K.K.: Well, I'm back after another long hiatus…I apologize for the wait – again.
Kanda: Here's an idea, why don't you just STOP WRITING and never pick up this sorry piece of FICTION again.
K.K.: Simmer, Water Lily.
Kanda: Eh?
K.K.: You know, you have that thing with those flowers.
Kanda: It's a Lotus, and I don't have a "thing" for any plants.
K.K.: Right, so anyway – this is kind of a segue chapter. I have recently decided to take this story in a completely different direction that I had originally planned. From here, things are going to pick up in speed and the plot is going to develop rather rapidly.
Kanda: Wait…are you saying things haven't been going fast before? You took me from zero to making out in like three days!
K.K.: Yeah well you're going to go from making out to other things that start with the letter M very shortly.
Kanda: Dare I ask? Does it also start with the word "making"?
K.K.: Maybe. Mayhap. Many possibilities.
Kanda: Enough with the M's, I get it.
K.K.: Marvelous, now let's get on with the story!
Kanda: For the love of…
Fire and Ice
A Little Introspection
The next day, Ayame woke to both blankets being pulled away from her body. She shivered against the brisk morning air, clutching for her lost warmth. She cracked an eye open to behold Kanda, who had rolled onto his side, taking their covers with him. Narrowing her eyes, she reached over and took the top blanket off, pulling his off as well. He rolled onto his back again, seemingly still asleep. When he didn't stir again at the loss of warmth, she allowed her gaze to drift over his finely sculpted body - his round, muscular, shoulders, his broad chest and chiseled stomach, his thickly corded thighs. She felt a heat rise from her cheeks to the tips of her ears as her eyes lingered on him.
"Do you like what you see?" he asked suddenly, his eyes still closed.
She started at the sound of his voice breaking the still morning air, but recovered quickly.
"Maybe," she said, tossing her loose hair over her shoulder as she sat up a little.
He opened his eyes and turned his face towards her, his gaze roaming over her in turn. Her nerve suddenly gone, she fought back the blush that had already begun, to no avail. He slid closer to her, absentmindedly scratching his upper thigh, over the only material covering his body. Attracted by the motion, Ayame glanced down at his black under-shorts, coloring even more at what she saw.
"What?"
Her eyes snapped back up, "Nothing."
Ayame was young and fairly innocent to the finer points of manhood. She of course knew the basics, but she had never been with a man – and therefore knew very little about their anatomies. She did not know why Kanda's boxers looked as though they no longer fit him properly, and she certainly wasn't going to let on that she had noticed in the first place. Unfortunately, he already noticed her brief glance and followed it. He apparently had not been aware of his…condition…for he quickly rolled over on stomach.
"Sorry," he muttered.
"For what?" she asked, completely confused.
"It's not because of you – just a morning thing," he quickly explained.
"What's a morning thing?"
"Never mind."
"I'm lost."
"Good."
"Kanda -"
"I'm not aroused, I just need to pee okay? You killed it anyways," he growled.
"Okay, so go pee…but I still don't know what you're talking about," she mumbled.
He looked at her quizzically, as if trying to decide if she was serious.
"Look, I don't know about guys okay?" she admitted, thoroughly embarrassed now. "I never had a boyfriend and the old man at the dojo never talked to me about stuff. A ten year old orphan being raised in a martial arts camp by a bunch of men – it's not like I could get a real in depth sex education. There was a cook though, a nice lady with a bunch of kids – she kind of explained the basics to me. That's it though."
Kanda slowly sat up and knelt in front of her, touching her cheek softly, "That is nothing to be embarrassed about, Aya. I'm kind of glad you don't know a lot…there are some things I would rather teach you on my own anyway."
Ayame flushed again, but looked at him with trusting eyes, "I will make a good pupil," she suggested coyly.
His eyes darkened at her tone, but he held her chin firmly, "We have all the time we need to explore each other, but I'm not ready to take your innocence away just yet."
"I didn't mean right now!" she defended.
