Nightmare
Attention/Disclaimer: D. Gray Man does not belong to me, nor do its characters, buildings, etc. ((I would rather enjoy owning Kanda, though, as I am sure many other fans would... winks)) Also, any events, names, or places named/written in the future that are markedly similar to anyone else's work, I'm sorry for any coincidence, but all of this is purely from my imagination. I do not copy people's work. EVER.
Okay...To my reviewers...I love you guys!! Your reviews made me feel all fuzzy inside. And, though I can't dedicate this chapter to you guys...Because I just can't, know that chapter five will be for you guys!! Thank you so much. I still feel all fuzzy 'n' stuff.33
Thank you to: Kyurengo, TESHii-KOiiBiiTO, Yume Li, SeikaDragon, KHtrinity, nanachan87, InfinityOnTheRun, harmony-of-mar, Belladonna-Isabella, and SilentKiller1. You guys are the greatest.3
Congratulations!! You have sent ten reviews for last chapter!! And so, I decided to update this early, rather than waiting the allotted time before updating.
And, to Yume Li: No, Kanda doesn't know Allen is a girl. Can you imagine what must be going through his mind? Ahh, the things that I do to these characters...
Chapter Four: Unwilling
Kanda stood in the middle of the private training grounds, the implications of what had just happened finally sinking in. Eye twitching in disgust, Kanda spat on the ground and rubbed at his bottom lip. It wasn't something entirely mature, but Kanda hardly cared.
"What the fuck, Moyashi?!" he snarled at the air around him. It disgusted him! It pissed him off!! Stupid damned moyashi had taken advantage of him!! What was infinitely worse than that was that Kanda had enjoyed it! Kanda swiped his sword from its sheathe and fell into a fury-induced training maneuver that would leave his body insanely tired. This, of course, had a purpose. It would allow Kanda to lay calmly on the ground, allow his body to recuperate, and then he could think without violent urges taking over his body and distracting him.
When Kanda finally fell to the ground in exhaustion, he was almost half-way done with his thinking. It was still amazing to Kanda how calmly he could think in the midst of training or actual fighting. Regardless, it was a useful thing to have.
Kanda had realized that in no way was he homosexual. There was just no way. Too many facts pointed otherwise. So there had to be something wrong with the Moyashi. Some factor that had yet to reveal itself, and, while Kanda would not openly search for that factor; he would wait until it showed itself. Perhaps the Moyashi used some drug on him, though that wasn't very likely. As far as Kanda knew, he had only seen the Moyashi once since he had arrived back at the Dark Order, unless the Moyashi was stalking him.
"I'd kill him if he was," Kanda said softly before slipping into a deep, refreshing sleep.
The following weeks were spent with Allen avoiding conversation, or anything similar, with Kanda, who gladly obliged. The only time someone noticed was when they realized that there were no arguments between Allen and Kanda, and from then all that person could think about was whether it was more like the calm before the storm, or perhaps a ticking bomb. And then they would hurry along their way, not caring to be around in case that cataclysm occurred. Twice Allen was sent on a mission, and though they were simple, she was able to leave the Dark Order, and Kanda, for at least a few days.
That atmosphere between them was uncomfortable for her, so she gladly took up any missions offered. Lavi, unsurprisingly, was the first to realize that something was amiss. He immediately confronted Allen, asking what had gone wrong. It took ten minutes of convincing to get the furiously blushing and denying Allen to even admit that something was, in fact, wrong. It took another fifteen minutes for Allen to tell Lavi what happened. Each time Lavi noticed that Allen was leaving something out, he would interrupt and use more "persuasion" to get Allen to tell the whole thing. The whole process took right around two hours.
When Lavi finally got the whole story, he had sat back in his chair, and thought deep for a few minutes. Allen had sighed, covering half her face with a spread-fingered hand. Though she had been frustrated, she was also embarrassed by having to tell Lavi about the whole ordeal. As Lavi had been about to speak, no doubt to put Allen through more discomfort, Allen's stomach rumbled in protest, breaking off the interrogations. Taking the cue, Allen left in a hurry, headed to the cafeteria with a hurried excuse and a wave of her hand.
