A/N: To all who read the previous chapter, I suggest you read it again because I've completely rewritten the first chapter, and now I'm slightly more satisfied with it. Thanks!

"...take him. He's yours."

"This is the only chance you're going to get, you know that?"

"Tch, of course I do."

"And yet you let him live."

"Only for the sake of entertainment, Shinra-kun."

One thing he was absolutely sure upon waking up was that everything hurt. A frown marred his face, as his forehead furrowed with a groan. Eyes cracked open, and Shizuo winced at the bright light which blared brightly into his face.

A silent snarl, and a grunt. Seriously? He wasn't in the mood to take any shit from anyone right now-not with this goddamned headache. "Get that fucking thing out of my eyes." His arms trembled as he hoisted himself into a sitting position, a sheen of sweat covering his forehead. He blinked, clearing the blurriness in his eyesight to get a better bearing on his surroundings.

"Aah! It appears that the Fortissimo of Ikebukuro is finally awake!" An annoyingly cheerful voice cheered out. Okay. Obviously he was at Shinra's.

"You got lucky, you know," Shinra continued excitedly, the ends of his white medical coat swishing around along with his movements. "You had a couple of broken ribs, a punctured lung and-oh! I also found a couple of bullets, and additionally I had to flush the drugs out of your bloodstream. They gave you enough to kill a horse. How are you not dead?"

Shizuo did not like that gleam in Shinra's eyes at all. "...Can you please shut up?"

"Okay!" Shinra exclaimed cheerfully, and chills shot up his spine at the overly happy tone.

"Shinra..." He asked suspiciously. "You.. didn't do anything weird, right? Like take my blood or anything?"

The bespectacled man blinked, his eyes wide as he pushed his glasses further up his nose. "Of course not!" Exclaiming dramatically, he placed a hand above his chest. "You're terribly cruel to think I would go as low as to do something like that!"

"Ah, but you would," Shizuo deadpanned.

"True!" The man agreed cheerfully, and Shizuo stared. He could never figure out Shinra. He jerked slightly, the back of his head cracking against the wall as a familiar phone was suddenly thrust in his face, the glowing LED screen causing his eyes to water. Hissing out curses, he squinted, reading the words typed out on the screen.

[Shizuo! Are you all right?]

"Celty?" He muttered out. "Yeah.. I'm all right." The shakiness had worn off, and the only thing he felt now was slight discomfort. He supposed that was one good thing about his... condition; typical injuries and symptoms which normally would drag down a ordinary human for days didn't hold him down.

Gloved fingers tapped on buttons rapidly, and the screen was again thrust into his face.

[Do you remember what happened last night?]

At that, Shizuo paused. He remembered, all right. There had been a shout, and an outraged cry in response and a dark alley. There had been a blinding crack to the head, stings to the chest and blood.

"I think... I got mugged," Carefully plodding ahead, "And they gave me something..." He trailed off. He hadn't been able to breathe- and he couldn't move. The cold had taken him over, rendering every single muscle in his body immobile and fear had coiled in the pit of his stomach, twisting and lurching and snapping and after that-nothingness. His fist clenched in disgust at himself; he had gone down so easily.

He wished he didn't remember. Nothing frightened him more than utter helplessness and complete immobility. He was the Fighting Doll of Ikebukuro-and whoever dared to anger him, to hurt him or oppose him in any way was bound to be a victim to his fist. Even as much as he hated himself, it was ingrained into his very veins, and last night that had been taken away from him. He couldn't protect himself-which surely meant he wouldn't be able to protect others as well. That thought frightened him like no other, but his face remained impassive. Well as impassive as he tried to keep it.

"How did I get here?"

"Ah!" Shinra exclaimed, pretending that he hadn't noticed the change in Shizuo's expression as he poked an index finger in the air. "My beloved Celty brought you here." The doctor knew full well that Shizuo wouldn't even be here if Izaya hadn't somehow mustered up whatever was left in that cold heart of his to call Celty.

Quite frankly, he didn't buy into Izaya's bullshit. There had been some other reason behind it, even if Izaya didn't know it. After all, not even he could know everything, could he? Shinra laughed inwardly, ignoring a rather fierce glare from his headless lover.

"...Thanks, Celty."

[You're welcome. You should be more careful!] Celty responded. She thought that Shizuo should know that it had actually been Izaya who had found him first, but the informant had fervently insisted that Shizuo couldn't know.

A grunt from the Fortissimo as he shifted slightly, swallowing down the unease. "Yeah, yeah. I'm all right now. I'd better get going. Give me my clothes."

"You're leaving already? How rude!"

"Shinra..." Shizuo growled out. Shinra was a great friend-one of the only to stick around him this long, but he couldn't stand staying at his place and having him occasionally ogle him as though as he was nothing more than a mere experiment.

A clean, white shirt as well as pants were thrown at him, and he raised his eyebrow as he inspected them. They were definitely not the clothes he had been wearing the night before.

"Heh, your clothes were ruined so I had Celty get new ones."

