Author´s note: Hello everyone! I'm here to bring you the next chapter! I hope you didn't wait too long, but if you did... Let me give you some good reasons why the wait was worth it! First! I have updated the cover of the story with the fanart from one of my readers, Malice Hawk! We have a siren Izaya! (Kyaaa! I love it, I can't help it) Secondly, for those of you waiting for the drama to finally happen... Ufufufu, the wait is over! And thirdly! This chapter is the longest so far, and according to my beta, is the best as well xD Enjoy!

Guest: Thanks! I hope you enjoy the next chappy too!

shufflepink: Hehehe, what will Celty and Shinra say about Izaya? What will happen to their relationship now? x3 Everything will be revealed now!

silvervaga: Thank you! I loved the kiss scene too! Even though I felt it somewhat anticlimactic but oh well, I'm glad you enjoyed it. Let's find out what happens now with those two x3

BTW, I'll be answering reviews after posting the chapter, so in the remote case that you wrote me in the past chapter and you haven't received a response yet, please give me a few minutes!

Now, please go on!

Chapter 9

Shizuo´s POV

"He's a siren"

Everything stopped.

"What…?", I managed to articulate while the rest of my body froze.

They knew.

How? What will they do now? Did they tell anyone else? Is Izaya safe? I could feel the blood draining from my head and my fingers turning cold. What should I do now?

"Shizuo", Shinra's voice snapped me back.

I focused my eyes on them once more, their expressions still the same worried ones.

"Did you know?", Celty asked, her eyes boring into mine, pleading.

I opened my mouth, but nothing came out, the words just seemed stuck in my throat. What can I tell them?

"Shizuo, please be sincere. Are you aware of what you're doing?", she continued.

I had to force myself to answer something, I had to know what they knew and how.

"How… did you know?", I mumbled, finally finding my voice.

Celty's face faltered at the question.

"Well, that is not important now", Shinra interfered at that moment. "What really matters right now is that we came to warn you", the words entered my brain, but my mind only registered the possible threat in them.

"Warn me?", my body suddenly remembered how to work again, the blood starting to boil. "What about?", I tried to contain the growl behind the words.

"Shizuo, please calm down", Shinra said, raising both hands in surrender. "It is not what you think"

"You better start making sense now Shinra, if you don't want this door between your ribs", the one hand that I had still in the knob of the door tensed, molding the handle into the form of my palm.

"Now, now; let's calm down", Celty put herself in front of her lover and shaking her hands slightly since she wasn't one for violent confrontations.

I watched her for a few seconds before huffing and looking the other way, I had to calm down if I was getting anything out of them. I released the mangled door knob before turning to them again.

"So, what do you mean?", my voice gave away that I was still pissed, so they should get to the point quick.

"First, please tell us if you already knew about him being a siren", Celty insisted.

I took a deep breath before responding.

"So, what of it?", I mumbled, relaxing my shoulders but keeping my eyes on them.

Shinra sent me a small smile while Celty's face turned complicated. She looked relieved and saddened at the same time.

"See, I told you he was not being controlled", Shinra whispered to Celty in a very low and reassuring tone, but I was still able to catch them. Animal senses, Izaya would call them.

She smiled to him before returning to our conversation.

"Shizuo, I know this may be hard…", Oh, I'm not going to like this. "But you need to stop meeting him", Celty concluded with a severe gaze.

Her words ticked me off, but more than anything, I felt betrayed. Didn't I share with her enough for her to realize that I couldn't just stop meeting Izaya? How could she ask that of me?

"Why…?", I asked in a dangerously low tone.

"Please, believe me. You have to cut off your relationship with him"

"Why?!", I buffed, my sight going slightly red. " Just because he's a-!?"

"Ah, ah, ah, Shizuo. Are you sure you want to scream that? Here?" Shinra interjected, effectively shutting me up.

I immediately closed my mouth, biting my tongue in the process. I sure as hell didn't want more people finding out about Izaya, and that seemed to be Shinra and Celty's intention as well.

Wait a second…

"You haven't told anyone?", I asked in an incredulous whisper.

"Nope, and that is not our intention either", Shinra said in his usual tone, Celty shaking her head to confirm it. "We're merely here to persuade you"

"To not meet him again? Why?"