That had been two and a half weeks ago, and as Allen found herself remembering these things, she was headed back from breakfast at the cafeteria. She saw Lenalee walking towards her, looking serious. Curious and concerned, Allen intercepted her.
"Lenalee, what's wrong?" Allen asked, tilting her head to the side. Lenalee looked faintly relieved for a moment, as though seeing Allen had made her task easier.
"Ahh, Allen, I was looking for you. You have a mission, and my brother wants you in his office in ten minutes. I'm on my way to find Kanda, would you like to come with me?" Lenalee offered kindly. At the mention of Kanda, Allen fought against a rising blush.
"Ehh, I don't think I can. I have to go to my room real quick before I go see Komui." she said, feeling guilty for the lie, but definitely not wanting to face Kanda. Lenalee gave her a suspicious look.
"Sorry, Allen, but you've never been a good liar. And besides, I want to talk to you." Lenalee's tone left no room for argument as she hooked her arm around Allen's and lead her away, further from Allen's room, down towards the training grounds where Kanda was no doubt bound to be found.
Allen protested against Lenalee's hold, which was almost iron-like and unbreakable, spouting reasons left and right as to why Lenalee should let go. Some were as ridiculous as, "I need to find my left sock!!" and, "I'm allergic to Kanda!!" Allen couldn't think of any sensible reasons, and so kept spouting off reasons not to go.
"You're breaking my arm!! I have to go to get it fixed!"
"I am not, Allen, now quite complaining."
"I lost my poker cards!! I have to go find them!!"
"You can look for them later; I want to talk to you"
"But- but!! My poker cards!! They are my babies!! I must find them!!"
"You'll live, Allen."
Soon enough, before Allen realized it, they had arrived at the training grounds, with Allen still complaining and protesting loudly.
"Lena-" Allen was about to protest again, but then surveyed her surroundings.
"Shit."
"Finally, you shut up. You know, Moyashi, you can really irritate the living hell out of someone with just one word. You don't need to spout off unnecessarily to be successful." Kanda's voice said vindictively from the shadows of a nearby wall. Allen bit back a groan of despair from the sound of his voice, pulled weakly at Lenalee's grip once more before standing there, defeated.
"Kanda, you have a mission. My brother wants you in his office now." Lenalee said, smiling sweetly at Kanda, which threw him off a bit. He nodded curtly and then picked up his exorcist coat, slipped it on, and headed from the training grounds.
"See, Allen, that wasn't so bad. Why the hell did you throw such a fit?" Lenalee asked quietly. Allen sighed. It was bad enough that she had to face the heartless bastard, but it was kind of nice to hear his normal, insulting voice again. It allowed Allen to believe that a sense of normalcy was beginning to come back between her and Kanda. It was a relief, for sure. Lenalee tugged Allen towards the direction that Kanda had taken off in a few seconds previous, then asked again, "Why did you protest so much in coming down here, Allen? I know you hate Kanda and all, but, really! You two need to learn how to operate around each other without fighting or arguing."
Allen sighed.
"If I told you why, you'd never believe me." she said softly. Lenalee's eyes widened almost comically.
"What did he-!!" Allen clapped her hand over Lenalee's mouth, as her voice had risen to an almost yell, echoing in the corridor. Allen heard a harsh sniff from Kanda up ahead, but he didn't turn or say anything. After watching him a moment, she removed her hand from Lenalee's mouth, putting one finger to her own lips in a silent "shhh" gesture. Lenalee nodded.
"Sorry," she apologized quietly. Allen shrugged off the apology.
"It's not what Kanda did..." Allen said quietly, looking at the stoic man's back as he walked ahead of them, hand clamped around his sword in an instinctive gesture, long hair swaying side-to-side as he walked. A few wisps of hair had broken free of the pony-tail and floated gracefully behind him. The same scent that had driven Allen to do one of the most embarrassing things that she had ever done in her life, presented itself tantalizingly under Allen's nose, causing her to blush furiously.
