Author's Note: I'm a couple of days late in submitting, but this is my Valentine's Day gift for my fiancé. Of all the OCs he and I have created and paired together, our Durarara! OCs are probably our favorite. This scenario is one that we have talked about before, so I decided to finally solidify our ideas. I hope you all enjoy!

Minami Natsuyo never could say what it was that compelled her to continue living with Itogara Ryu. After all, they weren't a couple. No, nothing like that. Their situation was...unique.

When Natusyo had finally dropped out of school and left her foster family at the time, she didn't actually have a plan for her life. Without many options, she submitted herself to prostitution. Ryu, for some unfathomable reason, had taken a liking to her, and had come up with the wild plan to break her out. It was oddly flattering, especially when his breaking her out had come after he had learned about her past, which had often been viewed by others as "troubling."

That particular incident, however, had happened nearly two years ago.

So Natsuyo had every right to question why she was still living with Ryu. At first, it had been out of necessity. With Ryu breaking her out of the brothel, and with Natusyo burning the whole place down, she had nowhere to go. Since it had been Ryu's doing that she had been without lodging, he had offered her his couch while she figured out what to do next. While she searched for work, the ability to have somewhere to go home to at the end of a long and frustrating day was absolute bliss.

Then, when she finally got her job as a clerk at a boutique in Harajuku, both she and Ryu believed that would be the end of it. And yet Natsuyo stayed. She would later tell herself it was because she wanted to save up enough money to obtain her own apartment, and to make sure she had a sufficient amount of extra money to cushion the transition, in the event that anything went wrong.

But if she were being honest with herself, it was because she just couldn't will herself to leave. When she thought about a life without Ryu, it made her ill to her stomach, and she just couldn't figure out why that was the case. Due to past traumas, it was more times than not, Natsuyo felt uncomfortable in the presence of men, which made her time as a prostitute rather ironic.

Yet, Ryu made her feel...safe. While he had come to her as a client when they'd first met, since they'd been living together, Ryu had accepted the fact that Natsuyo was no longer in a position where she was obligated to have sex with him. Once he recognized that she became uncomfortable around drunks, Ryu started to drink less, and would no longer keep alcohol in the apartment. Everything he did, it was to help make her comfortable. He even accepted the fact that she would compulsively rearrange the furniture in the entire apartment.

Natusyo had simply thought that it was just because Ryu was trying to remain on friendly terms with her, to help her adjust to something of a normal life. Yet, she had been starting to wonder if there was more to it than that.

After all, she liked to spend time with the underground doctor that had fixed up Ryu after the breakout, Kishitani Shinra. In Shinra's near-constant company was Sturluson Celty, and Natsuyo was always fascinated by the way they interacted. The way that Shinra treated Celty...it often reminded Natsuyo of how Ryu would treat her. And when Shinra acted the way he did, he would say that it was because he loved Celty.

Shinra loved Celty.

So, did that mean that...Ryu...loved her?

"Jeez, Natsuyo-san, are you okay? You look really red," Ryu commented, his expression shifting to concern.

The half-Japanese woman blinked and looked to her current roommate. They were sitting together at the dining table, having dinner together. She hadn't realized just how preoccupied she had been with her thoughts. She blushed, deepening the reddened color of her cheeks, which only led to Ryu looking even more concerned. He got up to move to her side, laying his hand on her brow.

"You're not coming down with something, are you? Maybe you should head to bed…"

"A-ah, no. I'm alright, Samurai-san," she told him, even though she was most definitely not fine. Now that she had the idea in her head, she was beginning to obsess over it.

The concern, the tenderness...Had Ryu been in love with her this whole time, and she just hadn't noticed?

There had to be a way to be sure.

x-x-x-x-x

Natsuyo felt ridiculous, but at the same time, she didn't have anyone else she could talk to about the matter. Sighing with the realization, she mustered up the courage to knock on the door.

"Be right there!" Shinra's voice sounded out happily.

