Title: Cantarella
Fandom: D Gray Man
Character/Pairings: Kanchi, Allena, lots of Lavi meddling
Genre: Drama/Romance
Warnings: More fluff and more mature than the previous. Rating will reach M…but not till the later chapters.
Summary: Imitation Black Sequel. Project Runway round two. What it took for Kanda and Lenalee to say the three words Reiichi and Allen have been waiting to hear—I love you. KandaOC Allena. Rating will go up.
A/N: If you have not read Imitation Black you may not understand the setting, and thus I strongly urge you to read it first. This is AU where in Kanda Yuu is your sexy top model, Lavi is the annoying photographer who will not leave his best friend alone, and Reiichi who is the designer that is unfortunately/fortunately related to the meddlesome genius.
But you should know all that. ;)
-Cantarella-
Huddled in a thick winter coat and a scarf wrapped around her neck, Reiichi blew hot air into her woollen glove clad hands, rubbing them occasionally to generate warmth. Staring out at the city scape, it was rather quiet, but the bright lights of the scenery far away told her the excitement that was to come. In just a while more, it would be the new year.
Kanda stood beside her quietly, leaning on the railing of his roof balcony staring out. He took on a look of contemplation, but actually he was inwardly counting to ten to reign in his temper, and a tick formed at the corner of his eye just thinking about trying not to think.
Why?
Let's just say his theoretical best friend thought it was a brilliant idea to have a New Year's party at his house without informing him until people started to arrive—he nearly beheaded the idiot until Lenalee stepped in. He didn't like people coming to his house, and certainly didn't like entertaining anyone, but Lavi swore that he would clean up whatever mess that was left after so pretty please with cherry on top could they continue the party?
He still said no.
Then Lavi smirked and said, "We'll all leave you alone with Rei-chan. Deal?"
Kanda stared at him like he was stupid. "Are you stupid?" he demanded back.
"Or," the male red head grinned harder, "We'll keep Rei-chan away from you, and you'll suffer the party with us. All night long and beyond."
The model was about to say that he wasn't even agreeing with the stupid party from the start—but he didn't have a choice when more people sauntered into his house like it was a public place. He didn't even recognise half of these people except they probably came from his company—and then he found himself mobbed pushed towards his roof balcony, out in the cold.
Without Mugen, he was sorely at a disadvantage.
A few minutes later, the door to the balcony slammed open again and this time Reiichi was being dragged along, with an extremely confused look on her features. All her questions were happily ignored, and Lavi dumped a stack of winter coats and thick blankets on her before closing the sliding door, waving with the biggest infuriating grin Kanda had the displeasure to be at the end of on a near daily basis.
They better not enter his dojo, or the fucking rabbit will be fucking fucked up tomorrow.
My god he really wanted to kill someone.
"He could've warned me," Reiichi muttered, now picking up one of the blankets and wrapping it over her form. "Why aren't you cold?" she asked, glancing at him.
He only put on a jacket from the pile of warm cloth Lavi had threw at them, and while she was huddling as much as she could, he was merely standing out there like it was nothing. He shrugged, his train of murderous thoughts interrupted by her speech. True, it was better to be stuck up here where it was quiet, than to be downstairs hearing the whole lot of them singing chummy songs at the top of their voices—yeah, this was certainly a better option.
But he could tell Reiichi really preferred being indoors, considering she didn't like the cold much. She shuffled closer to him, sometimes glancing at him with a pink tint that was either from the cold or something else—he pretended not to see and continued to look out.
"…Kanda?" she called out suddenly. "Could you hold me?"
He nearly stumbled back in shock, because it was just entirely too unexpected.
"Why?"
"Because I'm cold," she explained quickly, tongue darting out to warm her frozen lips. "Please?"
It was probably the first time she asked him to do something so directly, and the idea of him hugging her out of the blue was just…just…
He looked away uncomfortably, grunting as he dropped one arm that was leaning on the snow covered railing down, awkwardly putting it across her back and on her shoulder. It wasn't really a hug, it was sort of like a one arm hug—but Reiichi didn't seem to mind because she smiled at him and shuffled closer.
"Thanks."
"Hn."
Reiichi felt the flutter in her heart beat stronger as she felt his warm arm press on her back and the heat that he radiated—and even his fingers on her shoulder that gripped her frame comfortably. She couldn't believe they were about to end the year again—and they had been officially together for more than a year. Just from those many months ago, her relationship with Kanda had grown, but somehow small action of affections still seemed to create the same effect as they did then.
She leaned closer to him, and she felt him pull her closer too—she looked up, heart warming at his slightly blushing face that was pointedly staring out in the distance.
"It's going to be another year again," she mused. "Time flew by much quicker than I thought."
"It always does," he agreed.
It was a quiet moment of comfortable silence before Reiichi remembered she wanted to ask him something.
"What do you think of another project with me?" she asked.
Kanda blinked. "What do you mean?"
"Like, me designing for you again," she explained. "What do you think?"
"Why are you asking me this?"
"Kanda…" Reiichi scowled slightly. "Could you answer my question without another question for once?"
"No."
She elbowed him in the stomach.
"That hurt."
"That was the point."
"…So, why did you ask me that?" he spoke up eventually when Reiichi just fell silent.
She sighed, knowing it was just better for her to tell him why first. "Remember that time when we went to the hotel—" she began.
"—and Moyashi had his drama? Yeah."
Reiichi shook her head exasperatedly. "Yes, but that wasn't the main part. I met a fan of mine that day."
"A what?"
"A fan," she repeated. "An admirer? Those people who faint upon seeing you, except mine didn't?"
