I sat straight up.

Pain smashed into my body and I screeched as I curled forward and into my knees. It was taking over my sense and shrouding every corner of my mind, my body was shaking and my insides felt dark and heavy. I fell over to my side from the agony, my breathing hysterical and my eyes squeezed shut. Make it stop, make it stop! What happened? A hand was at my shoulder instantly, a light, gentle pressure, and immediately I jerked away from the touch. The darkness behind my lids suddenly concerned me so I opened my eyes nice and wide. The light in the room blinded me and I struggled past the pain to sit back up. The hand on my shoulder became hard, trying to hold me still while I swatted it away.

"Izaya Orihara."

I flinched at my name and the voice, falling over again as I attempted to scuttle away. The hand left me with a scoff. My blurry vision was clearing as I struggled to catch my breath. Sprawled about, I managed to make out the outline of a petite woman. Who is she? Do I know her? A two toned green turtle neck caught my attention as she stood up straight; a pencil skirt tightly defining her lack of hips. Long black hair fell over her left shoulder, and she stretched out a hand to me. Her voice came out firm. "Izaya calm down. We're at Shinra's."

I glanced up with recognition on my face. She studied me for half a second and then smiled half warmingly. What is Namie Yagiri doing here? I smiled lamely after a sharp inhale and then chuckled. I relaxed on my side, exhaling sharply, taking the moment to just breathe like a regular human being. I can breathe, oh God, I'm alive. Chuckling at my unnecessary outburst, I replaced myself in the bed. Well that was too human of me. The pain was still throbbing, but that was okay. I had recollected myself. I could live with it.

That was strange. I feel like I have just awoken from a nightmare.

My hand fell over my abdomen as pain suddenly erupted through my belly. It was more intense than the throbbing in my flesh, sharp like a twisting knife. I grunted as I leaned forward with fingers splayed across my abdomen. A sweat broke out over my forehead as the pain passed and I breathed deeply. I don't remember anything that happened. A dull, aching, ripple of the aftermath was still present to remind me that something was wrong there. I exhaled deeply and then leaned back again. I fell into a fluffy pillow with my eyes closed. I have forgotten something.

"Stop moving, you were shot. You might rip the wounds back open." Namie scolded me like a small child. I didn't have to look to see the scowl on her face. Her arms were most likely crossed while she stood with her sassy hips swayed. She always liked to pretend she wasn't a skinny twig with no definition to her bones. The thought alone put me at ease. At least she will never change. Thank God there is some predictability back in my life. "I'm going to go get Shinra, don't move."

She moved quietly across the carpeted room like a ghost.

Eerie.

I sighed and reopened my eyes to assess the damage. Judging by the fact that I couldn't remember what happened, I was guessing that Shizu-chan finally got me. I also had this nagging feel that I had been near death, too. The brute probably actually managed to hit me with one of those vending machines. There was a sharp pain in both my neck and my chest. I glanced down, but a baggy black sweater was covering everything. Around my waist sat a thin fleece baby blue blanket that covered my lower half. I was probably in shorts or my boxers, one or the other. I was warm, but not too warm. This was probably Celty's idea. She is so motherly, and Shinra is bad for patient luxuries. Moving seemed like too much work, so I simply decided to cast my gaze about me. With the sleeve pulled up to rest above my elbow, IV's were stringing out of my right arm like a cyborg and they were all hooked up to a monitor. My heart rate was going rather quickly still, the soft beep of the machine not comforting me in any way. If anything, it stirred the remnants of panic in my chest. Did I have a nightmare? Something felt off, dangerously off. But it wasn't important at the moment.

I needed answers?

Wait. Did Namie say I was shot? Strength suddenly returned to me, and I used my left hand – which was bandaged at the wrist, I noticed – to pull open the front of the sweater. Sure enough, bandages were tightly wrapped around my chest, mostly over my left breast, and I could feel the restraints of the wrappings on my neck. From what I could see around the bandages, there were black and blue bruises littering my porcelain skin. A piercing throb pulsed in two areas underneath the scarlet stained binds. Was I shot twice? Shizuo would have never...

I swallowed thickly just as the door opened. My left hand lazily dropped down back beside me as Shinra walked in with a bright smile on his face. Namie was close on his heel, and she too seemed to be enthusiastic about something.

