Shizuo stood waiting to cross the street on his way home. He and Tom had finished work early, allowing Shizuo to have a day to himself. Besides, it wasn't like he'd been very focused today anyway. His mind was constantly going back to the note he'd found that morning, and the man who had written it.

Clearly something was very wrong with Izaya. There was no denying that fact. But what perturbed Shizuo the most was the way that Izaya was refusing to talk about it, or accept any help for that matter. It only made Shizuo even more curious about the situation.

Was Izaya really insane? Or was there some semblance of truth in his difficult-to-swallow story?

The only way he could be sure was to get the answers straight from the informant's mouth; however, said informant wasn't willing to do so.

"Shizu-chan!"

Shizuo stopped mid-step at the voice that called after him. It was definitely Izaya's voice, but it didn't sound the same as it usually did. It sounded almost… desperate.

He was about to turn around when Izaya simply ran around the front of him as if to stop him from walking any further.

"Shizu-chan. I was looking for you." he said, sounding like he was out of breath.

"What for?" Shizuo questioned.

"I… I have to talk to you about something." Izaya said quietly, "Will you come get lunch with me? My treat."

"I thought you said we should go back to normal." Shizuo pointed out.

"Yeah, well… I changed my mind." Izaya said lowering his gaze to look at his feet, "I need your help."

…~-~…

They currently sat in a private room in Russia Sushi, both receiving their orders by a confused, yet happy Simon.

"Fighting bad. Making friendship good. You eat sushi and be happy."

"Thanks, Simon." Izaya said quietly.

Shizuo watched as Izaya lightly poked at his sushi, showing no signs of actually eating it any time soon.

"So what is all of this about, anyway?" Shizuo asked.

"Like I said," Izaya began, "I need your help."

"Why do you think I'd agree to help you?" Shizuo pointed out.

"You agreed to come here with me, didn't you? If you were completely against the idea, you would have refused."

Shizuo had to admit, Izaya had a point. Although it wasn't really the request itself that had piqued his curiosity, but rather the fact that something had caused Izaya to change his mind in only a few hours. He'd seen a new side of Izaya in that note, and the way Izaya had asked for his help—as if his life depended on it—wasn't like the Izaya he knew at all.

"This doesn't have anything to do with some shady yakuza shit, does it?" Shizuo asked.

"No, no. Nothing like that." Izaya said quickly, "I just… I need your help with something that I… that I can't do on my own."

"Are you still hearing voices?" Shizuo questioned, lowering his voice.

Izaya looked at him for a moment with his mouth slightly open as if he was about to speak, but couldn't get the words out.

"Y-yes," he finally said after a long pause.

"If it's about that, then the only help I can offer is walking you to the hospital."

"I already told you, I'm not insane!" Izaya exclaimed, "Would you just listen to me?"

To say he was hesitant would be an understatement, but Izaya seemed very adamant about whatever this was.

"Fine. Tell me." Shizuo said after a moment, "What do I have to do to help you?"

"I… I don't know exactly… All I know is that you're the only one who can help."

His eyebrow twitched in anger, yet he was able to remain calm for the time being.

"And you still won't tell me exactly what's going on?" Shizuo asked.

"At this point, I'm actually afraid of what it might do to me if I do…" Izaya replied.

Shizuo let out a small laugh at that.

"Sorry," Shizuo said after he was given a sharp glare from across the table, "It's just that it's hard for me to imagine you being afraid of anything."

"Yeah, well…" Izaya trailed off as his eyes moved to look to his right.

Shizuo followed Izaya's gaze, but didn't see anything there that he could possibly be looking at. And the look on his face was almost… anger?

'Is he hallucinating that there's someone there?' Shizuo wondered.

Currently, Shizuo still couldn't believe that Izaya was completely right in the head. After all, Izaya still hadn't given him any adequate reason to believe otherwise. However, the way Izaya stared to his right… It almost looked as if he were trying to communicate something.

