So, I just HAD to try writing in Kanda's point-of-view. I really hope he isn't too out of character, but I seriously couldn't pass this up xD
DISCLAIMER: D. Gray-Man and its characters are property of Katsura Hoshino. I know, you're all shocked I do not own them… I certainly am.
Scarecrow
Breathe in. Breathe out.
One.
Breathe in. Breathe out.
Two.
Breathe in. Breathe—
Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap.
I growled under my breath. She was back again. I wondered if the brat would actually knock this time. I braced myself for the sound, but once again, I heard nothing but the rough breathing of the girl quietly trembling on the other side of my door.
Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap.
That marked the fourth time that night she had come and gone. I groaned as I rose to my feet, realizing there was no way I'd be able to meditate with this kid running back and fourth down the hallway every five minutes. I had no idea what the hell she thought she was doing. Ever since I came to The Order, she had been avoiding me like the plague. Admittedly, when we were first introduced she did make an attempt at conversation, however, when she addressed me as "Kanda-nee*," I couldn't just let her walk away without also introducing her to Mugen.
Thump! Thump! Thump! Thump!
Her footsteps sounded quicker this time. I walked to the door, opening it just enough to see the eight-year-old Chinese girl frozen, mid-knock.
"Actually planning to knock this time?" I glared down at her.
"Umm.. y-yes, I…" She quickly looked at the floor, her trembling nearly causing the small tray she held to fall to the floor.
I looked at the two steaming cups on the tray and raised an eyebrow.
Gathering enough courage to make eye-contact, she followed my gaze, "O-oh, I was just… umm… I made some tea and I thought maybe…"
"Tch. Considering how many times I heard you run back and forth down the hallway, I thought you'd at least have something important to say. Go make noise somewhere else, I'm trying to concentrate." I slammed the door and walked back to the center of the room to assume the Full Lotus position once again.
That was her reason for disturbing my peace? She was nervous about asking me to a tea party? Whatever, now that she was gone, I could finally focus.
Breathe in. Breathe out.
One.
Breathe in. Breathe out.
Two.
Breathe in. Breathe out.
Three.
Breathe—
Shiver. Shiver.
YOU HAVE GOT TO BE SHITTING ME!
I rose immediately, stomping loudly towards the door. I violently gripped the door knob, hands shaking with rage, and listened to the annoyance on the other side continue to tremble before resuming her pacing. Why the hell was she still there? And what was with all the shaking? It was audible for God's sake! Hadn't she already been relieved of the torturous anticipation of the response to her tea party invitation? Suddenly, the sound of a different set of footsteps began to grow closer and closer. I could hear the girl jump before dashing madly around the hallway, the clattering of the tea cups on her tray ringing so loudly it sounded as if they might spontaneously combust.
"LEE!" A man's voice bellowed.
The girl squeaked in response, her footfalls beating like a hummingbird's wings.
"ANSWER ME, LEE!" I recognized the voice to be Inspector Leverrier's.
Was that what this was all about?
I let out a deep breath and wrenched the door open. The terrified Chinese girl stood in front of the vacant room next door, trying desperately to force entry. Against my better judgment, I stepped outside my door and grabbed the girl by her forearm, causing her to release the tea tray from her grip. I pulled her fiercely away from the shattered remains of the tea cups, realizing the noise would quickly summon Leverrier, and back into my room. After quickly closing the door, I turned to see the girl staring up at me like a trapped animal.
"Why did you—"
"Quiet. If you're going to stay here, you're not going to bother me, understood?"
She nodded.
"And you're cleaning that up," I said, nodding towards the small pool of tea seeping in from under the door.
She nodded again. At least she seemed good at following directions.
Just then, someone rapped angrily at the door. The small girl's eyes grew as her body began to shake furiously; she knew it was him. Before I could even register her movement, she had dashed under my bed to conceal herself. I rolled my eyes. Why was I doing this again? I cracked the door open, glaring up at the hard-faced man.
"What?" I grumbled.
"Sorry to disturb you," Leverrier began.
"Tch. If you were sorry, you wouldn't disturb me."
His eyes blazed, "Where is Miss Lee? Is she with you?"
"Can't say I know who you're talking about." This wasn't a complete lie. I honestly had no idea what the kid's name was.
"I know I heard her somewhere around here."
"Good to know. I didn't."
"Well who do you expect made this mess?" he said through gritted teeth, motioning towards the pieces of broken china floating in cold tea directly in front of the door.
"How should I know? If you don't have anything relevant to ask, you can leave."
Visibly enraged, he opened his mouth to speak, but I was finished talking. I slammed the door, listening to him stomp down the hall before walking over to my bed.
"The warden's gone, you can stop cowering now." I said, knocking on my headboard. A small head peeked out from underneath, scanning my room to insure I was telling the truth, before she slowly crawled out and rose, still trembling, to her feet.
"Thank you," she managed a weak smile.
"You can stay twenty more minutes in order to lose him, not a second longer, hear me?"
"Yes… umm.. Kanda-san, right?"
I nodded, "I gather you're Lee?"
"Lenalee is fine."
"Ok then, Lenalee, go find something quiet to do. I've been trying to meditate for the past hour," I grumbled as I dropped down in the center of the room.
"'Kay," Lenalee said as she took a seat in the corner and began to fiddle with a small black bow on her dress.
