I suppose this marks my return and I truly apologize to people who've been waiting a ridiculous amount of time for this new chapter. Anyway, I'm taking this through a different route. I think I'll still do the Christmas chapter even if it's way past that time. I'll see.

At the Center of Town~

Mairu's POV

"Man, those two are so late!" I say feeling really annoyed. What could be taking them so long?

"Shower." Kururi says simply. I nod with a smile before I giggle.

"Yeah, I think so too. I bet they're taking a steamy shower together. Oh, here they come!" I say happily as I take my sister's hand and lead her closer to the two lovebirds. "Izaya-ni! We've been waiting for you for ages!" I complain as I put my arm around my brother's. Kururi pushes Shizuo out of the way and grabs his other arm.

"You said to meet up at 9:15. I'm only two minutes late." Ni-chan explains to us with an annoyed expression.

"You shouldn't be late at all." I tell him with a pout. "So, you brought your boyfriend again?"

"Actually, yes." Izaya says as he looks at Shizuo with a smile. We haven't seen Izaya-ni smile like this before…weird…Well actually Kururi and I saw him like this a couple times before. He reminded us of a schoolgirl in love during his high school years. I remember it like it was yesterday…

Flashback

"I wonder if Izaya-ni is up yet." I ask my sister as I sneak over to where Ni-chan's door is. He's awake alright, but he doesn't seem to be getting ready to take us to school. I pout and open the door a little more so Kururi can see. "Ni-chan is looking at pictures of that guy again." I say as I see a bunch of pictures of Shizu-chan as Izaya-ni calls him on his computer. Our brother is such a creeper sometimes, but this is really going overboard, even for him.

"Shizu-chan…" He says longingly as he scans through the pictures. Wow…Windows Photo Gallery is probably filled with pictures by now. "Hmm? What the heck are you demons doing!?" Izaya-ni says as he throws a pillow at us. We giggle as we close the door. He sprints over and opens his door angrily before pulling on our hoods of our jackets. "You two are so bothersome. Haven't you ever heard of privacy?!"

"Never heard of him."

"It's not a 'him' it's something that you have to give your big brother or else he'll send you in a package to Antarctica."

"Humph, you mean that place that's as cold as your heart?"

"Cold." Kururi repeats simply.

"You two should be glad you have a brother who's willing to take you both to school every morning. You know how often little girls like you—even if you two aren't cute at all—get raped?" Ni-chan asks as he looks at us sternly.

"Don't you know that the percentage of rape is lower here than in America? It's because of all of the por—" Ni-chan blushes as he covers my mouth before spouting out a bunch of complaints about how we should both be better little girls. He's one to talk. He makes that guy Shizuo's life the living hell. I'm surprised he hasn't gone completely insane when Ni-chan gets near him. Oh well.

"You two are a handful…Can't you both just stay out of my room?"

"We were out of your room, genius. We were outside in the hallway." I say with a smile.

"Duh." Kururi says timely.

"Ugh." Ni-chan says before facepalming himself.

We walk with Ni-chan and Shizuo, but along the way—probably three to four times—we stopped because Shizuo stopped to smell some fire hydrants. Ni-chan tugged at the collar he was wearing and practically dragged him the rest of the way after the last time he stopped.

"So why are we shopping so early?"

"We're looking for gifts for some friends. And we're getting some decorations." I tell Ni-chan as I take my sister's hand before pulling her away. "We'll meet you guys at the sweet shop in a little while."

"Hey!" Ni-chan says before we run off on our own.

Izaya's POV

Right, they say they want to spend some time with me, but completely abandon me once they've reached their destination. Typical…it's not as if I was hoping that they'd hang around me and continue to pester me about my relationship or something of the like, but it feels like this was a complete waste of my precious time. Shizu-chan just came to make sure I wasn't gonna be attacked by some vengeful client or some horrible sex offender.

