Yay, another chapter. Please enjoy and review at the end! :3 If there are any mistakes, you may tell me if they're extremely bothersome. Thanks to all who have been reviewing. You guys make me happy! Also, lurkeranon, you made me laugh with your most recent review xD "Everything looks good with Izaya." Now I can't read that line any other way :D Which isn't a bad thing. Let's see if anyone can find some funny quotes out of context, because it never notice them :P
Izaya's POV
He's following me…that's not really what's bothering me…it's that he's smoking while he's following me. I don't partake in such a disgusting habit, but the brute certainly loves to damage his lungs with that "cancer stick" as some call it so accurately. Not like I care, I'd love for him to keel over, but I rather not go along with him because of this stupid second-hand smoke.
"Mind smoking in a windowless, oxygen-deprived room?" I say with a smirk. "Since you love to smoke so much."
"I wouldn't have to smoke if you would just stay out of Ikebukuro and stay the fuck away from me." He says bitterly. He growls a bit before taking a drag of his cigarette. I sigh.
We head upstairs to Shinra's apartment once we reach the building and then finally make it to his door. I knock softly, but loudly enough that he or Celty should be able to hear me.
"Ah, welcome back!" Shinra says jubilantly as he opens the door for us. "I see you two haven't killed each other."
"Yet." We both say in unison unexpectedly.
"Heh, looks like you guys are getting along just fine." Shinra says with his usual goofy smile. He's annoying me more than usual.
"If I didn't know better, it would sound as if this amuses you, Shinra. So much so that it sounds as if this was your plan all along." I say smartly. I'm not one to be wrong on my assumptions. Shinra isn't too difficult to figure out either. Celty's trustworthy enough and she seems to be on Shinra's side, but I don't trust anyone regardless if they have been reliable for many years.
"Don't be so quick to assume things." Shinra says confidently. "If this was some sort of devious plan to get you two to become friends, I would have done it years ago."
"Years ago you didn't have the opportunity as you did now." I explain.
[Stop interrogating Shinra, Izaya. He'd never take advantage of such a dire situation.] Celty quickly pushes the PDA forward to me; she seems frustrated. Even if she beats Shinra, she seems to like him a lot. Love is a peculiar thing that feeds on it's host without one knowing sometimes.
"Never say never~" I say in singsong fashion.
"Right, well let me go get the list. I'll be right back." Shinra says before leaving Shizu-chan and I alone in the living room with Celty. I look over to the coffee table and see a box of chocolates lying there, tempting any chocolate lover with its sweet scent. I smirk as I remember something I heard from a TV show I had watched once. I take one of the sweet morsels and present it to Shizu-chan's attention.
"What…?" He asks suspiciously.
"Have one." I say happily. Shizu-chan takes it in his hand and is about to put it in his mouth when Shinra snatches it away, accidently smashing it in the palm of his hand. He looks angry at first but then notices the smashed chocolate candy in his hand. He sighs as he reaches for a napkin from the kitchen. He cleans his hand before glaring at me.
"Izaya, you know full well that dogs can't have chocolate!" Shinra says angrily. I roll my eyes and then smile as I pat his shoulder.
"What!? You could have poisoned me, you little rat!"
"You would have poisoned yourself. You're such a protozoan; if you had known before, you would have been smart of enough to decline my offer." I say with a laugh. "You're so gullible."
"Fuck you." Shizu-chan says angrily.
"Well, I was actually going to inform you both of small facts you should know about your animalistic parts, so what Izaya had presented us was a fine example of a little fact about dogs. Dogs can't have chocolate, and interestingly neither can cats." Shinra says simply. "Let's run down the list then, shall we?" I make myself comfortable on the one-seat couch, sitting vertically again like last time. I start purring in content at how comfortable I'm feeling at the moment, despite being in the same room as the brute.
A few hours are eaten away by Shinra babbling on tidbits about dogs and cats such as cats can see in the dark better than humans can, dogs can taste sweet things and enjoy them more than cats, cats only meow at humans not other cats, and male dogs urinate the way they do (by lifting their leg up) because they want to aim higher at whatever it is they're urinating on so they can appear taller to other dogs. Such facts were certainly interesting, but bored me nevertheless.