"I know – but both of us are new to being in a close relationship like this, and I don't want to rush things."
"Kind of late for that, don't you think? Two days ago, I didn't even think of you in a romantic way."
"Yeah well, just because this started quickly, doesn't mean it has to continue that way."
"I know. I don't want to rush either," she soothed.
"Good. Let's eat breakfast and get to the next town. We need to contact HQ and begin our journey again, we've lost a lot of time."
Ayame mentally shook herself, "Okay…as long as we're not having rabbits again for breakfast."
"How does fish sound?"
"Fish I can do. I'll see if I can find something to go with it."
"I spotted a berry patch that way," he offered, pointing in the direction he had gone to hunt last night.
"Okay, I'll be back," she said, slipping on her dried clothes and grabbing one of the blankets to carry her spoils in.
She ventured deeper into the woods, and after a brief search, found the berries he had mentioned. They were beautifully ripened raspberries, sweet and tart at the same time. She picked those and a handful of edible mushrooms that were obligingly growing nearby at the roots of a mighty spruce tree. She gathered them up in the blanket and made her way back to the clearing, only to find Kanda roasting two fat perch on stakes.
"Good grief, what are you? Mr. King of the Great Outdoors?"
"They're fish – they are not hard to outwit," he countered, poking the smaller of the two. "This one's done, you want it?"
"Yes! Oh thank you, I am so hungry! Here, look what I got," she said, spreading out the blanket.
"Good, this should keep us going till we reach the next town."
"Kanda?"
"Hn?"
"Do you think the Akuma from yesterday have anything to do with the ones we're hunting in Romania?"
"I doubt it, we're still too far away for a connection to be likely. But I am curious about why they attacked the train – they shouldn't have been able to track our Innocence, especially at that speed.
"Maybe the Level Two had an enhanced sensory ability."
"It's possible."
"Well, they attacked us – we kicked their asses – the end. We'll just report our situation to HQ as soon as we can reach a phone."
"Hn."
"Hey, we should tell Komui that pairing us together as punishment won't work anymore."
"Che. You thought he was punishing you? He did it precisely because he wanted us to like each other – and you needed the training."
"Really? He actually wanted us to get along?"
"Not exactly. Teidoll and Komui have been plotting for us to fall in love and get married by fall," Kanda said with a sneer.
"Are you being serious?"
"Yes. That's what they do – mess with people's lives. It sickens me."
"And yet…it worked."
"We had nothing to do with them."
"You're probably right – we would have found each other even if they weren't tweaking us behind the scenes."
"Yeah," he agreed.
Ayame starting giggling suddenly around a mouthful of fish.
"What?" he asked.
"If someone had told me last week that you and I would even entertain the idea of becoming a couple, I would have laughed in their face."
"I would have punched them in their face. It's almost scary how fast things can change," he added, his voice low and thoughtful. He fixed his piercing eyes on her.
"What?" she asked, coloring under his gaze.
He merely shook his head, "Nothing."
He suddenly leaned in and kissed her deeply, surprising her. She responded soon enough though. It would have been a more pleasant kiss perhaps, had they not just been eating fish – but neither one seemed to care. He broke away from her slowly, nipping at her lower lip and enjoying the sublime expression on her face.
"We should go now," a hint of regret audible in his tone.
She sighed, but nodded in agreement, "Yes, it will be better to cover the distance as soon as possible."
Kanda stood and smothered the fire – leaving their blankets there. They set out at an even pace, running steadily for over an hour. Their journey was slowed by some mountainous terrain that they decided to go over rather than around. The climbing added some hours to their trip, but not as much as it would have been had they gone the long way round. Even with the delay, they reached the nearest town by three in the afternoon. It was a small fishing village, positioned on the banks of a massive interior lake, said the hold the tastiest freshwater fish in the country. From there, they would be able to secure transportation to the nearest train station. They found that it was another twenty miles to the nearest town with a railway, so they caught a ride with a merchant heading there. At about six in the evening they arrived, and got an inn. Ayame decided to get one room because they were short on money and still needed to make the train fare. Kanda took the opportunity to call into HQ to inform them of their progress. From where Ayame stood at the desk a little ways away, Komui sounded delighted. Kanda hung up and joined her to go find their room.
