Durarara! Fan Fiction!

Drama! Romance!

(Title)

"Life is not a Shoujo Manga"


DISCLAIMER: I do not own 'Durarara!' or any of the characters!

WARNING! RATED M! For Language and Violence.


Chapter Seven: "Birthday Party"

"'Well, that escalated quickly' is our family motto."


Date: August, 1999

(11 Years Ago)


It was Katsuko's fourteenth birthday and her family was throwing a party for her. It had been a great surprise for her. She honestly hadn't been expecting to celebrate it this year.

Shizuo had also been a bit surprised when he found out the smaller girl was a full year older than him. She explained that because she moved to Japan in the middle of the school year, her Father had thought it better she just repeat the year. The auburn-haired girl had been so excited to invite her friend after spending the entire summer locked away at the gym, training her Aikido and Judo skills day after day and helping instruct the girls' classes. Oh! And there was the tournament. She totally kicked butt then! So after copious amounts of begging and badgering on her part the blond-haired boy eventually relented and agreed, much to his chagrin and her joy! Her birthday was going to e all the better with her friend there, she was sure.

Today was finally the day and Katsuko was busy braiding her auburn hair into something resembling presentable when she heard her Aunt Miyo call out from the hall. "It's almost time for the party Katsuko-chan. Are you dressed?"

Katsuko was checking her dual braids in the mirror one last time before the guests began to arrive when her Aunt swiftly stepped into the small room that was given to her upon her arrival in the Sharaku household. It was still fairly bare of any personal touches except for the framed movie posters that hung upon the wooden walls and the mattress folded into the corner.

"Just got done!" Katsuko announced in her native tongue, spinning around to face the older woman. Katsuko was wearing her best dress, a soft white one with ribbons and bows layered across it, her Uncle Ford had gotten it for her birthday last year and she was excited she finally had an occasion to wear it!

The older woman swept into the room and immediately began tidying up her niece's appearance, smoothing out the dress and pinning down the stray locks of Katsuko's wild mess of hair while completely disregarding the girl's protests. Her movements were calculated and precise, done with a grace and discipline Katsuko could only dream of. It's easy to say that Katsuko was envious of her Aunt's grace and beauty, she was the epitome of grace and elegance whereas Katsuko was like the ugly and clumsy duckling. Long black hair that looked like slik, flawless white skin and almond-shaped chocolate brown eyes, her Aunt Miyo was beautiful in every word even though she was more polite and formal than she was warm or affectionate.

Really, the only thing that Katsuko shared with her Father's side of the family was the wavy red-brown, auburn hair that each blood member of the Sharaku family had. Other than her unmanageable hair and bull-headed personality, Katsuko was the spitting image of her Californian-born Mother in every way, in appearance and personality.

"The guests will be arriving any minute and among them will be important figures that your Father and Uncle have invited, business partners and old acquaintances. As this will be your first formal appearance as a member of the Sharaku household you will need to look and act your absolute best, Katsuko-chan." Miyo informed her niece tonelessly, she looked a bit tired, too. She looked more and more tired these days.

The girl's teal eyes lit up at the mention of her Father, she looked up at the woman and tried to hide the hopeful smile that wanted to spring up. "Ah, Aunt Miyo-Father, is he...?"

Her Aunt's brown eyes took on a somber look as her expression remained placid. It felt like a rock dropped into Katsuko's stomach and she already knew what her Aunt was going to say.

He wasn't coming.

"I am afraid you're Father won't make it in time for your birthday Katsuko-chan. He's very busy working in Europe right now. But he did send a gift." at the despondent look on the girl's face, Miyo reached out a hand and gently brushed her fingers against her brow, tucking auburn bangs to the side in a rare show of affection. "Come out when you're ready."

The woman breezed back out of the room, sliding the door shut behind her without a sound. When she was alone again Katsuko's head hung down, feeling her chest become suddenly tight. Before she knew it she was crouched with her arms around her knees and her head ducked down, curled into a ball. She kind of knew that he wouldn't be coming. It wasn't a surprise, he didn't usually make too much of an effort to be there around this time of year. But he had made it to California on her birthday a couple times before so she thought that maybe... maybe... this year would be different now that Mama wasn't here with her.

Her chest ached.

Katsuko wished she was on the beach.

She closed her eyes and she was back in the too-white room that smelt like sanitizer and faintly of Mama's plum blossom shampoo. Mama's hand was so much thinner than she remembers it being, it was like holding paper now. If she held on too tight she thought she might crumple.