"Shinra…did you tell us to come here just to spout out pointless facts?" I ask him as I stretch a little, hanging my head over the armrest with a bored expression on my face.
"They aren't pointless. I think they're very interesting, not only that but some of these things you're gonna need to know so you can be careful of your animalistic instincts. Jot down anything that may be note-worthy so I can put it in my research book." Shinra says a bit too happily. "Also, try to avoid confrontation with other cats and dogs…I don't know what might happen." I suddenly notice a certain scent wafting in the air. "Um…that being said…um…Izaya if you would kindly leave now?"
"Is there another cat in here?" I ask with a hiss. Shinra laughs nervously as he heads over to shut the door of Celty's bedroom.
"Shinra." I say demandingly.
"It was Celty's idea!" Shinra says as he points fingers at the dullahan. "She wanted a cat since, for some strange reason, our fish disappeared." Everyone suddenly looks at me disapprovingly.
"What?" I ask calmly. "I didn't have anything to do with it. I have an alibi; I was with my sister's all day today."
"Yeah, but last night, I heard someone in the living room." Shizu-chan mentions casually.
"Well…you have no proof it was me."
"It was you." Shinra says immediately. "Once someone says that, it definitely sounds like a confession." I hiss with discontent.
"What are you, a psychologist?" I say bitterly.
"I might as well be." Shinra shrugs with a smile. "Anyway, Celty was kind of amused with the way you had treated her the first day when I broke the news to you that you were a cat. And so, since you ate our fish apparently, Celty suggested we get a cat to amuse us." Shinra explains plainly. "His name is Blackstorm."
"Why the heck did you name him that?" Shizu-chan asks curiously.
"I didn't, Celty did. She said she named him that because he's black and he acts very violently towards me, so that's where the 'storm' part comes from."
"No offense Celty, but that name is kind of lame." I say with a smirk.
[What would you have named him then, Izaya.] Her message, although lacks any kind of word to lead me to figure out its tone, seems kind of offended in a way.
"I don't know, but I definitely wouldn't have named him 'Blackstorm'." I say mockingly. "Sounds like something from a manga." I say as I laugh a little. "Let me see him."
"I don't think that's a good idea." I suddenly hear a soft meow coming from Shinra's room.
"He wants to get out, so let him out." I say a bit demandingly.
"Fine…" Shinra says as he opens the door and allows the black cat to wander out of the room and onto the head rest of the couch, beside Celty. Shinra takes this as a good opportunity to try and pet the small creature, but gets nothing but a scratch to the hand and an angry meow. "Ow!" Shinra says as he holds his now wounded hand.
"He says he doesn't like you." I say with a smirk.
"He 'says' as in you can understand him?" I nod simply.
"You guys got him from the shelter?" I ask as I sit down on the one-seat couch.
"Yeah, why?"
"Seems like he generally doesn't like men. Maybe he was abused by his owner a lot, who just so happened to by a man, so he deems men as monstrous?"
"He told you all that?"
"No, but I just figured since he seems to like Celty just fine. It's either he doesn't like you specifically or he generalizes his anger towards men, including you in that generalization though I wouldn't." I say with a smile. Shinra glares at me, but then looks at the cat.
"Can't you tell him that I'm not going to hurt him?"
"I'm not sure how. I can understand him just fine, but I'm not sure how to communicate to him. Besides, he hates me too. He's looking at me too intensively to want to be friends with me."
"That cat is smart enough to know you're a troublemaking louse. No wonder he doesn't want to be friends with you. I'm one hundred percent positive not even Shinra and Celty want to be friends with you; if they even are your friends." Shizu-chan says angrily. I glare at him before grabbing the bell that was on my collar that Shinra had removed and put on the TV cabinet next to me and tossing the thing across the room. Shizu-chan immediately chases after the bell, grabbing it in his mouth once he catches it.
"Fucking flea!" Shizu-chan says as he sits in the corner of the room with the bell sitting next to him.
"Hmm, maybe I was wrong…Maybe you're a Golden Retriever of some sort? But what's up with the erected ears?" Shizu-chan looks at Shinra with an annoyed expression before walking over to him and grabbing him by the collar.
"Does that even matter?! Are you even trying to find a way to cure us or are you just enjoying every minute of this and lazing around at home all day?" Shizu-chan asks with malice. I smile as I look at the protozoan getting more and more infuriated.
