What is Love

Disclaimer: I don't own Durarara or any of it's elements. I'm just a fan.

Chapter 4: Friendship

Anri and Mikado started to date, nothing much changed about the situation they spent a lot of their free time together. If anything changed they might have spent more time together and were a little less shy about touching, after what they ended up doing together it seemed silly that they would have trouble holding hands.

They did talk more frankly about their lives, Anri told Mikado more about Saika and Mikado told her about his life growing up with Masaomi in the country. Anri even finally spoke to him about watching her parents die, Mikado was noticeably shocked but he stayed there with Anri.

Every night before bed they would talk to each other on the phone. Anri would also chat about her dates with Celty online and talk to Erika once in a while by phone. Mikado wasn't getting as good advice from Walker but it was nice to have someone to talk to.

Meanwhile Shinra had bought a large safe and installed it in his apartment. He only put one thing in the safe, Saika. Saika was still wrapped up in the shadows but Shinra felt it was better not to take chances and locked it in the safe. In the meanwhile he kept an eye for anything that might sound like the slasher or Saika. All the people who collapsed had been cleared leaving everyone with a big mystery as to why it happened.

Life seemed good they were having something of a normal life. Mikado might have wanted something more out of life but he was getting enough excitement from being friends with a mythical creature and having a girl that used to be possessed by a sword. Everyone was fairly happy. Even Shizuo was, well, not as angry as usual since even Izaya wasn't seen in the city recently. Even crime seemed to be down as Shizuo had beaten a great deal of the cities dangerous criminals all in one night. The only noticeable down side was that it meant a certain motorcycle cop had more time to chase a certain Black Rider.

Overall it was pretty good, Celty could handle herself so no one really worried that much.

Anyway the young couple did try to have a close to a normal relationship. They decided to avoid having sex again until they felt they were ready. Though they still kissed and made out. A couple of weeks passed and they did get closer. They started a habit of sleep with each other.

In this particular night Anri was staying over Mikado. She packed a simple over night with a change of clothes and her pajamas.

Mikado's apartment wasn't as nice as Anri's, it was a little messy and a little dingy. Mikado did get some money from his parents but mostly paid for it himself with money he got from a job managing websites. Either way Anri didn't really care. They had dinner together and then went off to bed. They cuddled together on Mikado's futon. They were still prone to blushing a little when doing this new habit. Both have lived alone for a while so it was wonderful to have someone there at night. It was especially meaningful for Anri, who never really had a family. Anri got to go to sleep being held by Mikado and she felt secure in his embrace just knowing he would be there in the morning. Mikado loved that he could kiss her and hold her as they slept, just feeling her warmth let him sleep better than he had his whole life.

In the morning a the morning chill tickled Anri's neck as she rested her head on Mikado's chest. She rolled to the side to take the cold off her neck. Her eyes cracked open and she could make out a blur of yellow. She had taken off her glasses to go to bed so she had to squint to make anything out.

"Wakey wakey."

"Huh?" Anri said right before her eyes focused.

Then she shrieked in surprise when she saw what was in front of her.

Mikado was woken up and jolted up with her.

"Good morning love birds." They awoke to Masaomi's smiling face.

"Masaomi?" Mikado questioned.

"It seems like you two have gotten close while I've been gone." Masaomi smiled at them looking down a little.

Having slept with his arms around her, them both of them jolting up and given a small fright had left Mikado's hands on Anri's breast. When they realized it they both gasped pulling away. Mikado pulled away his hands and Anri pulled her knees to her chest to cover up a little.

"Oh look at you! You're so precious." Masaomi said like he was a mother catching her son kissing his first girlfriend.

"Masaomi!" Mikado said trying to change the subject. "When did you get back?"

"What are you doing here? How did you get in?" Anri added.

"Trying to change the subject?" Masaomi told them. "Fine, I'll play along. I just got back in town. I trade emails with Kadota sometimes he told me you guys had started to date. As soon as I heard that I had to come back. As for how I got in I opened the door with Mikado's spare key. I got it incase he locked himself out I just never got around to giving it back to him. I get in and guess who I find snuggling together."

Masaomi was delighted by all of this but Anri and Mikado were blushing.

0000

Masaomi stepped out of the apartment to where Saki was waiting for him giving them a chance to get dressed. The second most awkward time they found themselves getting dressed together.

A few minutes later they had all found themselves together at a small cafe. Masaomi was rather pleased and Saki seemed happy enough but the new couple had barely stop blushing.

"So how did you two get together?" Saki asked politely.

Neither Mikado nor Anri wanted to say they decided to have dated after they ended up having sex one night.

"Uh" Mikado started. "Well, something happened." Yes, sex things after nearly being killed things. "We ended up talking after those things. We got a little help to figure out what we wanted from each other and agreed to start dating."

"That is the vaguest story I have ever heard." Masaomi told them. "You didn't give us any details. How about how far you two have gotten?"

"Masaomi." Saki gently scolded.

"What? I found them sleeping together. They have to have done more than just kissing." Masaomi put that out.

Masaomi is pretty observant when it comes to those kind of things.

"We have been getting closer." Anri said quietly taking Mikado's hand in her own.

They spent a few hours catching up. Masaomi told them about how he and Saki ran off and had spent a great deal of time at the beach just escaping from the world. Mikado and Anri to show them around the city and to show them what had changed, mostly street signs that had been ripped out by Shizuo.

Though it was nice to catch up again Anri had a strange feeling develop. That feeling only happened when she saw Masaomi. She was confused, it was the same confusion she felt when he first left. Her mind was in turmoil, did she have feelings for Masaomi too? It made her feel guilty just when she had started a relationship with Mikado.

