Warning: There might be some typos here and there (as usual), and a few grammar mistakes. (It makes me want a beta "sniff") Child abuse, etc.
Chapter 7
It had been three days since they had talked. After their quarrel Allen had only seen Kanda once when he had exited his apartment. The only recognition he had gotten was a glance in his direction, and a small 'huff', before Kanda had walked out the main entrance. Nothing that indicated that they only a few days earlier had gone to a circus together, had dinner together, and talked together like friends. The only thing that could ever point to their earlier 'friendship' was that Kanda was obviously ignoring him, and for a reason. A reason Allen didn't quite understand.
They had quarrelled, yes, but it was the kind of quarrel that was supposed to be forgotten the next day. At least, that was what it had been in Allen's eyes. But this was Kanda. One never knew how long he would stay mad, and when he would finally realize that what they were doing was childish, and get over it. Still, Allen knew how childish Kanda could be, and knew that he would have to take the first step if he wanted the situation to change. He just didn't know how he was supposed to talk to Kanda. He had only seen him once, and he had barely had any time to registrate Kanda's presence before he was gone. Whenever he tried to knock on his door, no one would answer, no matter what time a day he tried.
He was restless. No matter what he did, his mind would wander back to his neighbour and their confusing situation. Whenever he decided to take a walk, he would think of the day when he met Kanda and they went grocery shopping. Whenever he walked through the door and into the hallway in the apartment building, he would shoot glances at the first door to his left, the door to Kanda's apartment. Heck, even when he walked into his own apartment, he would think of the bloody idiot that lived underneath him because of their completely identical apartments. Really, why did that bastard have to be so stubborn and ignore him, instead of talking about it with him?
Fisting his hair, he pulled, though not enough to cause any pain. That man frustrated him so.
"Damn you, Kanda!" He half yelled, letting his frustration out. His outburst caused many people to turn and stare at him, stopping mid-sentence in the conversations they were having just to get a look at the weirdo who had interrupted them. He finally became aware of the fact that he was in the middle of a crowded street, and started walking hurriedly to avoid the gazes that followed him when he did.
Really, what kind of sane person suddenly blurted out random things in the middle of the street?
He blushed and looked down at his feet and let his hair fall and cover his face. He hated to be the centre of attention among people he didn't know. Not knowing what they were thinking, even though he could probably imagine what. It was what made it hard for him to meet new people, and get friends. Whenever people would look at him, it felt as if they could see right through him. See what he was. And therefore automatically detest him and avoid him.
No, he had never liked meeting people he didn't know, also meaning people his own age.
He couldn't remember the last time he had actually talked to someone of the same age as him. Or, there was one time when a boy had talked to him, asking him if he had seen a girl with short, light brown hair. Something which he hadn't, which had caused the boy to curse and run past him, not sparing him another look. Besides that, one could say that he was pretty clueless when it came to friends.
But then he had met Kanda. It would be wrong to say that Kanda was completely different from all the other young people he had met, since he knew that if they hadn't met a second time, there was no way they would ever have gotten this far. But still, he had gotten to know Kanda. Kanda had even been able to drag him out of the facade he had been hiding behind for the last months. Had made him angry, frustrated, offended...and happy. Why couldn't Kanda realize that he was grateful? Even though he didn't say it directly?
He came to a halt and looked around.
"I don't...remember this place." He said out loud to no one in particular. He had been so lost in thoughts he had forgotten that he actually was heading somewhere, and that 'somewhere' was no where in sight where he stood now. He didn't recognise the street name or the buildings in this area. It wasn't until now that he had noticed that there were no people around him anymore, and that he had entered a housing estate. No wonder it had suddenly gotten so quiet.
Almost wanting to bang his head into one of the street lamps to punish himself for his horrible sense of direction, he grimaced at the houses around him. How far away from the main street had he gotten? He hadn't been wandering for that long, had he?
He pulled his hair for the second time that day as small groans made their way through his teeth. He had no idea how he was supposed to get back now. The first thing he thought of was to just turn and follow the way he had come from, and he did just that. But when he came to a corner and looked down the side road it didn't help him one bit. Nothing looked familiar to him. He didn't remember which turns he had taken.
