I own nothing.

Izaya realized he had fallen asleep only after he opened his eyes again. He immediately remembered everything about yesterday and that he wasn't in his own apartment but at Shizuo's. He remembered everything a bit too well to his own liking and groaned slightly. He stared at the ceiling, feeling stupid and embarrassed because of it. Shizuo was still on him, slightly snoring. Being a little too close to falling down he scooted closer to not to fall down, only to realize that his leg was partly on Shizuo and the blonde's hand was around him, keeping him there firmly. This made Izaya's chest tighten and his expression change from displeasure to anxious and even a bit panicked. It was all wrong. How had he gotten himself into this mess in the first place? How was it even possible that–

Izaya gritted his teeth. No. he wouldn't think about it. It was gross in every way. He just wanted to get away from Shizuo.

So, taking a deep breath, he slowly moved his leg from on top of Shizuo's leg immediately feeling the loss of warmth. He moved Shizuo's arm away (that needed a bit more strength) and quickly got up. His heart was beating faster as he straightened himself and gave a glance at the sleeping blonde while he picked up his jacket, putting it on quickly.

The next thing he tried to do was gather his thoughts. He couldn't though, because everytime he tried his thoughts filled with memories and not plans. "I need to wash my face…" he muttered and walked to the bathroom. After washing his face a couple of times he already felt better but was left thirsty. So, after he had drunk a couple of glasses of water in the kitchen Izaya could finally feel his usual calmness settle down. Now the question was: what to do next?

He knew he didn't want Shizuo to remember anything. And it would have been great if he didn't even remember it as much as to think it was a dream. The only thing that Izaya came up with was that if Shizuo woke up in his own bedroom he wouldn't maybe remember anything. He would just think it was a dream – hopefully a gross one. That made perfect sense, right?

Moving someone like Shizuo from the living room to the bedroom sounds easy but it definitely isn't. Not in Izaya's opinion. Not when the brute was asleep at least.

"Why… are you… so… damn… heavy...?" Izaya groaned as he tried to hold Shizuo up slash drag him to the bedroom. "Damn," he puffed and took the second last step next to the bed, "brute—" Shizuo muttered something, making Izaya jolt, making Izaya fall down to the bed with Shizuo falling with him.

Frowning, Izaya cursed and turned his head to see if Shizuo was awake. He wasn't but his head sure was close. Izaya swallowed and looked away, quickly getting up. He was acting so stupid all of a sudden and it was all Shizuo's fault.

The raven sighed and started to head towards the door. He took his phone from his pocket and saw that the clock was only 6 AM. At least no one would – hopefully – see him coming out of Shizuo's apartment. And with that thought in mind Izaya left quickly not ever wanting to talk about what had happened or even think about it. If the world's end came today or tomorrow Izaya would not be surprised.

.

When you have been drinking enough to get a hangover the worst possible way to wake up is to a noise. Any noise that you wake up to deserves a punch to the face, no questions asked. At least Shizuo was definitely agreeing to that. So when his phone rang he could have just thrown it out of the window.

Shizuo groaned as he answered his phone with a mutter, "hello?" He then got up and yawned.

"Hi Shizuo, it's Tom. Did I wake you up?"

"More or less."

"Uh, okay, sorry. I just thought you would be up by now but I guess sorry," Tom chuckled a little.

"...What time is it?"

"It's almost twelve in the morning. You okay there?"

Shizuo yawned and tried to ignore the slowly forming headache "yeah, I'm good. Just… a little bit of a hangover, you know."

"You gotta tell me what happened when we see then; you don't usually drink that much." Shizuo could hear the grin in Tom's voice and it sort of pissed him off. "Well call me when you're ready with everything, uh, necessary so I know when to meet you, okay?"

"Oh yeah," Shizuo sighed, "today's the festival…"

"Yeah, so be as quick as you can. See ya later Shizuo."

"Yeah bye Tom." And with that Shizuo ended the call and fell back on to his back.

