You asked for it, so here's a full story! The original one-shot is called In Which Nothing At All Happens.
Bittersweet Tragedy is by Melanie Martinez
— I don't own Durarara!
They walked to Raira Academy together, just the three of them, no fourth soul to disrupt their harmony and drag them all into the darkness. They were safe now; they had been for months. None of them spoke of the time when they were rivals playing cat and mouse in a gang war. They had shared all of their secrets with one another and sworn never to let that kind of thing happen again.
So here they were now, walking side by side to school, living out the ordinary lives that they had finally achieved. Everything that had happened prior to this fresh start seemed to have never existed.
No one spoke of how Masaomi and Mikado had founded the Yellow Scarves and the Dollars. No one spoke of how their simple attempts to save each other had escalated into some sort of paradoxical rivalry. No one ever mentioned Anri's desperate attempts to calm the growing tension. No one ever mentioned Aoba, the one who had brought Mikado to the dark side of Ikebukuro the second time. No one said anything about how Masaomi left for a year with a girl, Saki, that he ultimately broke up with. No one said anything about how Mikado had pointed a gun to his head and tried to leave for good.
No, they were normal now. But really, they weren't.
It was honestly a miracle that they hadn't blown up yet. They were like three sticks of dynamite tied together with dry rope, just waiting for a spark, ready to blow at any second from the smallest trigger.
Their bond was not what they thought it was. It was not a friendship between a shy girl, a relentless flirt, and a socially awkward class representative. No, it was an alliance between a demon swordswoman, an ex-gang leader, and a suicidal danger addict. It always had been, and it still was.
They had persuaded her, as fellow Saika wielders, that she wasn't a parasite. That people kept her around because they did get something in return.
But what was she really contributing? Masaomi-kun lifted people's spirits and Mikado-kun kept him in line, but all she did was stand around and blush. Why did they still keep her around? Was it because she was 'ero-kawaii', as Masaomi-kun called her? Did they just need a third friend to complete their trio?
She thought she was over it, reassured she had a purpose, until that moment.
She had been determined to help, to keep the peace that they were drifting further and further away from. The instant she had heard the gunshot, she rushed to the site. She, Erika-san, and everyone else had gone to help. Of all people, she should have sensed something was wrong from the start, but she had failed.
She remembered it clearly — pushing open the door, holding her breath, desperately hoping, praying she had made it in time. She had been too late.
The black strands of shadows covering them like webs. What looked like some kind of modified gun strapped to the back of Mikado-kun's glove, aimed at his own head. Masaomi-kun lying on a bleeding leg, arm reaching out to save him. She would never forget that sight.
Utterly helpless, helpless, even with the dark power that resided within her, she'd been unable to do anything to save her closest friends.
In the end, Anri Sonohara was still just a parasite.
•••
In all accounts, he was grateful. Grateful that everything had settled down and there had been no casualties. He didn't know what he could have done if there were.
He was grateful that that bastard Izaya-san had at last calmed down, or at the very least, wasn't messing with them anymore. It was a relief to know that he was in control of his life again. He, Mikado, and Anri-chan… everything was the way it should be.
Even Aoba-kun was gone — outside of school, anyway. He and Aoba-kun had ended up in the same class after he went back to Raira, a grade behind. They still didn't get along, but the topic of their pasts in the Yellow Scarves and Blue Squares never came up.
Sometimes, he walked around Ikebukuro and gang activity still persisted. But after the chaos two and a half months ago, no new gangs were able to rise to the same level of power as his or the Blue Squares.
There had been rumors going around that the Dollars still existed, but he knew they couldn't be true; he secretly checked Mikado's laptop every once in a while. Just in case! Was it wrong of him to still be worried?
He'd been feeling something recently, like somehow, everything wasn't okay. Like everything around him was fake, from Mikado and Anri-chan's smiles to their weekly visits to Russia Sushi to his niche in an ordinary sixteen-year-old life. Everything eerily still and quiet…
Masaomi Kida was afraid it might be the calm before the storm.
•••
It was eating him up like a disease. A tumor in his brain that kept growing and growing, and he couldn't stop it, this desire for the extraordinary.
Even after he'd been hospitalized and his friends — not just Kida-kun and Sonohara-san, it was everyone — had been hurt, this corrupting desire never ceased. If anything, it had grown.
Living out an ordinary life again, with cherry blossoms and blue skies (and playing wingman while Kida-kun failed at chatting up girls), only made him realize all the more how much he yearned to be extraordinary.
Over the past two or so months, he had reflected on his life in the underbelly of Ikebukuro, and he'd come to the conclusion that something had always been missing. Especially when Kida-kun had left, he'd wanted to create a place for his two friends on the dark side of the city.
They'd all been there before, but never together. He wasn't satisfied with just Kuronuma-kun at his side, but staying with his friends right now meant having to live a normal life. As greedy and selfish as it may sound, it wasn't enough for him.
He wanted to have it all — he wanted to live an extraordinary life, he wanted all his friends with him along the way, and at some point while they were apart, he had begun wanting Kida-kun's heart as well.
Even though they were best friends. Even though they were both guys. Even though they had two completely different objectives in life.
That last 'even though' had to change. He would make sure of it. An extraordinary life would mean nothing without Masaomi at his side. There was just one clear thing to do.
Mikado Ryugamine was going to bring Masaomi back into the darkness for good.
Not far away, perched on the roof of the building just across the street from the oblivious trio, a man lowered his binoculars. A sly grin formed on his face. He could tell just from the looks in their eyes.
He wouldn't even need to lift a finger to light the fuse this time.
On a side note, I have slight headcanon that Mikado speaks formally most of the time, but becomes more informal when he turns 'dark'. Therefore, he will address people differently, such as how "Kida-kun" becomes "Masaomi".
I will also make a courageous effort to update every 2 Fridays. Why so long, you ask? Because I don't want to promise a short period of time that could fall into irregular updates if I can't make it. In other words, better safe than sorry.
Also, chapter titles will be songs. 3
See you in 2 weeks!