Shizuo stared blankly at his enemy for several minutes. Izaya had finished explaining his situation, and he had difficulty comprehending any of it. The blond was skeptical. He could only understand that Izaya had come to him because he couldn't move on without him, and that was just too funny. What the hell was going through Izaya's head when he thought he'd actually have a snowball's chance in hell of succeeding in gaining his forgiveness? Izaya hadn't been given the choice of whom his human would be because if he did, Shizuo would bet his life that he would not have been Izaya's first choice – or even his last.

"Will you say something already?"

Shizuo regarded Izaya with a frown, who was no longer sitting on his couch, standing beside the window, glancing down to the streets. I should earn a reward just for being in the same room with him this long. Shizuo realized that it was only due to Izaya's status that he could achieve it. At least my couch is intact. A deeper frown etched on his face. "You owe me a new table," he said aloud.

Izaya rolled his eyes and huffed, placing his hands back in his jacket that was now back over his small frame. "I just gave you a pretty long explanation about our current situation, and that's the first thing you can say? I didn't know you were this simple-minded." Izaya tilted his head with a small grin. "Should I have used smaller words? Is that why you're not responding?" Even though he was supposed to be making amends with Shizuo, he couldn't help but tease him. The blond infuriated him, and he guessed it would take a hell of a long time to forget that.

Shizuo growled at him, and Izaya's grin widened. "Shut the hell up. It's your fault my table is in pieces, so you owe me a table."

Izaya glanced back outside. "Take the money out of my insurance," he said as if he wasn't actually paying attention to their conversation.

Shizuo gritted his teeth. Was Izaya deliberately ignoring him? Hell no! "Oi, flea, would you stop gawking out the damn window and pay attention. We're not finished."

Izaya looked back at Shizuo in mild surprise, and then a smile of amusement tugged on his lips. "Shizu-chan hates being ignored I see. You're like a child when you demand attention like that."

Shizuo stood up and stalked over to the raven, placing his palm flat on the wall beside Izaya's head and leaning in close. "Go to hell," he gritted out.

Izaya ignored Shizuo's attempts to appear threatening even though he couldn't do anything to him because little did the blond know that his words were more effective than his actions right now. "I've already been there," he admitted without thinking. Izaya's eyes darted to the side to avoid Shizuo's gaze. To his relief, Shizuo stepped back from him and gave them space.

Shizuo suddenly turned away from him and sauntered into the kitchen.

Izaya frowned, but his curiosity caused him to follow. Shizuo was picking up the broken table pieces. Izaya leaned against the doorframe and almost chuckled at the sight of him because he knew Shizuo wondered if he could repair the table. "It's in three pieces, Shizu-chan. Not even the strongest glue could repair it."

Shizuo narrowed his eyes and directed his glare at Izaya once more. "It's your fault," he repeated.

Izaya shrugged. "You threw the table, not me."

Shizuo jumped to his feet. "You were in my apartment! What else was I supposed to do!"

Izaya chuckled. "Perhaps if you had better control of your temper, you wouldn't throw so many objects at people, and protecting your own personal belongings would be a lot easier."

Shizuo curled his fists. "Shut up! You deserve nothing but objects thrown at you! Just like you deserve this!" Shizuo raised his hand in a gesture to Izaya's predicament.

Izaya closed his mouth, and a small frown furrowed on his face.

Shizuo clicked his tongue when his phone broke the silence that had formed between them once more. Shizuo pulled his phone from his pocket and grunted a greeting, frowning when Izaya rolled his eyes. "Seriously? You know I'm not good at social gatherings. They'd have a better time without me." Shizuo glanced up at Izaya and felt awkward admitting such personal feelings in front of his enemy. He moved out of the kitchen and down the small hallway and slammed the door to his bedroom.

When Shizuo emerged from the bedroom, he was surprised to find Izaya in the living room. "Didn't know you understood the meaning of a private phone call," he said before slipping on his shoes.

Izaya leaned off the back of the couch to walk toward the blond. "You can hardly call a phone call with Tom-san private. Where are you going?"