"Well, this is just great. They run off and I have to wait for them until they're ready." I complain before turning around and seeing Shizu-chan practically drool over the sweets in the window of the sweet shop. I pet his head and ask him if he's hoping to buy some. He's difficult at first, saying that he's not hoping for anything, but a couple minutes later we end up going inside and picking out a small cake for the both of us to share. "Shizu-chan can I ask you something…?" He continues devouring the small cake before I pull the box away from him and leave to the side of me; he's had enough anyway, the rest is mine to eat. "Well?" I demand a little more sternly.

"Yeah, go ahead." He says simply. I notice a crumb of cake still on his face so I lean in and lick it away before purring against him. He blushes before pushing me away before looking around to see if anyone was watching. "Don't do that here. What if someone we know sees us?"

"Well, then we won't have to have that awkward conversation with anyone telling them that we're a couple." I purr as I rub my head under his chin. "It's possible that Mairu and Kururi already told someone by now."

"Well…I guess so…and Tom already knows too…"

"And Shinra."

"And Celty." He adds as he counts on his hands.

"And I'm almost sure that Simon knows as well without being told."

"And Erika too, without a shadow of a doubt."

"Oh Kadota and his gang knows from her then."

"Plus my brother…since he seems to know everything that goes on with me…"

"Well I guess that's everybody. See? Nothing to worry about." I say with a sly smile.

"And what about your secretary?" Shizu-chan asks simply.

"That woman doesn't even care if I'm alive, so I hardly think she'd care if she knew I was gay and in a relationship with the monster of Ikebukuro." I say as I sigh. "Anyway, can I ask you something? And can you answer it truthfully and seriously?"

"'Seriously'? You're the one who doesn't answer things seriously." He says as he smirks before nipping my cat ear. I rub my ear and push him slightly. "So what's your question?"

"Ne…What are you doing Christmas Eve?"

"Kind of a corny question don't ya think, flea?" Shizu-chan asks with a light laugh.

"It was intentional, protozoan." I counter as I purr against his chest. The warmth is inviting; he always seems to have this warmth, a kind of peculiar kind of warmth that he gives off. "So are you going to answer my question? Or are you going to keep me waiting?"

"Aren't you supposed to be the one who knows everything? Don't you know that Christmas is a time for lovers? So why ask?" Shizu-chan asks with a smile. His tail wags happily as he puts his arm around my shoulder.

"I wanted to hear it from the horse's mouth." I say as I flick my ears, tickling his cheek. "In this case, the mutt's mouth."

"I am not a mutt." He growls as he pushes me. "Well, might as well tell you that I'm thinking of spending Christmas Eve with you, flea." It was a quiet time we shared for a while until my sister's decided to interrupt us and drag us all around the shopping district to buy senseless things. They insisted on buying some gifts for friends and some for family. Shizu-chan and I bought a few gifts for friends. Shinra is pretty easy to shop for. We just got him a tie. We bought Celty a purse, though I'm not sure if she'll like it. I'm not used to doing things like this and Shizu-chan is as hopeless as me. He had actually thought of getting Kasuka a lamp for his living room before I suggested on some shades and a hat for when he heads out into public. It's a pretty poor disguise, but that's on purpose so I can cause him a bit of trouble.

My sisters head off after we head into the center of town, to the station. We go our separate ways as it starts to snow again.

"Louse, how much longer are we going to freeze our tails out here?" Shizu-chan asks as he wraps his scarf more tightly around his neck.

"Where did you learn how to give your lover pet names, from a jerkwad's handbook?" I ask as I laugh. "I don't see why you're complaining anyway. You have intense body heat like some bear."

"We've been out here for hours. Let's head over to Shinra's; he called me this morning and told me we need to run more tests. Seems like something is up with our blood or something."

"Uh…let's just not and say we did." I say playfully as my tail swings as I grow anxious. The last thing I want is for that damn doctor to tell Shizu-chan I prolonged this little "experiment" he trapped us in for my own selfish wants, though I doubt that would surprise Shizu-chan. He's known me for so long…I suppose even I'm too predictable. "We could head to my place and have some fun instead~" I try to persuade him as I rub against his arm while I purr.

