Title: The Dragon that Falls
By: Sissy

Chapter 10: No matter how much time passes, it will begin

Aoba was actually worried. He was genuinely worried. A week had gone by since he last spoke to the teen. His last words to him were packed together in the phone call Aoba received the morning after their second night into the fire festival.

"I…apologize. I am currently restrained to bed rest so I will not be able to join you in continuing the fire festival. I request that you continue without me." The teen simply told him before hanging up the phone.

"What am I supposed to do now? We did go on without him, but it's not really the same. He should be able to enjoy it with us." Aoba sighed to himself as he reached his place. He was unaware of what had been happening during the week the teen had disappeared.

"Izaya! I don't care if your tastes go for minors but getting that kid injured like that-!" Shinra had burst into Izaya's apartment while the former was currently in a meeting with none other than Shiki. "Ah, Shiki-no-danna."

"Kishitani-sensei… You are the one taking care of that monster?" Shiki had asked Shinra with a frown. He seemed upset to find out that the teen might have still been alive.

"Well, I took care of his injuries but… Shiki-no-danna, you were the one who made all those injuries to that kid?" Shinra asked confused but at the same time managed to understand where the bullet holes in the teen's body had come from.

"After he went and killed three of my men. That's why I came here, Orihara-san." Shiki turned to Izaya, whose smile had never faded from his lips. "That kid of yours, what is he?"

"Ryugamine-sama is special. He's just like that Black Rider, a unique existence in these times. I can only assume you tried to do something to hurt his pride, Shiki-san. He just hates being looked down on." Izaya simply told him and the man clicked his tongue in annoyance before leaving. "So Shinra, Ryugamine-sama is with you?"

"I won't tell you where he is!" Shinra frowned and turned around. "Where did you find that kid?"

"Ryugamine-sama isn't as young as he looks. And let's just say I followed this little road and found him tied up." Izaya looked as if he was about to laugh but Shinra yelled out.

"Then why didn't you just leave him where he was? Celty is worried!" With those words Shinra left as well.

"Ara, it's not as if there was something stopping me. He looked just right to play with." Izaya murmured to himself as Namie looked at him from afar with disgust.

"Kuronuma Aoba." The voice of the one he worried about called his name and Aoba looked up to see the teen standing in front of his door. Despite not knowing about what had transpired behind him, despite the fact that Aoba still had no substantial knowledge about this teen, and despite knowing that there were too many things he still had to ask, Aoba smiled.

"Where have you been? I was actually starting to worry." Aoba said with a grin as soon as he got close enough to the teen. And that's when he noticed the red mark on his forehead.

"I was restrained by Heiwajima Shizuo. He did not allow me to leave his bed." At these words, Aoba could only blush and get angry at the same time.

"So you've been with him all this time?" Aoba asked while unlocking his front door.

"Correct. It seems he takes injuries more seriously than Orihara Izaya. I was not allowed to get up from bed until this morning." The teen explained and followed Aoba into the apartment.

"Did you get injured again?" Aoba realized that what he had originally thought was wrong.

"Correct. The Awakusu-kai caught and drugged me. However, I did pay them back for their treatment." For a second, Aoba thought that the teen felt proud about his retaliation.

"So are you going to join us tonight?" Aoba asked with a grin, getting closer to the teen.

"Correct." The teen nodded and gave Aoba a deep kiss.

"Awesome…" Aoba was excited. Somehow, this teen was making his blood boil from excitement.

… … …

"Tom-san…" Shizuo called his senior with a soft voice. He seemed a bit tired and was lost in thought; something that Tom thought was weird.

"What is it?" He decided to ask, knowing that, probably, nothing good would come out of it.

"Do you think they're any closer to finding out who's committing the cannibalistic murders?" The question was unexpected and Tom had no way of answering it.

"Who knows? Only the police would know conclusively." Tom replied with a frown, wondering why Shizuo was taking an interest in that.

