Hello everyone! This is a story that's been up on FF . Net for a while, but I have finally gotten back to writing it. And I just wanted to let everyone know that I have changed the story a little bit from its original post, so if you read this beforehand, you might want to reread the first couple chapters to know what I have changed.

Thank you and I hope you enjoy it!

Disclaimer: I do not own Durarara or any of its characters.

Chapter 2- What Could You Want

Shizuo looked at the map then back at the building to make sure he was in the right place. He let out a low whistle, looking up at the impressive skyscraper with admiration. While he highly doubted the entire building was owned by the law office he was going to (at least, he hoped it didn't), having an office in such a building was still pretty snazzy. He wondered how many clients this divorce lawyer had to be able to afford such luxuries. Hopefully not too much that he wouldn't take on Shizuo's case.

Wasting no more time, Shizuo marched into the building, reading the directory and finding the name of the office he was looking for. Orihara Law…Orihara…Orihara…why does that name sound familiar?

Shizuo unconsciously scrunched his eyebrows in thought as he made his way to the elevator to go to the twenty-first floor. He kept repeating the name in his head, trying to match up names with it. But nothing seemed right. Orihara…Orihara…Itsuki? No…Orihara…

The elevator dinged, signaling his arrival to the floor he wanted. He walked out, still lost in thought as he made his way down the hallway that opened up into a lobby. A secretary sat at a desk in the front, the silver nameplate behind her displaying the moniker of the law office. Shizuo looked at it in thought, Orihara…Iz—

"Can I help you?" a voice tore Shizuo away from his thoughts as he turned towards the speaker. He looked at the put-off secretary who sat at the desk, her scowling expression clearly showing her desire to be anywhere else but here. Not exactly great customer service she was giving.

"Ah, yes, I have an appointment," Shizuo replied to her question. The secretary didn't even bother to smile back much less respond as she turned back to whatever she was typing on the computer.

"Sit down and I'll let Orihara know you're here."

"Uh…alright, thanks," Shizuo muttered as he turned away and sat down in one of the comfy looking chairs set out in the lobby. Jeez, he hoped this Orihara wasn't anything like his workers because if so maybe Shizuo would be better off getting some other lawyer.

No, it has to be the best, Shizuo told himself as he set his face with determination. He had intended since the beginning of his divorce to set out and find the best divorce lawyer in all of Tokyo before his wife—soon to be ex-wife—did.

Sighing, Shizuo thought about his wife, Vorona Anisimov(1). Their first meeting had actually been a little…cliché.

Back in day when Shizuo was a brooding teenager with anger issues, he had gotten caught up in a bunch of shit. While never doing anything totally dishonest—heavy stuff like drugs and human trafficking—Shizuo had been a bit of a punk. He picked up smoking and would always get into fights, eventually unintentionally becoming a leader of a gang when he was seventeen. He had dyed his hair blonde and caused his parents a ton of stress. It wasn't until he actually met his wife that he calmed down a little.

Vorona had been a Russian exchange student at his high school, and at first Shizuo had nothing to do with her. It just happened though one day that Shizuo was beating up some seniors who picked a fight with him for no reason that he ran into Vorona. Finished with his fight, Shizuo skipped homeroom and collapsed behind the gym storage room, catching his breath and relaxing. When he looked up at the tree that was providing him shade, he was surprised to see Vorona sitting on a branch watching him with curious blue eyes.

"What the hell are you doing up there?" he had asked.

She hadn't answered his question at all. In fact, all she had done was jump off the tree and walk towards Shizuo. At first they just looked at each other, and then Vorona stuck her hand in her pocket and pulled out a cream colored band aid that was decorated with strawberries. She held it out towards him.

He just blinked at it in confusion. No one had ever offered him help of any kind before. Well, expect if it was to beat up more people. When he made no move to accept it, Vorona had just reached forward them and applied the band aid herself on a cut that was on his face.