"Nooo.."
He had never been one to whine, but he felt really lost at the moment, and he had no way to contact anyone he knew that could help him either. He could almost feel a heavy cloud right above his head, watering him.
"Aren't you Kanda's neighbour?"
His gloomy mood snapped out of the rain cloud and back to earth as he heard the question. He turned to see Kanda's friend, the red-haired man who had insulted his masculinity the other day, with a bag that was carelessly resting on his shoulder. Allen didn't know if meeting this guy made him happy or more annoyed, but it did give him hopes of getting out of this maze.
"...yes."
A smile lit up on the red-head's face even before he answered and he walked up to him, his closeness causing Allen to take a step back.
"I knew it, I recognised the hair." He laughed, and pointed at his own hair to emphasize his point. Allen didn't make any indication that he knew the guy, still feeling a bit offended since the last time they met.
"What are you doing here? Don't you live on the other side of town?"
"I..." He wondered if he was going to tell the truth or make up a quick lie that would save him the humiliation. "I'm lost." His said before he could even think of anything else. He cursed himself in his mind as the red-head chuckled, trying to hold the laughs in. He had never been good at making up, and telling lies.
"Well then, I guess I have to show you the way then, don't I, Beansprout?"
Allen perked up at the nickname, for once not getting angry by it's use, rather feeling genuinely surprise that this man knew of it at all.
"How do you know about that?"
The man in front of him blinked. Maybe he had taken it for granted that he had only talked to Allen once before, and that he then had called him 'miss', and not 'Beansprout'. The boy grinned at him, his eye glinting with mischief.
"Why, from Yu-chan of course. He talks about you all the time you know. If I didn't know any better, I'd think he was in love with you."
Allen looked dumfounded as a small blush started forming in his cheeks.
"Yu...-chan?" He muttered, not knowing who he meant, though he had a feeling.
"Oh, that's right, you call him Kanda. I always forget he threatens to kill you if you call him Yu."
Face palming himself, the man didn't look like he actually meant what he said. That he was actually well aware of Kanda's strange habit of threatening people to death if they called him by his first name. Allen, who had never heard the name before, had to chuckle. 'Yu' was indeed something uncommon to call a child. That was most probably the reason why Kanda disliked people using it. Not that Allen understood that. Even though it was uncommon (and a tad bit funny, he admitted), a stoic person like Kanda shouldn't have any problem with people calling him that. But then again, Kanda's personality was a mystery to him, something he supposed it would continue being for a long time.
"So, shall I show you the way to the main street or do you want to continue daydreaming?"
His clouded vision came back into focus as the voice called him. He could feel heat starting to burn his cheeks again as he looked away in emerrassment.
"Y-yes please."
The red-head grinned again, and Allen wondered how his face still looked so smooth despite being stretched like that all the time.
"The name's Lavi by the way. Care to tell me yours? Yu-chan always calls you 'Beansprout' when he talks about you, but I doubt that's your real name."
Normally he would have gotten annoyed by that sort of joke, but he found that the part of information he had gotten was much more interesting.
"I'm Allen, and what do you mean 'when he talks about you'? Does Kanda...talk much about me?"
He would never even had considered that possibility if this man hadn't mentioned it. He thought that Kanda would most likely try to forget or ignore him as much as he could, which of course also meant that he would think as little as he could of him when Allen wasn't there with him. Or maybe he was just complaining to Lavi how annoying he was, and how much he hated him.
"Yeah, well, most of the time it goes like this; 'I met that fucking Beansprout today. He looked as fucked-up as always', or something similar."
He couldn't have been more right. That stupid idiot.
"Now, it's normal of Yu to come bitching to me, but I'm totally convinced that there is something more when it comes to you-in here."
Lavi took hold of his left arm and pulled him harshly into a smaller street which made Allen stumble and almost trip, if it hadn't been for the hard grip Lavi had on his arm. Lavi let go once he had found his balance, and they continued to walk.
«'Something more'?» He asked, wanting to know what Lavi really had meant with that statement.