"You?" Kanda gave her an incredulous look. "You?"
"Is that so hard to believe?" she glared at him.
"Ye—" but she elbowed him again. "But you make the weirdest shit! How the hell would anyone—"
"I can't believe you of all people are saying that to me!" she scowled, greatly offended. "Weren't you the one who picked me for our project in the first place?" then she narrowed her eyes, hissing. "Don't you dare tell me you chose me because of Lavi, because I will punch you."
"I didn't!" he growled back.
"Then what?"
"I already told you," he grumbled, leaning his head on his other free palm. "The stuff you made were the least boring, therefore you were a better choice than all the rest—" he continued on when she opened her mouth to say something, "—I never said they weren't weird, because hell yeah they were."
The silence that accompanied that started to make Kanda regret his words.
"…So you…didn't like them?" Reiichi eventually asked in a quiet tone.
"I thought you didn't care whether I liked them or not."
She didn't. At first, she didn't. Back then she didn't care whether Kanda had an opinion about what she made, because after all, she was in control—but as time flew by and Kanda started to become someone that meant greatly to her—she wanted him to like what she made him. That was why she asked his opinion about the Greed piece, and for Pride, she made something for him. And now being told that he actually didn't think much of what she made…hurt.
It hurt a lot.
"Oi, you are not going to cry, are you?" Kanda frowned when she just kept quiet and stared at the railing dejectedly.
"I am not crying!" she scowled, pushing him away, and she slightly regretted the warmth that was lost. "I am going downstairs. See you tomorrow."
But before she even managed to reach the sliding door, Kanda grabbed her arm. "You haven't told me about what you wanted to ask me."
"There's no point now is there?" she snapped back defensively. "It's not like you'll agree anyway."
The grip on her arm closed even tighter. "Woman," he sighed, frustrated. "Rei," he tried again when she tried to pull her arm away. "Look," he began, sighing frustrated. "I never said I didn't…didn't…like them, okay?"
Reiichi turned to look back at him properly. He was scowling as usual, but the uncomfortable look on his features and the fact that he was averting his eyes made it very clear to her that he wasn't lying.
"You implied it," she responded.
"No I didn't."
"Yes you did."
"No."
"Yes."
"N—whatever!" he huffed. "My point is, you were assuming."
"When you talk in your cryptic way, it's hard not to," she admitted, stepping closer to him. She placed a gentle hand on his arm, looking back into those cobalt eyes that looked slightly annoyed, but relieved. "Kanda…"
"I'll do it."
His words just hung in the air.
"…what?" she parted her lips in surprise.
He just scowled deeper, but a pink tint started to colour his cheeks as he huffed indignantly. "I'm not saying it again."
It took a while for Reiichi to understand where he was going with his short answers and ever elusive responses. "Did you just…agree?"
"So what if I did?"
"You're not trying to…make me happy, are you?" she questioned carefully. "But you agreed because you don't mind?"
"Yes," he answered back impatiently. "Is it so hard to believe?"
"Considering you were insulting me for the past few minutes, and the fact that you thought it was impossible that I would have a fan—"
"That's because the stuff you make is weird," he insisted.
She looked at him. "But you like them."
"I—" he gritted his teeth, knowing how the heat travelling to his face intensified more under her gaze.
Reiichi slowly smiled, and his heartbeat jumped at the way she beamed at him happily.
"So," he coughed uncomfortably, trying to downplay his reaction. "Why did you want to do this? You haven't answered my question yet."
She stepped back towards the railing and leaned on the edge wistfully, a small smile on her lips as she spoke.
"My fan just suggested the idea to me and I thought about it. I just...wanted to try it again, you know? The first time, I didn't do it because I really wanted to. At least, I did it because Lavi convinced me to." She explained, turning to look at him. "But now, I—"
Her words were interrupted when a screeching sound tore throughout the cold night air, and they both turned to see the cause of it all. In a stark contrast with the dark sky, streaks of colourful lights flew up into the empty blank canvas, exploding and decorating the air with millions of patterns that shone brightly.
Fireworks.
The pretty lights reflected in their eyes, and both of them watched the display for a few moments, until Reiichi turned back to him again—some of her features highlighted by the fireworks, and she breathed in deeply before meeting his eyes determinedly.
"But now…" she continued where she left off. "I love you, Kanda."
The explosions in the sky were loud, but her words echoed louder in ears. He couldn't deny how complete those words made him—because it felt like he was whole, like he was living for something, someone, with someone—and it was warm. It was the second time she ever said it to him, and the feeling was just as indescribable, because he felt like it was impossible for anyone to love him—but she did.
"So I—"
He didn't let her say anything more, because there wasn't anything else that he really wanted to hear. He cupped her face which was cold from the winter's air, pulling her closer still they were barely apart, and he felt her stiffen in surprise. Her breaths were ghosting past his own lips, and lightly he leaned forward to meet hers—gently, softly.
It was almost like she could feel his affection from just the mere touch, his warm tongue caressing her bottom lip as she fluttered her eyelids close. Tentatively she slid her arms around his waist, gripping the back of his coat and hugging him closer while he continued to lead their mouths in a slow intricate dance.
They broke apart after a minute, a still air settling between them, and neither could hear the fireworks anymore. Kanda was looking at her with an expression she couldn't describe, but it made her heartbeat race faster than it already was, because she knew he perhaps never looked like that at anyone before, like he loved her back.
"Happy new year," she whispered, before leaning forward to kiss him again.
"—AND YES IT'S ON CAMERA!"