'Keep smiling,' her Mama's words rang through her head, her voice was so soft, like a whisper. 'Even if the world feels like it's getting too heavy and all you want to do is cry... remember the power in a smile, my beautiful baby girl.'

Slowly, Katsuko got back to her feet again and took a deep breath. Two. And when she exhaled again, she smiled. Even though she wanted to cry, she smiled.

'Remember the power in a smile.'

Checking her reflection in the mirror once more for signs of a red nose or puffy eyes and finding none, she smoothed out layers of her dress before turning towards the paper door. She slid it open easily and went out to welcome the guests.


The party itself was not like the other ones Katsuko previously attended or hosted back home in California. This one was... formal.

There wasn't any loud pop music blasting through the ambient air. No party hats or colorful strings of decorations around the traditional house. No gaggles of adolescent girls chattering about boys or wishing happy birthday. Instead there were a lot of people Katsuko didn't recognize, all dressed nicely with impeccable manners. Even her cousins! The violent, messy bunch they are were dressed so cleanly and didn't raise their voices once!

She had been properly flabbergasted.

With each guest's arrival, Katsuko stood alongside her Aunt and Uncle while they greeted them and Katsuko would escort the children, most of which she had met during practice at the Gym. After a number of guests had arrived, Katsuko was given the task of being a good hostess by going around to the other children (most of which had been herded into a hall that was far less formal with many forms of entertainment) and making sure that everyone was having a good time. This, Katsuko did enjoy. She did her best, she thought, but however not everyone was looking to have fun.

Katsuko had tried to approach another girl around her age in a conversation but was shot down quite spectacularly. She was pretty with long black hair and brown eyes, she looked like she didn't want to be here more than Katsuko did. Nari? Mamie? Something like that. Her uncle was supposed to be important though, she knew that.

"Hello, you are..." Katsuko paused and bit her lip, she didn't want to get her name wrong. The girl looked over at Katsuko with a passive expression and cut her off before she could speak any further.

"Not interested."

Then she turned and walked away. 'Well, then...' Katsuko thought, only a bit discouraged as she watched the dark-haired girl walk away. 'it's her choice.' And so Katsuko moved on to the next guest.

She wasn't one to force anything on anyone after all.


Elsewhere, on the way to the Sharaku residence, Shizuo was struck with the sudden and intense urge to pull on someone's braids.

He had no clue why.


A bubbly birthday girl bounced towards her eldest cousin who was engaged with speaking to a rather nice-looking teenager whom she had never met before. This, of course, warranted an investigation. Eiichirou never brought his friends around. The girl completely ignored her blood relation to jump to the introductions, also pretending not to hear his surprised, 'Oi! Squirt!'. She flashed the stunned stranger a friendly smile (she'd been practicing it) and introduced herself.

"Hi! I'm Sharaku Katsuko! You are Eiichirou's friend?"

The teen, after bypassing his surprise, nodded with a boyish yet oddly nervous smile, "Uh, yeah. My name is Takahashi Akihito, and you are the birthday girl? Sorry I haven't introduced myself earlier."

Katsuko grinned wider and waived away his worries, it was fine to her. Eiichirou did not often bring his friends around so this was a treat. Takahashi Akihito was not very tall, she noted, but very pretty. He had nice dark brown eyes too. Everything about him seemed to say; friendly. She liked him right off and was about to start asking him a bunch of questions about what her cousin was like when he wasn't at home. Then a huge mitt of a hand landed on her head and she squawked.

"Nooooo! My hair!" she gasped in proper dramatic despair.

Eiichirou, the spiteful being that he is, ruffled it.

"It's rude to butt in like that, squirt." he said sternly. but the grin on his face undermined his chastising. She stuck her tongue at him, briefly considering siccing Aunt Miyo on him for messing up her carefully cultivated appearance but decided against it. For now, at least. If he kept up being insufferable then she just might change her mind.

"Kat-san!" a boyish voice carried over the sounds of upbeat J-pop to reach her ears.

Katsuko's first reaction was to turn at the sound of her name, stiffen in recognition of the dark-haired boy and then fight the down a blush as Hajime Shishizaki began to approach her from across the room, apparently forgoing the formal greeting with his parents if she hadn't been called back. Though Katsuko wouldn't consider she and the older boy to be friends like Shizuo was, she knew him well from their regular spars after school hours. Unlike all the other boys that attend the Gym, he gave her a real challenge when they fought, and the times when he did lose (which were already rare) he did so gracefully. As the only child of Sharaku Eiichi, there were certain expectations that Katsuko had to live up to, that includes being able to keep up and even outfight the boys in her age range. To find that someone that didn't hold any hard feelings after a spar was beyond refreshing for the girl. So it was understandable she was excited to see him.