I cleared my throat. "Did I miss something?" My voice was incredibly hoarse. The motion itself made my throat hurt. I smiled at the raw pain and grunted in amusement. Whoever did this had done quite the number on me. This is obviously not the work of Shizu-chan.

"Good afternoon, Izaya." Shinra seemed elated to come see me, and he plopped down in a dark cushioned chair just beside the cot – one of many. He had several of them for friends or stay-in patients. The room was plain, but more homey than a hospital. There was the cot I was on, and the chair Shinra was in. An end table to my right with a lamp, and a dresser half way across the room. It would have passed as a guest bedroom, had it not been for the medical equipment littered around me. I shifted in the cot, not sure if I should feel warm and welcomed or terrified and worried about this fact. I wasn't dying, was I? The cot shifted beneath my weight. I momentarily questioned it's sturdiness. "I see you're awake and moving about." Shinra Kishitani leaned in with a large grin. "How do you feel?"

Groaning, I smiled back. "I feel like I just got shot and then beat up by Shizu-chan." And like I just had the worst nightmare of my life. "Hm," I grinned in amusement, flashing my teeth and leaning my head towards him. I couldn't really explain why, but his presence made me feel so much better.

Shinra chuckled as he sat back in the chair. He was decked out in his regular lab coat – his love towards it rivalled the love I held for my fur jacket – and a pair of black jeans with a casual cotton blue shirt. I wonder what day it is. It looks to be around noon? He said it was the afternoon, but what time? I rolled my head away from Shinra to glance out the closed window pane. The sun was high in the sky and it was essentially cloudless.

Thunder rumbled from the clashing grey clouds while it rained, letting the droplets drip down towards the Earth below. One by one they fell in a hissing assault, their speed accumulating as the night progressed through it's crying prelude.

I cringed and looked away.

"So, let's chat for a minute or two, shall we?" Shinra prompted in that voice. The tone would have been missed to the unfamiliar ear. While he sat casually and grinned like a dork, there had been just the slightest hint of seriousness that made my skin crawl. It wasn't the, 'You just got shot and we really need to talk about this' seriousness, it was the 'Izaya, you did something incredibly conceited that has impacted us all and now I need to scold you about your actions because you could have died' seriousness. We would probably cover both aspects, but I knew which would come first. My already faltering smile wavered and I glanced to Namie who seemed to get the message quite quickly.

She cleared her throat and turned to leave. "It's about time I should go check on your apartment." She said to me with her typical straight face. Dark, tired eyes met mine briefly before she turned away. I felt a pang in my heart. "Now that you're awake, you probably won't stay in that bed. I'll grab you some clothes for when I return. Until then, stay put."

Shinra sighed. "Izaya. You are staying in this bed for at least a week."

Namie chuckled as she closed the door behind her. She knew me better than that. My faltering grin corrected itself and I glanced over see Shinra's dramatic sigh. He also knew how I was, and we were all aware that keeping me in bed was going to be the hardest part of the recovery process. I probably won't last two days here.

Shinra suddenly reached out. Gentle fingers touched my bandaged wrist and rolled my arm to get a better look at the IV that disappeared underneath the bindings. He gently moved the tube, glancing over his shoulder at the monitor every couple of seconds until he was satisfied with the position. A new beep started up, softer than my heart rate, and he leaned back and away from me. The task was pointless, and I knew he was stalling so he could collect his thoughts.

It was then that I realized both wrists had been broken. Mask still in place, I glanced up to meet searching auburn eyes. His gaze had hardened on me and I felt another pang in my chest. Knowing him, he could probably read my confusion and concern like I was an open book.

He cleared his throat.

"So. I might as well tell you what happened first." He said lightly. I nodded for him to go on. "So, what do you remember?"

I thought carefully. Let's see... "It was Friday. April..." I struggled to remember what had happened. I remembered it being a Friday. I was doing an over night job, which had irritated me because Namie had a full day scheduled for the following morning, and the busiest day for face to face meetings were always Saturday. So it had to be a Friday. And it was... "April eighth."

Shinra nodded in approval. His arms had crossed over his chest as he waited for me to finish. I have a feeling he is trying to gauge what to tell me based on what I know. So if I can't remember everything, will he leave stuff out? "Yeah, it was Friday, April eighth. I was doing an over night job for... a client, so it could have been April ninth by then-"

"That's besides the point." Shinra waved his hand dismissively at me, well accustomed to my cheeky comments and observations. He settled his arms back down and watched me carefully as I pondered over my memories. There was a lot missing. "You were out and about during the night for a client, and then what happened?"