Both of them jumped nearly a metre apart, heads whipping in panic to the source of familiar obnoxious voice—and they simultaneously flushed red when they realised the number of people blatantly watching them from behind the transparent sliding door.
Lenalee was waving enthusiastically at them both, grinning wide, Allen just smirked and coughed in amusement, while other people like Komui, the head of departments, the core design team—Reiichi noticed the fish impression Emilia had on—and other models, designers, colleagues from their office staring with their mouths open, because they've just witnessed a private Kanda Yuu moment, one that was so shocking because of his usual behaviour in public.
And the mastermind behind it all merely grinned sheepishly. "Sorry, did I come at a bad time?" he smirked, and both of them knew it was on purpose, considering the camera in the other's hands. "I just wanted to wish you guys a happy new year—"
"USAGI!" Kanda snapped, eyes burning with the incentive to murder him into oblivion. "YOU GODDAMN MOTHER FUCKING ASSHOLE—"
"Now, Yuu, are you sure you want to kiss Rei-chan with a mouth like that?"
Perhaps that wasn't the right thing to say, because Kanda flushed even darker, which was adorable, but the killing intent intensified. Like ten fold more.
"Out of my house," the fuming model breathed darkly. "All of you. Now."
It barely took three seconds for the threat to settle and everyone scrambled to move out. Within a minute, there was only Lavi standing in front of them, looking slightly scared.
Reiichi marched towards her cousin with the reddest face he's ever seen, and he took a step back cautiously.
"Happy new year," she said, not before punching him in the gut, hard.
He clutched his abdomen, and crumbled to the floor, because it was really that painful. He watched her storm away angrily—but he could tell she was trying to cover up her embarrassment—and a step next to his ear reminded him of the real danger.
Kanda calmly picked up the fallen video camera, and nudged the fallen male on the floor with his foot.
"Tomorrow. Spar with me," was all the model stated before following after the steps of his cousin, disappearing from his vision.
Lavi gulped.
Kanda was almost humming to himself—almost—because he was happy? Content? Satisfied? Or something along those lines after a good sparring session yesterday with his best friend. It was always more fun when he was sparring with an opponent. There was more challenge than merely practising his strokes or doing katas he memorised so well.
Perhaps it wasn't fair that Lavi was as a skilled fighter as he was, but the aim was to kick the ass of the rabbit anyway. So he did, with great pleasure. That relieved more stress than he could ever imagine.
"Morning Yuu-chan!"
Unfortunately Lavi was Lavi and Kanda resigned himself to the fact that the stupid idiot will always ruin his mornings, injured or not. Thankfully there was another person in the house who changed that.
"Morning, Kanda," Reiichi walked past her cousin towards the kitchen, and he grunted in reply.
Then she halted in the middle of the doorway when she spotted him.
"…Rei-chan? You're kind of blocking the way—" Lavi also stopped, but a grin was already stretching wider and wider on his face, and Kanda was so sure his face was going to split in half.
"Oh my god," Lavi stated.
"Shut the fuck up and you're not allowed to say a single dammed word to me, unless you want your ass to be kicked again," Kanda immediately glared, and Lavi put his hands up in surrender.
The male red head only bounced (as much as he could) happily to his cousin who was still staring—just staring— and slung an arm over her frame.
"He's so hot, isn't he?" he whispered into her ear, because hey, Kanda only said he couldn't say anything to him. "Wouldn't you like him to take it off?"
Reiichi flushed darkly and shoved her cousin aside. "N-n…no!" she protested indignantly and she really wanted to kill herself now and be done with it.
She didn't understand why Kanda was wearing something he usually didn't—a pair of black framed spectacles was sitting on his delicate handsome face. Maybe it was part of his fashion, or maybe he wanted to see her reaction again, but it wasn't fair. He was wearing a black suit even, tugged a little at his tie, and her heartbeat was beating so rapidly fast she couldn't hear anything but the rhythmic pulse in her head.
And the thought process that just couldn't accept the fact that Kanda Yuu was wearing spectacles and a suit. At the same time.
"No, you don't want him to take it off or no, you don't think he's hot?" Lavi continued to tease her mercilessly, chuckling at the pure panic and fluster that his cousin sported.
"No, I—I...he...I—" she stuttered for a while before giving up, slapping a hand over her mouth to prevent the mortification from digging even deeper. "I…" she breathed in deeply, trying to calm down. "I'm just going to boil the water."
Lavi laughed knowingly, kissing her cheek in response. "You and I and him all know what you're saying to say," he grinned. "Don't sweat it, Rei-chan."
She huffed cutely, storming over to the kettle and busied herself.
"Nice job, Yuu," Lavi winked at his best friend who just smirked—and clearly gotten what he had aimed for.
Ah, mornings.
"Lavi, are you walking with a limp?" Reiichi asked, curious at why her cousin was walking slower than them today—because he was usually jumping about in front of them.
"Yeah," Lavi winced, ruffling his hair. "Yuu was kind of hard on me yesterday—"
"Hard?"
"You know how he is when he's in bed—"
Kanda whipped around and kicked him without a second thought. "Just, no," he shuddered, feeling disgusted. "Shut the hell up."
"See!" Lavi whined pathetically. "He treats me so rough and even though I was begging so much for release—oww, Yuu!"
Reiichi raised an eyebrow, shaking her head exasperatedly. "Maybe if you stopped with all those sexual innuendos, he might stop hitting you."
"…Are you sure that's not you?" Lavi paused. "Because I wasn't saying anything dirty—OW!"
Reiichi glared at him, grabbing Kanda's arm and forcefully walking faster, trying to leave her cousin behind. "Good bye, Lavi."
