Thank you to all the people that favorited, followed, or reviewed my story! ＾▽＾

Disclaimer: I do not own the series. I only own my OC.

Life Is But A Bittersweet Moment

Over the past couple of months, Kei had been accosted with a constant nagging, as if the small voice in her head grew arms and couldn't help but poke and prod at all of the inner workings of her mind. Except that the nagging actually did have arms, and legs, and a head of black hair, and "it" was a person named Orihara Izaya.

And to make things even better, he was literally poking and prodding at her.

Kei's irritation steadily reached its peak as Izaya began to pinch her waist, trying to earn a reaction that was not the usual smack on the head. The smack came from Akira most of the time, but today was an exception as Akira had spontaneously decided to skip school and stay at home. By "spontaneous," Kei meant "she snored through her alarm and was too lazy to get up," and by "stay at home," she meant "go out to underground clubs and shack up with gooey-eyed gang members."

Kei mourned for her sister's absence as Izaya once again interrogated her about things that were completely unimportant.

"Hey, Kei-chan, what's your favorite food? I would assume that someone as serious as you probably only likes really bitter things, right? Aha! Perhaps you secretly have a sweet-tooth that contradicts your cold personality!"

"Why do you keep bothering me?"

Izaya smirked. "Because I want to get to know you! I happen to find Kei-chan very interesting."

She eyed him curiously. "Why? I never talk to you."

"You are now."

She huffed at that.

Izaya grinned. "So, where's your guard dog today? Hungover or something?" Kei shot him a sharp glare, and he waved his hands carelessly. "I was only kidding, Miss I-Take-Everything-Too-Seriously."

Kei crossed her arms over her chest and looked away. "Why would I tell you? You'll probably just use it for something unseemly, anyway."

"Well, considering you're her precious sister, I assumed you would know she's probably doing body shots with some random fling."

Izaya smirked as Kei's shoulders tensed, and she glared at him with an amount of ire that would make most people tremble in their shoes. He, however, did not. After weeks of observing her behavior, he knew that most of the threats she threw at him were empty. That seemed to be her default defense mechanism, and most of the time she looked so serious that people believed her and stayed far, far away.

Izaya didn't, though, and he enjoyed watching her grow frustrated with him the more he ignored her threats.

Izaya shrugged. "I saw her go into a random club this morning while I was walking to school." Kei relaxed noticeably at this, though her eyes were still guarded. "My, my, Kei-chan, you really are just like a little dog protecting its owner! It's quite cute," he said as his smile turned more sinister, "but ultimately useless."

Just as they approached the school gates, Kei stopped in her tracks. Izaya took the opportunity to twist the knife in deeper and watch it gouge out her insides, her fears, and her deepest regrets.

"You know, you try much too hard to seem cold and closed-off. It would be much more appealing if you just gave up the tough-girl act and succumbed to your naturally weak and reliant character—I'm sure all the boys would love that."

Kei said nothing.

"What was it that made you so protective over Akira-san, hm? Let me guess: something happened to her, right? Perhaps in an attempt to protect you, she ended up being the one who needed protecting—I'm assuming an abusive household? Daddy comes home pissed off and drunk off his ass because he got laid off work that day, and instead of standing up to his boss, he takes it out on his family in the usual cowardly fashion. Of course, Big Sister has to be the hero, but then that results in her taking the brunt of the hits while Mommy goes to powder her bruises and pretend that they're a regular family. All of this accumulates into one enormous guilt-trip, and now you're determined to repay your sister by keeping her out of harm's way." Izaya snickered. "How very unoriginal."

Kei turned around slowly, and Izaya couldn't help the excitement he felt to see the expression on her face. Would she be crying? Or, even better, maybe she would be so overcome with anger that she would attack him in a blind rage!

It ended up being neither.

Giving him a humored look, Kei sighed. "I'm afraid none of what you just said is correct." Her eyes lit up in amusement. "Although, it was quite impressive. Perhaps you should look into detective work—if you did that to anyone else, it most likely would have worked."

Although Izaya's gleeful smile fell slightly, a less vibrant version of it remained. He still had one card left to play.

"Well, Kei-chan is much more resilient than I expected, and for that I applaud you. I should have expected an indestructible mind accompanying an indestructible body."

He couldn't hide his slightly surprised expression after no reaction came from her, his expectations once again challenged.

Kei gave him a brief glance, taking in his wide and curious eyes, and shrugged. "I assumed someone as perceptive as you would figure it out eventually." Then, throwing his signature sly smirk back in his face, she said, "I'd advise you not to get too hung up on it." She gave him a small wave and walked away, her hips swaying rhythmically with each step.

