"Kotone-chan~"
"Go away, Kouma," The figure in the garden said sternly as she went through her practiced tai chi movements with her eyes peacefully closed, trying to return to her meditative state the Supervisor had broken. She didn't need to see him to know it was him.
"Why are you so mean to me all the time?" Komui whined at the girl's cold attitude.
Suzuki's eyebrows knitted together with slight irritation at not being left alone as requested. "You always call me by my first name, you always interrupt me when I'm trying to relax; why would I not be mean to someone who is constantly a thorn in my side?"
A broken expression was pulled over his face, "I thought you liked it when I bothered you."
"So you admit you bother me," she pointed out, giving up on her attempt at peace. She turned to the overly eccentric man and crossed her arms after pulling her bleached hair out of its hold. "What do you want?"
"Oh," he snapped back into his (somewhat) professional persona. He shifted his glasses on the bridge of his nose with a smile, "The teams looking for Cross and Tiedoll are back."
"The hell does that have to do with me?" She glared and picked up her shoes before making her way back into the castle.
To her great displeasure, Komui followed. "Well, we're going to have a welcome home party tonight to celebrate all our exorcists returning. You're going to attend, right?"
Emerald eyes rolled in their sockets, "Why even ask? If I refuse you're just going to do something stupid to make me come anyway."
"True," the man grinned, "So I'll make sure Jerry has a cheesecake for you…"
Just as he expected, the girl stopped and turned her head just enough to see him out of the corner of her eye. After a moment she shyly asked, "With strawberries on top?"
"Of course," Komui one: Suzuki zero.
She turned and huffed as she continued to walk, "Fine, I'll come."
The man had to smile at the girl as they went their separate ways. She put up a tough front, at times she even seemed to take on a likeness to Kanda's personality. She was a scary one when she wanted to be, but in truth, she was a very positive person; mischievous as hell, but usually a nice girl. At times she even seemed child-like, like in the face of sweets. But despite only having seventeen years under her belt, she was far more mature than most her age.
Suzuki Kotone was truly one of a kind.
Her innocence was an odd one as well though nothing to laugh at. Taking the dormant form of two long black fingerless gloves enveloping her forearms and hands, when activated, the left became a long sturdy bow while the right shortened in length a great deal and generated an infinite supply of arrows. Yes, she was an interesting one.
Begrudgingly, Suzuki made her way out of her room and down to the cafeteria where the 'celebration' was soon to begin. 'This is just a bunch of bull to get out of working, that lazy-ass, Kouma,' she thought to herself. In all reality she wasn't as unwilling to attend as she appeared. She was happy that her friends were home. She had missed them. She just wasn't happy about being blackmailed into attending. 'If you can call it that…' She also knew that a confrontation was bound to happen because of one specific man.
No, not Cross Marian, though he was quite high on her 'People to Beat the Shit Out Of' list. No, this time it was her number one. The person at the top of the list right before Komui: Kanda Yuu; the biggest ass of all time. He never could seem to keep from pissing her off in the worst way when they were around each other. In turn she'd spout off some insult and disappear for the next few hours doing God knows what or end up throwing something at him and…disappear. That was a habit of hers.
She wasn't afraid of him; that was the last thing she was where he was concerned. Her vanishing acts would usually be to force herself to cool off before she hurt someone who didn't deserve it. That man fuelled a fire of rage in her like no other.
Walking into the cafeteria, she was immediately swept up into a bone crushing hug. After being set back on her feet she fell to her knees coughing and gasping as air filled her lungs again.
"Whoa," The person muttered before kneeling down beside her with a wary smile on his face. "Sorry, Kotone-chan, I didn't think I hugged you that tight."
After another moment of catching her breath, the girl put her hand up to the man's face and shoved him to the floor as she stood and dusted off her brightly colored hoop skirt. "Do that again, and you'll be missing more than a limb, Lavi."