The fact she might or might not find his smile cute was completely irrelevant to the equation.

"Ah, H-Hello Shishizaki-kun. Thank you for coming today." she stuttered, almost forgetting to add the suffix at the end of his name. Eiichirou snickered and she subtlety stepped on his stupid foot. He grunted quietly but made no other sound of pain. Shame. She had stepped quite hard too.

The boy smiled easily at her and that blush finally broke through, warming her cheeks. "Of course! I wouldn't have missed it. Happy Birthday Kat-san!" then his dark grey eyes darted away to the left before he shyly added, "...you look very nice, by the way."

She swears, she did not smile stupidly after that.

Nope.


Two hours well into the party, Katsuko was going around and making introductions with the other children while her Aunt and Uncle entertained the adults she had spotted her middle cousin, Eijiro, making an annoyed face before her vision was obscured by a colorfully wrapped box that fit easily in the calloused palm that held it in front of her.

"I hear it's somebody's birthday today~" a voice said with a cheerfulness that contrasted with the roughness of the deep baritone. Katsuko grinned, recognizing the owner of the voice.

"Mizuki!" she cried cheerfully, tackling the older teen in a side hug. The teen that stood a few heads taller than her chuckled good naturedly in the face of Katsuko's overt display of affection.

Mizuki Akabayashi, a student of the Uncle Eiji and is one of the finest (if not somewhat aggressive) fighters of the Gym. With his auburn hair and ferocity in a fight, one could easily mistake him for being a blood relation of the Sharaku's if it wasn't for his contrasting personality. Mizuki was a wild child of sorts as Aunt Miyo would say, a reckless and brash personality that he backs up with raw talent and a smile that can diffuse most situations. Still, Katsuko liked him better than stupid Eijiro. He was always kind to her and he always liked to help out with teaching the smaller kids! He was a good guy in her opinion.

"Onii-san, Kat-chan! Call me Mizuki-oniisan!" the older teen reprimanded her lightly, a sloppy and charming grin on his face. Katsuko's face scrunched up in concentration. She liked Mizuki, he was nice to her, and if he wanted her to use those silly end-name thingies then she would try! She bit her lip, slowly sounding out the syllables.

"Mizuki o-nee-san!" she tried. Eijiro let out a barking laugh while Mizuki's grin fell away and he sighed morosely. Katsuko frowned in confusion. What? Did she not do it right again?

"Oi! Katsu-neesan! You're boyfriend's here!" Katsuko startled at the sound of Mikage's voice calling out to her, then more so as she processed just what her young cousin said. Eijiro had choked on his laughter and even Mizuki's interest was piqued.

"WHAT!?" the auburn-haired girl screeched in a very unladylike way, spinning on her heel to see her cousin leading a certain blonde alongside-Katsuko blinked in surprise as she recognized the boy with glasses. "Tom?"

Tanaka Tom waved with a friendly, if not awkward, smile. "Hello, Sharaku-san. Uh, Happy Birthday."

When Shizuo had asked him if he wanted to hang out, he would readily admit that he had not been expecting to show up at such a traditional-looking house to attend a birthday party for a girl he hardly knew. Honestly, Tom didn't know what to make of the American girl. At first, he'd thought that Shizuo had been exaggerating when he said that she was the weirdest person he'd ever met, but then Tom had actually met the girl during lunch. She was...

Odd, for sure. Definitely cheerful. Tom really couldn't understand how she could watch Shizuo tear a street sign out of the sidewalk without even blinking an eye, even he wasn't entirely used to seeing such an impossibly feat preformed so effortlessly. Odd. That was a good word to describe the girl with braids. But, he's yet to find any fault with her personality besides her being a bit quirky and enthusiastic. She was nice enough, he thought, and... he was glad to see Shizuo had another friend besides himself.

Shizuo explained the other boy's presence when curious teal eyes landed on him, with a shrug, "I thought that you wouldn't mind if I invited Tom-senpai to come with me." he paused, uncertain now that they were actually here. "You don't mind... do you?"

Katsuko's resulting grin was blinding. "Of course not, Shizu! The more the better!" she exclaimed, clapping her hands together. She was always happy to have more friends at school, she thought that Tom was nice too. He never seemed to be bothered by her poor speech. But before she could begin to show her schoolmates around like a proper hostess, Eijiro had stepped forward with a confused frown.

