Wednesday June 14, 2017

Domestic/Home/Comfort

Kanda x Lavi domestic disturbance [hint of kandaxlavixallen]

"How I met my new neighbors"- Part one in "Domestic Disturbia- or how Allen found comfort in the midst of his changing lifestyle"

In a little apartment complex at the dead end of the city a 17 year old university student named Allen Walker was puttering away at dinner preparations, pausing every few minutes to turn the page in his psychology book. He had his first psych class in the morning and was supposed to have read the first chapter by then, but he had been a bit preoccupied with orientation stuff and getting his schedule hammered out for work. Throw in his irresponsible guardian and he had little time to spare on homework. He was definitely going to have to fix that if he wanted to pass his classes this semester.

The sound of keys in the door alerted Allen to the arrival of the other tenant of his apartment, and he glanced around the kitchenette window to see the red haired visage of his guardian. Looked like Cross was back from work. Maybe being on time to dinner for once also meant no visitors for the evening. Though Allen didn't dare get his hopes up.

"Hey." Allen called a greeting, not expecting one back, but it was still polite. The door slammed and heavy footsteps drew closer.

"Damn stupid gays." Cross' mutter just managed to reach the teenagers ears and he contemplated starting an argument with his guardian so soon after he returned.

"Should I remind him that I'm gay and I do find that offensive, or will he just not give a crap, again." Allen wondered aloud, keeping his focus on the food he was stirring on the stove.

"No don't remind me, I really don't want to hear anymore gayness." The white haired teen jumped, his guardians voice way closer than he thought it would be.

"Gayness?" Allen dared to ask as the red head dug through the fridge beside him. Not that he expected an answer, or needed one. He already knew Cross' opinion of non-traditional couples- he couldn't care less as long as he didn't have to see it. Which counted double for his teenager ward.

"Matter of fact, just don't say anything so we can keep the gay outside for once."

"Excuse me?" Allen snapped, brandishing the spatula as he turned to glare at his guardian who was nonchalantly popping open a beer, unfazed by his wards behavior. "What is that supposed to mean?"

"It means maybe you should go next door and join the new neighbors, then you'd finally stop whining and finally get some at the same time." Cross took a swig of his beer. "Win, win situation if you ask me."

Heaving a sigh Allen concentrated on not letting the food burn. He wanted a semi-decent meal tonight, so he could concentrate on his homework before classes tomorrow morning. And starting an argument with Cross over his offensive mannerisms, again, was not conducive to keeping his grades up. Or for his health and safety.

Neither was asking Cross exactly what he meant about the 'gayness' of the new neighbors- frankly knowing his guardian's crass mannerisms, he'd probably hear more than he wished to know about his neighbors if he brought it up.

It was only the first semester of college, barely the end of the first week, and Allen was already wishing he was 18 and old enough to abandon his godfather to his own mishaps.

The first time Allen met one of the new neighbors his guardian had been complaining about, he was not in the best of moods. Granted when Cross was home he wasn't ever in a good mood, but tonight was particularly aggravating with the way his guardian was chugging beers.

The white haired boy wasn't going to ask, but he was pretty sure Cross had gotten dumped by his latest bed warmer. Why the guy would drown himself in spirits when he didn't care about these women was anyone's guess. Allen's guess was simple enough as things were- Cross preferred to do the dumping and the other way around made him reevaluate his morals.

Oh, who was he kidding, the red headed womanizer had no morals. He just wanted an excuse to drink.

Slipping his wallet and keychain into his back pocket Allen turned from his door, only to find a pair of startling emerald eyes watching him. Well, not a pair of eyes exactly. Just one, glamorous, shining emerald eye; the other was covered by a pirate-ish eye patch.

Also startling was the messy, bright red hair the guy had that was uncomfortably like a certain womanizing drunk's. The young man was planted in his doorframe, leaning one shoulder against the wall and twirling a pen in his hand, looking completely relaxed as if he had been standing there awhile.

