"Happy Birthday!" Shinra and Celty (Celty communicated with her PDA, like always, and Izaya couldn't help but chuckle at the thought of why she couldn't speak – that's right, she had no head, and unbeknownst to them all, yours truly had it), together with Simon and Kadota said at the same time as he stepped into Russia Sushi. He expected some sort of surprise, hence his unresponsiveness, but he decided against destroying the happy atmosphere his friends, well, pawns, set up for him.

After all, not all people welcomed him like they do. Not everyone would be happy on his birthday, because he – what was the term – TROLLED people around him and that made him into one of the most dislikable people to be around with other than the pathetic remaining members of the Yellow Scarves. "Wow, what a surprise! I'm so happy you guys remembered!" he said, feigning surprise. If they weren't close to him, they'd have been fooled, but over the years, especially after her disappearance, he had slowly and gradually become more transparent, though they were still wary of him because of his high rate of unpredictability.

Nevertheless, they saw right through his act and rolled their eyes. Simon was the first one to speak up. "Izaya, try not to think of anything else but your birthday and having fun for now." His accent had improved through the years, Izaya noted. His smirk was replaced with a sad smile when he analyzed all their faces. They showed concern for him, and he was sure that if Celty had a face, hers would have the same, sad and forlorn expression as the others. He didn't deserve that look, heck, all of them knew that, yet still they worried for him.

If he wasn't who he was, he would have cried, but being Izaya, he was touched, only for a bit, and had no other reaction to their worry other than a slightly wry laugh. "What's with you guys? I thought we were going to party, why do you all have faces like that?" he tried uplifting the mood. Fortunately, everyone got the message that he does not need to be fawned over upon. Shinra let out a shrill fit of laughter. "Well, then now that all that drama's done – let's party!"

The sound of party poppers and merry-making filled the sushi shop, and Izaya found himself having a pretty decent time. Maybe this year, his birthday won't be as lonely as the last.

"I cannot believe how fast our company's jet planes are. We were just in Los Angeles a good five hours ago, and now we're in Japan." Shizuru exclaimed, clearly amazed with the flying vehicle she was in. Yuuhei merely smiled a bit and dismissed his sister's excitement.

"Hey, Yuuhei?"

"Yes, Shizu-nee?"

"Have we been to Japan before?" she inquired, pure curiosity in her tone. Yuuhei put his glass of martini on the gorgeously crafted table, provided by their personal jet given to them by their agency. His eyes avoided hers and focused his glance towards the clouds. "Maybe, but we've travelled a lot of countries, and my memories are really foggy. I don't recall."

She snorted at his remark "Geez Yuuhei, I was expecting a more proper answer, and how come you don't remember? I mean, it is our home country, is it not? If it wasn't then, how'd you explain our noticeably Japanese names?"

Her brother, seemingly surprised at her deduction, faced her; his face was serious, yet gentle. "It's because we were orphaned at a very young age nee-san, we have lived in America for as long as I can remember, after Tom-san adopted us." He then smiled; his aura a bit melancholic. Shizuru gulped and nodded before she faced the window. She felt a bit guilty for opening such a sensitive topic for both of them.

She felt guilty for forgetting her childhood with Yuuhei. It must have been a painful childhood – from what she's heard, they were orphaned at a very young age, with her only being seven, and Yuuhei five years old. If it were her, she would not want to remember such painful things. She was lucky, she thought, for she had naturally forgotten such an unwanted past, but for Yuuhei who so desperately wanted to escape what they had been through, she was being unfair and unreasonable for trying to squeeze out information from him.

She was quieted with her guilt and they landed with heedless tension between them. The hand that held her own– warm, soft and a bit bigger than hers, a hand which belonged to none other than her brother whispered a soft apology. She couldn't help but smile softly at his quiet apology. She lightly squeezed back at his hand, a silent form of acceptance, and also of repentance.

It was something between them, only between the Hanejima siblings. They could tell how each other felt, and what the other was thinking from a mere look or touch. They needed not to talk when the slightest of contact between them was more vibrant and descriptive than any word could convey. Once their jet had landed, their hands remained connected as they exited their private flying vehicle and readily came in contact with flashing lights, loud cheering and a warm welcome from the people of Japan who had been expecting their arrival.

They smiled at their fans and for the cameras as they made their way through the crowd with the help of their body guards, they never let go of each other's hands until they reached the fancy car that was assigned to take them to their accommodations. Without speaking, Shizuru rested her head on her brother's shoulders when they were seated inside of the expensive car, beside each other.

Yuuhei merely smiled, but contrary to his other, tired smiles, this one was a mysterious one – something he wouldn't dare show his sister if she was awake. He murmured a soft apology and said "Nee-san. I miss you." before he rested his head on top of his sister's. The two of them drifted to sleep, as they comforted the emptiness the other felt.

It had been late in the afternoon when Izaya and company deemed their little party worthy of closing. Kadota and his gang were drunk, Shinra, who was drunk, had been taken home by the rather unimpressed Celty. Simon was, well, he was Simon so he didn't get drunk, only tipsy. As for him, he could handle his liquor pretty well, and he was not one bit dizzy. Hence he still had the ability to walk around town aimlessly without anyone's supervision.

