Hitomi: Hello again! *SHOT* XD Yes, I know, this is another DGM story! Actually, this was originally going to be a one-shot, but… Due to how the direction of the story was going a little differently from what I intended it to be, it'll be a two-shot or three-shot (meaning two or three chapters in this). I may increase the chapter count in case the story's a little longer than it's supposed to be, though, but not too long. I intend for this to be… Five chapters, at the most. It may not be as long as Unravel or Ice Flare, but I'll enjoy this while this lasts.
Just so you know, this takes place in the modern times AKA the same timeline as Ice Flare. However, this is different from Ice Flare since there is definitely no Innocence involved this time (as well as the Earl, Noah, Exorcists, etc.). It's like an ordinary life kind of deal. If you don't like it, well, you can turn back, you know. I'm not stopping you.
^^ This is for my friend and supporter, Annie (AKA Broken Glass Dolls here on fanfiction), whose birthday has passed recently. I wanted to write something for her and… Well, she asked for an AU fanfic concerning Lavi and Rue, so~ I give her this! Happy birthday, Annie, and thank you for always supporting me!
Disclaimer: I do not own D . Gray-Man, Hoshinou Katsura-sensei does. The only thing(s) I do own in here would be my OC(s).
Operation Social Butterfly
Mission 1
Of Dares and Bets
「Are you sure this is what you want?
Once the game starts, you can't go back.
Here we go again, let the craziness begin!」
"Let me get this straight… You're going to do what, exactly?"
"I already told you, didn't I? For the millionth time, I'm going to get her to go outside of her little bubble and be a bit more sociable!"
"…Seriously? Of all of the crazy schemes you came up with for as long as I've known you, Lavi, this one is Mission Impossible! There's no way you can pull this off!"
"Oh, come on~ It can't be that bad! You make it sound like it's the end of the world, Beansprout."
"It's Allen, damn it! And I daresay it is the end of the world because we're not talking about an ordinary girl here!"
Autumn was in the air, what with the chilly winds blowing in Manhattan and many people in the city wearing comfortable clothes for warmth. It was a cold day but with clear, sunny skies and a beautiful sight to see a flurry of colorful leaves drifting down to the city grounds.
Near New York University and Cooper Union College was Black Order Academy, a prestigious ladder school (going from elementary to college). The main academy was in England and the European branch, but it had its other branches worldwide. The North American branch of Black Order Academy was chosen to be built in New York.
In Black Order Academy's high school dorms was where the earlier conversation took place. In one of the dorms resided three occupants, two of them were relaxing themselves in the dorm's living room. One of them was an eighteen-year-old redhead with an eye patch over his right eye, his exposed, left green eye glinting with mischief. He was grinning deviously, holding a coffee mug in his hands.
The other person was a fifteen-year-old who, shockingly, had white hair at his age. Gray eyes (the left one having an odd scar on it) looked at the older male with wide disbelief, having paused in mid bite from his mitarashii dango (which came from the giant food pile on the living room table) when hearing his plan.
"Seriously, Allen." Lavi Bookman Jr. was grinning widely at the younger boy, relishing his coffee with each sip, especially with the cold weather coming in. "You're exaggerating again. What's so bad about getting her to socialize?"
"I'm not saying it's bad for her to socialize!" Allen Walker argued back, now proceeding to dig into his food pile (of course, not before finishing his dango) and wolfing down a long and enormous hero sandwich and a slice of blueberry pie. "It's the fact you're going to risk your neck to get her to socialize! I mean, COME ON, we're talking about her here! Are you out of your mind? You already know how she is and you're nuts for going through this idea, you idiot!"
"Well, I wouldn't argue with that." He shrugged, finishing his coffee and helping himself to Allen's food pile to get a plate of spaghetti. Taking a fork and eating the pasta, his expression didn't change; in fact, he was grinning ear to ear because of his friend's reaction. "Crazy has always been my middle name, you know."
With an exasperated groan, the Brit banged his head on the table, shoulders slumped in defeat. It was impossible for him to convince his close friend to get out of an insane plan once it popped into his mind and stayed there.
"You're not even listening to me, are you? No, that's what I thought. Geez… What am I going to do with you? I give up…"
"Che, you should already know the stupid rabbit's very stubborn, and stupidly so, when it comes to these things, Beansprout."
At the mention of his hated nickname, Allen jolted up from the table at once and snapped irritably at the masculine voice coming from the kitchen, "It's Allen, BaKanda!"
The sound of a chair being pushed away could be heard as a deadly aura suddenly made the room temperature drop. Storming into the living room was another eighteen-year-old male holding up a plate of soba, his long black-blue hair in a ponytail whipping behind him with his strides. Black eyes glared frostily at the younger boy, a sign that he was irritated as well.
"Don't call me that, you Beansprout." Kanda Yuu growled threateningly, now flicking his dangerous glare towards Lavi, who seemed to be unfazed by the whole thing. Meanwhile, Allen was making another complaint concerning being called Beansprout, but it was promptly ignored. "And you, stupid rabbit! What did I tell you about teaching the Beansprout Japanese?"
"Well, you have to admit it IS a hilarious pun on your name, Yuu!" Being an academic genius, the bookworm couldn't pass up the opportunity to teach Allen a bit of Kanda's foreign language as if to fuel their rivalry further. And Allen couldn't help but agree with Lavi's statement, trying not to snicker about it.
In Kanda's other hand was an unsheathed sword and, with a flick of his wrist, the pointy tip came dangerously close to Lavi's nose. Laughing nervously, the other boy backed away from the blade and held up a rather large chicken leg (courtesy of Allen's food pile) in front of himself as a line of defense. Not like it would do any good, really. It was a blade, for God's sakes!
