Author´s note: I have no excuse this time. I can only hope that those of you who are still reading this can find it in your hearts to forgive me ;3; Now, I hope you enjoy this chapter as much as I did while writing it. Is full of new ideas that I needed to introduce to keep the story going! I want to personally thank my beta and my BFF Naria who helped me not only correct this story but make it artsy and rhythmic for you!

Guest: You are very welcome! Sorry for the delay!

ShiZayaUsUkSinJa: Hohoho, a good angst story always have one. I personally love them x3 Hope you like the next chappy!

An: Ugh! And after watching the last chapter of DRRR x2 I hate her even more! But that aside, thanks for your comment and I hope you enjoy the next chapter :3

Chapter 5

Shizuo´s POV

I was once more siting inside of the cave, watching as Izaya taste-tested the food that I have brought him today. Some sautéed vegetables that were served during yesterday's dinner and a piece of the caramel apple I ate on my round at the market. It was kinda amusing watching him react to the different types of food. Especially the sweet ones.

"Pwaj, this is too much sugar on a naturally sweet fruit" he spit the piece of candy out of his mouth with a weird curse.

I chuckled, knowing already the reaction that the candies usually brought.

The past few weeks have been kind of hectic. Between rounds, training, visiting the flea AND feeding it, I can confidently say that my life here had taken a turn for the busiest ever since meeting the red eyed myth. But I can also say that is has been less boring than I thought it would be.

"Why don't you bring more of those fatty tuna rolls that you brought that time?" The siren whined while he rested his upper body on the shore near me.

"How can you like fish? Isn't that like cannibalism?" I responded back, closing my eyes. "Besides, that was expensive, are you going to pay me for that?" I added like the money was of some importance.

It wasn't. But denying Izaya some satisfaction was plenty amusing to let it slide. The siren let out another whine.

"What do you think we eat out in the sea, oxygen and light? We are not plants mind you" He retorted, resting his head face down, consciously ignoring the payment part.

Out of all the things that I have come to learn with Izaya, the thing that we notice the most is how badly informed we are about each other. I find myself constantly making jokes that can only be explained when you were raised within a human society and Izaya sometimes utters words that can only be described as fish language. Or that's what I call it, at least.

I still haven't told anyone about these meetings with Izaya in the cave. The animosity that the villagers seem to have against his kin has restrained me from uttering a word about the matter. Tom would have been my first option to share this information with, but he looks like the mere mention of sirens would put him into alert mode. Let's not think what he would do if he knew that I was frequently meeting one of them willingly.

We remained in silence for a little bit more than a minute before I decided to add another question to our already long list.

"I've been wondering" I started, drawing his attention to me. "How did you end up in here? And with that wound"

The now-more-than-before ever glowing eyes looked at me directly for a second before he rested his face on his arms again. For a moment I thought that he will just pretend that I didn't ask anything at all like all the times before whenever I asked personal questions. I was ready to get up and leave when a whisper was heard from his direction.

"Some bad decisions" he uttered without lifting his face, so the voice was muffled and distant.

"Care to be more specific?" I asked, trying to summon some more patience to not get frustrated at the vagueness of the answer.

"Why, Shizu-chan, aren't you interested in that matter? May I ask why?" He lifted his face, putting on that mask of mockery that he usually wore when trying to change the topic of the conversation. It was annoying as hell but I couldn't do anything if Izaya didn't want to speak about it. "Is not like it concerns you anyways, or does it now?" He whispered in a playful tone.

I decided that the conversation was going nowhere and that it was time for me to leave for the day.

"How about you?" The question got me by surprise. I turned around to look at him again. "Why do you keep coming?"

"Would you prefer if I didn't?" I asked while propping a brow.

"I can't say…" he started with a sly smile "that it hasn't been interesting with you coming here…" He concluded offhandedly. "But what about you?"

I took a moment to analyze the reason why I kept coming here. There was really nothing for me here to keep coming for, but seeing the merman gladly devour the food that I brought and come up with some small talk was something that I looked forward to everyday. It became a routine to which I quickly adapted myself, to the point where I would wonder what was I doing before this even started.