Assuming my previous position, I began to focus on my breathing. I counted to ten. Once. Twice. Thrice. I began to lose track, noticing only the feeling of air entering and leaving my lungs. My thoughts were clear. The world around me faded away into nothingness. I felt my heart pulse, reaching every last cell in my body. I could hear… footsteps? Was someone else present here in my thoughts?
Thud!
No, not in my thoughts.
My eyes snapped open as I whipped my head around to see the source of the disturbance seated next to me, her legs folded one on top of the other in effort to mimic me. I exhaled, draining the dangerous levels of anger from my body.
"You're doing it wrong."
"Eh?" Her lavender eyes flickered open as she turned to face me.
"There are so many meditating positions, it's almost impossible for you to not be doing any of them by accident," I scoffed. "The easiest one looks like this," I moved from my previous position, resting my knees on the floor and crossing my ankles, "Think you can manage that?"
Her eyes narrowed slightly. Was she trying to glare at me? "Which one were you doing before?"
I changed positions once again, placing each foot on the opposite thigh, "It's called Full Lotus."
"That doesn't look so hard…" she mused, pulling her own legs into the same position with a strained look on her face.
"Hurts, doesn't it?"
She shook her head, but was obviously lying.
"You can go back to the easier one, you know?"
"What's next?" she asked, ignoring me.
I shrugged, her stubbornness was her problem. "Fold your hands like this," I said, demonstrating.
Her hands quickly mirrored my own, "And then?"
I closed my eyes, "Relax. Close your eyes and concentrate on your breathing, it helps to count to ten over and over again until you're completely focused."
Slowly, I began to relax as the sound of her breathing blended with mine. I had expected her to be distracting, yet I found myself able to focus before I could even count to ten. Everything in the room seemed to share in one collective breath, and just like that, I evanesced from the world.
—X—
It seemed hours had passed before I began to feel myself materialize once again. When I finally opened my eyes, the clock read 3:06. I then remembered the presence of the girl sitting next to me, still locked in meditation.
"Hey, kid, it's late, time to go." Her silent demeanor was unaffected by my words. "Lenalee, it's three in the morning. I said you had twenty minutes, remember?" Again there was no response. "Don't act like you can't hear me!" I grabbed her roughly by the shoulder and shook her, causing her body to tip over, her head colliding with my shoulder. Great, she fell asleep. Now what was I supposed to do? I exhaled deeply, "Fine, I'll deal with you in the morning." Grabbing the pillow from my bed, I carefully moved out from under her, placing it where I had previously been sitting and laying her down to rest against it. I stood up slowly and, realizing the feeling in my legs was gone, began to stretch. I started to shiver, noticing the temperature in my room seemed to have gone down several degrees. I could hear Lenalee's teeth chattering as she slept beside me. Knowing this would likely keep me up for the remainder of the night, I walked to my closet to find an extra blanket and draped it over her small, shivering frame as her chattering slowly faded into silence. Stepping around her, I peeled back the comforter and flopped down on my bed, asleep before my head hit the mattress.
—X—
My eyes slowly opened, blinking against the sunlight that assaulted me through my window. I began to absentmindedly rub the back of my neck. Where was my pillow? Remembering my visitor, I sat up to find my floor completely bare, the blanket and pillow I had lent the girl arranged neatly at the foot of my bed. I shrugged, throwing back the covers and placing both feet on the ground. Through the wall I could hear the sound of something scraping against the floor. Finding my door already open, I walked across the room to see Lenalee, just outside the door, scrubbing away the tea stains made the previous night.
"You know, there wouldn't be stains if you had cleaned it last night," I mumbled, groggily.
She jumped, startled by my sudden appearance, "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to fall asleep. Thank you for letting me stay the night."
I grunted in response.
Lenalee looked up at me, "To be honest… the reason I came to you last night was because… well, I knew that no one wanted to mess with you. So, I thought that—"
"You thought I could scare away Leverrier." This wasn't news to me. There was no other logical explanation as to why she would choose to come to me.
She froze, coloring slightly, "Well… I did think you were really scary."
I rolled my eyes.
"But, I was wrong." She smiled, "You're not scary at all. In fact, I'm sure that you're really a nice person, otherwise you wouldn't have let me stay with you."
"Whatever."
She giggled, dropping her sponge into a bucket of water and rising from the floor. "And thank you for teaching me how to meditate."
So she did actually manage to meditate before falling asleep. "Don't mention it. Turns out you weren't such a bad meditation partner."
"Maybe we could do it again sometime…" she looked at the floor.
"Bring green tea next time. The stuff you brought last night seemed more appetizing when it was on the floor."
She looked back up at me with a smile so bright, I had to look away, fearing I might actually go blind. "Noted," she laughed as she threw her arms around me. I tensed, waiting for her to release me. When she finally did, I glared down at her, but she simply giggled in response before picking up her bucket and running down the hall calling, "See you, Kanda!"
"Tch." I walked back inside my room, closing the door behind me.
So, she was no longer afraid of me…
This could be dangerous.
*-nee: Japanese honorific meaning "older sister." It can also be used when referring to an older female friend. (Lenalee thought Kanda was a girl)
So, I took the title, "Scarecrow," from a line in "Bleeding Out" by Imagine Dragons, which was what inspired me to write this story. However, now that I look back on it, the only part of the song that actually pertains to this story is the verse I took the title from… but, whatever!
Writing Kanda is AMAZING! I might just have to do it again…
Anyways, I hope you enjoyed reading this as much as I enjoyed writing it! Thanks for your support!