After a few moments, the door finally opened.

"Minami-san! What a pleasant surprise!"

Natsuyo smiled softly. "Good afternoon, Kishitani-san. I apologize for the unexpected visit, but I, eh, wanted to ask you and Celty-san something," she explained in a soft, almost hesitant, voice.

"Sure! You're welcome anytime, of course. Come in, come in." Shinra stepped aside to allow room for Natsuyo to walk into entryway of his apartment.

She dipped her head a little in thanks, and slipped inside, exchanging her shoes for one of the pairs of slippers available in the genkan, before she followed Shinra down the hallway to the area that housed the living room and kitchen. Natsuyo took a seat one of the couches, and then glanced up at Shinra.

"Is Celty-san here?" she asked.

"I'll go get her," the doctor promised, turning back towards the hallway they had just left, heading to Celty's room; Natsuyo waited patiently.

When the headless woman arrived, she quickly typed up a message on her phone.

[This is a pleasant surprise. Why did you come to visit today?]

"I had a question, for both of you," Natsuyo replied, toying nervously with the hem of her shirt.

[Is something troubling you?]

"Not...exactly. I just need some...advice."

"What sort of advice?" Shinra inquired, beginning to look puzzled about Natsuyo's behavior.

Natsuyo gnawed a little on her lower lip, trying to figure out how she could ask her question without sounding completely ridiculous. "How do you know if someone is in love with you?" she finally asked, knowing there was really no other way to reword it.

Celty appeared flustered by her question, as the shadowy wisps of smoke that curled about her neck spiked in jagged shapes. Shinra, on the other hand, looked absolutely delighted that Natsuyo had asked.

The sound of Celty typing furiously at her little keyboard filled the silence, and then she showed Natsuyo the screen of her phone. [Why do you ask? And why are you asking us, of all people?]

The half-Japanese woman flushed a little bit. "Well, I...I don't really have many friends, and I didn't know who else I could ask. Besides, I thought that this question would be best suited for the two of you. I mean, you love each other, right?"

Again, Celty appeared incredibly flustered whilst Shinra grinned in a rather giddy manner.

"Of course we do!" the doctor gushed. "I've loved Celty since the moment I laid eyes on her, all those years ago! Isn't she just breathtakingly beautiful?" As he spoke, Shinra gestured about wildly, and upon his comment on the Dullahan's beauty, threw his arms around her in an embrace; in response, Celty swiftly jabbed her hand into his ribs, forcing Shinra to stagger away. "But Celty, I love you!"

She typed something on her phone for Shinra to read that Natsuyo couldn't see, to which he pouted.

"It's true," he insisted. "Even if you don't reciprocate my feelings, I will always love you."

Natsuyo's shoulders slumped, both in defeat and in shame. Perhaps she had been wrong in thinking that Shinra and Celty were together. Maybe she really should have asked someone else. Realizing this, she started to stand. "I'm very sorry. It was a mistake to come here. I didn't realize that you weren't...I'll just go."

Celty held out a hand to stop her before typing up her next response. [No, no, it's alright. Shinra and I may not be a couple, but we're still more than happy to help you out.]

Natsuyo nodded a little in response, and sat back down. Celty sat beside her, and typed up another message after she had gestured for Shinra to sit on her other side.

[So...You're not asking because of Ryu-san, are you?]

Natusyo blushed, and nodded a little bit. "I just...I've been staying with him for so long. He's been so kind to me…" She cleared her throat a little before she spoke again, so she could try to not sound as wistful as she had been. "I thought it was just because he wanted to be a good friend, but the more I thought about it...Well, I started to wonder if everything he's done for me has actually been because he loves me."

Shinra laughed a little bit, but upon seeing Natsuyo's bewildered - and almost hurtful - expression, he coughed and straightened his glasses. "I didn't mean to offend you, Natsuyo-san. I was just...surprised that you only just now realized."