I blinked, glancing away. What did happened? Where did I go? Who did I go to see again? When did I leave? What even happened that day, that morning?

"It's okay." Shinra encouraged. My face had apparently contorted during my thought process for when it relaxed, I could feel creases in my skin. "I'll tell you what I know."

Nodding, I sighed once again. What Shinra knew would have to do. I can't remember anything besides the date and time. Weird.

"You said you were meeting a client? Well, you ran into Shizuo on your way back home and you fled." Shinra's face remained stoic, "and then you ended up almost in Shinjuku, but you were stopped. I don't know who you were stopped by or why, but Shizuo called Celty after he ran into you, and then a shot went off, and Celty found you in an alley surrounded by a group of people. She showed up just in time, too."

Absurd. My eyebrows creased in confusion as to why my sworn enemy would save me after I was shot. Maybe it was because he had been shot before too, and understood the threat a bullet could have on ones' life. Maybe he was sympathizing. Who knew. There were two things I knew though. Shizuo was completely unpredictable. And Shinra wasn't telling me everything. Because it didn't really make sense. The story didn't make sense.

"Is there more?"

Shinra seemed to gauge my question before speaking. "The first shot went into your chest. They were aiming for you heart, but you must have moved or been too far away. They missed and punctured your lung." That wasn't what I had asked. I glanced down at that comment. So that explains the piercing throb in my chest. Sighing, Shinra paused for a little bit too long. "Celty intercepted the second bullet. My poor beloved was in such a panic when she brought you here. A second later and that bullet would have went straight through your head." That tone had returned to his voice and the hardness returned to his eyes. My neck lightly throbbed. I almost died. The distant feeling of fear settled into my lower abdomen and it made me uneasy. The only thing I fear. I almost died. I glanced down at my lap.

"You're lucky." Shinra's voice was stern. "But you won't be lucky forever, Izaya."

I rolled my eyes in an unconcerned fashion.

"Izaya Orihara, look at me."

Something about the sound of my full name made my stomach churn. I glanced meekly back to Shinra just to meet his unwavering gaze. I remained quiet.

"You are my friend, and I want to know that you're okay." Good old Shinra, always concerned, "Don't look so indifferent, this is your life we are talking about. Think about your sisters. Me. Celty. Even Namie has a special sort of like for you. She has been nothing but cold since she got here, and even though she cold as ice, she has refused to leave even after I tried to kick her out! She was giving Celty such a hard time! She complained about the food! Our life styles! The way I was treating you! She even blatantly told Shizuo that if he ever threatened her pay cheque like this again, she would have him kidnapped and experimented on! She is so mean when talking about you but yet she refuses to leave! I mean, where did you even find this woman!?"

"That is all normal." I muttered with a slight grin, using the opportunity to look away. Shinra cleared his throat to end his rant and then smiled gently.

"But she stayed. She's not getting paid to stay here. She might ask you to pay her out of spite if you harass her enough, but money did not cross her mind this past week." He was in full lecture mode again. I dared not to interrupt him. "Even Shizuo has been by a few times. Apparently you guys got in a fight before the incident and he actually feels a little bit guilty. I know how you like to play God and run everything – you are the biggest control freak and I am pretty sure it is a flaw – but you can't be so careless. Don't go looking for trouble Izaya, and I know you are a little bit more cautious than that. What do you even get out of screwing with people's lives?"

I assumed the question to be rhetorical. When he didn't speak for another thirty seconds, I cautiously glanced over to him.

He was definitely waiting for an answer.

I swallowed thickly. What do I get out of it? I looked away. "Pleasure."

It probably wasn't the answer Shinra was looking for, but he was going to have to accept it... or not.

"You feel pleasure for causing chaos and trouble?" Nodding in conformation, Shinra exploded back into his lecture, "I highly doubt what you feel is pleasure. Does it make you happy? Does it make you content and sated? Or does it make you frustrated that whatever you did wasn't perfect enough? That on a large scale, you have less control of everything, does that bother you?"

