Durarara!

Cockamamie

Chapter Thirteen: Losing One's Head

For the past two days, Rei had been holed up in her bedroom playing solitaire and checking the Dollars website. Even though she's gotten better Izaya still insisted on her staying inside until he's done meeting with his clients.

The forum on her has gotten new replies throughout the days, many were still of people complaining about Rei and her odd behavior, but there were a few occasional genuinely worried individuals – which surprised her to ends. What had she done to earn their sympathy? No replies from Souichi, perhaps he really had given up.

"Rei-chan!" a knock came from the door.

"Yeah?"

Rei bounced off from her bed and opened the door.

"You can come out now," he smiled.

"Am I going to be stuck in my room everyday?" she asked, following after him. "I can't count how many times I've beat solitaire today."

"Well if you would prefer, you could go out and caught by the police" Izaya shrugged with smirk.

"Ha ha, no," she mocked flatly.

Izaya sat back down on his large office chair and began typing away on his computer again. Rei frowned slightly. Now that she was outside of her room, she didn't know what to do. In fact, she'd much rather be playing solitaire in her room right now than standing in Izaya's office mindlessly.

Rei wobbled across the room, and stopped in front of Izaya's vast bookshelves. She scanned through his shelf and sighed – there were all were thick encyclopedias.

'How boring,' she thought.

She picked one off the shelf and wiped the dust off the thick leather cover. The book was in English, Rei could make out a couple words but that was about it. The pictures were rather interesting though. She flipped the page and came across a rather morbid picture of the human skeleton. Rei shut the book and was about to place the book back into its place when she noticed something hidden behind the large volumes.

Izaya looked away from the screen when he heard a loud crash. He stood up and looked over to where Rei was. She had dropped an encyclopedia onto the floor. He rushed over and picked it off the ground.

"You all right, Rei-chan?" he asked examining the book.

"I-Is that-?" Rei's voice shook as she looked through the gap between the books. "Izaya-kun… you have a head in your bookshelf."

"I do," he nodded.

Rei began furiously pulling books out and pilling them in Izaya's arms. Izaya struggled with the heavy encyclopedias, and managed to place them on the ground. By the time he looked up, Rei already had the container in her hands. She was staring at the head unblinkingly.

"Is this her head?"

"Whose head?" he sat on the stack of books, resting an elbow on his knee.

"… Well we only know one headless person," Rei lowered the container and stared at him. "Is it her head?"

"Yes," Izaya replied.

"I'm guessing I can't tell her?" she eyed him.

"I would appreciate if you don't," Izaya smiled. "Plus its fun this way no? Watching her search for her head when we have it right here."

Rei couldn't quite understand what she felt. The word 'we' repeated in her head as she kept her gaze locked at Izaya. Are they really on such close terms that he would refer to them as we. Or perhaps he felt the need to emphasize that it's their secret… whatever the case, Rei liked it.

Izaya dropped his smile when he noticed that Rei had been staring at him skeptically and wordlessly. For a moment there Izaya thought she was going to freak out, but instead she grinned. Rei nodded as she lifted the cylinder jar back up to eye-level. Izaya can't help but smile, once again she had succeeded to surprise him.

"But I didn't expect her to be this pretty," Rei breathed.

"I can't tell," Izaya shrugged.

"How can you not?" she eyed him almost accusingly.

"I don't perceive the same way as normal people do," he replied. "Like you."

"But you should be able to recognize an attractive person, er- head," she corrected herself quickly.

Izaya eyed her indifferently.

"Well do you think I'm pretty?" she asked.

Izaya paused and thought. Did he think her attractive? He lifted his arms off his knees and took a good look at the girl in front of him. Rei was shorter than an average girl her age, but slightly slimmer. Her American roots shown through her blonde curls, and her eyes dark and piercing.

To a normal person, Rei would have been considered attractive. That's all Izaya had concluded from his observation. Which was not much to go on for himself, what did he think of her?

"Uh… you're not too terrible to look at," he chuckled uneasily.

"But not pretty?" she placed the jar back in its place.

"You're… better looking than most of the girls your age," he tried again. "… So yes, you're pretty."

Rei said nothing but smiled. Sure she's been told that before, but it doesn't hurt to hear it from Izaya. In fact, it was funny seeing him struggle with his words. Izaya noticed her satisfied smug little grin and decided to retaliate. He stood up from his book-chair and walked over.

"What about me?"

"What?" she looked at him strangely.

"Do you think I'm attractive?" he asked.

"You're okay," she shrugged. "Not too bad either."

Izaya frowned internally, how was she able to just brush it off like that as if it was no big deal? It took everything Izaya had inside to mumble out those couple of words before. He thought back to that moment when she held his hand, he felt the same way then.

What was this he was feeling? This damning feeling that made him feel so weak and dumbstruck. Izaya liked knowing things, being in control, and he felt the complete opposite when he speaks to Rei.

"Did I offend you or something?" she chuckled at his silence.

"No, not at all," he shook his head.

