Title: Attached Strings
Original story: DGray Man by Katsura Hoshino
Pairings: LavixOCxOC, KandaxOC with Ticky Mikk meddling, AllenxLenalee
Setting: USA. More specifically: Denver, Colorado. 2011-2012
Warnings: OOC-ness, especially Lavi. Moderated sexual content. My mother tongue isn't English, so there can be grammar and spelling mistakes as well as verb/noun confusion.
Genre: Drama, romance, some humor.
This is a sequel of Innocence Rock Time! Although the development of the happenings may be not strictly linked to the previous story, it may be advisable to check it out if you haven't. The warnings for that story, together with immatureness, are the same.
Attached Strings
Prologue~
November 2, 2011
Divergent: adj.
1. Drawing apart from a common point; diverging.
2. Departing from convention.
3. Differing from another:
4. Mathematics: Failing to approach a limit; not convergent.
Izzie wrote down the definitions on her math notebook. The scratch of the pen against paper was everything that sounded in the wide, silent house.
After three months living there, Izzie still hadn't accustomed to the tranquility of the suburbs. At Kanda's flat, silence was usually interspersed with the typical sounds of the city: speeding cars, ambulances, patrols or dogs barking. Here, it didn't matter the time of the day, the calmness remained imperturbable.
Izzie glanced at the large living room through the arch of the kitchen. The walls were painted of a soft beige color –her election- whilst the furniture had a minimalistic style –Kanda's choice-. They had changed the 41' plasma T.V. the bassist had in his previous flat for a 42' LED television, which now hung atop the chimney.
The black sofas rested in front of the big screen, together with the Japanese-style coffee table Kanda insisted to keep. This, as well as the collection of sheathed katanas which decorated one of the walls and the Japanese lamps hanging from the ceiling, made it obvious the nationality of one of the occupants of the house.
The other half of the decoration: the coral-colored curtains, the pinkish carpet and the pair of maroon lamps, gave off the classy, elegant air that only a woman born in a high class family could have.
Izzie sighed, still not believing that this was her home. More than a year had passed since she lost everything she cherished in life; and more than a year had passed since Kanda appeared to save her from misery. Moreover, he, with his particular style, offered her a home and a future.
And now that they had moved from the concurrent flat in Denver to a bigger house in the suburbs, Izzie felt as if everything was back in track. She was about to finish High School and planned to apply for Medical School in Colorado's University. Yes, after Kanda received a shot that day because of her and was saved by an excellent team of doctors, Izzie decided that she wanted to save lives too.
A shudder ran down her spine upon the remembrance of the subway's incident. She shook the memory off with a motion of her head and focused back on the last bit of homework she had to finish.
After she scribbled down the last vague notes, the kettle started to whistle. Izzie closed her notebook and walked to the brand-new stove, where the poultry was getting cooked and the tea demanded her attention. She took the kettle away from the fire and checked that the stew wasn't burning.
She glimpsed at the clock above the counter. 6:30. With a ladle, she tasted a bit of stew to make sure it was ready. Smiling in approval, she turned off the fire and started setting up the table.
The principal door opened just when she placed the last spoon onto the tablecloth. Although Izzie already knew the identity of the person, she peeped through the arch in the wall.
The sight of him never changed: he always looked glorious no matter the time of the day. With his long hair waving at his back and the way his muscles marked beneath the thin fabric of his light-blue sleeves, Kanda Yuu looked more gorgeous than any human alive.
Though she knew he wouldn't notice, Izzie smirked warmly at him. Kanda tossed his black blazer onto one of the sofas and approached the kitchen with rhythmic steps.
Izzie hurried to clear the table from notebooks and pencils and left them on one side of the counter.
"Tsch, you didn't make soba. Again" Kanda complained as soon as he entered the kitchen, sniffing the air.
Izzie frowned while placing a wide plate with poultry in the middle of the table. "We ate soba three days ago"
"And?" Kanda huffed. Nonetheless, he sat on the same chair he always used. "What the fuck is this?" The bassist asked, glaring distrustfully at the stew.
"Chicken, complainer" Izzie rolled her eyes and took her place at the table. "The yellow creatures that say 'cheep cheep', remember?"
"I know what a chicken is, moron. I just don't want to eat it" Kanda snorted. Oblivious to his disgust expression, Izzie served a spoonful of the stew on her boyfriend's plate.
"Then, starve, because I'm not making soba especially for you" the girl sentenced. She focused then on chewing pieces of the food she had prepared.
Kanda flinched and reluctantly started eating as well. Truthfully, even though he didn't enjoy eating other type of food that wasn't Japanese, Izzie wasn't a bad cook after all.