Once he felt tired, he flopped himself on top of the park bench he always sat on during his birthday. Never once had he failed to sit there and think, and reminisce. It was some sort of a place of comfort for him. Call him crazy, but the park bench he was splayed on right now had sentimental value to him. Yes, the almighty Orihara Izaya considered a mere park bench as an important existence to him. That was because besides from his favorite chair at his apartment, this bench had a calming effect on him. It was the only place he could think and allow himself to admit he still had the tiniest bit of humanity in him. It was the only place he would let himself cry.

His tear glands sensed the presence of their trusty place of mourning, not long after, they started to release tears that the informant had been hiding, had been controlling for some time now ever since he woke up. He was grateful he had Shinra and the others distract him from his unnoticeable sadness, or else he would have broken into a mess, and that would have been trouble. No one was allowed to see the infamous Orihara Izaya cry. He was not allowed to show weakness that he shouldn't even have in the first place.

He wasn't allowed to regret. From a very young age he had been trained to hide his feelings. He had been, after all, the perfect son, and any form of weakness was not allowed by his father for it would have been a disgrace, but he failed at that. Didn't he? He failed epically so, if he must say so himself. He became the way he was now for someone he cared for, and he permitted his emotions to destroy his own life for Shinra's sake, not that he was blaming Shinra for what he has become. Not at all, he doesn't regret standing up for something he believed was right – it was the only thing constant he had - his undying care for his best friend.

His best friend was why he became an informant, why his father disowned him, why he lost everything – why she disappeared, why Shizuka left. He, once again, did not blame Shinra. He blamed himself. He blamed his unhealthy obsession with consistency, love for humans and pride and strength for all the blasted things that caused him to fuck up big time.

Everything he had, everything he is, what he was and his love for the whole of humanity drove her away.

He just couldn't understand it anymore. He just couldn't. He tried to compose his thoughts, which is, by the way, a pretty hard feat to do when your brain is like one giant master computer and has a lot of information stored about pretty much everything and his emotions were in turmoil – most likely because he had sealed them for so long. He only let his emotions out during the day of his damned birth because it was the day the first sign of humanity after becoming what he was escaped him.

That first sign of humanity caused him to take out all his stress and anger out on the one person that had remained constant to him after all those years - the one who exceeded his expectations for his amusement so she could be the apple of his eyes.

He realized all of these a tad bit too late. He realized only when she smiled brokenly at him that night and ran off to God knows where. Ironic right? He was supposed to be 'God' yet he had no idea where the person of his interest was, he had no idea that if he didn't chase after her, then everything between them would have been severed. He wasn't surprised though, she had always been someone out of his control.

He cursed that fact. He cursed the bloody fact she wasn't just some pawn, why couldn't she have been like any other person? If she was, then it wouldn't have had to come to this. He wouldn't have been crying uncontrollably on a lonely park bench as the dying light of the day changed into darkness with only the miserable moon and equally dejected stars to illuminate his slightly shaking figure and to discern the tears that fell from his reddish eyes.

He failed to notice the figure right in front of him, staring at him with sympathetic honey-colored eyes.

She was sure Yuuhei would get mad at her. But she just couldn't bring herself to care about the consequences from her manager and brother. They had been to fan signings and fan meetings the whole day, and if you asked her, she was bored out of her wits - not that she didn't love her fans, and her job, they were the reason she had a great life today, but being cooped up by responsibility stressed and pressured her. All she wanted was to take a short break so she excused herself from the fan signing event and left in search of the washroom, of course, this was an excuse so she could rest from all of the spot light.

She left without waiting for directions, and then she ran. She didn't care where – she just ran away from the building just like that. After all, how can Ikebukuro be all that different from L.A. right?

Her wrong assumption and childish carelessness led her to her current predicament. She was lost. One minute she was being chased by people who called themselves the Yellow Scarves, and now she was at some sort of park. It was a lonely sight and almost no one was there. Afraid she'd get caught by the people chasing after her, she started to walk towards a slightly more crowded area, but before she left the park's vicinity, she heard soft sobbing.

The sound of the cries tugged at her heart strings. Sure, she had always been a kind person and she did not discriminate from friend or foe or whether she knew them or not, but for some reason, she could not explain, the mourning she heard broke her heart. She was an actress and she was emotional, but she felt as if the pain inside her chest was her pain – pain she felt because of the mystery man's sobs and not because of some superficial role she had to act out to be displayed for every one's entertainment.

She walked towards the source of the crying and found herself mesmerized by the deepest hue of raven-black hair, a pale face wet from tears illuminated by moonlight, and somewhat crimson eyes that shone with unshed tears. Her heart started to beat a bit faster at the sight.

It was then she felt a strong urge to go over the male and give him a comforting hug. She walked up to him quietly, careful not to disturb his mourning. She hesitated whether to enclose him inside her outstretched arms or to leave him be. Being the impulsive person she was, she ignored the wiser choice out of the two and proceeded to hug the stranger.

At that moment, it felt right, like she was supposed to be doing this. It was strange how he fit perfectly in her arms, and it was peculiar why the male didn't push her away. But just for that moment, they let all logic desert them and remove them from common sense and reality as the stars shone brighter and the moon radiated a soft, non-melancholic light.

A/N

So I posted this chapter on my birthday, unedited. I just edited it a bit, so forgive my poor spelling errors, I am sure you can still see a lot of fatal flaws in my writing, and I would so love it if you would comment on my story. Thank you for reading my story!