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Chapter 8

Shizuo´s POV

"It is you, correct?", I turned my head slowly to confirm that I was right.

"Vorona?", I responded back, incredulous at the bad luck. Izaya cursed under his breath, tensing all over and trying his best to keep his face hidden.

"Superior, I have been searching for you. I thought that you would not mind if we attended to the fireworks show toge-", she had kept on talking while approaching us, but suddenly halted when she noticed the suspicious cargo in my hands. "Is that a person?"

I mentally groaned, feeling how Izaya had tightened his grip on my neck at the question. I slowly turned around, checking that his face and tail were completely covered before doing so. And I was glad I did, since the first thing Vorona did was scan Izaya's body.

"He's, uh, not feeling well", I lamely tried to explain. "I'm taking him home", I wished with all my might that Vorona would just drop the subject like that.

"Do you need my help?", she offered, getting closer yet again.

"No!", I quickly bit my tongue, not meaning to raise my voice like that. "There is no need for that, I can handle this", I said, trying to cover it up.

"Nonsense, this kind of task clearly requires at least two people to be carried out without setbacks", she said nonchalantly, unaffected by my previous rejection.

Vorona was practically in front of us now and I had run out of valid excuses to threw at her. I could always just turn around and run, but that would make everything look even more suspicious. The closer she got the more I could feel my heart racing as the thought of Izaya being exposed to others and what would happen to him darted through my mind.

That's when Izaya decided to interfere.

He lifted his head, turning to Vorona. The sudden action took her by surprise, surely not expecting that the other person was actually conscious. Then, in a swift movement that I couldn't have stopped even if I wanted to, Izaya removed his hood, revealing a pair of ruby glowing eyes.

"Wha-?", she exclaimed, her eyes growing wide with disbelief and fear.

"You didn't see us today", Izaya said, using an unusual cold tone that sent a shiver down my spine, his grip on my neck telling me that he was actually tense. "Go back and continue with your night", he commanded, putting a hand on my chest to steady himself.

I was staring at Izaya and sweating bullets at the scene. Will it work? If anything, he had revealed himself to Vorona and she had clearly discovered that he was a siren, so if it didn't, we were done for.

However, the previous fear-stricken expression on Vorona's face had softened to her everyday one and her previously wide eyes were now normal and lackluster. Once Izaya had finished his order, she slowly nodded and turned around, walking away without further ado.

Watching her go just like that was unnerving and oddly relieving. Vorona was just about to discover everything- No, scratch that, she HAD discovered everything, and Izaya had just manipulated her into forgetting it all and leave? A siren's voice is something very powerful, all right. I was marveling at the display, but right at that moment Izaya tugged at my hair, bringing me back to the current issue.

"What are you waiting for, protozoan?", Izaya asked, irritation and a little of apprehension seeping in his voice. "For somebody else to find us?"

I sent him a silent glare as the idea of dropping him right then and there crossed my mind, but I shook my head and discarded it before continuing the walk towards the cave.

oOoOoOoOoOo

"Is she going to be okay?", I finally asked after we had reached the cave.

Izaya was sitting in a stone by the pond, unbuttoning his trench coat. He stopped at my question and turned to look at me, a frown on his face.

"What?"

"Vorona, is she going to be okay after that?", I explained.

He kept looking at me with that same scowl for a few seconds before turning away, returning to his unbuttoning.

"I fail to understand how your brain works to make you worry about her rather than us", he mumbled, a little irritated. "But yeah, she should be fine. She could have a little disorientation when she snaps out of it, but hopefully she will not remember our encounter", he finally removed the coat and threw it at me.

Once Izaya was free of the coat, he quickly removed the undergarments and jumped to the water, only to return to the surface once he had hydrated himself again. I picked up the clothes and put them into Izaya's own rucksack before sitting down, diving my naked feet in the water. It was cold.

"What do you mean 'hopefully'?", I continued after getting over the chill that the water gave me. "Didn't you order her to forget that she saw us?"

He looked at me for a second and then sighed, swimming near me and resting his head and arms on one of my knees.

"As much as I would like you to believe the contrary, you are better off knowing. A siren's voice is not something absolute", he started. "Sure, most of the time we can command those that hear us to do almost anything, but it really depends on the mentality of each prey", Izaya smiled sadistically at the word. "The weaker of mind the prey is, the easier to control it. And no matter how much I would like to assure you that I have never met another living being that surpasses my mental capabilities, I was not at my best today. And that friend of yours was not a dumb girl", he concluded, still frowning. "Even though she looked like one", he mumbled, the irritation returning to his tone.

