I sat on that couch thinking about what Izaya had said. I had nothing to do, so I just sat there looking around the room until my eyes fell on Izaya's face. He looked so peaceful while he was sleeping. Well, when he wasn't plagued by nightmares. For the first time I noticed how small he was; in height and weight. I guess his personality kept me from noticing before.

Had I really thrown vending machines and swung poles at him before? Why hadn't I ever noticed how small he was? I mean, sure, he had provoked me; but I had fought him with my full strength. I had had every intent to kill the annoying flea… until recently. Why must I always lose my temper and hurt people? Images flashed through my mind from the warehouse. I had taken down almost every gang member in that place. They did horrible things to Izaya, but I still caused a lot of violence. I just lost control over myself when I saw him in that tank.

I heard the sound of the front door clicking open. Looks like Shinra and Celty were back. Should I tell Shinra what Izaya said? Nah, that would be weird. I can help them get the food out though. I walked out and saw both of them carrying armfuls of food.

"Why do you have so much food?!"

"You guys will be here longer than a couple of meals. Technically you could go back home, but I don't think Izaya would be okay with that…. I ran into Tom by the way. I told him you were recovering at my house. He seemed surprised." Shinra said, his words muffled through the mountain of take-out containers. I grabbed half of his and Celty's loads and sat it in the kitchen. I mentally slapped myself for forgetting to call Tom this morning.

"You have to let me pay for some of this food. And I didn't tell Tom what I was doing; I just told him I couldn't be at work yesterday. I forgot to call him with everything that has been going on."

"He didn't seem mad. He just asked if you were okay. I just told him you were okay for the most part and that I just needed you for another patient's recovery."

"I'll still have to call him later." I helped them put today's dinner portion onto plates. It smelled heavenly. I had forgotten about eating and the smell made hunger hit me hard. "Oh, you might want to lower Izaya's dose of pain medicine." I grabbed my food and headed to the bar.

"Why?"

"He was saying some weird stuff after the medicine started kicking in."

"Well all it does is make you a little loopy. That usually just takes out the censor that normally stops us from saying things we don't want to. So he isn't saying nonsense, just stuff he wouldn't normally let slip…Why? Did he tell you some of his informant information on someone?"

"No. I don't know what he was going on about. He was out of it." I rubbed the back of my neck and looked over at the wall, hoping they wouldn't ask questions.

"Celty, Shizuo is hiding something from us." He came over and darted around me like a fly.

"I am not!" I could feel the heat in my cheeks and knew I was blushing. I grabbed my food and headed to the patient room. Izaya was still asleep on the bed, so I went over and gently shook him awake.

"Celty and Shinra brought back some food. You need to eat a little bit." He looked annoyed at being woken up, but he brightened at the mention of food. He reached down and pulled the IV out of his arm. He hopped off of the bed and walked pretty fast out of the room. I guess he was hungry.

He came back in looking disappointed with a tiny amount of fatty tuna. His walk was slow this time and he kind of plopped back onto the bed. He ate the tuna kind of fast, but slowed down by the end. When he was done, he hopped back up, but sat the plate on the bed and held his stomach.

"Hey, you okay?" My voice betrayed me and let my concern show a little too much for my liking.

"My stomach hurts and I could throw up, but that's probably because I haven't eaten anything in a while." He sat back down on the bed. I grabbed a trash can and sat it in front of him. He shook his head, "I finally ate, so I don't need to throw it back up. I'll hold it in, don't worry."

"Whatever. Don't worry about your plate, I got it." I stacked his on top of mine and headed toward the kitchen, pausing in the living room where Shinra was "Shinra, Izaya is trying his best to not throw up."

"I have medicine that can help." He jumped up and flew by me in a blur. I never knew Shinra was that fast. After I put the dishes in the sink, I went back in the room to see Izaya hunched farther over. I walked back out. Guess I might as well make some tea. It might settle his stomach some. After the tea started brewing, I spaced out. That is, until I saw a phone screen in front of my face.

"What did you not tell us about what Izaya said while he was loopy?"

"Celty, it was weird." She typed a minute, and then showed me the phone screen again.

"I won't tell Shinra." I just looked at her. Even though she didn't have a face, I knew she wouldn't tell him.

"He said that he loved me." Celty just stood there a minute and then started shaking. "You okay?"

"Yeah, I was just laughing." She responded, then she typed for a bit and turned the phone back to me, "I mean, you've dealt some serious damage to him before and he still goes where he knows you'll see him and fight him. It's his way of getting your attention." I just stared at her phone and then at where the smoke came out of her neck. I probably stared for a solid minute before she started typing again.

"Don't you have feelings for him?" I just stared at her again. There was a very pregnant silence while I tried to think of how to respond.

"I don't know." I lied. It didn't feel good to lie to Celty like this. After all, she had helped me out several times and I was quite fond of our conversations. Celty and Tom were like a breath of fresh air in a world of people who made me want to punch them into the ground. Izaya used to be one of those people that I wanted to do that to. But what was he to me now? I at least consider him a friend, but it doesn't feel the same as with Tom and Celty. Izaya in pain used to make me happy, but he has acted so much like a normal human being lately that now I just want to take his pain away. It's just something about his eyes after everything that happened.