Shizuo ignored the previous comment and seized his keys from the bowl beside the door. "Out."

Izaya tilted his head. "It's almost ten. I didn't know you collected debts this late."

Shizuo gritted his teeth, but when he looked at Izaya, he realized the raven was serious and thought he didn't do anything but collect debts with Tom. For some reason, this made him angrier. "If you must know, I have some kind of life outside of my job."

Izaya blinked in surprise and moved to follow the blond out of the door. "Seriously? You're actually going out for fun?"

Shizuo slammed the door shut and locked it. "As much as you like to think I have no friends, yes, I do have a social life – more so than you, I imagine."

Shizuo stormed down the corridor, and Izaya jogged to catch up, finally falling in step with him. "I have an excellent social life."

The two walked the first flight of stairs in silence, and then Shizuo spoke again. "First of all, it's had, and secondly, let me rephrase my sentence. I have a social life that involves actual friends, unlike you."

Izaya pouted. "That's harsh. I have friends."

Shizuo laughed as they left the apartment complex. "Had," he repeated."And no, you didn't, so don't kid yourself."

Izaya jogged slightly to remain at Shizuo's side, ignoring that they were having a conversation regardless of how insulting it was. "I had plenty of friends," he said, but he knew that wasn't true at all.

"Like the Yakuza? Or the thugs within the color gangs, or those kids from Raira?" Shizuo chuckled. "Please, every single one of them probably wanted you dead."

Izaya frowned. "Lucky them then."

Shizuo glanced at Izaya, who now had his gaze ahead of them. Damn, he wouldn't apologize for that! He did not feel bad for saying something that they knew was true! "Why are you following me? I accepted the invitation to get the hell away from you." Shizuo shoved his hands in his pockets and walked faster, forcing himself to keep the smile of amusement off his face when Izaya tried his best to keep up with him.

Izaya tried to forget about the ache in his chest caused by their previous conversation and how Shizuo's sudden subject change might have indicated some form of guilt. Like that would ever happen. "If you haven't realized, I can't leave your side. I can't leave you alone until you forgive me, and we make amends."

Shizuo stopped and turned to face him. "If that's what it takes to get you out of my life, then I forgive you! Now get lost!"

Izaya rolled his eyes and clicked his tongue. "Well, obviously you don't mean it, so that won't work."

A vein appeared on Shizuo's forehead. "You're right, I didn't mean it, and I never will! If you think for one moment I would forgive you, especially to help you, then you really are fucking arrogant."

Izaya's eyes followed Shizuo with a glare as the man continued to stroll down the street. Luckily for the blond, there were no people around to see him shout, and he doubted Shizuo even considered how insane it made him look. Izaya caught up to Shizuo once more. Honestly, he wasn't sure why he bothered. Shizuo had made it clear already that he wouldn't forgive him.

"Go away," Shizuo gritted out more quietly than before now that they were on a busy street.

The more Shizuo pushed him away, Izaya felt more determined, mainly because he knew how much he annoyed the blond. "No, I think I'll stick around. It's quite fun."

Shizuo stopped suddenly with a heavy sigh. "Seriously, Izaya, why are you doing this?"

Izaya blinked in confusion at the sudden seriousness in Shizuo's voice. "I told you, I can't move on peacefully otherwise, and I don't have a choice."

Shizuo frowned at him. "Your actions will still be selfish regardless."

Izaya tilted his head. "How so?"

"You're only doing this to save yourself. If none of this happened to you, no way would you even consider making amends with me." Shizuo peered up at the sign and realized they were at his destination. "By the way, I don't need protecting, especially from a scrawny flea like you."

Izaya sneered. "Now who's arrogant." He wouldn't reply to Shizuo's first statement because the blond didn't deserve his honesty.

Shizuo narrowed his eyes. "That's not what I meant, and besides, like you would even save me from anything. In fact, you wouldn't save anyone voluntarily if you couldn't get anything back in return." The blond turned for the door.

Izaya looked up at the sign, and his face lost some of the anger. "You're going into a karaoke bar?"

Shizuo swerved on his heel. "So what."