"Trust me, that's tempting." He says sarcastically. "But I really want to head over to Shinra's; he said it was really important that we meet at his place. He sounded really troubled over the phone."

"Did…did he tell you anything else?" I ask as Shizu-chan walks towards the underground doctor's apartment. There's really no stopping this brute when he sets his mind—or whatever it is that's in his head—on something.

"No, why?" He asks casually.

"Oh…no reason…in particular…" I say with a Cheshire cat smile.

It's as if the entire world is against me…Not only did we arrive to Shinra's place earlier than expected, Shinra's actually home at this hour.

"I'm glad you guys came. I just finished baking some pet treats for you guys." Shinra says with a smile. "Oh, that's a nice bow collar Izaya-kun. But why pink?"

"Ugh…is it against the law that I can't like pink?" I ask in frustration. "Anyway…thanks for the compliment. Shizu-chan bought it for me when we went shopping with my sisters."

"Shizuo, you bought something for Izaya?!"

"Shinra, we already know that you know we're a couple." I say as I lay on the head rest of the couch on my back. Celty who is below me begins scratching the sides of my chin and the purring commences. My tail begins to settle against the head rest and my purring gets louder.

"Darn." Shinra says with a pout. "Well, congrats and Izaya don't be so affectionate towards my Celty!" He reprimands me.

[Calm down Shinra. He's just a cat.]

"Correction a cat hybrid and for all we know, he might be in heat." Immediately after Shinra said this, there was an absence of sweet jaw-line scratching and Celty had distanced herself from me as if I were carrying some awful, fatal disease. I now feel quite lonely and rejected…

"I'm not in heat!" I say angrily. "I wouldn't still be a virgin if I was."

"You're a virgin?" Shizu-chan asks curiously. I blush as I realize what I just revealed.

"Heh, there are ten things I don't need to know about my friends…and that's one of them. Anyway, I'm glad you're both here. I'm hoping you settled whatever conflict you had with each other regarding how Izaya had lied, so on and so forth."

"You told him!?" I ask in utter shock.

"So…you guys didn't resolve anything…?" Shinra asks apprehensively. "Look, you guys can settle that matter later. Right now, I just did some other DNA tests and it turns out that your genetic structures are becoming more and more animal-like…it probably won't be long until you're both incapable of articulate, verbal communication or even standing in an erect manner."

"Hah?" Shizu-chan asks. Shinra sighs before translating.

"You won't be able to talk or walk on two legs." Shinra says simply.

"Oh, why didn't you say that in the first place?" Shizu-chan says angrily. I distance myself from Shizu-chan hoping that I can attempt a quick escape without raising any suspicion, but as I turn the doorknob, Shizu-chan's ear flick. He turns around and captures me by my hood. "Where do you think you're going you snake?" I whimper in fear as my limbs huddle close to my body. He sets me on the couch and growls at me. "When exactly were you going to tell me that Shinra had called and asked if we wanted to be changed back?"

"Um…if everything went well…and no one spilled the beans…never." I say honestly. "But I had a good reason."

"Alright, I'm listening." Shizu-chan asks with his hands crossed. I wrap my tail around my body and lower my head.

"It's just that…I figured that if we changed back you wouldn't feel the same for me as you do now…there's always the chance that, when something similar to this, happens things will return to the way things were before the incident." I say simply. "I suppose…I was a bit…" I pause as Shizu-chan looks at me skeptically. "Fine…I was afraid you weren't going to like me anymore if we changed back to normal…"

"For someone who calls himself a genius, you sure are dumb." Shizu-chan says with a laugh. "Now I don't feel so bad about not understanding a lot of shit."

"I'm not sure if you're trying to insult me or prove me wrong in my assumptions. Either way, you're hurting my feelings, brute." I say with a hiss.

