I woke up to screaming. It was dark, but not pitch black. I could make out Izaya thrashing around on the couch next to my bed.

"Izaya?!" But he just continued thrashing and screaming. I hopped off of the bed, causing pain to shoot through my leg. I didn't really care at the moment though. When I reached him, I grabbed his shoulders and shook him awake. His arm wrapped around me and it sounded like he was crying. Then the door was flung open and the light was switched on.

"What's going on?!" Shinra's panicked voice seemed to echo off of the walls.

"He was screaming and flailing around. I woke him up." When Shinra walked around the couch, he stopped dead.

"It's a good thing Erika isn't here to see this." He appeared to be hiding a smirk.

"Shinra, this is not the time!" At this, he seemed to have a more difficult time hiding the smirk but he quickly turned serious.

"Izaya, are you okay? Nothing hurts? Was it a nightmare?"

"I'm not in physical pain. It was just a nightmare." I could tell from his voice that he was still crying. From the look on Shinra's face, he could too.

"Okay, I'll leave you two alone then." This time, he let the smirk show as he shut the door on his way out. A few seconds later, Izaya started crying louder.

"You want to tell me about it?" I felt him shake his head no on my shoulder.

"You sure? It might help." He just shook his head no again though.

"Not yet." He mumbled, buried in my shoulder.

"Okay." And so I sat there hugging the former flea that had been brought down to human status against his will. I let him work through whatever had scared him so badly. After a while, my leg started hurting in my current position so I climbed onto the couch. Izaya eventually fell back asleep.

. . . .

I woke up to movement. When I opened my eyes, Izaya's face was in front of mine. Why the hell was I lying next to the flea? Then the memories of what had happened came flooding back; the tank, Izaya latching onto me, and him screaming last night. He looked peaceful now. I didn't want to disturb him, but I really had to pee. So I slowly untangled myself, trying my best not to wake him. I was getting ready to leave, when I noticed how bright it was in the room. I figured I better pull the curtain closed so the sunlight wouldn't wake him up.

After I peed, I walked into the kitchen to find Shinra and Celty sitting down. They both looked at me, or I assume Celty was anyway. She was angled in my direction.

"Where's Izaya?"

"He's still asleep."

"He will probably freak out if you aren't there when he wakes up."

"I know. I just had to pee really quick… I was also wondering if you might know why Izaya is only okay with me around him?"

"Well… I don't know anything for certain, but my theory is that you are the first person he saw when he snapped out of it. He could have sent his mind away somewhere while being held captive. It's like when a baby sees its caregiver. So, Izaya appears to look to you for protection because of that…. You were also the one that got him out of that hell." Despite the seriousness of the situation, Shinra's face lit up while explaining this. I guess he really did enjoy his job.

"Well that's…just…wow. I'm gonna have to think on that and let it sink in. I better get back to the room though." So Izaya sees me as his protector now? That's a drastic change from before. I made a pit stop at the bathroom before heading back. I slowly opened the door and closed it back as silently as I could. I went and took my position on the bed and just stared up at the ceiling. It's my fault he got in this mess and so I will be his protector until he gets better. I laid there thinking until I heard Izaya stir.

"Shizuo?" Izaya's voice was heavy with lingering sleep.

"Yeah?" I replied, rolling my head to face him.

"Thank you." I didn't know what to say to that, so I snapped my head back up, facing the ceiling.

"It's no problem. I'm going to go tell Shinra that you're awake. He needs to check you out…. You know, this would go much quicker if you just told me what they did to you." I sat up and swung my legs over the side of the bed. He sat there looking at the ground.

"You don't have to, I just thought it would save you trouble from Shinra examining you. He's gonna have to ask you questions." I stammered out. From the look on his face, he would rather face Shinra. But after a moment he seemed resigned.

"No, it's okay. At first they didn't do anything, just chained me up and left me laying on the floor. Then they beat me. They said they wouldn't mess with my face because they wanted to see my expression when they put me in the tank."

"But why a tank? I would think there were easier ways to hold a person captive."

"Well, I hate being in water. Not rain, but pools and things like that; anything over my head or where I can't touch the bottom. Shinra told me in the past that I had PTSD from when I was younger. But that is a story for another time."

"…"

"When they were done beating me and I stopped bleeding so much, they put me in that tank. At first it was without being chained to the ceiling, just my wrists chained together and my feet chained to the floor. They just chained me to the bottom and slowly let it fill up, watching me struggle. When it got to a point where I almost drowned after struggling to stay above water for I don't know how long, they chained me up from the roof. I was relieved at that point. My energy had been running out and I couldn't keep myself up anymore, especially with my wrists bound together. All in all, I lost track of time and have no clue how long I was there." I just sat there, stunned by everything he had just told me. I can't believe he actually told me all of it, or the fact that they had done that to him either.

"Izaya, do you think they knew about how water freaked you out. Or do you think it was just a coincidence?"

"They had to know. I don't know how they would have found out though."

"Well, all I can say is that I'm sorry all of this happened to you. They had you for five days. We should have been able to find you sooner. I should have searched every crack. You had acted strange at the pool and I was stupid and didn't realize you needed help. It's my fault that gang got you."

"No, they took me because I had been a shitty person to them. I sold information away about their leader and their home turf got taken over. I did this to myself. I'm going to stop being an informant. I know that won't help me from the enemies I already have, but I asked for it with that line of work." I just stared at him. Stop being an informant? Could five days change a person this much?

"I'm going to get Shinra. I will tell him what they did so you don't have to relive it again. It will make his examination of you faster though and then you can rest." He nodded, so I took it as an okay.