"Oh," was her soft reply, before she placed her head in her hands.

If Celty could, she would have been giving Shinra an annoyed look. In substitution, the Dullahan reached over to pinch the doctor.

"Ow!" he hissed, rubbing at his cheek, a surly expression on his face.

[Serves you right.] Celty then cleared her screen, and typed up her response for Natsuyo. She gently touched the younger woman's shoulder to get her attention. [Don't mind Shinra. He's not very tactful.]

In response, Natsuyo laughed a little bit.

Glad that she had cheered her up, Celty then continued on to her next response. [It is true that Ryu loves you. When he was recovering from the injuries he'd sustained when he rescued you from that brothel, he told Shinra and me that was why he had done so in the first place.]

Natsuyo nodded a bit, finally piecing her realizations together. "So...When he found out all that information about me…?"

[He wanted to know more about you, but knew that if he asked you directly, you wouldn't have told him.] Celty took a moment to erase her message before she typed a new one. [Everything he has done has been for you. He wanted to protect you, to show you how much he cared. But he knew that if he actually told you that he loved you, that it would make you uncomfortable.]

"Itogara-san understood that if he was direct with you, he would lose the one that he considers most precious to him," Shinra added gently, gauging Natsuyo's reactions. "And so, without telling you, he has loved you all this time, hoping for the day that he could finally tell you in words."

Natsuyo took a deep breath, and sat in silence, thinking. If what Shinra and Celty said was true, then Ryu had loved her for almost two years. Two years of loving her, but unable to say it. The young woman understood why he had remained silent, since she knew herself entirely too well. If Ryu had been forward about his feelings for her, then it would have come across to her as too sudden, too brash. She would have almost immediately left Ryu, unable to face him ever again. After all, she was too afraid to love, too afraid to recognize that she, broken as she was, could possibly be loved by someone else.

Yet, if Ryu really did love her, is was because he was able to accept that she was broken, and that was incredibly touching. The real question now, though, was whether or not she returned his feelings.

"Then...how do you know if you're in love with someone else?" she asked. Natsuyo had never really been in love before. She had certainly experienced sexual attraction to other people, male and female alike, but in those instances, she didn't think that there had been anything more than that.

"Well, how do you feel around Itogara-san?" Shinra asked.

Natsuyo paused, thinking about it. "Well...He makes me feel safe, for one. I look forward to going home, because I know that he'll be there. It's easy to be with him, because I don't have to keep secrets from him." Suddenly, Natsuyo was pouring out her heart to her friends. "He cares for me and worries about my wellbeing, and I do the same for him. He makes me laugh." She paused a moment, thinking back on what she had just said. "...I love him," she said, amazed.

Shinra smiled a little. "There you go, then."

Natsuyo nodded a little bit, and then frowned. "Oh, no...Valentine's is a couple of days. What am I supposed to do for him as a gift?"

Celty typed a response for her. [I've noticed that it's common for girls to give chocolate to the person they like.]

"Thank you so much for your help," Natsuyo said, standing to give them both a little bow of gratitude. "I should probably go. I need to get some ingredients so I can make chocolate from scratch."

x-x-x-x-x

When Valentine's Day rolled around, Natsuyo swallowed as she looked at the kitchen counter. Maybe she should have just given Ryu store-bought chocolate. Now that she was looking at everything spread out in front of her, the process of making sweets by hand was incredibly daunting. At least Ryu wouldn't be home until later that night, since he was out with Sabunari-san. She took a deep breath to steady her nerves. She could do this. She would do this, and reveal to Ryu that she had finally realized how he felt about her, and in turn, realized how she felt about him.

She just had to get started, and hope she didn't make a huge mess out of her surprise.

Natsuyo had cooked before, but it certainly wasn't her strong suit. She had never learned properly when she was living with her father, nor when she had been living with any of her foster families. Naturally, her time at the brothel had never really given her the opportunity for cooking. Most of her experience in the kitchen had been gained once she started living with Ryu. And since she wasn't the biggest fan of sweets, and since Ryu never seemed to eat them often, Natsuyo was especially worried that she would do something wrong.

