Disclaimer: I don't own Durarara! nor its characters. All original characters are of my own design and creation.

"Do I look ok? Is my shirt straight? Is my hair alright? Do I have anything in my teeth?"

"Aren't I supposed to be the one that's nervous?" A young, pretty blonde chastises with a chuckle as she gets out of the taxi alongside her boyfriend. The man sighs heavily, as if a huge weight is being removed from him when she takes the plate of decorative cookies wrapped in festive plastic wrap back from him, and rubs the back of his neck.

"I'm sorry. I just don't see my parents very often and…." I just want everything to be perfect. I want them to be proud.

As always Shizuo doesn't have to say what's on his mind for his intuitive partner to understand what he wants to say. "I get it, but don't stress. You look great." Nausika insists, dusting imaginary lint off his crimson button up.

Shizuo sighs again, more relaxed this time, and smiles easily at her. "No, you look great. I'll do." He jokes, feeling that he should unroll his sleeves so he looks as dressy as her in that violet sweater dress but they would be wrinkled beyond repair by now.

Nausika giggles and pulls a piece of her blonde hair behind her ear. It's solid blonde now since she knew they were coming here and hadn't bothered to replace the streaks that had waded out since her….incident. "Whatever gets you to the door Shizuo." She tells him and with a gentle look ushers him forward.

The pairs' shoes crunch through the left over snow as the walk the few feet to the front door. It was surprisingly warm today for December. A lot of the snow from earlier in the week had melted, leaving only hard persistent mounds here and there that refused to bend to the whims of a warm winter.

But still, even minding the snow, the walk to the door doesn't take long enough for Shizuo and when they finally reach the front door he takes a minute to breath and wipe his damp palms on his dark pants before knocking.

Moments later an older woman with greying brown hair is at the door and Shizuo smiles at her with a wave. "Hi mom."

"Oh Shizuo, you're here! Oh look at you! I've missed you so much! OH, you're so thin! You haven't been eating properly have you! And you haven't quit that awful habit of yours either! I can smell the smoke on you! Ahhhh…you're going to going to go to an early grave if you keep up these poor eating habits and horrible smoking!" Shizuo's mother exclaims loudly as she hugs her eldest son perhaps a little too tight and swings him side to side perhaps a little too rough. For a small thing, she seems to pack a whollp. She only halts in 'greet assaulting' Shizuo when she notices with wide brown eyes that someone his behind the taller male.

"Mom, this is Nausika. Nausika, this is my mother Namiko Heiwajima." Shizuo introduces, now freed from his mother's tight embrace in her momentary surprise of her new guest, and straightens his disheveled hair.

"It's nice to meet you. I made cookies." Nausika replies, awkwardly thrusting the plate forward with perhaps too much enthusiasm. She has never met anyone's parents before. Well…not anyone she was dating that is.

"My, what an interesting name!"

Nausika almost breaks her teeth in an effort to smile and not say the quick retort on the tip of her tongue. She has no room to talk, naming her children Shizuo and Kasuka, but she keeps reminding herself she wants to make a good impression.

"Oh yes, Shizuo told me all about you on the phone! I was honestly surprised when he told me he had a girlfriend. Shizuo never was good with women!" Namiko says, taking the plate and setting it down.

"Mom!" Shizuo barks, red faced with embarrassment, but his mother isn't swayed.

"Well it's true! Remember that time I had to get you from school because you fainted because you touched some girl's breast?"

"That was an accident and I was nine!" The blonde shouts completely mortified.

"These are really good." The group turns around to see her second son quietly nibbling on a star shaped cookie, either oblivious or unmoved by his mother and older brother.

"Kasuka! You made it too?" The eldest exclaimed and the movie star nods slowly

"Ruri is here as well." He adds as he polishes off another corner of his cookie.

"Wow, really? I'm surprised you could both get time off."

"Our bosses want us to be happy. And they assumed we'd go where ever we were going together." He explains with a shrug, grabbing a bear this time now that his star is gone.

"Hmm…I guess that makes sense…" Shizuo ponders aloud with his hand pressed to his chin.

"Yo," Nausika greets, leaning around the shorter woman's frame to salute Kasuka with a wave. The quitter Heiwajima waves back slightly as he decapitates the poor bear in green frosting.

"You two have already met?" Namiko asks curiously, gaining Nauskia's attention again.

