Izaya sat back and stared at the familiar face on his computer. The trial had led him back to a two year old case of his. One of his loyal girls had come to him asking for his help. Izaya couldn't very well recall her name, but he did remember what she had asked of him.

The brown headed girl sat in front of him. Her small hands were twisting worriedly in her lap. The pink material of her dress bunched up underneath the movements. Izaya quirked an eyebrow as she turned her brown eyes to him.

"I want him to disappear," she whispered. Izaya tilted his head.

"Dead?" He wanted her to elaborate. She nodded.

"He can't get away with this…" She whispered. "He's ruined my life…" Izaya had tuned her out at that statement. He cared little for her woes.

Izaya's hands clenched. He had been enraged to know that he had failed. The men that he coerced into handling Eric had beaten the man up, but they had failed to dispose of him. The man had escaped from them. To make matters even more infuriating, the men he had hired had been beaten to bloody pulps by another group of men. At the time, he had thought it to be rotten luck. After all, he had hired men that were well known in the gang world. It was expected that they had enemies. Now, all of the pieces fell together. Someone had jilted his attempt at Eric's life. His brown eyes narrowed. The bastard had gained help from the "new" informant. That little bit of information only made him more driven to figure out who this informant was.

Anri was awakened by loud bang that was quickly followed by cursing. Before her vision had even adjusted to the dark, Anri was in a sitting position. Her hand was already reaching for the nightstand drawer.

"Sorry, Anri-chan…" she heard a familiar whisper. Slowly, the images of her past fled from her vision. She changed the course of her hand to that of the table top. She grabbed her glasses and slipped them onto her nose. Her vision now righted, she looked toward the voice. Mikado sat on the floor rubbing his toe while Kida was holding his stomach. It didn't take long to figure out what had happened. A small giggle escaped her lips.

"Ha, ha…yeah, it's all very funny…" Kida wheezed sarcastically. His golden eyes locked onto the young woman that sat in her bed. He could tell that she was still extremely tired. He tilted his head. He had heard her leave her bedroom, but hadn't thought of anything further than her getting a drink of water. When she had touched his hand to move it off the bed, he had awoken again. As he stared at her now, however, he wondered just what it was she had truly been up too and how long she had been gone from the bedroom. Could it be that she couldn't sleep due to the thoughts running through her head? Kida completely ignored the possibility that Anri could have been up to something less than innocent. After all, why would he think anything different?

"Kida-kun?" Anri called quietly. Kida snapped away from his thoughts with a small guilty smile. He was well aware that he had been staring at her while he thought. "Are you alright?"

"Yeah…yeah. It didn't hurt that bad," Kida lied. For all his tiny stature, Mikado was surprisingly heavy. Being stepped on was a horrible awakening. "Just go back to sleep, Anri-chan. We can get a few more hours…" He stated as he lay back down. He attempted to ignore the throbbing in his stomach and closed his eyes.

Anri stared at one of her best friends for a long moment before she turned her eyes back to the one that re-entered the room. Mikado smiled sheepishly at her as he returned to the futon.

"I truly didn't mean to step on him…" Mikado mumbled. Anri smothered her giggle.

"I know you didn't, Mikado-kun," Anri stated as she lay back down onto her own bed. Mikado made a small statement, but it was muffled by the cover he had pulled up over his face. Anri smiled slightly as she closed her eyes.

Kida, however, couldn't sleep as easily as his friends. He had seen Anri leave the bedroom. Once the door closed, he had looked at the clock. She had left around 11 p.m. When she came back two hours had passed. To top all of it off, he had heard the whispered conversation.

"Is he alone?"

"Monitor him until I say otherwise, but do not give yourself away."

Kida stared up at the girl who had become one of his closest friends. Her brown eyes were still closed. Her expression was peaceful and sincere. Was it really his place to demand to know where she went last night? After all, he had his own secrets. He knew that he could ask her now. She wasn't really asleep, just trying to get that way. He glanced over at Mikado. He wasn't moving except for the gentle rise and fall of his chest. From what the blonde could recall, Mikado was especially quick to fall asleep. Yes, now would be the perfect time, but he wasn't going to take the opportunity. Even if she told him where she had been, Kida knew that he wouldn't return the favor. A small sigh escaped his lips and he sat up. No, he wouldn't be able to sleep anymore. He twisted his back to glance at the alarm clock on the nightstand: 4:45 a.m. He reached up and pushed down the snooze button. A small snort of disbelief escaped him. Anri had set her alarm clock for 5:30 a.m. School didn't start until 8 a.m.

"Man," he whispered as he looked over at his friend, "you take 'the early bird gets the worm' seriously…" Kida slipped the cover off and stood from the futon. "May as well make breakfast, eh, Anri-chan?" He asked rhetorically as he turned toward her bedroom door.

