When Shizuo awoke, he had tears in his eyes. For a moment he simply blinked, though that did nothing to deter the constant stream of sorrow that was beginning to trail down his cheeks. A hand reached out to the side of the bed that was opposite of him, and to his distress, all that his hand met with was sheets, cold as any inanimate object usually is before a human body came to warm it.

Sorrow suddenly came crashing down on the inhumanly strong man, nearly crushing him as he brought the very hand that had delivered him such sorrow filled news to cover his mouth as the first of many sobs escaped his lips. He had reason to cry after all, for the things that he had just seen behind his closed lids felt all too real what with the missing presents next to him. Who knew how long that warm body that so often snuggled up against him at night, as he got cold quite easily, had been missing from his side? In the mirage that he had just seen that same warm body would never again return to his side, the same wasn't true for the waking world, was it? The mere thought caused more tears to cascade down the man's high cheek bones, as when one is still somewhat caught between the dream world and the waking, memories from both become confused and meshed together, so how is one to really know what to believe?

For a few minutes, all the strongest man in Ikebukuro could do was lay there and sob, depression weighing heavy on his chest. Before too long though, the noise that his misery caused reached the ears of a raven haired informant also in the apartment, leading the small man to rise from his work at his desk and investigate. He soon found the cause of the heart wrenching noise, and upon opening the door to his bedroom, found a sight that pulled at his heart strings even more than the sorrowful sounds emitting from it.

The mattress sagged slightly as Izaya's small amount of weight was placed upon it, the informant leaning over the blond in his bed so that he could place a small hand on the ex-bartender's cheek. At the sudden touch Shizuo's eyes flew open, as they had been previously squeezed shut to let the tears better flow from his eyes; he held no regard for something such as shame if Izaya was gone after all, if he even held regard for anything then.

"Hey, what's wrong?" The raven asked gently as his thumb stroked along the larger man's cheek, erasing a few tears as well as their tracks, even though more continued to fall.

"I-Izaya?" Was all the confused man could manage to speak as his muddled brain gradually became clearer as he woke up fully.

"That's my name, don't wear it out." The smaller man smiled as his partner's larger hand came to rest on his cheek, mimicking his own actions. Izaya leaned in to the calloused palm that cupped the side of his face, hoping to give the distressed man the comfort that he so obviously needed. "Was it a bad dream?"

Another chocked sob escaped the addressed man before he spoke, having to suppress a shudder at the memory that his mind had conjured up. "It was a dream where-" Shizuo's sentence broke off, as he had to swallow down another convolution of his chest. "Where you died."

The information broker sighed, more tears leaking from the mocha eyes in front of him before he was suddenly pulled down, his chest barely hovering over his lover's as he caught himself on his elbows. Lips that tasted of cigarettes and salt water pressed fervently to his own, not passionately, but with such a strong need that he felt himself melt into the toned body under him, as well as the strong arms that wrapped around him and held him down with no intention of letting go.

When Izaya's mouth was once again under his control he gasped for breath for a few moments, before cooing to the crying, desperate man pressed against him, "But that's just the thing. It was a dream. And now, it's over."

"Don't leave me." The body guard whimpered pathetically into the crook of the raven's neck.

Izaya couldn't help but give a small chuckle, knotting his fingers in the blond hair that tickled at the side of his face. "I don't have any intentions of leaving any time soon."

DRRR

The flea was skipping. Yes, you heard me correctly, skipping…And he wondered why I refused to hold his hand when we were out in public.

I strolled at an easy pace behind the all too happy raven, watching as he would stop to inspect the goods behind the glass of a window that caught his eye, and then would wait for me to catch up to him before deciding whether or not he would enter the store or go along his merry way. I supposed he did have the right to be so happy, as we were Christmas shopping after all. Festive decorations were scattered about the stores, and decorative lights lined the streets, holiday songs lifting the atmosphere as they played through store speakers.

Throughout the day Izaya had managed to find something for both of his sisters, and I a present for Celty. My feet were just beginning to tire when a small body bumped into mine, and I snapped out of whatever place my mind had wandered to stare down at the raven peering into the store in front of him intently.

"What is it?" I questioned around the lit cigarette protruding from my mouth.

Maroon eyes turned up to meet mine. "It's a new product that was put on the market last week. They're called L.I.'s"

I too looked through the glass then, only to find a person, held upright like they did manikins with a stand and its eyes closed, face blank. "L.I.? Why do they call it that?"