"Um, hi?" Allen ventured, trying to be polite. First impressions and all. And even though he really had to get going, he had been curious about the neighbors who had annoyed Cross so much.

"I see you're a student at Black Order Uni." The boy had this grin on his face that Allen was sure on another person would be mischievous but wasn't quite sure if that was the impression he was supposed to be getting.

"Uh, yah, how did you know?" Allen hadn't made any friends at the school yet, but maybe this guy was a freshman as the university too and they could have classes together.

"Your lanyard of course, the one they gave out to all the freshman this year." The boy said as he straightened up and stepped out into the hallway, motioning to Allen's waist.

If he hadn't been under the scrutiny of a rather good looking man, Allen would have smacked himself in the forehead. The lanyard dangling from his pocket that he stuck his keys in was, in fact, from freshman orientation just last week.

"Are you a freshman too?" Allen asked, sure this is how the other boy knew about the lanyards. Though he definitely would have remembered a freshman who looked that good.

"Oh definitely not," the boy said with a laugh, "I'm a junior. Though," A pause as the older boy's gaze slowly travels down and up again in a manner that has the 17 year old fidgeting nervously. "We could still hang out." He said with a sly grin.

"Um, maybe," Allen cleared his throat nervously and looked down at his phone rather than meet that intense emerald eye any longer. "Oh shoot!" He only had ten minutes to get to the liquor store before it closed. "Sorry, I gotta go." He brushed past the older boy, jogging down the steps.

"Hope we can talk again soon!" The other boy called after him cheerfully, but the younger deigns not to respond.

It's not like this boy would want to be his friend, not once he found out-

But now wasn't the time to dwell on that.

It is a few days before Allen saw his neighbor for the second time. Between running back and forth from the campus, his part time job at Jerry's, and running errands for Cross, there had been little time to spend in his apartment, not to mention run into his neighbor.

For once though he was in his apartment, delving into his research for a history paper due by the next class, when he was disrupted by a knock on the door.

Carrying his tablet with him to the door Allen flicked the lock and swung it open, still trying to read his way through an academic paper on civil war era social standards.

"If you're looking for Cross, he's not here." He said in a distracted manner, highlighting a line about plantation families verses business owners.

"Well that's good then my next door angel, since I was looking for you." Confused, Allen finally glanced up, blinking as he tried to comprehend what was said and who he is looking at. Who was easy- it was the red headed pirate from next door.

"You were looking for me?" Allen asked slowly before his brain caught up with the rest of the sentence, "Angel?" he sputtered, eyes widening in surprise at the grinning red head before him.

"Yes, angel, I was looking for you." The red head smiled coyly as he batted his eyes in an exaggerated manner.

How the hell was he supposed to respond to that? Obviously the older boy was joking around, but Allen was surprised to find he was happy the boy had come by, and even happier to hear he was looking for him. Though he didn't know why? Maybe he was getting ahead of himself, thinking the boy actually tracked him down to spend time with him.

"My name is Allen." The younger boy finally deadpanned, moving to close the door and get back to his homework.

"Ah wait, wait," the red haired student put a foot against the door to stop it from closing before holding out his hand. "I'm Lavi, wanna go get coffee?"

Astounded, Allen tucked his tablet under his left arm and reflexively took the boy's hand for a short moment, "Nice to meet you Lavi." He said politely, before realizing he had asked him a question, "You want to go get coffee, with me?" the white haired teen asked incredulously, pointing at himself.

"Yes I want to get coffee with you." Lavi confirmed.

Allen held himself back from asking 'like a date?', and instead pointed out, "I don't even know you."

"Yah, but I wanna get to know you!" the excited and grinning student actually seemed to be interested, and Allen couldn't really think of a reason to say no since Cross had opted to walk Timcampy today and he didn't have anything else that would immediately need his attention…

"Why?" The skeptical question slipped past his lips unbidden, but it's not like he wasn't curious to know the answer. The white haired boy wasn't planning on asking, since he had seen the older boy's eyes linger on his gloves when they shook hands but he didn't want to be in a friendship based on curiosity again-

"Cause I like you!"