"You don't have too…" Kida stilled at the statement then he spun around on his heel. Anri had pushed herself up from her laying position. Her head was tilted at an angle endearingly. The tilt of her head made her hair tickle her bare shoulder. At some point during the night, the collar of her shirt must have stretched wider. The cover had bunched up around her legs in a way that it highlighted them. Her entire stance seemed to beg for him. Kida swallowed and quickly looked away from her.

"Masaomi," she moaned quietly as his hand slipped underneath her short, pink skirt. He stilled his lips on the side of her neck and looked up at her through lust-hazed golden eyes. It was strange, he thought, to hear his first name. He shrugged it off and returned to her lips.

Kida shook his head roughly to dispel the memory. It still hurt to think of Saki and his past, but it had solved one of his problems. His lust for Anri had been dampened.

"You're our princess!" He exclaimed in fake happiness, "why shouldn't you be served breakfast, hum?" Anri raised her black eyebrows, but said nothing. He turned on his heel and walked toward her kitchen. She blinked and scowled as she realized that her body was still shaking slightly. Saika had reacted to Kida's lust, but that wasn't why she was shaking. No, she had gained complete control over Saika long ago. She was shaking because she had seen his lust just as easily as Saika had scented the sexual tension emitting from him. Anri sighed and ran a hand through her short hair. She had admitted to herself long ago that she was sexually attracted to Masaomi Kida, but she had also resolved herself to ignore it. That resolve seemed to be wavering.

"What a mess," she sighed as she threw the covers off her body and slipped from bed. She headed for the desk in the corner of the room. Her red laptop sat in the center. She slipped onto the black seat and opened the computer up. As she the starting logo danced across the screen, she grabbed her headphones. She would simply peak into Izaya's office then she would join Kida in the kitchen.

"You never leave a man alone in the kitchen, Anri," her aunt had said, "or that's what mom always told your mother and I. There had been one to many accidents in the kitchen for mother to trust dad in the kitchen ever again."

Her eyes widened in shock at what greeted her. She leaned closer to the screen. There, just in front of his screen, Izaya sat speaking calmly to…to..

"A human head?" She breathed in horror. The head that Izaya had balanced upside down on his shoulder had the brown-red hair and the facial structure her former best friend, Mika, now had. In her shock, she slowly closed her computer back. Her breath seemed to be frozen in her lungs as she attempted to process what she had just seen.

'Izaya…has a human head in his office.' She furrowed her eyebrows. 'It didn't look as though it had been severed from the body…but…that doesn't make any sense.' The snarky side of her personality decided to add her input, 'there is a Dullahan running around the city and you can pull swords out of your body…and you're saying a disembodied head makes no sense?' Her eyes widened.

"Celty!" She exclaimed quietly as she stood from her seat.

{I have a connection, if you will, with my head. It led me to Ikebukuro.}

Anri grabbed her phone from the nightstand and sank down onto her bed. She reached Celty's number, but her thumb hesitated over the green call button. If she called and told her of what she had seen, Celty would no doubt leave instantly to check it out. If the head turned out not be Celty's, the Dullahan would be devastated; Anri didn't want that. A louder part of her, however, screamed that Celty had a right to know of it. She swallowed and cursed under her breathe. She didn't want Celty to get her hopes up, but she knew that the woman had a right to know. Anri was at a conflict. She crossed her legs on her bed and stared down at her phone. Then, a solution came to her. She quickly left Celty's number in favor of Shinra. She would be able to gather information from him without alerting Celty to the existence of the head. Anri frowned. She would have to thread carefully though. Shinra would want to know why she was asking….would she be prepared to tell him the truth? Anri sighed. She would have to be. Celty deserved to be reunited with her head.

{Can I meet with you later on tonight? Just you.} Anri typed. Her conscience quieted as she hit send. A small yelp came from the kitchen just as the message sent. Cursing quickly followed that yelp. Anri shook her head with a small chuckle.

"What's going on?" Mikado's sleep filled mutter came from the futon at the foot of her bed. Anri glanced into her sleepy blue eyes and smiled.

"Kida-kun is trying to cook us breakfast," she told him. Mikado groaned and stood lifelessly from the futon.

"Let's go save your kitchen then…"

They entered the kitchen to find Kida staring down at a skillet sadly. Mikado peeked over his shoulder and raised his eyebrows at the mess that he found.

"What on earth were you trying to make?" Mikado asked. Anri placed her hands on Mikado's shoulders and balanced herself on her toes to attempt to see as well. Mikado blushed brightly and attempted to ignore the feel of her pressing into him.

"An omelet…" Kida sighed. He moved away from his best friends and toward the trash can. He dumped it into the grey can. "Unfortunately, it was cut down in its prime…" Anri laughed lightly. She moved away from Mikado in favor of the sink.

"I'll take it from here, Kida-kun," Anri stated. Her tone was filled with barely suppressed laughter. She glanced over her shoulder at the boys. Her grin widened when she saw the pout on Kida's face. "What do you want?" Anri asked both of the boys.