Izaya's eyes narrowed as he watched her leave. Despite the ultimate failure of his first attempt at cracking her façade, his determination was still present. In fact, all this little escapade did was entice him further.

Up until the day she (quite literally) crashed into his sphere of influence, he hadn't heard much about the girl named Amane Kei. Of course, there were the occasional rumors that crossed his ears every so often, but other than that, she just seemed like a blip on the radar; there one moment, then gone the next—but now it was different.

He had made many observations about her over the past months, filing them in his brain for later use. For one, she always seemed to compose herself with a certain elegance, one that you would liken to that of a ballet dancer. Even if something was out of place, the way she carried herself made it seem like it was perfectly normal and that the observer was actually wrong. For instance, Izaya took notice of the fact that her hair was almost always tied up in a messy updo, but whenever he looked at her, all of the stray hairs, the looseness of her bun, the fact that her bangs brushed over the side of her face—all of the faults seemed like they were meant to be there, as if it would be any other way that would look strange and out of place. He would have compared it to the many photoshopped models on magazines that made tiresome beauty standards seem effortless—although he believed that Kei didn't reach the status quo of most of the women in those tabloids.

This uncanny elegance alone was enough to intimidate her peers, if her cold demeanor hadn't already done that for her.

Despite growing up in a city like Ikebukuro, Kei lacked any of the social skills one would expect, and thus people, being the socially-dependent creatures they are, tended to avoid her. She took everything seriously unless it was definitively explained to her, making jokes fall flat on their faces (which just made everyone uncomfortable).

But, even so, Izaya laughed at the people who called her emotionless.

Yes, she may not outwardly react to most things, but after interacting with and watching her for an amount of time that Shinra called "disturbing" and "an extra kind of creepy," Izaya noticed that she carried the same emotions as everyone else; however, they only showed through her eyes—occasional shifts in tone, sometimes shining (pleased), sometimes dull (annoyed).

He then wondered if a ditz like Akira was even adept enough to decipher her own sister's emotions—or maybe he was just giving her too little credit.

But it was after this small revelation that Izaya reminisced about the first day he (formally) met her. He hadn't been paying attention to her, as he honestly thought she would not survive. That was the first expectation of his that she had challenged.

The second was her reaction to Shizuo. He assumed she would be angry, scared, sad, or at least something along those lines, but that was also not the case. Her expression was unwavering, but her eyes shone with a certain shyness that Izaya would expect to see in a fair maiden's face after her hand had been kissed by a knight. (Ha! Shizuo, a knight?)

Not to mention the riot her apology was—Izaya could have gone into hysterics when he saw Shizuo's expression of dumb shock. The muscle-head probably didn't even realize what was going on—although, with a brain the size of a pea, he couldn't really comprehend much, anyway. That was a day full of surprises, to be sure.

And now, he had one new surprise. Not only had she been so casual about her apparent regenerative abilities, the basis of what she had said to him was, "Go nuts!"

Well, who was he to refuse an offer like that?

In that moment, he made a final decision. She would be his crowning achievement, one that he would put on a pedestal and keep above all others. Sure, gathering gaggles of mindless girls through honey-coated words was entertaining, and he would never stop marveling at how easily manipulated humans are, but all of those were very simple endeavors. All he had to do was pull a few strings and the duty was over and done with. Kei was much more complicated—her entire existence was a beautifully ironic paradox.

She was human, yet she had one thing that all humans did not. She was emotional, yet at the same time expressionless. She was the younger sister, yet she was the one taking care of Akira.

He couldn't think of anything more entertaining to toy with.

Yes, he was going to do it. His shining glory would be breaking the paradoxical entity that was Amane Kei.

By the time he came to that conclusion, the school yard was empty, and he was alone.

Kei slouched over the lunch table, idly picking at the rice balls she had brought for lunch. Without Akira sitting next to her, she had no one to talk to (or, in her case, listen to someone talk and nod along at certain points). And whenever she had Akira by her side, it made it easier to ignore the stares from the rest of the lunchroom boring a hole into her skull.

Despite how often she seemed to avoid her sister's zealous affection, Kei did care for her elder sister dearly. As she sipped from a can of soda, she tried not to think about Akira getting blackout drunk and passing out over a bar stool while some creep puffed smoke on the back of her neck. Would she even be able to get home safely? Did she have someone with her to watch how much she drank? What if some guy tried to—

Before she could stress herself out anymore, Kei stood up from her seat and left the cafeteria, tossing her uneaten rice balls and half-empty soda can into the trash. The chatter of the lunchroom was too loud, and she needed a place to relax.