"Ah..." Shizuo nodded his thanks, sliding his arms through the sleeves and tugging the shirt on. After he had fastened the buttons of his pants, he paused, tracing a cut on his neck. He frowned. He hadn't noticed it up until now. Shizuo shivered, closing his eyes. To think, Shinra and Celty had gone to all this trouble... how was he ever going to repay them for everything they had done for him?

"I'm sorry for all the trouble you guys went to." He hesitated, before continuing. "I'll pay you back as soon as possible..."

"There's no need for that! It's already been taken care of." Shinra said cheerfully, while Shizuo looked on in doubt. He winced inwardly at Celty's menacing aura.

Celty... please trust me. I've got somebody in mind.

"You sure?" Shizuo absolutely hated the idea of owing anything to anyone-and it was bad enough that he owed the city money for destruction of public property-that damned flea. It was a miracle he hadn't been arrested for that yet. In fact, he wouldn't put it past the louse to have set those men on him. He growled at the thought and Shinra looked on in amusement, having a good bet of what he was likely thinking about.

"Of course I am. Why wouldn't I be?"

"Ah... well, thanks."

Shinra waved enthusiastically as Shizuo plodded out of the door. "Come back anytime! Who knows, I may actually need your blood-ow, Celty!" He doubled over, gasping for breath as a hand rubbed his stomach.

"That really hurt..."

Back in his office in Shinjuku, the informant stared at his mug of tea idly, his index finger repeatedly dipping inside the liquid, swirling it and then bringing it to his mouth to lick off. He hadn't even noticed that his eyes had begun to droop until a certain witch startled him awake with her usual frosty words.

"I could've poisoned that, you know."

A chuckle, as he swiveled around in his chair to face his secretary. "I highly doubt you did, Namie." He hummed slightly as he leaned backwards.

The phone rang.

"Ah~ that must be for me! Pardon me as I give my undivided attention to my customer~" Izaya smirked, and Namie rolled her eyes.

Bringing the cell to his ears, he winced at Shinra's bubbly greeting which blasted out at him through the phone.

"What do you want, Shinra?"

A yelp came through. "Ow-Celty! I just wanted to-!"

Irritated, Izaya listened to his nonsensical tirade for a good couple of minutes before Shinra laughed out, "Sorry about that Izaya. I thought you'd like to know of Shizuo's condition, seeing as you were the one who helped Celty to bring him in~"

Izaya paused, his lips into a smirk. A throaty chuckle slipped out. "What makes you think I'd want to know?"

"You're always keeping tabs on Shizuo, right?"

Narrowing his eyes slightly at Shinra's self-satisfied tone, Izaya retorted, "Yes, but not to the point where I'd care for his well-being. He is a monster after all."

"Ah-well," Izaya could almost hear Shinra shrugging. "It was a near miss- did you know that? But I suppose you wouldn't care."

"Ah-is that so?" He breathed out, fingers unconsciously curling into a loose fist.

A laugh came at the other side of the phone. "You sound awfully worried, Izaya." Shinra teased slightly. "No need to be, though. You'll be seeing him again in no time~"

Izaya narrowed his eyes at that, unconsciously releasing a shaky breath. Him, worried? Hah, never. An icy smile was delivered in return, although Shinra wouldn't see it. "I've got a client over. You can tell me later." He lied. The phone was moved away from his ear as his thumb hovered above the button, about to end the call.

"Wait!"

He stilled in his motions, perking up in curiosity as he smirked slightly. Ah, how predictable. The phone was slowly brought back up to his ear.

"I have a favor to ask you."

"Hmm~ what is it you want, my dear Shinra?" He sang out.

"I need you to cover the medical fees."

Silence ensued as Izaya blinked in shock, recoiling backwards in disgust. Was Shinra seriously asking him of this? Lips cracked into a smile and chuckles bubbled out; howling in maddened laughter. A free arm wrapped itself around his torso as he bent over in his spinning chair, his elbow resting on the flat surface of his desk.

Gasping for breath, his quivering hand grasped the phone tighter. "That's rather hilarious, Shinra. As if I would even think of helping a monster."

The voice blurted out, "Izaya, please! Helping at least one more time won't hurt. I'm always patching up both of you guys, and you know that Shizuo won't be able to cover the fees-"

The phone was slipped back into his pocket, the ringtone set to silent as Izaya steadily ignored the slight pang in his chest. Shizuo was still alive. What a shame, although he supposed it meant his meager efforts the night before hadn't fully gone to waste. However-that was just as much as he was willing to do. Flexing his fingers, Izaya swallowed and then smirked.

"It looks like he's out and around again, just as a monster should be..."

"You sound like you've been worried," Namie observed casually, her thin eyebrow raised.

"The only thing I was worried about was that he died before I could kill him. Shouldn't you be focusing on your unrequited love instead, Namie-san?" At that, the woman's eyes narrowed dangerously. A heap of paperwork was then dumped onto his desk.

"Get to work," She said frostily, and Izaya laughed half-heartedly.

"Oh joy, paperwork..."