A lie gets halfway around the world before the truth has a chance to get its pants on.

-Winston Churchill

Izaya Orihara didn't love Tsumugi Aizawa. Or, that was what he thought. Every time he saw her smiling face, he would tell himself secretly, nowadays the words coming to him on impulse, triggered by even the thought of Aizawa that he didn't love her. Sometimes, the things that you most certainly want to avoid are the things that nag you almost every time you open your mind to think.

And Izaya wanted to avoid the question that answered whether he loved Tsumugi or not.

Tsumugi on the other hand, was a happy woman, who was happily in love with one of the most hated men in Ikebukuro, but there were strange things happening around them, for even she noticed, strange things that made Izaya come home a little late than usual, strange things that actually scared her. Not like she would admit it to him, she wouldn't. She was afraid that he would ask her to keep the end of her bargain and leave him, because he had identified what she was afraid of. Tsumugi was walking in the street, her mind buried in the music she was listening to, and the scarf keeping her face warm that cold winter evening. She didn't see Shizuo Heiwajima standing a little ahead of her, buying coffee.

Predictions being correct, Mugi bumped into him, and Shizuo almost dropped the cup. His gaze was intense until it landed on the girl. Tsumugi didn't say a word, her eyes staring at his, the two having an unusual silence between them. Tsumugi began walking, and Shizuo walked beside her. It was hard to say if she was listening to music at this point of time, because she was worried about her surroundings. She didn't want Izaya taking notice of her. She would probably be the only one who could hide things from him, and she intended to keep it that way.

Tsumugi's stare was on the ground, and Shizuo looked at nothing in particular. Tsumugi's attire was a full sleeved black shirt, and her hands were on the scarf, holding it to her face. "How are you?" Shizuo's voice finally broke the silence between them, and Tsumugi nodded. To most questions, as the readers would have guessed, Tsumugi would have replied merrily, her voice bouncing with reasonless joy. Her replies then, made it seem like she was sort of like a doppelganger of Tsumugi, a person that looked just like Tsumugi Aizawa, but behaved in the exact opposite way.

"Shizu-chan, how are you?" Tsumugi's voice was fierce, yet serene, an unusual combination that characterized how she was full in control with what she was saying and to whom she was saying it to. The male beside her sighed, and Shizuo didn't utter anything for a while. "I'm better than you are." He said, and walked away, waving to her. Tsumugi stood there for a minute, before her eyebrows furrowed, and the girl walked away, minding her own business, and her being swallowed off into the busy streets.

Tsumugi Aizawa walked to the local hospital staring at it with a keen eye, not actually walking inside. Even through her concentration on the automatic opening doors of the building, she could tell someone was behind her, and something told her it was Izaya, her one sided lover. His hands encircled around her waist, and Tsumugi smiled on impulse. "Izaya." She cooed, and the male purred in her neck. "What're you doing here Mugi-chan?" Tsumugi smiled and turned around, now fully facing him. "Fanfiction. I was thinking of killing a character." Izaya cocked his eyebrow. "Why?"

Tsumugi closed her eyes and gulped. "Because that character hurt the protagonist in a way they can't heal." Izaya chuckled and put his arm around her neck and said, "Too much thinking like that is gonna make you get wrinkles Mugi-chan, you'll look older than you already are." His voice somehow made her smile, gave her an assurance that nothing was wrong in this world. Even if the voice indeed belong to a man who was despised simply for actually just existing, Tsumugi found a unique sense of solace in him.

"Izaya, I love you." She told him, being utterly and candidly honest. Izaya suddenly stopped walking, and turned to look at Tsumugi, her green eyes fixed at him, and her glasses standing firm at where they should. "Mugi-chan, I love humans." He told her, but his mind yelled at him for lying. Tsumugi smiled and nodded, her brace on his hand tightened as she said, "I know. I don't care. I love you, and you know what, you're human too. And that cute face of yours also is going to grow old one day, and when that happens, I'll be there growing old with you, Izaya." Izaya's heart felt like it was being clutched by a five year old child, and being crushed.

His hold on her firmed a bit, an action that Tsumugi noticed and something told her he was believing her. It wasn't as if she was lying, she wasn't. Izaya's mind echoed with her words, and that was something which made him think of things differently. He knew right then that Tsumugi wasn't lying to him about the growing old part, and he didn't know if that was what he wanted. His mind was conflicted, something unusual for a person knowing exactly what he wanted.