"He's dangerous", Celty took the word again. "Shizuo, you need to stop meeting him. You may end up hurt or worse"

"Celty…", I rolled my eyes at that. Again with the superstitions?. "I know what everybody thinks about… people like him", I carefully chose my words this time. " But trust me, he's not dangerous"

"You don't know that", she insisted, her eyes shining urgently. "He's very sketchy and rejoices in making others suffer, you will end up tangled in his games without even noticing"

"Wha-How do you know that?", the way she made it sound was so… personal.

"Shizuo… You have to believe me, he's not as innocent as he may make out himself to be", she kept evading the question.

"What do you know to be able to say that?", there was something in all this that was rubbing me the wrong way.

She took a step forward, but Shinra put a hand on her shoulder to stop her march. She turned and he gave her one of his rare worried expressions, the one that he only showed whenever Celty was concerned. She raised a hand to his and nodded slowly.

Shinra watched her for a while and smiled weakly before letting her go.

When she was right in front of me, she turned her face a little and removed the bangs that fell from her temple. The gesture confused me, since I was expecting her to keep on with the previous conversation, but that's when I saw them.

Dark long lines that surrounded the edge of her eye like ugly tattoos.

I stared at the marks for far longer than needed, not sure about what kind of expression I was making, and not really caring either. After a minute I raised a curious hand and cautiously touched them. The skin beneath my fingers was slippery and twitched slightly. I removed my hand as if it had burnt me.

"Celty… you…", my mouth was dry, so my voice barely made it through.

She let her hair fall down again, effectively covering the telltale marks. Celty looked directly into my eyes before nodding.

She was a siren too.

oOoOoOoOoOo

After Celty's revelation I was more than willing to listen to whatever she had to say, so we locked the door and sit down so I could hear her reasons.

But I wasn't ready for what she had to tell me.

Celty started off with her life back at the sea and her story slowly made me aware that whatever notion I used to have about Izaya having somewhere to return to was a complete delusion.

The reality is that sirens live long, lonely lives since a very young age. The siren population is very scarce and the sea is just too vast. This means that even if a siren is born from two parents, once it is old enough to fend for itself, they will be abandoned and is more than likely that it will never see it's family again.

IF they're lucky enough to meet their parents, that is. And that is not the case most of the time.

With no family and obviously no underwater house to call home, a siren must live in constant movement, chasing food or being chased by bigger predators. There are a few lucky ones that get to meet other sirens along their travels and establish camaraderies, but big groups of sirens attract the attention of another terrible predator.

Humans.

We hunt them down, either to make prizes out of them or with even darker purposes. I didn't delve into this topic much, already aware of the type of atrocities our kind is capable of. And sure, their voice help them get out of the more dangerous situations, but they face a far stronger enemy.

What did it matter to survive, if you were condemned to a life of solitude?

Sirens, though human looking, are not familiar with the sense of love and loyalty that binds people together into societies and families. If a siren is deemed an unnecessary burden, it will be left behind, no looking back nor second thoughts about it...

After this part we remained in silence for a while. This conversation was turning heavier by the second, and I wasn't sure if I would end up liking what she would reveal to me about Izaya. But I had a hunch that I wouldn't.

"And… how did you meet him?", I asked quietly.

"... I was alone for a very long time", she started after a short while. "When I met him, I was willing to do anything to not be alone anymore"

I gulped at the despair that surfaced on her eyes for an instant.

"He told me about an old legend of sirens and humans finding love together, and taught me the spell to change one's tail for legs", she looked at her legs for a second.

"So you can never get back your tail?", I was curious about that, since I've only ever seen Izaya's spell.

Celty just smiled sadly, I decided that it would be better to leave that topic out.

"He took advantage of my weaknesses to make me get near the humans, filling my head with marvelous ideas that he had no way of knowing himself, but I still did as he told me…"

Shinra's hands had moved to her shoulders at some point during the story.

"I…", she stopped there, by this time she had such a forlorn expression that I couldn't bring myself to ask her to continue.

"She was captured by a group of bounty hunters", Shinra whispered, continuing for her, bracing her from behind tightly. Celty hugged his arms and took a deep breath to calm herself. "She was then sold at the black market"

I felt a sudden pang of guilt at this, for some reason feeling responsible for Izaya's actions.