"What did- What happened?" Lenalee asked quietly, pulling Allen back a bit to put distance between them and the swordsman.
"Well...I don't want to say, Lenalee. Maybe some other time..."
Lenalee sighed and then nodded.
"Kanda! Allen! Took you two long enough to get here! You have a mission!" Komui said brightly, rummaging through his office for something, smiling the whole time.
"Uhh...Together? We have a mission...together?" Allen asked hesitantly, nervously.
"Why, yes, of course. Why? Is that a problem?" Komui asked in response.
"Ehh...No. It's not."
"Good! Well, you are to travel to Hungary. Budapest, to be precise. There has been a suspicious amassing of akuma there, and we suspect that there might be Innocence involved. We want you to go there and investigate, and get the Innocence, if there is Innocence there. Normally, Finders would go there instead, but there are too many akuma there. The last three finders that we sent there did not return. The five before them, came back, but did not live long, other than to report in what they knew." Komui finally retrieved two crumpled up folders, which it was assumed that those were the information folders to be given to Kanda and Allen, and then, after setting them on his desk, Komui's expression became grave. This set Allen and Kanda on edge, throwing them off briefly.
"I want you two to be on guard. No bickering, no fighting, no arguing of any sort. This is dangerous ground, and you can't be screwing off only to be caught and then killed. Or worse, get captured. If the Noah are involved in this specific area, you have to be cautious." Komui warned, his eyes flicking between Kanda and Allen. Suddenly, catching the other two off guard again, Komui smiled again.
"I'm sure it's nothing you boys can't handle!"
Kanda responded with an annoyed, "Che.", before grabbing one of the files from the desk and then left the room. Allen and Komui watched him briefly.
"Allen. I must insist that you be careful. Don't go jumping randomly into things, okay? I would hate for anything bad to happen to you or Kanda. Be cautious, be on guard, and keep a constant watch on things. Every human in that city may be an akuma. You can't give anyone the benefit of the doubt, alright? And, please, just be safe, okay?" Komui's voice was soft with concern, not behaving like his goofy self, but being completely serious. Allen nodded in reassurance, then left the room.
Komui watched the door for a second, then swiped his glasses off his face, planted his face in his folded arms on his desk, and tried his best to hide the tears that escaped his eyes. He didn't want to send those two to Budapest. He didn't want to send anyone, regardless of how powerful, how high their synch rate was, if they were a general. It did not matter to him. That city, from the reports, was a death trap for any human, exorcist or not.
Biting his lip, Komui remembered the forceful words of his superiors. They had demanded that someone be sent to Budapest and that it didn't matter who it was. Komui had agreed after half an hour of arguing, but only on the condition that it be two exorcists to go, for a higher chance that they survive. His superiors had agreed, but then they had given conditions of their own.
"Allen Walker must be one of the exorcists. It is time that we test his loyalty to the Dark Order, as well as his Innocence synchronization percentage. If he remains at one hundred percent, after this mission, he will be made a general." If he survives.
The unspoken and spoken words had echoed around the room. Komui had stared at them, disbelief evident in his expression. Weakly responding an affirmative, Komui had hurried from the room. To his disgust, Komui, after reaching his office, found himself getting sick and throwing up weakly from the shock of his orders. For a week, Komui had gone over the files of all the other exorcists, trying to see who would be more likely to protect and work well with Allen. Komui knew that no matter who went with the white-haired exorcist, Allen would protect them with all the he had.
Finally, Komui had come up with two candidates to go with Allen. Lavi or Kanda. If Lavi went, the Bookman would end up going as well, and though that was a good thing, it would be going against his orders. So, Kanda it was.
Komui broke into a fresh bout of tears, collapsing behind his desk, praying to God to keep Allen and Kanda safe on their mission. He clasped his hands hard enough together that his small nails created five little half-moons of blood on each hand.
Wah!! It's so sad! Poor Komui...I felt like crying as I wrote this...
Ten reviews, please...