Shizuo's head was aching and he had the feeling like he should remember something about yesterday. And it actually hit him partly right then: Shion was gone. He was at Celty's. Shizuo sighed at the fuzzy memory because there had been Izaya as well. Not that he remembered much, probably another chase around the city. Nothing new there. Gritting his teeth Shizuo truly hoped he had killed Izaya, though he had the feeling he hadn't, because that would have made his day slightly better.

Shizuo decided to ignore the mess also known as his living room when he went to the bathroom. He brushed his teeth and stared at his reflection for a while. He definitely had forgotten something meaningful or important about yesterday.

The water felt good on him and the headache calmed down a little too. "Showers really are the best…" was the mumble he had to make and sighed deeply. Though, Shizuo had a weird feeling looming over him. It was almost like melancholy, somehow. At first he was certain it was about Shion. That he was upset about him being gone. But then he noticed, after turning the water warmer, that it wasn't sadness he felt, it was loss. Loss for someone. Not the cat. What the hell had he done last night?

His living room was easy to clean and he got to help himself with breakfast soon too. But while Shizuo was eating his memory loss was distracting him. It all had something to do with Izaya that he knew. "But what could he have—"_

"I'm not afraid of you."

Shizuo's heart skipped a beat and he remembered the alley. He remembered Izaya's sincere eyes and steady voice. "Monster or not, I'm not afraid of you."

Shizuo stared at his bread in his hand and his heartbeat quickened. He remembered Izaya standing behind his door and sitting on his couch…

Shizuo had never stared at a piece of bread so horrified and confused in his life.

.

Shizuo and Tom were walking through the crowd on the familiar streets of Ikebukuro. It was a beautiful day to spend outside; it couldn't be more perfect for the Hanabata festival. The sun had been shining brightly the whole day. Almost everyone was wearing a kimono and for Shizuo it was reassuring because he had feared (for no real reason) that he would be the only one wearing one. Even Tom was wearing a kimono, green as its colour.

"Wow.. It's much prettier this year than it was last year... Don't you think so, Shizuo? Everybody is looking much more happier and lively," Tom turned to look at Shizuo and then snorted, "though you're just the opposite. Hey, Shizuo... Care to tell me? You spacing off again, too," The brown haired one muttered and shook his head.

"Huh? Oh, sorry I was in my own thoughts."

"I can see that. What are you thinking about anyway? Having some girl trouble?" Tom smirked but hadn't expected Shizuo to actually react like he did by flinching a little. "What? Really?"

"No! It's not like that. I just... I didn't sleep well; I drank so..."

"Oh... So that's why. Well you should have said something about it sooner! Come one, there's a play starting over there. I heard it's going to be really good this year."

"Play?"

"Yeah, the theatre show."

Shizuo nodded and hummed as an answer and they started to walk towards the stage. It had a lot of people in front of the stage already, who were all waiting for the play to start. Shizuo walked behind Tom and when Tom stopped Shizuo almost collided with his back. He just couldn't stop thinking about it; Izaya; yesterday. The scene just played in his mind endlessly, clouding his head, his mind. What the hell was going to happen to him now? He knew that he had started it himself. That he had... That he had kissed Izaya first. But how had it went from something like that to something like that? Izaya surely remembered it because he hadn't drunk anything. Shizuo frowned. Did that mean that Izaya had kissed him voluntarily? Then it must have something behind it. Was he going to blackmail Shizuo now? Had he taken footage of it? Places cameras into his house just to come and kiss him and then laugh and blackmail him? Shizuo couldn't think of anything else. He gritted his teeth at the thought. But then again something as a video of them kissing (if there even was a video) was idiotic blackmail material. It didn't held anything against him. So that left only one option: Izaya had kissed him without any intentions behind it – bad intentions.

The more Shizuo thought about it the blurrier it got. Why had something like that even happened? Had the whole world come to its end or had Izaya finally just gotten mad and crossed the line? What even was the line? Was there a line in the begin with?

Shizuo sighed deeply. He wished he could smoke now but there were too many people. Damn did he need that smoke.