"Briefly, when he was in 'bukuro once or twice." She says with a smile that Naimko returns before she is again shouting.

"Don't spoil your appetite! Dinner is going to be ready soon and I don't want you filling up on cookies, you hear me!"

Kasuka stops and casually returns the cookie candy cane back to the plate with a blank, yet sullen, expression.

"Do you need a hand?"

Attention turns back to Nausika who is smiling sheepishly at her offer. "Hmm…well, now that you mention it. I could use some help with some of the side dishes." Namiko ponders out loud, much like her son.

"Mom is trying to make Western Christmas again." Kasuka says, almost like a warning. And judging by Shizuo shutter it probably is. Nausika really wants to laugh, but she reframes.

"If you'd like some help Mrs. Heiwajima I'd be more than happy to lend a hand. The schematics of American and Japanese food are a lot different and can be tricky to master." Nausika explains. She assumes the fastest way to get in the woman's good graces is by helping out; and showing off her skills in the kitchen so there is proof that her son is indeed eating.

"Oh really? How so?" The grey streaked brunette asks, wide eyed in fascination as if the other woman has just said something considerably more profound.

"Well for one the amount of butter."

Namiko laughs, bright and joyous, and Nausika knows that she really does have nothing to be afraid of. "Oh my! Well, we'll make the best of it I guess." She says and takes Nausika's arm in hers as she leads her to the kitchen. "Shizuo that comment about the cookies goes for you too!"

There is a loud grumble from behind before the swinging door closes and the blondes are separated.

Somehow Nausika helping with Western Christmas dinner turns into Nausika doing Western Christmas dinner.

To be fair, out of all the women she is the one with the most experience in making western foods; what with her mother being American and her spending several years there and in Europe on assignment.

But Namiko has a big heart and tries her best along with Nausika's calm tutelage. She really isn't that bad of a cook, Nausika gathers, she just can't grasp the fine points of western cooking down right.

Ruri is more hopeless. Nausika assumes she's a sweet girl, or at least she would if she said much of anything. But she is at least up front about not being capable of doing much of anything in the kitchen and is set to the simple, trivial task of chopping celery for stuffing and garnishing for actual food.

Nausika thinks she looks like a tiny kitchen robot; rhythmically bring the knife up and down far higher than required for the simple cutting of vegetables. She is almost tempted to show the petite brunette how to cut properly, but feels as though the girl is strangely attached to the knife.

"Did you do this a lot with your mother when you were at home dear?"

"Uh…no. My mother wasn't much of a cook." Nausika lies and continues to smash potatoes in a bowl. That wasn't true. He mother was a terrific cook. She was just normally too drunk or high or angry to get off the couch or stop hitting them to make her or Chidori anything. When she was, though, the things she made were great. But stories like that aren't acceptable for the holidays.

"Well, you must have just been born with a gift for it then." Namiko beams.

"That's what my little sister use to say." Nausika replies with a smile as she seasons the now mashed potatoes a few shakes at a time.

"Oh! You have a younger sibling too! How extraordinary! Could she not make it in for the holiday?"

"Um…no. She passed away last year."

Namiko's pleasant smile falls at the news. "Oh…oh I'm so sorry. I…."

"It's ok. Chidori really liked Christmas. She wouldn't want me to be sad." And she really wouldn't.

Of all the holidays, Christmas was Chidori's favorite. No matter where they were or what they were doing she made sure the season was celebrated, and with gusto. Even in the darkest times around this time of year, her persistence to have a good Christmas always shone through.

"And the rest of your family?" Mrs. Heiwajima asks hesitantly.

"I never really knew my father, but both of my parents died when I was fairly young. And we didn't know either side very well." She explains while wrapping the finished potato product so it stays warm.

This is easier to tell than the other story. She's never cared about the fact that her 'family' didn't want anything to with her or her sister since day one. Still, even though it doesn't upset her, she hopes they switch to a different topic soon. Her life is, for the most part, such a downer.

"Oh you poor thing!"

Namiko's exclamation is the only warning Nausika gets before she's on the blonde in an instant "Ah! Mrs. Hewaijima, please don't crush my head!" She pleads fearful that, although a break wouldn't be permanate, it would probably be pretty awkward if the other woman broke her neck and she got back up.

"Oh! I'm so sorry! I just get carried away some times. I guess Shizuo gets that from me." Namiko apologizes with a little rap on her own head to scold herself. "Speaking of which I…I know it's impolite of me to ask, and almost cruel as a mother, but…."