Silver eyes widened as cheeks flushed red, and he swore his ears must be red too with how triumphant the older boy looked. Sure, the red head probably didn't mean it that way, but for a moment Allen let himself pretend he did, especially as it seemed Lavi wasn't going to correct any misconceptions.

"Come on," the red head whined, snagging Allen's gloved hand and tugging him into the hall, "Let's go!"

"Ah, wait, I have homework!" Allen reasoned, bracing his feet and pulling back on his captured arm.

"You can do that at the coffee shop!" Lavi said excitedly, but his excitement faded into a worried look, and Allen realized his trepidation must have been evident on his face.

"I um," carefully the younger boy extracted his captured hand, fussing with the tablet rather than see the sincere worry on the others features, "I can't concentrate in loud places." He murmured, the same time worn excuse, but at least it was mostly true.

He didn't want to explain that it was more an issue of the curious and sometimes hostile reactions to his odd appearance that made him avoid most public avenues of study.

"Then we can study together here." The offer was surprisingly calm and when Allen looked up at Lavi he was greeted with a soft, understanding smile. Unbidden, the younger boy's gaze flickered to the eye patch the red head wore, and he realized the older boy probably ran into the same problems.

"That would be nice." was his soft reply, and he was rewarded with another cheerful grin, which he answered with a genuine smile of his own.

"All right then, let's get studying!" back to excited in a heartbeat, the red head turned him around by the shoulder and shoved Allen back into his apartment.

"Okay, okay," the white haired teen couldn't help laughing at the others enthusiasm. "But don't you need to get your homework?" he asked, turning to face the red head who had invited himself in.

"I will in a minute, gotta wait a bit more for my roommate to finish his meditation." As he explained this the red head began wandering the living room, curious eyes examining every last object in sight, from the DVD collection on the bookshelf by the door, to the shelf of piano scores. "Do you play?" He asked as he ran a hand over the edge of the grand piano.

"A little. It was my uncle's piano, well, still is his but I keep it safe here while he travels." Allen explained as he wandered over to the piano himself, fingering the keys as he watched the older boy continue his perusal of the space at hand.

"I see." Now the red head was occupied in examining the encyclopedia's and atlases on the bottom part of the bookshelf.

"Do you want something to drink? Water, or soda?" the white haired boy asked and was surprised when the question earned him Lavi's full excited attentions.

"Let's go get coffee and bring it back, and then Yuu will be done meditating and I can grab my work!" he clapped his hands excitedly, "Come on, put some shoes on!"

"You, is that your roommates name?" was the confused reply; who named their kid after a pronoun.

"No not y-o-u, Y-u-u, he's Japanese, but I'll tell you more about him on the way."

And that's how Allen found himself shuffled out of his apartment minutes later and wandering down the sidewalk, listening to his new friend chatter away about his best friend and roommate, a grumpy martial arts fanatic named Yuu.

After hearing about the red head's roommate, the 17 year old wasn't sure what he expected to happen when they finally met. Good thing he didn't have any expectations though, since their first meeting was kind of shitty.

As with most night when Allen returned from his waitressing job, he anticipated Cross to be entertaining a guest and so approached his apartment cautiously.

What he didn't imagine was that his silent contemplation of his apartment door would be interrupted by his rather noisy neighbor.

"Hey, it's the beansprout!" A voice cheerily announced from behind him.

"Shh!" Allen frantically motioned for the other boy to be quiet, warily watching his apartment door for any sign of life. If Cross was in the middle of something and felt the need to come out and investigate the noise, the teen would be stuck with extra chores for a week. And chores from his womanizing guardian were not pretty, and usually involved cleaning up messes a teenager should have no part in.

A breath on his ear announced the suddenly too close presence of his red-headed friend, as low rough words were uttered, "Why are we being so quiet?"