The play told the story of how the Hanabata festival was born in the first place. Or it was one of the stories behind it. This one was the most known one. Two lovers, Orihime and Hikoboshi, who couldn't be together but wanted to be. The whole milky way separates these two. The story, at least on Shizuo's opinion, isn't very good. But the acting in the play was good for once and actually a bit edited to be funny as well. People didn't seem to mind, they only smiled. It's a love story, ironically. At least Shizuo found it ironic for some reason. The town sees it every year and everyone looks forward to it every time. Shizuo never really looked forward to it because he had seen it many times already, every year in fact. Before he went to high school he used to go to watch the play very time with Kasuka.
Shizuo stared at the stage, not really bothering to pay any attention, when he felt like somebody was watching him or staring. He tried to ignore it but when the feeling came unbearable he turned around quickly and scanned around the area. Sometimes it was a good thing he was so tall. There was no one there close to him or far away from him who was looking directly at him. Had he imagined it? "Huh," was all he could master to mutter before he turned back around towards the stage.

After the play Tom and Shizuo walked around. The blonde was smoking a pipe, thinking "finally". The pipe sort of went with his outfit. Personally he liked it a lot because he liked old-fashioned things. Not that it actually was that old-fashioned. Tom picked a paper from his pocket. It was some sort of advertisement.

"Simon gave this to me while I was walking towards the park earlier," Tom began and yawned shorty before showing it to Shizuo. "They're having some sort of event at the Russia Sushi. A very special one for the Tanabata... Should we go and see? I'm kind of hungry for sushi, too."

Shizuo took the advertisement and eyed it for a second before nodding and giving it back to his work partner, "Doesn't sound that bad. But you have to go without me if you go now. I'm not hungry yet," Shizuo said and blew out a cloud of smoke, "I also want to walk around for a bit more."

"Suit yourself," Tom shrugged and then said goodbye with a wave of his hand before walking away towards Russia Sushi.

Shizuo walked around the town, mostly near all the shops. He looked everything that was on sale, all the decorations and all the people walking around. Many trees had straps hanging from its branches with wishes. Shizuo enjoyed looking at the decorations the most because of all the colours. His favourites had always been the paper kimonos, paper cranes, streamers and the paper strips. Shizuo himself was good at making paper cranes though he doubted that anyone actually knew about his hidden talent. Maybe his family did since he used to make a lot of them when he was young.

Suddenly a kid ran in front of Shizuo to his mother, asking excitedly, almost shouting, "Mom! Mom! Can we go and see the fireworks in the evening? Please, please can we? I really want to see them!"

The mother smiled and ruffled the boy's black hair, "of course we can. Actually, though it was supposed to be a secret, daddy is one of the men who will shoot the fireworks. We will have a good viewing spot."

The child's face lit up and he smiled widely while giggling, "Yay! Fireworks!" And he went on as he followed his mother who had continued to walk. Shizuo smiled a little and he then too continued to walk on. Not many moments passed when Shizuo slowed down and sniffed the air. His eyes scanned the area and there, not very far from him, was a sign and a wagon: "Caramelized apples!" the sign said. Shizuo's eyes lit up and he walked to it.

.

The sun was setting. People were wandering towards the best places to watch the fireworks. No one, expect Izaya, was at the park anymore. Legs against his chest he leaned against his knees. He was pissed off. And hungry. And tired and confused. His entire day had been empty of action. He hadn't gone home the whole day either. He was glad it was one of the days he kept free; Namie would surely try to kill him otherwise. He didn't even care about the two gangs who, probably at the very moment, were running away from the police or fighting them. Izaya was a bit amused by the thought of them, though.
Shiki would be so angry at him, he was so sure of it. But Izaya still couldn't believe how blind they both had been to his information. Izaya had made sure he was sure about the gangs' information on things, they hadn't even tried to check them. Even Shiki hadn't and he usually doubted Izaya the most. Izaya had hoped that the new leader of the new mafia gang would have been more careful – because he had seemed like a person who was careful and cunning – but alas it wasn't so. And besides he had clearly been too trusting of Izaya and basically considered as his own informant. It didn't do much good on him. And now? Now the both gangs were against each other, probably. Shiki of course had the upper hand because his arrival to the bank was after Kanaki and his men. Though now that he thought about it it was all pretty boring. Because almost everyday something like that happened.

