A/N : Yay~ I'm back again! Just posting this real quick now. Enjoy!

For the past few months he was gone, his work for the Awakusu-kai had piled up high and it seems that Shiki had time and time again tried to contact him to no avail.

After today's meeting, however, Shiki had said that the Awakusu-kai had no use for the service of an informant that disappeared whenever for months on end according to his own whim; therefore they had regretfully replaced him with another informant despite Izaya's resources being better. After bidding his farewells, Shiki left.

This left Izaya pacing around restlessly in his Shinjuku office. It was not because of his main job suddenly taken away from him; he still has other incomes as well. Even though he was reluctant to anymore, his observant mind can still read human's behaviour pretty well, so he can be pretty sure that his current income from playing with stocks will not fall through.

But rather, he was worried that now he had no other way to occupy himself with mindless work. Izaya inwardly twitched.

"Great. Now those pesky flashbacks won't leave me alone!" grunted Izaya as he grit his teeth in frustration. Crossing his arms together and hugging himself, Izaya continues to pace around his office until his legs were tired. While he was in a dilemma, he hadn't noticed that the day was drawing to dusk and with the curtains closed, the room was becoming darker.

Too dark for the informant's taste.

Flipping all the light switches on in his apartment in haste, Izaya withdrew to his room and changed his clothes into pyjamas. As he was storing his trousers into a closet, a crumpled up piece of paper fell down near his feet.

Remembering that the paper contains the number of Shinra's acquaintance who the underground doctor insists that the person could help him, Izaya sat down at the foot of his bed and unravelled it. Staring at the number, Izaya had vaguely thought that he had seen it somewhere before, yet he couldn't remember exactly where.

Izaya bit his lip compulsively and threw the slip of paper aside. He wasn't exactly that desperate to seek for help. He was sure that he could come over his irrational fear by himself, so there was no need to ask for another's assistance.

He could do it by himself, no worries… He would be a-okay in a few months, no worries…

That night, at exactly 2.18 a.m., Izaya woke up drenched in sweat. With the lights in his bedroom turned on, his eyes immediately squinted in reflex; so Izaya had to wrap himself with a blanket and sat under it, shaking.

He drew his knees closer to his chest and hugged it, his breath ragged from the nightmare that had woken him. Once or twice he had gasped for air after he suddenly forgot to breathe. For most of the time, he sat on the bed rocking back and forth slowly, his shoulders quivering.

The long hand of the clock had moved steadily to 8 before Izaya finally gained back his composure. As the blanket slid off his head, Izaya hurriedly looked around on the floor. Once he found back the slip of paper that he had threw away so carelessly, he held it between his fingers like a lifeline.

Reaching for the phone, his shaking fingers dialled up the number, one number at a time. There were a few times where the raven had hesitated; he gave excuses to himself so that he won't have to actually call this unknown person. Excuses like 'It was late' or 'Who'd help a grown man calm down from a nightmare in the middle of the night?'.

But after much deliberation, he pressed the call button and waited for the other side to answer. It rang a few times, and just when Izaya was about to hang up and sigh, the call connected, much to Izaya's surprise.

"Hello?" Came the voice from the other side.

Instinctively, Izaya hung up and threw the phone to the edge of the bed. Gathering up his blanket once again and hiding under it, the man breathed hard. He knew that voice, but he didn't want to acknowledge it.

It was no wonder that he thought he recognized the number before.

Izaya grabbed back his phone and went through the 'Dialled Number' menu. True enough, the contact number glared back at him along with the name of the owner on the screen. Izaya panicked. Why the heck did Shinra gave this person's number of all things?!

"Hello?" asked the confused blonde as soon as he picked up the phone. The blonde had wondered who the hell called in the middle of the night. Before he could sit up straight on his bed, the other end had hung up.

Shizuo stared at his phone in silence. It's not like he could know who called him, since the number shown on his screen was an unknown number. Putting his phone back under the pillow with a huff, Shizuo slid back under the covers and proceeded to fall back to sleep.

Seconds before his eyes fluttered close, his phone vibrated, signalling the entry of a message.

With a groan, Shizuo retrieved the phone and squinted at the screen. It was the same unknown number. Being the ever curious man he is, Shizuo opened the mail.

[Sorry for disturbing you in the middle of the night. I don't know what came over me. Sorry, just ignore this.]

Shizuo blinked at the mail. He wondered whether he should reply back. Deciding that he should, he pressed the reply button.

[Who the fuck are you? How did you get this number?]

Shizuo gasped the second he had sent the message, to which afterwards he typed another and sent that too.

[Sorry. I sound like a jerk. But yeah, just imagine I asked in a nicer way.]

"Shit," groaned Shizuo as he slammed his face into the pillow. "This is exactly why my therapy isn't going anywhere! I get angry too easily!"

When his phone vibrated in his hand, Shizuo looked up in shock. The person actually replied? He didn't waste a single moment to view it.

[…You don't know me. Um, my doctor gave me the number. Said that you could help me with a problem. Talk to you, or something.]

"Wha? Shinra did?" questioned Shizuo to himself as he sat back up, knowing full well that the only 'doctor' who knew his number was none other than his friend. Bewildered, Shizuo typed back a reply to this mysterious person. "What is that freak up to now?"

[He did, huh? I wonder why…I can't even talk to people properly, let alone help someone.]

[Yeah, I figured as much…sorry. Just ignore that I contacted you tonight. Sorry to bother you. Night.]

[Wait! The fact that you called me this late must mean you're really troubled! Just tell me, I'll see what I can do.]

[Thanks. But it's stupid, really… I shouldn't even be calling you for this. So just forget it.]

[Try me.]

Underneath his blanket, which he had suddenly grown an attachment towards that night, Izaya tugged at his hair. What to do? Should he tell anyway?

"Wait. Shizuo didn't even know who he's talking to," mumbled Izaya. He continued. "Maybe it's oka-No! It doesn't matter if he knows me or not! It's a stupid problem, anyone would laugh. Ah, but maybe it's okay coz…"

The raven trailed off as he caught himself talking to himself. He swore under his breath as he was convinced that he's going crazier by the minute.

"SHIT SHINRA! I'M GONNA KILL YOU FOR THIS!"

A/N : A/N : Where am I going with this?! I never plan what I write, dammit.