Disclaimer: Durarara! I don't own thee!

"You sure took your time," Izaya commented as Hibiki slid the door closed behind him quietly.

The older demon regarded him for a moment before finally crossing his arms. "Why didn't you tell them?" he asked in a low voice.

"Because Sakuraya would have killed you," Izaya replied, enjoying the look of horror that instantly spread across the other's face.

"P-please do not make such outrageous statements," Hibiki stuttered.

Izaya shrugged. "You did nearly kill one of his precious friends. Actually, I'm surprised you didn't stop Shizu-chan and Shitsuo from entering the complex. If something had happened to them, I can't even imagine what sweet Sakuraya would have done to you."

"Even if I had attempted anything, I doubt I would have succeeded." Hibiki frowned as he recalled his brief meeting with the two yesterday. "That human is a monster."

"Yeah, I don't deny that," Izaya agreed with him to his surprise. The prince smiled, his eyes distant. "He truly is a monster."

"Izaya-sama..." He felt as if he had seen that same expression on Sakuraya many times whenever his nephew would gaze out into the forest.

"Anyways," Izaya looked at him, dropping the smile, "enough with the jesting. The rope was the reason I haven't told Mother yet. It's from our well, isn't it?"

Hibiki flinched, not expecting Izaya to remember something as trivial as the weaving patterns their clan used. "Mamoru could have done the same," he reasoned.

"Mamoru knows Shizu-chan, so he would have shown himself," Izaya explained, shrugging. "The times have changed, you know."

"Indeed," Hibiki muttered. "I would have never made such a huge mistake before."

"Do you mean throwing me into the well to die, or coming back to save me?" the demon prince asked him, making him want to shrink away.

Hibiki averted his eyes from the other's sharp gaze, frustrated with himself at his lost of composure. "The former," he admitted. "I do not understand why you do not seek vengeance on me."

"You're regretting what you've done, and that's enough revenge coming from me," Izaya replied.

Hibiki looked back at him, surprised. "Would you be saying the same thing if you had died?"

Izaya thought for a moment, not expecting Hibiki to press the issue when he had told the other he would not seek any reparations. He knew he could not speak for Shizuo or his mother, but he knew for a fact that Sakuraya would forgive his uncle with enough time.

Probably.

As for the question of whether he would forgive Hibiki if Shizuo had never shown up, Izaya didn't really have the answer. Would it even matter? If he had died, then he would never need to answer such a question.

"I suppose I would," Izaya whispered, the uncertainly reflecting clearly in his voice.

Hibiki closed the shoji door softly behind him, pausing for a moment outside of the room as he took a deep breath. It didn't make sense to him. He had expected a proper punishment from the one he had nearly killed, but Izaya's generosity had caught him completely by surprise.

His wish came true when a fist suddenly sent him flying into the garden. Hibiki hit the rock formation hard, and he could still see the dust settling when he surfaced from the pond, violently coughing. He saw Sakurako on the veranda, her fist clenched. She glared at him pointedly and stormed away without another word.

He laughed, rubbing his broken ribs as they started to mend.

.

"Shizuo! You're wearing a yukata!" Shinra exclaimed as his missing friend entered Aiko's room.

"We thought something had happened to you for sure!" Celty's reaction was a little more appropriate. "Did you find Izaya?"

"Eh, I fell into a well," Shizuo muttered, scratching his head as he wondered how he would explain the past 24 hours. "And we found Izaya. He was in the well." He sighed. "It's a long story."

"Is Izaya okay?"

"Not in the best of shape, but he's fine for now." Shizuo looked around the room, feeling like he had just left just a few minutes ago in search of Izaya. "Did you two stay the night?"

"Yup! Aiko-chan was kind enough to offer me and my beloved a room to use for the night," Shinra explained, earning a whack on the head for his choice of words. He chuckled, massaging the bump as he looked behind Shizuo for someone else but found no one.

"Where is my brother?" Aiko asked from her bed as she tried to sit up. Celty rushed over to support her, adjusting the pillows to make her more comfortable.

"I left him back at Izaya's place. I don't think he can get back in if he left," Shizuo told her. He frowned. "I really didn't see the barrier though."

"So he's with Sakuraya," Aiko said contemplatively.

"Aw, so that must mean we can't go waltzing in to visit," Shinra lamented.

Shizuo shrugged. "Probably not. Anyways..." He found the envelope where he had left it on the table.

.

Izaya studied the flower arrangement someone had set on the alcove across from his futon: a simple display of white tulips. He couldn't fathom just where they had managed to get their hands on such a flower so late into the rainy season.

The tray Mamoru had brought in earlier for lunch lay abandoned on the table, its contents barely touched. He didn't feel hungry; in fact he barely felt anything at all. He could see the warm afternoon rays of sunlight stream through the half-opened door, but he felt numb, empty, ever since Hibiki left.

