Title: Things that change for better or for worse
Chapter 33: Visiting the Change
By: Sissy

Disclaimer: DRRR shall never belong to me otherwise there'd be more yaoi.
Warning: Some more random things.

The sun shone brightly the morning of the Sunday after Mikado had his homecoming house party. Just as Shizuo had spoken to him before, his stuff, what little of it there was, was brought over to Shizuo's apartment. What Mikado did not know until he had arrived there, which was after Celty forgave him and followed them to Shizuo's place, was that Shizuo no longer lived in his old apartment.

"Well, the lease ran out." Shizuo started to explain that day. "Kasuka found out and forced me to come here. I get to see Ruka often so I can't complain. And there aren't any other neighbors around to bother me either."

"Except me and Saki!" Masaomi interjected very happily as he had come with Celty. Mikado hadn't realized it yet, though he should have. After all, the two were going out, and were to wed sometime in the year, so it was a given that they would be living together. And he hadn't visited them at all since he came back.

Still, he hadn't expected something like this. It was completely desolate. The hallway, that is. It was probably what really scared him. "It's just like Shizuo to pick a corner apartment." Shinra mused to himself jokingly.

"By the way Mikado, me and Saki live in the floor above, on the apartment to the right just after you get off the elevator. Come visit us later!" He quickly said and just as quickly left the group with Saki in tow while hiding a suspicious parcel in his hands.

"Ah, I wish I could live here as well." Aoba pouted to himself, eyeing the apartment next door longingly.

"Oh, we don't have an apartment anymore, do we?" Shinra asked, slightly in a joking manner. To him, they were still on their honeymoon so they needn't worry about work or a place to live but he had simply spoke it out loud as he had just remembered. Celty simply sighed and somehow gave him a shake of her head.

After a small tour, in which Mikado realized how little Shizuo had, the rest left for the day. Both had spent the afternoon fixing things up before they decided to go out and buy a few things for the party the following evening. An extremely loud and embarrassing party that Mikado had just awoken from.

The first thing he saw was a broad and naked chest. Immediately, he freaked out. Not because he was afraid of an unknown male holding him tight, but because he already knew who it was. The light scars that served as reminders of his fights and inhuman strength simply told Mikado that he was correct in his assumption. Shizuo grumbled and Mikado made out something that sounded like a curse at the sunlight. Without waking him up, Mikado sat up to look at the destruction and mayhem in his new living room. He was somehow surprised Erika hadn't thrown the two on a bed away from the party simply because she could record them somehow.

Right next to Shizuo, but more like holding his head tight, was the sleeping Ruka. The boy had snuck in with his parents and proceeded to explore the apartment before laughing at all the drunk people. By Mikado's other side was a sleeping Anri and Ruri. He remembered the two had been put on the stand and forced to sing using Masaomi's karaoke machine.

Speaking of his best friend, Masaomi was over in a corner of the room with Saki in his arms. He had a complacent look on him. "Sempai…" He suddenly heard Aoba over on the table near Masaomi's position. Kururi was holding onto his back while Mairu held onto her older twin's back. There was a line of bodies around the two. Mikado could see Kyohei, Saburou, Walker and Chikage from his position, taking a mental note of the cards all over the four.

On the sofa in front of them sat Erika, Celty and Shinra. The Dullahan had Erika holding her arm while Shinra had his head on her lap. The head lay asleep on the table with Aoba. At their feet was a blond woman Mikado now remembered seeing the evening before. He paled for a moment and looked around. Sure enough, though he wasn't sure how he missed them in the first scan, Mikado noticed two sleeping bodies next to Masaomi and Saki.

"So it goes like this. Pops got worried that my adorable hunny bunny would get targeted a second time and hired a bodyguard. She didn't do a very good job hiding her presence. But you didn't seem to notice her so I left her alone. Then she messed up when she heard me talking to you about that Izaya prick and we asked if you two knew each other. It's a really small world, Mikado!"

Their presence alone made the whole party grow out of proportions. The two had a high alcohol tolerance and made good use of it. Somehow, he remembered Mairu chatting away with them and translating a few things for the two. Well, Mikado knew the two knew some Japanese since he taught them but he didn't think they'd use what little they knew to grab the blond bodyguard as a tour guide.

"Do you need help getting up, Mikado-kun?" Mikado was startled when he heard Kasuka's voice. He was rather surprised that the actor was already up and looked completely fine. There wasn't a hair out of place and his eyes didn't have any dark circles around them.