"Luckily, my father was the one who found her", Shinra said with a smile, but I could see Celty's face turning a few shades paler at the mention of Shinra's father. Better not to ask about it…

We waited for Celty to calm down, so she could continue her tale.

"Later on, I discovered that I was not the first one to fall for his stories, and not the last either", she stopped for a second. "But I certainly was the luckiest", Celty was looking directly into my eyes. "He's must be planning something, Shizuo", she was practically begging me to believe in her.

And the worst part was that I did. I trusted Celty enough to know that she had no reason to lie about something like this, and I knew Izaya well enough to not put something like that past him.

That didn't make me feel any better about it, though.

"Please promise me that you will cut off these meetings", she got closer to me, emphasizing her concern.

I gulped. In my mind, her suggestion made perfect sense and the fact that Izaya had refused to relay any kind of information about his past to me only supported Celty's idea. But still…

"Celty, I… Thanks, but I'm sorry", I didn't know what else to tell her at that moment other than thanking her for her concern, but I couldn't just cut off Izaya like that. Not without hearing him out first.

We stared at each other, battling our wills with our eyes.

"Are you… in love with him?"

The bluntness of the question took me off guard. It was easy facing those feelings by myself, and even with Izaya himself, but admitting such a thing in front of others, that was a completely different story.

I couldn't stand the seriousness in her eyes any longer, so I removed my gaze first, my face getting too hot for comfort.

"Well, as you can see. My dearest here doesn't have the best opinion about this Izaya guy", Shinra said, looking at me with a condescending smile. "However, I don't think you should just stop meeting him"

Celty and I quickly turned to look at Shinra. Celty's eyes were open with disbelief at his words.

"What?", I asked, confused.

"I'm on the side that is not completely against your relationship with him", he added, his smile getting bigger. "I know what it feels like to fall in love with one of them, so you could say I'm rooting for you"

My jaw went slack at the comment.

"What do you…?"

"I mean, sure. He sounds like a total bastard and one day I will make him pay for what she did to my Celty, but I don't think you should give up on him just because of that. Maybe he has changed or there was a reason for what he did-"

Shinra was interrupted at that moment by Celty, who had finally snapped out of her awe and was shaking him by the shoulders, as if trying to smack some sense in him.

"Ah, ah, ah, my sweetest Celty! This kind of tough love is so invigorating!", she quickly released him after those words, realizing that he was enjoying the punishment instead.

Somehow, the whole scene had dissipated the previous tension in the room. I found myself watching amusedly as the pair in front of me had one of their usual disputes, those that ended when Shinra reminded Celty of how much he loved her. When they reached the evident conclusion, I got up from where I was.

"Heh, thank you guys", I said, relaxing a smile at them.

Both turned to look at me, stopping whatever it was that they were doing.

"So you will…?", Celty started, but I shook my head before she could continue.

"Celty, I'm really thankful for your concern", I put a hand on her hair, shuffling it a little and exposing the marks for a brief moment. "But I really can't leave the flea just like that, sorry", she seemed disappointed about my decision. "But, I can promise you that I will be careful, alright?"

She looked as if she wanted to keep discussing the issue and try to convince me once more, but Shinra, that had her hand trapped in one of his, squeezed it and stopped her. She turned to look at him and sighed, finally letting it go.

"Okay…", she turned to me again. "Just be careful"

I nodded reassuringly.

Now, the only question is how should I tell Izaya about this…

oOoOoOoOoOo

I had a hard time sleeping after what Celty told me, and when I was finally able to get some decent rest, my dreams were plagued with siren screams and haunting images of a pair of glowing red eyes that shined with a malicious glint.

I didn't want to believe that Celty's story had affected me so much, but it was clear that I hadn't been unscathed by it.

When I finally left for my round, the image from my dreams was still overlapping with my mental image of an innocently amused Izaya watching how cotton candy was made.

oOoOoOoOoOo

The day was passing by too fast for my liking. For the first time I was dreading my meeting with Izaya. Is not like I didn't want to see him, I just wasn't sure how I should ask him about his past and the reason why he did those things, or if I should just pretend that nothing happened and wait for him to tell me on his own.

