I think this is the climax~ XD It's a lengthy one though~ I would've uploaded this earlier but didn't finish too quick. Somewhere along the way, I got discouraged to write this fic. Only people who wanted to know the next chapters were my source to continue. I don't get comments so, I guess that boosted the discouragement all the more. Haha, I sound so greedy for your comments and reviews but maybe I am.

Chapter 13 – Under the Rain

His red eyes were curious. They were glued on the building, waiting for something to happen. Crashing below didn't matter because he still expected him. Knowing the blond a little, Izaya knew that he would do something.

A huge shadow leapt out from the building and swiftly darted down. It sped its way below, rushing past the informant. The figure safely hit the ground below and stood right on the spot the cross-dresser was about to land on.

Strong arms caught him, impeding his fall. He looked up and smiled at the blond. The bartender had the informant secured in his arms. Neither Shizuo nor Izaya were harmed but both of them were drenched in the continuing pouring rain.

I knew you'd come, the red-eyed man thought, smirking. For once, I had predicted right about you! Oh, what an achievement! He leaned on Shizuo's broad chest where a heart created a rampage within. And I thought that love was a mystery. Why had I predicted yours then? Was it because I knew that it was a fact that you loved me? Yes, love did mean, "risking your life for your most adored one." Oh my, then that makes me Shizu-chan's most adored one!

Izaya had sweet thoughts lingering in his mind until a hushed voice called him back to reality.

"Why?" The voice asked him. "Why did you pretend to be Kanra? Why didn't you meet me for the past days?" His chocolate orbs shone with numerous questions he was expectant to know. "But most of all, why did you take that chocolate shake and buy me candy floss? Now don't act like you don't hate sweets because I read that in your blog once. You prefer anything bitter. It's me who has a sweet tooth, not you! Why aren't you being yourself, Izaya?"

"Because you dislike me, Shizu-chan." The man in his harms quickly retorted.

The blond was suddenly taken back to their old High School days. The moment he met those blood-lusting eyes on that pale face, he hated it. It was he himself who have said those words. And was there any logical reason for his grave loathing?

Love.

He admitted to himself that he had fallen in love with Izaya's face ever since he had laid his eyes on the enemy's beautiful features. Yet what he hated was that... smirk? That laugh? Those evil red eyes? The way he talked? No, he honestly loved them all.

He hated the fact that he was a boy. He hated to acknowledge that he was gay for Izaya.

To prevent his heart from leaping off and falling deeply, he spat those cruel words at the beautiful man. And he tried to prove that he meant it by making him the greatest nemesis he ever had. But then, Izaya played along, making him believe that this pretty boy truly had no feelings for him. So the blond decided to hide his love and give him a taste of his fake abhorrence.

"Ne, ne, Shizu-chan! Where are we going? Yo! Shizu-chan?"

The pretty boy's voice brought him back to the present. He gave him a puzzled look and halted. He stopped and looked around, trying to see past the dark and heavy rain.

"Where are we?" Shizuo directed the question to no one. He looked at his surroundings, trying to see anything familiar. The apartment was gone and they faced new facades with unknown labels.

"Well, I think we're still in Shinjuku. But seriously, where are we going?"

"Oh, shit. I have been walking?"

"Oh no, we magically ended up here!" Izaya sarcastically cried. "Of course you were walking, you idiot!"

"Damn it," He lowly cursed. He always walked while in deep thought. Sometimes, he neither could feel nor hear a thing while at it. He merely walked and pondered until something or someone shook him out of his thinking trance.

"Looks like I'm taking you back home again." He mumbled a little louder than the rain.

"What? No way! You really just came all the way to Shinjuku just to confess? Man, I really thought that something special would happen tonight. Oh yeah, I forgot, you're the only human I could never predict correctly. I only did it once.

Ne, could you put me down, please? I feel like a woman. Wait a sec, I am still dressed like one! So, do you want me to act like one, Shizu-chan?"

