Durarara! (デュラララ!)(c) to Ryohgo Narita

I do not own the Characters.

It was one of those normal days in Ikebukuro; and by normal, that meant that the traffic police were chasing someone down the street for not obeying the damn speed limit [among other things that will be listed as time progresses]. How is that possible, well, Ryugamine Mikado had been walking along with his friend Sonohara Anri towards the crosswalk when the supposed, "Black Rider," or, "The Black Biker," of the city – more commonly known to them as Celty Sturluson [commonly known to them as Celty-san or just Celty], zoomed past on her motorcycle-horse [because her horse was just transformed into a motorcycle of course], followed by about eight other men on their own motorcycles.

Mikado had luckily seen the officers coming only seconds before, putting his arm out to shield Anri from the advancing cyclists. "W-watch out!" he'd barely stuttered that out.

Anri, on the other hand, had actually seen them coming, and had about to take a step back when her close friend's hand had surprised her by moving out in front of her in a protective way. Anri of course, flushed as she took a step back, looking away a bit so he wouldn't see the red blush forming on her cheeks. It was around that point that the other had turned to see if she was alright, but upon seeing her flushed face he felt his own cheeks burn and he pulled his arm away.

"A-Are you alright?" he asked instead, glancing over to make sure she was ok while still looking horribly flushed with embarrassment at the whole ordeal.

When she looked shyly at him with that blush still adorning her features, Mikado couldn't even look at her as he turned and looked in any other direction so she wouldn't have to see his horribly reddened cheeks.

She spoke up a bit when he did so, "I-I'm fine... they didn't hit me or anything." She replied, clutching her bag to her chest, although she secretly wanted to hide her face in it.

"That's good! I'm glad they didn't hit you… I mean, I don't think Celty-san would hit you or anything, and I'm sure the officers would have stopped before they hit you – but I'm still glad that they didn't!" he was just rambling on now, a habit he had found himself doing around his friend for a while now. More so since his best friend, Kida Masaomi, had upped and disappeared from the city along with his girlfriend, Mikajima Saki four months prior.

In all that time however, he had yet to make a move and ask Anri out, which was due to his shyness and innocence. It was fine though – he was happy that he just got to spend time with her.

Anyhow, after a few moments of awkward silence – and the wind from the speeding motorized vehicles finally dying down, the two high-schoolers had finally settled down enough to actually cross the street.

"It looks like the traffic police are in pursuit of Celty again," Anri offered after some moments, having already lowered her bag and glancing at her friend.

Having been thankful for the broken silence, Mikado offered a laugh, "It seems they like following her around more often now, what with the Yellow Scarves having gone back into hiding and some of the other gangs disappearing."

"Then, what should happen now?"

He paused at that, a thoughtful expression crossing his face for a moment as he thought about it, "Well, we haven't passed Simon's sushi place yet, and I haven't seen any sign of Kadota and the van." He offered after a moment, then laughed a little, "And I haven't seen Shizuo-chan throw anyth-"

Mikado didn't have time to finish the phrase before a terrified looking man came sprinting by them; had even less time to react to the stop sign that flew past them a split second after and nailed the fleeing man.

Anri bit back a small smile, despite feeling a deep amount of concern for the man who had just been nailed with a sign. "I think you spoke to soon," she said as she took a step back.

Coming up from the distance, a very pissed-off looking Heiwajima Shizuo wielding what looked to be a lamppost storming towards them. Well, not them, in particular, but the man lying on the ground with the stop sign lying beside him. They both did well to step back out of the way as the extremely enraged blonde man in his normal attire – a bartender's outfit – stormed past them and towards the man who seemed to have come to and was looking around fuzzily for the location of the scary man.

Shizuo's close friend, Tanaka Tom [the debt collector], however, had stopped by Mikado and Anri, sighing heavily and dug his hands in his pockets.

"There's no way I'm going to get the money if he keeps this up…" he sighed heavily as he shook his head. Tom was accustomed to his close friend lashing out constantly, but lately it had just gotten ridiculous.

Anri had adjusted her glasses a moment before addressing tom curiously, "Aren't you used to him doing this though? Attacking and throwing things at people, I mean."

Tom blinked, turning and looking to her, then Mikado, then her once more before he gave a heavy sigh, "I am, but… He's gotten a lot more vicious and angry with the people I go to collect money from. At this rate, someone's really going to end up hospitalized, and Shizuo doesn't have the kind of money to pay for that?"

Around that point, both the teen's interest had been piqued and they turned to him fully, "He's gotten more vicious?" they said in in-tune with one another, looking to each other as their faces flushed in identical surprise before turning and looking back to Tom.