Lavi looked at him. "Wha? Oh, right. Well it's just that, whenever we talk, he always manages to bring you into the conversation. Kinda makes me think he's in love, you know?"
"I-in love?"
Allen would have laughed had it not been for the 'not joking' look on Lavi's face as he said it. Allen could never picture Kanda being nice to anyone, much less in love. And if Kanda ever were to fall in love (Allen was really looking forward to that day), then it would definitively not be for a guy.
He let out a chuckle coated with too much sarcasm. "There's no way Kanda would be in love, much less in someone like me. I mean, by the way he acts I doubt he even like me. You know, like normal 'like'. So why you would think that Lavi, I have no idea."
Lavi shot him a look, but didn't join in his laughter. He just shrugged, as if he didn't really know what to believe.
"I've known Yu since we were kids, and I've never seen him that, well, hung up, on someone. He may not love you, but he sure as hell doesn't dislike you."
Allen had no answer to that. He had only known Kanda for a few weeks, and didn't really know anything about Kanda's past, or how he acted around other people. Except for those two kids he was bullying the other day, but that was his childish side. He didn't really know how he acted when he was together with friends, and what was normal for him or not. So, could it be that Lavi was right? That Kanda had, in some way, ended up interested in him?
No.
No way. That was simply impossible. It was Kanda they were talking about here. The guy who threatened to beat him up when they had barely just met, and who had thrown him out of his apartment right after he had nursed him and cleaned his wound. He hadn't known Kanda for that long, but he did know him well enough to say that there was no chance that Kanda would ever be gay.
Lavi being serious or not, there was no way he could believe that. Though, maybe it was true that Kanda didn't dislike him?
"Hmp.."
Having spaced out again, he didn't notice that Lavi had put his hand right in front of his face and he had walked straight into it. He looked angrily at Lavi, who was having a hard time to keep from laughing, as he rubbed his nose.
"What did you do that for?"
Lavi only grinned in return and pointed in front of him.
"We're back on the main street, baby."
And that they were. As it seemed, he hadn't wandered far. At least not as far as he thought he had. He knew where he was now, and how to get home. He let out a long sigh, matching the revealed expression on his face.
"Thank you Lavi, really."
Lavi grinned in return and would have ruffled Allen's hair, had he not moved out of the way.
"No problem, little guy. So, are you going home now?"
"No" Allen shook his head. "I need to do some shopping, why?"
"I was thinking of visiting Yu-chan, and since you two live in the same building I thought I might tag along with you."
Allen didn't know if he was surprised by the fact that Lavi actually seemed to enjoy his company, or the fact that he didn't seem to mind Lavi's.
"You can come with me if you want. I'm only going to buy some groceries, it'll be quick."
Lavi 'hmm'ed as he looked around before he flashed Allen the smile that only Lavi could make.
"Sweet."
---
He had tried to avoid the kid as much as possible. After their fight he had barely spent any time in his apartment, thinking that the boy would most likely try to visit him. He didn't have the slightest clue to why he wanted to avoid talking to the kid. His only reason was that whenever he thought about him, he would get this strange feeling in his gut that he had no idea what meant, and when he thought about meeting the kid face to face, that feeling got stronger. He didn't even remember when this had started, but he knew that it was after he had thrown the kid out of his apartment.
At first he thought it was guilt, and had just brushed it off. But the more he had thought about it, the less sense it made to him. The feeling never completely faded.
How was he supposed to train and meditate when whenever he tried to clear his mind a picture of that fucking kid would pop up in his mind?
Even now, as he was walking down the main street in town, he couldn't get his thoughts away from that brat. His original plan was to go to the Wal-Mart, but even that made him think about things he wanted to forget. Really, he just wanted to get rid of that feeling, and something told him that he would have to meet up with that Beansprout again to do that.
Perhaps he was going to knock on the kid's door later that day and ask-was that him there?
