The next week was very interesting for Anni. Sharing a room with her brother was nothing new, but it was certainly a change of pace from the last month that she'd spend on the couch with Shizuo as a roommate. Alex was much more talkative, and around much more. He also had a habit of teasing her and prodding her into exchanging sarcastic banter. She didn't have nearly as much time to just think by herself, so she started taking midnight walks. It was nice, to be out in the open air, letting the city's midnight aria sooth her. It was inevitable that she would run into trouble strolling through alleyways in the middle of the night. Knife wielding possessed, yellow scarves, and the normal crazies alike found her, so she got a bit of field practice in with her blade. She got pretty good at getting her knife to her assailant's throat before they saw her move. Then they saw her as a threat. I don't need any bodyguard! At least that's what she told herself.

She hadn't seen her former roommate except in passing on her way home from work, as she'd been working a later shift and couldn't make it to dinner. She missed being able to just hang around him. At times, she was tempted to just sneak into his apartment and bug him for an hour or two, but she couldn't. The plot would be picking up again in the next few weeks or so, and she needed to make sure she wasn't involved in any part of it she could avoid. That included Shizuo.

It was with this in mind that she had started her walk tonight. Anni almost wanted to find more trouble, to blow off her frustration at being forced to avoid her friend. She had been wandering a little while, getting to know the area closer to her apartment a bit better, when she heard footsteps behind her, like she was being followed. Her own footsteps were naturally silent, so her pursuer didn't notice the difference when she stopped and waited just around the corner of her last turn. They wouldn't know anything was wrong until it was too late. Knife in hand, she waited patiently as their footsteps drew closer, until they were close enough to-

He effortlessly caught her arm. He's fast. Before she could react, Anni hit the wall on her victim's left. Hard. She lost her grip on her knife and fell back the surprisingly long distance to the ground. It hurt. Everything hurt. She curled onto her left side, and coughed up a bit of blood. It hurt to breathe. It hurt to think. Someone was yelling something or other, so Anni reached out in desperation to retrieve her knife, which had fallen to her left.

-!DRRR!-

It was quiet tonight. Not many were on the streets, with the slasher seeming to strike every night. Shizuo wasn't worried. It wasn't like any lone man with a knife posed a threat to him, well, anyone other than the flea. He spotted someone else walking. He couldn't make them out clearly in the darkness, but they didn't seem to fear the threat of the slasher either. It was getting late, and Shizuo was getting tired, so he turned to follow the same path, towards home. As he neared the next turn, he caught the glint of light off metal, then the arm that held the blade. It didn't register how thin the arm was in his grip, so the arm and the rest of the knife-wielder connected to it was thrown to his left. They flew up a little ways before slamming face-first into the brick of the building. All he wanted was to walk home in peace. Who the hell did they think they were, pulling a weapon on him? Were they the slasher?

"Who the hell do you think you are, pulling a knife on someone like that? Do you wanna die?" He noticed the way her hair splayed out from where she'd fallen. "Since you're a girl, I'll let you off with only this much, but you shouldn't be…" That hair was actually very familiar. "Wait, is that you?"

-!DRRR!-

"Anni…?" She wrapped her fingers around the handle and leaned her head back to look up at the man who stood over her now. He was leaning down a bit to get a better look at her, so she had a clear view of his sunglasses and bleach-blond hair.

"Shizuo?" How the hell had she not considered the possibility that she would run into him? Instead of answering, he knelt down and scooped her up. "No, wait, I'm fine-" she hissed.

"Shut up, no you're not. I'm taking you to Shinra." Anni couldn't protest, so she clung to his neck as he started walking, every footfall bringing a new jolt of pain. "What were you doing?" he demanded after a moment.

"I thought you were following me" Anni offered through gritted teeth.

"So you decided to attack me?" he asked calmly.

"'Best defence is a good offence'" the girl quoted quietly. The rest of the walk passed mostly in silence.

-!DRRR!-

Shinra greeted them excitedly, up until he saw who they were. They were still let in, but not with nearly as much enthusiasm. Anni got a place on the couch, where she was prodded and bandaged. The pain was nearly overwhelming, but Anni did her best not to show it. Shizuo was only sitting a few feet away in one of the chairs, after all. She knew he was going to feel guilty about this no matter what she did, but she didn't want to make it any worse than it absolutely had to be. It wasn't until Shinra prodded at her right collarbone that the pain got the best of her and she let out a sharp hiss of agony. It didn't escape her notice that Shizuo went out onto the balcony for a smoke after that.

All in all, she had a broken rib, a few bruised ones, a sprained ankle, a possible concussion, some other cuts and bruises, and her clavicle was fractured. Bandages were applied, her right arm was put in a sling, and she was instructed not to go to sleep tonight just in case. Anni paid for her care, Alex was going to have to help her make next month's rent now, and Shizuo helped her walk home. Pride would not let Anni agree to being carried again. It was a painfully silent walk.

Anni was too lazy to reach across into her right pocket and dig for her key, so when they reached her door, she knocked. "It's 2AM" came the tired response after a minute.

