Two: Enter the Cat-Boy

Kanda's eyes seemed to bulge out of their sockets as he stared incredulously at the two furry cat ears sticking up on the white-haired youth's head. Nervously, the youth pulled his rages tighter around his shoulders, and as a result, a long white tail popped out from behind him. It swayed and twirled, as if waving over Kanda's attention. Too shocked for words, Kanda took a seemingly angry step toward the white-haired, cat-eared boy, who in turn scurried a few steps away.

Furiously, Kanda's mouth tried to spit out the mess of words and curses that were stuck in between his brain and his lips. In the back of his mind, he knew he probably looked like a moron with his mouth flapping open and shut as he ogled at the strange teen. Regardless, he remained frozen to the spot trying to form whatever words he could.

The cat-boy took a tentative half-step forward and reached out one of his small paws – hands… hands dammit – as if to comfort the older teen. Slowly, his rounded pink lips moved and his boyish voice broke into the awkward silence, "Are-are you o-okay?" A shy blush painted his pale cheeks a pretty hue of pale pink and Kanda couldn't help but marvel at the colour.

The small voice of the younger teen pulled Kanda out of his daze and he turned to glare at the boy he'd saved not moments before. Glaring, he raised his hand to point a finger menacingly at the two, fluffy appendages resting on the white-haired boy's head. "Those aren't fake, are they?" Kanda all but growled at the younger teen as he leant forward to inspect the two ears closer.

Before he could move out of the way, the cat-boy's ears were in the surprisingly gentle grasp of his saviour. Kanda fingered each of the ears gently, feeling around for where they did indeed attach to the boy's head. Butterflies swarmed in his stomach and he watched the boy's expression closely. As he rubbed the ears, the younger teen's face turned from being shy, to blissful within seconds. So quietly he almost couldn't hear it, a strange motor-like sound came from the boy's chest. He was… purring?

As if he'd been burned, Kanda quickly took his hands away from the boy's ears and shuffled a few steps backwards to distance himself from the young enigma. The cat-boy kept his eyes close for a moment, and the two were bathed in a short silence that was no less one of the most awkward Kanda had ever experienced. Really, there he was, standing across from a white-haired boy who had cat ears and a tail and all he could think about was how soft the freaking ears were! It was like something out of a lame comedy gag.

It was no gag though.

The boy opened his eyes and looked up at Kanda with the most terrifying expression the older teen had ever seen. That's terrifying as in completely and utterly adorable. The younger boy's eyes were glazed over in a euphoric pleasure and his cheeks were still dusted that rosy pink. Kanda gasped and turned away from the admittedly attractive young man with a soft blush starting to paint his own cheeks.

Instead of clearing his throat, he let out a disdainful, "Che," and turned away from the younger teen to collect his thoughts. It's not like he came into acquaintance with cat-eared teenage boys all the time. What was he meant to do? Leave him? Take him to a hospital?

Take him home?

"Thank you," the younger teen said quietly, wringing his hands nervously and looking up at Kanda through obscenely long eyelashes. Kanda's heart skipped a beat as he caught sight of the teen's reflection in the car as he faced away from him. "I'm sorry for bothering you," with that, the kid bowed his head respectfully and turned around to leave. As he watched the slowly retreated back in the reflection on his shiny car, Kanda felt something tug at his heart.

Don't turn around. Don't you dare turn around. Yuu Kanda, don't you dare fucking turn -

He turned around, "Wait!" Instantly, the younger teen froze in his tracks, but didn't turn around. Kanda sucked in a breath through his teeth and took a few steps toward the younger teen. The cat-boys shoulders rose and he turned slightly to the side, but still didn't look at Kanda. Gathering what courage he had, Kanda spoke softly and as unthreateningly as he could, "Come home with me."

The boy instantly turned around, a surprised look plastered on his cute face. His grey eyes were wide and sparkling and his mouth seemed to be fighting to curl into a happy smile. That look made it worth it, and Kanda hesitantly gave a half-smile back to the younger teen and held out his hand. Gently, he waved the younger teen over.