"Why was Komui so happy" she asked.
"Because we spent a night together in woods, why do you think? He's probably going to drag Lenalee out shopping with him for newborn clothes," he growled.
Ayame giggled, "Well if he liked that, I'm sure he'll love that we only enough money for one inn room. Did you ask him to wire some more ahead of us to Romania?"
"Yes, here's the bank and account number," he said, handing her a slip of paper.
She pocketed it and unlocked their room, stepping into the modest accommodations. There was a bed, a chair, a tiny dresser, and a door to a small bathroom and shower. Ayame immediately flung herself on the bed, pleasantly surprised that it was quite comfortable. Kanda showered quickly and returned to the bedroom, only to find her fast asleep curled up on the bed. He pulled the blankets over her; then left to go see about food. He came back shortly with soup and bread, and two glasses of cold milk, courtesy of the innkeeper's wife. When he entered the room again, he found Ayame sitting up in bed, looking confused and a little nervous.
"What's wrong?" he queried.
"Oh nothing," she replied, obviously relieved to see him. "I just woke up, and didn't remember where I was right away."
He walked to the bed and kissed her forehead, placing the dinner tray on her lap, "Eat, you'll feel better."
"Thanks hun, I'm starved."
He smirked at the adage – that was going to take some getting used to. But then again, he had adapted to going from a man who referred to do everything alone to someone who had let a woman into his heart in about the time span of a week. He thought about it seriously for a moment, realizing for the first time that perhaps their relationship hadn't progressed as suddenly as he had first thought. He realized that the past several months of training with her had softened his prickly nature quite a lot. Her influence had begun to change him in small ways from the first few weeks they had spent together. He was still the same Kanda, but on the inside, and sometimes just with her – he was becoming a kinder person. Just when had she begun to melt the ice that he had encased his heart in? He looked at her hungrily slurping her soup and a smile ghosted across his lips. Probably from the first moment she had stood up to him on their way back to HQ after they picked her up. He couldn't even remember how he had offended her – probably just through his cold demeanor – but she had given him what for right there. It had angered him to no end at the time, even though Tiedoll looked like he was going to have a heart attack from laughing fits; but he realized that even then, he had begun to respect her. After all, not just anyone would stand up to him like that – except for the Clown.
Ayame set her empty bowl and drained glass down on the nightstand, "I'm going to take a shower; I feel gross."
"You look gross too," he quipped, dodging the pillow flying at his head immediately proceeding that comment.
She slipped into the bathroom and stripped off her dirty sweaty clothes. The warm water felt good as she stepped under the shower, letting it wash over through her hair and over her face. She briefly recalled standing like this just before Kanda saw her at the waterfall, and had to stifle a giggle when she remembered his stunned expression. She never would have imagined him looking at her like that, much less the way his eyes had darkened when he kissed her last night. That kiss had left her breathless, as those same little butterflies in her stomach she had been feeling lately returned – just at the memory of those moments. She had never been in love before, not really. She had a crush on a boy at the dojo once when she was eleven, but that passed as quickly as he had. When she had joined the Black Order, she finally felt as though she had become a part of something much larger than herself. She had trained hard and grown into an excellent martial artist; however, her ambitions had never stretched beyond the dojo. That little circle of people had been the confines of her life – nothing outside of it had ever tempted her out of it. Until one day, an old man and a young warrior had entered her dojo and given her the opportunity to use her skills for something beyond just teaching them to the next generation.
