Sorry for the delay! Final chapter, here we go~

Shizuo grabs the umbrella on his way out, the orange flashing outstandingly against his own black and white garb. He feels out of place when he steps out from the apartment building and realizes he will probably have to get a ride to Ikebukuro. Damned Izaya, choosing Russia Sushi. He manages to hail a cab, the journey awkward and quiet, and has the driver drop him off several blocks away so he can have time to think.

Clearly, Izaya has something to tell him. What, he can't imagine, for the Izaya he had known one month ago, one week – no, one night ago, was not the same Izaya he knew now. Shizuo can't say whether or not people have the capacity to change, but maybe it's true that they can open up enough to change relationships with others. Somewhere along the way, their hate had turned to love, but if people can't change, how will Izaya cope? Shizuo knows in the back of his mind that Izaya will never be able to walk away from pulling the puppet strings, placing the chess pieces, watching over his pawns from that wall-sized window overlooking the brightly-lit city below.

But Shizuo smiles as he remembers those fingers dancing across the keys – light, airy and full of more emotion than his eyes can ever show.

Maybe Izaya will be the same Izaya he remembers. He'll keep on digging through to the deepest, darkest parts of the underground, watching the cataclysm his information causes, eyes swimming with the same vitality and buoyancy he's always had. But, just as Izaya will work around Shizuo's temper and unhealthy (but dying) habits, so too will Shizuo find a way to see past the man's flaws. Because if it's one thing Shizuo has learned from what life threw at him all these years, it's that no one is perfect.

No one is perfect, but two parts can come together to hide the cracks along the other.

The sights and sounds of the city flood back as he returns to the real world. Ikebukuro is its own symphony, a synthesis of people and machines, of beating hearts and gasoline drifting into the air after the rumble of engines to push the wheels forward. Rain against its odd angles feels like the player's own spin on the composer's original harmony. Shizuo lifts the umbrella over his head and shakes it open.

When he reaches Russia Sushi, Izaya stands waiting with his hands hanging in his pockets. The rain's beginning to darken the tan fur of his coat as he gives a small smile below warm eyes. Shizuo steps forward and stops just a meter away from him.

Izaya's head lowers to his feet, and then he rocks his body up, gaze meeting Shizuo's. There's an unusual glimmer darting through those carmine irises, though Shizuo knows it's no longer a look of malice or contempt. Izaya sticks his hand out to the blond.

"Hi, I'm Izaya Orihara. It's nice to meet you."

Shizuo is stunned silent, knowing better now than to think it's just a game he's playing. But his smile is not hiding mischief but openly genuine. He doesn't say anything more, leaving his expectancy hanging in the air.

"Uh…" Shizuo pauses, staring at Izaya's outstretched hand as if it's a foreign object. When Izaya says nothing, Shizuo takes the hand into his own, still confused but nonetheless going with the plan. "Shizuo Heiwajima. Pleasure."

Shizuo suddenly turns the umbrella on its side, bright orange facing the spanning street. Behind the opaque dome, Shizuo pulls on Izaya's hand and brings him in for a kiss, removing the grip to place his fingers along the small of his back. Sweeping a tongue along his, Izaya kisses back, encircling the blond's neck and leaning in closer, never wishing to let go. As they part, Izaya grins all too familiarly.

"Do you kiss everyone you meet like that?"

Shizuo smirks, cocking an eyebrow that causes Izaya's heart to flutter a little against his ribcage.

"Would you be jealous?"

They move in to kiss again. Shizuo ignores the umbrella's shield and lets it drop to the ground, exposing them to a few shocked Ikebukuro citizens. There are artificial snapping sounds coming from a small speaker, kchk kchk kchk as Karisawa snaps shot after cellphone shot from the parked van. It draws the attention of Tom, who was in the middle of asking Kadota where his bodyguard might be when Yumasaki points out the lovestruck pair.

"IzaIza and ShizuShizu really did it! Yumachii, you'd better be taking notes!"

The others find their jaws dropping and take several long hard looks to make sure it's really Shizuo and Izaya. In close proximity. Not fighting, but kissing. And as they all watch the two part from one another and Shizuo grasps for Izaya's hand as they begin to walk, Tom can't help but smile a little.

"They look happy together."

Izaya squeezes his bandaged fingers around Shizuo's hand. "C'mon, bring the umbrella up or we'll both catch colds."

"I thought you said you couldn't catch a cold in the summer."

He taps his fingers along Shizuo's knuckles to a more upbeat tune in his head, pausing for the right words. "In my experience, it seems that the summer rain makes anything possible."

Shizuo leans the umbrella against his shoulder, letting it curve out behind them in a circle that draws the two together. A ball of orange, rising to meet the challenge of warm against cold, opposites crashing mutely.

"Then I'm fine with a little rain."

They will get lost in the other's eyes. They will never tire – but if they should, by any chance, then they will get lost in the other's sound. And if that too grows to be insipid, then the pianist will learn a new piece again and again, because Shizuo can never have enough.

Through every obstacle, through every disaster, through every hardship and through every patience tried, they will always find a way to rhyme.

Thank you all for reading! I'll have another fic or two coming up shortly~!

EDIT: APOLOGIES! Thank you Nadia141491 for reminding me that I promised to post the piano songs I used; so, without further ado, here it is!

Chapter 1 - Comptine d'un autre été by Yann Tiersen

Chapter 2 - Nocturne, Opus 9, No. 2 by Frédéric Chopin

Chapter 4 - When The Love Falls by Yiruma

Chapter 10 - Love Hurts by Yiruma

Chapter 19 - The Things You Are To Me by Secret Garden