Izaya folded his arms. "Although it would be amusing, I'd rather not sit and watch you make a complete fool of yourself as you get plastered." He turned away. "See you back at your apartment, Shizu-chan. Enjoy your ridiculous attempts to prove you're a human." Izaya wouldn't admit that he didn't want to follow Shizuo because of the envy he would feel watching the blond have genuine fun with people he actually knew.

Shizuo raised an eyebrow, not biting back for once at the insult Izaya clearly just threw at him, and a grin formed. "Alright, see ya." Before he opened the door, he added, "Who knows, I might get into trouble if I get too drunk and no one is there to watch me. I just thought that since you have to protect me and all, you would remain at my side. I mean, you did follow me all the way here with that adamant thought, didn't you?"

Izaya turned to face Shizuo with a frown. No way in hell would Shizuo goad him. He refused to take the bait. "If you want to get drunk and poison your body, then go right ahead. That's not my problem."

Shizuo's grin widened, and he shrugged. "Okay."

Izaya watched him disappear into the building. "Idiot," he muttered, trying to remain stubborn. "If Shizu-chan gets into trouble, then it will be his own fault. He won't be able to pin the blame on me this time." Izaya was about to head back to Shizuo's apartment but sighed in frustration. Even though he knew nothing could harm the brute, Izaya couldn't help but feel responsible. If something did happen, it wouldn't just be Shizuo in trouble. Izaya didn't know much about guardian angels, but he was sure that whatever Shizuo did from now on would affect him one way or another. "Dammit," he muttered and let out another sigh before entering the bar.

…..

Izaya was extremely annoyed with the ridiculous display. Honestly, it was humiliating, more so for him than for Shizuo. The whole of Kadota's group was here, Tom, a couple of what he assumed was their work colleagues, and even those two high school brats were here! Mikado and Masaomi. Izaya was sure that they were scared of Shizuo, so why the hell were they here acting like his damn friends! He couldn't speak for Mikado, but he'd known Masaomi a lot longer than Shizuo had, and even though they weren't friends, Izaya couldn't help but feel genuinely envious. Izaya was standing to the side, watching Shizuo with narrowed eyes the entire time, watching how the blond became more intoxicated with every drink he consumed.

At first, Izaya was rather impressed at the amount of alcohol Shizuo consumed before he got to this embarrassing stage, but now he was frustrated.

"Come on, Shizuo! Sing a song already!" a very drunk Tom announced to his friend.

Izaya shook his head. They were all idiots, so he didn't even know why he was jealous. Izaya's eyes flitted back to Shizuo, and to his surprise, the blond stumbled over to the screen and fumbled with the remote. Shizuo had refused to sing to keep his dignity, and Izaya almost respected that, but Shizuo had consumed too much alcohol to care. "I can't believe I expected more from you," he muttered, but Shizuo was too far gone to acknowledge him. In fact, Izaya was quite sure that the blond had forgotten he was even here. When Shizuo finally decided on a song, Izaya cringed when he thought that standing on the table with the mic was an even better idea. "I hope you fall and break something. Preferably your neck."

The song began to play, and Izaya wondered if Shizuo knew what he was doing. Izaya didn't recognize the song, and he was sure the blond didn't either.

"I wrote this song about you," Shizuo's voice began loudly. "I wrote this song about you."

Izaya frowned slightly when he caught Shizuo's eyes on him.

"Just to let you know that I hate your guts, and I think you suck."

Izaya's eyes widened. Son of a bitch.

"I wrote this song about you. I wrote this song about you. Just to let you know that I hate your guts, and I think you suck!"

Izaya glared and curled his fist. "You've got to be fucking kidding me."

Shizuo seemed as if he might be having way too much fun with this, knowing just who he was singing about. Masaomi decided to join in, and his voice followed after each of Shizuo's lines. "I hate the way you look!"

"You make me sick!"

"I hate the way you talk!"

"I want to punch you in the face!"

"I can't stand you at all!"

"You drive me insane!"

"Why won't you go away…."

"I wrote this song about you. I wrote this song about you. Just to let you know that I hate your guts, and I think you suck!"