"I don't know" I responded back truthfully. "It's amusing, I guess"

I looked at him with the corner of my eye, just to catch how his gaze was analyzing my every expression once more. He often did that and at the beginning I suspected that it was because he did not trust me so he would do that to check if I was lying about anything, but now I was starting to think that he just plain liked to see my reactions.

"Why do you do that?" My curiosity finally getting the best of me.

He blinked. "Do what?"

"That thing, like watching my face very intently" I elaborated, trying to get my point through.

He blinked once and then his face broke into a mischievous smile.

"My, aren't you bold today, Shizu-chan?" He said, hiding half of his face behind his hand, feigning to be blushing while I could tell that he was just laughing and teasing me.

I groaned at the evasive behavior and turned to leave once more.

"See ya tomorrow, flea" I said while waving an arm in the air.

"Bring those tuna rolls with you!" He requested one more time.

A small smile broke into my face at that. This bastard doesn't know when to give up, does he?

oOoOoOoOoOo

Back at the base, I decided that I needed to flex my muscles so I asked Tom to spar with me for a bit in the training ground. We grabbed some wooden swords and started a friendly match.

Very slowly, some of the other guys started to gather around us. Some decided to start their own matches while others, more sadistic, just wanted to see how a match against "the monster Heiwajima" would end. The fame of my rampages at the base had spread like a legend among the soldiers and the newer ones must have wanted to see the truth by themselves.

Too bad I wasn't using my strength at all, the whole point of the session just being to be able to hone my reflexes and get some more training done. Tom was aware that I would not harm him, so we were both enjoying some exercise like we did back at the academia. All in all, you could say my mind was at peace.

Clunk!

The noise of a helmet colliding at the back of my head interrupted the previous chattering noises and all activity in general. I could feel the myriad of stares sent in my direction and how the temperature seemed to have dropped almost instantaneously. Tom moved to the side a little and was looking right past me with a disappointed and almost pitying stare.

I turned around and took notice of the general intake of air that the action caused. I quickly located the lonely helmet a few feet away from me as well as the empty head where the helmet must have come from. It looked like some rookies where sparring with lances and one of them had made a strong lunge that the other barely evaded. Luckily (Or not) the helmet seemed to be the only one damaged.

I sheathed the sword and took the helmet on my way to the newbies. When I was right in front of them I raised my hand with the helmet on it and the atmosphere tensed around us. The face of the soldier in front of me could have been the same as if he was looking right at the eyes of death. For the first time, I thought that such a reaction was kind of funny.

Clack.

I put the helmet on the soldiers head with a smooth move.

"Watch it, you two" I said, finally breaking the choking silence. "These may be for training but you can still hurt someone with that kind of thrust". I turned around to go back to Tom and retire for the day. My body was relaxed so it should be enough to get a good night of sleep.

My actions caused several gasps and a trembling voice behind me uttered a loud: "Y-yes, Superior Shizuo!"

When I returned, Tom was looking at me as if I had sprouted an extra head.

"What?" I asked annoyed at all the attention I was getting.

"No, nothing…" Tom started, as if trying to decide whether to ask or not.

"I think this is enough for today" I voiced, making my way to the weapon rack to put away the wooden sword. Tom followed closely behind. "Man, I'm beat. And I still need to go to the market…" I mumbled, remembering the sushi rolls that Izaya had requested. 'Not that I need to buy them, really", I considered mentally.

We started walking towards our room while I debated if going to the market or not. I was seriously considering not going at all when someone called me, interrupting my thoughts.

"Yo, Shizuo" I turned to look at the end of the hall and saw Kadota there, finishing a conversation with his roommate, a languid guy named Togusa.

We stopped in our tracks. He made his way to us.

"What's up?"

"Heard that you got hit at the training ground and didn't smash any heads" He commented with an amused smile.

We blinked at that.

"Wha-How did you know?" Tom mouthed the question that we both had. "That happened just a minute ago!"

"Haha, you shouldn't underestimate the power of a good gossip in such a small place" Kadota laughed at that. "Anyways, is good to hear you are in such a good mood" He commented, patting my shoulder on his way to the opposite direction.