"Rei-chan! Don't leave me! I love you more!" Lavi cried dramatically, but the other two merely entered the glass doors of the headquarters without glancing back once.
Reiichi sighed tiresomely when her cousin's pleads were cut off. "I'll see you at lunch?" she smiled at Kanda when they reached the lifts.
"I'm coming up," at her confused expression, he elaborated. "Meeting day."
"Oh."
That was probably why he was dressed more formally than usual, but still it did not warrant him exploiting her megane fetish, because it just wasn't fair. He looked good, better than good—with his hair tied up and bangs framing his haughty face. It was only when he raised an eyebrow at her that she realised she had been staring again, and she cleared her throat awkwardly and forced herself to look away.
She really hated that smirk he had on.
The lift ride was just as stifling, because her heart practically jumped when he adjusted the frames, muttering about it slipping down—she was going to take it off herself if he kept torturing her on purpose when the elevator came to a stop on the 40th floor and the doors slid open.
Sachiko dropped the ceramic mug of coffee she had in her hands when she saw Kanda and Reiichi step out of the lift together—and all the images of the party two days ago rushed to her brain.
"I..uh, I apologise, cho!" she cried hurriedly, bowing repeatedly. "I will clean this up, cho!"
"Um, I can help you if you like—" Reiichi began, but the receptionist shook her head furiously, grabbing a box of tissues from the desk and staring to wipe the floor.
Kanda merely walked past them and entered the department coolly.
"You should follow Kanda-san—" Sachiko squeaked, blushing when the forbidden image of Kanda Yuu kissing the girl right in front of her flashed dangerously. "Uh, I—I'm sorry, cho!"
Reiichi nodded, smiling awkwardly at her and tried not to match the blush. "Um, okay, I…I'll leave you to this then," and then she practically escaped from the receptionist.
How could she have forgotten that everyone in the company had personally witnessed—oh dear god.
The moment she entered her department, all eyes turned towards her and the silence was deafening. Trying to ignore the rising heat crawling up her neck, she hurried towards her cubicle until she could spot Moor and Emilia leaning near her desk, with Moor smiling knowingly at her, and Emilia staring dreamily at the back of Kanda Yuu who entered the meeting room up ahead.
"My god, he's sexier today," Emilia sighed, still looking at the door longingly. "I think it's the suit. Or the glasses."
"You think he's sexy every single day," Moor rolled her eyes, but she didn't disagree. "Happy new year, Reiichi," she added when Reiichi was in earshot.
"Morning," the red head replied, looking slightly embarrassed at the mention of a New Year.
"How was your new year's day with Kanda-sama?" Emilia turned to her, grinning.
"I spent it with my friends, actually," she replied.
"WHAT?" The French girl frowned like it was the most blasphemous thing ever. "But you're living with Kanda-sama—"
"Lavi was with him, so…"
"Lavi was with who?" a new voice joined in and all of them jumped involuntarily. "'Sup ladies," Lavi greeted, saluting. "Was a great party, wasn't it?" he added. "Especially with that kiss from Yuu and all—"
"Lavi, meeting room," Reiichi cut him off quickly. "Now."
"If you ladies want a copy, I have the negatives—"
"LAVI!"
"Okay, okay, sheesh, I am going!" Lavi rolled his eyes, but the huge grin on his face did not falter. He winked at Moor and Emilia once more time before blowing Reiichi a kiss. "Love you, Rei-chan!"
Reiichi only shook her head exasperatedly as she watched her cousin disappear behind the door.
The first day of work of the year was usually quite slack, because everyone was still in the partying mood. Mostly they reviewed their past years work and laughed at some of their ridiculous ideas, taking note of the fashion trends for future reference. They were only starting to brainstorm for the spring collection for the time being, but in actual fact, they were just wasting time.
"Johnny, what do you think of this?" Moor held up a photoshoot of one of their spring collections last year.
"I'm not too fond of the neon green, truthfully," the bespectacled designer admitted. "Man, who made that?"
"…You did?"
"I did?" Johnny rubbed his head sheepishly. "Well, I'm not too sure what I was thinking then."
"I can't believe you forgot you made that abomination," 65 shot him an incredulous look. "Weren't you the one who insisted it was a great avant garde piece?"
"Hey—"
"65, look at this," Tapp held out another photoshoot in front of them all.
There were simultaneous winces around.
"Ew—what the hell is that!"
"I can't believe we actually gave the okay for this—"
"I think we were sorely desperate—"
"Maybe we should revise our collections—"
"You made this, 65," Tapp added, shaking his head.
"No way in hell I would make something like that—"
"Guys, guys," Reever waved over the commotion trying to keep their noises down. "They're having a meeting next door, so hush!"
"It's not like they're actually discussing anything of importance," Emilia rolled her eyes, and they all knew it was true.
Occasionally they would hear shrieks of Lenalee! or death threats or laughter coming from the room next to them, and it was up to all their imaginations as to what really was going on in the so called formal meeting.
"Rei,"
Everyone stopped in whatever they were doing and turned to look at the source of deep familiar voice. None of them had even heard the door open, and certainly none of them expected Kanda Yuu to be leaning impatiently against the door with his hand curved around the door knob.
Emilia was busy hyperventilating whilst the others just stared in stunned silence.
"Rei," Kanda repeated again, his scowl stretching on his too handsome face.
"Um, yeah?" Reiichi blinked, looking back at him questioningly.
"Come with me."
"…For?" one day, Reiich would have to tell him it was much better to explain things.
"Just come," he grumbled. "Hurry up."
