Disclaimer: I don't own Durarara!

I just wanted to say that I'm so sorry for neglecting the story and not updating at all. I'm a horrible person, clearly.
I'll guarantee right now that another update isn't going to come out for a while, but I promise, promise, PROMISE that I WILL finish the fic. It'll probably be after I finish writing my other DRRR story and then I'll be able to focus on this one more.
I'm sorry to all my readers, but thank you all so much to everyone who had reviewed with wonderful proposing ideas~!

This one's for Pezlie, Simpli0blivious and Dropkicking Bullet Shells since I used some their proposal ideas~

When Shinra found out about Shizuo's botched proposal, he laughed until tears were streaming down his face. Celty, however, had more compassion and promptly jabbed Shinra in the gut once she put two and two together and realized it was the scientist's fault that the proposal had gone wrong.

"Sorry, Shizuo-kun," Shinra muttered, wiping his tears—from laughing and pain—away and settled down in a chair next to Celty who was busy googling 'fun ways to propose.' "Maybe instead of being shy and romantic, you should be cute and cliché?" the doctor suggested.

"Do I look 'cute and cliché' to you?" Shizuo growled through gritted teeth.

"Well, it could use some work," Shinra answered honestly and had to duck to avoid another jab from Celty.

'Maybe "cute and cliché" would actually work?' Celty texted and motioned for Shizuo to come look at the search results on her computer screen.

Shizuo blinked, reading the mini article about hiding a ring in a champagne glass or a piece of cake. Knowing Shizuo, he was probably leaning towards the cake. "Don't do the cake! You'll get the ring all dirty and contaminate the cake!" Shinra fussed, being the germ-warding doctor that he was. Shizuo and Celty both agreed that it might have been best to keep Shinra out of proposal plans. After all, he'd probably just botch them all up and ruin any chance getting Izaya engaged to Shizuo. "I'll suppose you'd want to put it into the champagne glass, too," Shinra sniffed. "The ring would sink! What happens when Izaya swallows it when he drinks the champagne to retrieve the ring? And then he chokes to his death in the middle of the restaurant!"

The doctor was silenced with a quick jab to the stomach. 'You wanted "cute and cliché."' Celty texted impatiently.

"You can't get anymore 'cute and cliché' than that," Shizuo added.

"At least let me disinfect the ring..." Shinra protested. "Or what if you made the ring float somehow?" he added, suddenly thinking of an easier way for Izaya to get his engagement ring.

"Like put it in a strawberry?" Shizuo suggested, thinking how champagne was usually served with the delicious red fruit. "It'd have to be a big strawberry though..."

Shinra almost face palmed. "No," he answered, "Izaya will never see the ring in the strawberry and he might just swallow it whole, knowing him."

'What if you put it in a plastic case? Shaped like a heart?' Celty texted, waving her phone in Shizuo and Shinra's face, clearly pleased with her idea.

"Celty, my honey! You're a genius!" Shinra gushed, jumping up with delight. "You could probably get a case at a crafts store, Shizuo! It'd be so cute and Izaya will be so happy when he sees it float to the top! Let me come with you and pick out the case!"

"No thanks," Shizuo answered, knowing that Shinra would pick the pink version of the case.

"But pink is cute!" Shinra protested, reading Shizuo's mind. "At least let me disinfect the box after you buy it..."

Despite his protests and begging, Shizuo and Celty chose to leave the doctor behind as they set out for a crafts store to purchase a cute heart-shaped capsule. Much to Shizuo's dismay, the only color the store had was a translucent rosy pink. 'I think it looks nice...' Celty typed, trying to be encouraging.

Giving in, Shizuo bought the case and brought it back to Celty and Shinra's apartment where they filled a bowl with water and tested the case. "It works!" Shinra said cheerily as the capsule bobbed to the top, keeping the ring dry and intact. "And you got the pink one too!"

"No comment," Shizuo answered, avoiding Shinra's smug look.

Shinra ignored the snarky comment and brightened considerably at the realization that they would now be able to move onto the next part of their plan. "Where are you going to take Izaya for dinner and how are you going to ask him?"

