The cast of characters for this chapter from Allen's perspective:
Allen: The beautiful maiden.
Kanda: Samurai love interest, moody as hell, likes soba.
Lenalee: Really emotional friend.
Cross: Drunk dad with feelings.
Road: BFFLE- Best friend for like ever.
Timcampy: Excitable cat that bites me and eats my food.
Co-writer and editor: thehomiewhowrites
Disclaimer: We do not own D . Gray-Man.
"I think you're overreacting, Allen."
The soft, sweet, almost mother-like words from her friend weren't enough to get Allen Walker to lift her head from the cafeteria table. "That's easy for you to say, Lenalee. You can have any guy fall at your feet!"
Lenalee Lee laughed lightly at her friend's ridiculous statement. "You're just being dramatic," She played with her long hair, twirling the strands around her finger.
Allen huffed out air and rested her head on the palm of her gloved hand, drawing circles on the surface of the table with her other. They were talking about boys, if that wasn't obvious. It was something that they didn't talk about often, but Allen couldn't help but bring it up, because, even though it was still the beginning months of school, homecoming flyers were advertised throughout the school, and then the thought came up. Even though homecoming was three months away, Allen was still worried about finding a date.
Lenalee would have no problem finding a date - that is, if her brother would let her get one. She was skinny, pretty, had long legs, and was the MVP of the soccer team; guys were always talking about her in the best ways. Allen could say that she was a tad jealous of her best friend. She would give anything to be liked by men.
"Allen," Lenalee reached over, grabbing the her wrist. "Stop doubting yourself. You're very kind and beautiful in your own way. A guy will come along soon."
The bell rung almost immediately after Lenalee said that. The two parted ways, waving as they went in separate directions. Allen headed her way towards her next class, English III. She walked with her head low and her eyes dazed; she didn't notice the rather tall figure until she ran into it.
"Watch it," the figure growled.
She tucked her white hair behind her ears, fumbling for the words of an apology. She stopped her stuttering, however, when she looked up. Above her was the face of a tall, quite handsome man who had a thin line on his lips; his eyes were a deep, dark blue, as if trying to hide a secret. Allen compared it to the deep unknown of an ocean. Who knows what they hide?
"Cool," she whispered, still in a trance from his eyes.
He arched an eyebrow and made a noise of annoyance. "Move out of the way, Beansprout." He placed his hand on her head and pushed her aside.
The little nickname given to her made Allen scrunch her nose in detest. "Beansprout? Are you calling me short?"
He ignored her and walked off, his long, dark hair, tied in a ponytail, swung loosely behind him. Allen rolled her eyes and continued her direction to her next class. That guy seemed like a bit of a jerk. He had no right to call her such a… silly name!
She was still grumbling about it when one of her friends called her name.
"Allen!"
She looked over to the source of the voice. Road Camelot was a girl that was a grade below her, but was able to take English III because she was smart, or something like that. She attached herself to Allen ever since the first day they met. Allen didn't want to say that Road was her best friend, but in a way, a good friend.
To be honest, Allen didn't really know what to think about the girl.
"Hello, Road," she replied, giving one of her best smiles. "What's up?"
"Do you think you can come over on Saturday? The Earl is having a party and I want you to come and meet my family!"
Road was a rich kid, so to speak. She lives in a huge mansion with, at least, twelve other people. She's related to about three people that live with her, but she still calls the rest of her housemates "family." Allen assumed because of how close they all were.
"Saturday?" Allen repeated, thinking about it. "I don't know, Road. Cross and I were planning to repaint the house... Sorry."
Road puckered her lips and blew a deflated raspberry. "Poo! And the Earl really wanted to meet you!"
The older teen laughed, "Maybe next time then."
"Yeah, well, no use crying over spilt milk." She shrugged. "Did you do your homework last night? Some of the questions could've been opinionated in my view."
"I guess. I just Googled most of it, really."
"That's just like you."
Road went over to sit in her desk, which was across the room from where Allen sat. She noticed that the Noah - what Road and her "family" called themselves - had taken out a lollipop and began sucking on it. Typical Road. She always had one.
The class went by smoothly. As well as the next two classes. This was mostly because she was daydreaming about what it would be like to have a boyfriend; she didn't ask for someone with looks. Mostly with a nice personality.
Unlike that jerk from before who called her "beansprout." What a gross nickname.
Allen blinked away her thoughts. Why was she even thinking of him? Then again, who wouldn't think of him? His eyes were his best feature. So dark, so mysterious.
She blushed as she thought of them. They had stared right into her eyes; she felt her heart skip a beat. The skies ahead of her began to darken, and Allen began to curse herself for picking to walk home today. Especially since her house was quite the distance. Usually, she would have Lenalee walk with her, since they both lived in the same neighborhood, but she had soccer practice and wasn't able to.
Her thoughts of the boy she ran into earlier returned and she began to wonder things like, "what's his name?" and "what year is he in?"