Before she could respond, Emilia was grinning brightly at her and tugging her arm to make her get out of the chair she was sitting on.
"Go!" the French girl whispered furiously to her, though everyone in the room could hear her clearly well. "Come on!"
"But—"
"He's waiting!"
"Okay, okay," she relented. "I'll be…back?" she excused herself from the rest who just waved at her lazily with a knowing/teasing eye.
"Take your time!" 65 grinned at her, smirking.
"We won't miss you!" Moor added.
"Just…don't keep her so long, Kanda-kun," Reever put in finally, an amused expression on his face.
"Whatever," Kanda scoffed, dropping his grip on the doorknob. "Let's go."
Reiichi kept the blush down as she exited the room, leaving the door to close and silence the whispers and giggles behind their backs.
"So…" she began as Kanda strode quickly in front of her, reaching the meeting room door in seconds. "What is this about?"
"They want to talk to you," Kanda said, pausing for a while. "About another project with me."
"…But I haven't even told Lavi or Komui-san that you agreed."
"Che," Kanda shrugged. "Usagi was the one who brought it up."
"I see," her train of thought was cut off when Kanda opened the door and they were greeted by a bunch of people standing up and clapping their hands like it was some kind of celebration.
"CONGRAGULATIONS!" Lavi beamed, lunging forwards to hug them both by the necks.
"…."
"…."
Both of them merely stared dumbly as everyone else continued to clap happily.
"What…"
"Usagi, stop touching me!" Kanda growled, trying to yank the arm that was squeezing him to death.
Lavi pulled them both in, kicking the door shut behind them and pushed them simultaneously towards the nearest person, which was Komui.
"Reiichi-kun," Komui started holding out his hand, smiling sincerely. "Congratulations."
Lenalee who was also present beamed excitedly, grabbing Kanda's hand and shook it furiously. "I can't believe it, I just—congrats, Kanda-kun!"
Kanda snapped out of his daze and yanked his hand back, scowling deeply. "What the fuck is going on?" he demanded, cringing at the sight of all the head of departments still clapping amusedly at him and Reiichi. "Will you guys cut that out!"
"I am also extremely confused," Reiichi admitted, eyeing the hand Komui held out to her. "Perhaps you could tell me what you're congratulating me for?"
Lavi burst into full blown laughter at that point, cradling his stomach and gasping for air as he laughed. And laughed. And laughed. Then Lenalee let out a giggle and also collapsed into laughing, and Komui started to snicker—then slowly the room was filled with laughing people.
"What the fuck—"
"You should have seen the looks on your faces!" Lavi grinned. "It was adorable!"
Reiichi grabbed her cousin and shook him exasperatedly. "We are in the office! Could you try to be a little more mature?" she demanded, unable to believe that the entire room had played along for such a stupid joke.
"What?" Lavi sniffed defensively. "I just wondered what it'd be like if we congratulated you guys on your engagement, and so we just acted the scene out early, no big deal."
"S-shut the hell up, usagi!" Kanda hissed, but a very faint tinge of pink on upon his face.
"Hmm, are you—"
"SHUT UP!"
"Woah, chill dude," Lavi fanned his best friend like it would help to cool the imaginary steam. "Come on, sit down, we've got lots to talk about."
Reiichi took a seat next to Kanda who sat himself, grumbling, and finally everyone was seated around the oval table. Across her, she recognised the head of Model Management Kevin Yeegar, the head of Research Renny Esptain, the head of Marketing Twi Chan, the head of Operations Bridget Fey, the head of Logistics Bak Chan, head of Customer service Jake Russell and Edgar Chan the head of Accounts.
It was quite odd to know that Bak was the son of Twi and Edgar, but that was the least of Reiichi's worries at the moment.
"We have discussed about what you have proposed to me the last time," Komui began, looking at her. "And since Kanda-kun has agreed to it—"
"Actually," Reiichi interrupted, now that a thought flashed in her mind. "Is this...fair? Because Kanda is…Kanda Yuu…" shetrailed off lamely. "I mean, I don't want people to think I've got this chance just because—"
"But the point is that you are special to him," Renny cut in bluntly. "There's no way your boyfriend would agree to anything like this, unless it's—"
"What she's trying to say," Lavi smiled gently when Reiichi seemed more troubled. "Is that Yuu wouldn't even give a chance to any designer but you, so all the more you should do it."
"Fucking idiots, I'm right here you know," Kanda grumbled, but didn't add anything else.
"So what we've agreed upon so far is that you will be doing a set of themes which is still currently undecided," Komui continued to explain. "But this time it will be monthly instead of weekly. Considering your workload and Kanda-kun's busy schedule, we thought it was best this way."
Reiichi nodded, listening.
"And Lavi insisted that instead of restricting you to the basement, you can go anywhere to do your shoots," he sighed, pushing up his glasses. "Though, I will advise you to keep the locations in Japan," he shot the innocently grinning male red head a warning look.
"I don't think I will be that drastic…"
"Of course, Cross Enterprise is willing to help you out in any way. We're giving you a small spread in Mugen, since you will be only doing one design—three sides as well as the front cover," Komui finished. "Any questions?"
That was more than she could ever ask for.
"When do I start?"
"We're thinking on featuring each design at the end of each month. That should give you ample time to think, plan, and create."
"Yes, we're looking forward to it," Yeegar smiled warmly at her.
In truth, it had been a great idea and all—when she brought it up with Lavi he was super enthusiastic about it and even urged her to tell Komui who seriously considered it. So with Kanda's permission, the idea was starting to become a plan put in place, and now it seemed like it was just happening too fast. Was it really this easy?