The blond smiled at the odd man. Shizuo made sure the informant's heels touched the wet ground before he released him. When Izaya was dropped there, he immediately wrapped his arms around the wet bartender. His shoulders shrugged up high and he buried his ruined face on the man's black vest. His closed his eyes and he quietly released his tears.

"Now that you know it's me, I'll have to go back pretending to hate you, too. But just so you know, I really enjoyed being your Kanra." He said in between sobs.

"Yo, flea, you haven't answered any of my questions yet." He growled with a wee intimidating aura floating off. But his dark brown globes held a softened gaze. "There is something I'm really curious about. Since when did you take an interest in sweets?"

"My, my, why do you know so much about me, you creepy stalker? And could you at least comfort me? Are you too dense to not realise I'm crying? But to answer your latest question..." Izaya's cold hands held Shizuo's face and he swiftly pulled himself closer to him. He only planted a kiss on the bartender's wet lips and quickly let go.

"I do like sweets but not as much as you do." He whispered loud enough just for him to hear. "The reason why I avoided them is because of you. Since kisses are sweet, I wanted the first sweet thing to taste would be your lips. And I wanted you to be the only sweet thing my mouth will ever know. Because the moment I saw you a few years ago, I saw a spark in these lovely browns." His pale hands pulled back the yellow locks that covered those lovely browns he was talking about. "You were an amazing person and I knew that from the start. But then, you had to blurt out that ugly line the moment we met.

"Why?"

The bartender was quiet with the question thrown back to him. There were so many unanswered questions going on in their heads and neither the blond nor the dark-haired man has really given a response.

"Izaya, I apologise." The taller of the two men uttered with sincerity as he hugged the shorter one. The man being squished returned the hug and said, "Let's start anew, Shizu-chan?"

The blond didn't reply to that. Instead, he reached for Izaya's chin and held it up. His face was suddenly there, pressed on the informant's. Their tongues danced in their mouths for a while. They devoured each other with a long passionate kiss under the pouring rain.

Despite their eyelids shut, light was slowly filtering. Their eyes shot up to see a huge monster with bright eyes advancing to them. The road was a single narrow line and there was no way but to run the other direction. Either that or get run over by the massive truck.

Shizuo was the first to act. He gave up the contact on their lips, grabbed Izaya's thin wrist and tried to run towards the only path to safety. But cross-dresser was glued on his spot. He tried to drag him but the informant was obstinate and tried his best to stay put.

"You bastard! Do you want to die? Run now!" Shizuo barked at the other wet man. He was able to hauled Izaya towards the other way, enough to save them from trouble a little while. When the blond saw that he had no intention of running, he decided to wrap up a quick plan. Luckily, he found a street sign a few steps away from where they stood. He dashed for it and in his haste, crushed the pole of the sign.

"I'll take care of this." His eyes were serious and had intended to do something out-of-this-world: he would deliberately give the truck a flight over the dark skies.

The blonde finally lifted the broken stop sign as high as he could. The advancing truck wasn't slowing down.

"Shizu-chan! We're trapped!" Izaya screamed with fear lingering in each word.

The blond turned around and saw what Izaya meant. There was another pair of headlights coming at them from the other direction. This one wasn't too far away and not even speedy but there was a drunk teen behind the wheels.

Suddenly, the bartender pushed informant to the dark alley that magically opened to them. He hadn't seen it before but with the bright lights coming at them, he could see an entrance to safety now.

"Get your arse in here, too, Shizu-chan! I don't want that to be our last kiss!" The words spilled out of his pink lips but the blond seemed to have ignored it. Instead, he lifted the sign and was prepared to attack both cars.

Then the cross-dresser had an epiphany that slapped him like how the wind was slapping at him now. He knew that Shizuo intended to send these vehicles to fly across the black sky. He wasn't going to cower and hide with him - he was going to stop the collision.

The girly-dressed informant dashed from the alley. He had no plan in mind. He just didn't want to see his love take such a big risk and possibly die.

Just then, Shizuo budged from his spot, running towards the alley. When he passed by the blond, their eyes that held confusion met. Another epiphany slapped Izaya: His predictions of Shizuo's behaviour had failed. Again.

