Happy Birthday, Merry Christmas, to the sprout.
A Yullen fanfiction, for x3HAYden, who lives through all the crap I give her and nags at me to hurry up when I feel lazy. Happy birthday :D
Allen: I walked down the school corridor, talking to Lavi and Lenalee as we always did. They were the only two in class 3E who did not assume that I was a gangster out to get my classmates to join my gang. Honestly, I had not bleached my hair white, and I did not have a tattoo on my face. Then again, I sometimes felt that the two of them accepted me because they too were ousted because of their different hair colours. Lavi was a redhead and had green eyes, while Lenalee had dark green hair that bordered on black. Their hair had been inherited from their parents and thus set them apart from the rest of the school.
I knew that in class 3S, there was another student who had long dark blue hair. He had been acquainted with Lavi in the past, and in the middle of their chat some hooligan had tried to punch the living daylights out of him. The student had effortlessly knocked the hooligan unconscious by throwing him into the wall. If my memory did not fail, his name was Candle You.
Wait, Candle?!
"Hey, Lavi, what's that tall You-guy's name again?"
Lavi looked at me in confusion. "You-guy?"
Lenalee saved the day when she chipped in with, "I think you mean Kanda Yu."
"Ah, yes, him!"
So his name was Kanda. And here he came walking towards us. Lavi brightened up immediately. "Speak of the devil, Allen! Hey, Yu! Over here!"
Almost every face in the corridor turned to look at us, while Kanda strode over to us in a few strides, grabbing Lavi by the collar as he did so. "Stupid rabbit, what did I tell you about calling me by my first name?!"
Did I mention that Kanda was a PMS-ing bitc-guy?
"Come on, Y-Kanda! I'm hungry, let's go and eat!" Lavi was either immune to the murderous aura emanating from the taller man, or he was just very clever in hiding his fear. But Kanda's attention had turned elsewhere.
"Rabbit, who is this white-haired-punk?"
Lavi looked at me. "Oh, that's Allen. He did not, unlike popular belief, bleach his hair, is not a punk, does not have a tattoo on his face and I am hungry. And he has TB."
"LAVI!"
"Oh, shit." Lavi swore.
It was true. I had developed tuberculosis when I was eight, and was from then on subjected to painful coughs that usually involved blood, and to quarterly check-ups at the hospital. I never told people that this was why my hair was white, because I couldn't stand their pitying looks and behaviour. Instead, I told them that it was because my biological parents had died and I had cried so much that my hair turned white. In a way, it was true. I had sat by their graves that cold winter day, begging me to take me with them. When I woke up, I was in the hospital.
And now Lavi had just told this Kanda guy. I braced myself for the pitying words, until I saw that he was just standing there, not doing anything. Then he snorted. "Are you people going to eat?"
Just like that, relief washed over me like a tidal wave.
-
Christmas was coming in a fortnight. I dreaded it but at the same time looked forward to it. I looked forward to the gifts, but the time around Christmas was the coldest and the most dangerous for tuberculosis patients like me.
Five days before Christmas, I was out shopping for presents with Kanda, Lavi and Lenalee. The temperature was 5 degrees, but I headed out anyway. My illness had not acted up for a while and I had taken all the necessary precautions. I had even put on a mask. Kanda had become a constant addition to our small group, and although he was still as PMS-y as he had been before, he had saved our necks a number of times. I was smiling at the memory of him boxing Jasdevi into a pulp because the latter had tried to ask Lenalee out on a date, when a gust blew in our direction. My face paled. The temperature must have dropped to a negative three, it was so cold. My last memory was coughing into my mask non-stop, Lenalee looking at me in worry and panic and my bundles of presents falling to the ground.
-
Lenalee: Christmas Eve had arrived but Allen was still not awake. The doctors had told us that we could only pray for him, they'd done everything possible. The presents for him had piled up by the side of his bed, but the room was silent, broken by the beeping of the machines and my breathing.