Shocked that she didn't seem to be afraid of him, Shizuo watched her pull away from him with a satisfied smile on her face before she waved goodbye to him and walked away. Afterwards, he found Vorona always trailing behind him like a smitten puppy. It both confused and amused him. But soon others noticed how close Vorona and him were getting, and in fear of the poor girl getting hurt because of him, Shizuo began to straighten out his act. At first, some people refused to accept this, and it took a couple of people's heads to get knocked together for them to realize that Shizuo was no longer going to fight on a whim but he would still kick ass if needed. So people just left him alone.

Once Shizuo stopped fighting completely, Vorona then never left his side and began to open up more to him. Surprisingly, Shizuo and Vorona hit it off pretty well, and Shizuo had actually been kind of hopeful because of Vorona's appearance. He thought, for that moment, that he may actually have a shot at a normal life, which he had always wanted but thought he would never get to have.

Because up until he met Vorona, Shizuo had struggled with his sexual identity. He had never admitted it to anyone—not even to his brother, Kasuka, whom he was extremely close with—that the only people Shizuo had ever had crushes on when he was younger had all been male.

As a naïve child, Shizuo had been scared of himself. He only knew that it was normal for guys to like girls and find them attractive. But Shizuo, on the other hand, only found most girls annoying or okay as friends. And he had only found himself attracted to men. In fact, Shizuo's first self-conscious crush had been on his middle school math teacher, who had been a baby-faced fresh out of college guy.

So when Shizuo found that he actually liked Vorona's company, and that he found her not terrible looking, he was relieved. He thought that maybe he could finally be "normal" and have the kind of family he always wanted, which he wouldn't have been able to do otherwise. So when they both graduated high school, he asked her to marry him.

But what a mistake that had been.

Sure, their marriage had started off just fine as Vorona went to college to get her degree in International Business, and Shizuo started a job at a local bar. But Shizuo soon found out that while he did "like" Vorona, he didn't "love" her. And that was because despite being married, he couldn't bring himself to be intimate with Vorona past making out. He always made excuses, saying that he hadn't married Vorona for sex, and that he wanted them to just enjoy each other's company without all the sexual tension. But he knew after a while his excuses no longer sat well with his wife. It was difficult to maintain a stable relationship with Vorona after Shizuo realized that no matter what he did that he couldn't change himself. It was probably then that he began to explore and embrace the other side of himself that he had been shamefully trying to hide so long before.

Of course, he didn't actually cheat on his wife—that wasn't the kind of man he was—but he did finally work up the nerve to step into a gay club and find out more about the world he had been avoiding. That had also been when he first met Akabayashi. The red-headed man had taken pity on Shizuo after hearing his story and invited him to become one of his employees. Shizuo had accepted, especially since Akabayashi offered more money and benefits than his current job did.

He wasn't sure when Vorona had started to suspect him, but it probably wasn't long after Shizuo switched jobs. And that was because not soon after Shizuo started working with Akabayashi did he and Vorona have their first fight.

And what a fight it had been. They both had been dead drunk, having gone to one of Vorona's college friend's party together, and they both were very angry with each other, screaming to the point of where people were put off by their anger. They honestly should have broken up after that fight, but their drunkenness had also caused them to make many unplanned actions that night.

And one of those actions had been the reason they decided to stick it out and stay together for as long as they did.

But finally, after five years, Vorona had come up to Shizuo and demanded that they divorce, saying that she was tired of sticking around when they didn't really love each other. Besides, she had found someone else to love.

Had that just been it, Shizuo would have gladly signed the divorce papers and sent her off with his congratulations.

But Vorona had demanded for the one thing that Shizuo couldn't—wouldn't—give up.

Which is why he was here, trying to get the best divorce lawyer in all of Tokyo.

So waiting for this man better be damn worth it.

Beeeeeep.

"Your ten o' clock is here, Orihara."

Izaya looked up from his computer where he had been busily typing away on a chat room, gathering the latest dirt on one of his client's ex-husbands. Looked like the guy wasn't too terribly honest with his ex-wife about how he spent their money.

"Go ahead and let him in, Namie," Izaya told her through the intercom as he logged out of the chat room. He sighed as he leaned back against his swivel chair. So the so-called "friend" of Shiki's was here. Izaya guessed he wouldn't have to wait much longer to see just what kind of man this was.