"So you're saying that she may remember?", I asked, wisely ignoring the last comment.

"There is a small chance that she will reject my orders and remember what happened, yeah", he simplified.

We remained in silence for a while, letting the weight of those words sink in. I clenched my teeth, a little frustrated that we had almost gotten away with this without any negative consequences, just to be miserably discovered at the end.

"Why did you showed her your face?", I asked when I remembered that.

"The siren's command only works when you look directly into it's eyes. That's why they glow, to attract the eye of others", he mumbled.

Izaya was unusually talkative today. Well, not like he wasn't talkative all the time, but he wasn't evading my questions like always. Was he so tired that he had dropped his defenses, or was this his way of thanking me for taking him to the festival? Either way, I wasn't about to complain.

"There are a lot more rules to this power than I thought", I mused, noticing that my hand had subconsciously moved to Izaya's hair.

I started to gently rub his head, and Izaya closed his eyes at the motion. For just a second I waited for a purr-like sound to come out of his throat. Of course that didn't happen. I chuckled at my own thought before returning my attention to Izaya. It may have taken me awhile to realize it at first, but this creature in front of me was quite majestic. He may be an annoying bastard whenever he spoke, but the things he could do and the grace surrounding his actions were another thing altogether.

Then I tried to imagine what would happen if he was gone, if his presence in the city was made public and the city united against him. It was difficult, since I have never witnessed what the citizens would do in such a case, but just thinking of their rejection whenever they heard the word 'siren' gave me a pretty good idea of how they would react.

I need to protect him.

"Don't strain your brain, Shizu-chan", his voice snapped me back to the cave.

"What?", I asked, thinking that I may have lost some part of the statement.

"You're making the weird face you do when you think too hard", Izaya explained, his eyes now open and looking at me. "You'll give yourself a brain stroke", he explained, closing his eyes again. "What were you thinking?"

I contemplated the question for a while before shaking my head a bit. Worrying over this would not help at all.

"You know, you should go out to town even if it's not a festival", I suggested offhandedly, to which Izaya immediately perked up.

"Are you saying that I should go to town on my own?", he lifted his head, removing my hand in the process.

"I mean, you need to look for your soul, right? And what I saw today was that nobody suspected anything about you, so it should be safe to go to town and ask around", I explained. "I'll try to search for it during my rounds and within the base, but you're the one who can feel it. We may have a better chance of finding it if we look for it together, right?"

He looked at me for a second before chuckling.

"You know I can't actually ask around without speaking", he explained, amused that I had forgotten such an obvious fact. "Besides, shouldn't we focus on being more careful now that we risk being discovered by that girl?".

"Oh, right…", I thought about it for a second. "I'll keep an eye on her at the base", that sounded like a reasonable plan to me.

However, the frown Izaya gave me made me notice that he didn't think the same.

"I'm not sure I want you too close to that blond, though", he mumbled, looking the other way.

"Why?", I raised a brow.

"Because she has feelings for you", he said in a serious tone, turning to look directly into my eyes.

I kept his stare for a while before smiling incredulously.

"That's not true", I responded, trying to make Izaya drop the serious act.

He didn't.

"Are you seriously dumb? Or just when it's convenient?", he mused, tilting his head to the side.

I felt the familiar feeling of my blood starting to boil, but damn, today had been a fucking long day. I didn't even had that much energy left to get mad at him anymore. I sighed, pinching the bridge of my nose to calm down and laying down on my side, getting my feet out of the water.

"Look, trust me on this one, I've known Vorona for far longer than you have. We've been together since the militia academy, so...", I looked at him directly, now that we were on the same eye level, trying to convey my logic to him. Of course that he didn't listen to me.

"That's exactly the problem. It may not be obvious to you, for whatever reason", he interrupted me, stressing the last part. "But other people can notice", I sighed, giving up on trying to convince him and laying down on my back.

"Other people being…?", Izaya noticed that I was trying to avoid this conversation, so he got out of the water and leaned over my head to keep the eye contact.

"Your friend Tom seemed to know...", he responded, and in the position we were in now, it wasn't long before the water drops from Izaya's body started to drip over me.

"How does Tom fit in anything…?", I dropped that thought. It was useless to continue discussing this. "Listen... We have to keep an eye on Vorona, and like it or not, I'm the only one who can do that. Besides, even if what you're saying is true, is not like it matters", at this I decided to raise a hand to his cheek, getting rid of some of the drops of water that clung to his face.