"There is always room for error." I interjected. I looked away again. I had no idea what he was trying to get at, but he wasn't even close to the truth. I had played Shiki. Members of the Awakusu. I had played the remnants of the Yagiri Pharmaceuticals group as well as foreign smugglers outside of Tokyo. They were all scheduled to meet and duel it out just for my insatiable pleasure. I wanted to see if Celty's head would respond to war. I needed a large scale war, larger than the last one to wake her up. But something obviously had gone wrong somewhere along the line. Someone didn't follow the plan, or thought outside the box. I need to prevent this from happening in the future. I clearly need to draw tighter word games around every member of the war. It doesn't really matter now, I might be able to fix the broken pieces, but I'm worried about Shiki.

He is probably the king who out-thought the chess master.

"See, you're plotting again!" Shinra snapped me out of my daze with a high pitched whine. "You either look entertained or frustrated when you plot. You're always scheming something, and I know you have fun and enjoy yourself most of the time, but are you actually happy?"

"Of course I'm happy." The words were out before I could rationalize them. Am I actually? "Shinra, just cut straight to the point and say what you need to say." There was no way I would last even two days here.

"What I'm trying to say is, you know what? You almost died for good. And even though you say you are happy, you're not. You plot to entertain yourself, because once your plots are done, there's nothing left. You're unrequited love for humanity can't satisfy you. Maybe you should take this opportunity to kill Izaya the Underground Informant, and live a healthier, safer, Informant life." Shinra locked eyes with me. He was completely serious.

I burst out laughing. I laughed, even if it hurt his feelings. Even though it hurt my stomach and my chest. But I couldn't contain it. It rolled from my body in hysterical gasps. "Me? Safe?" I forced it to die into a chuckle – my sides really couldn't take the strain anymore – and I veered into silence.

Shinra didn't look impressed.

Instead of taking it to heart, he sighed dramatically and let his head fall back on to the chair. "Izaya, you're so difficult."

There was suddenly a light knock on the door and it was gently opened. Celty popped her helmeted head into the room and waved.

"Celty, my darling, you're back!" Shinra was out of his chair in a heart beat to greet his wife. They had gotten married only a few months after I left. Neither of them had seen a point in waiting, and I had been invited to the private ceremony, but, well. I had been too indulged in my affairs. I had seen pictures, and they had all been relatively beautiful. Celty's dress had been fashioned out of the old Celtic tradition. Beautiful was the word I still used to describe it. Even now, it brought a smile to my lips.

Celty approached me with her phone out so I could read her message.

[How are you feeling?]

Sighing, I threw Shinra a dirty look. "I would be feeling better if your husband here hadn't just lectured me."

Celty's fingers were drilling out messages rapidly. [Good! You deserve to be lectured!] She moved closer to me, shoving the phone back in my face. Her calm demeanour had shifted violently, and it left my figuratively winded. [Do you know how worried we were!? I was so scared! There was so much blood!] She furiously typed out another, the black smoke from her being streaming out in angry huffs. [I have never seen you get hurt before! I was so worried! Stuff like that doesn't happen! Ever! Ever ever ever!]

I could see the smug smile form on Shinra's lips. I grinned impassively. "Celty, don't worry. Everything will be fine."

[Fine!?] She was shaking with furious emotion. [Izaya you are not indestructible! You are tiny! You are a tiny human being who can die!] Her next message was taken away by Shinra. His hand grasped hers as he confiscated the phone and grinned.

"I think we should let him rest. He's gotten quite the earful today."

Celty took her phone back with angry purpose and calmly typed out a new message.

[Shizuo is going to come by sometime this week to see you.] She turned to Shinra and nodded. He shrugged and then stretched as he made his way out of the room.

"I'll be waiting on the couch my lovely."

She turned back to me, message in hand. [I know about your fight. Shizuo won't talk to me about it but he admitted to breaking your wrists.] I glanced down, another memory slamming into my brain.

I was pinned to the ground. Sharp, wet rocks were digging into my back as I was pushed into the gravel.

[I think he feels responsible that you couldn't fight back when that group confronted you. He chased them off, he showed up just after me. He was mad! He was so mad! It took us all night to calm him down!] She started to type more, but then erased it. Tapping the chin of her helmet, she finally found the right words.

I read the message and then scoffed, glancing back towards the window.

She silently left the room.

I laid back down to rest again. If I wanted to get out of here as fast as possible, then I would need my sleep. I couldn't help but fear irritated by Celty's last text, and unknowingly, the words would haunt me for the next week.

[He has glimpsed past your masks.]