They sat down to eat at a small restaurant. As they ate Mikado excused himself to use the restaurant and Saki got a phone call. It left Masaomi and Anri alone.

"Is something on your mind?" Masaomi asked noticing her staring at him.

"Oh its nothing." Anri insisted.

"Are you sure?"

Anri was still trying to sort out all her feelings. She had believed that the feelings she had for Mikado was love and that you could only really love one person but now she had feelings for Masaomi. Her mind was in in a turmoil and her heart ached, she felt she was being disloyal to Mikado. The same feelings of being a parasite entered her mind was that all she was doing using them to feel something she couldn't feel.

"Come on, Anri, I'm your friend you can tell me if something is wrong?" Masaomi broke her train of thought.

"I'm not sure..." Anri began, her words forming without thought. "I think I love you."

"What's not to love?" Masaomi replied with a grin not missing a beat.

"Huh?"

"Don't worry I love you too."

"What?!" Anri was alarmed she didn't understand it but something felt wrong. It wasn't like with Mikado. It wasn't like when he said it even at the spur of the moment when they were together.

"Don't panic about it." Masaomi told her noticing her confusion. "You're my friend of course I'm going to love. I love you as much as I love Mikado."

Anri was literally dumbfounded. "I don't understand."

"Oh..." Masaomi started to see what she meant. "Anri, what do you mean? I don't love you like that."

Anri gave him a quickly explanation of how she never understood her emotions when dealing with love. She spared him the talk about Saika and her parents deaths a talk she decided was better to have when they had more time.

"Well..." Masaomi tried to explain. "there are a lot of kinds of loves. I love you like a friend. I love Saki in another way." He fumbled in his explanation.

"What's the difference?" Anri genuinely curious asked.

"Well with you and Mikado I love you guys like I love a lot of people, like Simon and Kadota. Its just I want you guys to be happy and safe and be in my life."

"So how is it different with Saki then?"

Masaomi scratched his head. Explaining love to someone is not an easy task. He personally never thought he would have to explain it and now he was mentally scolding himself. He thought he knew exactly what it was because of all he went through with Saki. He took a deep breath and decided just to speak from the heart, "It a special love. I don't think there is a definition for it, you just sort of know when it romantic love. It just you and this person and you see them different than anyone else. It kinda hurts not being without them. You are happiest when you are with them. You want to be your best, you want be better than your best just for this person. They are the person you love the most. That person is special, that they stand out from everyone you know, they have a special place in your heart and you want them to be happy. I really don't know how to explain it other than that. I mean I just guess you know. The feeling you have for the person you really love is different from what you feel for anyone else. That's basically what it is like with Saki."

Anri thought about her time with Mikado. No one had ever tried to reach out to her like he had. He always went the extra mile to try and get her to smile. In the last few weeks he had made her happier than she had ever been. That very night that she went to sleep she was eager to wake up so she could be with him again. She had a lot of feelings she didn't understand but Mikado did stand out to her. They thought of losing him scared her, she never depended on someone like that, it felt that she wouldn't be complete without him in her life.

A small smile formed on her face. "Thank you I think I needed to hear that."

Masaomi winced a little, "Is that how you feel about Mikado? Mikado is my best friend. And I worry about him. He's smart but sometimes he takes on more than he can handle, he's more delicate than he will admit.. You're my friend too but please don't do anything to hurt Mikado."

"That's the last thing I want to do." She turned to Masaomi. "I do care about him. Thank you."

Mikado came back and sat down beside Anri. Anri smiled and inched closer to him. It had never occurred to Anri that there were other forms of love. She did care about Masaomi but not like she cared for Mikado and that started to be clear. Mikado was special to her and she couldn't even imagine herself being with anyone like how she was Mikado. She had just missed Masaomi and was glad to have him back.

Saki came over smiling. "Good news Masaomi. That was the call we got the place."

"What?" Mikado asked.

"We both lost our places when we left." Masaomi explained. "But Saki has an aunt that manages some apartments. She's letting us stay in a vacant one."

0000

After they finished Saki and Masaomi headed to the apartment splitting away from Anri and Mikado.

As they walked away Masaomi whispered. "I love you Saki."

"I know, I love you too." Saki replied. "But what brought this on?"

"I just wanted to let you know that."

0000

After traveling for a while Mikado walked Anri back to her apartment.

Stopping at her door Mikado said, "I had fun today. I'm glad Masaomi is back in town."

"Yes." Anri said looking away from him. "Mikado? When we were together you said something. You said that you loved me. Did you mean it?"

Mikado was taken a back by the question. He just let it out at the moment and he gave it some thought, "Yes, I always thought you were cute from the moment I first saw you. But then I got to know you. You were shy but there was something strong about you. Even though you lost your parents and everything you still worried about people. I guess it's that kind person you are that makes me love you."

Anri responded by kissing on his lips. She pulled away and smiled. "Mikado, when I said I loved you didn't know what I was saying. But I've thought about it and you are special to me. I love you Mikado."

Mikado couldn't help but smile. "Thank you."

As she opened her apartment door Anri smiled saying, "Mikado stay the night."

"I don't have my sleeping clothes."

"You won't need them."

"Oh!" It took Mikado a second to understand what she was saying.

Anri giggled pulling him into the apartment before closing the door.

0000

At a hospital room across the city a girl named Haruna opened up her eyes and began to mutter something. It normally wouldn't seem important except she hadn't spoke in many months. She said one thing and repeated it over and over again, "Saika...Saika...Saika... Saika..."

Authors Notes: I've been struggling with writing lately. So hope you can all bare with me. Anyway I'm going to try and read the translation of the novels online. Should I just skip the first few since the anime covered it. Also any idea where I can find them. I haven't found a translation of two or three. Anyway you guys tell mew what you think with a review if you like