"Aw, c'mon, Kotone-chan," The red head whined as he stood up and held his arms open to her, "Can't I have a do over?" It was no secret that the lad had been trying to woo the girl since he met her. Her bleached locks contrasted drastically to her tanned skin and the emerald orbs in her head seemed to capture the eye. Then there was her 'perfect dancer's body' as Lavi often commented on. She was well built, that was evident; strong arms, stronger legs, and a waist that would make other girls cry. She wasn't one to show excessive skin, but that didn't mean she didn't flaunt her physique. Her typical attire when relaxing was a black spaghetti strap tank top and a colorful hoop skirt often with a sash tied loosely around her hips.
She stared blankly at him for a moment saying, "Fine." To his surprise she took a step towards him only to change directions a second before he had his arms around her. Holding empty air, he curiously turned and saw her with her arms around Allen's neck giving him a cheeky smirk. "You didn't really think I'd hug you after you try to break my ribs, did you?"
"You hugged Allen!" He cried. "Why would you hug him and not me?"
"Because Allen doesn't try and snap someone in half when he hugs them," she pointed out gave said boy a squeeze before releasing him.
"You really should be more careful about that," the cursed boy sighed. "Remember what happened when you hugged Lenalee?"
The three of them flashed back to that day when Komui nearly beat the life out of him for touching his precious sister, let alone squeezing all the air out of her lungs. The redhead shuddered at the memory. "Right, no more hugging," He nodded. He turned back to Suzuki with a serious face, "But I can substitute that for a kiss, right?"
The girl grabbed his headband and snapped it against his forehead in response, leaving him groping at his sore noggin. A hand nudged her arm and, glancing down; she saw a red hand holding a glass of tea out to her. "Thank you, Allen," she smiled and took the glass he offered to her.
He nodded and glanced out into the crowd of people dancing. "Are you going to dance tonight, Suzuki?"
"Hm?" She thought about that then deadpanned, "If I don't, Kouma will never shut up about it and neither with Lavi."
"I've been curious about something," the white haired boy began. "Ever since I first came here, you've been calling Komui 'Kouma'. Why?"
"Do you know what 'Kouma' means?"
"No-"
"It's Japanese for 'pony'," she sighed. "The moron prances around here like a child to do anything but work. When it comes to that, he disappears faster than you can blink."
"Oh, I thought you just didn't know his name," Lavi laughed before his headband was snapped once again. "Ow, what'd I do now?"
"You implied that I was stupid enough to not know his name," she glared at the boy before setting her glass down and, inwardly groaning in displeasure, made her way over to the second bane of her existence. Without letting him get a word out, she told Komui the song to play and turned to make her way to the middle of the dance floor. Those around her merged back into the crowd knowing full well what she was about to do.
Kanda walked into the cafeteria with his typical scowl in place. He hated these things. His plan was to stay just barely long enough to satisfy Komui then leave as usual. The odd thing was the room was quiet when he walked in and he quickly narrowed in on the reason why. That irritation, Suzuki, stood in the middle of the room and everyone was silently watching her. Why, he didn't know. She was just standing there, eyes closed, doing nothing.
Then the music began.
Kanda was not fond of Suzuki; that was as obvious to everyone around him as his distaste for Allen. He took every shot he could to get under her skin. He even managed to make her so angry sometimes that she'd launch something at him in utter fury before storming off to become completely nonexistent for hours at a time. He took a silent joy in that solace.
But when she began to move to the sound that filled the room, he became enchanted. She often danced in front of people; it was a trade of hers before she became an accommodator for the innocence, but having never stayed long enough at such celebrations, Kanda had never gotten to see her perform.
He was enraptured; not only by her movements, but by her expression as well. It was as if she had abandoned everything around her and devoted herself completely to the song. He found her attractive in that moment. Most of all, he was attracted to her face. As her body melted to the music, she seemed to have a look of lust about her, as though if it were possible, she would dance for the rest of her life and never wished for the moment to end. And in her eyes was longing, for what he couldn't fathom. Though her eyes were open she was not seeing, that much he could tell. She was looking through everything, lost in another world. But in that moment, while she danced, she was perfection.
As the song ended and silence filled the dining hall once again, her eyes came back to the present. Directly in her line of vision was a seemingly stunned Kanda Yuu just inside the archway staring at her transfixed.
Black and emerald locked together and only broke apart with the eruption of applause. Suzuki stood straight again and smiled at her audience. She chanced a glance back at the dark haired man to see if he was still watching her. He was, though his usual scowl was back in place. 'Figures.' Ignoring him, she turned and took a place beside Lenalee who engaged her in some manner of conversation about the exorcist uniforms.