Kanda blinked. He had just pictured the boy in his head, but he could have sworn that he had seen a mop of white hair right at the same moment. He looked at the crowd where he knew he had seen it, and confirmed his suspicion. At the other side of the street was that mop of white hair that he loved to hate. Together with...was that the bastard Lavi? Hell, it was. What the fuck was he doing together with that damn Beansprout? Did they know each other that well? Was there something going on between them that he had missed?
He made a displeased sound as he watched the pair continue down the street, most likely on their way home to the kid's apartment. For some reason he couldn't explain he felt rage, and was it jealousy?, bubble in his chest as he watched them laughing together at some joke. The thought of that redhead being able to talk so freely with the kid when he couldn't was enough to make him want to deck that annoying redhead's face. What right did he have to talk to the Beansprout?
It took a while before he realized what he had just thought, and nearly face palmed himself for even touching a topic like that. Fuck, the brat wasn't his responsibility, and if he and the redhead wanted to hang out then hell if he cared. If they wanted to be BFFs then that wasn't his problem, and if they wanted to be gay for each other, he wouldn't mind. At least, that was what he was trying to convince himself of.
The feeling in his gut told a different story.
---
"Some groceries?"
Allen looked up from what he was doing to look questionably at Lavi. He had just gotten home from their little trip to town and were now standing outside the apartment building where he lived. Lavi, who had claimed he wanted to see Kanda and had followed him home, was no longer as empty handed as he had been when they had coincidentally met a few hours ago. When they had shopped, there was a lot of things Allen had discovered that he needed, like candles, cinnamon, frozen chicken breasts, iced coffee and sugar. Meaning that he had bought a bit more than he had planned. A bit more being three full plastic bags. In addition had they all been surprisingly heavy, and Lavi had to carry three out of the four bags he had bought.
"Eh?"
Lavi literarily dumped the three bags down on the floor as soon as they were inside the building and let out a huge sigh of relief.
"Don't 'eh' me, what made me your shopping cart? You could at least have taken one more, yours weights up to nothing." He demonstrated by lifting Allen's bag up with his middle finger alone, to which Allen only shrugged.
"You were the enthusiastic one at the Wal-Mart and wanted to carry them for me. How was I to know that yours were heavier than mine?"
A look settled upon Lavi's face that obviously said 'you saw the way I nearly had to drag them', which Allen decided to respond to with a small, sardonic smile. His hands joining behind his back, as a shy child would do.
"Sorry Lavi, I didn't mean to burden you. I can take them from here."
Allen knew very well that he had a certain ability to charm the person he was talking to with his (he hated to admit), childish (how he hated that word) appearance. Not many could resist the look of an innocent kid who were asking if he could have one of those caramels you were carrying. And that, Allen discovered, goes for Lavi too. Not too long after he had apologized Lavi had started shaking his head in denial. Clearly wanting Allen to believe that he hadn't done anything wrong.
"No, no, it's fine Allen-chan. I mean, I'm not the sexiest guy for nothing, right?"
"...what does being sexy have to do with carrying bags?" Allen asked. He didn't really see the connection at all. Lavi only winked at him in return as he hoisted the bags over his shoulder.
"Wouldn't you like to know."
Allen was tempted to say 'no, he wouldn't like that', but decided to let Lavi live in his dream world (where he obviously was the sexiest guy on earth) a little bit longer.
They were just about to walk up the stairs to Allen's apartment when the front door burst open. Most likely kicked by someone in a very bad mood. Which it seemed to be too, since the one who walked in was Kanda, who looked like this was the worst day of his life by the look of his face. To clear off some of the confusion; he didn't look sad or depressed, just down right angry. Scary angry.
"Eh, Kanda?" "There you are Yu-chan." They said simultaneously, both a bit surprised by the sudden entrance.
Kanda didn't answer them. Actually, he barely even registrated them as he started to look for his keys in his pockets.
"Hey, Yu-chan. Over here."
Lavi waved with his one free hand as he tried to get Kanda's attention. Nothing seemed to work on him however as Kanda found the right key, threw the door open and smacked it shut after him. Now this would have been normal Kanda behaviour, had he not locked the door from the inside right after he had closed it.
"Wha-?"
Both Allen and Lavi didn't know what to say after Kanda's little display. They were both staring at his door without having anything to say. Lavi was the first to break the silence by clearing his throat.