Izaya took out his black phone from the pocket his jacket and stared at it. He flipped it open, knowing its battery was almost dead. He had had three phones with him but now he had only two. Izaya frowned a little at the memory of it, how he had thrown it away. It had been a little after leaving Shizuo's apartment. He had headed to his own apartment after leaving Shizuo's. He had taken his phone out, the one that had been purple and had noticed that the battery of it was dead. He had thrown it away because he had enough phones and besides, he still had two that had all the numbers he needed in them. Though he had been surprised when the second phone, the black one, had had only 5% battery remaining. The third one, the red one, had had 70% battery. And just like with the grey phone Izaya had been about to throw the phone away, knowing he could easily survive only with the red one, but he had halted. He hadn't thrown it away. Why? Because of all the phones Izaya had the blonde only had his number to this specific black one.

"Why don't I just throw it away? It only has 1% remaining..." the informant murmured while staring at the device in his hand. He was being ridiculous. Since when had he began thinking about Shizuo all the time and before everything else? Izaya couldn't still believe he had spent the day doing nothing; it was Tanabata! Usually he would be walking around the town with his humans, observing them. Not that he hadn't been there... Instead he had spent almost all of his day at the park, sitting there like a statue."What's wrong with me?" Now the only thing he wondered about was Shizuo. Would he remember? Did Izaya want him to remember? He could always say it was just some thing he did; that he had been bored. Izaya gritted his teeth and glared at the ground. The memory of last night was tattooed to the back of his head and it made his heart beat faster and his body almost trembed– with excitement. He knew what was going with himself. He hated it.

"I hate him," was all Izaya spit out and got up.

.

People were chatting impatiently, wondering what kind of firework display it was going to be. They were all so excited, without worries or troubling thoughts. Shizuo remembered how he had sworn to himself that he would have his next festival peaceful and actually nice. There would be no idiots around or Izaya. Hah, how wrong had he been. The blonde gazed up to the sky and noticed the sun would only have a few moments before disappearing behind the horizon. The normally blue sky was painted in orange, yellow and pink. Such a peaceful and beautiful scene. Shizuo glanced around himself and noticed he was alone at the tree near the small "river". The field where almost everyone was waiting for the fireworks was just across from where Shizuo was. He could see them well. The blonde wondered why everyone was gathered there when they could see the fireworks elsewhere as well; like where he was. In times like these Shizuo wondered why it always went like that; people gathering together to look at something.

"You know, I have never understood the meaning of festivals," a familiar, annoying-most-of-the-time voice stated next to Shizuo. "But I guess humans find it somehow nice to be close to each other. What do you think?" Izaya asked, not glancing at Shizuo even once.

Shizuo hadn't heard him coming. But that's a flea for you; always appearing out of no where. The blonde sighed, "don't know."

They stood there for a moment in silence before Izaya shifted and made a humming sound, "The Tanabata festival is one of the festivals that I really don't understand. I get it, you know, that humans want to celebrate the end or the beginning of something. I know enough to understand the importance of rice harvest. But the Tanabata festival... where did it come from? I've heard the story behind it and I've seen plays when I was little. It's about two lovers who can only see each other once a year, right? Why would we celebrate something like that? Maybe the thought of God's getting together is important..." Izaya sighed and then chuckled briefly, "Humans really are strange sometimes. Don't you think so too, Shizu-chan?"

Shizuo didn't answer Izaya, though he somehow understood his point. But Shizuo somehow knew what Izaya was getting at by talking like this. He was referring to himself by saying that about humans. Shizuo took a deep breath and tried to gather his thoughts that he had been trying to do since arriving to where he now was. That had been almost an hour ago.