"Look, I'm doing everything in my power to find as much information as I can about how to change you two back, but it's going to take some time. That's why I wanted to inform you of as much facts about your animalistic parts as possible; my point being that you may have to get used to being like this for a while, so I just wanted to prepare you. I'm really sorry about this…really I am…"
Shizuo's POV
I don't know if I can believe him, but I have to. It's not like being angry about this is gonna help. I sigh as I lie down on my bed. I left after Shinra told us that he wouldn't need to see us for research, but if we wanted to go and talk to him, ask him questions, or just hang out he had no problem with visits. I don't really plan on heading back there anytime soon though. Going over to Shinra's just reminds me of my situation and that really ticks me off. Having to go around like this for who knows how long is upsetting. I'm not talking about the kind of upsetting where you keep loaning money to someone who obviously won't pay you back no matter how many times you remind them, I'm talking about the kind of upsetting where that same guy isn't paying you back and he just kicked your dog in the face after telling you that he never really needed the money for anything except to spend it all on the casino machines.
No…I can't come up with a better fucking example…It's just that upsetting. It almost upsets me as much as seeing Izaya. My phone starts ringing so I decide to pick it up to get my mind off the whole situation.
"Hey, Shizuo." I hear Tom's voice on the other end. "Are you feeling any better?"
"I was fine the day you let me have a day off…"
"I know you looked fine, but you were acting strange…" Tom says worriedly. "Look, if there's something going on, you can talk to me about it."
"I don't have any problems, unless you count Izaya." And the ears and tail…
"Well, just try to forget about him."
"I would if I could, but he's not something I can ignore that easily. He's like a fly that keeps zooming around you while you're trying to eat." I say bitterly.
"Ah, that is a bit annoying." Tom says with a laugh. A bit? That's more than a bit annoying if you think about where that fly has been before you started eating; yeah, they've been in garbage, and you're trying to eat. "Look, I'm going out of town for a week. I have some personal business to attend to, so you can relax. Think of it a small vacation."
"Alright…" I say awkwardly. Tom hasn't given me a "vacation" before so this is kind of unexpected, but it's nice so I can finally get some time to myself to—I don't know—laze around? "I'll be sure to take your advice and take it easy then."
"Good, and by the way, you're brother and I met up and he said he was wondering how you were doing. I told him that you were fine. If you don't want to talk about things with me, you should consider talking to your bro." Tom says happily. "Kasuka is understanding; he's kind of quiet, but I'm guessing that he's a good listener. Anyway, I'll see you in a week."
"ByeTom, have a safe trip." I say before hanging up the phone. I sigh before rolling over. I suddenly get another call, this time it's even more unexpected after hearing whose voice it was.
"Hello Shizu-chan~" I hear Izaya's annoying voice say over the phone. "Before you hang up," He says as I'm about to do just that. "I wanted to say that since you're free for a week, how about we spend some time together?"
"What?! Were you tapping into my phone call?" I ask angrily.
"How else would I have known that information Shizu-chan? Such a protozoan you are." Izaya says; I can tell he's smirking. "So, what are you up to?"
"I was about to go to bed. What the hell are you calling me for?"
"I was bored and Namie already left for home. So I called to pester you~" He says as he purrs. Suddenly things get quiet, and I'm about to ask him if he's still there when he speaks again, this time his tone of voice is a bit more serious. "Is there anything you remember from the crash, Shizu-chan?"
"Like what?"
"Well, anything really. Has everything about the incident resurfaced in your memory or have you forgotten most of what happened?"
"I only remember the point before we got hit; nothing else really." I say as I grit my teeth. I guess he's asking because he remembers what happened. I want to forget about it. Nothing good will come from it if I say that I remember.
"Oh…" He sounds…disappointed…And I already know why, but it's not like I'm trying to actually be an asshole. It's better if he thinks I forgot. I don't want things to change. It's better this way. "Well, I guess I'll see you around the city then, Shizu-chan. Bye." He says and hangs up quickly. He's acting strange…I don't like it.
I close my eyes and hope for tomorrow to be better than today…but I know that wishing for things doesn't work in the real world. At least I can dream of something better.
A/N: More to come soon. Please review for more! Thank you for reading :)