"That's Strike 2, rabbit, for calling me by that name!" Kanda snarled, quite tempted to slash Lavi into ribbons.
"Ehehe… Now, now…" This was always a routine between Kanda and Lavi, so it was considered normal. Although Allen and their other friends couldn't help but think that Lavi would be dead one of these days if he tested his teasing to Kanda's limits. "Put Mugen away. You know I'm allergic to sharp and pointy objects."
"Whatever." With an annoyed click of the tongue and an eye roll, the Japanese male put his sword back in its sheath. "And while you're at it, you might want to consider the Beansprout's advice on your plan."
"…Were you, by any chance, eavesdropping on the conversation, Yuu?" Fear disappeared into a wide grin that plastered on Lavi's face, though he still kept his guard up with the giant chicken leg if his samurai friend decided to take a strike at him again. Allen, having heard this, was snorting.
"Che, it's none of my business. No, I don't care and, no, I didn't eavesdrop. You two were just making a lot of noise about it. I just happened to be within hearing range, being in the kitchen and all." Kanda deadpanned bluntly, deciding to sit on the couch and resumed eating his soba.
"With an answer like that, it sounds like you care about her, though!"
Mugen came out again in a flash, aiming to claim Lavi as its victim once more.
"I do not." Kanda hissed angrily, giving him a dark look, Mugen poised to slit his throat at any given moment. Such a thought was absurd to him. Kanda, caring about that girl? As if! And he didn't care what Tiedoll, Marie, and Daisya thought about it, there was no way he cared about her at all. The day he does was the day he would rather eat something other than soba and that was saying a lot. "What do I care about the shorty? She can take of herself and you know that too."
"Yeah, but you did step in for her a few times when other students, always male, would try to pick a fight with her." Lavi pointed out teasingly, earning himself another death glare. "What? It's true!"
"I didn't do it for her." He countered brusquely, an incredulous snort following while he brushed this off. "It's just that one versus many is unfair and they're all cowards for teaming up against her instead of going one-on-one. And no matter how you look at it, she may act and look like a boy but there's no changing the fact that she's still a girl. Besides, I'm the only one who's allowed to roughhouse with her since we're rivals. In any case, I'm clarifying for the last time that I don't care about h—"
"Anyway!" Allen interrupted immediately before letting the modern samurai really consider on hacking the historian nut into pieces. Both older males turned to the boy, apparently having forgotten for a moment that he was still there with them. Having finally gotten their attention, Allen was currently munching his way through a bag of chips. "Back to the topic at hand! I'm telling you, Lavi! If you try to get Rue to go out, it's going to end in disaster for you!"
"Again, stupid rabbit, take Beansprout's advice." For once, Allen took no offense to Kanda's nickname for him since the two were in a momentary truce of agreement. "The shorty will most likely kick your ass if you try to change her, so don't come crying to me when it happens because I've already warned you."
"H-Hey!" Lavi sputtered, somewhat offended as he gave them a look of hurt. "What happened to one versus many being unfair and cowardly, Kanda! Hypocrite, you two are against me!"
"That's because we're trying to save your ass before it gets handed to you on a silver platter. This is for your own good. But, all right, it's your funeral and, Hell no, I am not burying you."
"You know…" Allen began quietly, spooning his way through a giant ice cream sundae as a rather uncharacteristic gleam twinkled in his eyes. Seeing that look, the two went wary, bracing themselves mentally on what he was going to say next. "Let's… Make a wager, just to make things interesting."
At this proposition, Kanda's eyebrows rose slightly while Lavi had his mouth agape with shock. Seeing these reactions, the boy continued on, already feeling gleeful.
"To be blunt, I want to make a bet. Whoever loses here has to do anything the winner says. And I mean anything." An angelic smile showed itself on Allen's face; the older teens knew better for they discovered the hard way that Allen had a dark side when it came to gambling. "What are we betting on? Obviously, Lavi getting Rue to be a bit more sociable. Whether she comes out of her own world or not… And even if that's successful, there's the fact she needs to enjoy herself being with Lavi when hanging out with him alone… All of these endless possibilities apply here and it'll make or break the outcome of the bet. There's no time limit here, this is as long as Lavi can or can't make Rue step out; though, I doubt this is going to last long. So, guys… Are you taking it or not?"
Rummaging into his jean pocket, Allen took out a $20 bill and slapped it down on the table, making Lavi jerk in surprise. Kanda took it calmly, though he seemed to be a bit lost in thought about this.
"I bet this much that Lavi won't succeed with this one! He may have academic success and his plans and pranks not failing most of the time, but the winning streak ends here with the impossible!"'
Intrigued by the proposal, though he showed no expression, Kanda smacked down a $20 bill of his own.
"Che, I'm betting that too." A tiny smirk formed on Kanda's face before it disappeared into its usual frown. His dark eyes lingered on Lavi, silently challenging him to man up and take the risk. "There's no way the rabbit will win. The shorty's quite stubborn on a lot of things, especially when it comes to socializing with the majority. Well, rabbit, are you in or out?"
"So, it's come to this, eh, boys?" With that being said, a third $20 made its way to the table as Lavi smiled like the Cheshire cat to his friends. "Bring it on. When Rue lightens up around me, you two are going to be eating out of the palm of my hand!"
"Tch, not a chance in Hell, rabbit. I never lose."
"We'll see about that when you buy me lunch for a month, Lavi!"
Hitomi: And so… XD This is what happens when the story goes a little differently than what I intended. Originally, Allen and, unwillingly, Kanda, were supposed to help Lavi with Rue. And Lenalee's involved too (not showing up until the next chapter, though), so we'll see how that goes!
XD Knowing Rue, she won't take this well. No, she won't, ahaha! *has a lot of plans in mind* Especially when her younger sister, Claire, and Lenalee are involved in this? Oh dear…