A/N : Sorry for lateness! Extra long chapter for the wait. Enjoy! ^_^

Tom looked to his left, then to his right. The many people bustling around them paid no heed to the pair. He then looked at Shizuo, who pointedly looked away, trying very hard to ignore him. Putting down the cup of hot coffee Shizuo had gotten him a few moments ago, Tom tried again.

"You haven't said anything the whole day. Are you still sulking about this morning?"

Once again, Tom's tries were in vain. Shizuo snubbed him and had shifted a good two inches from him, getting as far away as he could on that park bench they were sitting on. Tom could only smile a little and snort at the ridiculousness of the current situation.

"Aw, come on. Don't be like that. All I did was pinched your cheeks because you were a bit late for work," said Tom.

"Humph."

Shizuo still wasn't looking at him, but that was a start. Tom thought of giving another minute or two before he tries talking to the blonde again. Picking his cup of coffee up again, Tom sipped whatever amount that's left.

As he was sipping, he suddenly recalled that morning's event. Shizuo was late, so as punishment, Tom had pinched his cheeks. Too bad, Izaya was somehow there to witness the scene. Anyone could just imagine what would happen next. Yup, another section of Ikebukuro got destroyed in the name of Shizuo's embarrassment.

Tom suddenly spit out his coffee in a spray, startling Shizuo, and started roaring out with laughter, attracting people's attention. Shizuo wasn't amused.

"Tom-san…don't tell me you're still laughing about this morning…" growled Shizuo.

"Ahahah! Oh, um, pfft…sorry Shizuo. I'm not! Haha! Honest!" said Tom in between his laughter as he wiped a tear from his eye. "Oh my gosh, I think my sides are gonna split…haha!"

"Tom-san!" cried Shizuo in dismay as he got up in protest; his own cup of coffee thrown aside as the other spectators veered away in case the famous ex-bartender lashes out in anger.

"Okay, okay! I'm sorry. I was laughing about this morning; it's just too funny! Your face, ahahaha!~"

"GAH! Stop laughing about it already!"

Shizuo took hold of Tom's collar and shook him hard in a desperate attempt to get his employer to stop laughing. Just watching Tom laughing his head off about this morning caused a blush to creep up on Shizuo's face. By this time, almost all people in their immediate area were gone.

But despite his poor attempts, Tom ignored him and continued.

Threatening him, shaking him more, heck, Shizuo even spun Tom around at one point. It still didn't change the situation one bit. He's still laughing and Shizuo's face has already transformed into something resembling the reddest tomato.

"Well your face isn't any better!" Shizuo shouted after he stopped his spinning of his senior and letting him hang in mid-air because of their height difference.

That got Tom to pause for a while. The previous spinning had made him hold Shizuo tighter in case Shizuo decided to take him into another spinning frenzy. Who knows, that man could accidentally let him go. That would be bad.

"Huh? What do you mean, kid?"

Shizuo neared his face to Tom's and pinched his cheek. Tom yelped in pain.

"THIS. Your face is covered with coffee!"

Since Shizuo didn't let go of the pinch no matter how hard he tried to pull the man's hand away, Tom retaliated. Wrapping his legs around Shizuo's hips for added anchorage, Tom let go of Shizuo's shirt and pinched both of Shizuo's cheeks in return. Hard.

"Nggh, that hurts! Let go!" said Shizuo with a wince.

"Nuh uh, you let go first!"

"You let go!"

"No you!"

"Seriously, let go!"

"I won't! Not until you let go first!"

"I'll let go second! You let go!"

"Aaargh!"

The pinching contest went on for a full minute; both Tom and Shizuo totally forgot where they were and continued fighting for the right to let go last. Pinching turned to poking, and poking turned to tickling. By the time there was an awkward clearing of throat behind them, Shizuo and Tom were already down on the ground; their hair in disarray, their limbs tangled up together and Shizuo even had his bowtie ripped off in the brawl.

"Ah, Kadota," gasped Shizuo from the ground.

With a deadpanned look, Kadota cleared his throat again and spoke. "Look, I'm not even going to ask what the hell you two are doing on the ground. But you're disturbing the people who are using this park to relax."

"Oh, um, sorry," apologised Tom. He was about to get up when Erika suddenly shoved Kadota into Togusa and proceeded to sit down next to them with such enthusiasm, it left Tom reeling slightly in shock.

"I CAN'T READ AWKWARD SITUATIONS ESPECIALLY WHEN IT INVOLVES POTENTIAL BL. SO I WILL ASK! WHAT ARE YOU TWO DOING ON THE GROUND?!"