He heard footsteps coming towards his room, and a shadow casted itself across the floor, revealing itself to be none other than Shizuo, dressed in a fresh set of his bartender clothes.

"You went back to change?" Izaya asked him.

Shizuo shrugged. "Might as well, since I had to pick something else up anyway. Shinra and Celty wouldn't let me leave until I told them the entire story."

Izaya's eyes trailed to the envelope in Shizuo's hands, and he felt the fire inside him reignite, its flames licking his sanity, threatening to melt it into a pile of smoldering ash.

"Why?" he finally managed, fighting the urge to run.

Shizuo walked over and sat himself down on the tatami without a word. He ripped the seal off carefully and took out two pieces of paper, the yellowed edges a testament to their age.

"N-No," Izaya protested, trying to edge away, but a strong grip on his arm stopped him.

"I'll read them first," Shizuo offered.

Izaya took a deep breath and settled in his futon, grasping his hands together as the monster that called itself a human armed itself with the very weapon that had sent him into that well. He watched Shizuo like a hawk, unable to discern the soft expression that had spread across the other's face. They stayed like that for a while. Izaya could hear his own breaths bordering on the edge of him hyperventilating.

"I'm not reading them, Shizu-chan," Izaya protested when he couldn't take the silence any longer, but his words fell on deaf ears as Shizuo finally finished and handed him one of the two.

"This one's okay," Shizuo told him. "It's from Yoichi."

"Huh?" Izaya gaped at the letter. A message from Yoichi was not something he had expected at all. "I thought it was from..." he trailed off, unable to say that man's name.

"Read this one first," Shizuo encouraged him.

Izaya took a deep breath and finally took the paper from his former archenemy's outstretched hand.

'Yoichi...' He had left Tsugaru's friend back in Hakodate without a second thought when they escaped. He understood if the other was angry at him, and he braced himself for the biting words that he knew he deserved. Izaya looked at Shizuo uncertainly, and the other gave him a reassuring nod.

He took a breath and started reading.

Dear Izaya,

I would understand your confusion at receiving this letter so late, but I did specifically instruct Kawamoto to wait until after the war to find you. I know it is a ridiculous request, but the fact that you are reading this is evidence enough of his guilt, and I assure you he does feel quite terrible. Also, I do not doubt that you would have killed him with your own hands had you seen him again back in Hakodate, in which case this letter would have been lost. I would have killed him myself if I had been in your place.

The war up here will most likely last a few more weeks at most, as you already know. I hope that you would have made it safely back to Kyoto by the time everything has settled. I will miss our conversations about humanity, and I realize now that you may not be thinking of us in the same light since the incident and the inevitable outcome. It is ironic, but I personally do not wish for you to become like me. For most of my life, I have only felt a deep hatred and anger for humankind, and it was you who finally made me feel at peace these past few weeks.

Asking you to continue as you were is an impossible wish, so I will not make that request of you. I understand the feeling. I have felt it for most of my life after my father's death. It pains me to think that someone as long-lived as you will feel the same anger I have for so many years to come. Yet, please do not think too badly of us. As much as I hate humanity, in the end I am merely a human.

Tsugaru is also undoubtedly a human. Even though we might be doomed as a species, every now and then you find someone like that man. I pray that you will meet another like him again in your long life, and that he will free your soul as you have done to mine. You do not need to feel obligated to stay the same. I know Tsugaru only wishes for one thing, even though he might not end up verbalizing it correctly when the time comes. I had almost written the wrong words too, but I have had some time to think about it, and my mind has been the clearest it has ever been these past few days.

Do not regret what has happened. It will not change no matter what you do. I know Tsugaru does not regret for a moment the decision he made to be with you. I am certainly thankful to have met you in my short life.

I pray it would be many years before we meet again.

Know that you are loved very much by two foolish humans who will always be beside you in spirit.

Please, be happy.

- Yoichi

Izaya lowered the letter slowly, Yoichi's words still burning in his mind. He stared at the text for a while, ignoring Shizuo's inquisitive stare.

"Aren't you going to read the second one?" Shizuo finally couldn't help but ask.

Izaya stared into those brown eyes, unsure of what he was feeling at the moment. Tsugaru had asked with his dying breath for him not to change, back at that sakura grove in Edo. Had he been interpreting those words wrong all these years? And Yoichi, just what had happened to him?

"Izaya?" Shizuo repeated when he did not reply.

"I'll read it," he said, holding out a hand for the letter. Shizuo passed it to him slowly, watching his every move. He had a feeling that the bodyguard was making sure that he wouldn't rip it in a fit of rage before he finished reading it. Their hands touched as he took the letter, and Shizuo wrapped a hand around his.

"It'll be okay."