That gesture seemed to have the desired effect. Izaya looked at me for a complete second before finally dropping the scowl and relaxing his shoulders a bit. I smiled at his defeated posture, an accomplished feeling coursing through me.

"You have to trust me a little more", I whispered, running my thumb over his cheekbone.

He lowered himself even more, to the point where his chest rested completely against mine. His hands ventured to the sides of my head and I noticed that I was suddenly warm.

"I trust you more than you give me credit for", he whispered, his voice suddenly low and eyes directly into mine. "If this were anybody else, they would be long dead"

Call me sick, but the way he stressed that last word sent a pleasant wave through my body. I thrusted my head to meet his lips, not having enough self restraint to wait for Izaya's opinion this time around.

I was gladly met with his welcoming lips midway, though.

The contact started rough, thirsty. Teeth clacking against teeth since we were not familiar with the other yet, but that didn't deterred our need to get to know each other's every nook and cranny. His lips were wet and soft against my chapped ones, small and surprised gasps and breaths accompanying every move. My hands quickly found their way to Izaya's waist when I felt him tangle his fingers in my hair, electricity running through my nerves whenever our bodies met.

His constantly gasping lips granted me access to his mouth and we immediately started a fight for dominance. The struggle ended in my victory when I found one of Izaya's sweet spots right on the roof of his mouth, earning me a few muffled moans whenever I teased it. I smirked at that, and Izaya quickly bit down my lower lip in revenge but far from painful, the feeling of his bite was rather pleasurable.

It was only fair I returned the favor.

I took hold of his lower lip between my lips and sucked on it hard. Izaya sharply gasped at this, his grip on my hair tightening as his whole body trembled. With so much of a push to the side, I was able to exchange our positions. Izaya latched his arms around my neck and down my back to keep the distance between us (or lack thereof) while I used one of my forearms to support us both, the other hand busily roaming down Izaya's side as I subconsciously took notice of how perfectly my palm fit on the small of his back.

The feeling of Izaya squirming beneath me was exhilarating and everything seemed to be getting hotter, but I bet the lack of oxygen during all the exchange had something to do as well. We finally separated with a gasp, trying to get in as much oxygen as we could in one breath.

I opened my eyes, that had closed at some point, only to be greeted by a blushing and out of breath flea. He had also closed his eyes, but he slowly opened them to look at me. Half lidded and clouded irises greeted me while his chest heaved each breath he took. My throat automatically constricted, making me gulp.

"I…", I coughed at my raspy voice. "I have to go now", I couldn't trust myself at the moment to keep my cool for much longer.

Izaya only nodded, releasing my neck and letting both arms fall limply on each side of his head before covering his eyes with his forearms. I stood up and took in the rest of his body, noticing how his fins seemed to twitch with the aftermath of the kiss.

I have to get out of here, I thought, after feeling a familiar jolt go south.

"Well, get some rest. It was a long night", I said after I got over my reverie. I awkwardly bid goodbye, picking up my shoes and rushing for the exit. "Good night."

"Shizu-chan", he called me.

I slowly turned my head over my shoulder. Izaya was still in the same position, with his head slightly turned to me.

"See you tomorrow"

I nodded reassuringly and finally got out of the cave.

It was still cold outside but the cool night breeze that stung my reddened face was welcomed.

oOoOoOoOoOo

Tom and I were finishing our round at the port the next day. Everything was unusually quiet for a market morning in Sagena, but it wasn't like I was about to complain. Most people were surely still resting after yesterday's festival, after all.

We had been walking around the few stalls that were still in place when Tom had decided to tell me all about the lady that he met yesterday at the collective dance. I let him ramble on while my own mind slipped back to yesterday's events. Everything had turned out great and, without taking into account Vorona's incident, I could even say the whole plan had been flawless. I even got to know Izaya a lot better and we even-

"What about you, Shizuo? Anything mention worthy?"

I almost choked on air. Can he read minds now?

"Me? Erm, well-Oof!", just at that moment, something collided directly in my chest, making me lose my breath. The impact made me step back a bit, sending my hands to grab whatever had hit me.

My eyes immediately catched the fur lining of a familiar black trench coat and I knew that it was not something but rather someone.

"Flea?", I half breathed, half wondered out loud.

The person hugging me raised his head to reveal the mischievous smile of Izaya.

