Sorry this chapter was so long in the making. I had a brilliant idea for the end of this fanfiction (don't worry, it's not ending that soon) and I spent way to much time writing that when I should have been working on the update. I hope you like this chapter. I got a little emotional myself as I was writing the end of this chapter. I like it more then how it would have ended if it had been updated on Monday...so I hope that's some consolation. Enjoy.

Surprises. They come in many forms. I've been surprised many times in my life from the time I first learned of my immense strength all the way until now. Some of my top surprises have involved my strength, but some of the more recent ones include Izaya. He's always surprised me, but until now they've never been good surprises. I'm not sure if it's because he's forging a whole new personality now that his memories are gone or if I never knew the flea as well as I thought I did, but I didn't expect him to be like this after he got over his shock and injuries.

After our little trip into the wilds of Ikebukuro Izaya has been steadily recovering his confidence. Unfortunately this means there's nothing to check his curiosity and with his returning strength he's getting more energy than either of us know to do with in my small apartment. I haven't allowed him outside again because I'm afraid he might run into someone who knows him well enough to recognize him and it's starting to make him restless. And that's making him bold.

"Shizu-chan! Shiiiiiiiiiiiiizu-chaaaaaaaaaan! Come find me," Izaya calls from his hiding place. I haven't even finished my breakfast yet and he's already being annoying. I'm starting to think that it's time to get back to my day job. "I swear you never will!"

"Are you in the bathtub again?" I ask without looking up from the newspaper.

"No! You didn't even look! Your no good at this game Shizu-chan," Izaya answers. If I were Izaya I would be able to locate him from the sound of his voice. If I were Izaya…..I've used that phrase too much lately.

"Are you under the bed?" I ask guessing the next most obvious place.

"No! Come a look," Izaya calls back. This has to be the worst game of hide-and-seek I've ever played. I think I preferred it when he hadn't found the good places to hide in my apartment yet. It's a small apartment too. I'm surprised that he's found so many small spaces to wedge himself into.

"Are you in the closet?"

"No."

"Bathroom?"

"No!"

"Bedroom?"

"No."

"Living room?"

"This is getting boring, Shizu-chan!"

"You don't know the half of it…." I mutter. I think I liked it better when he was lying around semiconscious most of the time. Out loud I say, "Come eat your breakfast before it gets cold."

I hear a loud crash and whip my head around. I don't catch sight of Izaya. Maybe he isn't in the kitchen then. Izaya's puppy jumps up from its spot on the floor and runs out of the room barking. I never had problems with that animal until Iazaya came around.

"Let's not play games, Izaya," I snap angrily. Taking care of Izaya was a lot easier when all he did was lay on the couch.

"Let's not keep me waiting, Shizu-chan!" Izaya retorts.

"I have a name you know," I say. He's not making this easy on me. I am not a man of patience and I don't particularly like Izaya enough to try and scrounge some up.

"And now you have a nickname," Izaya replies. He's good with quick comebacks. It's annoying.

"Izaya!" I yell jumping up so quickly I knock my chair over. "When I find you you'll be sorry."

"Yay!"

I spend an hour tearing the apartment apart trying to find Izaya. He's not in any of the normal places, or the next obvious places. By the time I find him I'm out of patience, but I've also burned through most of my anger. Where did the great Izaya decide to hide, you might be asking yourself because heaven knows I was asking myself that question for over an hour. He decided to hide himself inside the couch.

I don't realize it until I sat down and hear a harsh squeak that the couch doesn't usually make. I lift up the cushions to check for mice and find Izaya lying in there where an extra cushion usually goes. He stiffens when I throw the cushions off of him then grins.

"You found me, Shizu-chan, now let's eat breakfast." He skips off to the table and starts eating ravenously. I glare at him. Izaya is as annoying as he ever was, memory loss or not and I'm just about fed up with him, it's time for him to get his memory back so he can go back to wherever it is he came from. After putting up with this for almost a week I've decided Izaya can't stay here anymore.

