Midnight Snack

Kanda sat cross-legged on his bed, leaning against the cold wall, feeling the brick pattern through his thin, white nightshirt. Sleep refused to claim him.

Perhaps it was the dead silence outside. And how it amplified his heartbeat under his tattoo. Perhaps it was the odd angle of the moonlight beaming through his window. And the way it eerily illuminated the single petal that had fallen to the bottom of his hourglass lotus.

Kanda breathed deeply and folded his hands on his lap. He closed his eyes. No use. He could still see the lotus, glowing even more brightly with nothing in the background to dull its colour. He snapped his eyes back open and let out his breath in a rush. Another sleepless night then. His aching body protested, but there was nothing he could do.

He continued sitting perfectly still, staring at the opposite wall, past his hourglass. How much time passed, he didn't know. An hour? Two hours? Or mere minutes? The unwavering silver moon gave him no indication. Another deep breath, and another, and then—

Yuu.

It was spoken by the faintest voice, a tinkling like a shard of crystal held in the air for a fraction of a second before disintegrating into fine dust. He immediately stiffened, eyes whipping from one corner of the room to the other. No one. Nothing was there.

Yuu.

Again, just one word whispered: his given name. And for once, the usual pang of annoyance at its use didn't come. His mouth snapped open, intending to shoot forth a "who's there!" but no sound came out, as if he was loathe to breach the fragile silence hanging between him and this unknown presence. Why though? Because the voice sounded… Kanda wracked his brain for the right descriptor. Comforting? Longing? Familiar, yet unfamiliar?

Yuu.

Was he dreaming? He glanced down as his hands and examined the details of his ragged nails and the healing cut across his left palm. Move. He commanded the first and second fingers of his right hand. They obediently flexed.

Either a lucid dream or a half-awake experience, he mused.

Yuu.

His door creaked open. A faint shadow flitted through the gap.

His forced calm snapped and his tense body sprang into action. He leaped out of bed, heedless of his stiff limbs and grabbed Mugen, purely out of reflex. Wait! He mentally cried out at the entity who had seemingly slipped outside his room. Barefoot and dressed in his loose-fitting nightclothes, he dashed after the apparition.

Down the dark and silent halls he haphazardly ran, nightshirt flapping around his thin body. If he closed his eyes, he could hear her voice more clearly and see her better. There! She was disappearing around the corner! The freezing stone floor sent a jolt of pain up his feet with every step he took, but he was numb to it all.

Yuu!

The call became more desperate. Dragging frigid air into his burning lungs, Kanda skidded past corner after corner, hall after hall. He was a long way from the residential quarters now.

Then, between the cafeteria and lounge—

Yuu—

It cut off abruptly, whatever it was disappearing into thin air. "No wait," Kanda choked out, grasping at thin air. He stood stock still, taking in the dead silence. She was gone. She? How did he know that? Kanda frowned. No, he was quite sure. It was that woman who came and went with his darkest nightmares and most pleasant dreams… Wait, was he still dreaming then? Kanda stared down at his hands again and was about to unsheathe Mugen as the next part of his reality test when he heard a faint crunching sound from the kitchens. Mice? No, too loud to be mice.

Drawing Mugen fully, he lightly stepped over to the kitchen door and dropped into a crouch. He carefully put his ear to the door. A muffled chewing noise could be heard. What on earth—?

He gingerly pushed the unlocked door open to find—

"Lenalee!"

The girl in question gave a small scream which she quickly muffled with her hands. "Kanda? You scared the living daylights out of me! But thank god it's just you."

Nonplussed, Kanda asked, "What are you doing in here?"

"Midnight snack. I didn't have dinner today," she replied, taking another cookie out of the jar. An anxious expression crossed her face. "You won't tell anyone I'm here, right?"

"'Course not." He grunted, sliding Mugen back into its sheath. He sank to the ground beside her, controlling his breathing so he wouldn't sound like he has just ran halfway across the Black Order.

Finishing her eighth cookie, Lenalee ventured a question. "So what brings you here at this time of night?"

Kanda didn't reply, merely giving a slight shrug.

He was paler than usual, she noted. His hands seemed rather clammy and he was breathing too hard. "A nightmare?"

Kanda gave a start. "No, I… wouldn't call it that." He stopped.

"You know you can tell me anything, right?" Lenalee smiled, but didn't press him farther. He would tell her when he was ready. If he was ever ready.