Izaya wanted to push them right off the table. Shizuo had been rubbing it in his face all night about having friends, and now, he was just blatantly humiliating him in front of them all, and there wasn't a damn thing he could do about it! "I've had all I can take from this shit."

Just as Izaya moved to leave and opened the door to the exit, Shizuo's voice bellowed louder. "This is your song! Congratulations! You're the inspiration, I hate you so much! That I wrote this song! Congratulations! You're immortalized! I hate you so much! I hope you fuckin diiiiiiie!"

Crash.

The table split from underneath them when Shizuo slammed his foot to emphasize the last lyrics. Not that it was in no way enough to spoil their fun, and they even laughed!

Izaya had never been so annoyed and humiliated in his life! To hell with Shizuo! The blond could get jumped, stabbed, shot, or run over for all he cared. Izaya narrowed his eyes when Shizuo tried to lock eyes with him, his focus all over the place as he stumbled forward only to land flat on his face. Izaya shook his head. If he wasn't angry, he would have laughed his ass off.

Shizuo quickly stumbled to his feet and reached out for the raven, his words slurring. "-Zaya – stu – flea…."

The others in the bar remained and blinked in confusion when Shizuo suddenly left them without realizing it. Masaomi tilted his head as he stepped over the broken table and laughed. "I bet that song riled him up, and now he's off to kick Izaya's ass into next week."

Mikado hunched his shoulders. "Shouldn't we follow him? Or call him a cab or something?"

The young blond waved his hand dismissively. "Nah. Shizuo doesn't need help from us, he can totally handle it." Masaomi glanced over at Tom. "Right?"

Tom nodded.

Izaya walked down the street with his frown still present and could hear the fumbling footsteps behind him.

"Oi!" he heard the blond shout. "Flea…told you – tay – of Ikebukuro."

Izaya rolled his eyes and turned to face the display of Shizuo's walking. "You actually think you're any kind of threat right now?"

Shizuo frowned when he finally reached Izaya. "-gonna – kill – stupid – ass."

Izaya sighed. "You're not even making sense. I can't even tease you because it's actually painful to watch."

"Oh! Look it, it's that scary-ass bartender dude…."

Izaya and Shizuo turned their attention toward four guys standing at a park entrance. Izaya wasn't in the mood for these idiots. They were obviously from the yellow scarves and were even more plastered than Shizuo. Izaya's eyes widened when Shizuo stumbled toward them, anger quickly taking over his alcohol-influenced mind. "Shizu-chan, don't-" Shizuo was already halfway, and Izaya huffed with his hands in his pockets. "If he thinks I'm helping him after that little scenario back there, he's terribly mistaken."

"Are you sure?"

Izaya frowned and glanced to see Aya beside him. Her sudden appearance didn't bother him anymore. "He doesn't deserve my help."

Aya chuckled. "Who knows what might happen. I mean, he might get hurt."

Izaya knew she would try and convince him. "I'm not saying this because of admiration, just a fact. Shizu-chan can't get hurt like a normal human being, which is why he's a monster."

Aya shrugged. "Okay. Perhaps he could get arrested, and then you really would be screwed."

Izaya clicked his tongue. "What difference would it make. It's not like I would be the cause of it. Shizuo going to prison wouldn't affect my circumstances."

Aya walked in front of him. "Maybe not, but what if he accidentally kills one of them? He is pretty drunk, and if he goes to prison for murder, how will you make amends when you can't walk through walls to see him?" Izaya watched a grin form on her face and knew she had won the argument.

Izaya sighed and ran to Shizuo, who was now right in front of the group of thugs. He couldn't help but become annoyed that Shizuo had been proven right. How was he supposed to make this work if he had to be convinced? Izaya knew he couldn't keep acting selfishly for much longer, but damn it, he tried his hardest to see Shizuo in a different light, and he just ended up more irritated with him.

"Wanna repeat that?" shouted Shizuo as he picked up one of the guys by the shirt, a fist raised.