I mean, he is planning to do that eventually, right?

I shook my head, trying to get my thoughts off the flea for a minute and do some decent surveilling instead.

"Superior", a voice called me from behind.

I quickly turned around, not really expecting to see anybody there since I didn't even notice when they approached me. I was slightly surprised to see Vorona behind me, clad in her lightweight armor except for the helmet.

"Vorona, I didn't see you there", I said, lifting a hand to my hair, wondering if I was really that distracted today to not notice her.

"Superior, I have been calling you for a while", she elaborated, her eyes scanning my face for some reason. "Pardon me, but you do not seem to be paying attention to your surroundings today", as usual, she was quite perceptive.

I smiled at the accuracy of her words.

"Nothing escapes you, does it?", I asked, walking over to the next part of my round. She followed close behind, waiting for me to continue. "Don't worry, it's nothing serious. I should be fine again after a smoke", Or some explanation from Izaya.

"Is there something bothering you?", she insisted.

"I just had a rough night, you could say", I mumbled, trying not to delve into details.

I had decided that a cigarette wasn't such a bad idea, so I pulled one from my inside pocket and lighted it. The familiar smell filling my lungs helped me regain some clarity. Vorona was watching me intently the whole time.

"Was there anything you needed?", I asked her when I was done with half of my cigar.

She shook her head, but remained walking beside me. I didn't pay her any mind, my head still busy with other things. I knew that our routes will be separating soon enough when we reach the commercial district, so I didn't try to engage in any further conversation.

When we reached the fork on the road I simply bowed my head a little to bid her goodbye, turning to the road that led to the port and the last part of my round.

"Superior Shizuo", she called again, making me turn.

"Hm?", I took the last drag from my cigarette.

"Do not worry, everything will be solved soon", she said, giving me one of her rare small smiles.

I stared wide eyed at her statement before smiling on my own and throwing the cigar butt on the streets.

"I hope that you are right."

oOoOoOoOoOo

I purposefully prolonged my round at the sea market. My mind was still too biased by Celty's words and I didn't trust myself to act normally in front of Izaya when I finally met him again.

I wandered a bit off course and found myself staring at the gray cloudy sky from a corner of one of the big stores.

It may rain soon…

I was trying to think about trivial things when my thoughts were suddenly interrupted by a tap on my shoulder.

My breath got caught on my throat and I quickly turned around, only to be faced by Shinra and Celty. I breathed a sigh of relief. I most certainly didn't want to see those two right now, but anybody else was better than Izaya. At least until I was ready.

Celty waved her hand in a friendly manner, and for a moment it was like yesterday's conversation never happened.

"Hey, what are you guys doing here?", I asked, trying to sound normal.

"Checking on you actually", Shinra answered, no runaround this time.

"Huh?", I propped a brow at that, sincerely confused.

"About yesterday…", Celty hinted, her previous friendly smile taking on a sympathetic shine.

I sighed.

"I'm fine, you don't have to worry about me", I mumbled, not really in the mood to deal with them any longer.

"You don't look okay", he pointed.

"Alright, maybe I'm not perfectly fine", I conceded in an irritated tone. What's up with people pointing that out today? "But I don't need you worrying over me, okay?", my hand unconsciously had already fished another cigarette from my pocket.

"Shizuo… We didn't mean to upset you", Celty continued despite the obvious threat in my voice. "But you have to understand that-"

"Yeah, yeah. I get it. You did it for my sake", I interrupted her. I knew I was being unfair, but I couldn't help my mood when it came to things I didn't know how to handle.

After that small outburst we remained in silence for a few seconds. I used that time to light my cigarette, taking a long drag that consumed half of it almost immediately.

"So… What will you do now?", Shinra asked.

I exhaled the smoke, watching it flow towards the clouds and disappear.

"I don't know", the words flew from my mouth as easily as the smoke. "To be sincere, I don't even know if I want to see him right now."

After a few seconds I heard a noise coming from the alley right beside us, like some cans were kicked or something. I took a few steps to check what could have caused it, scanning through it uninterestedly. There were some empty paint cans rolling on the floor and the person who must have knocked them was running away at full speed.

My eyes refocused when I recognized the black coat getting farther down the alley.