"Do you think a normal person could do that?" He continued asking while staring at the sky.

"Probably not. I think they'd have to be in your league and I know it wasn't you, so I don't think you have to worry about becoming a suspect." Tom misunderstood the reason Shizuo had been asking.

With a sigh, Shizuo remembered Celty's words. "Ryugamine-sama is probably like me, not human." True, the teen was not exactly normal. His wounds that had left him so messed up were almost fully healed yesterday and the teen had shown Shizuo his whole body in order to persuade the man. Shizuo could not believe it, but there was not even a scar left behind on the teen's body.

"How about internally?" Shizuo had asked, wondering if his insides were just as good as his outsides.

"Should I show you?" It sounded as if he was seducing Shizuo and in the end he could not stop himself from taking all of the teen's body. And just as the teen had claimed, he was in perfect health.

Shizuo knew. It was not normal. So Celty's claim actually had some base. And yet, Shizuo was not scared of the teen. Even knowing that the teen could be a crazy murderer, he still did not fear him.

"No, it's not that…" Shizuo responded to Tom's words and continued to walk alongside him.

… … …

"Ryugamine-sama, you're becoming more and more lewd, aren't you?" Izaya asked while taking Mikado's body as if their disagreement had not occurred.

"There is no problem with that, is there?" The teen asked as he allowed Izaya to continue exploring every single spot on his body.

"No, there's none." Izaya grinned and kissed Mikado with a smile.

Before the teen had met with Aoba, he had gone back to Izaya's place. And the moment Izaya had seen the teen he drove him up to his room and carefully checked his injuries before consuming the teen. Mikado, in turn, did not get angry and had accepted Izaya's advances like normal. Once they had finished, both remained in bed and Izaya made sure Mikado remained in his arms.

"By the way, Ryugamine-sama, where were you staying this whole time?" Izaya wanted to know so he asked with a smile in place.

"I will not say." Mikado said seriously but saw Izaya's shocked face and continued. "You will only get jealous if I tell you. I have had enough of your foolishness."

Tightening his hold of Mikado's body, Izaya frowned. "As I thought, it was Shizu-chan…"

"I am off." Lifting up his and Izaya's body, the teen sat up right.

"Where?" Izaya let go of Mikado and fell back on the bed.

"To meet with Kuronuma Aoba. We are continuing the fire festival." Mikado declared and got out of bed.

"Already? Well, have fun. I'm glad to see that you seem to have gotten livelier." Izaya waved Mikado goodbye and saw him leave with a nod.

Bringing himself out of his thoughts, Izaya looked outside of his window with a frown. Even though the teen was supposed to be under his control, Izaya was unsure that everything was still going according to what he wished. Something felt out of place and he could not place his finger on it.

"What exactly have you been planning without me, dragon-kun?" Izaya asked himself with a grin.

… … …

'It's burning…' Celty's thoughts remained her own as she looked at the fire from the roof of a building. It seemed wrong that there were so many arson cases lately, but now, looking at it from this far up, Celty somehow found herself feeling excited.

Even though she knew it was wrong to think or feel so, her body could only shake in excitement at the fire that spread across the city like light bulbs turning on. Without realizing it, she was joined by two beings.

"It's starting… The true fire festival." One girl spoke and stood at Celty's right. The katana in her hand seemed to glow in anticipation.

"It's wrong but…even I'm getting excited…" The other girl that stood at Celty's left spoke somewhat shyly. "Courier-san, do you feel the same?"

Both looked at Celty who slowly nodded in agreement. They knew it was wrong, yet they could not stop it. Even if the world refused it, something, somewhere, was moving the wind to cause a large fire. Whatever it was, it wanted the town to burn to ashes.

To Be Continued…

Sissy: This chapter's full of flashbacks. Can anyone guess who's the third guest in that last scene? Xd

Aoba's suspicious gaze means:

spiel: You're very welcome. And yeah, no sex. Until this chapter that is. Pwahahahaha! XD