Izaya stood in the middle of the road while the two cars closed the space between them. Blinding lights illuminated the scene. What a perfect way to die, he thought. I couldn't see a damn thing. And he waited for the collision to end.

A red dot came to his view and smacked his face. The force pushed him away. He tumbled into another dark alley that was behind him. He tried to sit up but the pain ate all of his energy and consciousness. His knees buckled and dropped on the hard ground. The water reached out to him with its cold fingers. It soaked his knees and began to pool up, almost reaching his short white skirt. The pain was becoming unbearable for him that he closed his eyes. There in the dark, he was still in agony. He leaned back and gave in to the intolerable suffering as it continued to nibble his energy away.

Izaya never saw the bartender push both cars away from each other. The huge truck and the red Honda car blasted back as Shizuo's strong hands pulled them away. Both cars flew across the dark crying and grumbling Heavens.

And he never saw the look on Shizuo's face when he found Izaya safe and sound in the dark. The face was relieved but when a few seconds passed and the other man lay still, it evolved into a shocked one. He also never heard his name coming out from the taller man's lips. Not when he called him gently did he open those lovely crimson eyes. Even when Shizuo screamed his name through the hammering rain, Izaya heard nothing. And he felt nothing when the blond picked him up from the pool of rain water. The informant neither felt the current of the rain nor the sharp wind that spanked him hard as the bartender ran with caution. The bright lights that greeted the drenched men were missed out by Izaya. He was trapped in his own darkness and only the pain was with him in this time. The soft murmur in the hospital was mute to his ears as well.

~**Water Balloons**~

They were together in a room but the tall man that brought them here felt the loneliness. Izaya was locked up in his own world and Shizuo didn't know how to wake him up. The doctor told him that it would be alright when he wakes up but the blond was worried about one important thing: When would he wake up? And, would he wake up?

"We have treated him... I mean, her, well already. She shouldn't feel the pain anymore. Just make sure that she doesn't get hit again. Unless you hate her so much and want her lying on a hospital bed like this!" The doctor joked. Shizuo tried his very best to keep his cool. Why hadn't he gone to Shinra in the first place?

Because Shinra would be suspicious. He would definitely ask lots of questions, too, he thought.

He parted from his thoughts and stared at a seemingly-lifeless Izaya on a white bed. The man's breathings were steady, his eyes were still closed. He once tried to call his name but that didn't work to awake him. Shizuo shook him a bit, touched his hand, and prodded a finger on the skinny body but neither of that worked as well. He once forced his lids open but dull eyes stared back at him. When he tried to kiss him, nothing happened and it hurt to not feel those lips kiss him back. What was it that he hadn't tried yet?

He looked away from his love and his eyes caught on something that was placed at the table in the corner. A bouquet of lilies was in a vase, under the radiance of the sun. It bashfully bowed its immaculate petals at him. The blond paced to those shy flowers and picked up one. His nose touched its pale face and he inhaled the fragrance it kept.

Carefully, he walked over to the sleeping man. He gently pushed the flower to Izaya's nose. He watched the petal move as it was being inhaled and exhaled by the napping man.

~**Water Balloons**~

There was light under his closed lids. He felt the presence of someone close to him. Cool air settled on his skin and he felt dry. He groggily opened his eyes and all he saw were golden strands. Then, he felt something touch his lips. A wet moving thing was making its way inside his mouth.

Izaya quickly reacted by pushing the blond away from him.

"Just what the hell do you think you're doing? Who the hell are you?" He barked at the confused bartender. Shizuo stood up and ignored the horrible greeting.

"Good morning." He smiled.

If you're going to ask if this is the end, my answer is: MAYBE.

...

Got you back there, eh?

...

LOL~ Just kidding! Of course I wouldn't end it this crappy!

Man, I would LOVE to see your face! Excuse me, I'm being in my normal Izaya-mode today XD [It's so awesome that there actually exists a character who is similar with me- nearly physically and personality-wise :D]

But I will warn you though- this fic is about to end. I'm not counting the chapters to go but please stick around for the last ones! XD

Thank you all! *hugs you*