"You want to know if Shizuo's strength bothers me." Nausika says, not asks, as she wipes her hands on her apron.

Ruri's rhythmic knife tapping stops and Namiko looks up through her lashes sheepishly. "Does that make me a bad mother?"

"No, I think it makes you concerned." The blonde replies with a shrug, setting herself to the task of dicing leeks while she speaks. "And to answer your question: no, it doesn't bother me. I know to others it seems like he does it on purpose, but after getting to know him I know he really can't control it. It's not all his fault. Plus I know he would never hurt me, intentionally or otherwise. When we first started dating, I think he was even too terrified to hold my hand, even though I told him it would be ok."

"Well, that's…good. I'm really happy Shizuo has found someone like you to spend his life with. I was…worried that because of his…condition he'd end up alone."

Nausika thinks but she isn't sure that she hears the beginnings of tears forming in the older woman. She chooses not to comment and instead offers a quick, "Yeah, I can see that," as a reply.

Up until a few months ago Nausika had assumed she would end up the same way.

Her sister was gone. Her friends were scattered. She had no family to speak of.

But then, Shizuo sort of appeared in her life and suddenly the both of them weren't alone anymore.

As if summoned by the conversation, the tall blond waltzes into the kitchen through the swinging door and halts abruptly. "What?" He asks nervously, seeing all eyes on him.

"Oh nothing Shizuo, can you set the table?" Namiko asks with a wave of her hand and crescent smile.

"Why can't Kasuka do it?!" Shizuo bellows angrily. And Namiko's cherub like demeanor is gone.

"Because I asked you to do it!"

"I do it every year!"

"Shizuo!"

"Mom!"

"I'll do it!" The bickering Heiwajima's stop abruptly to stare at Nausika in surprise of her outburst.

"Oh no dear…" Namiko begins, but is cut off by her son who snaps an, "No I'll do it."

"It's really fine. I don't mind." Nausika insists, but Shizuo shakes his head.

"I do! I'll do it!" He shouts, not in anger but persistence, and moves to get his mother's good table settings for special occasions out of the cabinet. And subsequently pulls off the cabinet door.

Everyone flinches, except for Nausika. She sighs with slumped shoulder, that look of 'this-is-now-my-person-problem' on her face, before walking over to Shizuo. "How about we do it together?" She suggests calmly, gently touch his hand, and causing Shizuo's face to heat brightly before he dashes off with a mutter of setting up the actually table with his father, Kichirou.

"You really don't have to dear. You've already done enough today."

"I want to be…useful." The younger woman says somewhat sheepishly as she pulls the plates out of the broken cabinet and begins stacking them for transport. What she really wants is for these people to like her. She's never had to meet anyone's parents because she's never dated anyone before so she's not sure how this works. She's also never been in a normal family setting before so she's not sure how that works either.

"Don't worry dear. You've already won, stop trying so hard." Mrs. Heiwajima tells her with a wink and Nausika blushes hotly as she busies herself with more flatware.

"Oh Ruri! Do you want to take these scraps up to 'Maru*? I'm sure he's still not happy about being locked up for the evening."

The silent brunette hops off her stool to take the offered plate of turkey trimmings from Mrs. Heiwajima and disappears through the swinging door and up the stairs.

"'Maru?"

"Kasuka's cat." Naimko explains while pulling the last of the rolls in a basket for serving. "He's completely spoiled rotten by him. And I love the dear thing too when he visits, but despite his size he is incredibly sneaky when he wants to be. He'd be up on the counter eating Christmas dinner when our backs were turned."

Nausika chuckles, remembering a similar cat that Chidori and Rio had 'adopted' and the thing almost ate them out of house and home.

"Are you sure you don't want to wait for Shizuo dear? That seems like a lot."

"No, it's ok. I got it." Nausika insists, taking the towering stack of plates topped with silverware in her arms, and heading for the dining room.

"No 'Maru come back." Ruri's placid voice echoes through the house but it's already too late.

'Maru, indeed despite his size, dashes down the stairs past Ruri, Kasuka, Mr. Heiwajima, and Shizuo for the swinging kitchen door. And runs right into Nausika's ankles with a 'crash!'

"Nausika!" Shizuo exclaims and dashes over to his girlfriend on the floor around an array of broken plates and flatware. "Are you alright?!"