Izaya snorted. "I would have never expected Shizu-chan of all people to tell me things would be okay."

"Well someone has to."

Izaya blinked at him in surprise for a moment before finally giving Shizuo a small smile of gratitude. Indeed, he would have never expected this.

Feeling a little more courageous than before, he smoothed off the paper and began to read.

Dear Izaya,

You are free to destroy this letter however you wish, but please finish reading it first. I have been searching for you ever since I left Hakodate, yet it seems that fate will not have us meet. Yoichi told me to look for you in Kyoto, but I can understand if you would never want to deal with humans again.

I hated you for the longest time after the war for seducing Tsugaru. I hated Yoichi for forcing me to promise to pass you his letter, so I have to apologize in advance. I couldn't take it anymore and I read his letter to you.

He has always been an incorrigible nuisance, but he was an honorable man to the very end. I did not realize he had not boasted of his deed to you, so I will do so in his stead. Yoichi offered to commit seppuku back in Hakodate in exchange for the safety of you and Tsugaru.

I have been thinking about what happened back in Hakodate for many years, and there was not a single day where I did not despise myself for my actions. My other reason for writing this to you was to ask for your forgiveness, but I do not expect you to forgive me. I do not deserve it, after what happened to Tsugaru. If knowing that I suffered until my death because of this would appease you, then I would be a little comforted.

And, if you do not forgive me, which I do not expect you to, please at least forgive the foolish humans that have wronged you. I understand now that you feel as we feel, which must have been what drew Tsugaru and Yoichi to you, and I regret from the bottom of my heart for what I did that day. I do not even have enough courage to take my own life like Yoichi.

It is strange to me. You are a demon, yet you are so loved by Tsugaru and Yoichi. It completely baffles me, but I suppose it is a product of my own ignorance. I would like to go off of Yoichi's letter and also wish for your happiness, for both their sakes.

- Kawamoto

Izaya stared at the page for a while before finally setting the letter down. It was strange, now that the rush was over, he felt immensely tired. He was tired of everything, of all his anger and hate. Now, the man responsible for all of this was outright asking for his forgiveness.

What was there to forgive? Everyone had already long passed on. At least with Hibiki, the other was still alive and actively repenting. It was only him here now, by himself. He felt tears welling in his eyes as the weight of that reality started to sink it.

It didn't matter whether or not he forgave Kawamoto. That man no longer existed in this world. He had suffered until his last breath, and to be honest, Izaya still felt no relief knowing that. It was a vicious cycle, and Izaya wanted to just run out into the forest until the air left his lungs and his body collapsed somewhere no one would find him.

He attempted to jump up and do just that, but his tired limbs were unresponsive to his frustration, and he helplessly raised his hands up to cover his face so Shizuo could not see the tears.

It was over. He had lost. Tsugaru was gone. Yoichi was gone. Even that bastard Kawamoto was gone.

Shizuo felt his heart sink as Izaya slowly descended into a heap as the demon bent over onto the sheets, his shoulders shaking as he sobbed quietly into his kimono. He didn't know what to do, and he tried to rub Izaya's back to sooth him, but the trembling shoulders he felt under his palm only made him feel worse. The informant had long disappeared, replaced by the demon Izaya who had waited years for his lover, who had been left alone with no escape from the emptiness that must have ate at him.

Shizuo didn't recognize the emotion he was feeling, watching Izaya break down like this, but he knew he would do anything to make the other stop crying. He gently pulled the demon up, wrapping his arms around Izaya.

Izaya clenched onto his shirt and buried his face into Shizuo's chest, not caring anymore.

"It'll be okay," Shizuo told him, rubbing circles on the demon's back.

They stayed like that for a while, Izaya's muffled sobs diminishing to uneven breaths as the hands that stretched Shizuo's vest slowly relaxed. The demon finally pulled away, brushing a few residual tears off with his sleeve as he sniffed.

"Sorry," he croaked, his swollen eyes meeting the other's warm brown ones. He had lost count of the times he had broken down in front of Shizuo, but this was undoubtedly one of the worse. All the crying had tired him out, and all the storming emotions in him had whittled down to a quiet emptiness. He couldn't read the alien expression on Shizuo's face, but it was definitely nostalgic, like something he had forgotten long ago.

Shizuo stared into those forlorn blood red eyes, the ocean of despair swirling deep within them. He wanted very much for them go away, to disappear someplace where they would never meet again.

He remembered all these past years he had wished for the same, for the flea to just disappear from his life. His desire had even been fulfilled, albeit briefly, but he had felt no comfort from it.

He understood now. It still wasn't completely clear to him, but he knew enough of what he was feeling.

Izaya let out another long sigh and made to wipe the fresh stream of tears that accompanied it.

Shizuo was unable to take the abuse any longer, and he leaned in, encasing the demon's lips in his own.

Thanks for reading!