for approaching hits and on Namie, mentally promising himself that she would not be harmed. He nearly managed to land a fatal wound on the man who previously hurt his knee, when he caught another person in his peripheral.

"Enough," Came the deeply accented baritone voice of the man before him as a gun was pointed at him, the men stepped away each holding onto bleeding wounds.

"Well if it isn't Hi―" Izaya stopped as popping noise was heard and a sharp sting was felt on his upper right arm. He pulled the red feathered needle from his arm his vision already blurring before he collapsed into the floor, watching as Namie struggled more fear in her eyes, he attempted a weak smile before his vision faded to black.

"Take care of her." Hissed the shooter and ignored the high squeak as his man struck the woman in the back of the neck knocking her out. "I have my prize." He chuckled picking up the limp form from the floor and let a note fall next to the woman before him stalking off, his men in tow. The note was rumpled and small possibly 5x6 but the message was much larger:

'He's Mine Now…'

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I'm so very sorry for such a late update! I hope this length makes it up to you...Though I am a little evil where it ended. Either way we are at the

climax! Yay, i hope you loved the small shizaya moments :3 more to come!