"Just some technical mumbo jumbo." That man who knew almost everything going on in the city replied. "Everyone else just says it stands for Life Insurance though." He paused, waiting to see if I would comment, then hurried to explain due to my confused face. "They're robots without certain parts in their hard drives. When someone is about to die or is recently dead, either their brain or their heart can be placed inside, and the robot will come to life, bearing many similar qualities to the recently deceased person. This helps if the person has some unfinished business or family members need help moving on. They're designed to look almost exactly like the deceased after all."

The both of us stared at the display for a minute more, Izaya with curiosity while I with bitterness. I sincerely hoped that I would never have to buy one of the L.I.'s; the idea just seemed so dark, twisted and unnatural. Besides, from the sound of it they only came in use for messed up jobs in the first place, and I was glad when the information broker supposedly lost interest and moved on.

DRRR

Okay…So maybe Izaya hadn't lost interest. I came to find this out when I found a face exactly like mine, with hair exactly like mine, connected to a body exactly like mine standing in the middle of my living room.

"Surprise!" The raven shouted as he leaped out from behind the still figure, nearly scaring the life out of me. He looked quite happy at the moment, not to mention extremely proud of himself due to the load that he had brought home. "So, what do you think?" The petit man asked.

"Um…" I searched my brain quickly for a nice way to put how I felt, but was cut off as Izaya continued like he hadn't even asked me a question.

"This one's Psyche." He said, gesturing to his exact look alike, and then next to it to mine. "And this one's Delic. I got them as a package, Psychedelic Dreams." He beamed up at me again, ready for praise.

"Why?" Was the only thing I could think to say.

"To do their job. Life Insurance. Don't worry; it's not your Christmas present or anything, just something I wanted to do." The raven began circling the two robots, looking them over as if they were figures in a museum.

"Izaya," I began as gently as I could. "I don't know about this. I mean, this sort of thing just doesn't seem right to me, what these robots do."

The informant stopped his pacing then, leaving him standing next to me with his head down, hair covering his eyes and fists tightly clenched together. "I just, I just…" I waited for a few moments for the rest of the sentence, whether that pause was spent searching for words or pulling himself together, I would never know. "I can't be without you Shizuo."

I scoffed, turning my face to the side in attempt to cover the light blush that dusted my cheeks. Placing a hand on the back of Izaya's head, I drew him closer, letting him grip as my black vest as he buried his face in my chest.

"Jeeze, what makes you think I'm just gonna fall over one day, huh?" I jested at the man, trying to cover up the fact that at the moment I was threading my fingers through his midnight locks, and holding him to me as tightly as I could without having to worry of breaking him.

A muffled chuckle escaped the eccentric man as he somehow found a way to clutch at me even tighter. "It's called insurance Shizu-chan, it's for accidents and tragedies."

DRRR

My eye twitched underneath its shaded covering, annoyance continuously pricking me like a pin. This was not okay.

At the moment Izaya and I were at Shinra's apartment, the eccentric doctor himself holding a pose like the words 'TADAA' should be written overhead. Next to him stood yet another figure of my likeliness, with another Izaya double by him as well. This time my replica was clothed in large amounts of blue and while fabric, contrary to the other who was donned in a pink and white suite, the same colors that adorned the other male that came in his package. The smaller still man looked more like a child playing dress up, what with the fake crown resting on his head, and the golden cloak flowing behind him.

"Shinra…" My voice trailed off dauntingly as I all but growled at the very proud doctor. "What the hell possessed you, so that you felt the need to do this?"

"It wasn't just me, Celty helped pick them out as well!" I would have picked up the coffee table and thrown it at the grinning lunatic had Izaya not chosen that moment to put a warning hand on my shoulder.

"That's so nice of you Shinra," The informant butted into the conversation, using the manors that most didn't know he possessed. "You really didn't have to."

"Oh nonsense! This is you guys Christmas presents; we just couldn't wait an entire month to give it to you." I looked over to Celty, sitting on a chair nearby, and she gave a thumbs up in the place of a nod of agreement.

"What makes you guys think that we need these in the first place?" I said through my teeth. "Do I look like I'm going to keel over and die any time soon?"

For a moment the thin doctor seemed to connect gazes with the equally small man next to me, as if he were silently asking him permission for something. However the raven responded, it caused him to once again regain his happy-go-lucky attitude as he responded. "I just thought they'd come in handy if either of you slits the other's throat one day, and then feels guilty about it later."

My eye continued to twitch aggravatingly in annoyance for the rest of our visit, but Izaya simply kept his small, content smile plastered to his face.

DRRR

"I still don't understand why they gave those to us."