The teal eyed blonde sits up with a hand on her forehead for a second before she realizes what has happened. "I'm so sorry!"

"That's ok dear. It wasn't your fault. Accidents happen." Namiko insists, waving off Nausika's apology in exchange for worry that the fallen girl is hurt.

"Let's go get you cleaned up." Shizuo says seriously while pulling the disheveled blonde to her feet carefully.

"There's a first aid kit still under the sink!" Namiko cries as the pair disappear behind the offending door.

Once back in the kitchen, Shizup turns on the sink to muffle their voices. "Are you really ok?" He asks in concern and Nausika nods.

"Yeah, I'm fine. More wounded pride that I got taken down by a cat than anything. Do you remember where some of these scratches were? We can throw some bandages on and no one will be the wiser." She flinches slightly as she inspects her hands, the last of her cuts disappear.

The other blonde smiles softly and pulls the well-used first aid kit out from under the sink. "It's weird doing this for you for a change." He says with a soft smile on his face that Nausika returns as he applies bandages to spots on her hands and arms.

"There's a fork in your side."

The couple whip around towards the door in surprise. "Kasuka!" Shizuo exclaims as his bother stares placidly at the silverware, indeed, in Nausika's side.

"I was wondering why it felt weird to breathe." The woman says off-handedly as she carefully removes the offending fork with a small gasp.

"Shouldn't you go to the hospital?"

"I uh…we…she…!" Shizuo clamors for words, not knowing how to address this situation now that they've gotten caught. He meant to explain it to his family, one day. But today wasn't supposed to be the day!

Nausika, however, seems more accepting that the jig is up and turns around before lifting her sweater dress up to show Kasuka her healed back; seeming unashamed of herself nor the fact that she's practically only standing in black leggings and boots now.

"Do you want a full demonstration?" She asks over her shoulder as she puts her sweater back down and looks at him seriously; waiting for the fall out or the freak out whichever came first.

But Kasuka is just as placid as ever. "No. I've seen it with Ruri." He says with a shrug.

"Ruri? You mean she's like Nausika?!" Shizuo cries in alarm.

"Not like me." The blondes whip back around in startled surprise at the equally placid brunette suddenly behind them. "Different but not the same." Ruri says, calmly setting the unneeded rubbing alcohol on the counter, before looking back up at the taller woman with her typical half lidded gaze. "I like you."

"Thaaanks creepy petite vampire child*…" Nausika says in apprehensive drawl. She was…different this one.

Ruri smiles slightly before her face falls blank again. "I'm hungry." The small young woman walks past the blonde couple towards Kasuka and the two calmly leave the kitchen to return to his parents.

"Well, in retrospect, this could have gone worse."

Shizuo looks down at Nausika in surprise, while she looks up at him with an odd half smirk, before they both start laughing and also return to Shizuo's parents.

Honestly, yes it could have gone a lot worse.

Yaaay Christmas story. I may do another one, since Christmas is my favorite holiday, with just the two of them but I haven't decided. Also, I found a '30 prompt OTP meme' thing on the internet and was challenge to complete it by a friend and haven't decided who to do it for. It would either be Shizuo/Nausika, Tiger/Bunny, or both. So we shall see. I may do a full one for one and cherry pick for another. Opinions please!

Thanks to Emerald Gaze and Amayarawrz for their reviews last time! I'd like more feedback and opinions if you get a chance.

Thanks for reading!

*- Kasuka's cat's full name is Yuigadokusonmaru, but that is long and hard to say so I shorten it to 'Maru.

*-For those of you that don't know (or read the light novel) Ruri Hijiribe is Kauska's girlfriend, teen idol, and former serial killer Hollywood. She has supernatural abilities awarded to her like superhuman strength (not nearly as strong as Shizuo though), speed, agility, and healing factors. However, speculation in/from the novels suggest that Ruri's abilities come from being half or part supernatural creature herself (Shingen thinks it maybe Dullahan like Celty but other hints suggest vampire). More information on Ruri can be found online at the Durarara wiki. And no, Nausika is not aware of her background. She called her that because of her pale skin, dark clothes, and bleak disposition.

Also, Namiko and Kichirou are the canon names for Shizuo and Kasukas' parents. There isn't much information on them though, so I made most of them up. In my own headcanon Shizuo's personality comes from his mother and Kasuka's comes from his father (hence the limited interaction).