Shizuo thought he should be slightly disturbed that Shinra was definitely more into proposing than he was, but he supposed that's what he got for having a lovey-dovey eccentric scientist for a best friend. "Russia Sushi?" Shizuo hesitantly answered, "And I'd just text him?"

Shinra scowled. "There is nothing romantic about fried chicken sushi, cheese sushi, mabo sushi, prosciutto sushi and sour cream!" he exclaimed, recalling the horrid meal he was served. "Why on earth would you propose in there! You need to pick some place that's top notch and romantic! Ah, I know! Why don't you go to the restaurant where Celty and I celebrated our last anniversary? The food was absolutely wonderful, though it drastically pales in comparison to my beloved Celty's cooking!" he rambled, starting to get off-topic.

Celty shook her head, knowing what was probably going through Shizuo's head. 'I'll give you the address and book a reservation for you. The owner owes us a favor'she texted and Shizuo promised that he would thank her properly when it all went well.

Asking Izaya out for dinner was actually much easier than Shizuo (and Shinra) thought it would be. He had a rather plausible reason that was hardly suspicious and he asked him over take-out dinner and dramas. "What are you doing this Friday?"

"Probably doing what I'm doing right now. With you," Izaya replied with a smile. "Why?"

"Well, I just got my paycheck, and we haven't gone out in a while. Would you want to?" Shizuo asked.

"You want to go to Russia Sushi?" Izaya asked, knowing that Shizuo kind of liked it there.

"No! Of course not! Somewhere much nicer," the blond answered. "A place, that you would say, is out of my price range."

"Shizu-chan, you don't have to force yourself to do that," Izaya replied, knowing that his boyfriend was always short on cash and too stubborn to accept his wealth.

"I wantto," Shizuo answered. "You deserve these kinds of things, and I'll do whatever I can to give it to you. Izaya, I insist." He pushed a slip of paper into his hand. Izaya glanced at it skeptically, reading the address and Shizuo's hearts skipped a beat as Izaya's eyes went wide.

"Shizuo! I couldn't! This place is too expensive and fancy!" he protested, half-heartedly since he had always wanted to go, but could never seem to get a reservation. "How the hell did you get a reservation?"

"I know some people who know the owner," Shizuo replied with a grin. "So yes, then?"

"Yes!" Izaya exclaimed, throwing his arms around his boyfriend and planting a very brief and affectionate kiss on his lips. "Thank you, Shizuo."

Shizuo embraced Izaya tightly, wishing that Izaya's joyful and sincere response was to his proposal instead of a date. "Six o'clock, I'll meet you as soon as I get off from work."

"Good, and don't you dare be late!" Izaya answered as he returned to kissing Shizuo lovingly.

On the arrived day, Shizuo had left their apartment, thoroughly prepared to propose at dinner. He brought a change of clothes with him which Tom kept safe and he made sure the ring and its pink heart case was always present in his pocket. Throughout the day, he kept tracing over the plastic edges just to confirm it was still there and his eyes kept wandering to the clock on his cell phone.

"Plans?" Tom asked, sensing that his kouhai wasn't exactly there.

"Yeah, sorry," Shizuo responded with a soft smile to his face. "Important plans with Izaya."

"In that case, you can leave early today," Tom said generously. "Just come with me to this last client and you're free to go."

"Thank you, senpai!" Shizuo said, extremely grateful. If that was the case, then he'd be able to get there early and talk to the owner about getting the ring inside the champagne glass.

The man who owed money lived in a shady part of the city in a dingy apartment. The man in question had locked himself up in his closet with a tire wrench and a gun in an attempt to run away from his debts. When Shizuo kicked down the door and threw a chair at him, the man freaked out, dropped the gun, smashed his window with the tire wrench and jumped out.

"Of course the last one would be a runner," Shizuo growled, as he cut his hand on the broken glass when he jumped out after him. "Oi! Get back here!" Shizuo shouted angrily, already getting pissed off. At this rate, he wouldn't even be able to get to the restaurant early. He chased the man down the street, raging as the nimble man dove into an alleyway and when Shizuo was surrounded, he should have known better.

"I ain't paying anything!" the man snapped boldly as he was back safely with his armed gang.

"Of course this would happen too," Shizuo growled, thinking that Murphy's Law was a heartless bitch, as he wondered if he could get out of this by talking it out. "I can give you an extended deadline?" he offered weakly.