The small raven at my side dropped his hands in exasperation, thus sending them into the sink, soap saturated water splashing everywhere. "Could you just shut up about it? They were being nice." His amber gaze stayed locked with mine for a moment before he went back to scrubbing the dish that still remained locked in his grip.

"I just don't understand why we need four of them, if we're even going to have them in the first place." I responded curtly, rubbing a towel over a previously cleaned dish.

"It worked out pretty well actually." This time Izaya didn't look at me as he talked, but continued on with his work. "With the two that I bought, Delic is meant to hold your mind, while Psyche my heart. At the same time, Tsugaru that Shinra got for you will keep your heart, while Hibiya has my mind. It was as if it were planned or something."

My eyes narrowed a bit in suspicion. "It wasn't planned though, right flea?"

"Please Shizu-chan, try not to be more stupid than you already are." The information broker snapped as he handed me the now thoroughly clean plate. He reached a hand down into the lukewarm water then, pulling it back up with the cork to the drain in his grasp. "Why are you so against the L.I.'s anyways?"

This I had to think about for a moment, knowing that if I didn't give a good enough answer that it would be brushed off as stupid or ignorant by the sharper man. "You know how some people say that a person's essence is held within their soul, their mind, and their heart?"

"Don't tell me you believe in that stuff, Shizu-chan." The raven said skeptically as he dried his hands.

"Let me finish!" I snapped, irritated that my question hadn't been answered the way I had wanted. "Anyways, to me it feels like, if the heart and the brain are still alive and working, then the soul can't move on to the afterlife."

"So you're worried that you won't die?" I was given a skeptical look, as if I were missing the point.

"Actually, I'm more worried about not living."

The petit man sighed, resting his hip against the counter as I put up the final dish from our diner into the cabinet above. "But you'll live on through Tsugaru and Delic."

"Will I?" I questioned the know-it-all. "Will my consciousness really live on in two people, or will it become something else entirely, while I simply become nothing?"

A tisk came from my counterpart, sounding quite annoyed as he turned away from me to rearrange things on the counter, as if he wanted a reason not to have to look at me anymore. "You're thinking too much Shizu-chan. How is that tiny little brain not hurting in that thick skull of yours?"

"What the hell flea?" I snapped at the comment. "What do you-"

I broke off my sentence when Izaya suddenly started coughing into his hand, having to double over due to the force of his body's convulsions. "H-hey, are you okay?" With a loss of anything else to do, I tried to rub his back soothingly, but still felt awkward, as I wasn't sure if that was the right thing to do at the moment. "Flea?" I asked as the thin man's hacking finally died down.

"I'm fine." He rasped, though I saw him grimace as he pulled his hand away from his face. Quickly, he reached for the sink, shoving me off in the process as he turned the tap back on. I could only watch helplessly as he took care of himself, not used to helping others in such situations. Something inside of me clicked when I noticed a discoloration on Izaya though, causing me to freeze up for a moment, my blood turning to ice before I jumped into action, seizing the man's arm and pulling it towards me, before he was able to get his hand under the running water.

What I saw was red.

"Shizu-chan!" the ravenette exclaimed in surprise, jerking him limb back into his possession. I wouldn't have any of that though, and gripped it again, prying open the now fisted, long, white fingers so that I could see what they were covering up. A thin layer of blood coated the palm of the information broker.

"Izaya." I growled as anger began bubbling up inside of me. "What the hell is this?"

"It's none of your business." He snapped back with just as much coldness in his voice, trying in vain to pry my fingers off of him.

"Like hell!" I was practically shouting now, fear continuing to rise in me as the possibilities of what could be wrong with Izaya flew through my head, seemingly having no end. "How many times do I have to go over this with you? You're my business. I care about what happens to you!"

Ruby eyes turned away from me then, casting down to the tiled floor under our feet as a tinge of sadness seemed to touch his usually shining jewels. "It's nothing, now can you give me back my hand?"

A feral growl slipped with ease from my throat, and without warning, I lifted the stubborn man roughly into my arms, not caring at the moment how much I jostled him.

"What are you doing?" The raven screeched as he latched onto my neck in fear of being dropped.

"I'm taking you to Shinra, that way maybe I can get some answers."

A/N: So, I'm sure you guys were wondering what that bit at the beginning was, and it used to make since back when this story was only going to be about 3 chapters. But then the L.I.'s were introduced, and everything sort of evolved into something else. It still makes since though, so I left it in as a sort of little bonus I guess, I just hope you guys liked it .

Anywho, GASP! Something's going on with Izaya! Please let me know what you think and I'll see you in the next chapter!