We saw Kadota walk away until he turned at the end of the hall and out of our sight. I was replaying the whole scene in my mind while asking myself if I should have gotten mad back then when I noticed the sidelong glance that Tom was giving me.

"What?" I asked, irked.

He just continued walking without answering.

oOoOoOoOoOo

"Isn't there something you want to tell me?" Tom asked the moment he closed the door to our room.

"About?" I asked, removing the sweaty clothes that I had on.

"I don't know" he responded in a strange tone of voice that I haven't heard him use before. "Maybe about your secret meetings?"

I tensed at the insinuation, but tried to keep my cool. "Calm down. Tom can't be referring to Izaya. I mean, I haven't done anything for him to suspect a thing" I tried to reassure myself, but my mind was still reeling with a thousand possibilities that may have made Tom ask something like this.

"What are you talking about?" I managed without turning to face him, quickly picking up some clean clothes from the closet.

"Don't act dumb now" He responded in a serious tone that made me look his way. "When were you planning on telling me about this?" He was looking directly into my eyes with a disapproving stare.

"That's it, he knows" I mentally groaned. I don't know since when or how but he knows about Izaya. I turned to completely face him, ashamed that he had found out about this without me being the one who told him.

"Look Tom, I know what you are going to say… and don't think I didn't think of telling you about this before! But you were just so shocked because of the attacks that I didn't know how to crack the news for you and before I…" Tom waved his hands furiously in front of me, making my rant stop.

"Wait, wait, wait!" He looked at me, incredulous. "Are you trying to say that this has been going on ever since those attacks?"

"Well, it started like a week later or so" I explained in a small tone. "It was during one of my rounds and-"I suddenly stopped when Tom decided to graciously smack my back with an open hand.

"Shizuo, you dog!" He barked with a grin.

The action took me completely unguarded. He was… happy? I looked at him, weighing the possibility that Tom had lost it or his hostility towards the sirens was all just an act.

"You… You are happy?" my voice was barely there.

"'Course I am!" he clarified, with both hands at his hips. "This is great Shizuo! Of course I'm happy for you!"

"Okay…? That was weird" I noted.

"Thanks, though I don't think this is something to get so happy about…" I commented, a little creeped by the weird behavior that my superior was showing.

I mean, sure. I do think that being friends with a siren (If that's what we were at all) was definitely a good thing to get to the bottom of all these legends and everything, but something to get happy about?

"What do you mean?" Tom looked at me as if I was the one who had lost it. "We should be celebrating this with some beer!"

"Now, this is REALLY weird" Tom surely was joking now. "A way to deal with the fear he was feeling, perhaps?" added a voice that sounded strikingly like the flea's.

"You should have let me know earlier Shizuo, really. Are we not friends? Sure, I did notice your change of heart these past weeks, but I never realized that this was…." He stopped his rant and looked at me proudly. "I should have known though. The smiles, the general good mood, the lack of flying heavy objects around camp… Of course you met someone!"

Very slowly, as if the gears in my brain remembered how to move again, all of Tom's reaction started to make sense to me. The blood rushing to my head and heating my face was just to oxygenate my brain, that's what I told myself.

"A-actually Tom, is not…" I started out, but Tom was still deep in his monologue to pay any attention to my attempt to clarify things.

"But nevermind that. When were you planning on presenting us? You were, right?" Tom asked eagerly, finally looking at me again.

The look on Tom's face made me stop and think twice about popping his bubble.

"Tom, I…" I looked all around the room, trying to figure out a way out of this mess without breaking his illusion.

"Come on. There is nothing to get embarrassed about!" He said, punching my arm lightly. "I just want to know the lucky girl who caught your attention. Not gonna try and steal her from you, promise!"

"Tom…" I guess the faster I do this the less damage it could make. "Listen, it is not-"

Knock, knock, knock.

We darted our eyes to the door, Tom a little annoyed at the interruption while I was deeply relieved at the momentaneous letup.

"Come in…" He sighed, somewhat disappointed.