"I'm going out to make a call, I'll be back," I tell him then step out of the apartment and into the hallway outside of it. No one else is in the small hall and I finally have some much needed privacy and quiet. I pull out my phone, flip it open, and dial Shinra's number. After a few rings he picks up.

"Hello, this is Shinra speaking," Shinra says somewhat calmly, he actually seems sort of put out. Which is unusual for him, but it doesn't really concern me right now. Ever since Izaya's condition turned around he's been such a light sleeper that Shinra can't check up on him while he sleeps anymore. Shinra hasn't been able to check on his condition for a long time now.

"Hey, Shinra. It's Shizuo. I was wondering when you wanted me to bring Izaya over so you can check on his progress."

"Celty's going to be making a delivery today so you can come by late this morning," Shinra says after a pause.

"Sounds good," is all I say. "Do you think I can start working again soon? I know you don't want to leave him alone, but I can't take off much longer. He could always stay with you during the day."

Shinra laughs and I growl at him. "Him staying here? I don't think so. If you want to get Izaya out of your house that badly-"

"-And I do-"

"-then you'll just have to put up with him a little longer. Honestly, Shizuo, I know what I'm doing and this is the best way," Shinra says in his most serious voice. He's right though. He's the expert and if he says Izaya is better off with here with me…..then I guess that's where he'll stay. I hate it when people use logic against me because for some reason I've never been able to get around their arguments.

"If you say so, Shinra," I mutter.

"Be gentle with him, Shizuo," Shinra manages to get in before I hang up on him.

I walk back into the apartment Izaya is finishing his breakfast-except for his milk. He should really drink more milk, it's good for his bones. I fall onto the couch which is in a perfect patch of sunlight. I close my eyes and take a deep breath. It's so relaxing I could lay like this forever. I hear Izaya get up.

"Did you drink your milk, Izaya?" I ask without opening my eyes.

After a pause Izaya says, "Uh…..yeah." If I knew losing his memory would make him more honest I would have hit him over the head myself a long time ago.

"Drink it," I order without opening my eyes. He shouldn't waste the perfectly good milk that his body needs. I'm not gonna drink it now that all his germs are in it.

"I don't wanna," Izaya whines.

"It's good for you."

"It tastes awful, like vomit!" Izaya argues back.

"It tastes fine, just drink it," I reply in a surprisingly calm voice. I'm going to have to argue him to Shinra's if I have to be 'gentle' so I better learn how to argue with Izaya now.

"It's going to make me gag," Izaya warns.

"It's going to make you feel better," I correct.

"It's not! It's just milk, it's not so special," Izaya says sulkily.

I grit my teeth. "Drink it…..before I throw you…..at the wall," I say in the most measured voice I can manage, which isn't very because he's starting to make me angry.

"Fine," Izaya says quickly in a somewhat squeaky voice before drinking the milk. Looks like even Izaya is afraid of making me angry now. I'll miss that about him. I sigh, which turns into a chuckle. If anyone told me I'd miss something about Izaya I would have called them crazy and hit them over the head with the first large object I could get my hands on. If anyone told me I would look at Izaya and not immediately try to kill him…..well, it wouldn't be good for them, saying something like that. It makes me wonder if this is a good thing I'm doing. The only reason I did it in the first place was so I could kill Izaya honorably, but was saving the most dangerous man I know really a good idea? If he ever gets his memory back he'll be the same manipulative, low-life that manages to terrorize all of Ikebukuro with his schemes.

The more I think about it, the more I begin to feel sure that this is an awful idea. Izaya has made a lot of people suffer, including me. He made my high school years a living hell and that didn't stop when we graduated, I just learned how to deal with him. But I'm not the only person he's messed with. I'm sure half of Ikebukuro-why limit it to here-half of Tokyo has been manipulated and used by him at some point or another. He was a sociopath and I'm sure if he ever gets his memory back he'll become one again. Some people are just like that, they don't care about their fellow humans. They don't care about anyone.

