[ A/N ] Ahhh! Sorry sorry sorry sorry sorry! Sorry for not updating the story for so long! (I can't believe I gained 2 story followers in this time) I know where I want to go with it, but I just couldn't find the words to fill in the time gaps (plus, if I just jumped straight to my 'landmarks' there'd be no content to the story. I promise (at lease I hope...) the next update will not take another month! Ugh, I really hope this chapter is actually good, and not just shit I'm writing in order to actually get something done. How does one deal with writers block?!

"…"

"What~? Cat got your tongue?"

Shizuo stared across the table at Izaya, blinking as he processed all the information he'd been told. Of course, knowing that meant that seeing Izaya on billboards and in magazines made much more sense, but Shizuo was having a hard time accepting that Izaya was famous - and not for all the wrong reasons. Psychopathic? Sociopath? Try charming and talented. Shizuo scoffed at the thought, yeah right. He thoughts returned once more to the tabloid, his face shooting up in a bright blush, causing Izaya to smirk. If that was the truth, and Izaya's said popularity really was, although unlikely, unexaggerated… I'm not going to be able to go outside without getting recognised as his… lover. He covered his face, attempting to hide his embarrassment. Izaya shifted forward, leaning over the table as he reached out and grabbed Shizuo's hands, pulling them away from his face and laughing playfully. He tilted his head to one side, flashing Shizuo with a rare genuine smile, a gesture which evoked an irregular fluttering from Shizuo's heart. Izaya stared, intimidatingly into his eyes, his curiosity dying to see Shizuo's reaction to the situation. He knew that Shizuo hated being in the limelight even though he was used to it, as one with his extraordinary temper and inhumane strength would be. Izaya was temped to push Shizuo further into the spotlight, see how long he could take it until he cracked. After all, nothing was more amusing to Izaya than seeing Shizuo embarrass himself in public. Well, almost nothing. He had to admit, seeing Shizuo acting 'tsundere', as he liked to put it, was certainly amusing. And cute~

Their silence was broken as Izaya's cellphone blared with a dreadfully annoying tune. Izaya dropped Shizuo's hands and turned his head in a fluid motion, as he rolled his eyes, towards the sound. He let out an annoyed and disappointed grunt and staggered refractorily towards his phone. He held up his index finger in Shizuo's direction, without turning to face him, as he flicked open his phone, holding it inches away from his ear by his thumb and middle finger. Shizuo rolled his eyes as Izaya indicated for him to 'hold on a moment'. He got up from the table and walked towards the kitchenette, pleading for Izaya's fridge to be stocked with milk. He winced as he heard, even from his positioning, an angry, electronically distorted, voice howl out of Izaya's phone. Izaya had closed his eyes and turned away from the phone and Shizuo guessed that he'd been expecting a reaction like that. He couldn't help but listen to the conversation as he opened the fridge, discovering, much to his relief, multiple bottles of milk. Could he have been… thinking of me?

"Jesus fucking Christ, Izaya what the hell have you been doing!? I thought you were dead or something, but OH NO, you were just SKIPPING YOUR FUCKING JOB to fuck around with your boyfriend IN PUBLIC. Excuse me for caring about your image, but as your fucking manager ITS MY JOB. Do you realise your actions will have repercussions? I've gotta arrange press conferences, and I swear to god if this is just some 'one night stand' bullshit you're going to be in for it. Do you realise what something like this could do for your career? Not to mention I've already had to cover up for your violent outbreak on set, which was absolutely inexcusable, and you're expected to give a formal apology-"

"Calm down, calm down," Izaya said in his usual, nonchalant and unfazed tone. "Thankfully for my boyfriend I'm not," he said, purposely being indirect with his statement for his own entertainment. Shizuo's eyes shot in Izaya's direction, widening as Izaya referred to him as his boyfriend, even though it was laced with a little sarcasm. He positioned himself, with his glass of milk, as close as he could to Izaya, without seeming suspicious, but still allowing him to hear the loud voice on the other end of the phone.

"That you're not what? Turning up to work?" Izaya's manager asked, clearly unamused by Izaya's misdirection.

"Dead," Izaya replied in an almost serious tone. Shizuo almost spat milk across the room. Was he being serious? The smirk on Izaya's face suggested otherwise, so Shizuo let the remark pass off as Izaya's sick idea for a joke.

"Ha ha. You need to stop messing around. Whether you like it or not, you've gotta finish making this damn movie because they've shot too many scenes to remake them, and as much as I hate to admit this when I'm damn pissed at you, there's no one better for the role in existence. You're lucky you're earning me good dollar, because I swear to god I'd leave you out on your ass if you weren't. Now I have to clean up all your shit, and I'm not happy about it. I've scheduled a press conference in half an hour. It's at the usual place, and I'm too fucking pissed to send a chauffeur so you better get your damned ass here on time. Half an hour. No exceptions."