"I understand," she replied. "Thank you."
"But," Twi cut in quickly, giving quick looks to the people around. "We have one condition," she announced, looking at her seriously. "You two will have to give an official press statement that you're currently dating."
Kanda was the first to react, and it seemed like even he wasn't informed of such. "What! Why?" he demanded, slamming his palm on the table, standing up. "My private life has nothing to do with this!"
"For publicity," Twi replied bluntly. "It will be good to ride on the fact that your girlfriend is designing a spread for you—it makes people want to see what she can do."
"But they've already seen what she can fucking do!"
"Kanda-kun," Twi rolled her eyes like he was sorely misinformed. "It's a totally different—"
"Twi," Edgar smiled wryly, trying to calm the two rising tempers. "Kanda-kun, what she's trying to say is that it's more meaningful when people know what Reiichi-kun is to you."
"Actually, we sorely need you to break your mum about your relationship," Russell admitted. "We've been getting continuous calls and emails about it despite our repeated statements that we will not be answering it, and it is straining our resources direly."
"Then just hire more fucking workers—"
"Personally," Lavi drawled. "I think you guys should have gone public ages ago, considering everyone knows anyway—"
"That's your fucking fault!"
"—so it's not like it's a big deal," Lavi glanced at his cousin when he realised she hadn't said a single word so far. "Rei-chan?"
Reiichi kept a blank expression. "I…"
"Reiichi," Lenalee frowned at her hesitation. "You've already admitted your status to Tae-chan—"
"Let us think about this," she cut the female model off shortly, giving Kanda a glance.
Komui nodded slowly. "Of course. By three days, we need an answer. Is that alright with you two?"
"I understand."
"Rei-chan, are you against it?" Lavi murmured in her ear that night as he hugged her from behind on the bed.
"It's…something to think about," she admitted.
"Why? Aren't you guys going steady for about a year and four months?" he asked, squeezing her tighter.
Reiichi kept silent for a few moments before shifting, turning around so that she could face her cousin.
"Remember when you first asked me about what I thought about Kanda?" she began quietly, leaning her head against his chest.
"On the way to the Noah charity ball?" he stroked her hair rhythmically, humming.
"Yeah. You asked me if I'd date Kanda if I liked him."
"And you said you wouldn't," he chuckled in return. "But well, here you are."
"I…admit I barely thought of that when we…started," she conceded. "But I meant what I said…and I still do."
"What do you mean?"
"Kanda is…" she sighed, closing her eyes. "Famous. Sometimes I forget that he's not actually on the same level as us—me, or I…I'm not making any sense… am I?"
"Just keep going."
She breathed again to sort out her thoughts. "Kanda has a lot of…fans…and everywhere he walks people just know him. And if we go public then the whole world know about it and I can't be the girlfriend of Japan's top model Kanda Yuu. I'm not—"
"But Rei-chan," he interrupted softly. "You are. You don't need to care about what other people think. Kanda Yuu loves you and only you."
Reiichi hugged him back tightly. "…Kanda is not Kanda Yuu to me," she whispered.
"And Japan needs to know that," Lavi agreed. "You see, Yuu has been linked to a dozen over models but all of them were rumours and they stayed rumours because that's what they are. But you aren't just a girl rumoured to be with him—because you are his girlfriend."
"I get what you're trying to say," she eventually said. "But this isn't just me…Kanda doesn't want to either. When I first asked him about letting the press know, he immediately refused."
"I think…" her cousin mused. "I think he's thinking more about you."
"What do you mean?" she asked.
"Why don't you ask him tomorrow?" he said instead, and she nodded slowly.
"…Lavi?"
"Hmm?"
"I haven't wished you a happy new year, have I?"
"You did. Then you punched me remember?" he chuckled, kissing her forehead softly. "But I'll still love you more than last year, I promise."
She smiled softly and hugged him around the neck in return.
The second day and they hadn't actually talked about it, merely busying themselves with their respective work. It was stupid that both of them were sort of avoiding the topic as if it would solve itself—but the idea of tackling it wasn't very appealing either.
She didn't know exactly what to say. Did she really not mind exposing their relationship out in the open? It wasn't the same as admitting it to one or two people personally. If the entire nation knew about it, there was definitely going to be some kind of uproar despite the heavy rumours—and she wasn't sure if she was really ready for that. Moreover, she didn't want them to go public just because she wanted to—it was as much a decision as Kanda's. If he didn't, then she had to respect his choice for privacy as well.
But if they didn't…
The project wouldn't go underway.
"Talk about it, okay?" Lavi was saying seriously, giving them both a look while stepping back to let Kanda drive off. "Yuu, you're the man here, so—"
"I know what to do, you stupid rabbit!" Kanda growled impatiently, tapping the steering wheel. "Now get the hell out of my way before I run you over."
Lavi stuck a tongue out but acceded to his demand, ruffling his hair as he watched the black car disappear past the bend of the road.
"You think they'll say yes?"
He turned around to see Lenalee leaning against the glass doors of their headquarters watching him. She was frowning slightly, arms folded across her chest. He only shrugged, and she came forwards to stand next to him.
"I thought Reiichi would've said yes immediately," Lenalee said, sighing. "I wouldn't even need to think about it."
"You, my girl, are not Rei-chan," Lavi snorted. "She's more delicate than you."
"Are you saying I'm not?" Lenalee scowled at him, giving him a pointed look. "Is that what you're trying to say?"
"Mayb—ow! Come on, it was just a joke!"
"You and your stupid jokes."