"I'm trying to tell you that you're an idiot for thinking I'd hate you just like before. Things have changed, we've changed. We can't go back to exactly the same before and besides, I wouldn't want to." I feel lighter as I see Shizu-chan smiling at me. My tail swishes behind me happily as my ears twitch nervously. I jump into his arms and purr even louder than I had before.

[That was really sweet Shizuo.]

"Thanks, I've been watching a lot of romance movies." Shizu-chan says with a shrug. I smile happily as he holds my hand. Shinra laughs nervously as he tries to understand what just transpired. "So, where's the antidote anyway?"

"Um…right…the antidote…it's not quite done yet…"

"What do you mean? I thought you already had it."

"I did…that's the problem." I ask him to clarify what he's saying, so he sighs before continuing. "I had the antidote when I explained my true intentions to you Izaya, but after a couple days, Blackstorm took it upon himself to play with the bottle while trespassing in my study." I look to Celty who only pets the culprit. "Blackstorm coincidentally destroyed the antidote, none of it was salvageable. Unfortunately, I don't have another antidote on hand. I've been making a spare one since I made the first. It's extremely difficult to make so…"

"So what you're saying is that you only wanted us to come by so you could warn us about what might happen since you don't have the antidote?" I ask him worriedly. "What's going to happen to us? Are we going to be permentantly stuck like this?"

"No, if you guys undergo the changes that I assume you will be undergoing in a few days or even hours from now then it won't be long after that that the serum will wear off. The antidote is just more convenient since it would change you back immediately. Waiting for the serum to wear off might take a couple weeks…or months…"

"Months?!" Shizu-chan asks angrily.

"What are these 'changes' that you keep going on about?" I ask Shinra skeptically. My ears twitch in irritation as I circle around the underground doctor. He starts to laugh nervously as a he sweats.

"Well, in theory if I didn't inject the antidote before the end of the month, then stage two of the serum would commence. These changes are usually not so abrupt and may happen during the night, going on unnoticed. Um…to put it simply, sometime during the week, both of you will change wholly into your animal forms. So, Izaya will be a cat and Shizuo, you'll be a dog." Shinra puts his hands in front of his face to shield himself from punches or scratches but they never come. He puts his hands down and looks at us. "Are you two alright? Or are you both suffering from trauma?"

"I'm sort of overcome by the sheer desire to toss you out the window."

"Same with me, but I rather tear you limb by limb." Shizu-chan adds as he growls.

[Wait. If you both kill Shinra then who's going to make the antidote?] Celty types quickly, saving the underground doctor just in the nick of time. Shizu-chan paces back and forth, trying to calm himself while I sit in the recliner like I usually do.

"So, if we do turn into animals, how long will it be from that point to turn back to normal?" I ask as I rub my temples in frustration.

"Um…two to four weeks probably."

"Probably?" Shizu-chan asks in irritation.

"I'm not sure! I never tested this serum out!" Shinra admits as he sits next to Celty. "I'm almost done with the antidote. If you both turn into animals before I finish, it's still possibly to administer the antidote and turn you both back to normal. How's all that sound?"

"Well, it sounds better than all that depressing talk you said earlier." I say as I wrap my tail around my body. "Well, I suppose it's pointless to sit here and do nothing. I'm going to go back to work and resume my daily life. If signs start showing then I'll have to leave work for a while."

"Sounds like when my mom was pregnant with my brother." Shizu-chan says blandly.

"Well, I think that plan sounds reasonable." Shinra says, ignoring Shizu-chan's comment. "And when it comes time that your 'pregnancy' gets to its prime point then you both will have to spend the rest of the weeks in Celty and my care. How does that sound?" I twitch as I hear the end of the bargain before agreeing to it. How bad could it be?

We head out after that, well not before eating the treats Shinra baked us. Truth be told, they tasted like a boot that was set on fire with baby powder, but (oddly enough) I didn't have the heart to tell him so. Shizu-chan didn't complain either, probably because he can stomach anything. Well, almost anything. I suppose he wouldn't eat a couch. That's not true actually. He ate mine that one time I left him alone.