After they each went to their houses, Tsumugi walked to her room, and closed the door. She locked the windows, and she sat on the bed, thinking for a bit. She checked the time, and she looked to her laptop, and sighed. She took the device in her hands, and began to type and before actually beginning, she muttered, "Updating time."

Izaya felt haunted. He didn't tell anyone that he had actually 'seen' Tetsuya Hayashi a few days ago, in an underground bar, and that made him realize that Mizore didn't get all accurate information all the time. But, if Izaya gave this information to Mizore that meant that he could be free of the stalker, and not worry about anything anymore. He could concentrate more on Tsumugi, and trying to resolve his conflicting feelings toward the girl that wanted to grow old with him, and that would shorten one of the problems at hand.

Therefore, he texted Mizore about the news.

Mizore on the other hand, didn't know about this, and the stalker frowned slightly and didn't decide to ask Izaya about not informing the stalker about this earlier. Mizore knew about Izaya's confliction and decided not to act on it. Mizore in return replied to Izaya telling him a small thank you, a gesture that shocked the informant, and Mizore got to business.

Tsumugi typed her own novel in secret. She didn't want Izaya knowing about it already, she wanted it to be completely written and then she would show it to him, since that would be the last thing he would see from her, and of her. Her novel would reveal to him what really scared her and that would make her leave. Even though she didn't want to leave him, she would keep the end of her bargain, and that meant leaving Ikebukuro.

…'several people gathered at the junction where the trains met, and even then she had a nagging sense that made her not want him to see her, she didn't want him to see the madness that consumed her, and she could tell, she could indirectly be the guiding force for him to keep him away from her. He was a bad man, a bad man turned good, some of the rarest and sporadic events that occurred at the time of man, and she was alive to witness it. Yet, she believed that his negativity, and his drawbacks were nowhere close to hers. For her crimes for lying to him, were far greater, and if she could ask the angels above to tell him where to go, she would ask them to tell him that, that way madness lies, do not choose that path, and in the end, he would choose the right way, the correct path. The path away from her…'

Something struck Izaya right then. Something, very mystical, and a feeling so intense he couldn't even begin to explain it. He wanted to know desperately who Mizore was, and now the fact the Stalker abruptly thanked him and just left him was something Izaya Orihara couldn't conjure. "Tsumugi is the only one that can help me." Izaya said, but he didn't want her involved. She had so much going on around her, even without her knowing, one of the rarest persons on the earth who was so uncorrupted, and some part of him wanted that to remain.

"I'll ask Shizu-chan myself. I know he can't kill me." Izaya smirked and walked out of the house, not bothering that it was night time.

Tsumugi turned to look out of her window to see a familiar blonde waiting there, and Tsumugi turned back to her computer, and checked her shirt. Full sleeved black top. She clutched her wrists, and blinked once. She looked back to the screen of the laptop and frowned, seeing something she clearly didn't like. She got off the bed, and walked out, ignoring the fact that it was cold outside, and that she wore shorts. She noticed Shizuo wearing an unreadable expression and she asked him from the other side of the empty street. "What do you want?"

Shizuo didn't really need anything, he was just passing by. He was passing by her house, and happened to stare at it longer than usual, and he had caught notice of that. But, telling her that he wanted nothing was something she wouldn't believe. "Nothing." He said, anyway.

Tsumugi frowned and crossed the street. But, something caught her attention and her blood ran cold. She could see a man, a white shirt, and dark pants. He was someone even Shizuo recognized and Tsumugi stood shocked. She quickly ran behind Shizuo and embraced him, making the male grip on to his fist tighter than usual. And, after the other person walked away, Tsumugi released him, and from behind them she heard the sound of two palms clapping against each other.

The palms belonging to Izaya Orihara.

To this action, Tsumugi knew she couldn't explain, for he had witnessed an action that was so unlike the Tsumugi he knew. "What's happening here?" He mocked at them, a frown on his face instead of the usual Cheshire grin.

And for those who even didn't know what kind of man Izaya was and how well of an actor he was, and for those who knew that fact about him, everyone and anyone right then could tell, that the male was outraged. This time, Izaya Orihara failed to mask his rage, but it was also decipherable that he might have not wanted to at all, from the beginning. For this anger didn't come out of hatred, it came out of distress and deceit. And it was that type of ire, that needed to be feared most.

A/N: Omigosh! What's happening? DX
I know, but I won't say.
Why? Because I'm evil and I'm so evil that I'm leaving you guys with a cliffhanger.
XD
Anyways, review my dears. I love you all so much.
Tell me what you think of the latest installment!