"So," Shizuo said, clearing his throat in hopes that it would bring Izaya's focus back, "are you going to eat your lunch or just poke at it?"

Izaya blinked a few times as he turned his gaze back to Shizuo before looking down at his plate.

"I'm not really hungry…" he murmured before picking up a piece and studying it, "But I suppose I should eat anyway, huh?"

Shizuo watched as Izaya ate a single piece of his ootoro when something else caught his attention.

"Flea, what's that?" he asked, gesturing to Izaya's left arm. There was a bit of white showing from inside the sleeve of his coat. It looked like a bandage was wrapped around his arm.

"Hm? Ah, that's nothing to worry about." Izaya responded, "I just had a bit of an accident earlier is all. It's fine."

"What kind of accident?" he asked skeptically, "Can I take a look?"

"I just got a small cut. Really, it's nothing."

The more Izaya pressed that it was nothing, the more Shizuo didn't believe him.

"Flea, just let me see it." he demanded.

"No." Izaya replied flatly, "At least… Not here…"

Once again, Izaya's eyes looked to his right, but they didn't remain there for long.

Shizuo clenched his fists and took a few deep breaths to keep himself calm. "Fine," he said after a moment, "Why don't you get your food boxed up and I'll just walk you home then."

He didn't have time to stop his words before they came out, and now he and Izaya stared at each other, too stunned to speak for a few moments.

Why did he just suggest that? He hadn't even thought about it before speaking. It was merely the first thing that came to his mind.

"Shizu-chan…?" Izaya questioned, looking even more surprised at the sudden suggestion, "Are you sure about that…?"

"Y-yeah." he mumbled, not sure as to why he didn't take it back as soon as the words left his mouth.

…~-~…

Looking around the Flea's apartment, it was obvious that there was something amiss. To put it bluntly, the place was a mess. The last time he'd been here, everything was in fairly decent order, but now there were books, papers, and files scattered over every surface.

Shizuo watched as Izaya headed into the kitchen where he placed his meal in the refrigerator. When he turned to continue surveying the room, he saw it.

Laying on the floor near Izaya's desk was a kitchen knife with what appeared to be a small amount of blood on it.

'He couldn't have… could he…?' Shizuo found himself thinking as he briskly followed Izaya into the kitchen and grabbed hold of his left wrist.

"Ow, Shizu-chan!" Izaya winced as Shizuo gripped his injured arm and pulled the sleeve up over it.

There was a small amount of blood on the bandage, meaning the cut was recent.

"Shizu-chan, what are you doing?" Izaya exclaimed as Shizuo pulled him over to the desk.

As they grew closer, a look of realization spread over Izaya's face, even more so when Shizuo stopped and pointed at the knife on the ground.

"I-It's not what it looks like." Izaya said, trying to pull his arm free.

"Do you mind explaining what happened then?"

Shizuo carefully observed Izaya's expression as he fought to come up with what would undoubtedly be another lie to cover up whatever it was he was going through.

Yes, he expected Izaya to lie to him; however, the look on Izaya's face told him otherwise. Izaya seemed as if he actually wanted to tell the truth, but something was holding him back from doing so.

So instead, he kept silent and turned his head to break eye contact with Shizuo.

"Are you going to let me take a look at this now?" Shizuo asked, tugging lightly on Izaya's arm.

Izaya didn't respond, prompting Shizuo to begin pulling the medical tape off of the end of the bandage.

…~-~…

I'm thinking of making a separate blog on tumblr specifically for fanfic purposes. Considering that many of my "mature" fics are in danger of being deleted because FF is suddenly deciding to act on their policy, I was thinking of posting some of my fics there, and then just having the blog for questions/suggestions/keeping you all updated with what I'm thinking. But I don't want to go through the trouble of doing all of that unless I know some of you would actually want to know about stuff like that, so… Let me know what you think about that idea. (And you're all free to PM me no matter what, don't forget!)