"Yeah, yeah. I'll be there. Bye~" Izaya hung up the phone and threw it onto the couch, sighing as he turned to face Shizuo. "Sorry Shizu-chan, looks like we'll have to leave question time to later, I'm needed~ Ahh, I wish I could stay here with you."

He disappeared into his room and returned shortly after, wearing a fashionable and very expensive looking outfit that was neither formal nor casual. He bustled around the apartment, grabbing various things and stuffing them into pockets. Shizuo, choosing to act uninterested, returned to the fridge to pour himself another glass of milk.

"Feel free to do whatever you want with whatever's in the apartment. I've got a few playstation and wii games, but you're only allowed to play if you promise you won't break the console when you get angry. And you will get angry~" Izaya called out as he let himself out the door, closing it loudly behind him for dramatic effect. Shizuo rolled his eyes and looked around the spacious, mostly empty, apartment, finding his attention drawn back to the many bottles of milk in the fridge. Why the hell does he have this much milk?

The front door suddenly opened, causing Shizuo to jump. He turned to see Izaya poking his head around the door frame. He spoke as if he'd read Shizuo's mind.

"If you're wondering why there's so much milk in my fridge, it was for Shizu-nyan~" he said with a wink, and left the apartment - this time for good.

Shizuo blinked, confusedly. Shizu-nyan? What the-?

After helping himself to another glass of milk, he decided to look around the apartment. It was incredibly well kept - nothing was out of place, and Shizuo couldn't even find a fleck of dust covering the furniture. The apartment had six rooms in total, although one of those rooms acted as a kitchen, dining and lounge. The back wall of the lounge was really just a large window, one which overlooked the entire city. Of course Izaya would have gone for something like this, Shizuo thought as he leaned against the window and looked down at the people passing below.

The edge of the lounge area was trimmed with a mezzanine floor, a large bookcase situated on top. Shizuo wondered if Izaya had really read all the books that filled it, or if he'd just bought them for decoration. He climbed the half ladder, half stair case up to the mezzanine floor and walked alongside the bookcase until he came to a door, which he opened. The floor inside the room was covered in beanbags and cushions. There were a few reading lamps scattered variously around the place, and a bunch of DVDs and games sitting on a shelf under a huge plasma television. Shizuo shrugged and walked over to the shelf, looking through the games Izaya had and settling for Mario Kart. After all, it was the only game that didn't seem violent. After twenty minutes of pressing buttons on various remotes, Shizuo finally figured out how to work everything. Considerably, it took him a while to figure out how to work the wii's motion activated navigation system, and it didn't help that he'd wasted time trying to load the game in the playstation and getting frustrated when the console rejected the disk.

When the game finally started up, he threw his fists up into the air in triumph, taking pride in the fact that he'd managed to do it himself without smashing anything out of frustration. The character selection window popped up, and Shizuo went with Peach. He hadn't intended to, but his aim missed Luigi he couldn't be bothered to figure out how to go back. Not knowing anything about the courses, he went with his gut and selected the Special Cup, gripping the 'steering wheel' tightly in his hands as the countdown for the first race began. He did well, considering that Izaya had the difficulty level turned right up, and was feeling pretty pleased with himself after he placed fourth on the third course. The fourth course started up, and Shizuo was feeling pretty confident to go for second place. He pressed hard on the accelerator button, as if the extra pressure would somehow translate into the game and cause him to speed up further. However, this course was none other than the death trap, Rainbow Road. He was only seconds into the course when he fell off, and continued to fall off at one particular sharp turn in the course until he was lapped. Once he finally cleared the corner, he was knocked off the edge by a CPU, which sent him into a raging fit. He threw the wii remote at the nearest bean bag and turned off the TV, as violently as one can. He stormed out of the room, kicking the wii remote on the way out, and slammed the door closed.

"Fucking Mario Kart" he muttered under his breath.

[ A/N ] Ok wow, I'm so sorry, I have no idea where all that Mario Kart stuff came from. This is what happens when I write at 12o'clock at night... I couldn't bring myself to delete it because I think Shizuo playing Mario Kart would be hilarious.

Anyway, please review! I love them so much (especially because I'm narcissistic), and they will really help me to be motivated to write. Concrit is good to (criticise me for writing about Mario Kart... or criticise Izaya for owning a wii - he only owns one because I realised you can't play Mario Kart on a playstation. Seriously, I should go to bed now. I won't be surprised if I have dreams about Mario Kart. I haven't even played it recently..)

Thanks for sticking with me, even though I've been an unreliable author! Goodnight!

(p.s the next chapter will be cute ^.^ )