"Now that you're done, can we go out for dinner?" Rei asked.

"Sure," he looked up at her. "Where do you want to go?"

"Russian sushi!" Rei called a little too loudly.

"Alright then," Izaya chuckled with a nod.

XoXo

In an hour, Rei and Izaya were sat in a booth at Russian Sushi. Simon had taken their orders and had gone to fetch them drinks. Rei was flicking through menu nonchalantly while Izaya typed away on his phone.

"Izaya-kun…" she droned.

"Hm?" he looked up from the screen.

"What are you doing on your phone?" she asked.

"Work things," he replied.

"I thought you were done with work," she groaned.

"It's to do with your mother," Izaya flipped his phone shut. "I may be able to find out more about her soon."

"Really?" Rei lightened up. "That's great!"

Izaya nodded back with a smile and put his phone away. Negotiations were going well so far, but it was taking a lot of time and money to get information out of the contacts. Even finding the right people to speak to is taking a long while. Whatever happened to Rei's mother, a lot of effort had been put to make sure no one found out.

"Ah Izaya, long time no see."

Rei looked up and saw a familiar looking man. If she's correct then he was at the large Dollars gathering. He acknowledged her by glancing at her with those beady eyes hiding just under his bandana.

"Ah Dota-chin!" Izaya greeted. "Getting dinner for the gang?"

"Yeah," Kadota shrugged, holding up a plastic bag of takeaway. "Who's this?"

"I'm Nakata Rei," she spoke up. "Nice to meet you Dota-chin."

"You too," he nodded back. "And don't call me that, I have a name and it's Kyohei Kadota."

"But if Izaya calls you Dota-chin why can't I?" Rei pouted.

"… Oh whatever, call me what you like," Kadota sighed, throwing Izaya a dirty glance. "Anyway, I should get going. Bye Izaya, and it's nice meeting you Rei."

"Bye Dota-chin!" the two called after him simultaneously.

Kadota scowled back at the two as he left the store. Looks like Izaya had made an interesting friend. Nakata Rei, the name sounded familiar too. He remembered coming across the name while scrolling through the forums on the Dollars website. But at this moment, he couldn't be sure what he had read about her, he'd have to go back and check.

"Wasn't he at the Dollars gathering?" Rei asked after he left.

"Yeah, he's a member too," Izaya nodded back.

"How do you know him?"

"We went to school together," Izaya replied.

"Really?" Rei exclaimed. "Did you also go to school with Shinra?"

"Yeah, middle school and high school," Izaya smiled.

"And Shizuo-san?" her eyes lit up noticeably.

"… Yes him too," his smile dropped. "We all went to Raira together."

"Was it as boring before as it is now?" she asked.

"Pretty much," Izaya chuckled. "But I kept it interesting."

"I'm sure you did," Rei smiled. "I imagine it had something to do with Shizuo-san?"

"Can we please stop talking about Shizu-chan?" Izaya sighed.

"Okay then… jeez," Rei rolled her eyes. "I was just curious."

"… Well school wasn't all that interesting for me," he continued after giving it some thought. "I had a lot of little projects along the side, and many did include Shizu-chan."

"No doubt," Rei chuckled.

Simon returned to their table with their orders and tea.

"Here you are," Simon placed down the sushi.

Izaya smiled and mumbled a few words in what Rei presumed to be Russian. Simon spoke back in the same dialect, saying much more than he would if he spoke in Japanese.

Rei just sat there baffled by their exchange. Simon ended their conversation with a loud grunt and left the table.

"You know because I can speak Russian," Rei shrugged sarcastically, picking up her chopsticks.

Izaya laughed and quickly apologized.

"It's not important anyway," Izaya reassured her.

Rei was unconvinced, but shook the thought out of her head. Right now she should concentrate on her food.

"This is really nice sushi," Rei said. "I wonder why it's always so empty in here."

"Well I think it has something to do with Simon," Izaya replied.

"Why? He's awesome!" Rei grinned.

"Not many people see it that way," Izaya explained.

"Well other people are lame," she sighed. "I wish everyone would think like us."

"Like how?" he asked.

"Crazily," she placed her chopsticks down.

"I think it's a matter of they couldn't even if they wanted to than they wouldn't," Izaya chuckled again.

"True," she nodded. "My brother always said I was born special."

"That's what my mother would say about me when I was younger and got into trouble," Izaya smiled.

"I think she was trying to imply that you were mad without giving it away to younger you," she grinned.

"Yes I can see where you're coming from," Izaya took a sip from his tea.

"Something similar happened to be when I was in primary school," Rei recalled. "We were having one of those bring your pet in for show and tell things, and I've never had a pet so it kinda sucked. So at the back of the classroom were cages full of animals, and I noticed a fish bowl next to a hamster cage."

Rei stopped speaking and pulled her glass of tea forward symbolizing the fish bowl, and then a plate as the cage. She placed them right next to each other and had turned the sushi horizontal to face so its tip was facing the tea.