"…You're taking it a little too personally, Lena-chan," Lavi commented, casting his gaze upon the female model. "Did something happen?"
"Or did someone say something to you?" he tried again when Lenalee only huffed and ignored him.
But he noticed with his ever watchful eye that Lenalee pursed her lips tighter like she was guilty.
"Lena-chan…"
"…."
"Lenaaaaaaaaaaaaaa—"
"It was Allen, okay?" she snapped at him more force than necessary, and then sighed heavily. "Sorry, Red. Forget it."
"No, no, no—Allen-chan?" he did a doubletake and was going to start on a line of teasing comments when he noticed her obviously frustrated expression. "Allen-chan said something that offended you?" he prodded, asking gently.
"Not offended," Lenalee reluctantly shared. "More like he didn't really mean it in a bad way but—"
"It offended you," Lavi concluded. "So, what did he say?" he asked curious at how the gentleman Allen Walker actually offended his one and only precious girl.
"It was after the party," she began, sitting down on the steps in front of their headquarters. "I went home with Nii-san after Kanda-kun got angry and I realised I hadn't wished Allen a happy new year yet, so I called him," she continued. "We talked—as usual, and then we were discussing on how far Kanda-kun and Reiichi would go by the end of this year. I said maybe all the way, since they do love each other and he said that Reiichi wasn't me, because she's more delicate and sensitive than I am and I asked him what he meant by that, he said Reiichi's shy and I'm not like—"
"Woah hold up, Lena-chan," Lavi interrupted. "You're talking too fast."
"Forget it. Just…forget it," Lenalee sighed.
"But from what you were blabbering on and on and on—" he ignored the light punch to his shoulder. "You sound like you're jealous."
"I am not jealous, Lavi," she immediately retorted. "I think Reiichi's cute and adorable too."
"Then explain why you're feeling so irked about Allen-chan stating a fact?"
"What fact? I'm—"
Lavi raised an eyebrow. "You are a female model, Lena…if you were shy, then well…are you sure it isn't the jealousy talking? Because I can excuse you for that, any time."
"I knew I never should have told you," Lenalee grumbled.
"I'm just saying to think about why you feel this way," Lavi said. "Besides, you know Allen-chan is head over heels for you—"
"Lavi," she stopped him suddenly. "I rather we not talk about that."
"But this is clearly a case where you want Allen-chan to think of you a certain way because he means something to you—"
Lenalee cut him off. "How would you feel if Reiichi said she didn't think you were reliable?" she asked seriously.
"Well—"
Considering that he was the one who loved her more than anything ever since forever—perhaps quite hurt, but—
"And Reiichi is someone you love, but not romantically, am I right?"
"Yes, but—"
"That's all there is to it, Red," Lenalee concluded calmly.
Lavi frowned. "Lenalee…I'm just trying to help you."
Lenalee opened her mouth to say something, but a car honked in front of them, and Komui was waving at them both from his car. The female model forced a smile before giving Lavi a quick hug around the waist.
"Sorry for snapping at you," she murmured, patting his shoulder. "Thanks for hearing me out anyway," she said. "See you tomorrow."
"Yeah, see you," he waved reluctantly, watching her plaster on a more sincere smile and skip towards her brother who glared at him from the car.
Lavi gave an innocent grin in return, holding up his hands in surrender until the car and its driver were out of sight before dropping it and sighing. Looking towards the sun that was steadily setting in the distance, he wondered if meddling in Lenalee's business really was the right thing to do.
Sometimes Lenalee liked to hide her issues more than his cousin did, and beneath all those bright smiles and pleasantries, it just made people think everything was always fine and dandy with her even when it wasn't.
Perhaps it would be easier if he talked to Allen.
Reiichi slid open the door to the dojo because she couldn't find Kanda anywhere after she went into her room to bathe after dinner. She had searched the pool initially, since he usually swam at this hour, but the room had been empty, and after knocking on his room door with no response, she concluded the next best destination.
And she was right, because Kanda was kneeling in a loose-fitting shirt and pants on the parquet floor with his sword in hand. He barely looked up to acknowledge her when she stepped in, but she knew he noticed her presence. Coming closer towards him, she sat in front of him quietly, watching him fix his eyes on Mugen.
He was running a piece of rice paper up and down the blade slowly, carefully, letting the metallic blade of the sword glint dangerously under the light. Mugen was a beautiful sword, and the extra care and respect that Kanda treated his prized possession was nothing short of heart warming to watch. She knew how much he treasured his things by the way he kept them, and Mugen was certainly one of the top on the list.
Kanda met her eyes for a brief second before he cocked his head, urging her to speak as he continued to clean his weapon.
"What's that?" she asked, pointing at a red ball lying next to him on the floor curiously.
"Powder, for cleaning," he explained, setting the rice paper down beside him before running a last critical eye over his sword.
She nodded, and he sheathed his sword with a satisfying click, laying it gently on the floor. Then he faced her with his full attention. "That wasn't what you wanted to ask."
It wasn't a question, but more like a statement he was pointing out.
"It wasn't," she agreed, but she was hesitant in starting the topic they had to discuss.
After a few moments of silence, Kanda sighed. "Do you want to?" he asked simply.
Reiichi blinked, not expecting the short question. She opened her mouth to answer, but then she realised she didn't know whether she really wanted to or not. "Do you want to?" she asked back when she couldn't give a definite answer.
Kanda shrugged, shifting his position so that he was sitting cross legged. Moments passed, and neither said anything.
"This isn't going anywhere," she sighed eventually, pulling her legs up to her chest to hug. "Kanda…would we have done it on our own?" she asked quietly.