Bringing out the necessary papers and a notebook to write down some notes, Izaya wondered what he would be fighting for his client this time. Money, most likely, or some material possessions of worth. Perhaps this client owned some real estate property and didn't want his greedy wife to get her grubby hands on it. Or maybe he wanted all of the money in their shared bank account like his current client. Well, no matter what it was, most of his clients' requests usually led back to money.

The steady knocking on his office door made Izaya quickly put on his "work face" as he called, "Come in."

He heard the twist of the doorknob and the whooshing sound of air as the door swung open.

The man standing there certainly wasn't the one he had been expecting as Izaya's expression fell to shock.

And obviously, the man standing there obviously hadn't expected Izaya either.

"It's you!"

How could have he been so stupid? No wonder he faintly recognized the name! Izaya, after all, had been the guy Shizuo had been thinking about (and pining over) for two weeks now. Though granted, Shizuo had really only remembered Izaya's intriguing first name hence why he didn't readily connect him to the "Orihara".

But wow, really, what a coincidence this ended up being. Or maybe it was actually a sign…

"Huh," Shizuo mused as a smile slowly spread on his face. "Didn't peg you for a divorce lawyer."

"And I didn't peg you for the married type," Izaya quickly shot back, the edge of his voice being just a tad angry as he scowled. Not only had Izaya slept with the exact type of man he tried to avoid, but that man was also married. What kind of fucked up plot twist was this?

Shizuo winced slightly at the bite in Izaya's words. "Yeah, well, it wasn't exactly…planned right."

Izaya only narrowed his eyes at Shizuo, before sighing in exasperation. "Whatever, I don't even care. You might as well leave now because there is no way I am taking you on as a client."

"Hey, wait, you can't just kick me out without even hearing my story!" Shizuo quickly fought as his smile turned into a frown.

"Didn't you hear me? I. Don't. Care. Now leave." Izaya didn't even bother to look at him as he waved the blonde away and turned in his swivel chair to face away from Shizuo. Boy was Shiki going to get an earful of him later.

"Look, I know we didn't exactly get off on the right foot…b-but I really need your help!"

Izaya paused in thought slightly, noting that there was a desperate tone to Shizuo's voice. Did he really want to keep all his money that badly?

Izaya waited for a moment as he heard Shizuo huff angrily before growling and his foot slightly tapping with impatience.

"I can pay you."

"I'm not exactly in need of money, as you can see, so I don't care even if you can pay me." Besides, you can't even pay me my usual rate, not that you know that. Izaya thought to himself.

"I…" Shizuo muttered, growing anxious and frustrated. He really did need Izaya's help and couldn't leave without the raven agreeing to be his lawyer. Gritting his teeth and hoping this would work, he tentatively offered, "I can pay you…in other ways."

Oh? Izaya perked with interest slightly. Now this was interesting. Sure, he didn't usually make the mistake of sleeping with men who made it obvious they wanted more again, but he would be lying if he said he didn't crave the kind of sex he had with Shizuo two weeks ago. Izaya hadn't been able to find anyone he had the same amount of physical chemistry with, and sex with his other usual partners had started to look lackluster in comparison.

Thinking that Izaya was about to reject him, Shizuo added a bit gruffly, "Please. I really need your help and you're supposed to be the best divorce lawyer in Tokyo."

"Hm, that's true I am the best," Izaya mused, "And while I can't say that clients have never offered their…services to me before, I've never had anyone say that before I took their cases." Izaya turned back to Shizuo in his swivel chair, a mischievous smile on his face. "What could you possibly want so badly from your wife that you need someone of my caliber?"

Izaya watched with interest as Shizuo steadily met his eyes, not looking the least bit ashamed of his offer and what it implied. He must really want whatever it is really badly.

"I want sole custody of our kid."

Now that wasn't what Izaya had been expecting.

Thank you for reading and reviewing!

-Xaleria

(1) Vorona is a character who only shows up in the Durarara! light novels. From my understanding, she is supposed to be a Russian assassin, and Vorona is actually supposed to be an alias and not her true name. Her true name is unknown so for the sake of familiarity I stuck with Vorona. I picked a random Russian surname for her since I am not sure what her last name is.