Chapter one – Violinist (or violin)
Pairing: Yullen – Kanda Yuu/Allen Walker – If you squint
Word count: 877
Rating: T for a little language.
Fandom: man
Description: That violin is slowly, but surely, driving Kanda insane. Meanwhile, Allen's fallen on hard times.
Disclaimer: Katsura Hoshino owns D. Gray man.
There it is again. That screeching of a violin, poorly played by someone in the apartment complex.
It's starting to drive Kanda Yuu insane.
He wakes up most mornings rather early, gets ready and the violin starts around ten O'clock. For a full hour, it's badly played – understatement on Kanda's part, he thinks – then abruptly stops at eleven, almost always on the dot. By the time eleven rolls around in the day, Kanda's considered on many occasions to knock on every single door and scream at them to stop.
He, frankly, doesn't give two fucks about the other people in the apartment, but if he's suffering for it then that's enough for it to end.
So, when Kanda sees a white-haired (this stands out for him; he's never seen anyone with white hair before) boy trudge out the apartment, a nervous expression on his face, carrying a violin, Kanda seethes with anger knowing that this, this gentle-looking, rather short kid is the one who's been driving Kanda insane.
Marching up to the small boy, a furious expression on his face, Kanda curiously notices the sharp scar marring his face; a red line starting somewhere on his forehead, hidden by his hair, and stretching across his cheek. A strange contrast to the rest of the kid's pale face.
"Kid." Kanda announces, and the boy jumps like he'd been electrocuted.
"Y-Yeah?" He gives in response, his voice and hands shaking like leaves, which really does make Kanda wonder.
As the boy looks at him with an obviously-fake smile plastered on his face, Kanda glares at him as a response; the kid shifts nervously under his glare, and gestures to his apartment door.
"I r-really should get back…" He attempts skittishly, not quite meeting Kanda's harsh stare and instead choosing to focus on the floor.
"You weren't going out?"
The shorter kid stops suddenly, and keeping his eyes trained on the floor, passes Kanda, as he walks down the hallway.
"Stop playing the violin, stupid moyashi!" Kanda yells after him, and can just imagine him wondering what a 'moyashi' was.
Kanda loved being bilingual sometimes.
The kid returns an hour later, as Kanda's enjoying a morning of no screeching of awful musicians. In his thin arms are about seven shopping bags, all full to the brim and straining from the weight; Kanda really wished he didn't give a damn, but alas, he found himself taking the bags off the kids arms.
He protests for a minute, but after a while of scrabbling to get the bags off a taller Kanda, he gives up and resigns himself to following him.
"What's your name?" Kanda asks, to stimulate conversation.
"Allen." He responds, blunt and clearly not wanting to converse.
The rest of the trip is spent in silence, and when Kanda unceremoniously dumps the bags on the floor near Allen's apartment, Allen gives a little squeak of surprise. Kanda raises his eyebrows at that, but luckily for the other boy, doesn't comment.
A thought pops into Kanda's head, one that he immediately questions; why does he care? But before he can think about what he's saying, Kanda's already asking what happened to his violin.
"O-Oh, that old thing?" Allen responds shakily, a nervous and fake smile on his face. "I had to sell it…times are hard, I guess…"
Kanda cross-examines him, eyebrows raised at the clear lie. Those hands of his are going crazy at this point, so when Allen attempts to unlock his apartment he drops the keys.
Both Kanda and Allen reach for it at the same time, and thus their hands brush briefly together and Kanda jumps in surprise when he feels rough, scaly skin under the thin glove rather than smooth skin like he expected. Red-faced, Allen snatches his hand away faster than Kanda can keep up, and gathers the shopping bags together in his arms hurriedly. He's in the apartment before Kanda can even attempt to say goodbye.
Kanda Yuu can't quite figure out why he's still here, sitting against the wall outside of the strange boy's apartment, like a loyal dog waiting for his owner. Maybe he's like Hachiko, in the sense that his owner is never coming back.
God that was a depressing thought – which, of course, didn't make sense. Why give a shit if the fucking brat never came back? He certainly did not.
Although, he couldn't help the little blip of excitement when he heard the door unlock. He jumped up immediately, then tried to play it cool a little too late.
"Where you just waiting outside my door?" Allen quizzes him.
"Maybe I was."
A sigh from Allen, as Kanda begins to leave and head back, his sleeve is suddenly grasped by the boy behind him and it's Kanda's turn to sigh.
"Don't leave." The break in Allen's voice means Kanda can't bring himself to pull his hand away. "Please."
Again, Kanda sighs and really looks at the boy; the bags under his eyes, the tired expression and the loose, unfitting clothes. All of which seem to scream for help.
"Fine," Kanda resigns himself. "Stay at my place tonight, get some rest."
The next morning, Kanda will realise that maybe it wasn't rest Allen needed.