He gazed at her while eating. Her short hair fitted perfectly the girl's thin face, better than the long, raven mane with which he met her last summer. Like six months ago she started using makeup everyday and it favored her a lot, although Kanda disliked the way her lips tasted with all that gloss on it. He would never say any of those things aloud, anyway, utterly keeping his mouth shut throughout his examinations and afterwards.
"How did it go? Did they like the lyrics?" Izzie inquired after a while, referring to the lyrics proposal she had sent with Kanda that day.
Kanda grunted, incensed with the way Izzie used him as a messenger just because she had 'too much homework to attend today's reunion'. He shrugged "They liked it. Also Lotto-san, or so I heard"
Now that Izzie had no family neither income, to survive she worked as a lyric writer for Black Order Music Corporation. She wrote songs principally for 'Innocence', Kanda, Lenalee, Allen and Lavi's band, who were intimate friends of her. Also, she had made some pieces for individual singers such as Miranda Lotto, opera singer Hevlaska, pop star Tewaku and some others, which, regarding the selling rates of the CD's, paid her a considerable amount of money regularly. Money with which, joined with Kanda's salary, helped them buy the new house they lived now in.
Izzie just smirked with satisfaction, relieved that she had done a good job. "How was Lavi?" she asked after another minute of silence.
"Tsch, sober and promiscuous" Kanda growled.
The girl sighed worriedly. After Angel left with Leverrier –her adoptive father- that dreadful day, Lavi hadn't been the same. The first weeks weren't that bad, though. He would mourn the whole day, barely talking nor smiling, and would get drunk three or four nights a week. Now, however, his attitude displayed a completely changed Lavi. Albeit his demeanor with the band recovered its cheerfulness and gleeful, Lavi Bookman had turned into an insensitive, reckless playboy who spent the nights drinking in different bars and clubs and woke up the next morning in different beds with a hangover with which he had eventually learned to live. As a consequence, his grades dropped -although that didn't matter after he graduated with lame notes- and he refused going to college, assuring that he was Lavi Bookman, heir of Bookman's fortune and that he had a brilliant future in the music business.
"At least he was sober" Izzie grimaced. Watching Lavi, probably the sweetest guy ever, doing that to himself, turning into an alcoholic, promiscuous and presumably drug-addict, Izzie couldn't avoid blaming Angel for all that.
Despite how hard she tried not to hate her ex-best friend for all the damage she did with her departure, Izzie loathed her. Betraying her wasn't enough, Izzie bitterly thought, no, Angel also had to lift Lavi up to let him down afterwards. Leverrier's adoptive child should have known that she sometime had to leave when she started dating Lavi, and she should have talked that with him, but the girl preferred to have a good time and forget about the rest.
Angel…perhaps she was never the person Izzie believed her to be. She betrayed her, delivering Izzie Fletcher right into the hands of her father's enemies, and then she broke Lavi's innocent heart.
"Not for too long. He said he was going to Beta tonight" Kanda responded. "Anyway, it's his life; he can do whatever he wants with it"
Izzie, seeing that Kanda had finished eating, stood up and took the dishes to the sink "Still, it is worrisome"
Kanda didn't reply.
She opened the faucet and let the water splash against the porcelain of the plates. "When are you going to fix the dishwasher, Kanda?" Izzie questioned angrily, changing the subject. "I'm tired of doing the dishes everyday and you don't help me"
A pair of arms suddenly surrounded her thin waist. She tried not to jolt at the contact as always, but the noisy cluttering of the dishes gave her away. "You are wearing one of my shirts again" he softly accused, murmuring in her ear.
"I-I…" Izzie stuttered when Kanda bit the lobe of her ear. She closed her eyes, trying to gain enough self-control to form coherent words. "I spilt some of the stew on mine and…and this one was… handy in the…laundry room"
"Liar" Kanda cooed against her neck. He softly kissed the sensitive skin below her jaw line. "You know how badly it turns me on"
Izzie flustered. "I…that's not true…I…" She endeavored to explain, however, gave up after a while. She bit her tongue to suppress the moans which crept up her throat when Kanda started sucking that spot below her chin.
She imperceptibly turned around, leaving the water flowing in the sink. She tangled her fingers in Kanda's hair, damping it with her wet hands.
Kanda finally met her expectant mouth with a fierce kiss. He tasted her, fighting against the remaining flavors of the poultry. When a cold drop of water ran down his back after Izzie cupped his face with her hands, Kanda jolted forward, coming closer to Izzie than intended. For a brief moment he felt her whole body pressed against him through the thin fabric of his shirt.
He kissed her more passionately, inserting his tongue inside her mouth, savoring her as hard as he could. She softly moaned and gripped the lapels of his shirt, pulling him down instinctively.
After biting her lower lip, Kanda released her mouth to repeat the trail up and down her neck, sucking at the spots which he knew were the more sensitive. She squirmed and endeavored to not moan like a prostitute, but, hell, it was just so hard when he was so good!