He nodded, looking to Shizuo – who was currently throwing a car at the now fleeing man, among anything else he could get his hands on. "Since that last event four months ago with that man attempted to attack Kasuka and the whole incident with Izaya… he's been rather pissed. It also doesn't help that no one has seen Izaya since then and Shizuo has no one to vent all that aggression out on."

"Izaya is missing?" Anri's face showed bewilderment, but there was obviously a lack of concern for the man there. She was still wary of him doing anything to hurt her two close friends, but she had Saika with her to make sure he wouldn't get around to that.

Mikado on the other hand, furrowed his brows in confusion and concern. "He hasn't been in Ikebukuro for four months? Come to think of it… I haven't heard from him for a while either." He unintentionally let that last part slip out, as Anri had no idea of the fact that he talked with the suspicious man in a chat room frequently. Unbeknownst to him, however, Celty and Anri were actually often seen on that chat room as well.

"You have his number?" Tom was surprised by the comment – the last thing he was really expecting was for the man to be keeping the numbers of teenagers, if anything really. It was kind of unsettling to think about, but it wasn't his business.

Anri just seemed surprised by the newly acquired information, but said nothing about it, simply looking between the two males before turning to see Shizuo throwing a bench in the man – who had been cut off by the car that had almost crushed him had he not braked on his running at the last minute. Poor man didn't look like he was going to get a break anytime soon.

"No, I-I don't have his number… It's-it's complicated." Mikado simply stated, wanting to leave it at that and not get into the personal details. "So Shizuo is angry because Izaya has not been in town? I thought… I thought he wanted him to stay in Shinjuku?"

Tom sighed, "He does, but when Izaya is gone for long periods of time, there's a chance he might be scheming something big. Shizuo is on edge because of that."

That made since. Izaya was notoriously known for being a dangerous troublemaker and wreaking havoc on the people of Ikebukuro merely for his… entertainment. And on top of being notorious for that, it was commonly known that he also was not very liked by most people. Despised by Shizuo was clear to anyone who had watched that brute chase that man around town – constantly.

Mikado was an exception to this rule. After figuring out after an incident trying to obtain Celty's missing head – which had turned out to not be her head after all and someone just impersonating it – he had come to the realization that one of the chat members he had always talked with in that room had been Izaya himself, disguised as a girl named Kanra. Of course, this was not his secret to tell, so he quietly kept to himself about it [and Masaomi], not telling anyone about it.

He frowned a bit, It really is weird, he just stopped showing up to the chats after that day… I wonder if something happened to him. He thought to himself for a brief moment.

In the end, Mikado could only sigh, because there really was nothing he could do about it. Tom took the sigh as a sign of something else, "Is something bothering you?"

That caught him off guard, but Mikado regained his bearings and looked back at the man with an awkward reassuring smile, "N-no, everything's alright... I was just thinking about something, but it really is no big deal."

Tom was about to give him a response that was along the lines of not believing him, when the limp form of an unconscious man was dropped at his feet, followed by a wallet being placed in his hand by the aggravated blonde himself.

"Shizuo…" he stopped himself there, shaking his head as he wordlessly opened the wallet and removed the bills from inside before dropping that on the man's back. He really had nothing he could possibly say to his friend at this moment, since it really would do no good.

Shizuo, on the other hand, pulled out a cigarette and a lighter, lighting the thing before sticking it in his mouth. A few moments later, he removed it and blew a puff of smoke, "The damned idiots excuses were irritating to listen to," he stated plainly, if not a bit irritably, as he fished out his blue tinted sunglasses and placed them on his face without another word before walking off.

Anri and Mikado stood there awkwardly with Tom and the unconscious man for a moment, and then poor Tom gave a heavy sigh and walked off to catch up with the still seemingly enraged blonde, whose mindset was probably at the most irrational it had been for quite some time.

This left Mikado and Anri in awkward silence with themselves once more.

"I really hope nothing bad has happened to Izaya," Mikado said after a moment as he turned to her, "I know he's done some bad things before, but that doesn't mean I should wish for bad things to happen to him as well, right?"

Too bad Anri didn't feel the same. She inwardly told herself that if she saw that man again, she was personally going to make sure he didn't do anything to harm any of her friends; at least, not a second time anyhow. She really did not want to think about what had happened to Masaomi during that whole incident with the Yellow Scarves, a gang that had gone back into hiding once more-

"Anri?"

Mikado's curious – if not a little concerned – voice brought her back to reality, and she turned to him as she readjusted her glasses, "I'm sorry," she said to him apologetically, looking away with a bit of a flush.

"A-Ah! I-it's fine, I didn't really say anything!" came his embarrassed response.

She gave him a kind smile and a nod before the two waited some few moments before they began to walk along in silence once more – actually heading for the Sushi place as it was next on the agenda anyhow.