"Celebrating two lovers – gods – who can only meet once a year... Absurd, don't you think? But humans are interesting that way, too." Izaya looked at the sky, like Shizuo. The sun wasn't there anymore but the bright light was still trying to reach forward across the darkening sky. "I don't know why but it feels ironic."

"I remember yesterday," Shizuo finally said, causing Izaya to flinch a little.

"Oh you do?" Izaya asked with a sing-sang voice, "though I don't actually care." Izaya tried his best not to sound nervous, which he was. Though he wasn't going to admit anything to anyone – not even to himself. Because it was stupid and very unlike him.

Shizuo sighed. "You kissed me," and before Izaya could say anything to that the blonde continued, "after I kissed you." They were both silent. The sky turned completely dark.

"Hey it's going to start any time!"

"Hear that? They're counting!"

"Oh, they are!"

Almost everyone was counting down the second that remained before the first firework was going to be fired: "3...2..."

"I..." Shizuo began and even though he wasn't looking at Izaya but still at the sky, he could sense how Izaya tensed up beside him, "I don't... I don't regret it."

"1...0!" The crowd cheered and some even jumped. The first firework was shot to the sky and it made a beautiful, colourful circle against the night sky. Then came another one and behind it another one. The sky was full of colours once again. Izaya turned to look at Shizuo.

"Why?"

"I don't know."

"..." The informant looked at Shizuo for a while longer, as if studying his face, before turning his head to the sky again. "I see."

Moments passed in silence which neither of them knew how to break. Or maybe they didn't want to. After all it was so rare for them to stand so close to each other without braking the other one. They watched the fireworks together, both enjoying the other's company. Though, neither of them would have admitted this if asked.
The informant wondered how it had turned into something like this. It was the weirdest thing that had ever happened to him in his life and let me tell you, there had been many strange days and things in his life – he couldn't even count them all. But this – this moment right here – was the strangest thing. Izaya had always liked weird things that were almost impossible to explain. So he was, in a way, enjoying the situation. But on the other hand he wanted to run away from it all; from Shizuo. He didn't regret it? What was that even supposed to mean? Izaya wanted to laugh. Because as always the brute surprised him by doing the opposite what he had predicted. "Why can't you just stop doing that..." Izaya mumbled and this time Shizuo turned his head to look at him.

"What do you mean? Stop doing what?"

"Being unpredictable. You're the worst... " Izaya snorted, "I thought yesterday... When I got to your place that... that you would maybe explain why you didn't hit me. When we were in the alley." He felt uneasy and he hated it. The informant didn't really know what he was even saying, "And you kind of did. But in a weird way. But really, Shizu-chan... Why did you miss me like that? I was right there." And when Shizuo didn't answer him Izaya felt a bit amused for some reason. "Did I actually say something to you to make you miss? You had that weird expression too... Like you were surprised. I'm guessing it was because of what I said. It was, wasn't it?"

Shizuo chuckled briefly, making Izaya frown a little, "I guess it was because of what you said. Yeah, it was because of that." And so unlike his normal voice, which was usually like growling of a hound or just really low and threatening, he sounded relaxed. His voice was, dared Izaya think, soft.

Izaya couldn't control his emotions anymore so he burst out laughing, earning a questioning look from Shizuo. Again Shizuo was being unpredictable and complete the opposite of everything Izaya had thought he was. Words effected him after all? Izaya didn't stop laughing until a few moments later when the fireworks stopped for a second. "Yesterday... when you tried to... Actually I don't know what you tried, but when you kissed me... Want to know what I thought?" And Izaya continued before Shizuo could even open his mouth, "I thought that Shizu-chan must be out of his mind. But then I remembered that you were drunk. And then I remembered that people usually say or do something they usually wouldn't do when they're drunk. Something they maybe want to do. So I thought: "has Shizu-chan always wanted to kiss me?" But that of course is absurd."