Jumping away from the sudden proximity of the other, clutching at his heart, Allen vehemently blamed his very red face on embarrassment and not anything to do with that rather husky tone.

"Dear God Lavi, did you have to do that?" Allen demanded, trying to control his now stuttered breathing.

"Yes," Lavi said with a grin, "Your reaction makes it so fun."

"Well don't. You almost gave me a heart attack!" Allen hissed at the older boy.

"But it's too much fun." The red head argued playfully, loud as normal. Which meant he was quickly shushed by the white haired boy. "Why do you keep shushing me?" He asked, his voice finally lowered as he steps closer to his young friend.

"Cause Cross is home and I can't disturb him."

"But you have to get into your apartment don't you?" Lavi pointed out.

"Well yah, but I need to figure out if Cross is in the living room or his bedroom before I do." Allen kept his voice low as he crept closer to the door of his apartment, listening intently for any sign of life from the other side.

"So that guys name is Cross?" Lavi leaned against the wall beside Allen's door, watching the antics of the younger with an amused grin.

"Yah, Cross Marian," was the distracted answer as the white haired boy leaned his ear against the door. It seemed to be quiet, the tv wasn't on which at least meant Cross had moved his activities to the bedroom.

"Is he your dad?" The question drew a wide eyed look of disbelief from the younger.

"How the hell did you come to that conclusion?" He demanded and pasted the most offended look he could muster on his face.

Which was apparently hilarious to the red head as he just started laughing. "Okay, okay, not your dad, so who is he? He isn't a student, that's for sure."

"Cross is my guardian," Allen began to explain as he, finally deeming it safe to enter his apartment, pulled out his keys "and he actually works as an adjunct professor in the religion department."

"Religion?" Now it was Lavi's turn to be incredulous. "No way."

"Way." Allen confirmed as he slowly turned the knob and popped open his door, taking a quick peek inside. The kitchen light was on, giving just enough illumination to prove his assumption about the empty living room correct, and he didn't hear Timcampy, so the golden Labrador was probably hiding in Allen's room.

"Lavi, why is the door open?" a curt voice called out from somewhere behind them, and Allen shot his friend a questioning look.

"Oops." Lavi rubbed the back of his neck, glancing down the hallway towards his open apartment door.

"I'll just leave you to it-" Allen began to slip into his apartment, but was held up by the arm slung around his neck.

"No way, I need my guardian angel to face Yuu's wrath," Lavi declared as he dragged the younger back into the hallway, "you can't abandon me!"

"Wait, Lavi," Allen tried to protest, but wasn't too convincing as he was gripping onto the older boy's arm to steady himself instead of trying to pull away. "your roommate doesn't sound too happy so maybe this isn't a good time…"

"Oh no, that's what he always sounds like." Lavi explained cheerfully. "Come on, you have to meet him."

"I heard that usagi!" the other was louder now, and Allen figured they had finally reached the door, which was confirmed when they spoke again, "Hey usagi, what the fuck are you doing to that kid?"

Kid? Seriously? Wrenching at Lavi's arm Allen ducked out of his hold and whipped around.

"I'm not a kid, I'm-" he choked on the rest of his words when his eyes fell on the absolutely gorgeous deity standing in the middle of the hallway with a cross look on his face. "…almost 18." He finished breathlessly.

Damn. This guy was hotter even than Lavi, or maybe they were on the same level, which now that it popped into his head was certainly something Allen would decide later, but right now he had sapphire eyes narrowed at him and a man in a skin tight shirt showing off well, very well, defined muscles for his viewing.

Well, maybe not for his viewing, per say, but he certainly wasn't going to ignore the free show. With a body like that, even his long girlish hair couldn't take away from his beauty; actually the long hair added to the sensual picture he presented.

"Yuu this is Allen, he's the freshman I told you about. Allen this is Kanda Yuu." Lavi quickly introduced, wrapping his arms around the shorter boy's neck and leaning on him.