"What are you-?!", I loudly whispered.

"Are you okay?", Tom asked us, interrupting my question.

I quickly turned around to Tom, remembering where I was. Then I returned my eyes to Izaya before finally reaching the best course of action.

"Tom, can you give me a minute?", I said, grabbing Izaya by the hood of the coat and dragging him into the nearest and emptiest alley.

"Ah, sure…?", Tom answered back, watching us go.

oOoOoOoOoOo

"What the hell are you doing here!?", I finally asked once we reached an empty alley.

Izaya shook off my hand, straightening his coat with an offended huff.

"What, you say. You were the one who suggested I should go to town and ask about my pearl", he answered matter-of-factly. "And if I had known you would react like this, I wouldn't have run at you", he mumbled, but I could distinguish a bitter undertone in his voice.

That sent a small pang of guilt to my chest.

"Sorry, is not that…", I mumbled an apology. "You're asking around? Alone?", the thought of Izaya suddenly transforming in the middle of the plaza unsettled me. "That's too risky. What if you transform and somebody sees you?"

Izaya examined my eyes for a second, seemingly satisfied at what he saw.

"I'm not dumb, Shizu-chan. Not like someone I know", I let the comment slide this one time. "I'm using this", he said, suddenly pulling up a piece of paper from one of his pockets.

I took the paper and examined it. There was a drawing of an earring on it and the words "Seen it?" drawn along in black charcoal lines. The earring looked like a small auger shell with a pearl attached to the wider end of it. So this is his pearl...

"You drew this?", I asked, extending the paper to him.

He propped a brow at that as if saying Who else?, before taking the paper back.

"Besides, I'm not defenseless", he added before pulling out the knife that was given to him as a prize yesterday and unfolding it with a swift movement, pointing it at me.

"You're more resourceful than I thought", I praised him, not so sure if I should feel happy or not about Izaya not really needing me anymore. "And how long have you been like this?", I motioned to his legs.

"Around half an hour or so", he answered after looking at the sun, checking for the time.

"I'm almost done for the day. Stay close and then I'll help you look around for the remainder of the time", I offered, turning to the exit of the alley.

Izaya didn't answer, but he followed close behind.

oOoOoOoOoOo

My round was coming to an end and Izaya had (for once) listened to me and remained close while asking the citizens around with his drawing. From what I could tell, he had only received apologetic smiles and slow shakes of the head, none seemingly interested in asking the mute guy why he was searching for an earring in the first place.

When I was done with the port surveillance I walked back to town, bidding Tom goodbye and then looking for Izaya. I found him surrounded by some women that seemed to have recognized him from yesterday's performance at the Knife Throwing Course. He was silently laughing with them when he noticed me, waving an arm my way before parting from the group.

"Take care now, Izaya boy!", the women waved her arms to him.

I arched a brow at that and turned to look at Izaya, who was smiling brightly beside me.

"How did they know your name?" And what was that 'Izaya boy'?

Izaya turned to me before pulling up his drawing again, now showing me the backside where his name was written.

"You think of everything, huh?", I was still amused at how well he had habituated to deal with humans when just yesterday he was still tense around them.

He smiled proudly at my comment before we set ourselves to start the search.

We searched high and low around the market plaza and when we were done we moved to the commercial district where the bigger stores were. We searched in the jewelry stores, in hopes that the earring could have been in one of them, but we still found no leads as to where the pearl could be.

We were nearing the three hours time limit and, even though Izaya claimed that he hasn't spoken that much, being in a place that was so crowded was getting me anxious so I suggested that we started to move towards the cave. Izaya didn't seem very happy about it at first but complied anyways. I guess the idea of being captured again wasn't that attractive to him. Now that I think about it…

"How did you get caught that first time?", I asked him when we reached the entrance of the cave.

Izaya always evaded that question, but after all the information he gave me yesterday, I had the feeling that this time would be different.

He looked at me for a second before sighing and sitting in the sand by the entrance. I did the same, seating beside him.

"You never give up, do you?", he said, looking at me before finally answering me. "The essence of my pearl had led me all the way to this beach", he started, turning towards the sea. "I remained near the shore for a few days, studying the humans and hiding to not get discovered, trying to find where my pearl could have gone to. It was fun…", he mumbled this part with a small smile. "Unfortunately, I started to drop my guard the more I observed the humans and, one night, it seems that one of the fishers noticed me and gave notice to the guard", his smile turned bitter. "The chase extended until very early in the morning and I ended up trapped in one of their nets", he turned to look at me with that fake smile.