Fuck!

I had no time to explain what happened to Shinra and Celty, my body starting to run after him the moment I connected the events in my head and reached the only possible conclusion.

That coat was Izaya's.

That person was Izaya.

Izaya heard us.

oOoOoOoOoOo

"Oi! Wait!", I screamed after him when I thought I was finally within earshot, but Izaya didn't slow down in the slightest. If anything, he sped up even more.

Tch! Damned flea, he's fast!, I slightly regretted teaching him how to use his legs at all.

To top it all, the rain that had threatened to fall before was pouring down now, making everything even more chaotic than normal. Several street vendors were packing away their wares and trying to get away from the merciless nature while another handful of people were just running around, trying to find some shelter until the rain subsided, so I was having a hard time chasing after Izaya and evading the pedestrians on the way.

Izaya seemed unfazed by this, though, gracefully sidestepping any obstacle and jumping over the ones he couldn't avoid. Watching his back getting farther and farther away was starting to frustrate me. I needed to speak with him and clarify everything.

The rain was getting worse and I was barely able to see when Izaya made a sudden turn and entered one of the alleyways, but I smirked when I recognized it.

Gotcha.

I entered the alley, just in time to see how Izaya was still looking around, trying to find another exit to this dead end. He turned around to look at me, and I wasn't sure if my sight was deceiving me, but for a second he looked hurt.

"Izaya! Stop running already!", I roared, trying to calm him down, but my voice was more commanding than I intended.

He took a step back defensively , one of his hands darting to his coat pocket for some reason.

"Why should I?", he said with his usual shit-eating grin, his tone mocking, but I knew him well enough to know that he was just trying to distract me. "Was it not you the one who said that you didn't want to see me?", his voice betrayed him there, and I could clearly hear the bitterness in it.

The anger that had started to build in me completely disappeared after his words. I could feel my stare growing soft with guilt, but Izaya's own eyes just seemed to harden. I took a small step in his direction, but he took three steps back at my approach.

"Izaya…", I called him softly.

His eyes wavered for a second before he could put up his mask again, he took out his knife from his pocket and pointed it at me with a cold glare.

"What's with that stupid tone?", he spat, his voice was also void of emotion. "Are you going to deny what you said?"

My eyes widened at the attitude that Izaya had taken but I tried to keep my cool. I needed to calm him down.

"What you heard… It's not like that", I was fumbling to find the correct words. "I'm just-. I was just-"

"You can say it! You were just afraid", he interrupted me, stressing on the last word. "Of course you would be. Who wouldn't? Knowing the true nature of someone you thought you knew", he smiled mockingly, but the same emotion didn't reach his eyes.

His eyes, despite the rain, looked sad, betrayed. Abandoned.

"I…", there were so many things I wanted to say to him right now, but the words just wouldn't come. "I'm pretty sure you must have had your reasons to-", I was interrupted by a dry laugh this time.

"Haha! So in the end, you're really just stupid, huh?", I had to admit that those words stung. "What if I told you that there was no reason? That I did everything out of boredom? What then?", he had a cold smile on his face right now.

Being told such things by Izaya himself threw me off, and whatever I was feeling at that moment must have shown on my face, because his smile fell off, leaving only a cold look.

"Heh, that's what I thought", he mumbled, putting away the hand with the knife. "Let's just stop this stupid pretend game, Shizuo", I internally cringed at my own name, not having heard it from Izaya in a long time. "Stop pretending that we are friends. Stop pretending that we enjoy our conversations. Let's stop pretending that we care about each other, okay?", my eyes had unconsciously lowered to the ground.

Pretending?

Those words ignited something deep inside me.

When I felt Izaya trying to pass beside me to get out of the alley, I tackled him and pushed his back to the wall, grabbing him by his arms.

"Let go of me, brute!", he spat after getting over the suddenness of the attack, struggling to get free from my grip.

"Pretend…?", I mumbled, not really hearing what he was saying.

"Huh?"

I finally raised my eyes, looking directly into his, pissed as I've never been in front of him.

"DON'T YOU FUCKING DARE TELL ME NOW THAT ALL THAT WAS JUST A PRETEND GAME!", I could no longer hold back my anger.

Izaya's eyes widened, but just as quickly he slipped into a full glare.

