"Mikado, you really didn't have to do this," he smiled nervously as his best friend brought in an entire gift basket with a balloon attached reading 'Get Well Soon.' This was just humiliating. Mikado had come to visit every day this week after hearing that Masaomi was too ill to leave his bed. He just assumed it was a stomach ache, and he would always be oblivious to the fact that his best friend genuinely couldn't stand.

"This isn't from me. Izaya wanted me to give it to you," the black haired boy responded with a smile. "I can't believe he went to all this trouble for you. I thought you said you didn't like him?"

Aggression filled him as he shot an angered glare at the gift basket. All he could see in his mind was that smug smile, all he heard was that patronizing 'get well soon Kida-kun'. It infuriated him. Every part of him wanted to find that conceited, egoistic bastard and kill him. Or at least beat the living shit out of him.

"Take it back to him," Kida's tone was unintentionally harsh. "I want nothing from him."

"Masaomi don't be like that, he's really worried about you!"

"That's bullshit."

"It's not! He was so blatantly concerned for your sake, Masaomi, why are you being so stubborn!?"

"Because you don't know him like I do! He lies for a living, Mikado, and I think I'd understand the guy much better than you ever could. Don't just show up and act like you know so much about him, because you don't, and you never will!" He regretted every word the second Mikado's expression turned bleak. That was all too harsh and he knew it. And then it dawned on him that this was probably exactly the reaction that Izaya wanted from him, and he started to hate himself even more. Izaya was using him in some superficial little game again, and by the looks of things, Mikado was part of things now. Great, he'd managed to get his best friend caught in the clutches of this disgusting city's most dangerous undertaking.

That damn sneaky bastard. Everything that happened in this city always seemed to be down to him. There was no such thing as coincidence here. This is not what I should be thinking about he thought to himself, realizing that the only way to find Izaya and give him what he deserved, would be to leave the house. Slowly, he eased his body up to sitting position, satisfied when he wasn't met with that lingering discomfort he had felt on his first few attempts. For the first time in around a week, he stood.

"Why will you not just tell me what he did to you...What happened and why was it so bad?" Mikado's voice was puzzled and concerned. Luckily, he seemed to have put Kida's outburst behind him. Kida walked to his best friend's side and ruffled his hair gently.

"Too precious for this city," he mumbled, picking up Mikado's bag and slinging it over his shoulder. Lazily, he headed for the door but was stopped by the chuckles behind him. He turned his head.

"What?"

"You're going to school in your underwear, huh?"

The walk to school was just like usual. Mikado contradicted all of Kida's crazy ideas with simple comments, smiled awkwardly when he badly attempted to flirt with the girls they passed and they met with Anri on the way. She was just as quiet as usual, exchanging a quick 'Hello, how are you?' conversation with Kida before falling silent. Kida did most of the talking, nothing new there. Nothing had changed. It was all the way it had been before, and Kida liked that. It was in fact, perfect for him. It was just the way he wanted it to be. That was until;

"Masaomi, how lovely to see you walking again!~" An all too familiar voice chimed. It replayed in his head over and over again as his broken mind registered that he'd have to face Izaya for the first time since he gave himself up to him and Shizuo. Before, when Mikado had delivered that gift basket, he was certain the first thing he would do when he saw that pompous man was punch him. Or kick him where it hurts. Just hurt him in general. But that voice, for whatever reason, now struck fear into him.

"Good morning, Izaya. Seems like whatever stomach bug Masaomi had is gone! He's back to his old self!" his best friend chanted ever so happily, completely oblivious. Forcing a smile to cover the intense horror coursing through him right now, Kida noticed that all too familiar smirk the informant wore. No. Oh God no.

"Stomach bug?...So he didn't tell you, huh?"

No. Stop, oh my God, please stop.

"Hm? Tell me what?"

Don't you dare! Don't do it, please! Just stop, stop right there, enough!

"The reason that Masaomi was unable to attend school, or even move, was-" He couldn't stay to hear the rest. He ran away. That was something he was very good at; running away from the harsh situations Izaya had always put him through. Why could he not say out loud all those plead for the man to stop back there? Why did he not just take him down the second he saw that disgusting grin?

Why did he not just beg for him to stop? He'd lost any dignity he had anyway.

Just the simple thought of begging him to stop brought him back to the night that had started this whole nightmare off. Ignited the flame. Why the hell did he allow that to happen to him? So many unanswered questions, so little time to even consider the answers before running smack into that same tall, masculine build from that rainy night. But this time was different. Instead of taking off on yet another get away dash, he pulled the older blond into a tight embrace, and burst into tears. He was so broken.

"Please...make him stop..." he whimpered between the gushing tears. Feeling strong arms lock around him, Kida thought maybe he'd found a place to feel safe. A sense of security. Shizuo was his shield from the living hell that Izaya was intentionally turning his life into.

"I'll help you Kida," that was the first time Shizuo had ever called him that, "but if you want him to take you seriously, you're going to have to show him that it's not okay for him to mess with you like he does. And you're going to have to do it alone."

Mikado just couldn't make sense of it. What was his best friend running from? Hazel eyes burned on him, asking for permission to continue. He simply nodded, before the informant began to finish his interrupted explanation.

"Shizuo and I fucked him so hard, he found it physically impossible to move.~ It was an amazing night though, who knew Kida was a virgin? He cried and everything." Anri fled upon hearing the words. Mikado just stared, dazed. Disbelief, fear, anxiety, and finally horror coursed through his unexpecting mind. There was no way that what Izaya had claimed could really be true. And if it was, was it not technically rape? Or did Masaomi actually enjoy it? Why would he have cried then? How did he even manage to get himself caught up in something like that, especially with the two most dangerous men in Ikebukuro!? The two very people his childish, seemingly innocent best friend had specifically told him to avoid at all costs upon his arrival to the strange city.

So many questions. But when he looked up, he was alone. Knowing that Anri had left was fine, Mikado wouldn't have wanted her to have heard as much as she did, but he was unaware as to when the information broker had fled. Whatever, he didn't want to know where that disgusting man was. All he wanted to do at that exact moment was find his best friend and tell him that everything was alright. He would comfort him for days if he had to, after all, Masaomi was evidentially going through an extremely low point in his life right now. His feet took way before he had time to think about it, and he was running through the swamped streets of Ikebukuro, elbowing people from his path left and right, on a mad search for Masaomi Kida.

"Masaomi!?" he called out hopelessly, scanning the streets to no avail. It was then, that he was almost certain he had caught sight of that dyed blond hair. The familiar grey hood. The silver ear piercing. Dashing towards him without a second thought, Mikado was taken by surprise at the out stretched arm that caught him and violently yanked him backwards.

"Mikado," a gravelly voice mumbled to him "there's something he has to do."

Nervously glancing up at the arm that was holding him, his suspicions as too who the man was were confirmed. Shizuo Heiwajima.

"...Where is he going?"

"He's going to see a certain little flea to show him who's boss. To show him that Masaomi is not a little kid anymore."

He could only nod in approval at the man's words. Kida was marching straight towards Izaya Orihara's building, and it was only now that Mikado noticed the confidence in his best friends walk. Though he didn't know how Masaomi would do it, he was certain that somehow, Izaya would be shown not to mess with him anymore.