Passing by a vending machine, she momentarily stopped to purchase two cans of sweetened coffee. One was for herself, and the other was... also for herself.

Izaya had actually been right about her taste for sweets—she would never admit that to him, though. His ego was inflated enough; if anything else happened, he might just swell like a badly-shaped balloon and float up into the sky.

Actually, Kei considered, perhaps that is not a bad thing.

After a few minutes of aimless walking around empty corridors, Kei soon found herself standing at the door to the rooftop. A few moments of peace was all she wanted, but when she opened the door, she could see that the space was already occupied.

Shizuo sat on the other end of the rooftop, drinking from a carton of milk with a bitter expression on his face. Blood dripped from a small gash on his head, only serving to annoy him further. Muttering angrily to himself, he crushed the flimsy carton in his fist and finally looked up, unintentionally making eye contact with Kei. She shifted uncomfortably in place.

"Ah, I'm sorry, I was just looking for a quiet place. I will leave."

"It's fine—uh, Kei, right?"

She nodded, and their silent standoff resumed again. Unsure of whether or not she should approach him, she said, "Heiwajima-san, you're injured... Did something happen?"

His shoulders tensed up. Kei took that as a sign to drop the subject unless she wanted to be thrown into the school's swimming pool. She silently made her way over and knelt down in front of him, setting her bag on the ground next to her and rummaging through its contents. He narrowed his eyes at her.

"You're friends with that flea, aren't you?"

"It would be too generous to call him a friend."

Shizuo made a low noise in the back of his throat.

Finally pulling out a box of medical plasters from the contents of her bag, she gave him a cautious glance. "May I...?"

After Shizuo gave her a slow nod, she hesitantly scooted closer on her knees, while he straightened his back into a sitting posistion. He languidly watched her peel one of the plasters from its wrapping and lean closer, embarrassed by the heat rising to his cheeks as she brushed his hair against his scalp with lithe fingers.

She gently placed the patch over the wound, rubbing the corners lightly with her thumb. Seemingly satisfied with her work, Kei sat back on her heels, returned the plasters to her bag, and moved so that she was sitting beside Shizuo. An awkward silence settled between them.

Surprisingly, he was the one to break it.

"Thanks."

"It is my pleasure, Heiwajima-san." The words that left her mouth ran laps through Kei's mind, and she immediately felt embarrassed (not that anyone could tell).

Luckily, Shizuo didn't seem to notice.

"You don't have to be so formal—just Shizuo is fine."

Kei hummed quietly in acknowledgement, crossing her arms over her chest as a cool breeze brushed past her nape.

"Oh, by the way, I forgot to say sorry a while ago."

"Hm?"

"Y'know, for getting you caught up in that whole mess."

The repressed memory made Kei cringe. "Oh... that. It's fine, really."

"I'm... not very good at controlling myself, and that goddamn fleabag won't ever leave me alone—!"

As much as he tried to hold back, Shizuo could feel the uncaged monster that was his temper flaring up again. He really, really, really didn't want to lose it, though—especially not in front of the seemingly nice girl who patched him up, despite the fact that he almost killed her. (He was still unsure as to how she managed to survive that—and in perfect health, no less.)

His fists clenched as the reprimanding voice in his head steadily faded, being replaced by a shrill ringing in his ears.

Kei, sensing an oncoming storm, changed the subject. It had worked just a few minutes before, so she assumed it would work now. "You know, I understand why you come up here."

"Huh?"

She quietly sighed in content and leaned back on her hands. "It is very quiet, and the wind is refreshing. Somewhere peaceful, like this..." She gazed up at the sky. "I wish I could stay here all day."

At her comment, Shizuo's hardened gaze and tense shoulders relaxed, and he looked up at the blue sky with her, idly watching a puffy cloud float by. He turned to her direction when he heard a rustling sound, watching her pull out two cans of sweetened coffee.

Feeling his eyes on her, Kei held one out to him. "Would you like one?"

Shizuo didn't respond, but he also didn't refuse when she pushed the warm can into his hand. He glanced at the label curiously. The coffee seemed to be mixed with chocolate flavoring and condensed milk—it would make more sense to call it hot chocolate than call it actual coffee.

"You like sweet things, huh?" he noted absentmindedly, not looking up from the label.