Oh, God, she silently prayed, if he is the one for me, give me a sign.
The sudden ability to not breathe was given to her as her collar was pulled back, gripping her neck for a split second. The grip was then released from her throat as she spun around on her heel, coughing and stuttering, confused and scared at the same time.
"Do you not pay attention, Beansprout?"
Her silver eyes widened in realisation. She glanced at the clouded skies, Are you serious, God? Allen then turned and looked at the tall teenager.
"Huh?" She asked with a blank expression.
He rolled his eyes, lip twitching slightly. He was obviously annoyed. "You're in the middle of the street, Dumbass. Did you not realise that you were almost hit by a car?"
Allen looked down, eyes growing even wider. She really was in the middle of the road; her head turned towards the end of the street, where she saw a car speeding off in the distance. It hit her all at once. Her heart sunk in fear and her throat was suddenly dry. "Oh."
"Oh?"
She flinched at his harsh tone. "Th-thank you."
"Whatever."
He began to walk ahead of her, walking across the street that she was standing in. She followed him, a grin forming on her lips as she started humming a happy tune. If this truly a sign of God, then who wouldn't be happy about it?
After a few more minutes, the two still walking in the same direction, the male teen turned around, hair whipping behind him: "Are you following me?"
His tone was filled with irritation and anger. Allen didn't even think of how they were both going the same way. She raised an eyebrow, "Hm? No. My house is in that subdivision over there." She pointed to the neighborhood called "Black Order." He looked over and growled. Was he a dog? She thought.
"You've got to be kidding me."
She assumed that he lived in the same neighborhood. "So, what's your name?"
The question got him off guard as he was too busy sulking about the situation. "Why should I tell you?" He snarled and continued to walk ahead.
She frowned and ran to catch up with him; his steps were very large. "You can't answer a question with a question."
"I just did."
"Oh, just tell me your name!"
"Will you leave me alone if I tell you?"
She thought about it and then shrugged: "Alright."
"Kanda."
Her eyes sparkled at getting to at least know his name. And then a bell rung in her head, "Hey, aren't you Mr. Tiedoll's son?"
The way Kanda sighed showed that he was asked that question a lot, and with each time, the question got more irritating. "He's not my father."
"Oh, well, I just assumed. I only met him once. I'm Allen by the way. Allen Walker," She stuck out her hand to shake hands with the other, but he didn't even give her a glance. She awkwardly put it down and looked around, suddenly not knowing what to do. It started to drizzle; the girl watched as the ground absorbed the wet drops.
She liked the rain. It made her calm, and the soft patter it created on the windows at home put her at eased. On days like this, she liked to lay in her room with all the lights off and just stare through the her windows. She sometimes liked the rain that brought along soft thunder. Only soft thunder, though. The ones that were loud and soft made her afraid and kept her up at night.
"We better hurry up," She said, trying to break the silence. "We don't want to get wet."
He just made a hum of, she guessed, agreement. Their pace had sped up and within a few minutes, they soon made it into the neighborhood, but the rain only got harder. Lightning lit up the sky and thunder sounded in the distance.
"Tch," He placed his hands over his head as if it helped. "This is annoying."
Allen looked at him, trying to avoid getting raindrops in her eyes all the while. Kanda was rather interesting. She dropped her gaze, blushing slightly, when he glanced at her and caught her staring.
He gave a scoff as the rain became harder, "What're you staring at, Short-stack?"
She picked up at a faster pace, offended by the mention of her height, "Listen, Stupid Kanda, just because you're, like, 7 foot 8, doesn't make you have the right to belittle me."
"Belittle," He repeated the word, a smirk on his face. "You just insulted yourself with a pun."
Allen gave a huff and, with even quicker steps, created a large distance between the two. "You're insufferable!"
She didn't look back, and just kept walking, hoping to get away from the other. What a damn jerk, She thought, nose scrunching. Calling me short! Allen mentally ranted about the whole thing as she made her way home. She opened the door to the suburban house, giving an exhale, as she felt the warm air touch her skin. She sighed when she saw her guardian, Marian Cross, drunk on the couch.
Cross was seemingly passed out on the couch, a bottle of wine in his hand. "You're home late."
She rose her eyebrows at him, a smile on her face, "And you're drunk." The white-haired teen went over towards him, taking away the bottle, despite the protests of her guardian. "Plus, school ended, like, 15 minutes ago." ." She shook her head with a small smile, poking her guardian's forehead. "Just go back to sleep, you lazy guardian."
"Can't now. We got work to do," He said with a grunt as he sat up. "You sure you want your walls red?" She nodded eagerly. Cross rubbed the back of his neck and gave a sigh. "Alright."
Allen heard the soft meow of her cat, Timcampy, and with a smile, approached him, arms out in front to grab him. "Meow," Allen said to it, just to receive the same reply. She looked at her guardian, Timcampy now settled in her arms, "I'm gonna wash up."