Izaya grabbed Shizuo's wrist, which caused him to drop the fearful-looking man. "You owe me for this," he said and dragged Shizuo down the street, despite the blond's awful attempts to stop him.

"Lemme go – stupid flea…leading me – a trap – what are you doing?"

Izaya shook his head at the contradictive sentence and frowned. "Stopping you before you get us into trouble. You'll thank me in the morning."

"Pfft." Shizuo was too drunk to care that his enemy was dragging him home and made no other protests except to complain about maybe wanting to throw up once or twice.

Izaya practically held Shizuo up with his arm around his own shoulder when they got to the apartment building, listening to the blond's drivel.

"I hate you – Izaya… d'you know that?"

Izaya sighed and almost tripped when Shizuo stumbled forward. "Yes, I do."

Shizuo placed a finger to his lips. "But don't tell anyone…shhh, it's a secret."

Izaya started to get a headache, or imagined he would be if he were alive – could he even get headaches? Well, it certainly felt like it. "Trust me, Shizu-chan, even if they didn't, I'm quite positive everyone knows after your little display."

Shizuo made a dramatic gasp. "Who told them?"

Izaya didn't know whether to be frustrated or – no, he was just frustrated. How did I end up becoming this brute's babysitter? "I will hate you more than before if you puke on me."

They finally reached Shizuo's door, and after a few painful seconds of watching the blond try to open it, Izaya snatched the key and let them both in. Izaya dragged Shizuo toward the bedroom and plonked him across the bed as gently as he could. Shizuo landed on his back with his legs dangling over the edge. "Thank God no one can see me," he muttered and refused to overthink his next action as he knelt to slip Shizuo's shoes off and move him into a better position. "I really hate you."

For reasons he couldn't fathom, Izaya decided it was better to wait until Shizuo fell asleep before leaving him alone for the night. The raven perched on the blond's window ledge and pushed it open to let in a breeze, telling himself it was to see the city better when it was really for the blond's benefit.

"-Zaya…"

Izaya glanced over at the slur of his name. "What."

"We're enemies, d'you know that?"

Izaya pinched the bridge of his nose. "Yes."

"Don't tell Izaya… he'll get mad."

"I'm quite certain he already is, and he's going to knock you out if you don't sleep."

Shizuo laughed. "Pfft, he can't – too skinny."

Izaya closed his eyes and tried to count backward from ten.

"Skinny skinny skinny…."

I'm so going to kill him. "Please, Shizu-chan, please go to sleep so that I don't end up in hell for killing you."

Shizuo shifted in the bed and sighed. "K. Can't chase you if you got to hell, can I?"

Izaya sighed. "No."

There was a moment of silence, and Izaya thought Shizuo had finally crashed.

"If you leave me now – you'll take away the biggest part of me!"

Fuck. "Shizu-chan – seriously, shut up."

"Ooooo, no! fleabag, please don't gooooo."

Izaya wondered how Shizuo could actually make up his own words while in this state, but it didn't make it any less annoying.

"Cause hate like ours is hate that's hard to fiiiiind. How could we let it slip awaaaay?"

Part of Izaya's frown disappeared when he looked at Shizuo's silhouette on the bed. He had a half-decent voice despite the drunk tone, and Izaya suddenly became amused.

"We've come too far to leave it all behind! How could we end it all this waaaay!"

Izaya found himself smiling. Idiot.

"When tomorrow comes, and we both regret the things we said today…."

Izaya noticed Shizuo's voice had trailed off and wondered if he really had gone to sleep now. The raven quietly left the window ledge and moved toward the door.

"Izaya?"

Izaya huffed and turned back. "What now."

"Might regret this in – morning, but – I guess you're not so bad much…."

Izaya blinked in surprise, unsure how to take the offered half-compliment, and his hand tightened on the door handle before he closed it behind him. Izaya sighed and slouched against the door. "You too…."

A/N: I don't own the two songs that were used.

Your guts, I hate em - by Reel Big Fish.

Don't leave me this way by Chicago.

Ps: I know Shizuo might have been a little OOC, but I had such great fun writing drunk Shizuo! I hope you laughed as much as I did :D