"Oh…uh, please." Mikado extended his hand and was brought to his feet without awakening anyone. The two retreated to the kitchen filled with bottle caps and empty cans. Half of his counter was already clean and Mikado noticed that it was the work of Kasuka. "I'll help as well, Kasuka-san."

With a confirming nod, the headed to work and very soon the kitchen looked livable again. After checking to see if they had enough food, the two males began making breakfast. They had only started when Ruri and Anri had appeared before them. Both females helped out however they could as they also prepared the water and pills for the soon-to-awaken-hungover people in the living room. Some probably wouldn't need it, such as Erika who never drank a drop, but they thought it might be necessary.

The doorbell rang and the four heard a quick, "Elephants!" from Aoba before the other fell asleep again. Masaomi snorted, as if he had heard the comment but was still fast asleep.

"I'll get it." Anri offered and walked over to the apartment door. It was strange that it was ringing as the apartment complex was secured and anyone visiting needed to be let in by Kasuka, Masaomi or Shizuo. However, both Anri and Mikado had an estimated guess as to who it could be. It proved correct as the chipper voice of Harima Mika greeted her old friend.

"Hi Anri-chan! So, where are they?" Her hairdo remained the same as always but it was visible that age was proportioning her mask very well. Shinra once called it an aging masterpiece as it didn't look a tad bit malformed. Mikado remembered Celty once commenting as well that if she could have aged, it might've looked like that.

"Shinra! Battle formation!" Celty had suddenly woken up and immediately, without checking his bearings first, Shinra had gotten up. He fell to the floor in a rolling fashion as he tripped with the sleeping Vorona in front of him but had grabbed the head quickly while yelling out, "Protecting Celty is my life!"

The males underneath Shinra had made a gasping sound before all five groaned from the headache. Whether they had a hangover or not, the party had been pretty loud so they were all tired. Aoba and the twins were startled awake by the crash and looked to the five men in confusion. Saki yawned alongside Masaomi and the two looked down at the mess.

"It's not like we're here to steal it. Why do you always react this way?" Yagiri Seiji came in, acting all calm, despite the mess of people he saw inside the apartment.

[It's the only fun we have, you know.] The PDA none of them had seen in a while appeared out of Celty's hand. For a single moment, they felt as though they could literally tell that she was happy. Mikado wondered if that was how Shinra felt on a daily basis.

"Oh, hey! You're cooking? I can help out!" Mika quickly headed into the kitchen to help while Seiji took a counter chair and waited for things to calm down. Slowly, the rest began to wake up, taking the offered water and pills. A series of conversations began until one hand crashed down on the floor.

"Shut up!" Shizuo grumbled as he woke up. Ruka lazily remained on Shizuo's shoulders without falling. "Why are you all here? Ruka, get them out." He had absolutely no problem ordering his nephew around but he hadn't taken anything into account and very soon a pile of people had thrown themselves at him and the child.

"Don't do that, Shizu-chan! It's much too early to be made into puppets." Erika joked around and saw Shizuo lift the pile with ease. With a small push, Mikado saw Kasuka nod at him. Sighing, he nodded in return and walked over to Shizuo. Softly, he placed a kiss on the man's shoulder and saw him freeze. Erika had quickly squealed and Ruka giggled like a maniac, especially when the dog pile Shizuo held fell with a loud thud.

"Awesome! I can't believe I coulda missed this whole thing! Look at that, hunny bunny! Now ya can make your new book!" The clapping brought the attention of the rest, most of which didn't know what was being said. With a quick jump, the owner of the commenting voice walked over to Mikado and placed his arm around Mikado's shoulders. "Looks like I was right in coming to see how it ended up. At least you'll have better stability with this dude. You know, I never felt right about doing the things I did but I kept my promise to you, Mikado."

"Miss Vorona, miss Vorona." The other one who had clapped walked over to the still sleeping Vorona and shook her awake. Once the bodyguard had risen up, the woman spoke to the female bodyguard. "Looks like they're making breakfast. We'll go out for a tour after that, okay?"

"Right! Breakfast! Who wants flapjacks?" Moving away from Mikado, the sponsor Mikado spoke so highly of invaded the kitchen to help make the breakfast for the day. Mikado chased after him, saying something about him destroying his kitchen and asking Kasuka for help in stopping the man.

To Be Continued…