She shook her head. As long as she followed her recipe, it would be fine. Taking another breath, she organized her supplies, and then proceeded to heat some water in her makeshift double-broiler.

x-x-x-x-x

"I'm home!" Ryu called out when he returned. He slipped his shoes off, and, out of both habit and instinct, checked the genkan to see if Natsuyo's shoes were still there.

While he liked having Natsuyo around, and got the sense that she enjoyed being around him, too, Ryu also held the constant worry that the young woman would just up and leave without any warning. Granted, Ryu told himself that he would understand her motivations for doing so if she ever followed through with it. While he loved her, he did recognize that Natsuyo was, for lack of a better word, skittish. The slightest misstep on his part would have her out the door in mere minutes. It was why he hadn't been very forthcoming with his feelings for her. That didn't mean, however, that it would hurt him any less if Natsuyo were to just disappear one day.

To his relief, though, it looked as if she had remained another day.

"Uh, welcome back, Samurai-san!" Natsuyo called back, sounding...flustered.

Ryu frowned, and headed to the kitchen, following the sound of Natsuyo's voice. When he turned the corner, he blinked, struck speechless.

The blonde woman looked flushed, as if she were winded from physical exertion, and maybe as if she were a little embarrassed. The kitchen smelled sweet, and it still looked a little messy, with cooking utensils still in the sink, and what looked like powdered sugar still dusted across the counter. Ryu glanced at Natsuyo, and saw that was some chocolate smeared across one of her cheeks, just underneath the fringe of bangs that covered her damaged left eye. In her hands, she gripped a small, red-colored tin.

"...What's all this, Natsuyo-san?" he asked slowly.

"I...uh…" She swallowed, shifting her weight a little bit. "Um...I-it's Valentine's Day, right?"

He nodded slowly. "Yes?"

She held out the tin to him, her cheeks flushing to the point where she almost matched its color. "Th-these are for you!"

Still very confused, Ryu took a few steps to close the distance between them, and took the tin from her hands. He opened the lid and looked inside, finding an assortment of chocolates resting in a nest of tissue paper. A smile crossed over his face. He hadn't received chocolates from a girl in a long time. In fact, he believed that the last time had been back when Yuurei was still together, and he and his bandmates had been gifted tons of boxes from their small fanbase. He had also gotten the occasional box of chocolate in high school from girls crushing on him. In short, he knew well enough that when a girl gave chocolate on Valentine's Day, it was often her way of confessing her love.

Ryu froze up for a moment, and then looked up at Natsuyo, eyes growing wide.

Natsuyo had given him chocolate. On Valentine's Day. And she had been so embarrassed giving him the tin.

"Natsuyo-san…" he started, watching her carefully. "Is this...what I think it means?"

Judging by the way that her cheeks flamed, he had hit the nail over the head. A grin spread across his face, and he set aside the tin before he stepped forward to draw Natsuyo into a tight embrace. In response, she squeaked a little bit in surprise.

"You are so adorable," he murmured into her hair. He sighed happily, breathing in the familiar scent of her favorite strawberry shampoo. "I love you so damn much," he added. "I've loved you for such a long time."

"I know," she whispered. "I...I'm sorry I didn't realize it before."

Ryu shook his head. "I didn't want to push you. You were still adjusting to this whole life. I would have loved you no matter what happened."

Natsuyo blushed, and burrowed her face further into the hollow of Ryu's neck. She was incredibly lucky to have someone like him caring for someone like her. "I love you...Ryu-kun."

He chuckled. "I think that's the first time you haven't called me 'Samurai-san.'"

She batted at his arm with one of her hands. "Shut up."

Ryu chuckled, and pulled back to kiss her brow. "I love you, too," he said. "Now, I think I'm going to try one of those chocolates you made for me."