"And basically, during break time I stayed behind and watched them," Rei continued, picking up the sushi from the dish. "It was weird because they were staring at each other the whole time, the fish and the hamster. I thought they probably wanted to be friends, so I picked up the hamster from its cage and dumped it in the fish bowl."

With that last sentence, Rei dropped the sushi into her tea. The splash caused the tea to spill onto the table. Izaya watched, intrigued.

"Why not put the fish in the cage?" Izaya asked.

"And get my hands wet? No thank you," she snorted. He can't help but smile. "But yeah, needless to say I drowned the hamster… by accident though and it was one of those rare occasions when my father was in Japan. So when he got called to school about the incident, he apologized and explained I had a special condition. Then they let me off as long as I apologized to the kid with the fish for traumatizing him or something and the kid with the hamster for… well drowning her hamster."

"Well, being a psycho does have it's perks," Izaya chuckled.

"I always thought it was one of those get-out-of-jail-free cards," she shrugged, taking a quick sip from her tea, paying no mind to the sushi floating in her cup. "Anyways, I'm done."

"Yeah, me too."

Izaya's phone buzzed at that moment, and she shot him a stern look.

"Would you go pay the bill Rei-chan?" Izaya asked handing her a few bills. "Please?"

"Sure," she sighed.

Rei sauntered over to the cash register and threw the wad of bills over at the boy tending the register. She turned right around on her heels and walked back over to their table.

"Wait! Your change!"

"Izaya doesn't deserve his change!" Rei called back.

By the time Rei sat back down, Izaya was just finished with his phone call. He flipped his phone shut and looked at Rei expectantly.

"What?" she snapped.

"I gave you quite a large amount of money…" he sighed.

"And…"

"Was there no change?"

"None at all," she shrugged back.

"… If you say so," Izaya smirked. "And I just got off the phone with a contact."

"Oh?"

"Later this week I'll be receiving some information about your mother," Izaya informed.

"Seriously?" Rei exclaimed. "Who are you going to see?"

"I've never met them before," Izaya replied. "But they sure were hard to find."

"Can I come with?" Rei asked.

"Are you sure?" Izaya smile faltered. "I haven't met them before, I'm not sure what kind of people they are."

"Well they can't be too bad if they agreed to meet you right?" Rei insisted. "Please, I won't be a bother."

"Alright then," Izaya smile returned. "Let's go back home now."

Rei nodded in agreement and the two headed for the door. Izaya stopped mid-step when he noticed Rei back at the cash register. She spoke a few soft words to the cashier and returned with a smile. Rei held her hand out, smile still intact. Izaya reached his hand out, Rei dropped a pile of money onto his palm.

"I think you've earned your change," Rei smiled. "Let's go!"

Rei skipped off ahead, leaving Izaya behind and staring at the money he had just received. That feeling came back again. The strange feeling he didn't quite understand.

"Come on!"

Izaya shook slightly and stuffed the change in his pocket. He turned and followed after Rei who was calling over her shoulder.

XoXo

That night Rei laid awake in her bed. She was finally going to learn more about her mother. Her father and brother never spoke about her late mother, and when she brought it up they'd shut down completely.

Rei always thought about how differently she would have grown up with a mother figure. She was practically raised by maids under the orders of her father, and Rei was a difficult child to handle so they'd never last very long before they quit. Maybe with a resolute mother, Rei could have…

Could have what?

Been normal?

Grown up to be boring?

Like everyone else?

'That's ridiculous.'

Okay, so maybe Rei liked how she ended up, but her childhood had been tough without a mother. Open days at school had always been tedious, when her father was busy with work and no one would show up. The kids would always pester on about how her parents never came.

Rei sighed after giving it more thought. There was nothing she could do about it now. She can't change what has already happened, so she might as well look forward to learning more about her mother. Maybe she'll find out why her family has always been so adamant when asked of her. With that resolve in mind, Rei settled down into her pillow.

Jeez! That took way longer than I thought. Sorry for such a long wait! Been busy with exams and all :S But I have an early summer so I can start writing again :D

Thank you to everyone who favorited and alerted! :)

Special thanks to:

QueenOfCrazy – Oh my god! Haha, I hope you didn't get into any trouble! I'm glad you like the story! I'm sorry this took so long! I already got ideas for the next chapter so I should be updating soon! I hope you enjoyed it! :)

Evalyd Yamazaki – Thank you! :D I'm glad you liked it! :D Rei's going to be leaving Izaya's care somewhere in the upcoming chapters… Just wait and see! :)

Imitation Paranoid Marionette – Really? How so? I don't really know what I'm doing with Rei :P She's very difficult for me to write since even I don't know how she should react to situations… I've got some ideas to where the story's going but nothing set yet… I guess I'm just going to make it up as I go along xD And thanks for your review! :)

SilverDragon13 – Thank you! I hope you enjoyed this chapter! :)

chibibunny7 – Your English is really good! I understood everything you said :) And thank you! :)