A/N: *disappears for literally years before deciding to randomly update with the shortest chapter ever*

I have NO idea if anyone is even still interested in reading this, but... yeah. Changed a few things in previous chapters, so maybe just skim those if you haven't?

I don't own Durarara.

chapter six

Shizuo was angry.

Of course, this was nothing new to him; it hadn't been for years, and for years it had been the same person who was able to continuously get him this riled up. The damn flea was always meddling in others' affairs – and now he had set his eyes on involving Nanase.

The girl wasn't even his friend, really. At first, an annoyance, and then a co-worker. It was most certainly a strange addition to the debt collecting duo that Tom and Shizuo made up, although he supposed it wasn't entirely unwelcomed. The girl undoubtedly had a killer intuition, or something; even her inane chatter was a pleasant change... mostly. Not to mention she thought he was cute, even if she was just mumbling drunkenly – his brain just wouldn't let him forget that, seeing as he'd never really heard that before.

Still, she wasn't as close to him as, say, Celty. But the fact that Izaya was involved in making her uncomfortable didn't sit right with him. Nanase was just trying to live her life, just as Shizuo was; and he had a feeling from firsthand experience that Izaya would continuously try to mess that up, simply because the idiot girl decided to run out in the middle of their last fight.

She wasn't terrified of him either, despite seeing what a force of destruction he was. Most people would've quit after that display of strength. Instead, she'd fawned over him.

He had liked it.

Only a little bit, Shizuo thought to himself gruffly.

He was reluctant to admit that it somewhat soothed the self-loathing he felt after having one of his outbursts (Only a little bit, he thought again). She seemed to accept him for what he was, but he wondered if he should chalk that up to her being an airhead. A good intentioned airhead, but an airhead nontheless.

Shizuo stalked about Ikebukuro, figuring that Izaya would probably pop up at some point just to taunt him and be a general pain in the ass – and god help any people foolish enough to try to interrupt his rising tirade.

So wrapped up in his inner thoughts that he barely noticed the tap on his shoulder. He turned to snap at the offender before abruptly calming a bit. It was just Celty; her bike was parked a ways down, and she cocked her nonexistant head at him.

[I was trying to wave you down.] She quickly tapped on her PDA. [Everything alright?]

"No." Was the only answer he gave.

[So... Izaya again, I'm guessing?]

"Yeah." He grunted, although the rage began to subside at Celty's calming presence.

[Sorry to hear that.] Celty scratched the side of her helmet. [How is everything? Aside from... that?]

"S'fine, I guess."

[Word around town is you've got someone new working with you. What are they like?]

They had slowly gravitated towards a bench on the side, closer to her bike. As they sat down, Shizuo lit up a cigarette and pushed up his blue shades, Celty awaiting his answer. She was actually curious about the new addition, though a good portion of it was to try to distract Shizuo from the warpath. Celty knew that even if he would feel no physical exhaustion from his hunt, he would certainly feel the mental effects. She liked Shizuo too much to not try and help, even if it was in a small way.

"Nice enough. A little ditzy." He paused. "A lot ditzy. Good at what she was hired her for, though."

[Which is...]

"Must have really good intuition, I guess. She's like a human lie detector, as weird as it sounds."

They were both silent for a moment; Weird was an understatement when it came to the pair on the bench; one was headless and the other possessed super strength. He cleared his throat.

"Really good intuition, or something." Shizuo took a drag of his cigarette. "Not scared of me." (Yet, his mind gnawed at him.) "A weirdo, for sure."

If Celty had a head, she might have smiled. [I'm glad to hear that, Shizuo.]

"How are things with you?"

[Alright. No luck on finding it yet, but I was just on my way home. Shinra has been saying that I don't spend enough time with him, so...]

"Ah." Shizuo stood, crushing his cigarette beneath his heel. "I don't want to keep you, then. I'll never hear the end of it from Shinra if I do." That wasn't completely true, as Shinra would most likely just squeal out an apology the minute Shizuo started getting ticked off – but he knew, even if Celty didn't always say it, that she enjoyed spending the time with the crazy doctor.

[Right. Well... I'm sure I'll see you around, Shizuo. Good luck with everything. Get some rest!]

And with that, she was off, her bike quickly disappearing from sight. Shizuo sighed, wondering if he himself should turn in for the night. The flea was nearly impossible to find unless he wanted to be found, so he decided to just go home, the situation with Nanase and Izaya going to the back of his mind. I'll deal with it the next time I see that damn Izaya, he thought.

As Nanase left her apartment the next morning, she stood puzzled at the deep dent in the railing outside her door.

"Shizuo?" She murmured, before shrugging. "Naw, couldn't be. He was only here for a second!"

And so, the railing and Orihara Izaya (nearly) forgotten with countless options of what type of sweets to eat for breakfast, she skipped down the stairs to start her trek to the debt collection team's meet up place.

A/N: Right, so... REALLY short, I'm sorry! I just had some spare time recently and so I decided to just do a quick update. If I have time, I'll try to make the next chapter longer and more eventful – I just wanted to do a quick little something from Shizuo's POV.

Thanks for reading!