Shizu-chan stops me in the hallway to help me put on my jacket like a real gentleman before pressing his lips on mine gently. I put my arms around his neck and moan into the kiss as he slides his tongue in.

"Not even ten feet from our apartment and you're already lovey-dovey I see." Shinra says as he ruins the moment. Shizu-chan pulls away and growls under his breath and glares at Shinra. "You almost left your bags that you were carrying." Shizu-chan snatches them and says a dry thank you before taking my hand and leading me down the stairs.

"I meant what I said back there."

"What? That you were going to tear Shinra limb from limb?"

"No." Shizu-chan says in irritation. "That I'm going to love you even if we change back to normal." I blush and turn away from his stare.

"Pfft, 'change back to normal'? What about the old us was ever normal to begin with?" I laugh a little before turning to him. "We were both outcasts; no doubt that we still are and are still going to be. Of course we're outcasts for different reasons. You're a brainless monster and I'm a devious, beautiful, intelligent informant."

"And you're a narcissist." Shizu-chan adds as he growls.

"Oh, did you finally buy a dictionary, Shizu-chan?"

"Now that you mention it. Yeah, I did. And it's about ten pounds; it's hard enough that when I swat you in the head with it you'll be unconscious."

"Hmmm, I bet you'd be able to render me unconscious if you ever decided to make love to me~" He blushes fiercely and let's go of my hand before trying to stutter some comebacks to what I just said. None of his comebacks are too articulate to understand unfortunately. "Just admit it, you're hopelessly trying to figure out how to get in bed with this amazingly perfect body~" He growls before picking up a nearby vending machine as we make it outside.

"IZZZAAAAAAAYYYYYYYYYAAAAAAAA !" He says before tossing it.

"You sound like you're powering up a Kamehameha." I say with a snicker before using my cat-like reflexes to dodge the vending machine. I run away with Shizu-chan trailing behind me in a barbaric fashion. We never promised that we'd give up these fun little cat and mouse chases, or dog and cat to be precise. In all honesty, I don't think I'd want to stop.

Celty's POV

I look out the window and find the two chasing each other like usual. Izaya will still have the tendency to push Shizuo's buttons no matter if they're together. I don't think Shizuo minds it all that much, but to say it doesn't throw him over the edge, might be a sort of lie.

"Ah love~" Shinra comments as he joins me in watching the little spectacle outside. "I'm sure they'll be getting a lot of visits from Erika, that's for sure." Shinra laughs a little before heading over to his computer and typing something down. "I think we better get ready to get two more pets…by the end of the week."

[I'm hoping you're right about the antidote…if it doesn't work after they change into animals, we're going to be in trouble.] I'm not even sure why I had went along with this stupid "experiment" in the first place. Messing with the two most powerful guys in Ikebukuro is either extremely brave or dangerously stupid. I'd actually vote on the latter…

"I know…but just think of it this way, Ikebukuro will be free of those two causing trouble." I shake my head at him and type a new message.

[Yeah, but we'll have two more mouths to feed and plus I'm sure they won't be too pleased if we break the news to them that they'll be stuck as animals forever.] I can only picture how pissed they'd both be if we told them the news. I'm hoping, praying, wishing that the serum works.

"Well, we're not even sure after they change into animals that they'll be able to understand human speech, so breaking the news to them won't probably result in anyone getting their eyes scratched out or their legs bitten off." Shinra is sometimes way too optimistic…I'm not saying that I'm more likely to sulk in the corner believing that only bad things happen, but I like to keep an open mind.

[Well, if it does, it won't be my eyes or my legs.] I type calmly. He sighs and laughs a little nervously.

"Thank you for the support, Celty…" I nod simply.

A/N: I'm not going to give any excuses, but I've had the motivation to finish this story. I bought a new computer with a nice keyboard that gives me that typing itch, so now I'll be working on ending this story. I may need some help in figuring out what to add and whatnot. I hope people are still reading this...If people aren't I suppose I'll still finish it anyway. Please review!