Kei slouched unintentionally with an expression you would expect from a toddler caught with their hand in a cookie jar. "I assume it would be unexpected to hear that from me."

Shizuo shrugged. "There's nothing wrong with liking sweets."

"...I suppose."

Cracking open the can with little effort, Shizuo downed most of it in a matter of seconds. After swiping across his mouth with the back of his sleeve, he sighed.

"I guess I owe you three favors now."

In the middle of taking a sip from her own drink, Kei paused. "Favors?"

Shizuo held out his hand and counted on his fingers. "One for almost killing you, one for the bandage, and one for the coffee. That makes three."

"You don't seem too keen on the idea of favors."

He scoffed. "Yeah, well, I'm not that good at remembering things."

"How about this then: the bandages and the coffee will be my payment to you for letting me stay up here."

"What about when... when I almost killed you?"

Kei gave him a teasing glance as she took another sip from her coffee. "I will take that off your tab."

Grinning, Shizuo crumpled the metal can in his fist. "Deal."

As Kei ignored Izaya's nagging voice behind her, she made a list in her head of the things she needed to do once she got home. She had to finish all of her homework, vacuum the floor, cook dinner for herself, wash the dishes, and then wait for Akira to get home—oh, that's right, she also need to buy some medicine from the convenience store for her sister's inevitable hangover...

"Kei-chan, you're so mean! You keep ignoring me!"

She looked surprised. "You're still here? I thought you would have become bored by now."

"Kei-chan could never bore me!"

"What a shame."

Izaya poked her cheek. "You weren't in the lunchroom today, and I was so lonely!"

"You actually go to the lunchroom?"

He seemed offended. "Of course! Well, only if my favorite Kei-chan is there."

"How unpleasant."

Ignoring her blunt comment, he tugged on her bangs lightly. "Since you so clearly abandoned me in the lunchroom, where did you end up going?"

She narrowed her eyes. "Why would I tell you that?"

"Why wouldn't you?"

She huffed and broke from his gaze. "Because I do not want you to bother me again."

"How rude!" Then, his eyes turned mischievous. "Just to spite you, I'll follow you around every day, even to the rooftop if I have to!"

Kei's eyes immediately snapped to his, a shiver running down her spine. How on earth did he know? There was no possible way he could have—

As if he could read her thoughts, he chuckled. "Oh, come on now. You really thought that just because you didn't tell me anything, I wouldn't know?" He knocked his knuckles against her head. "I expected more from you, Kei-chan."

Recovering from her initial surprise, Kei focused Izaya with a questioning gaze. "Shizuo-san was hurt today. Did you do that?"

Izaya hadn't expected her to be the one to bring him up. (Also, since when were those two on a first-name basis?) Ah, well, it's not like he was going to stop now. "I wasn't the one to give him the injury, if that's what you're asking." He smirked. "Well, not directly, at least."

"What do you mean by that?"

The smile that graced Izaya's face was sinister. "Shizu-chan does have a lot of enemies, you know."

He watched in fascination as calm anger clouded Kei's eyes. She opened her mouth to say something, but whatever words were meant to come out stopped short with Izaya's next actions.

He leaned down slowly, observing the vexation in her eyes fall away to uncertainty. Their noses were almost touching at this point, and yet her hardened gaze did not waver. He moved closer, close enough so that he could feel her breath on his cheeks.

His hand traveled up the side of her face, moving past her cheek and up to her forehead. In one delicate movement, Izaya plucked a flower petal from her hair and held it out in front of her, smiling.

"You had something in your hair."

Kei quickly shoved him away as he burst into laughter. "You're annoying."

He clutched his stomach as he cackled. "Kei-chan is way more resilient than I ever expected, haha! You should have seen your face—you looked like you were ready to kill me!" He wiped the tears from his eyes, small giggles still escaping him. "Maybe you should learn to relax a little—what if a boy actually tries to kiss you? You'll just end up scaring him away!"

Kei shot him a pointed look, and he held his hands up in surrender.

"Okay, okay, I'm sorry—it was just too entertaining!"

Her eyes narrowed.

"Okay, I'm serious now. Here, let me make it up to you." Rummaging through his bag, he pulled out a can of lemon soda and waved it in front of her face. "Will this make Kei-chan feel better?"

She cautiously accepted it with an unamused expression, holding it between her fingers as if it were a handkerchief soaked in toxic waste.

Izaya pouted. "Aw, Kei-chan, how long are you going to stay mad at me?"

"That depends—how many years are you going to live?"