The knob turned quickly to reveal Vorona on the other side of the door with a laundry basket that looked huge in her arms. She looked a little flustered. Surely the basket was too heavy.

"Excuse my intrusion… I'm collecting the dirty sheets for laundry tomorrow…" She explained, in a quick and small tone uncharacteristically of her.

I quickly got away from Tom and went over, my dirty clothes in hand, and took the basket from her arms.

"Let me help you with this" I smiled at her. I desperately needed an excuse to get out of there and this was my chance.

"This task has been assigned to me, I should not involve others in such a-"she started with that almost automat tone of voice.

"I insist" I cut in, trying to explain with my eyes that I needed her to agree.

She looked me in the eye for a moment before nodding.

"Thank you for your help" she formally thanked me.

We left the room, leaving a confused and curious Tom behind.

"Vorona maybe?" he asked to no one in specific.

oOoOoOoOoOo

I helped Vorona finish collecting the laundry of the day. That was the least I could do after I blatantly used her as an escape route just a few minutes ago. She was against it at first, but quickly gave in. She seemed distant, but I decided not to ask about it.

"Thank you for what you did back there", I mentioned, emptying the last basket. I turned around to see her mystified look. "I don't know what I would've done if you hadn't interrupted when you did, so thanks" I clarified.

"There is no need to thank me for that" she said monotonously. "Actually, I think I need to apologize to you" she added, looking directly at me.

I propped a brow, "What for?"

"I overheard your conversation before knocking the door" she said almost with no change, but I saw a shadow of hesitation cross her face for just a second. "My intention was to assess that I wasn't about to interrupt something important, but there is no excuse for eavesdropping on such a personal conversation. I deeply apologize for that" she concluded, bowing her head a little to show that she meant it.

I could feel a cold sweat break at my nape, remembering the topic of that conversation and what must have been that she heard through the door. I scoffed, trying to calm down.

"It's okay. You don't have to apologize for something like that. I know you didn't mean anything bad" I said, making her lift her head again. Her intent stare made me turn away a little and scratch my nose before continuing, "But I would appreciate if you didn't tell anyone about what you heard."

"Why?"

"Well… You know people tend to overreact whenever I'm involved in any rumor…" I said vaguely, avoiding her gaze but I could still feel her watching me, waiting for me to elaborate. "I just don't want more people at my neck. I have more than enough with Tom as it is"

Her face hardened, as if debating whether she should ask about it or drop the topic altogether. I waited for a few more seconds for her to continue, but she didn't. I took that as my queue to leave.

Well… Good work today" I waved a hand as I hurriedly left the room.

I exhaled a sigh when I was finally outside, relieved that I had somehow gotten away from Tom and Vorona. Those conversations were more nerve-wracking than they should have. "Hopefully Vorona will not delve into this any further and will just eventually forget the conversation with Tom. But Tom…"

I was already a few steps away from the door of the laundry room when the same door opened again in an urgent manner.

"Superior Shizuo!"

I turned around surprised.

"Yes?" I uttered as calmly as I could.

"I… Uhm…" she wasn't acting like she normally did, all collected and cool, that made me worry a bit. "Thank you for your help" she ended up saying.

"Anytime" I answered, attempting to continue my walk, debating whether I should worry for her or just leave her alone.

"Where are you going?"

I froze; I was heading to the market to get the damned tuna rolls for Izaya, but there was no way I could tell her that.

"The market, there is something I wanted…" I answered, trying my best to sound offhandedly.

"I see…" I heard her say.

I kept walking without turning around this time, not letting her ask if she could tag along. I knew myself enough to know that I wouldn't be able to come up with an excuse as to why I wanted to purchase sushi, especially to Vorona who knew I despised raw meats.

oOoOoOoOoOo

The next day I headed directly to the cave after I was done with my round at the market, the sushi rolls securely packed in my rucksack.

Today's round had been relatively calm, but I couldn't shake off the feeling that someone had been watching me all day.

The feeling even extended when I wasn't at the market anymore but I ignored it anyways and I completely forgot all about it when the siren decided to tackle me head on the moment I arrived at the pond.

