Izaya's eyes opened slowly, his vision a little blurry as he scanned the familiar surroundings of his office. He groaned as he pulled himself up on the L shaped couch to a sitting position. His head—no, his entire body hurt. He coughed a few times, which intensified the pains in his chest. He groaned, and flopped back down on the couch. Since when had breathing become so difficult of a task?

Izaya had fallen asleep on the couch in his office the night before after meeting with a few clients. It had been a busy night for the informant, who planned to pull an all-nighter to catch up on his work. He had been putting off his meetings with clients in favor of seeking out a certain blonde ex-bartender who provided Izaya with endless entertainment. Now his procrastination was coming back to bite him in the ass. He planned multiple meetings in one night in a desperate attempt to make up for lost time. In hindsight, that probably wasn't a good idea considering it had been a cold night, and most of the meetings took place in dark and damp alleyways. It also didn't help that one of his clients was obviously extremely sick on top of everything.

"Whatever happened to being considerate towards other people when you're sick?" Izaya mused to himself. Slowly, he sat up again and took out his cell phone. He searched his contacts and found the number he had been looking for, pressing the call button next to Shinra's name. The call went straight to voice mail.

"Damn it Shinra! What kind of doctor turns off his phone?" Izaya coughed some more thinking that Shinra was probably trying to enjoy a nice day off with Celty. Izaya forced himself to stand up and walk away from the couch which almost seemed to be calling to his aching limbs. He tore himself away from the idea of sleeping the day away in favor of getting to Shinra's place where he could get some meds so he could at least get some computer work done. Izaya wrote a quick note for Namie, telling her to take the day off. He pulled his coat on, and faced the cold autumn air that seemed to blow straight through him. He shivered slightly. This was going to be a long trip.

Shizuo had just re-gained his composure after throwing yet another vending machine straight up into the air, only to have it smash down barely a foot behind the crumpled mass of a man cowering on the ground in front of Shizuo. The man had been yelling something about needing the money to help his sick mother or something along those lines, but Shizuo didn't pay much attention. It was always the same thing. Tom would ask for them to return the money, they would come up with some lame-ass excuse, and Shizuo would get mad. He wasn't even sure why he was so furious at this man. Perhaps it was the stress of the day catching up with him, or maybe the fact that he had run out of cigarettes about an hour ago. Either way, this creature that lay screaming and crying at his feet had sent him over the edge.

"You people should know that when you borrow money, you're going to have to give it back!" Shizuo growled at the thing on the ground that called itself a man.

"I-I'm s-s-sorry! I c-couldn't p-p-predict that my m-m-mother would get s-sick!" The 'man' cried, his voice full of desperation.

Shizuo may not be the sharpest knife in the drawer, but he could still tell when someone was lying to his face. "Okay then, let's go visit you mother in the hospital. Which hospital did you say she was in again?" Shizuo had picked the 'man' completely off of the ground by his jacket, and proceeded to glare at him. He could see the 'man' breaking under his stare. Tom simply sat back and watched, confident that it would all be over in a manner of seconds. His intuition did not disappoint.

"O-Okay! Okay! She's not in the hospital! H-here! I-I'll get you the money" The sniveling thing in Shizuo's hands reached into his pocket and retrieved his wallet, from which he produced a wad of bills. "T-take it! Just p-please! Don't hurt me!" He was hysterical by this point.

Shizuo snatched the money, and handed it to Tom without breaking eye contact with the pathetic excuse for a man he was holding. With a final shake, he dropped the 'man' on the ground, and walked past him.

Tom called out after him. "Hey, Shizuo! Where are you going?"

"I need a cigarette." Shizuo replied flatly as he walked towards the nearest convenience store.

"Okay then. Meet me back here in an hour, okay?"

Shizuo raised a hand in agreement without turning around as he continued to walk.