Neither you or Shizuo talked on the whole way back. It was obvious he feared that you would run away again. He wouldn't let you be within two feet away from him, yet he refused to look you in your eyes. You knew he was still probably upset about what you did earlier. Even you regretted it now after learning firsthand how dangerous the city could actually be.

Even when the two of you were sitting on the small couch in the apartment, the silence continued to overwash everything. Only the faint noises coming from outside could be heard. Taking a quick glance over at Shizuo, you noticed that he wasn't even looking at you. His eyes were trained on the floor as if he was studying the carpet pattern intensely.

"I'm sorry..." you whispered.

His head slowly moved up and he finally looked you in the eyes, a shocked look on his face. He obviously wasn't expecting you to apologize. You didn't even really expect it yourself.

"I'm sorry," you repeated, clenching your hands into fists on your lap and looking away from him. "I wish I had just listened to you and stopped being so stubborn. The second I started walking around out there, I regretted it."

He gently placed his strong hand on top of your trembling one, causing you to look up at him. "It's not your fault. I should've known you'd try to run away. I shouldn't have been so focused on Izaya; I needed to be more focused on you."

Without thinking, you wrapped your arms around him and buried your face into his shoulder, desperately trying to stop the tears that threatened to spill out of your eyes.

"I hated it out there so much. By myself, I feel so afraid and helpless. I never realized that before when you were always there to protect me."

No words left his mouth. Slowly, you pulled away to see a pained look on his face. Little did you know he was debating the actions he would carry out next. Before you could react, his lips suddenly collided with yours. You didn't waste a single moment to react. Straddling his waist, you deepened the kiss as you tangled your fingers in his golden locks of hair. He placed his hands on your waist and squeezed tightly as he pushed his tongue inside your mouth.

Moans were made on both ends and your body went weak when he bit down on your bottom lip, tugging the flesh with his teeth. Taking advantage of it, he flipped the two of you to where he was now on top. You looked up at him with a playful smirk on your lips. He lowered his head and placed fervent kisses along your neck. You yearned to move your hands across his body, but before you got the chance to, he pinned your hands against the couch. At first, you didn't mind. But the longer he held them, the tighter and tighter his grip got until it was far too painful for you to bear.

"S-Shizuo," you whimpered, squirming under his grip. "It hurts."

It didn't take long for the realization to dawn on him. He quickly backed away from you, a look of horror and anger on his face. Not anger directed towards you - towards himself.

"I'm so damn stupid!" he yelled, placing his face in his hands.

"No, you're not!" you argued, trying to move closer to him to comfort him. He moved away from you before you could get anywhere near him.

"Just stay away!" he roared, causing you to freeze in your tracks. "How the hell did you manage to do it? Never once did I have the urge to get close to a woman because I knew I'd just end up hurting them. So how did you manage to make me forget that?"

"Please, Shizuo," you begged. "It's not a bad thing. You can control it-"

"No, I can't. I can't control it and I can't risk hurting you. I don't want that on my conscience. I can't take this job anymore."

"But-"

"Don't argue with me, (Y/N)."

Your jaw trembled and the tears you managed to withhold earlier finally managed to spill out. This couldn't be happening, this couldn't be happening...

"You're just a coward!" you shouted before storming out of the apartment, this time for good.

Coward. He's been called many things in the past few years; animal, monster, asshole, but coward was a first. Even so, he knew it was fitting. When it came down to his emotions, then yes, he was a coward. He was terrified to express them and you were a perfect example of that. When he saw how injured you were when he first found you, his heart nearly shattered. He wanted to kill the person that did that to you.

Now? Now you were back out in the dangerous city all by yourself once again. This time, though, he let you leave. The last thing he wanted was to see you and have to confront the emotions he desperately wanted to hide, but he knew he wouldn't be able to live with himself if something else happened to you.

Grumbling to himself, he made his way out the door and first looked around the building, hoping that you didn't get too far yet. To his dismay, you were already gone. Back out into the dangerous streets of Ikebukuro.

The last thing you wanted to do was to leave the apartment building, but there was nowhere else you could go. Shizuo had practically kicked you out. The best you could hope for was to scrounge up some change and find a pay phone for you to call your father. By now, you had enough of Ikebukuro to last a lifetime. It was finally time for you to go home.

Turning into an alley, you froze when you saw two shady looking men a few feet ahead. You tried to turn around and back out onto the street where plenty of witnesses were, but two more men blocked your path.

"Hey, wait, I think that's the girl!" one of the men behind you called.

"Is it?" one of the men in front asked.

"Oh, yes. That is indeed her," a familiar voice said in an amused voice.

The man was further behind the men in front. He slowly walked out from the shadows to reveal him and his devilish smirk.

"Right on time, (Y/N)-chan!" he exclaimed.

"Izaya?" you asked hesitantly.

"Oh, so you remember me? How wonderful!"

"Please, you need to help me get in touch with my father so I can leave the city."

"Tsk, tsk. No can do," he replied with a shrug. Before you could question him, he revealed a switchblade from under his sleeve and twirled it in his fingers. "You see, (Y/N)-chan, there are several people who would just love to get their hands on you to seek your father's fortune and they'll pay me handsomely to deliver you to them."

The fear you felt was nearly suffocating. Every muscle in your body screamed at you to run. Taking a shaky step back, you felt yourself run into one of the scary looking men behind you. As you tried to move away from him, he snaked an arm around you and placed a heavily scented piece of cloth against your mouth and nose. After unknowingly taking in the chemicals in a desperate attempt to get air, it only took seconds for everything to go black.

Your limp body started to topple forward until Izaya swiftly caught you, propping your back up against his chest. He carefully pushed a strand of hair that got loose behind your hair with a victorious smirk on his face. Now this was just far too easy, even for him.

"Well then, boys. It's time to bring our little package back to-"

Izaya was suddenly cut off by a street lamp being swung at one of his men, causing him to go crashing into a wall. The three other men went charging at their assailant only to all be knocked down with a single blow.

"IZAYAAAA!" Shizuo roared as he panted heavily. He was shaking with fury and he clutched the street lamp tightly in his hands.

"Perfect timing, Shizu-chan," Izaya teased.

Shizuo raised the street lamp and was prepared to swing at his enemy, but he was quickly stopped. Izaya's switchblade was now pressed firmly against your throat. Shizuo slowly lowered his weapon and placed it on the ground, the look of rage that was once on his face now replaced with one of fear.

"Just let her go, Izaya."

"No can do. I'm about to make a nice profit off of her."

"You son of a bitch-"

Before he could say any more, one of the men struck Shizuo in the back of the head with a metal pipe. Even him, with his insane strength, couldn't fight the effects of the serious concussion he was sure to have. Collapsing onto his knees, he fought desperately to stay conscious at black spots danced across his vision. Even sounds were hard for him to process, but he could clearly make out the distinct sound of a car rolling up.

Izaya carefully laid you down inside the trunk of the car before opening the passenger door for himself. "Farewell, Shizu-chan!" he called before getting inside the vehicle.

As Shizuo laid there in the middle of the alley watching Izaya drive away with your unconscious body, he couldn't help but feel helpless for the first time ever.