It was always like this between them anyhow – no one really making a move to ask the other out, both being incredibly shy and unable to do so at their own leisure. Although, despite Anri's belief that she didn't know how to love, she still couldn't help but feel something for her friend, especially since she already knew he honed some feelings for her.

However, the way their relationship currently seemed to be wasn't all that bad either – they still did things together, actually hanging out a lot more since Masaomi was not there to drag them off on some crazy adventure or drag them along when he went to flirt with girls [all of those attempts at which had been futile, as he was always heavily rejected… and no one could take him seriously].

Still… it was nice.

/

"Eat Sushi. Eat Russian Sushi." Simon Brezhnev [his actual first name is Semyon, but everyone just calls him Simon] said as he tried to hand out flyers to the people who were walking by his co-owned shop, Russia Sushi.

People had been intimidated by his large size, however, and it seemed that his attempts at gaining customers were fruitless. Still though, he had hope and determination to make the restaurant more successful – not to mention they still got customers like Kyohei Kadota and his gang of friends.

Also, "Simon!"

The large Russian man turned and smiled at the two teenagers approaching him as he watched another terrified person rush by, obviously intimidated by him to some extent. It didn't bother him though, as he was quite the optimistic one.

"Ah, hello Mikado and Anri," he said nodding to them both, "Are you hear to eat sushi, we have a sale today."

They both laughed a bit at his enthusiasm to sell the product, and Mikado gave him a smile and a nod, "We have that coupon you gave us for free sushi, so we were coming here to have some."

Simon's smile widened, "Well, we'll let you in right away," he said as he gestured – herded – the two inside and took them to the side room where all of Simon's close friends could go. Regular customers were not allowed back there.

It was upon entering that room that Mikado and Anri were greeted with an overly cheery, "Hello Mikado-chan and friend!" response from Karisawa Erika, an intensively passionate otaku and manga reader, and was currently holding a manga in one hand and chopsticks with sushi in the other.

Anri had quietly smiled and offered her a hello in response, while Mikado had laughed lightly at her persistent happiness.

Her friends Kadota [who was the leader of this band of friends], Yumasaki Walker [another passionate otaku and manga reader], and Togusa Saburo [who drove the van], all either gave a kind hello or a casual wave two the two.

The two teenagers sat down with the rest of the group as Simon left to get them their sushi.

For a while it was just animated conversation among the six of them, nothing serious except casual talk and asking about how their days went. Simon had come with the food and went while Erika was busily launching an assailant of information on a manga she was currently reading to Anri, while at the same time holding a full-on argument with Walker about another manga they'd both seen a few weeks ago in the store. It was fun really, up until Mikado decided to drop a rather curious question.

"Um, Kadota?" he asked the man, not quite helping that at times he felt intimidated by the man.

Kadota however, really wasn't all that mean – more or less he was just intensely serious at times – but he was in a pleasant mood at the time, so he really was relaxed when he replied, "Yes?"

Mikado fidgeted for a moment, like he was debating on whether or not he should ask the question. A few moments of mental contemplation later and he looked to the other with resolve in his eyes, "Do you find it weird that Izaya hasn't visited Ikebukuro in four months?" he said, afterwards picking up a piece of sushi from his plate and placing it in his mouth.

It was just like that the festive air died out just a little, replaced instead by the sudden curiosity his question had brought about.

As for Kadota, he arched an eyebrow at Mikado, "Four months? I don't know him that well, but that does seem unusual." He offered the other.

"Maybe he's busy with something?" Walker tossed into the conversation that had piqued his interest.

Erika laughed, "Of course he is busy, imagine how hard it must be to hold a secret relationship with his beloved Shizuo and not get caught by the world~!" she swooned in utter delight as she could picture it so clearly in her mind.

Mikado nearly choked on his sushi when she boldly stated that, Anri looking at her with a confused expression as she had yet to process what that meant. Kadota and Saburo merely shook their heads at her comment as Walker mumbled something along the lines of, "Oh not again…"

And of course, no one could stop Erika for going off on a little tangent about the entire idea that her mind had come to develop the minute she had so blatantly stated that she felt the two were a couple that was just meant to be – despite everyone insisting on numerous occasions that that really was not the case in this situation, but it was hard to break through the mind of a serious fan girl.

But, while all that went about, which led to Walker and Erika getting in a fight about Izaya and Shizuo, and Mikado and the other two males just sort of watching as they were not quite sure what to do, Anri took a small bite out of her sushi with a small frown on her face.

After everything Izaya did to Mikado and Masaomi, why is Mikado so worried about him…?

That was the question plaguing her that she would soon find herself receiving an answer to.