Slowly, Kanda started unbuttoning Izzie's shirt, his mouth kissing the now exposed collarbones. After undoing the last button, his hands seductively caressed the bare skin of her abdomen, moving slowly up, exploring the flesh he never touched before.
"Kan…Kanda…" Izzie murmured, fighting against her ecstasy.
Kanda didn't seem to hear. Or perhaps he did, because he kissed her in the mouth as if he wanted her to keep silence.
She did it for a while, lost in the way his fingers traced random patterns on her skin, but when he started to help himself with the clasps of her bra, she pushed him away.
"Kanda, Kanda, no, please" she whispered against his lips. With her arms she tried to push his downwards.
Kanda just kissed the crook of her neck again "Mm, why not? We live together" as if making emphasis to that statement, he drew her closer until there was no inch of her body that wasn't in contact with his. Stubbornly, he continued playing with the clasps of her bra albeit Izzie's futile complains.
"Kanda, no. Kanda, Kanda, stop it!" she raised her voice upon feeling the straps of her bra yielding beneath the Japanese's fingers and other thing pressed against her hips. She pushed him away with one hand, holding her underwear piece in place with the other.
With a resignation grunt, Kanda finally let her go. He looked at her: her crimson cheeks, her messy hair and her almost-bare torso. It required all his self-control to not launch over her again.
"I-I am sorry" Izzie dully muttered "I-I am not ready, Kanda. Not yet"
"It's been more than a year, Izzobel" Kanda replied, appealing to her by her complete name, something he usually did when he got angry at her.
"I know, I know" the girl mumbled. She clasped again her bra in place and started buttoning her shirt again, avoiding looking the bulge in Kanda's pants. "But I'm not ready yet. I am sorry" she apologized.
Kanda looked at her in the eye. Fuck. She was just staring at him that fucking way…
"Whatever" he waved his hand in the air, taking away importance of the matter. Hell, he was hoping that this time they'd really be able to lie down. But if Izzie didn't want to, well, forcing her was not going to make it any better.
He shifted his feet uncomfortably, sensing that in his crotch. Fuck, what the hell was he supposed to do with that? This time it didn't feel as if a cold shower could be enough.
The Japanese turned around and walked to the threshold. "I'm sorry, Kanda" he heard Izzie repeat. "I-This doesn't mean I don't love you, is just that-"
"I know" he interjected midsentence. Without another word, he climbed upstairs, leaving Izzie alone.
Izzie took a deep breath, trying to calm herself down. The blood in her veins seemed to be running at uncontrollable speed and his heart thumbed like a maniac. She felt guilty for saying no to Kanda one more time.
It was not the first time he attempted to take them to the next step. It had happened before, but he had never gotten so close like this time. Izzie was still shaking.
Would it…would it really hurt if they did it just once? Kanda was right: they were a stable couple, they lived together and, even though both were still studying –Kanda studied Enterprises Administration at Colorado University- they had a good income, in case any 'accident' occurred. But Izzie thought about her career. Medical School was quite hard, she knew, and raising a child…
But nobody had ever talked about having a child. There were contraceptive methods she could effectively use. Perhaps…perhaps they should try at once. Kanda was, after all, her boyfriend and the one who picked her up when everybody else had let her down. She owed so much to him…
Sighing, she finished doing the dishes, making up her mind about this new idea. Contraceptive methods…pills were fairly effective, right?
She needed to sleep over it. And talk to a specialist, if necessary. Also, perhaps Lenalee could give her some advice about it, although she doubted the girl had already started a sexual life.
Lavi. Maybe Lavi could help her. He knew some specialists, right? And he was not stupid enough to bed down with half of the town's female population without using any protection.
She'd have to talk to him about it.
A/N:Hi again! Alright, I know I should first update Camera Flash, but, err...well, I couldn't wait to start Attached Strings! So, for those Kazzie lovers, here I compensate the lack of them in Innocence Rock Time! epilogue ;) Hope you liked this.
And for Langel lovers...well, I'm sorry, but I can assure you that next chapter will be full of them ;)
Well, as I said, this story is going to be a lot more mature, explicit and complicated than the last one. I hope I cover your expectatives and, if not, be nice in your reviews hehe
Thank you for still following me! Thank you very much n.n Angel and Izzie appreciate that a lot.
Well, what about reviews? Or cookies? Hell, I'm really hungry now.
Sayo sayo!
Pd. There are some drawings that my good friend EdelyneElric made for this Fanfic. You can check them out on my profile, as well as the full summary of this because the space for summaries assigned by Fanfiction sucks ;)
Thank you, EdelyneElric! I gotta remind you that Angel and Izzie are original creations of her, so dedicate her an applause! And go check her profile too, she's got some nice stories there ;)