Anni was out enjoying the night air by herself. It wasn't particularly late, and she'd gotten quite a bit better in her training over the past few months. She still always kept her blade with her, and so was comfortable enough to stroll around the city until Shizuo got off work. There was a secondary motive for her being out and about though. Any day now, she knew the plot of second season would start, and she was excited. There was no way she was going to be able to keep her nose out of it, but she didn't care. Anni couldn't tell if it was confidence or arrogance, but she felt like she could be involved without changing the story she loved for the worse. She felt like she could make the right choices. Even if she did mess up, this universe probably balanced itself out to counteract her influence, like Maya said. If she hadn't changed anything so far, it had to be true! That's was her reasoning, anyway.

Hands stuffed in her pockets and a smile plastered on her face, the little blonde sauntered through town, window shopping and people watching. This had become routine for her over the past week. Her anticipation never abated though, it only grew. Even Shizuo had noticed her strange behaviour. When he asked, she made the safest call she could, which was to outright tell him it was because of one of her many secrets, and that he shouldn't be worried about her. He had accepted that much, though he'd probably figured out enough to know things were going to start up again. She wasn't concerned about him though. The one thing that actually worried her was how much Izaya trusted the information Alex had given him. When those forecasts started coming true, would he prepare for the others, or assume it was all still false?

A reflective glance up at the moon brought Anni's attention to a large, black something forming on one of the buildings nearby. It begins again! she cheered with a smirk. Celty launched the glider away, sending it to circle over Ikebukuro. Anni went skipping on as it disappeared from sight, patiently awaiting the-

"-Damned petty thieves!" Shizuo shouted. His curse was immediately followed by a ringing impact as the bench sent Ruri flying, and knocked Egor out. His girlfriend caught only a glimpse of the fully costumed Hollywood over the buildings. Humming softly to herself, Anni made her way towards the commotion.

Sadly, she found that she was too late. The bench lay discarded, there was a small trail of blood, and no other signs anything had happened. The only other evidence she could find was a single forgotten bank note trapped under the bench. After retrieving it, she went back to wandering for a bit. The extent of what she could be involved in for tonight was over, and she simply hadn't been in the right places to fully enjoy it.

Once she finally returned home, Anni took over the couch with her long forgotten sketchpad to avoid messing around in Kanra's chat room. Instead of adding to it, she simply flipped through what she'd already done, checking if there was anything she could add or improve on. A few pages in, she ran across an old sketch she'd never finished. Four people stood together, with Anni and Alex being the only recognisable figures. The two taller figures standing behind them had little detail yet, with their only distinguishing features being long hair, held back in ponytails. For some reason or another, the little blonde regarding her work couldn't bring herself to finish it. The original intent in starting the project had been to remember everything she needed clearly without reference. Herself and her brother had been so easy, but her parents-

She snapped the book shut and flung it away. Pages crinkled in the air and the corner of the drawing pad made a small *thump* as it spun into the wall. At least it didn't hit anything important. That might have warped the spine though, or left a dent in the wall. Why did I do that anyway? Anni wondered as she went to retrieve the book she had abused. The train of thought ended there. She tweaked the metal rings that functioned as its spine back into shape and put the book away.

Thankfully, the door opened just as she fell back into the couch, preventing her from wondering more about her actions. "Welcome home" Anni cheered, picking up the one bank note she had rescued as she stood back up. "I've got a present."

"What's this now?" Shizuo asked as he slipped out of his shoes.

"It was left behind in the park from the…"

"Ah, I got it. I'll get it to Tom-san tomorrow" he agreed, tucking it into his wallet. "Is that part of what you've been so excited about?"

"...Yes" Anni admitted. Her boyfriend's socks were suddenly very interesting.

"Stop moping" he ordered simply. He then guided his little blonde back to the couch by her shoulders.

"I'm not moping, I was just-"

"You were moping, now cut it out" he growled back. In a movement Anni still hadn't quite gotten used to, he pressed a kiss to her forehead.

"Yes sir" she agreed weakly, sitting down. Something about the way he gave her his rare displays of affection stunned her. Sometimes it just left her in awe. She felt overpowered by it.

"Good" he said, taking his spot beside her and ruffling her hair.

-!DRRR!-

"No way. You're the one who would end up on the floor and you know it" Maya teased, leaning close to his face provocatively.

"Oh, you want me on the floor?" Kaneki countered easily, stealing a kiss before she could flinch away.

"Only if you're all tied up" she continued, giving him that sly, knowing smile that always drove him nuts. "And besides, it's not like my bestie would let you lay a hand on me" Maya dismissed, pulling him by his wrist to start walking again. They were between locations on yet another date, putting off deciding their next location as they walked. A disagreement over if karaoke was worth it had started this little argument.