"Fuck that extension!" the horrid and stubborn idiot answered and swung the tire wrench at Shizuo's hip. There was a crack, but it wasn't Shizuo's bones breaking. Nope, it was worse than that. The blond dug into his pocket and pulled it the pieces of the broken heart case and began seeing red.

When his vision cleared, he was surrounded by the unconscious bodies of the idiots who owed Tom money and the broken pieces of plastic was clutched tightly in his hand. Lucky for those idiots, the ring was still in its pristine condition. Tom sighed at the result of Shizuo's fighting and let the blond go off early, like he had promised.

"I wonder if there's still time to buy another case?" Shizuo murmured, glancing at his phone clock and decided to make a run for it. He'd be a little late, but when he imagined the look on Izaya's face, he knew it would be worth it. And as luck would have it, the crafts store that Celty brought him to was closed and not only that, he had forgotten to get his dress clothes back from Tom.

By the time Shizuo had finally made it to the restaurant, he was a mess with wrinkled clothes and a bandaged hand. He managed to slip the restaurant owner the ring before taking his place at the table with Izaya.

"You're late," Izaya said with a huff. "Are you alright?" he added, seeing the bandage wrapped messily around his hand.

"It's nothing to worry about," Shizuo said, trying to straighten his jacket. "I'm really sorry. I hope you didn't have to wait too long."

"It's alright. You're here now, right?" Izaya replied and it seemed that he really wasn't mad which calmed Shizuo's rapidly beating heart just by a little.

The menu proved to be too much for Shizuo to comprehend, so Izaya took over and ordered the chef's special for them to share. The food was excellent, like Shinra and Celty promised, and Izaya had brightened up considerably since arriving.

"I think I'm going to skip dessert," Izaya said when they finished their meal, suddenly ruining all of Shizuo's plans. "But you can still order something if you'd like."

"Izaya, you should order a dessert," Shizuo protested, "We're already here and so you should take the opportunity to get it!"

"Ahh fine, you pick something," Izaya said, leafing through the dessert menu and finding that they didn't really appeal to him. "I might just settle with an expresso instead," he murmured to himself.

"Hey! Why don't we order some champagne instead?" Shizuo said frantically, trying to get his plan back on track.

Izaya blinked at him and shrugged. "Alright then," he said, oblivious to Shizuo's off behavior. Shizuo waved down a waiter, giving him the appropriate signal to tell him to bring out the champagne and the ring. At that moment, Izaya's phone went off. "Ah, sorry, I thought I turned it off," he said, reaching into his pocket to turn it off. He frowned when he read the caller I.D. and the second he answered it and said, "Shiki-san," Shizuo knew he was done for. Izaya looked at him sadly, and mouthed that he was sorry as he got up to take the call.

The owner of the restaurant and the chef hurried out with the champagne glasses and frowned when Shizuo was at the table alone. "He went out to take a call..." Shizuo muttered with a sigh as he motioned that he'd get the check now.

"Best of luck to you," the owner said with a smile as he filled up the glasses and then left.

Izaya hurried back into the restaurant, looking flustered. "Shizu-chan, this is really important. I have to go!" he said, picking up the champagne glass closest to him and downed it quickly before Shizuo could say anything. The blond stared at him with a horrified look, thinking that Izaya had just swallowed the ring, but the informant was gone before he could stop him. Shinra would kill him if he heard what happened, and now Shizuo had the problem of trying to figure out how to get the ring back from Izaya, especially considering it was inside him now. Of course Shinra could always drug him and cut it out of him, but knowing Izaya, he'd think that he'd been kidnapped and had gotten his organs stolen for the black market. In the midst of panicking, Shizuo grabbed his own champagne glass and chugged it, only to practically swallow something, choke and spit it out into his napkin.

He sighed in relief, staring at the ornate ring sitting in the white napkin and his racing heart calmed down considerably now that he knew that Izaya drank from the wrong glass and didn't even notice the ring at all. With a sigh, he wrapped the ring up in the napkin and stuck it back safely into his pocket, paid the bill, and then made the slow walk back home, dreading the look on Shinra's face when he would ask the doctor to help disinfect the ring (again).