AN: Once again, this is another one of our stupid ideas. We're both putting equally hard work into this fanfiction. We've heard the cries of Mikado X Shizuo fans, and we're answering! Although, for the first few chapters or so, we're just kind of setting up the stage for future drama to unfold… so pleeeeeassse don't expect the relationship to develop in this chapter [We probably won't be that great at it, but if we manage to get at least one review for this we'll do our best to continue it]. We're working on five different fanfictions right now, including one request and four of our own ideas, so please be patient with us. This chapter was originally twice as long, but Kitty doesn't like long chapters, and she's forbidden for me to write more than "eight" pages in the word document processor (under certain settings) for each chapter. So I've cut the last half off and I'm saving that for the second chapter (so our little Shizuo-chan doesn't really do anything in this chapter. Blame the Kitty!), while in this chapter I sort of leave you all on a cliffhanger. And we know the Story Title is Lame! We really can't think of anything good at the moment! The rating may go up in the future, too... Oh well. Read and Review!

Disclaimer: We do not in any way own the characters/scenes/… oh you know the drill I'm sure.

What Happens Gradually…

A Durarara! Fanfiction by Kitty & Foxy

Chapter One: The First Proposal

Kida Masaomi kept on picking up his phone, staring at it, and setting it down on the bed next to him. Picking it up, staring at it, and setting it down. Pick it up, stare, set it down. He was contemplating if today was the day: the day he'd gather up enough courage to do what he had realized was what he had wanted to do. What his heart had been telling him to do.

He finally felt that he had mustered up enough courage, and opened up his cell phone and began dialing a number. He held the phone to his ear, and held his breath as he listened to the dial tone ringing. Once, twice, thrice…

Finally, on the fourth ring, a voice answered. "Hello?"

"Mikado! It's Masaomi!" Despite his nervousness, he felt his true, natural self start to pour out the moment the tension came.

"Kida-kun?"

"Yeah! You wanna hang out today? It'll be a lot of fun-!" Masaomi's voice became quite childish as he rambled on and on; he could be himself in front of Mikado. He didn't have to be the serious gang leader, or the intelligent mastermind of anything. He could be just a regular teenager. A life which he wished he could grab back; a life that his friends offered him. He could be the true self that he was meant to be. But now, one friend has become more than that…

He heard a sigh on the other end of the phone, and he took the moment to stop rambling. "Well then?"

"Sure, where do you want to meet?"

Masaomi smiled as he chose a random meeting area, and hung up. His smile only grew wider as he grabbed the pillow on his bed, and hugged it tightly. I'm going to do it, I'm not going to chicken out this time!
*

Ryugamine Mikado stared, puzzled, at his best friend's back as the two walked down the street. It wasn't strange for Kida-kun to just call him from time to time in order to hang out, but it was weird that the boy hadn't said much for their entire walk to the park. In fact, Mikado had assumed that Kida-kun just wanted to go out to pick up girls, but if that were so then wouldn't Kida-kun be asking girls along the way to wherever he was going? Maybe he's got something else on his mind… he looks pretty nervous. He noted.

Masaomi was easily slipping through the crowds of people as he moved forward towards his destination. It was quite impressive, considering how he had his mind somewhere else entirely. Most people would have bumped into a dozen or so people if they had as much on their minds as he had on his at that time, but then again, being his other self had conditioned him to always be cautious of his surroundings. He was used to dodging people and things.

He had to make this good. If he was going to do this, he had to do this right. He had to do something that was next to impossible for him, and something he had never attempted to do before: have Mikado take him seriously.

But then his heart was crying out at the same time. The little chibi-version of him in his mind was bouncing off the walls, screaming: "Just be yourself!" and "Proclaim it to the whole world!". But if he did that, Mikado might never take him seriously.

The mental battle continued all the way to the park. He barely heard Mikado's questions as the two had walked there, and he was sure that Mikado was getting a little impatient. I can't hold it off any longer, can I?

Mikado's impatience grew ever slowly as he stood there for nearly five minutes – five minutes! – trying to get his friend's attention. Kida-kun was just staring off somewhere, making all these bizarre expressions reflecting whatever was on his mind. "Kida-kun!" He finally shouted, snapping Masaomi back to the present.