"This wouldn't include her at all! The point is I would win in a hand to hand match, you can't just bring in reinforcements-"

"Sup!" someone called. A flash of yellow hair spun by, throwing a smile at Maya as it continued its mad dash.

"Anni!" Maya called in response. They both started running as one, quickly making pace with the tired girl.

"No! I didn't want YOU to follow me Skink" she shot at him breathlessly.

"You'll have to do better than that then Tweetie" he replied. He couldn't help but grin as she recoiled at the name he'd given her months ago. Messing with her was far too easy.

"Would you freaking drop the-"

"-So why are we running Anni?" Maya asked.

"More like jogging now" Kaneki corrected.

"Shut your face Skink! I've been running since I got out of training, cut me some slack" the little blonde huffed.

"And where per se are we running to?" Maya asked, taking up running backwards in front of her 'bestie' in a taunt. That casually teasing side of her was one of the many things he loved about his dear Maya. Anni didn't respond at all to the gesture.

"The underpass just over…" she started, falling off as she tried to catch her breath. They rounded a corner and an underpass did come into view. There was something going on though. As they stopped, what looked like the legendary black biker stopped just under the overpass and spread- were those living shadows?- in a web throughout the little tunnel.

"Anni! Anni is this another-" Maya started, excitement ringing through her voice.

"Yes, this is as far as you go Maya" Anni answered harshly, though he couldn't tell if it was intentional or a side effect of her trying to breathe. He was about to add something more when little Tweetie started running again. As he made to follow, Maya snatched his arm.

"She was serious 'Neki. We can watch from here" his girlfriend instructed, her eyes sharp as they followed Anni.

"Oh come on. I'll-"

"No. She knows this is dangerous, and I trust her judgment here. Don't question it" Maya explained. "Or do you want to chase your little Tweetie" she asked with a venom he'd gotten too used to.

"You know she would rather ask her precious boy to make me a pancake than endure my jokes" Kaneki wrapped his arms around her from behind and rested his chin on her head. "I'm just sorry we don't have snacks to go with our movie." A van came screeching its tires in a U-turn right next to them, but Kaneki didn't pay much attention to it.

"Psh" Maya responded, never letting her eyes leave the scene as Anni finally made it to the brawl that had broken out. She jumped right into the fray beside the black biker as a new mob of bikers blew past Kaneki and Maya. Having never seen Anni fight before, Kaneki had to admit he was mildly impressed. It was clear she was tired, but the few bikers who came at her were put on the ground one by one. A few landed glancing blows from what he could see, but the dancing girl hardly flinched.

"Damn. Remind me to never actually piss her off" he muttered. "Doesn't she carry a knife too? Why isn't she using it?" he continued, keeping his voice soft so he could still hear the commotion. Maya shrugged. "Awww, is our big bad Anni holding back so she doesn't hurt anyone?"

"Maybe. After the thing… she's always been so careful" his precious Maya explained, her tone solemn. As they watched, two others started running up to the underpass, along the sidewalk. One was a rather well endowed high school girl in black, and the other was a younger looking boy with a bag slung over his shoulder. They only got to look over the railing for a few moments while the black biker seemed to socialize with Anni and two others who had appeared. Then he hopped back onto his bike. In a rush, Anni was grabbed by shadows and tied into the sidecar. As the biker starting riding off towards them, taking the shadow web with him, another shadow reached out and snatched up the well endowed girl as well, strapping her to the biker's back. The trio zipped past Kaneki and his girlfriend silently.

"Holy shit!" Kaneki said as he watched them go. What were those shadows? Was the black biker really controlling them?

"So this is part of the story that twerp loved so much" Maya whispered. Her voice was almost drowned out by the fight still going on, and the van that went past them yet again, in the other direction this time.

"Huh? What story?" he wondered aloud.

"Spoilers" Maya quipped back at him.

-!DRRR!-

Tom was strolling along when he heard someone call his name. He turned to find Anni jogging up to him, smiling gleefully despite looking like she'd just been in a fight.

"Anni? What happened to you?" he asked, carefully containing his surprise. She didn't seem to be in distress at all, so he probably shouldn't overreact.

"Nothing much, I just took a hit or two helping out a friend of mine. Do you mind if I join you for a little bit?" the strange girl asked as she strolled past him in the direction he'd been heading. What was with her today? He'd always gotten the feeling that she was a bit odd, especially because she accepted Shizuo so easily, but this was more than he suspected. He matched pace with her.

"I don't see any problem with that, but I can't let you actually come collecting with us."

"That's fine. I just wanted to see Shizuo for a minute, and let him know what's going on" Anni explained, giving him another bright grin.

"That's fine then" Tom said, returning her smile. "He should be back with coffee in a few minutes."