Shizuo licked his lips and shifted so he was half-facing the informant. Izaya was so pleased, for some reason, that his words made Shizuo react like that. He had noticed it long ago, that whatever he said the blonde would react somehow. And the reaction would always be an interesting one. And that was one of the things he loved about Shizuo. Izaya chuckled.

"But I actually found something out, still – about you. And about myself," Izaya mumbled and then smiled. It was a little sad, in a way. "Want to know what it was?" Shizuo looked at Izaya who turned to look at the sky again, waiting for the raven to continue, "I thought... that I wanted to kiss you. So I did. And..."

"...And?"

"And I still want to." Izaya bluntly said and he almost grinned when Shizuo's eyes widened in surprise. Shizuo could react normally too, it seemed. Though somehow it was different to Izaya. "See... I actually realized – and this is a bit of a surprise – that I find you more interesting than anything else." Shizuo inhaled sharply, "If you know what I mean by that. And if it's unclear to you–" Izaya turned to look at Shizuo into his eyes with a quick spin and took a step closer to him, almost giggling as he spoke rather softly, tilting his head just a little, "I like you." And with that Izaya leaned closer and kissed Shizuo on his lips.

One of the most beautiful and biggest fireworks was shot to the sky and as it exploded it was as if a huge, colourful and bright flower bloomed on the sky. The night was truly a beautiful one. The lovers had found each other again.

Here is the chapter that's four months late (or so). Can I cry now? And a warning: long Author's note coming up!

So I apologize about this, truly. I never mean for this to be updated so late! After I got back from my trip I was ready to write; I even began to write the chapter shortly after I got home from England. But guess what? Writer's block happened. A bad one. It was impossible for me to write because I felt like it was lacking something all the time. I typed the beginning and then left it for a while because I just didn't feel like writing. I thought I would continue soon. Just a week late from what I thought would be the update-date. But no. I read it and then deleted it and left it. I just hated it. Then after two months I tried to write it and actually got to the point where Shizuo is at the festival. And that's when everything went down, bad. I actually gave up because of it, truth to be told. Because I so badly wanted to describe the festival but then there wasn't enough information about the whole Tanabata festival and I just got frustrated.

I AM SO SORRY.

But now this chapter is ready and I hope it pleases all of you readers. And I have to add that this chapter is important, obviously, so I wanted it to be perfect. And so it took "awhile" to finish. I just hate myself but then I just love myself for actually finishing this whole thing. I had a BETA and she said it was well written and altogether good so... Here you have it. if there are any typos I apologize for those too. And if the text has some spacing issues just try to ignore them; this site uploads these documents a bit... well, not well. Still, I hope you enjoy and I hope you the feeling I tried to get into this chapter, especially at the end, is somehow there for you to all receive!

So about some scenes in this:

In the beginning Izaya is a bit panicked. So I made it clear that he doesn't think very clearly, thus "That made perfect sense, right?". Because really, at this point, Izaya can be a bit like that; confused. Hell, I would be. :'D

Then the most important scene to me personally: the end scene. I actually had no idea how to write the "plot twist" to this story at first. But then I listened to "Utakata Hanabi" by Supercell. That song right there is my inspiration. It's pretty much the perfect song for it really. Go on and listen to it and read the translation from some site. It's one of the ending musics from Naruto, I know, but it's good. and it fits, so. And the ending of this chapter is actually straight from the lyrics. Go and check if you like!

And there were all my notes. And again I am so, so sorry how long it took me to finish this but I swear to god that the next chapter won't take this long since I know clearly what's going to happen (like I actually did with this one it just... sigh, I just didn't like my own writing at all). And please do wait for it with all excitement you have, because the next chapter will be very interesting and exciting! That said I think you will all just snort after you've read it. Hahah...

Anyway, please review and kick me because I'm a horrible person. I really want to know what you thought of this. Was it too short, was there something missing or were the character somehow OOC? Thank you for the reviews, by the way, from the previous chapter! They were all lovely and I just want to cry and hug each of you!

I thank you all for reading! I love you! (Personally I wouldn't be surprised if someone forgot this fic after all these months...)