"What else could it have been?"

"Don't you dare, you little shit. Don't give me that bullcrap. You know it's not true!", my ears were buzzing with the blood boiling in my head. I could no longer hear the rain, or the pedestrians in the main street. I could hear nothing but Izaya.

He grinned with false bravery. "Oh? Why are you so mad? Is it that frustrating to think that it was all a lie?"

I pushed him against the wall even further, my knuckles breaking a few bricks in the process.

"No", I answered firmly. "What pisses me off is the fact that I know that you're lying"

He snorted. "And what makes you think that?"

"Because I felt it too, and I know you enough to tell when you're just being a stubborn liar", my breaths had steadily gotten fiercer. I was mad as hell and there was no way I was letting Izaya get away with those words.

"Ha! Well, it really takes a liar to recognize another, huh?", he shoot in an accusing tone.

The accusation took me off guard. I released him.

"What do you mean?"

"Your protozoan brain seems to have already forgotten, huh?", he gave me a pitiful smile. "Let me kindly remind you who was the one who said that 'I didn't have to tell you everything now' and that 'we had time'? Rings any bells?"

I remembered saying something similar.

"I didn't ask them to tell me!", I quickly defended myself. "I didn't even knew they knew about you before yesterday", I glared at him again. "Those things I said, I completely meant them. I still do"

Izaya looked directly at my eyes, and for a moment it felt like he was scanning them as usual.

"Why couldn't you trust me? No matter what you say now, I know what the real you looks like"

"What do you know-?", I didn't let him finish.

"There is no way you could have faked those emotions", I looked him directly in the eye. "Those were real, Izaya. Stop lying to yourself"

"You know nothing about the real me! How can you tell?!", he barked back.

"What are you so afraid of?! Why do you insist in claiming that I don't know you?! If that is really true, then that is because you have been so damn earnest in not telling me shit about you, but not because I wouldn't have liked to!"

He lowered his gaze when I was done, his wet bangs falling over his eyes and preventing me from seeing his expression.

"...up…", he whispered.

"What?", I got closer, thinking that he had finally given up.

"Shut up... Shut up. Shut up!", he started repeating, each time gaining more volume. He finally raised his head and sent me a spiteful glare.

We remained in silence for a few seconds, Izaya was huffing while looking at me, but I had somehow completely calmed down.

"If you were a siren, would that have been a command just now?"

He lashed his knife across my left cheek and I closed my eyes, opening them a second later just in time to see Izaya getting out of the alley and running into the main street. I clicked my tongue before running after him.

When I got out to the street I was surprised to see it almost empty now that everybody had already taken shelter under some roof. In the distance I could hear the splashes of Izaya's shoes getting deeper into the city. I made complete use of my hearing sense to track him down, quickly catching up now that there were not as many obstacles as before.

"IZAAAYAAA!", I screamed his name, knowing full well that he could hear me this time.

He didn't even turn back, getting out to another main street and aiming for the next alley to get into. I jumped into the road after him, too focused on catching the flea to even notice the huge motorized car coming directly at me at full speed.

I heard a stirring noise before feeling the metal crash against my body. The next thing I noticed was the sky, a little clearer than before, flying past above me and the rain falling over my face.

I collided with my shoulder against the stones of the street, rolling a few times before stopping face down. I heard a woman scream close and I groaned. My whole body was numb and I was suffering a skull-splitting headache. I turned my head a little, but quickly decided to not do it again when the headache just escalated.

I slowly opened my eyes, but the world was all just a big blur. When the images finally remained still, I could see a few people already gathering around me. The last thing I remember was making eye contact with a pair of worried red eyes before everything swirled once more and turned black.

oOoOoOoOoOo

OtPr: Well! How was it? Did you felt the feelings in this chapter? I sure hope you did! I've never poured so many raw feelings in my writing, so I hope you noticed them! As always, please let me know what you feel about this story. I love every tiny bity wittle review I get from you guys. We have almost reached the 100th review! As a special something for you my lovelies, if you are the 100th reviewer and send me an idea for a oneshot, I'll write it for you as a gift! The only restriction will be that it has to be a Shizaya, everything else is up to your imagination! Good luck and may the odds be ever in your favor!