"Kanda!" Lavi called, much too close for Suzuki's liking; they were right behind her. "That was the first time you've seen Kotone-chan dance, wasn't it?"
'Oh great,' the dark girl inwardly groaned. 'Confrontation. Why does it always have to be me?'
"What's your point, Usagi?" The aggravated teen sighed. Now he'd never get away from the 'party'. Lavi would keep him there all night.
"Well? What'd you think? Incredible, right?"
'This is pay back for not hugging you, isn't it?' Suzuki asked though the redhead wouldn't answer.
She expected a scoff or something from the Japanese man. No, what he said was much worse than that. "Amateurish at best. I've seen better performances on the streets."
His words struck her harder than anything she had ever experienced in battle. Blood became fire in her veins. She spun around and launched her glass at his head, to which he just narrowly dodged. It shattered on the wall behind him, effectively catching the attention of everyone in the room. Never had she been so livid in all her life. She wasn't one to go and spout how amazing her skill was, but she knew she never gave any performance below enthralling. Her very being went into every show she gave, it was what she lived for.
Suzuki, shaking with such tangible anger, managed to barely reign in her control enough to turn and make her way to the library before she succumbed to her desire to mutilate the teen beyond recognition. Once there she let out her rage in one long yell as loud as she could manage.
Emptied of anger, she collapsed into a chair. She curled into a ball and buried her face in her arms; the only thing left in her was a horrible hurt that spread through her chest like an infection. Her dancing was everything to her. For the longest time it had been the only thing that kept food in her stomach and a roof over her head. Where people had failed her in life, dancing came through and provided for her what others couldn't.
Those words stung like nothing he had ever said to her before. Never had anything he said ever hit her in the heart. He was truly a demon.
A shudder ran through her body as she sat there, realizing only then just how cold it was in the library. She shifted to wrap her arms around her self, hearing an odd rustling of cloth in doing so. Looking behind her, she saw someone's abandoned exorcist jacket lying on the back of her chair. Looking it over, it looked much like Allen's. 'I don't think he'd mind,' she thought as she pulled the jacket on, feeling much warmer with her arms covered. She settled back in her chair and resumed her moping.
Being chewed out by Lenalee was never a fun experience; even Kanda avoided it as often as possible. Apparently he had gone one insult too far this time. He never cared enough to learn about the girl's past, how was he suppose to know performing was the only thing that kept her alive most of her life? It wasn't like he cared anyway. He wanted to provoke her and he succeeded; it actually worked better than anything else he had said at that. Given that it was a lie, he'd never admit just how spellbound he was by her.
Brushing off Lenalee's reprimanding, he figured he'd spent enough time to satisfy Komui and took his leave. He leisurely made his way back to the library where he had been before the celebration had started. He had enough of this day. He planned to go grab his jacket from where he had left it and go to sleep.
He walked into the room and stopped. 'Is that…singing? Who else is here? Isn't everyone else at…the party…Shit.' It didn't take long to figure out who was in there with him. He wasn't afraid of her; the only issue was that there was a lot more around for her to throw at him. That would be an irritation.
He walked up to the chair his jacket had been on to find it missing and the chair it had been draped over occupied. Glancing down at her, his eye twitched at what he saw. "Why the hell are you wearing my jacket?" He growled.
Suzuki looked up to see the person she most wanted to leave her alone at the moment glaring at her. "It was cold," she said as if it were an obvious thing.
"Take it off." He demanded.
"No," she sighed and set her chin on her arms again. "You can either go get my jacket from my room and bring it to me or wait until I decide to leave to come back and get it. I'm not moving."
Kanda's glare grew even more hateful. "I'm not leaving until you hand it over."
"Then your not leaving until I do," she breathed. She wasn't putting any effort into her argument. She wasn't in any mood to, not now that depression had its grip on her. To her surprise, the hateful teen stayed true to his word. He threw himself down on the chair to her right and settled his feet on top of the coffee table in front of them, glaring at her all the while.
After a few moments of somber silence, Suzuki shyly asked, "Why did you say that?"