Not that I'm an angel myself or anything, I've hurt lots of people, but I've never done anything to anyone who didn't do something to me first. I don't like to be violent, but people are very fond of giving me no other choice, but to hurt them. I'm sure that's Izaya's fault as well.

I sit up and bury my face in my hands. What am I doing? He innocent and harmless now, but Izaya will regain his memories again and when he does he'll be a terror. I shouldn't have passed up that opportunity to get rid of him once and for all back in the alley…..but, looking back on it I couldn't have done anything else. I don't hurt small, scared people for no reason, that's something Izaya would do. And so I couldn't hurt Izaya back in that alley. That's the difference between us and I want to make sure it never changes.

My hand has clenched into a fist subconsciously. I force it to relax and look over at Izaya. He's watching the people on the street going about their business through the apartment window. I can tell he's completely enthralled in whatever is going on down there. He looks so peaceful and innocent now it's hard to believe that he was ever Izaya Orihara. The faces just don't match up anymore, even though they are nearly identical.

While Izaya is people watching I call up Tom. He's curious about what I've been up too and I have to keep everything as detail-less as possible. He isn't very impressed by my story and changes the subject as quickly as possible. After we finish talking about what's going on in Ikebukuro lately he asks if I'm going to be able to come back to work soon. I don't really know what to tell him so I just say that I'll hopefully be back on the job in a few days and that I hope my leave of absence hasn't given him too much trouble. He assures me that it hasn't and we end our conversation.

I slide my phone back into my pocket and look over at Izaya. "Want to go on a walk somewhere?" I ask casually.

Izaya manages to unglue himself from the window long enough to say, "Yeah! Where are we going to go?"

"I don't know….around…..there are lots of cool places in Ikebukuro that I doubt you've ever seen before," I reply trying to sound upbeat. This seems like the best plan to get Izaya over to Shinra's place without a lot of drama.

"Okay!" Izaya pulls his sweatshirt on and we leave the apartment. Izaya is already bursting with excitement to see the Ikebukuro so this should be much easier than I thought.

We've been walking for almost an hour before I start making a more or less direct path towards Shinra's place. I don't expect him too, but as soon as the building comes into view Izaya's eyes widen in recognition of the place.

"Sh-shizu-chan, why are we coming back here?" he asks in a shaking voice. He reaches out and grabs my sleeve as if to comfort himself that I won't leave him here alone.

"Back where?" I ask as if I don't know what he's talking about. I continue walking towards Shinra's house.

"Back to this place. Why are we coming back?" He stops walking which forces me to stop as well since he has such a tight grip on my shirt sleeve that I'd probably pull him over if I kept walking.

"Shinra just wants to make sure you're wounds are healing properly and such. It's for your own good," I tell him.

"I think I might be coming down with something terrible. I don't think Shinra wants to risk catching it, maybe we should come back later," Izaya says his expression giving away his fear.

"Shinra's a doctor, he's not afraid of germs," I assure him.

"I-I don't think I'm strong enough to walk the rest of the way," Izaya says, staring up at the tall building.

"Then I'll carry you." I move to scoop him up and he shies away. "Besides, if you're feeling sick Shinra should definitely have a look at you."

"But I feel fine!" Izaya exclaims.

"I thought you said you were sick!" I say in a loud voice which is really better described as a barely contained yell.

"I-I lied, I really feel fine so we don't have to bother you're good friend Shinra…." He laughs nervously. "I'll tell you as soon as I feel bad and then we can go to Shinra's, okay Shizu-chan?"

"I think we should just go now and get it over with." I tug on his arm trying to get him to keep walking. It's a losing battle, though.

"And I think your friend is a creep and we should stay far away from him!" Izaya protests.

"C'mon, let's just go and get this over with, don't you want to remember?"

"No," he says quietly.

"What?!" I exclaim.