"Cookie?" She offered.

"No. I don't understand how you can possibly eat those disgusting things."

Giving a giggle at his grimace, Lenalee placed one last cookie in her mouth before closing the jar, now half-full. Lightly humming, she stood up on tiptoe and returned it to the shelf. There, she spotted something that nearly made her eyes pop out of her head. She gasped, unable to believe her eyes. "Kanda," she breathed, hardly daring to believe it. "Look." She raised a trembling hand.

He cautiously shuffled closer to the kitchen shelving unit. "What?" he inquired, one hand tenuously on Mugen.

In a whisper that incorporated both glee and disbelief, Lenalee said, "Chocolate cake!"

Annoyed ticks appeared on Kanda's face. "Chocolate cake," he repeated in a flat tone.

"The chefs never make chocolate cake! Apparently cocoa powder is hard to come by these days." She bit her lip. "You don't think they'd notice if I took some, would they? I mean, someone's already taken a piece." She pointed at the neatly-cut wedge missing.

"Che."

Lenalee interpreted that as "No, they're too thick-headed to notice." She beamed at him before reaching out her hand to break off a small piece.

Her hand a mere two inches away from the cake, Kanda put up his hand. "Wait. They'll notice if you just take a chunk off like that."

Her smile dropped off her face. "But I don't have anything to cut it with," she lamented.

Sigh. "Move aside," he ordered, drawing Mugen. Lenalee opened her mouth to say something, but he cut her off, "Don't worry, it's clean. I polished it earlier today."

She pouted. "I was going to ask you if you were sure you wanted to use your precious sword for such a little problem."

"Don't care," he grunted, neatly bringing Mugen down on the cake. His cut was so clean, you wouldn't have believed that someone had cut it if it wasn't for the long blade still stuck in the cake. "And… there," he said, sliding his sword out of the cake and wiping it on a towel before returning it to his sheath.

"Thanks, Kanda!" Lenalee eagerly took the piece off the plate and carefully broke it in half. "Here," she offered him.

"I hate chocolate. I hate sweets." He pushed back her proffered hand and sat down next to her, leaning against the cold cabinets.

"Alright, if you say so," Lenalee took a bite out of the light chocolately heaven. "Mmm," she licked some crumbs off her lips and settled back comfortably beside them, finishing off her half then starting on his.

After the last remnants of the piece of cake had been polished off her hands, she spoke aloud, "Should we go back to our rooms now?"

Her only reply was slow, even breathing. She turned her head to see Kanda's side profile, chin touching his chest and bangs obscuring his closed eyes. Mugen was propped against his shoulder. "Guess we're staying," she whispered, reaching out to sweep his hair to the side. Her finger had nearly stroked his dark navy hair when she stopped. No, getting her hand sliced off for violating his personal space without permission wouldn't be a good idea. She shifted so she was in front of him. Contrary to her expectations, his face retained a slight scowl even in sleep, as if his muscles had accepted a scowl as a permanent facial expression, even in a relaxed state.

She tried to imagine Kanda smiling, actually smiling. She pulled up a mental image of Kanda's face. Scowling. Okay, slowly lift up the corners of his mouth… No, it just didn't work; it seemed too unnatural. But surely he had smiled before, right? Surely he couldn't have been born scowling. She nearly giggled aloud at the thought of a scowling baby Kanda, angrily swinging around a rattle as a mock baby model of Mugen.

Dragging an oversized bag of flour next to the sleeping Kanda, Lenalee settled against it comfortably, tucking in her legs. She whispered, "Sweet dreams, or umm, since you don't like sweets, have nice dreams. Good night!"


Author's Note:

It's 1:15AM. My fingers are stumbling over each other as I write this, but you've all waited long enough, so I promised myself I wouldn't go to sleep until this was finished. =D Happy early Christmas, dearest readers! An extra special thank you to the six of you who reviewed my last chapter, Soulless Ghosty, pika318, Death-N'-Hell, Midori Yoshida, animephoenix2468, and aleen-chan! Without you, this chapter would probably have been released a few weeks from now instead of now. =D

I hope this chapter finds you in the best of spirits, the merriest of moods! Happy Holidays and Happy New Year too! If your birthday also happens to be in the next few weeks, Happy Birthday as well! =D

Thanks for reading! Reviews always brighten my day. =)

~D.S.