"And what did… they do?", I asked cautiously.

"... They seemed bent on capturing me and bringing me to land", he mused. "Of course, everything went awry once I started to fight back when we reached the shore", his hand softly touched his left hip, and I remembered the wound he had there when I met him. "When I started to thrash around and scratch them, they turned to their weapons… And I turned to mine", his stare was very far away, the scenes surely replaying in his mind eye. "You know how it ended", he turned to look at me, no trace of his usual smile on his face.

I remained in silence for awhile, taking in all the information.

"But... ", I just couldn't help the feeling that something wasn't right. "How did your pearl end up here?"

"Don't push it, Shizu-chan", Izaya's serious face reverted to his usual mischievous one.

I sighed, flopping against the stone behind me. I wanted to know more but I knew I had gotten my fill of information for the day. Whatever reason Izaya had to avoid my questions, it had something to do with his life before coming to Sagena. Whenever I inquired about his life then, he would close up like this, but maybe one day…

"Maybe one day…", I mumbled my thoughts without noticing.

The mischievous smile he was giving me faltered a bit at that and he quickly turned to look at the sea in front of us, pulling his legs to his chest before speaking again.

"Shizu-chan, why are you so interested in me?", he asked. "What am I to you?"

The question took me completely unguarded. I tensed when my mind deciphered it's meaning and turned to look at Izaya at the same time as he turned to look at me, eyes looking directly at mine. I gulped, unconsciously noticing a certain longing for the missing red glow of his eyes.

"I-You…", I closed my eyes and exhaled to calm myself, only opening my eyes again until I knew I was able to utter the correct answer. "You're… important to me", there was no point in denying it. Doing so has done nothing for my mental health all this time so I might as well just face these feelings head on.

Izaya's eyes scanned me intently, but this time, despite knowing that there was not a single ounce of doubt to be found in my eyes, his expression started to turn uncertain with each passing second. He finally turned away, as if unable to endure my stare anymore.

"If that's true, then trust me. You don't need to know everything about me", he mumbled.

I looked at him from the side for a minute, trying to come up with a way to make Izaya trust me with his past, but quickly gave up on that idea. Everybody has secrets that don't want to make public and even if I wanted to know everything about him, I had to give him his space for now. I stood up and dusted myself off, turning to face Izaya. He raised his head to see me, and I extended a hand so he could stand up.

"It's okay, you don't have to tell me now", I told him when he took my hand, pulling him up. "We have time"

His eyes widened a bit at my words, before he smiled and stood on his toes to steal a peck from my lips.

"Shizu-chan is more understanding than I thought", he praised in a much more relaxed tone. "I like that"

oOoOoOoOoOo

I returned to my room at the base in a good mood. After leaving Izaya safely inside of the cave I had returned to keep an eye on Vorona's behavior and was gladly met with her normal everyday routine. If things kept like this, we will be able to discard Vorona as a possible threat soon enough.

Things seemed to be going fine again.

Knock, knock.

I turned to look at the door of my room. Tom?, I wondered at first, but discarded the possibility since he had his own key. Then who?

"Shizuo, it's us", the voice from a certain doctor answered my question. "Can we come in?"

I went to the door and let them in quickly. Of course, Celty was there with Shinra. Both entered in silence and then put their eyes on me, making me blink at their behavior. Shinra looked somewhat apologetic whilst Celty stare was definitely severe and a little worried.

"Is there… something wrong?", I carefully asked.

"Oh, it really depends on what you consider wrong, actually", Shinra commented in his usual chirpy tone, but that didn't dissipate the tension in the air.

"Shizuo, we need to talk to you about the person you were with today", Celty decided to clarify, knowing that his lover liked to beat around the bush a little too much.

"Izaya? What's wrong with him?", I asked, the topic suddenly taking a turn I wasn't liking, not with the eyes Celty was giving me.

Both of them turned to look at each other for a brief moment before Celty turned to me again.

"He's a siren"

oOoOoOoOoOo

OtPr: That's all for today folks! How did you like that twist at the end? Hehehe, things will get rowdy from here, but I hope I can keep counting with your mental patronage! And what did you thought of the kiss? Please, be sincere! I can take it! I want to improve my smutty writing (don't tell my beta xD) As always, please don't be afraid to send me your thoughts and ideas, I'll see the way to add them if they don't mess the plot, and it's always fun to read how you seem to guess somethings right xD Until next time~