"I don't know," he amends quickly. "I'm not sure."

"Why not, Izaya?" I ask crouching down a little bit so I could look him in the eyes. "Even if you have to remember what happened to you when you were kidnapped isn't it worth it to know who you are?"

"But-but what if I remember…and I don't like who I am? People don't get kidnapped for no reason! What if-what if…I'm a bad person? What if I remember who I am and don't like him? What if it's someone who wants to hurt the people I care about now? I like myself the way I am now, I don't care about who I was! I want to stay with you, Shizu-chan, and what if I remember who I am and I don't? Then what do I do?" He looks up at me with a pained expression. Tears are starting to make his eyes shimmer. I can't help it, I feel sorry for him, because when he does get his memory back that's exactly what will happen. He'll remember that he hates me and things will go back to the way they were. Isn't it better that way as opposed to the way it is now?

I stare into his eyes and try to imagine throwing a vending machine at him. I have to close my eyes because the image hurts too much. I don't want to hurt him anymore, I want to protect him. I don't know what to say to him because as much as I don't want him in my house, I'm afraid that if he does remember it will hurt him too much. Can I count on Izaya's strength of will and lack of morals to come back with his memories or will he just be worse off than he is now. For the second time today I'm wondering if I'm doing the right thing.

"What will I do, Shizu-chan?" he asks again in a pitifully small voice.

I want to reassure him, but I'm not sure what to say. He won't thank me for lying to him later when his memories come back.

"I don't know what you'll do, Izaya, but you can't fix everything you did in the past by choosing to forget it forever. Everyone you affected still knows what happened and nothing is going to change that now. You are who you are. I guess you'll know what to do when you get your memories back." I put my arms around him and press his small body against my own. It surprises both of us a little, especially because I didn't even think about doing it, I'm not really one for hugging, but it seems to comfort Izaya so I continue to hug him until he says in a small voice, "Will you still be my friend, Shizu-chan?"

"If you want me to be," I say truthfully enough. I tell myself I'm only saying that to comfort him and I'll never have to make good on that promise, but there's a small part of my that disagrees.

"I will," he says.

I wouldn't bet on that, Izaya, I think, remembering his heartless nature. You would lose too much on a bet like that.

Izaya: Can I just begin by saying...pathetic. But I love the emotion. This is actually getting good, if my character wasn't so incapacitated I would enjoy it so much more though. Hahaha Shizu-chan actually caring. That's hilarious.

Me: Izaya, why is your hair sticking up on end? You look like you stuck a fork in the toaster.

Izaya: Oh, I do? I guess I haven't looked in a mirror all day..

Me: for someone who cares about chipped nails you seem to be taking this...strangely. Maybe you should put your hood up.

Izaya: WHAAAAT?! I never wear this hood. It's just for show, besides it would ruin my hair.

Me: so you want it to stand on end like that...?

Shizuo: talking to that short little girl isn't going to make you look taller you know, Izaya.

Me: I'M NOT A SHORT LITTLE GIRL!

Izaya: Neither am I!

Shizuo: no one accused you off being a girl, Izaya. Not yet anyway.

Izaya: I'm going to FREAKING KILL YOU SHIZU-CHAN!

Me: and this is why Shinra and Celty finally get their piece...next chapter. Follow, favorite, review (I do love reviews) but most importantly just read it :D

Izaya: that's worse then saying random Japanese words in the middle of your sentances!

Me: I don't know why I can't use emoticons. Celty does so kawaii to you.

Izaya: I don't think you know what that means.

Me: Arigato gozaimas

Shizuo: was that even spelled right? I can't tell.

Izaya: Celty and Shinra's piece...next time. Be prepared to be bored out of your skull.

Shinra: Hey!

Izaya: Where did you come from, Shinra?

Me: and where have you been?

Shizuo: and that wraps things up.

Me: I feel like I tried to end this a while back...

Izaya: and I just did

Celty: [Here's an idea]

THE END