"Open up, Jamesy-face" Anni ordered. 'Jamesy-face' was her pet name for her brother, based off his middle name; James. The knob clicked and the door opened to reveal a confused and sleepy-eyed Alex. The confusion turned swiftly into accusation as he took in both Anni's condition and company. His sisters free hand slapped over his mouth as he made to open it. "Not. A. Word." the cripple instructed in a sharp hiss, limping past him.

"Thank you for bringing my little sister home" Alex said stiffly, his eyes never losing their glint of accusation, or leaving Shizuo.

"Ya, sure." Shizuo trudged off. Alex let his head make a nice *thunk* against the door once it was closed and locked. He had been looking forward to getting back to sleep. That wasn't going to happen tonight.

-!DRRR!-

Anni hated the next week with a burning passion. Alex put her under house arrest for her stupidity. He'd deemed the whole encounter her fault once she'd explained what happened, and thankfully cleared Shizuo of any blame. So in retribution, Anni spent most of her time at home, alone. Alex, on the other hand, spent most of his day at the part time job he'd picked up to help her pay the bills. Thankfully, Anni's dominant arm was left mostly unharmed, so she got to spend her downtime drawing. Maya was kind enough to come visit her a few times, but was upset that Anni wouldn't tell her how she'd been injured. It was easy to figure out what she'd assumed when she glared at Alex's return home. Neither of the siblings cared enough about what she thought to try and correct her, so her assumptions went unchallenged.

Anni lived on Maya's visits through the second week. It was Maya who kept her in the loop on what was going on around town, and at work. Her coworker would always leave as soon as Alex got home, but the pair still failed to tell her what really happened. It was around the middle of the second week that Anni started sneaking out to enjoy the city while her brother was working. Health no longer seemed like a major concern to her with almost all the smaller injuries healed. The only real concerns were a still healing rib and her arm in a sling to protect her collarbone, but those wouldn't keep her from walking. And so long as she was home before dark, she didn't have to worry about the increasingly frequent slashings.

The defiant blonde was walking down the street on one of her stolen days, enjoying the sunshine when Celty rode past. The fairy seemed to look right at her as she rolled by. Anni quickly wrote it off as not being able to see where the rider was really looking, and kept on. It came as a great surprise to her then when Celty caught her good arm from behind. "Oh, hello, what…" Anni started, pausing as Celty started typing.

"Is your name Anni?" her PDA read.

"Who sent you?" Anni couldn't help but put her guard up, with how often Celty worked with the informant.

This gave the fairy pause. "He asked me not to use his name" she typed out after a moment.

Anni shook her head. "I'm sorry, I can't trust you if I don't..." Celty started typing again.

"I just want to know if you're alright." Anni laughed quietly.

"I see. You can tell him I'm doing fine. I've just been taking my time to heal at home. I'm sorry, I didn't catch your name" Anni kindly explained, smiling.

"I'm Celty, nice to meet you" They both seemed to notice at once the looks the crowd gave them, so Celty added "Would you trust me enough to take this somewhere else?"

"Oh, of course. Any friend of Shizuo's is a friend of mine." Celty shook her helmet as she lead Anni into a nearby alleyway where her horse was waiting.

"I never told you it was him, ok?" she clarified.

"I understand. Thank you for finding me." Anni couldn't help but smile.

"He really seemed worried about you" she typed out slowly.

"Ah, really? He could have come to visit me any time…" Anni said sadly. They were both quiet for a moment.

"How did you end up as his roommate?" Celty typed out, adding "Shizuo never explained that part."

"Oh, haha, it's an interesting story."

"I'm curious" Celty prodded.

"Well, I uh, I caught some unwanted attention. So someone was kind enough to arrange for me to go on a surprise vacation" Anni paused to make sure her point got across before continuing, "and while I was away they paid for my apartment to be redecorated."

"I'm sorry. That sounds terrible."

"Don't be. It's not your fault. Anyway, my vacation was cut short when the van I was in hit Shizuo. From what I heard he found me and took me to Shinra-san to make sure I was alright. When we found out my place had been trashed he let me stay with him for a while." She added a shrug at the end as if the whole thing didn't matter. Anni wouldn't be quick to admit the whole thing had given her nightmares.

"Do you know who it was that arranged all that?" Celty typed out. She seemed concerned.

"Ya, but he's not important right now. I've already worked something out with him." Anni's tone darkened.

"It was Izaya, wasn't it?" Anni didn't answer, choosing instead to glare at the wall behind Celty.

"It's getting to be lunch time. I should get some food and get back before my brother finds out I'm not resting at home."

"Take care then" Celty offered, getting on her bike. "And be careful of the motorcycle cops." With that she was gone.

"So it's started" Anni mused. Hunger drove her to follow her nose out on the street and into a nearby store. She didn't really care what kind of food it served, nor did she look around once inside.

"Annibel Elizabeth Hael" came a scolding tone from behind her. Alex didn't need to raise his voice at all, there was no way she would miss the sound of her full name. I forgot. He works on this street. It's lunch time. I'm screwed. Anni wasn't allowed out of the apartment for four days after that, and even then it was only so she could return to work.

-A/N-

Edited by my dear friend Alondor Fridwein