A strange feeling gripped Kanda's heart as he gazed at the seemingly fragile teen before him. It wasn't the usual animosity he felt towards most people, but a warm feeling that curled around his heart. It reminded him of the simpler times in his life, when he hadn't had to worry about studying and money and looking after himself. It was a feeling that scared the shit out of him.

Brushing that off though, he led the boy to his car and once again opened the passenger door for him. Kanda couldn't help but stare a little at the tail that swooshed nonchalantly behind the younger teen. Oddly, he had the strongest urge to reach out and stroke it; but Kanda had never been one to give in to his urges.

Once they were both in the car and driving back to Kanda's apartment, a pregnant silence filled the car. Soft, classical piano filtered out from the speakers and calmed Kanda considerably. Even so, his hands gripped the steering wheel a little tighter than they needed to and a nervous sweat had broken out on the back of his neck. Constantly, Kanda removed over of his hands to push his hair back out of his face, or he would wind a strand of his around his fingers while waiting at the traffic lights.

Finally, when they were nearly home, Kanda spoke up. "You got a name, beansprout?" He huffed in the most unattractively gruff voice he'd ever managed to use. Internally, he slapped himself for sounding so hostile toward the younger teen, but quickly got over it when said teen looked over and smiled at him.

"Yeah, it's not beansprout, by the way..." He grouched in a manner that could only be described as passive-aggressive. For a moment, he waited and watched for his saviour's reaction, then continued a little more shyly, "My name's Allen. Allen Walker." Allen huh...what an interesting name... So lost in his thoughts, Kanda almost missed it when Allen shyly asked him, "what's your name?"

For a moment, Kanda actually had to think about it. Realizing how moronic he probably looked, he quickly said, "Kanda." Again, he couldn't help the gruffness in his voice when he answered the cat-boy named Allen. He was so used to speaking to people in such a way that it was automatic.

Allen hummed softly, as if he was acknowledging this small snippet of information and analysing it. He turned to Kanda and grinned, "Is that your first name, or your last name?" Allen seemed to have settled down, and Kanda just shifted a little uncomfortably as he burned the image of Allen grinning onto his retinas.

Then Kanda did something he never did, ever. He told the strange kid his first name, "My first name is Yuu." His voice dropped and Kanda stared stubbornly at the road in front of him as he accelerated. Allen didn't answer for a moment, and instead observed his saviour's face closely.

"Yuu Kanda..." Allen mused softly to himself, as if testing how the name sounded in his mouth. Heat rose to Kanda's cheeks as he heard his beansprout - wait, his? - uttering his name over and over like a prayer. "Yuu Kanda... Yuu Kanda... Yuu Kanda..." Allen murmured Kanda's name over and over in that soft, shy voice of his.

As Kanda pulled in to the basement carport of his apartment building, he finally snapped. "Oi, beansprout," he growled lowly at the younger teen, "I didn't tell you my name so you could annoy me with it." Scowling, Kanda got out of his car and slammed the door a little but harder than he should have. In his mind, he sighed heavily at his stupid antics, but continued across the basement to the elevator with said beansprout following closely behind him.

The atmosphere in the elevator could have been interpreted in two ways: first, incredibly awkward; secondly, incredibly intense (if you catch the drift...). Kanda stood where at the very front of the elevator as he always did. As stealthily as he could, he watched Allen in the reflection on the door; as it seemed to be his new favourite activity. Allen however was trying to figure out how he could see millions of himself in the two mirror-covered walls of the elevators.

Kanda chuckled softly, "It's the infinity mirror effect; each mirror keeps bouncing back the image, so it looks like it goes on forever." Just full of information, Kanda was. Refusing to look the younger teen in the eye, Kanda didn't catch the warm smile Allen gave him as he finally turned away from the mirrors. As quietly as he could, Allen moved so he was standing closer to his saviour and absentmindedly twirled his tail between his fingers much like in the way he'd seen Kanda do with his hair earlier.