"What does it matter?" he spouted as he closed his angry eyes and crossed his arms.
"A lot to me," she muttered and looked out the window at the setting sun and the changing colors of the sky. "Did you really think it was bad?"
No response. She sighed. It wasn't that he wasn't going to answer, it was more that he was mulling over what he was going to say. Obviously he had broken her down more than he intended to, he could spare one kind word at least, couldn't he? "No."
Suzuki's head rose in surprise, "What?"
"I didn't think it was bad," He repeated, his eyebrows knitting together with irritation at having to repeat himself.
"Really?" Now she was confused. "What did you think then?"
"You actually care what my opinion is?" That was odd. He figured his opinion would be her least favorable.
"Yes," she laughed, wasn't it obvious?
"It was…" What should he say here? He had to choose his words carefully. "…nice."
"So you liked it," she smiled. So he just said that as a stab at her. But she was wrong. Kanda had fallen in love with her dancing and if it weren't for his pride, he would ask her to dance for him; only him. It was something he wanted for himself, for his eyes only. But Kanda Yuu would never ask for something like that from someone he spent any chance he got tormenting.
"You know, you're actually pleasant to be around when you're not being an ass," Suzuki mused with a hint of surprise in her voice, as if she couldn't believe what she was saying. But it was true. She was actually having a nice conversation with someone she hated.
"Don't get used to it," he sneered, but it was forced. Why did he suddenly feel exhausted?
She only smiled as though she knew he was trying to stay distant. "Don't you ever get tired of being mean? I know I am." She sighed.
It was silent again. Kanda mulled over her words. That's exactly what that feeling is. He was tired of making the effort to push her away from him. He was tired of insulting her and pissing her off. He was just tired of the whole 'relationship' he had built between them.
"My favorite color is blue," she said, suddenly breaking the silence.
"So what?"
"What's yours?"
"Who cares?"
"I do," she replied and snuggled into his jacket more as a shiver ran down her spine. "I'm trying to get to know you to see if your actually human under that 'kiss-my-ass' façade."
He sighed, "Fine, red."
'…blood?' "Hmm…I'd ask what your favorite food is but you'd say 'soba'," she tapped her chin, thinking of another question when he raised an eyebrow at her statement. "Anytime I see you in the dining hall your eating soba."
"And you always eat tamago toji udon," he pointed out, "Don't act like you're any different from me when it comes to food."
"Okay, okay," she grinned, "We both have a sucky diet. Ah!" Suzuki jumped up only to slump in her seat again, "Because of you I didn't even get to have a piece of the cheesecake Jerry made for me." Kanda's mouth made the smallest of twitches in disgust but it was enough for Suzuki to notice. "So sue me if I like sweets."
"I might," he muttered. He saw the girls jaw almost come unhinged. "What?"
"You…you're making a joke…" She was in utter disbelief. "You're joking with me."
He rolled his eyes at her. The two continued to talk through out the night. She eventually even divulged the full story of why dancing was so precious to her. It had taken a lot of courage to tell her once greatest enemy that her parents had abandoned her at a young age and so she had to do what ever she could to get food. She respected his privacy when he pointedly told her he wasn't going to tell her about his past, and for that he grew some sort of respect for her. They even managed to laugh together and didn't stop talking till nearly four in the morning and that was only when they had fallen asleep.
"I'm telling you, they probably killed each other," Lavi said as he followed Allen into the library. "They're not going to be in here."
"Not both of them, but one of them might be," Allen replied as he began looking down the isles of bookshelves. "Think about it, no one's been able to find either of them all day and they weren't given any missions. This is the last place they could be."
"A…A-Allen…" Lavi tugged on the fair haired boy's hood and pointed a shaky finger in front of him. Allen's jaw dropped at the sight. Suzuki Kotone and Kanda Yuu were sleeping peacefully in each other's presence. "WHAT THE HELL?"
Both Japanese teens jumped at the sound and tiredly turned towards the source of the noise. Together they said, "Shut up, Usagi," further shocking the two displeasing people that had happened upon their sleeping forms.
"K-K-Kotone-chan! Why are you wearing Yuu-kun's jacket?" The redhead barked again.