To be honest, Allen never really liked wearing makeup. She always thought that natural looks were so pretty and, well, natural. But in her case, she had no exceptions. With Tim on the closed lid of the toilet seat, Allen washed off her foundation. When it was all gone, a bright red mark was revealed. It was big and bright, and it had a great contrast against her pale skin. To her, it was hideous.
It was a birthmark; nothing she could really do with it besides covering it up with makeup. She felt embarrassed by it. Along with her arm. Her arm was red and inflamed, marked and scarred by a terrible accident that happened so long ago, she was too young to even remember. But it was grotesque and almost deformed; she hid it with long sleeves and gloves.
The only people to know about her… insecurities were Cross and Lenalee. When Lena found out, she was shocked, but not disgusted, like Allen thought. Her friend took it well, and simply told her, "This just makes you more unique."
With a soft smile, Allen exited the bathroom and went into her room; even though they had moved in 4 months ago, she still had some boxes that weren't opened yet. She tied her hair in a half-bun, and replaced her long sleeve shirt with a grey tank top, and her jeans with some black sweats. She sat on top of her bed; a queen with a simple light grey sheet over it and matching covers. Allen liked things in plain, simple colors. She was never one to like complicated fabrics and materials. And she loved colors that were grey, white, black, or red.
In her old home, the landlord forbade Cross to recolor the walls, and Allen was disappointed by the news. So, she had to stick with plain old eggshell walls, which were boring to even stare at. But, now, in her new home, with total freedom to color the walls, Allen decided to go bold: a dark rouge. It was perfect; it was her. She loved the idea of it and no matter Cross said, she couldn't back down. Allen was determined.
"Alright," She said to herself, cracking the bones in her back. "Time to get the paint!"
She opened the door to her room, but only to come in contact with a strong, hard wall. She blinked, what the…? Her eyes trailed up to see that the wall was not, in fact, a wall, but a man. And not just any man - Kanda. Allen gave a shout and jumped several feet away from him, falling on top of her bed.
"What the hell are you doing here?!"
Kanda didn't give an answer to her question, instead he replied with a flick of his eyes going up and down her body. "Are you diseased?"
She furrowed her eyebrows, only to realize what he was talking about. With her scarred arm, she touched her birthmark and paused. She took in a breath and glanced at him, but instead of feeling hurt by his words, she just felt… annoyed.
"What's that supposed to mean, Stupid?" Allen snapped, holding her left arm with her right.
Kanda rolled his eyes, giving a small noise of irritation. "What the fuck is that?" He asked, gesturing to her arm. His gaze met hers, cobalt onto silver, glaring. He dared her to lie.
She grabbed a black jacket, hanging on the back of the chair that wasn't too far from, and slipped it on, eyes lowered. "It's something that happened a long time ago, and… And, it's none of your business!" She huffed out her cheeks and folded her arms, making sure her left one was tucked in. "Now, answer my question: what are you doing here?"
He picked up something from behind the wall and showed it to her. It was the can of red paint. "To paint."
Her mouth formed into the shape of an 'O' and she slowly got off her bed and approached the tall boy. "Okay…? That doesn't really sound like something you would do."
"You don't even know me, Beansprout," Kanda muttered as he walked more into the room. He set the paint on the dresser. "Tiedoll's forcing me."
Allen was actually surprised that he didn't question her about her appearance. Did he care at all? God, she thought, eyes moving to the ceiling, what kind of joke is this? She looked over at him, watching him roll up his sleeves of his dark blue shirt. Shit, he's muscular…
"Paintbrushes," He turned to her, snapping her out of her thoughts.
Allen blinked, "Huh?"
"We need paintbrushes to paint, Dumbass."
The younger teen scrunched up her nose and walked out the room. She returned a few minutes later, after greeting Tiedoll who was painting the living room, with the right supplies. She laid them out beside the can.
Kanda, with one swift move and with the use of a screwdriver, popped open the top and laid it aside. "This is a really ugly color."
"Do you have to criticise everything about me?" She said with a stomp of her foot. He simply started to paint the wall. "Listen to me, Kanda! Why can't you not be mean! We just met, we don't even know each other, why are you-?"
She had to stop. Why? Because dickhead suddenly decided to take his wet paintbrush and streak it over her mouth. "Shut up," He said in a low tone. "You're annoying."
Allen froze, her mind was in a conflict at what to do. Her face with red in anger, "STUPID KANDA!" Without thinking, she dipped her hand fully into the paint and slapped him across the face.
It took him a second, but he responded with dipping both of his own hands and slapping them onto her pure white hair. She gave a short scream and retaliated with her own paint brush, and "brushed" his hair with it. His eyes narrowed, and there was a new fire in them. Allen dropped the paintbrush in fear, backing up against the wall. "Now, Kanda, I'm a girl, so…"
"You're dead, Beansprout."