"Rice balls," Kida stated. "And those little hot dog slices."

"Omelet," Mikado muttered, looking over at his friend. Anri chuckled at the different answers.

"Um…how about we have omelets for breakfast then rice balls and little hot dog slices for lunch?" Anri suggested. Mikado and Kida looked at one another. Kida gave an exaggerated sigh and shrugged.

"I can live with that…"

Shinra sat at his kitchen table, sipping his coffee. His coffee mug was black and industrial sized; it had been a gift from Celty. He smiled at the thought of her. The transporter was in the shower. He was very tempted to join her, but he was fearful of her reaction. His thoughts were interrupted by a beep. He glanced down at his cell phone to see that he had a text from Anri. He furrowed his eyebrows. The young teen very rarely contacted him. Maybe she couldn't get in touch with Celty. It would make sense; after all, the woman was in the shower. He opened it.

{Can I meet with you later on tonight? Just you.} It read. Shinra frowned. Concern lit behind his brown eyes.

{Yes, of course you can.} He paused. {Is something wrong, Anri-chan? Is Saki giving you problems?} Shinra typed. Saika had been known to eat away at its host if it didn't agree with him or her. Shinra desperately prayed that this wasn't one of those cases. Not only would Celty be devastated with the loss of her friend, but Shinra would miss her too.

{Saika is fine.} Anri replied. Shinra furrowed his eyebrows. He readied to type a reply, but another text from Anri cut him off. He opened it. {Please don't worry about it right now, Shinra-san. I promise I'll explain all tonight.}

"And who are you texting, Anri-chan?" Kida sang suddenly from his seat next to her. They sat at her kitchen table. Anri glanced over at him and dropped the lip to her phone. "Are you cheating on me?" He asked teasingly. Mikado, who had a fork halfway lifted to his lips, rolled his eyes at the question.

"Shinra," Anri answered, ignoring the latter question. Mikado's fork instantly returned to his plate. He forced himself to swallow the small square of omelet quickly. Kida only stared at her. His golden eyes were intense and filled with concern. That concern was mirrored in Mikado's gaze. Warmth rushed through Anri.

"Are you alright, Anri?" Mikado asked. Anri had figured out that when he was concerned, he dropped the –chan from her name. She smiled softly at the boys.

"I'm fine," she reassured. "I just want his help planning something for Celty-san." It wasn't a lie, but it wasn't entirely truthful either. Still, she hoped that they would accept it. Both of the boys knew that Celty and she were close friends.

"That's our sweet Princess for you…" Kida sighed as he threw an arm around her shoulder. Anri halfheartedly listened to the banter that flowed around her. Her thoughts were drawn to the meeting that she would be having with Shinra later on today. Before she knew it, the boys were getting ready to leave. They needed to return to their own apartments to get dressed for the day.

"We will be back, my love!" He exclaimed exaggeratedly. "Do try not to miss me too much…" he told her as he pecked her on the cheek. Mikado glared over at his friend before bowing slightly to her in goodbye.

"See you in a few minutes, Anri-chan," Mikado mumbled in goodbye. Anri smiled and waved them away. She snorted slightly when Mikado hit Kida in the back of the head. Kida only shrugged his shoulders. She could just imagine him laughing and asked "what?" even though he knew exactly what he did to aggravate his friend. Anri stepped away from the front door. It fell closed with a small click. She turned on her heel and walked back into her bedroom.

She opened her computer again and searched her picture files for the screen caps from that morning. The virus she had injected in Izaya's computer basically recorded his movements around the office via pictures. Anri had hoped to find something incriminating…but this…She shuddered as she came to rest on one of the pictures. The head's face was eerie in its peaceful expression. She cropped Izaya's head and shoulder out of the picture then she plugged her phone into her computer and copied the file onto her phone. Once that was done, Anri moved the rest of the captured pictures over into a flash drive to erase them from her computer. She tucked the flash drive away behind a large duffel bag in her closet. It fit easily inside the crack that rest between the top shelf in her closet and the wall.

Anri plopped back down onto her heels and began to get ready for the day herself. She slipped into her uniform and picked up her satchel. The boys met her outside of her apartment. They walked toward the school. She vaguely paid attention to the conversation Mikado and Kida were having, but for the most part her mind was glued on the human head, Shinra, and Celty. Anri bit into her lip and clutched her bag tighter to her body.

If it did turn out to be Celty's head, she would have to confess her most carefully guarded secret to Shinra. Her right hand tightened into a fist as she glanced over at her best friends. Mikado was smiling softly as he listened to Kida's rant on women and boobs. Anri couldn't bring herself to grin; her amusement was tainted by melancholy. Would they still be with her if they knew?

(A/N: And the plot thickens! Right now the two couples are tied.)