Now looking back, she wasn't sure if it had been joining the Black Order, or the overwhelming need to beat that pony-tailed bastard that compelled her to leave her life with Gramps. She had excelled in her training with him though, and somewhere along the line they had formed a closer bond. She respected him as soon as she really saw his skills, realizing immediately the time and dedication it had taken to reach the level he was at. She knew she could learn a lot from him, especially in weapons training. And then the time they spent together began to feed their mutual respect and almost affection at times – more on her side than his. She liked to tease him and he returned her little jabs with his own barbs. He was always meaner than she was when he teased her, but she knew that he didn't always mean what he said – he just liked to get a rise out of her. The more she began to realize this, the more she understood that in his own way, he really did like her. Ayame paused as she rinsed shampoo out of her hair. Had he liked her as more than a friend for a while now? Had she? When she teased him without mercy, had she really been flirting with him? She had never thought of it consciously at anything more than just being playful, but maybe she had been harboring feelings for him longer than she had initially thought. When she finally came to grips with the fact that loved him, it had surprised her – but it seemed natural at the same time. Perhaps that was because she had loved him for months and never even truly realized it. Was it possible for the human heart to be so naïve? She dried off and put her underclothes and shirt back on, heading out into the bedroom. Kanda was lying in bed already, the covers drawn up to his waist, leaving his bare chest exposed. Ayame swallowed down the moisture that suddenly filled her mouth – what, was she drooling over him now? "Get a grip, girl," she chided herself. Still, he did look awfully scrumptious just lying there, dozing. As sudden impulse compelled her to run up to the bed and jump on it, almost bouncing Kanda's entire body clear off the mattress.
"What the hell?" the startled man yelped, staring at her with wide eyes.
She laughed out loud at his expression, instantly curling up on her side in a submissive posture. His own face was rather mirthless, but he did lie back down with a slightly exacerbated sigh. He cast her a sidelong scowl, which she returned with a cheeky grin.
"Oh c'mon, don't look at me like that – it was kind of funny."
"Not really."
"Whatever. Anyways, we should get some good rest tonight – we'll reach our destination tomorrow, right?"
"Yes. It will be evening by the time we get there though, it's going to be a long train ride."
"Oh well, I'm sure we can find some way to pass the time," she said, wiggling her eyebrows.
"I'm sure," he replied, reaching over and pulling her up close to him.
She snuggled up against his chest as he slipped his arm beneath her neck and gently stroked her hip and thigh with his other hand. His fingers left little heated trails across her body, even through the thin blankets. She threw an arm around him and traced small patterns across his back with her fingernails. She touched a spot close to his side and was rewarded with a little gasp as his whole body shivered.
"Oh my, did you like that?" she teased.
"Maybe."
She smiled against his skin and nuzzled a little closer. He reached up to smooth her hair down; then rested his cheek against her head.
"Sleep now," he whispered.
"Okay," she replied sleepily.
He lifted his head to place a kiss on her brow before settling back down again. Ayame was asleep before she knew it, feeling safe, secure, and warm in the embrace of his arms. For his part, Kanda felt a swelling of protective energy filling his body. This beautiful person resting in his arms was suddenly the most important thing in the world to him. He would guard her with his own life – without her, there was no point to anything anymore.
K.K.: Ah, it's nice to have another chapter out, even though all we really accomplished was getting from woods to town and showering.
Kanda: Don't forget the lovely conversation about my junk. That was truly delightful.
K.K.: Hey, ease up – I flattered your manly ego, did I not.
Kanda: I would prefer you leave my ego out of this, as well as any further discussion about my manhood.
K.K.: Sorry my dear, you know it's bound to come up again. No pun intended.
Kanda: You sicken me.
K.K.: Sorry, I had to…my husband's humor is surfacing.
Kanda: He's a bad influence on you.
K.K.: Hey, at least I didn't come up with any "that's what she said" jokes.
Kanda: Yeah, that makes me feel so much better.
K.K.: Oh, little author's note here. I added something small to the first chapter that I realize I never clarified before. At the beginning, during Ayame's flashback to how she ended up in the Black Order, she said she had been training with Kanda for weeks and began missions. I meant to add she had been doing missions for several months, but completely forgot put that in. Well, it's in now. You don't have to re-read it…but there's a little extra history in there now. Do enjoy. Reviews are welcome as always! :)
