Chapter 25 – In Between

Gently they fell down from the darkened sky. White flakes of frozen water, swallowing all sound around him. He just sat there; watching the snow fall as if enchanted by it's other worldly beauty. For how long, he didn't know. He just opened his eyes and found himself here. But where was this supposed "here"? That's something he wasn't aware off. He also couldn't recall "who", or even "what" he was, but strangely he knew all those things surrounding him. The white cold stuff was called snow.

His eyes caught a particular thick flake and followed its ascend down to the smooth surface he sat on. It looked like a frozen lake.

This was the world he found himself in as he opened his eyes. A frozen lake as far as his eyes could go and a dark blue sky shedding tears of snow which slowly but surely began to hide the glassy ice floor beneath his black furred paws.

All around him the frozen surface still to be seen, mirrored the sky's bleeding of snow, though not as he looked down. There was no reflection of something clad in black fur. No. Beneath him he saw something enclosed inside the ice, or rather said, even beneath it. It was, as if the ice was acting as a wall keeping him away from the being on the other side. It was big, way bigger than him and it had the shape of a human body. He couldn't make out more since it only resembled a shadow under the thick surface. But it didn't matter to him. As more and more snow gently fell down on him, the shadow disappeared under a thin white blanket. Bit by bit.

Looking up at the sky again, he closed his eyes.

"It's so calm." he thought.

-o-o-o-o-

"There's still one thing we can do." glowed black letters on a yellow greenish background. Looking up from the PDA held towards his face, the blonde man locked his eyes onto the swirling shadows emitting out of his best friend's neck.

"I'll do it." came the immediate response out of Shizuo's mouth as he stood up facing the Dullahan.

"Huh? But you don't even know what my lovely enchantress is talking about." a certain doctor's voice came from beside him.

"I don't fucking care! If there's a way to save Izaya then I'll do it. Got a problem with that?!" At the last sentence that came out like a snarl the near indestructible man clenched the doctor's white coat inside his fist. Rising both hands up in defeat, the brunette let out a trembling laugh as he hurriedly shook his head.

Letting go of the clean fabric, he once again turned his attention back towards the Irish fairy. "So?"

Having made use of the distraction her fiancé had brought, she already held out her reply towards the fuming man.

"Dullahan's are like a bridge between this side and the beyond." Reading the text Ikebukuro's beast nodded. "I don't care about some details, just get to the point." he huffed, remembering it was still his friend he talked too and also the only one with the power to save the raven haired nuisance he had a major crush on.

Gracefully her fingers moved over the device, writing another reply.

"Ah, Celty! I love watching those skilled fingers of yours. Maybe you should use them when we have some alone time in be-ACK!" Her right fist connected with her gushing boyfriend's stomach as her left hand directed a PDA towards the bleached haired man. How lucky of a pervert, Shinra was. If Celty hadn't punched him, Shizuo was just contemplating doing so.

"For a short time I can link your soul with Izaya's. Use that time to make him remember." the headless fairy wrote him. Nodding he asked. "How long?"

But the answer came from the underground doctor instead.

"I assume for as long as it takes for you to regain consciousness or for Izaya's soul to disappear." The display of Celty's phone showed the word "Correct."

"And you have to slash him with your scythe, right?" Another affirmative to Shinra's assumption.

The bodyguard sat down on the floor, beside the bed's foot end a certain raven in distress was currently sleeping in. His right arm resting on the mattress, his hand cupped the informant's right.

He didn't even look at the Dullahan as she summoned her shadowy scythe, or as she took a swing at him. Golden eyes were fixated on the pale man's face and the already see-through kitten, as his ears heard the sound of something cutting through air, before everything went black.

-o-o-o-o-

He had just closed his eyes, thinking of how calm and relaxed this world made him feel, as a strong gust of wind swept over him, making him fall over. Rusty eyes blinked open as their owner wobbly rose on his four feet. Some of the snow which had started to cover the shadowy figure beneath the ice was gone, but already new flakes started to replace those lost.

"Oi!" an angry shout startled him from behind. Whirling around his eyes landed on neatly polished black shoes, only two or three meters away from him. His gaze kept wandering up. Black trousers, a black vest hugging a white shirt followed by a face that seemed somehow both familiar and then not, to him.

The light blue shades did nothing to hide those scowling gold-brown eyes as they scrutinized him. It made him feel intimidated and at the same time… excited?

While his eyes curiously took in the entire person before him, he hadn't noticed how the snow stopped falling from the sky. He was just too mesmerized by this being which disturbed him inside his lonely but peaceful world.

"Shitty Flea." the being opened its mouth once again. "You really made me chase your ass all the way over here." The man with the blonde mane sighed. "You're a real handful, ya know that?"

Tilting his head, he still looked at the other. "What's this excitement I feel?" he thought.

"Just say something. Damn it!" the human hollered before he mumbled his next sentence. "I should be able to talk to you here… I think."

Could he? Was he able to form the same sounds as the other? Was he able to converse with him?

Yes. After all… He was… No! He IS human.

Something started to feel different about him. It was as if the world around him shifted slightly, but he couldn't care less. All he wanted to do was talk to this human before him. The being that brought change into his dull world.

"Who… are you?"

The other's scowling face turned into a painful smile.

-o-o-o-o-