I heard myself make a weird noise when the air was knocked out of me by Izaya, falling on my back flat on the floor.

"That's all it took to take you down? How boring!" he laughed at his prank.

I groaned as pain bloomed at the back of my head. "What do you expect when I wasn't even ready?"

"You are a soldier, are you not? Aren't you supposed to be ready for combat at all times?" he debated, resting his head on one hand while the other entertained a long nail at my neck.

I thought that I was already used to Izaya's random attacks, but it seems that he still managed to find a way to throw me off balance every once in a while. I tried to get up using my elbows and Izaya quickly removed himself off me, going back to the pond. Thanks to his little prank, now my shirt and pants were wet at the front. I threw him a glare when his head popped out of the water. He just smiled innocently as if he had done nothing wrong.

"Well yeah, but that's only when you are in danger" I scoffed an answer, getting up from the floor and taking my usual seat in the flat rock by the shore.

"So being ultimately defenseless in a dark and small place with a dangerous creature such as myself doesn't count as dangerous in Shizu-chan´s book, hmm?" Izaya said in a mocking tone. "Shizu-chan is really more of a monster than I am"

"Shut up" I liked our conversations, but whenever Izaya started to rant like that I found myself at the verge of my patience with every sentence. "Besides, I'm not ultimately defenseless"

He whistled at that, an action that I had taught him a few weeks prior. This bastard learned things quick and the annoying ones even faster.

"So Shizu-chan knows big words like 'ultimately', huh?"

For the sake of keeping the conversation going, I decided to ignore that. Too bad I was not able to stop that vein from popping into my forehead.

"I have my sword at all times, and when that fails…" I lifted a hand in front of me and fisted it tightly. "There is always this monstrous strength".

"Just like an animal…" He whispered.

I couldn't ignore that anymore.

"Seems like you are in a good mood today, huh?" I smiled the warning toothy grin that I have come to perfect. "That means you don't need any sushi, right?"

"So you did bring them?" The siren asked in an actually surprised tone, his eyes sparkling at the thought.

"It seems that you don't want them, though"

I looked at the siren as he seemed to have an internal fight with himself. His glowing eyes turned to slits as he weighed the options for a few seconds before his face relaxed in an easy grin. I propped a brow at that. "Giving up?"

Izaya started to swim closer and when he was close enough, he propped his upper body out of the water, putting his elbows on both of my knees and looking at me directly in the eyes. I took on the challenge, not backing down and keeping an unwavering gaze on his face. He chuckled a little.

"Shizu-chan, do you even understand the position you are in?" he said, closing his eyes even more to the point where I could barely see their red glow right in front of me. "You know that of all the legends you've heard from sirens, one of them is actually true, right?"

I gulped at the proximity. The threat on his voice was serious but there was no way I was going to give this bastard the pleasure of victory with just a puny warning like that. I put on a strong front to face what was coming. The red eyes shined with an amused glint at my opposition and Izaya started to get even closer to my face, but my pride prevented me from moving away.

"I would just need to use my voice a little…" he whispered in a throaty voice. His body was now supported only on one of his hands, placed conveniently in the space between my legs while his other hand had reached out for my chin and held my face in place.

I remained frozen. I could tell without even trying that if I had wanted to, I would have been able to overthrow him. But some other force had me still in that rock. Be it the foreign situation, the fact that a siren was getting dangerously close after threating me or that this siren was Izaya himself, I didn't know. I just became aware of the awkwardness of it all when he was so close to me that the water dripping from his body started to fall over my suddenly hot chest. At that point, I could even feel his breathing on one side of my face, getting ever so close to my ear. I put on my best poker face but I felt how my heart rate started to escalate to heights where I worried if Izaya would be able to hear them.

At some point during this new attack, Izaya´s eyes had moved out of my sight, but when I noticed that the other had stopped moving, I quickly searched for his face. And I found it, his eyes were already over my own. The red glow of his orbs caught my breath immediately and the word "Beautiful" flew through my head again. He watched me for a few seconds with wide open eyes, as if just realizing something, before he let go of my face and snatched something from my side all too quick.