"Eh, what?" asked Tom in surprise.

"The heck is BL?" asked Shizuo cluelessly. He backed up a bit when Erika looked like she was about to burst from excitement.

"IT'S WHEN TWO -!"

Two pairs of hands clamped down on Erika's mouth before she got any more words out. Erika struggled hard to get them off, with only a stream of muffled shouts managing to leak out.

"Whoops, there. That's not the right question to ask Shizuo-san, if you value peace in your life," smiled Walker.

Kadota sighed. "You two best get away now. We'll hold her down for you."

With a thumb jerking towards the opposite direction, Togusa also voiced out. "And when we mean now, we mean fast. Or you two will be sorry for the rest of your lives."

"Er…okay?" agreed the two men on the ground. Shizuo watched the rabid Erika trying to bite her way through the hands holding her mouth shut. Tom merely turned his head to the direction that Togusa's thumb showed in confusion.

"Oh, ew! Erika! Don't lick my hand, that's gross!" cried Walker. Kadota turned towards Shizuo and signalled him to go quickly.

Managing to catch Kadota's meaning, Shizuo dusted himself off calmly before getting up and hefting Tom onto his right shoulder. Saluting the rest, Shizuo walked away.

"I'm off."

"…You know, Shizuo. You can put me down now. People are staring," muttered Tom as he looked intently at Shizuo's back, too ashamed to even look at other people that were staring at them as they walked past.

"Let them. I'm used to it."

"Well I'm not used to people seeing me being lugged around on the shoulder of my kouhai with my ass hanging in the air!" whined Tom. "Let me down~"

"Nope. No can do."

Tom heaved out a heavy sigh. "Oh, all right. I'm sorry."

"For what?" teased Shizuo.

"This is your revenge for this morning isn't it? I'm apologizing here."

Shizuo chuckled. "Well, that's part of it."

"Eh? You mean there's more?!"

"Yup, I got the 'people witnessing this' part down. There's just one more I need to do to get even…"

"Oh, let me guess," started Tom in a sarcastic tone. "The 'cheek pinching' part, yes?"

Shizuo whistled at the answer. "That's correct!"

"Thought so," smirked Tom in triumph. He crossed his arms at the successful guess.

"So I'm gonna pinch you now. Be ready!"

Tom tried to push off of Shizuo's back. He was about to ask whether Shizuo was going to do it now before the questioned died down in his throat due to excessive shock. Trying hard to face Shizuo, Tom stated incredulously.

"You did not just do that!"

"I'm afraid I just did, Tom-san."

'You! You just pinched my butt!"

"Well, they are butt cheeks. I see no difference," stated Shizuo matter-of-factly.

Blushing profusely, Tom shouted. "There is a lot of difference!"

"Uh huh. Too bad I'm just too dumb to know, Tom-san."

Tom grunted to signal Shizuo that he gave up and decided to ignore Shizuo for the moment. He let himself be carried in that fashion for a while, people staring be damned. He's just too tired and he just couldn't care less.

"You know, Shizuo. You can be cute too when you want revenge."

Shizuo's face turned red at the comment.

"Sh-shut up!"

Omake : On the Way Home

"So…how long are we going to stay like this?" questioned Tom.

Shizuo stopped his humming and tilted his head as much as he could without bumping his nose to his sempai's butt.

"Until you're home."

"That long, huh?"

"That long," responded Shizuo. He started back his humming in his carefree way once Tom had stopped asking questions.

Shizuo didn't even get halfway through the song he was humming until a loud shout came their way.

"RUN, SHIZUO! RUUUUUUUN!"

The pair looked up. Tom spoke up. "Hmm? Was that Kadota's voice?"

"It sure is," replied Shizuo. "Wonder what he meant by 'Run'?"

"WE'RE SORRY! WE COULDN'T HOLD HER DOWN!" hollered Walker from the distance.

"Her?" they both voiced out.

"WAIT! SHIZUO-SAN, WAIT! I WANT TO KNOW! DID YOU JUST PINCHED HIS ASS?! ARE YOU TWO GOING OUT BY ANY CHANCE?" screamed Erika. Shizuo's and Tom's expression changed when they saw Erika storming her way through the crowd to get to them; unfortunate pedestrians were shoved away without thought by Erika as she got nearer.

"Shoot!"

"Run, run, run! Shizuo, what am I paying you for? This is the time for you to shine as my bodyguard!"

"Way ahead of you, Tom-san!"

A/N : Yay! Now it's Tom-san's turn to be cute too!