So I wrote this for a friend because she asked for a story about her favorite character Anri and here it is!
A note: I haven't gotten around to reading the light novels yet so my knowledge of Akabayashi is limited to what I have heard on the internet. Some of it may or may not be true and I have no way of confirming it so if something I mentioned about him is wrong, I apologize and ask that you just go with it for the sake of this story. XD BTW, this is also sort of AU.
Disclaimer: I do not own Durarara or any of its characters.
When you think of stories, what usually comes to mind are dreamlike fairytales, passionate romances, terrifying thrillers, questionable mysteries, and worlds that belong only in fantasy. They may start differently, they may be based in different places, and the characters may be different.
But there is one thing all stories have in common. They are just fiction.
Anri looked up from the journal she was writing in as a knock on the door caught her attention. She closed the red leather book, placing it in the drawer of her desk for safe keeping, before she went up and answered the door.
"Hello Anri-chan, long time no see," a familiar face with a familiar smile spoke to her. A small smile graced her face as she looked at her visitor.
"Akabayashi-san, it has been a long time." Anri stepped aside to allow the tall man to enter, closing the door once he was inside. She turned to the man, smiling reminiscently as she thought, Ah, he hasn't changed at all.
Akabayashi stood in her hallway, smiling happily at her as he usually did with that mischievous glint in his light purple eyes (A/N: Okay, I have no idea if that's his actual eye color. All the pics I found of him his eyes were either red or purple and I liked purple better so I just made them that color lol). His red hair was half slicked back as the other half fell across his forehead, the slicked back part revealing the scar that cut straight down his forehead and through his eye. He leaned slightly to the side, using his black cane that never left his side for support.
"You've grown up so much, Anri-chan!" If possible, Akabayashi's smile got wider. He walked into the connected bedroom that doubled as her living room from the small hallway that was her kitchen and entryway. He sat down at her table, making himself at home as Anri grabbed some cups and poured cool oolong tea in them. She served Akabayashi who nodded his thanks and drank the tea thoughtfully as he surveyed his surroundings.
Anri just waited patiently, knowing that Akabayashi probably wasn't stopping by just to chat idly. She watched him unabashedly, thinking back on how she came to know this man, who, although appeared harmless enough, was one of the executives of the Awakusu-kai group, a prominent group in the yakuza world.
She wasn't sure how but knew that Akabayashi had been friends with her mother. And Anri suspected that he had been in love with her mother, who he had tried to convince every chance he got to leave her abusive husband. Anri thought back on her family, frowning as the memories of her father beating her and her mother entered her mind. She never liked to dwell on her past but couldn't help it sometimes. Five years ago when Anri had been an innocent little girl, she had witnessed her mother kill her father and then herself. It was something that still haunted Anri to this day, losing her childish innocence and becoming a closed off person who didn't understand the feeling of love.
Except when it came to the man sitting across from her. After the death of her mother and father, Akabayashi had practically taken Anri under his wing, raising her as much as he could without getting her involved in his yakuza life. Anri appreciated the man and realized throughout the years that she thought more of this man than just as her guardian.
She knew she loved him. And she was sure he suspected it, but she also knew he wouldn't do anything to her or respond to her feelings. After all, it wasn't really her he saw every time he looked at her.
"You're growing to look a lot more like your mother," Akabayashi sighed nostalgically, his eyes settling on Anri's.
"Am I?" Anri responded politely and appropriately, plastering a fake smile on her face to hide how much his words had hurt her.
Sometimes I wish I was the heroine of this story. But I am cursed to always be the minor character. He could never see me the way he sees her.
An uncomfortable silence settled between the two, Anri watching a sour and guilty expression forming on Akabayashi's face for a moment before it returned to the stoic poker face he had built over the years in being in the yakuza. "How's school Anri-chan?"
She noted how he tried to change the subject to ease the tension and appeased him by answering, "It's going well. I have made some good friends." She smiled slightly as she thought of her two silly friends Ryuugamine Mikado and Kida Masaomi. She really liked the two of them and knew that her friend Mikado liked her more than a friend, but she knew that she could never return his love.
After all, her heart belonged to another. A man who didn't love her, but the other woman he saw when he looked at her.
If this were a story, he would come to realize that his love would never be returned and after some bouts of depression and tribulations, he would fall in love with me, the one who does love him. But sadly, I am not the heroine. I am not the woman he falls in love with. I am the woman who loves him from the shadows, pining and never satisfied.
"I see, that's good." Akabayashi seemed content that she was doing fine without him but also put off that he didn't play a major role in her life anymore. But he was wrong because he did. He was all she thought about when she was alone. He was all she could think of when she looked in the mirror, seeing her face, the face of her mother. That was one reason she kept her hair short, knowing her mother had long hair and knowing that Akabayashi had loved to run his fingers through it, teasing her mother on how unruly it was when it really wasn't. She hoped that even if she was a bit different, he would notice, but he didn't.
"You okay, Anri-chan?" Anri looked up in surprise as she hadn't noticed that Akabayashi had come to sit beside her, running his fingers through her short hair. "You look upset."
"It's nothing," Anri sighed, wishing that he was doing that to comfort her. But she knew he was only doing that to seek his own comfort in a past memory he had with her mother, and she let him do that.
Akabayashi seemed content stroking her hair, mindlessly commenting, "How come you never grow your hair out Anri-chan? It's so beautiful."
Anri tried to force her body not to stiffen at his words, but she couldn't help it. She was slightly put off and offended. Was it really that hard to ever think of her? To not see her mother in her every time he came to visit when he was lonely? Anri used to think that every time he came to visit her, he was starting to care about her. But she found out that Akabayashi only visited her whenever he missed her mother. Today, she had been expecting him.
After all, today was the anniversary of her mother's death.
"Anri-chan," Akabayashi murmured, leaning his head against hers as he wrapped his arm around her shoulders. "I miss her."
"I know," Anri smiled bitterly. She moved slightly so that she was sitting on Akabayashi's lap, his arms wrapped around her. She leaned against his chest, murmuring, "I missed you too, Aka-tan." She hated calling him that. It was the nickname her mother had called him, but she knew that hearing it would make him feel better.
"Kasumi," Akabayashi sighed, smiling as he hugged her tighter. "Kasumi, I missed you so much."
"It's all right," Anri said softly, patting Akabayashi's arm comfortingly. There was an empty look in her chocolate brown eyes. "I'm here now."
I know that it's all fake. But I can't help but play along. I know that it's just a story we act out. I pretend that for once, it is me he loves, and he pretends that I am the woman he loves but cannot have.
I know that this is just fiction.
I know that in reality, the story we so desperately play, will never happen.
So just in this moment, in this façade we put on, can I say that we love each other?
Because by now I know that my story does not have a happy ending.
Despite what I want, this is just a story, and a story is nothing but fiction.
I made up Anri's mother's name and Akabayashi's nickname. I somehow feel I was too OOC with Anri, and I know that technically she doesn't comprehend to feelings of love (hence why she has Saika) but like I said, it's sort of AUish and this how I feel she would act if she did unrequitedly love Akabayashi (am I the only one who finds these two absolutely adorable together?).
BTW, this story was strongly inspired by the song "Fiction" by the Korean boy band BEAST.
Thank you for reading~