"It was cold- what do you want?" The girl growled. She didn't enjoy being woken up only five hours after falling asleep. She needed at least six hours of sleep before she was even remotely functional.
"No one could find you two…" Allen started then decided a question he had was more important than the explanation. "Why are you two sleeping in here, together?"
Suzuki rubbed her eyes groggily; "We must have drifted off when we were talking…" she let out a yawn before resting her head on her arms again. "Go away now."
"Get up," Kanda said, tapping her in the head.
"I don't wanna," she whined.
He sighed, "At least go to your room if you're going to keep sleeping." He didn't sound nearly as forceful as he intended but he didn't have the energy to really try either.
The girl lazily lifted her arms in the air and mumbled, "Carry me."
He stared at her for a long moment before heaving a sigh and picking her up. She wrapped her arms loosely around his neck as he lifted her off the chair. As he turned towards the exit, two gaping morons stood in his way. "What?" Their mouths only flopped open and closed, unable to form a coherent sentence. "Move," He glared and the two shuffled out of his way with still unhinged jaws.
Kanda made note of the number of other faces that he passed in the hall that had the same reaction to the sight. He rolled his eyes and continued up the stairs. A thought occurred to him as he walked: where was her room? Glancing down at the unconscious girl, he heaved another sigh. No way was he going to wake her up and suffer worse than Lavi. That left only one option.
He was jarred out of his thoughts by said girl when she subconsciously nuzzled her face in the crook of his neck. 'What is she doing?' he yelled in his head. His eyes narrowed to a glare as and unfamiliar warmth spread through his face and focused on his destination instead of the person he was carrying there.
Once there, he kicked the door open and set the girl down on the bed before shutting the door again. He stared at Suzuki for a moment before sighing and resigning himself to leaning against the bed to sleep; being a gentleman for once.
As he began to drift off to blackness a delicate hand tapped him in the head. "What?" he mumbled.
"This is your room, right? Why are you letting me have your bed?" She tugged absently at a lock of his hair.
"Shut up," he sighed and brushed her hand away.
"No, at the very least we can share. You're not as big of an ass as I first took you for so I don't mind sharing a bed with you," she pulled on his hair again.
"You'd sleep in a bed with anyone so long as you thought you could trust them?" he scoffed, "Stupid woman."
She smiled, "That's exactly what I'm saying. Like, I'd share a bed with Lenalee or Allen, but not Lavi. He's a bit too handsy for my tastes." Suzuki could swear she saw the corner of his mouth lift into a smirk. "C'mon, I'll feel bad if you refuse."
He groaned, "Fine, just get off my hair." He pulled himself off the floor and settled on the mattress with his back facing the girl. Another tug on his hair made him growl, "I said get off."
"I'm just taking your hair down, grumpy. You'll have a headache when you wake up if you leave it like that," she explained as she raked her fingers through his hair gently. He didn't protest to her surprise. "I'm jealous. I wish I had your hair, especially the length."
"Then grow it out," he muttered.
"It always takes so long though," she pouted then something caught her off guard. 'What…was that a…did he just sigh? Aw, he likes his hair being played with. I never would have guessed mister 'don't-touch-me' would enjoy something like this.' She smiled to herself as hair like black silk slid through her fingers effortlessly. 'I could grow really close to this guy if he stayed like this instead of constantly insulting me.'
'This woman is still annoying as hell, but why do I enjoy it now?' The enigma asked himself. The only thing that had changed was the level of information he had about her now. He had a feeling it was more than that though. If he was being true with himself, he liked her when she was talking to him and laughing with him. She was actually pleasant last night, and he actually enjoyed himself. He could learn to like her; he was already in love with her dancing and the way she was pulling her fingers through his hair. 'God, if she would do that forever I'd never say another mean word to her.' But, of course, that was something he'd never say out loud to anyone.
A/N: This was written a while ago with the intention of being a full length piece but it didn't turn out that way. I like to think I stuck to Kanda's personality pretty well, especially after he and Kotone get on good terms together (as far as how he talks to her) but I'm not sure. I like that I kept him kind of rude and snappy with her regardless of them being 'friends' in the end. I hope this didn't make your eyes bleed to read it. Let me know how I did?
~Vy