He poked her cheek playfully. "You can't stay angry at me forever!"

"I can try."

Izaya smirked. "We'll see." Then, just before he was about to walk away, he leaned forward and whispered, "I hope you enjoy the soda—although, you actually prefer coffee, don't you?"

Her breath stopped for a moment, a sour taste filling her mouth as she replayed his words in her head. The sound of soft footsteps echoed around the quiet neighborhood, sounding farther and farther away as the setting sun basked the street in a warm, pink glow.

After Kei was sure he had left, she let out a long sigh and lifted her head to look at her surroundings. She hadn't really paid attention to where they were going, so she was probably lost in some random neighborhood—except her own house's front gate was standing right in front of her.

How did he—? Forget it. I'm not going to question it anymore.

The gate groaned as she pushed it open, and never before had she related to an inanimate object on such a spiritual level. After entering her house, she absentmindedly kicked her shoes off by the door and slumped into a chair, her heart still racing from what had just happened.

What was he even trying to do? And why had she become so incredibly nervous?

She gazed at the can of lemon soda on the kitchen table for a moment, her nose scrunching as she scrutinized it. Then, she stood up and approached the refrigerator, deciding that she would cook dinner while she waited for Akira to come home.

The soda can stared.

It wasn't until 11:55 at night that Akira finally stumbled through the front door, a bottle of whiskey in one hand and a pair of gaudy red pumps in the other.

"Heyyyyyy, I'm home!" she slurred, tipping the dusty bottle up to her lips. Kei quickly took it from her hands before she could drink any and ushered her to the couch.

"You should not drink so much," she chastised as Akira drunkenly flopped on the cushions.

"Your face shouldn't drink so much!" Akira snorted out loud at herself. "Zing!"

Ignoring her sister's drunken ramblings, Kei set a plastic bucket next to the couch and draped a wool blanket over Akira. (It took several attempts, as she kicked them off each time because she was too hot.) Then, she pulled up a stool and sat, watching with a straight face as her sister waved her hand out in front of her.

"Heyyyyy, Kei-Kei!"

"Yes?"

"You know—you know that I love youuuuuuuu..."

"I know."

"I love you soooooooo much..."

"Yes, yes, I know."

Akira sat up quickly, feeling a sudden surge of anger course through her veins. Or maybe it was just the whiskey. "Because I love youuuuuu—I want you to be careful around those guys!"

Kei tilted her head to the side in curiosity. "Which guys?"

"You know the guys! The, um, the really angry dandelion and the, uh," she trailed off for a moment before snapping her fingers animatedly, "the weird guy who smiles too much! Oh my god, is he secretly the Joker? Oh my god, Kei, don't hang out with the Joker! He wants to kill Batman!"

Kei tried not to laugh at her sister's descriptions of Shizuo and Izaya. "Right, them."

Akira's face lit up. "Yeah! B-Because you're my teeny-tiny, itty-bitty sister, and you need to be responsible!"

"Right."

"And sometimes you gotta take a chance, you know?"

Kei had stopped paying attention to whatever her sister was saying. "Hm."

"Like, you just gotta go up to the really hot, really angry dandelion guy and just say to him, just say right to his face, 'Hey! Let's have sex!'"

"What?" A blush rose to Kei's cheeks just at the thought of it.

Akira snapped her fingers in front of her face. "You gotta hop on that horse, girl! You know," she held her hands out, spreading her fingers apart, "life!"

Kei pinched the bridge of her nose and sighed, wondering how it was possible that Akira even shared the same blood as her.

"And make sure to always use protection, even if you think you're safe, because you're not! Also, caution signs are more dangerous than you think—you see, my one friend ran into one and got this huge bruise on his face." Saluting to an invisible captain, she let her arm flop to the side as her eyes drooped sleepily. "I'm Amane Akira, and I approve... this message..."

Kei let out a tired sigh as her sister finally drifted off, mumbling incoherent monologues in her sleep—her most notable being "Don't take my yo-yo, Satan!" and "What if trees are actually screaming in pain when we cut them down?"

Pulling out a paperback book, Kei settled on the stool and remained a watchful statue by her sister's side. It wasn't until the early hours of dawn that the book slipped from her fingers and she fell asleep, dreaming of chocolate-flavored coffee and yellow dandelions.

This chapter was really fun for me to write, especially drunk Akira! It's actually kind of strange that she was the easiest person to stay in character for, haha.

If anyone has any comments or questions, feel free to leave me a review or a PM!

Thanks for reading!