"Nice to meet you." Allen began with a charming smile, holding out a hand to shake. The older boy scowled, and before the white haired boy could even begin to wonder what he might have done to offend the man in so short a time, that narrowed gaze flicked from the held out hand to the one still gripping Lavi''s sleeve and the scowl became more pronounced.

"Why the fuck are you wearing gloves indoors?" Apparently the taller boy was skipping right over pleasantries to unpleasant.

"What's it matter to you?" Allen snapped back, shoulders tensing under the older boys cursory look. He didn't appreciate people staring at his hair and scar at any time, but especially not in the hallway of his home where he was supposed to feel safe and comfortable. And not with such a disgusted look.

Gradually Lavi began to loosen his hold on the younger boy, looking from one to the other of his friends, new and old. If Allen didn't know better, he'd call the look on Kanda's face possessive, but there seemed to be too much animosity there for that.

"Now now guys, we're all friends here." Lavi said with a placating gesture, stepping to stand between the two glaring boys. "You should be more polite Kanda, Allen is my friend." He chastised the ponytailed boy, then glanced at the younger, "And don't you mind what he says Allen, he's always been straightforward."

Finally pulling his gaze away from angry sapphire eyes, Allen met the emerald gaze of his newest, and currently only, friend. "It's fine Lavi," Allen assured the older boy, a momentary glance at the other confirming the still present scowl. "I gotta go, night Lavi." He muttered before disappearing into his apartment and softly closing the door behind him.

Leaning against the wood he heaved a sigh, looking down at his gloved hands. No matter how many times people asked, Allen was still uncomfortable explaining, and he probably would never be if people continued to react negatively.

"Really Yuu, what was that all about?" the younger teen could hear Lavi out in the hallway and he held his breath, listening intently.

"It was just a question usagi-" the other boy began to argue, but was cut off by his roommate.

"Kanda, that was like asking why I have an eyepatch."

There was no response from Kanda, but Allen could hear the red heads heavy sigh.

"Just," a pause and footsteps moving away "try to be more sensitive about that kind of stuff."

"Why should I, you're sensitive enough for the both of us, there is no point in me babying the kid too."

"Too? So you like him too? Isn't he so adorable!"

"Usagi…" the threat hung in the air, following by Lavi's laughter and the shutting of a door.

Well, this is what Allen got for eavesdropping. He had no idea to make of the conversation he just overheard. Lavi thought he was adorable? Should he be offended he was adorable and not handsome or something like that? Also, he was just a bit miffed that Lavi thought he needed to be babied, though really it was his roommate who said that, and he didn't seem to have the best understanding of people…

Pitter patters across the floor announced the approach of the only person Allen called his best friend and he looked up to see his golden Labrador Timcampy skirting around the couch and making his way leisurely through the apartment to his owner, dog tags clattering together with soft chimes.

"Hey buddy," Allen smiled as he held out a hand, running fingers through golden fur. "Come to welcome me home?" he asked, chuckling as the answer was a tongue licking across his cheek.

Wrapping his arms around Timcampy, he took in a deep breath and soaked up the warmth of having someone beside him. The dog had been there for him through so many rough patches in his life; as a puppy, Tim was the only thing, person or animal, that Allen had let close to him after Mana's death. Someday, he had hoped to have a person beside him that he could rely on as much as he did his dog, someone to lay beside him at night and assure him that he wasn't alone.

Sadly, the interaction he just had was a stark reminder that finding someone who looked beyond his odd traits was nigh impossible.

It seemed he didn't deserve the same level of comfort as other human beings.

Another lick to the face and a wet nose nudging his ear reminded Allen that even if he didn't have a person, he did have Timcampy.

"Thanks Tim." He gave the dog one last squeeze before pushing himself to his feet. "Let's get you some food, why don't we." A short bark was his answer and smiling Allen made his way into the kitchen to take care of his friend.