"Thank you" she sang as they turned a corner. On the side of the street were a group of motorcyclists in white, tiger striped coats.

"Hey, let me ask you something!" one of the group shouted at them. He was quickly cut off by another of the four, however.

"Hey, aren't you the chick from just a minute ago?" came the accusation.

"Ya, it is!" another confirmed. Two of the little mob started standing, pulling out metal pipes. Tom needed to diffuse this quickly.

"You guys are Toramaru of Saitama, right? I've heard your leader is a real ladies man-"

"Screw that! This little bitch-" one of them started to argue as another advanced and raised his weapon. Tom flinched back, but Anni didn't move at all. It was then that Tom noticed Shizuo had found them with the coffee. The pipe didn't hit Anni, but found her boyfriend's arm instead. His sleeve ripped and the coffee fell, forgotten, to the ground. There was a moment of silence, where no one moved.

"My clothes..." Shizuo said simply, examining the hole that had been made. Tom took a few steps back, noting how Anni carefully mimicked his movement. "The clothes my little brother gave me…" he continued, before the inevitable came. "You bastards!" he shouted, picking up one of the motorcycles. Tom calmly crossed himself and prayed for the souls of the poor men before him as Shizuo executed his carnage. By the time his coworker had started to calm down, none of the bikes were in one piece, and all four of the gang members were unconscious. Shizuo seemed to notice Anni for the first time, along with her few injuries. Neither of them moved. Next, Tom witnessed something that left him speechless. Neither of them spoke, but he felt like a whole conversation passed between their eyes. The exchange ended with Anni nodding, as if in admission of guilt. "I thought you would be keeping yourself out of trouble" Shizuo sighed at her.

"Alex gave me the nickname trouble for good reason" she quipped back.

-!DRRR!-

Anni was content. She'd gotten to see a lot of the events over these past few days, and to top it off, her place here was always open to her. She pulled the blanket over her shoulder and reached out to intertwine her fingers with Shizuo's. No matter what went on outside, he would be here for her. Her guardian had never let her down, and he never would. In all honesty, Anni couldn't imagine going through her life without him anymore. When she came here, to this universe, she had wanted… what? She couldn't recall correctly anymore. But she never would have imagined actually falling for this legend of Ikebukuro.

"I love you" she whispered, but her voice still rang clear through the quiet. Wait, wait, WHAT? Did I just say that out loud? Her admission was very true. It had been for a long time, but she hadn't meant to say anything at all. The words fell from her lips without any intent. She had been planning and dreaming of the right time to say that, and now it had just unceremoniously shattered the silence that usually preceded sleep. Anni stiffened in paranoid shock, awaiting his response. Please be asleep already please be aslee-

"It's a little soon to be talking in your sleep, don'tcha think?" Shizuo calmly asked, tightening his grip on her hand enough to keep her from pulling away.

"Wh-what?" was all she could manage. What the hell kind of response was that!?

"Ah, sorry. I just wanted to make sure you couldn't get out of this again" he explained.

"Again? What…" The little blonde realized her hand had started trembling slightly with how she was clinging to her boyfriend. Even if he was the source of her nervous energy, she couldn't keep herself from reaching to him for comfort.

"You've been saying things in your sleep again. Over the past few weeks, you've told me that about four times." Shizuo pulled her hand up to press a kiss to her stiff fingers. She relaxed despite herself, waiting for him to go on in awed silence. "I'm glad I caught you while you were still awake" he gloated, suddenly renewing Anni's anxiety. She couldn't find a single word to say. Her very existence seemed to hang on his words. Silence gagged her as Shizuo pulled her into his arms. "Now you can finally hear me when I say I love you too" he said as he kissed her.

-A/N-

A few things to say! First, since I last posted I did go back and do quite a bit of updating of the earlier chapters, to account for all the little changes I'm always making. I spend a lot more time than I should picking everything apart and trying to make it perfect.

Second! You'll notice that although the 4.5 OVA chronologically falls in this time period, I didn't write anything about it, although Anni would have been present. There are a few reasons for this. One is simply that I've been dreading the idea of writing it, with so many people and voices to account for that I'm not used to writing. I'm a wimp. Another is that I have either the light novel or OVA itself to rely on, and neither of the sources are in an official release translation. Any quotes that I used from those just wouldn't sound right.

Again, I'm sorry it's been taking me so long to get these chapters out to you. As it is I'm posting this one just as I felt it was done enough. Life finds ways to get in the way, and the only reason I haven't given up on my little abomination here is for you all. You are all kinda eerily quiet... but the fact that you guys will go through and follow/fav my story, then do the same to ME, despite the fact that I'll probably never write anything else, lets me know that you're still here. Thank you so much.

Edited by my dear friend Faded Phoenix