I was looking at Allen's face when the door opened. It was Lavi. He nodded slightly when he saw me, and leaned against the white walls wearily. "Lenalee, how long have you been here?"
"Five hours." My voice was raspy - I had not drunk any water since I came.
"You should get some sleep."
I knew that I should, but I didn't want to. Not with Allen in this state.
I shook my head, and Lavi did not object. The two of us looked at Allen in silence.
-
Kanda: Christmas Day dawned bright and clear, and at seven, I headed over to the moyashi's hospital room. I knew that Lenalee and the rabbit had been there since yesterday, but I had not wanted to visit him and see him lying unconscious there, so vunerable to everything around him.
I knocked on the door and went in. The rabbit and Lenalee were sleeping - Lenalee was sitting on the visitor's chair, Lavi was sprawled on the floor. I dumped my presents on top of the pile, before standing up and looking around.
The moyashi was lying on the bed as if he was just sleeping. He could sleep anywhere if he wanted to.
I crossed Lavi's sleeping form and settled myself on the carpeted floor. "Che, Christmas like this."
Lavi and Lenalee woke up almost immediately, rubbing the sleep from their eyes. "Yu? What are you doing here?"
I blatantly ignored his use of my name. "Visiting the sprout, of course. What else would I be doing? It is his birthday."
"Hm. Did you bring presents for me?"
I rolled my eyes and pointed at the presents. "The two right on top. Your names are on it."
The room filled with the sound of wrapping paper being teared away excitedly. And suddenly, "You guys just couldn't wait for me?"
All eyes turned to the bed. The moyashi was sitting up, and a smile crossed his face.
"Allen! How do you feel?!"
"Tired. But I want my presents first."
-
Allen: I was surprised when I saw Kanda in the hospital room, and with presents nonetheless. Lavi, Lenalee and Kanda put all the presents on the bed, and while I was opening them, I noticed that Lavi had put his hand over Lenalee's. Looking at him in suspicion, I heard him say, "See, Lenalee? I told you that he would wake up because he was hungry!"
It was true in a way. My stomach growled. Kanda smirked and pulled his present to me towards him. Unwrapping it, he threw a card in my direction and produced a bowl of instant soba noodles. I nodded.
I read the card. "Happy Birthday, Merry Christmas, sprout."
"Thanks, Kanda."
He grunted from where he was pouring the hot water into the instant noodles, and nodded in Lavi and Lenalee's direction. They were kissing each other full on the lips, oblivious to the other two of us in the room.
When they broke apart, they were both as red as Lavi's hair, but smiling and happy.
"Thanks, guys."
-
Lavi: December 28th was uneventful, until Allen suddenly coughed out a lot of blood in the middle of our conversation. Lenalee immediately called the doctors and nurses and we were ushered out of the room.
-
Lenalee: On December 29, the doctors came to tell us that Allen had been put on life support as his condition had worsened over the night, and since he had no known relatives, would we be so kind as to decide whether to keep him on it?
It was no surprise when Kanda broke in, saying, "Take him off it. But let us go in and see him."
Everybody had seen the way Kanda became kinder around Allen, and I knew that this was going to be a big blow to him.
-
Kanda: The doctors agreed to our request to let us in one by one to see the sprout. I went in first, since I had asked for it.
When I went in, everything I had planned to say went down the drain. He was struggling to breathe and his skin was death pale.
I sat down on the visitor's chair. In the few months I'd known this guy, this idiot of a beansprout, he had changed me. And I liked this change.
"...you idiot, never waiting for us...Lenalee's gonna cry so damn much...Rabbit will be lost and stare blankly into space...what can I do?...damn it moyashi, you better wait for us...don't forget."
And before I knew what I was doing, I had tears down my cheeks, had kissed his forehead and was out of the room.
-
Lavi: That night they took him off life support, and we went him to see him for the last time. He looked peaceful.
-
Lenalee: "At least he went peacefully," Lavi muttered.
We all nodded.
-
Okay, angstyangsty shit, but yeah. Happy birthday to x3HAYden, you old Ulquipok.