"'Shizu'?" he echoed questioningly, peering at the blonde teenager with narrowed eyes.

Shizuo grimaced, freshly annoyed with the girl with braids next to him. Katsuko was completely oblivious to this, of course. She nodded cheerfully before she began carefully making introductions for everyone present, "Yup! Eijiro-baka, Mimi, Mizuki-oneesan-" there was a snort of laughter and a soft, wistful sigh from Mizuki. Eijiro was used to being called an idiot by everyone else and Mikage was completely apathetic to her nickname so long as no one she knew heard it, "-this is Heiwajima Shi-zu-o and Tanaka Tom! Shizu, Tom, these two are my cousins, Mikage and Eijiro and this guy attends the Gym, Akabayashi Mizuki!"

Kasuko mentally high-fived herself after she realized she had gotten everyone's names right! Nods were exchanged on both sides as they acknowledged the introductions, except for Eijiro who took another imposing step towards Shizuo, jabbing a rudely pointed finger at the younger boy. "This is the 'Shizu' you keep yapping about? The one that can send guys flying through the air with a single punch?" he asked skeptically.

Katsuko began to get a bad feeling all of a sudden. Hesitantly, she nodded. Eijiro smirked cockily and Katsuko knew that this wasn't going to end well. Stupid Eijiro.

"Then how about a friendly spar? It's only right that I get the measure of the guy that's been spending so much time with my precious little cousin." the idiot challenged. Shizuo had stared dully at the older teen. Katsuko's eyes widened and Tom had just face-palmed with a small groan.

Shizuo shrugged. "Fine."

'Oh no.' Katsuko thought with growing dread, 'Stupid, stupid Eijiro doesn't stand a chance AND Aunt Miyo is going to kill us all when she finds out!'

They walked outside of the hall and onto the backyard platform where some of the early classes were held in the mornings. Katsuko noticed how they drew a few of the other children out with them and wanted very much to be able to smush Eijiro's face into the floorboards herself for making such a scene! She now wished that Eiichirou had stayed for the rest of the party instead of leaving with his friend just so he could smush Eijiro's face. They faced each other across the polished flooring and unconsciously, Katsuko clasped her hands together and held them against her chest in a fit of anxiousness.

Mizuki, who had been standing beside her up 'till now, chuckled softly. "Don't worry, Kat-chan. Eijiro may seem like he's got rocks for brains, but he knows how to hold back. he won't hurt your little friend."

'Much.' he added silently.

Katsuko's frown deepened and she mumbled under her breath. "...it's not Shizu I'm worried about."

Mizuki spared her a curious glance out of the corner of his eye but kept his attention on the two boys as Eijiro got into an aggressive fighting stance. He wanted to laugh at the sight as he recognized that his friend wanted to show off now that he had an audience. The boy, Shizuo, just stood there looking casual if not a bit awkward being the center of attention. Little Mikage stood off to the side and uttered the word everyone had been waiting to hear.

"Begin!"

Eijiro dashed forward with a shout and just as he was about to engage, Shizuo slid his foot back. rearing his right arm and-Eijiro flew ungracefully through the air and landed harshly against the stone wall of the building with a loud thud! His unconscious form slid down the wall, revealing the large cracking in the stone where he landed. Everyone stared at the new Eijirou-shaped indentation in the wall. Shizuo was panting only semi-heavily and the yard was stunned into silence as was typical of those that witness the supernatural phenomenon that is Heiwajima Shizuo. Katsuko was the only one who clapped Shizuo's victory, much to the boy's embarrassment.

"Eh, Katsu-neesan…" Mikage mumbled, coming to stand next to her cousin.

"Yeah, Mimi?" the girl with braids hummed distractedly as she tried to figure out how she was going to explain this to her Aunt and Uncle.

"Your boyfriend is weird."

Katsuko's face lit up red and she immediately corrected that horrible misunderstanding with her younger cousin. Mikage then continued to mercilessly tease her about her 'boyfriend'. Although things ended up with structural damage and a long scolding from Aunt Miyo, it was okay because a bunch of the guests that saw what happened automatically assumed that Shizuo was a student of the Gym and as a result the Gym got a lot of new enrollments after the party ended. Besides that little hiccup with the fight, the rest of the party went fantastically now that her friend had been there too to spend it with her.

Katsuko thought without a doubt, that that was the best birthday ever.


Chapter Seven: "Birthday Party"

END


A/N: Alright, almost caught up!

Wuv yew all! 'Till next time!

-Nanami