"Huh?" Masaomi sweat-dropped; he should've been paying attention to reality rather than battling the inevitable.

"Kida-kun, what did you call me out here for? You're not behaving normally at all." Mikado frowned.

Masaomi acknowledged Mikado's words, but he still wasn't fully in reality. "Just be yourself! Yourself! Mikado will believe you!" He inhaled deeply, and turned around, trying to keep his face in a serious expression.

But that only lasted a few seconds, for the little chibi-Masaomi in his brain had decided to mimic the story of the little Dutch boy who had put his finger in the dike – only the chibi performed the opposite and pulled his finger out. Masaomi suddenly felt himself begin to pour out with all of his heart, with the biggest and goofiest and most tearful look a human can possibly express plastered on his face.

"Oh, Mikado, it's sooooo unfaaaaaaair!"

Mikado blinked, taken slightly aback by his friend's sudden outburst. "Wh-what is?"

Masaomi spread his arms out wide, the childish expressions still pouring out on his face. "Oh how long I've been seeking, seeking for the longest time the girl, or girls –" – (Masaomi had never considered himself as a one-woman man) – "of my dreams!"

Mikado inwardly sighed, now slightly amused, realized that this was probably another one of his random "pick-up chicks scenes." The black-haired boy inwardly shook his head, deciding to watch his friends' spectacle.

Masaomi closed his eyes and brought the back of his hand to his forehead in the manner one would see an actor use in a dramatic Shakespearian play. "Alas, how I've tortured myself with my own ignorance! Seeking where there was nothing to be found!"

Mikado closed his eyes as a small sweat drop appeared on his forehead. What does that even mean?

"How the gods must have laughed as they watched me stumble along, unwary of where my true desires lie!"

How long is he planning to ramble on?

With sudden and brief movements that Mikado had not been able to see, Kida cupped Mikado's hands in his own and looked up at Mikado with his eyes sparkling. It made the black-haired boy feel quite uncomfortable.

"Oy, Mikado, have you ever heard of love at first sight?" He said, his eyes still sparkling.

"Err… yeah, sure." Mikado responded nervously.

Kida-kun let out a laugh. "Well, it's obvious my friend, that the eyes are indeed more intelligent than the brain, for I have been in love for the better part of my life and have never realized it!"

Mikado laughed uneasily. "Eh-heh-heh… yeeah okay Kida-kun. I'm… happy for you… I think." He attempted to pull his hands away, but Kida-kun kept hold of them tightly.

Kida's eyes grew wider, and sparkled even more (was that even possible? Apparently it was). "Re-REALLY? You're happy too Mikado?" His face turned into that of a happy puppy's.

"Ummm…. Yeah, sure, why wouldn't I be?"

Masaomi let go of Mikado's hands (which Mikado quickly pulled away) and slouched his arms at his sides, a huge expression of relief all over his face. He felt his jitters ease, but his excitement accelerate. "Ahh, well that takes a LOAD off my mind then." He chuckled nervously. "Ha-hah, and I was worried you wouldn't approve of my love."

Mikado offered a friendly smile. "Well, if it's love for someone you've known for a long time, then yeah I'm happy you've figured this ou—"

"BE WITH ME, MIKADO!"

"Uhhh… pardon?" His smile quickly froze into a confused expression as his face turned white as a sheet.

Suddenly, a single rose appeared in Mikado's face as Kida-kun was kneeling down in front of him. He can't be serious— "Kida-kun, what are you do—" Mikado's eyes glanced around and that was when he realized that everyone in the general vicinity of them in the park was staring at them. His face went from white to red in an instant.

"All the girls I've ever tried to pick up in the past have done nothing but run away from me. But you won't do that, right, Mikado? Yes, you've always stayed, enchanted by my words!"

En-enchanted? Mikado wasn't sure if he was embarrassed, confused, or angry. "Wait, Kida-kun! Th-this is a girl you're talking about, right? A girl from middle school or someone I don't know, right?"

Kida laughed, making numerous hand gestures to go with whatever he said. "Hah-hah-hah. What? Silly, I'm talking about our brotherhood that only now I have had the light shed upon! I now see the undeniable attraction that has pulled us together since we were toddlers!"

