I DO NOT OWN DURARARA!

I've noticed that most of my stories begin with letters in the later part of the alphabet..

...what's elementary school for the Japanese? please, it's bugging me to call it elementary when I know it's wrong. I think it's primary school but I think I'm wrong there too...

When Izaya was in elementary school, his parents would always pick him up and walk him to the playground. There they would wait for him at the bottom of the slide, play hide and go seek with him (he was quite good at that), and most of all they would push him on the swings.

They were a happy little family. A family of three.

But happiness was a fleeting emotion, he learned.

When Izaya was about ten, his mother became pregnant. With twins, in fact. Finding out, he was happy and excited about getting siblings. But shortly after they were born, he realized what they had inadvertantly taken from him.

His parents. And, through losing the attention of his parents, his happiness.

At first he tried to get their attention. But it just didn't work. They'd usually shoo him off or scold him.

And so Izaya gave up. He didn't want to fight a losing battle only to fail.

He still went to the playground after school. As he got older he would just sit off to the side on a bench while the children played. From that bench he took up people-watching. By the time he was in junior high, Izaya had decided he loved humans. He watched them enough, anyways.

When he wasn't people watching, he would do homework to pass the time. He was the first to set foot on the playground and the last to leave each day.

He didn't even really swing that much once he did claim a swing as his own. Or at least not the free, giggling sort of swinging. Feet dragging, he might do little back and forth motions. But aside from that, the swing for him was a bittersweet and nostalgic throne.

Once he entered high school, he stopped going to the playground so regularly. He had discovered quite painfully that it was along a certain protozoan's route home.

But following graduation, on his sleepless nights when he wasn't dealing with the yakuza, he found himself drawn to the old playground. From then on he made a habit of it to head there when he wished to be alone and not be found.

He shivered as he strode through the cold streets of Ikebukuro. Seeing his breath, he pulled his coat closer about him and nuzzled the fur about his hood.

Soon enough, he arrived at his destination and he took his seat. As he did so, he grasped the icy chains which suspended said seat.

He chuckled to himself, "What am I doing here..?"

Izaya knew the answer to that. He was feeling unsettled as he usually did when he graced the playground with his prescence.

They're always changing..my humans. I love to watch them change as they do...But why am I so perturbed by it now?

Again, he knew the answer. But he wished he didn't.

Because as they change, I never do. I'm 24 and I'm still coming to the same place that my parents used to when I was four. And for 14 years I've hated my sisters for taking away my attention. For making me the unfavorite when I used to be our parents' one and only. Not that I care anymore about that in particular...I just can't stand them is all. And then Shizu-chan...He and I never change. I'm not sure whether to take comfort in that or be equally bothered by it.

He sniffled from the cold and chuckled at how pitiful he sounded.

Lifting his gaze from the ground, he saw white snow falling fromthe black sky.

"How pretty..." he mumbled softly.

"You always were like a kid," he heard growled not far off.

Startled by the unexpected prescense, Izaya flinched slightly and searched for the source of the voice.

Great. Just my luck.

"Oh, Shizu-chan, that just means I'm youthful~," he purred, trying to discreetly work the numbness out of his fingers in order to not cut himself when he reached for his knives.

The blond groaned. "Look, fl-..Izaya. I'm only here for Shinra. He was worried about you being out in this weather."

"Well you can tell Shinra that I am quite all right and am heading home," he replied, rising to his feet. As he walked away from the taller man, he accidentally let out a chilled whimper.

Shizuo sighed and was soon at his side.

"Oh, what, are you going to escort me home?" Izaya quipped, attempting to discover a way to sniffle without sounding like a needy child.

"Shinra'd find a way to kill me if you died from frostbite when he had told me to help you as a favor. I'll kill you another day."

"Of course you will."

On the way to Izaya's home, the way that the blond kept looking at him every time he sniffled, sneezed, coughed, or so much as shivered, made him almost believe that he actually was worried.

But he knew it wasn't so. As much as he called the older man a monster, he was still a human.

And humans didn't love Izaya. In his eyes, it was a fact of life.

But jade colored glasses tend to make situations seem worse than they actually are.

Guess who loves reviews? I do~~~ *wink wink nudge nudge*

This started out as a child Shizaya but then it evolved away from that. Ah well, I figure out a child Shizaya eventually.

Also, grammar, spelling, and typo mistakes being pointed out is much appreciated