Not that he would admit it, but Kanda was really on-edge knowing just how close he was to the younger teen. In his mind's eye, he saw all-too-clearly his beansprout's odd white hair and shining grey eyes. His hand's practically itched with the urge to feel Allen's cat ears again and he couldn't help but distinctly remember the soft feel of the silky fur on the pads of his fingers. A heat Kanda hadn't felt in a while ignited in the pit of his stomach, and blood rushed to his cheeks and to other… regions. Maybe it was the fact that he was trapped in an elevator with Allen, or maybe left-over hormones from adolescence, but Kanda just wanted to –

The elevator abruptly came to a stop right at the top of the apartment building where Kanda's penthouse was. The doors opened and the two of them stepped out into the sparse foyer that led into the rest of Kanda's home; Kanda a little bit more flustered than he should be. On the right of the foyer, there was a slim black table set against the white wall and on it was a bowl that had a lotus blossom floating on water. To the right, a picture hung on the wall; a close-up photo of a blooming lotus again, but in black and white.

Kicking off his shoes, Kanda silently led Allen through into the open-plan living area with the kitchen to the right and the dining table and den to the left. All of the furniture was either black or a midnight blue colour and was sleek and modern. The dining table was a simple glass affair with a black iron frame and looked as if it had never been used. Allen could see a hallway just beyond the kitchen that probably led to the bedrooms.

As soon as he caught sight of the kitchen, Allen perked up and practically bowled Kanda over on his way to the fridge. Imagine his disappointment when he opened it to see it empty save for some disgusting-looking leftovers and rotten fruit. Closing the fridge gingerly, he quickly moved on to searching every nook and cranny of the kitchen searching for food. To his utter shock, Kanda's kitchen was completely void of any type of edible food.

Allen spun around viciously to face his saviour with an incredulous look on his face. "Where's all the food?!" The cat-boy practically screeched at a shocked and confused Kanda. Storming forward, Allen looked up into Kanda's face pleadingly, his cute-ray on full-blast. Silvery strands of hair fell into his eyes and Kanda couldn't help but melt at the sight his beansprout made. After not hearing an answer from the spaced-out mess that was Kanda, Allen grabbed his protector by the shoulders and shook him gently, "Food, Kanda!"

Kanda snapped out of his daze and registered Allen's question in his befuddled brain. Understanding dawned on him and for a moment he couldn't remember where the food was or where he'd even just come from. Then, as if a light had just flicked on in his brain, Kanda remembered and shrugged the beansprout's hands off of him.

"I left it in the car," he muttered, a little embarrassed, "I'll call up one of the staff to bring it up now." The one thing Kanda had always loved about being wealthy at his age, was that he never had to carry in his own groceries, not that he ever been out to buy them himself, but whatever.

Allen giggled childishly and his ears flickered quickly in response. "Oh!" He exclaimed in understanding as he made his way back out to the foyer with a confused Kanda following cautiously behind. "In that case, I'll collect them for you, master."

At this, Allen's eyes widened for a second before he turned and practically shot out of the apartment like a bullet. This left Kanda standing there bewildered for a moment, eyes glued to the space his beansprout has been occupying second before. Then the full effect of what Allen had called him made it to his brain and he exploded.

"MASTER?!"

Author's Note:

Okay, so I think it's time I just explained something. :)

The title: Okay, so if you hadn't already figured it out, my lame title has more meaning than just 'Here's a story about Allen Walker'. Oh no... the title was originally going to be 'The Strange and Wonderful TAIL of Allen Walker'... but I changed it because that's how awesome I am. So, if you read into it, the title doubles as saying 'Here's a story about Allen Walker' and 'OMG ALLEN WALKER HAS A STRANGE AND WONDERFUL TAIL!'

(Sorry if that was a really shit explanation... -_-")

Also my inspiration for this fic was actually 'this picture' ( post/26229704208/prrrr-reow-my-god ). Even though Kanda is the neko in this pic... well, let's just say Allen probably fitted the role better... in a way... (okay, in my head...)

THANKS TO EVERYONE WHO'S READ, FAVOURITE-D, FOLLOWED AND REVIEWED THIS FIC! You're all amazing. I actually loved the reviews I got about how people were surprised to see a fic with a neko Allen. 3

Thanks again! 3

HikariHana97