I could only watch as Izaya submerged back into the pond, leaving outside one arm with the sushi pack that I had in my bag. I immediately turned around to verify that indeed, the flea had snatched it out of my rucksack while I was distracted.

"Or I can just do this" He said, waving the package victoriously in front of me.

"Tch. Sneaky bastard…" I mumbled, pretending to be upset at the frustration of my attempt to prevent him from getting the sushi.

Izaya wasted not a single moment to tear the elaborated wrapping of the box to shreds, getting to his precious tuna rolls. The instant he could, he threw one of them on his mouth; his throat making a purr-like sound. I smiled at that. This whole siren deal was just like having a cat.

I threw a sidelong glance at Izaya again.

"An oversized cat that loved the water and could potentially kill you", my mind decided to remind me. Still, all the reactions, the preference of fish and random attacks reminded me of those of a cat, plus the elegance of his moves and those moments where he looked kinda cute… "I should stop that train of thought right there", I scoffed a little.

"Ne, Shizu-chan" Izaya called to me, successfully making me focus on the present again.

"What?"

"From where do you get these tuna rolls?" He asked, and his tone sounded all too innocent.

I examined him for a second, weighing the chances that this was just one of his stupid jokes or if he was honestly curious.

"There is a market that opens only at night and has these stalls that sell festival food…" I explained, trying to use words that I have explained to him before.

"Festival food? What kind of food is that?" He asked, throwing another roll in his mouth.

"Well… Is food that is normally sold at festivals…? Is not like your everyday food, these are more… Unhealthy?" I tried explaining, searching for a word that would describe the difference between normal food and festival food. More fried? Sugary?

"And what is a festival?" There it was, the face that Izaya put on when he was so curious about something that he would not let the topic rest until he was satisfied.

"A festival…" I wracked my brain for the correct words, but I simply couldn´t come up with them. I sighed. "Is something too complicated to explain" I scratched the back of my head, trying to avoid his gaze because I knew what kind of expression he was making. That stupid puppy face that contrasted terribly with his bright red eyes, making it more creepy than compelling. And he made it everytime he didn´t get what he wanted. "It would be easier if I could take you there to show you…" I mumbled as an after-thought.

"Would you really?" I heard him whisper, a little too low.

"Yeah sure" I subconsciously continued.

He took a few seconds to just watch me. This time, I knew he was examining my intentions and not just analyzing my face.

"Do you mean that?" He finally asked, and I noticed that the low tone from before was actually him being cautious. This put me off for a second.

Izaya had stopped adopting this behavior after our first two weeks of these meetings. Something must be bothering him. I sat as straight as I could and meet him directly in the eyes, trying my best to convey my feelings.

"I do" I responded honestly. "But I don´t suppose that the citizens will take it lightly if I suddenly waltzed around the market plaza with a siren in my arms" I joked a bit, trying to lift the tense mood.

I felt my cheeks heat up a little at the image that my statement proposed, but I managed to keep my cool just enough to notice that Izaya averted his eyes in another direction.

"I wouldn´t be in your arms…"

"What?" He was still mumbling, so I wasn´t sure I had heard him right.

"There is a way you can show me around the city" He said, louder than before.

It took me a moment to process that.

"I´m not getting you a water tank either"

He looked dumbstruck for a second before he broke a laugh, hugging one of my legs so he wouldn´t go underwater during his fit. His laugh offended me a little, but I let it slide since the previous mood had finally evaporated.

"Don´t be stupid! Hahaha!" He finally managed. "How could you even…? Ha, nevermind that" Izaya composed himself once more, putting his chin on the knee of the leg that he was still holding. "Shizu-chan, would you show me what a festival is if I had legs?"

oOoOoOoOoOo

OtPr: Please be honest with me! Do you find these cliffhangers tiring? Makes you not want to keep reading? There´s not much I can do about them since I need to cut the emotion at that moment but I want to know if you find them discouraging x3 Anyhow! What do you think? Like the idea so far? Ufufufufu, I´m finally getting to where I wanted this to go ;3 See you in next chappy! And don´t forget to give me your comments about this story, I love to read them over and over again! X3