Heylo all :p Now, I m totally hopeless with titles for stuff, so I m not even gonna bother with this one ok? Lol. Enjoy, and don t forget to review please! :3


Bond of Time

KandaxMiranda

By Rhamana

Chapter 1


The doorbell of the Chapel of Rest rang, signalling that some poor family wanted to see their beloved one again before their funeral. The young woman who was the apprentice undertaker, Mariann Lithe, pushed herself off her stool from her small desk, grabbing the last bite of toast and quickly chewing and swallowing it before answering the summons of the bell. Mariann was, as her surname suggested, a very lithe woman. Slender, fairly tall. She had dark hair and chocolate eyes, that melted with compassion for every one of her 'customers' and their families. Her mother had been aghast when Mariann said she wanted to become an undertaker. To Mariann it was simple practicality. The hours nor the work were not physically taxing, she didn't have to speak very much and it was a job that would always be needed. Everyone died some day.

Mariann was practicality incarnate. Her hair was tied up into a neat, tight bun daily, to be kept out of the way, her clothes were neat, well cut, and always black. Ever since she was small her mother had begged her to try and wear something a little more colourful, but Mariann didn't like colour, for some reason. She preferred black for its practical reasons, as well as something she had never been able to explain. Mercifully British weather was always bad, they rarely had a warm summer.

Opening the door to the neat little Chapel she kept in order, a middle aged couple stood at the door, the woman trying not to be too tearful. Mariann recognised them as Mr and Mrs Tibbins from four doors down from her family, they were burying their only son. Marcus, aged 28, was the same age as Mariann when he died. Stepping in front of a car is always a dangerous thing to do, unfortunately. Mercifully death had been instant. Wordlessly, and with a small, polite smile, Mariann allowed the Tibbins' past her, she knew they knew where Marcus laid. Shutting the door behind them, Mariann watched as Mr Tibbins vanished into the room and sighed. Now she could finish organising new flowers for the Chapel.

As it was Mariann's job to keep the Chapel in order, she also ordered the flowers for the rooms, as well as for the outside. It was the only time she ever displayed an interest in colour, trying to keep the place looking beautiful and serene. Looking through the order form for the flowers, she wrinkled her nose as she tried to decide between pearl-ish lilies, or pale pinkish orchids. She loved both flowers, and thought them both ideal choices for the Chapel. With a sigh, she ticked both boxes, adding a small 10 by each selection, before deciding as soon as the Tibbins' had left she would walk to the florists and order the flowers she wanted.


Elsewhere in West London, a young man was relieving his only class of the day from his tuition. Yuu Kinde, a training instructor of the Zendo Martial Arts and Kickboxing School, gave an aggravated sigh. He was getting fed up of training these novices. They didn't respond well to discipline, especially the kind he had been trained with. A foreign student at the University of West London, he had taken this job to help support himself for his studies and was wholly regretting it. The idiots and brats under his tuition cowered away from him, they were useless! He glowered with rage, and threw his towel at a wall as if it had insulted him personally. Stalking from the gym room, he hit the showers, before leaving.

Yuu Kinde was a 20 year old, tall, slender man, with amazing hidden strength. Japanese in origin, he'd come to London to study medicine, not because he was interested, but because he didn't think he could make a living off swinging a sword around. It wasn't the middle ages any more. He had longish dark hair that shimmered blue, which he always wore tied back into a ponytail and dark, steel blue eyes. The hair had been a source of teasing for a while during his first term, until he told everyone in no uncertain terms he would bestow a lot of pain on them unless they shut the hell up. Since then, unsurprisingly, he hadn't had many friends, but people who normal people would call 'friends', Yuu called them 'annoyances'. Back in Japan he had revelled in martial arts ever since he was old enough to stand and hold a bokken. His family had pushed him with his training, but as he got older it was the source of many arguments. He wouldn't be able to make a wage or keep a family on a sword, so they all but forced him to study medicine. Thankfully his mind was sharp enough to be able to learn well, and had earned his place at the London University with great ease.

He was a quiet individual, yet he had a relatively short temper with it. It was an odd mix but people soon realised if they didn't wish their heads bitten off, leaving Yuu Kinde, who was anything but 'kind' as his name suggested, was the best possible option. In his opinion it was a far better thing, he was never one for large amounts of people, and sometimes wished he could have found a way to study medicine without having to bother with being near people. Some people called him antisocial, others said he was socially handicapped, but Yuu just preferred solitude.

Upon leaving the school, he decided he'd go walk around Regent's Park for a while, that always helped him clear his mind and calm his nerves. One of the few things besides training he liked was gardening. His small and modest apartment was full of different potted plants and herbs, which he used in his cooking. With a sigh and wondering how he was going to kill time for the rest of the day, he walked onto the main street. He could see Regent's Park across the road, but decided he would have a look in the window of the big florists on the corner first, they might have some interesting flowers there.


Mariann locked up the Chapel, calling to the owner, Mr Leverton, that she would be back in about an hour or so. He simply smiled and waved her off, she worked far more than what she earned, he would have to see about giving her a bit of a bonus. Clutching her order sheets, she walked down the street, considering new layouts for the flowers in the Chapel's rooms. She usually placed a large spray of seasonal flowers in one corner of each room, with a window box on the sill. She was toying with a far more extravagant idea, but she would have to try and sketch it out first, then speak with Mr Leverton. After all, it was his money she was spending. She worried sometimes that she tried to take control too much. She wasn't keen on confrontations and that was another reason why she'd taken this job, she didn t have to speak much. It wasn't that she was antisocial, she was just painfully shy and nervous around other people.

"Maybe," she thought morbidly "Maybe that's why I prefer to work in the Chapel, because all the people there aren t much of conversationalists." With a sigh she turned the corner, she had to stop daydreaming or she'd never get back in time. She didn't like to keep the Chapel shut up for too long, people had the right to see their loved ones before they were committed to earth. As she went to walk into the florists, she realised the door was being held open by the person who walked in before her. He was, to say the least, a rather handsome young man. She stared for all of five seconds before blushing and averting her eyes. "Thank you.." she mumbled, before running past him and vanishing inside behind one of the displays.

Yuu just blinked and let the door close behind him.


Eeee :D I hope I didn t go on too long, but I wanted to make sure I got really good descriptions of the two of them before I started too much story. And if you re wondering about their names, I wanted to keep the initials and the length of the names the same as Kanda and Miranda :3 Couldn t think of a 3 letter guys name beginning with Y though, so it had to stay Yuu. Lol. The settings are real places in West London. I wanted to keep them in the same area as the -man universe, and its just by sheer coincidence/dumb luck that the two places I randomly pulled off Yellow Pages (Leverton s Undertakers and Zendo Martial Arts School) are 47 minutes apart from each other on foot, and pass Regent s Park :D

Hope you like it so far :3 Don t forget to review and give me some constructive criticism. -sprinkles Kanda love around-

~ Mana-Chan x