"What do you mean?"
"If we weren't asked to make a decision about this," she explained. "Would we have gone public? Or even discuss about this?"
Kanda pursed his lips for a few moments. "I don't know," he said finally.
The mood in the dojo which had been calm and meditative before had already plunged to a more serious atmosphere. After dinner he had sort of escaped to the dojo to do some thinking before Reiichi found him—because he knew they couldn't procrastinate the issue any longer. Whilst cleaning Mugen he had given it some thought, but after a while he didn't know what he was supposed to think.
When they had started, he just didn't want people to be bugging him about his private life, so he refused even if Lavi had bugged him a few times about it. But then eventually everyone he knew knew about it anyway thanks to the same redhead idiot, so that wasn't an excuse anymore. Despite Lavi pointing out that inarguable fact, he still resisted. The thing was, he didn't care what people thought. So announcing his relationship status wasn't really that a big deal. It wasn't like it was going to change his lifestyle or whatever anyway. So by right he should be impartial to it.
But there were also other things to consider.
"I..." he breathed in deeply, not liking how talking about feelings always made him feel uncomfortable. "We…does it matter if we do?"
Reiichi licked her lips unsurely. "It's the gateway for this project—"
"Other than the project," he cut her off. "Does it...does it really matter?"
"Sometimes…" she began after some thought. "I thought it'd be…nice," she confessed, staring at the floor drawing idle circles with her hands. "Because maybe girls would stop…" she mumbled more to herself, unable to look at him. "…staring at you if they knew you were…with me…but I don't think that will happen so…" she trailed off, looking back at him. "Are you against it?"
Kanda frowned, resting his head on his palm. "I…I am not…against it," he eventually muttered. "But…" he gritted his teeth in frustration, scowling when words were just so not his forte.
He wasn't ignorant of his status. If Reiichi was officially his girlfriend—and by official he means the entire goddamn world knowing about it…someone was going to use her against him. It wasn't exactly paranoia, because it was happening. The Noah knew from day one and he knew they were purposely pissing him off, like having the two idiot twins invite her to their concert and be all chummy with her, or that fucking asshole smoker that he so badly wanted to kill.
He never forgot the time when she got kidnapped and bullied in the toilet either and he certainly didn't want another incident like that happening, especially since she meant so much more to him more than she did then.
"Someone…is going to hurt you."
Reiichi peered at him quietly, and he turned his face away with a muttered che as if he didn't say something so direct. Then suddenly she carelessly lunged forwards to hug him around the neck, and he nearly toppled back under the impact.
"W-what," he mumbled, face starting to heat up at the action, hands awkwardly touching the back of her shoulder.
His long hair was tickling a part of her face, but she didn't care as she hugged him even tighter, burying her face in the crook of his neck. She felt him rest his hands on her back, and just for one quiet moment she could actually heart their heartbeats—or hers, actually—steadily increasing in pace.
She felt touched—and happy and indescribably warm at his uttered words because it just showed how much he cared. Lavi was right. Kanda was thinking about her—for her—more than she ever knew or assumed despite how he acted on a daily basis.
"I will not lie and say I am not afraid of that," Reiichi murmured to his ear, gripping his back tightly. "But I…I want to do this," she said, this time with more conviction than ever. Smiling, she leaned back but rested her hands on his shoulders, kneeling in front of him. "This project," she elaborated, looking into his eyes seriously. "I know I am being selfish but—"
"I already said before," he rolled his eyes, staring back at her. "Do what you want."
Reiichi let a slow smile reside on her lips, just meeting his eyes so that he would know how much she appreciated his gesture. Maybe there would be issues, problems or things that might crop up with the new development, but at the moment, she was so sure she was ready to face it, because the project was more important.
It wasn't really something she thought of doing because Tae had suggested it, or because she thought she needed more exposure or whatever. But it was one way that she was showing her love for Kanda, by putting effort into doing something she was good at for him, and certainly, he deserved it more than she could ever explain.
"So…" she trailed off.
He nodded.
It was official.
They were going public.
Owari.
My god, their talk was so difficult to write because Kanda cannot say so many things because that's just the way he is. *shakes Kanda* Grr. I am still not satisfied with it but I'm not sure what else I could go with it anymore.
If again, you haven't read Imitation Black yet but still managed to reach the end without going wtf is happening—I salute you.
Yay Kanchi is backkkkkkkkk.
I know you love them, because I love them more. :D
I am not entirely sure how long this sequel will be, but it is planned to be shorter than Imitation Black. However as you know I am wishy washy with my words and my chapters are annoyingly long—I barely even covered what I planned for the prologue lol—it most likely will stretch longer than expected.
All head of departments are canon! Bridget Fey is Komui's sectary, Jake Russell is that guy whom Komui thought Lenalee was dating in one of the filler episodes and Edgar Chan really is Twi's husband and Bak's father…and also the guy who tried to explain the birds and the bees to chibi!Kanda. I seriously love him for that. Hee.
So after a year and four months Reiichi is more open with her feelings and Kanda is…showing them in his cute tsundere way. /sniff dramatically. They are growing up! Growing up so cutely ;_;
The spec fetish thing should be making another appearance because I didn't manage to get where I wanted it to go...(yeah there was supposed to be a point to that lol)
Supernova (the Allena fic) is going so slowly! ;_; It's like I can easily write nearly 9,000 words for Kanchi and I'm like procrastinating for Allena leaving it only at 1,000 plus words at this current moment. You can blatantly see my bias…
Oh well. Cookie for uploading way faster than planned? :D