Leaned against the concrete wall of the apartment complex, just beyond the bustling streets of the shopping center of Ikebukuro, people hustled by, paying no attention to the blond bartender taking comfort in the shadows and the anonymity that came with it as he took a break to think, to clear his head. Nothing was ever really out of the ordinary for Shizuo when out of the ordinary was a daily occurrence for him, yet…

Shizuo exhaled, watching the cigarette smoke leave his lungs with a comforting puff of wispy air. It was relaxing. It put his mind in a dull haze, something he needed after yesterday.

He knew he had been nothing but a drag on his boss since running into Izaya in Shinjuku and he was relieved Tom had let him leave early. What was he thinking? "You saved my life Shizu-chan" He frowned and glared harder at the ground, why did he keep thinking about that moment. He groaned and let his head fall back into the stone wall, why did I…?

He remembered spotting him outside the Tocho, he wasn't surprised to see him again, but the expression on his face was so different than usual that he couldn't help but continue to watch, even despite his stupid expression. His usual fake guise was not as strong as usual. No...he looked unsettled and...even caught a brief moment of panic? He couldn't stop staring. He'd never seen Izaya look this way, he kept thinking. It looked like defeat. Interesting, no matter how hard he had beat him, or how many times he'd hit him with various objects, he'd never quite seen him look this way.

It was rather distracting; He felt a scowl cross his complexion as Izaya stared back at him. Izaya seemed to gesture to a light pole beside them. What is he thinking?

Shizuo glare intensified, Izaya seemed distraught and almost dispirited, his fake smile slipping completely, revealing a moment of weakness. He realized immediately what kind of situation this was for him. Those men surrounding him, were not friendly. He glanced at all of them. Unrecognizable, but clearly had malintent.

He realized with all too quick clarity, that Izaya was not joining them by his own volition, but instead, under pressure to follow them, only now noticing that one of the Yakuza stood at an extremely close, unnatural distance to Izaya.

Izaya seemed forlorn. And Shizuo continued to watch him, Tom and their client completely forgotten. Izaya seemed to have completely disassociated from trying to catch his attention and looked up to stare at the sky, before he closed his eyes.

He felt entranced, the look of pure anguish. He'd never seen it on his enemy's face before. Not even in the worst of their fights. He really believed he was going to die today. To Shizuo, that was apparent.

As if everything fell away, he watched as Izaya breathed out, and looked up, the wind was blowing, it seemed, in slow motion. These were his last moments. Shizuo wanted to mimic his gaze to the sky, but he couldn't look away. He watched closely as his jet black hair moved softly in the gentle breeze, he watched as his piercing eyes closed softly and he inhaled. The men around Izaya began to move. And at that moment, Izaya's eyes shot back open, staring directly back at him. A brief flash of fear flitted through his eyes for only a moment, overshadowed by something that shocked him.

There was a wild, unbridled look on his face he hadn't seen before, but that wasn't what shocked him the most. What stunned him was that as he stood still, staring straight back at him, he shot him a smile, a smile, one could argue was completely genuine.

"Goodbye, Shizu-chan" A familiar but changed smirk crossing his face as he shouted across the distance.

Shizuo breathed out his last bit of relief from the tiny cancer-causing stick and dropped it, crushing it with his shoe. Sighing as he pushed off the wall to head home. He didn't really have any other reason to stick around in the city. The only reason he had stayed out until dusk was because he knew he wouldn't be able to clear his head in the loud silence of his drafty apartment. Days like this just made it feel lonelier.

He didn't know why it had shaken him as hard as it did, but he couldn't deny that seeing the despair in Izaya's eyes had done something to him. He felt...different, and no matter what he did, he felt as if he couldn't go back to before.

He began his trek back to his apartment, passing street vendors packing up their wares as more night-life focused vendors and salespeople began to appear as if to take over their shifts.

He ignored them as a couple yelled out to him to get his attention for various things, as he passed the red light district, more and more people approached him as it got dark. Only when they saw his face, did they stop in their tracks. The bartender with blond hair. He had made a name for himself. He frowned, he wasn't sure if he appreciated being left alone or if he despised that they assumed he would attack them even if they were to simply greet him.

He ducked his head. Today he wanted to disappear.

He cleared the main area and finally made it to the last stretch of road toward his apartment. It had just grown dark, the city's streetlamps beginning to turn on, one by one. The air was turning crisp and chilly now with the sun's exit.

Shizuo picked up the pace as he came into view of the last couple blocks left on his return trip home, when he heard a commotion. It wasn't loud, but this area was usually dead at this time of night, and that was best. The alternative was typically gang fights or domestic squabbles, or worse, in this part of town.

However, he came to stop when he noticed from the corner of his eye, down an alleyway to the side a group of men surrounding one man. The man was at the center, on his knees, with a taunting, cocky smile. That man was the one that had consumed his thoughts the last two days. Izaya.

Yesterday

Shizuo heaved the pole four times his own weight with all of his strength, feeling his muscles stretch to their capacity as he threw it at the dodging, raven-haired man. He watched as he spun away, turning back to taunt him with a familiar grin, "Did you really miss that much you had to visit me in Shinjuku-" his eyes narrowed and his grin deepened, "huh Shizu-chan?" something was different.

Still, he felt a familiar rage began to ignite as he watched him stand there with that stupid look on his face. Did he even realize what he had just done for him? He didn't know why he did it himself, but it was clear he had got him out of a tight spot and now the bastard was fucking with him as usual, "Shut the FUCK UP AND GET OUT OF HERE" He ran towards the evasive flea as he laughed and ducked backwards and out of sight into the crowd.