Full-blown realization finally hit Mikado. "H-how can you say that you've had a crush on me since—" Mikado's blush and stuttering only grew when he heard some nearby teenage girls start to giggle. At them.

"Oh yes, Mikado! I know I've been such a fool, never trusting my eyes with what they saw as a diamond in the rough, and I the rag to polish it!" Masaomi got up in a flash, and before Mikado knew it, Masaomi was leaning two inches away from Mikado's face. "But give me a chance, Mikado, to make up for my mistake! Let me fawn over you like I had foolishly done to all those girls that passed us by in the streets! Let me walk hand in hand, tell you that I love to watch your slim hips sway –"

"My hips don't sway! I'm a guy!" Mikado yelled, his face a glowing red. Was he angry? Confused? Disturbed? Probably a combination of them all.

"Oh but Mika-chan—" Mika-chan? He did NOT just call me that… "—they do! They sway and you pout just like a little girl! Hmm, in fact, I think you're far more attractive than most girls! Perhaps the only fault here is that you were born with a penis." Kida looked down, closed his eyes, and folded his arms in contemplation. "Hmmm… oh well!" With his arms still folded and eyes still closed, Kida lifted his head and the goofy grin returned to his face. "Well, now that that's settled, how about we discuss the going ou—!"

Masaomi suddenly felt a bone-crushing pain in his private regions; Mikado had certainly aimed his kick well. Masaomi buckled over in pain while a flushed Mikado was running as fast as he could away from the scene, where many bystanders stayed both very delighted and amused by the "act."

It hadn't been worth it for Mikado to leave his house that afternoon.
*

Mikado slowed his run to a walk when he felt he was far away, and then stopped when he was certain he was far away enough. He tried his best to catch his breath, and took the chance to think about what may have just happened. What did happen? What the hell was Kida-kun thinking?

It didn't make any sense to him. Why would Kida-kun do something like that? It had to be a joke – a really bad one, at that – because Kida was being his corny self, as usual. He didn't seem to take what he said seriously, so Mikado concluded that he wouldn't, either. But still … WHY would he do something like that? In public, on top of it all!

Kida-kun was always trying to get girls; he seriously doubted that Kida would suddenly decide to swing the other way. If this was a joke, which it probably was, then Kida had taken it too far. Mikado knew that no one would likely recognize him as the "boy that got confessed to," but he knew he wouldn't really be able to show his face around the park for a while … it was too great an embarrassment.

But why would Kida-kun be willing to do something like that in public? It didn't just hurt Mikado's' reputation, it hurt Kida's as well. Doing that in public meant that the girls there would see that he "swung a different way" … Suddenly, he remembered the giggles that he had heard from some girls when they witnessed Kida "confessing." Realization hit Mikado like a two-ton brick.

That WAS Kida's aim all along … he was targeting girls that would feel "safe" around him … he was putting on an ACT of "gay-ness" to attract girls through a totally different means …

That conclusion may have lessened the confusion Mikado had, but it only made him angrier with Kida. If that had been Kida's aim in the first place, then why did he find it necessary NOT to warn me in advance? A little voice in his brain said: Because you'd've said no right off the bat. But then again, who wouldn't?

He felt his face begin to flush again, and inwardly growled. Damn it, Kida-kun, sometimes you take things a little too far … that was not the kind of excitement he'd been expecting in Ikebukuro.

He shook his head; he decided that he wasn't going to think about this much more until he got home. Speaking of which… which way is home? He suddenly realized that this part of Ikebukuro was unfamiliar to him. He should've paid attention to where he was running…

Sighing and mentally blaming his "friend," he decided back-tracking the way was his best bet. He turned around and started walking, trying to keep everything off of his mind. Right now, he needed to relax, let his mind go elsewhere…

"Iiiiiizzzzzaaaaayyyyyaaaa!"

Mikado quickly snapped out of his thoughts and spun around to see where the howled voice had come from, only to see that a great big hunk of machinery was being thrown straight at him!

It definitely hadn't been worth it for Mikado to leave his house that afternoon.