"Okaaay, awkward."
Allen couldn't have agreed more. But despite seeing how relaxed Lavi was, he couldn't help but feel that some of Kanda's anger was his fault. At least, that was what he was afraid of. He wanted to go talk to Kanda, he really did. But it seemed like Kanda was going to stay to his plan of keeping away from him. Why couldn't that stubborn idiot just give him a chance to talk, and maybe apologize if that was what he wanted.
"It seems like Yu is in a bad mood today. Not like that's the first time, but he surely knows how to kill the mood."
Nodding distantly, Allen shot the door a last look before he started moving towards the staircase.
"I'll help you with these, and then I'm going to check in on that killjoy."
That would have made sense, had Allen not just witnessed that Kanda had locked the door from the inside.
"But how are you going to open the door? I've got a feeling Kanda won't let you in just like that."
They were outside the door to his apartment and Allen was looking for his keyes. He really needed to buy a new keychain. The one he had now was about to break, and looked ragged and empty. The next time he went shopping he was going to buy a new chain and a few key rings to go with it, to make it a bit more...personal.
When they were inside, Lavi showed him a big fat, Cheshire cat grin, nearly making Allen wince at its mischiefness.
"I have my ways."
---
And the reason for why Lavi was able to to that?
Lavi had always been the biggest troublemaker at school. The only one comparable to Lavi was Daiysha Barry, Kanda's step brother. Whenever he had the chance he would play pranks at not only other students, but also teachers. There was one time, when the teachers had installed a new program on all the computers at school that kept surveillance, and made the teacher able to see what programs the students were using during class. Now, this would have been a wonderful tool for the teachers, if there hadn't been for a certain student that had hacked his teacher's computers and frozen the screens.
Everyone knew who had done it, but since the teachers couldn't prove that Lavi had done it, he escaped detention. Still, Lavi became some sort of local hero among the students after that (even though he does pranks on them too), and will remain so most probably even after he quits.
With this kind of background, locked doors was not supposed to be a bump in the road for Lavi. He had picked locks since third grade, so a lock like Kanda's was nothing.
"What the fu-Lavi? You shithead, what the fuck are you doing in my apartment. I remember locking that goddamn door."
"Yeah well, locks can't hold me back baby."
Strolling into the apartment, Lavi threw himself on the coach and let out a relieved sigh. His muscles were aching after carrying those unbelievable heavy bags.
Kanda had just taken a beer out of his refrigerator and gone into the living room, only to be met by a goddamn awful sight.
"Get the fuck out of my apartment!"
"Wow Yu-chan. Do you feel a strange sense of daijavu? It feels like I've seen this scenario before, do you feel it?"
"Fuck off!"
Kanda cursed the whole way over to the leaning chair and unceremoniously fell down in it. The last thing he wanted at the moment was to talk to Lavi, one of the two that was the cause of his bad mood. How the hell had he gotten in anyway? Had he picked his lock? The next time he went to town he had to make sure to get a new lock. Maybe an electronic one. He was sure the landlord wouldn't mind.
"So, Yu-chan."
He knew it was going to come, but that didn't make him any less angry.
"What kind of stick did you accidentaly sit on today, hm?"
If his beer hadn't been half full, he would have gladly thrown it in that punk-ass idiot's face. Regretably, that would be a waste of beer.
"A stick I wouldn't mind to beat the hell out of you with."
"Easy there big guy. But really, what's up with you? You scared the hell out of Allen back there."
Kanda shot him a look.
"Well, not really. But he seemed to feel a bit, I dunno, guilty?"
This time Kanda snorted.
"Serves him right. That little idiot always complicate things."
Now this had Lavi interested. He had always found Kanda's personality interesting (which might be the reason behind his constant nagging), and he knew that it had to be very good 'things' that Allen supposedly had complicated.
"What kind of things are you talking about Yu-chan? Care to share?"
"He fucking expected me to apologize to him after I saved his sorry little ass, when it was HE that was suppsoed to give ME a fucking apology. Spoiled brat."
"Waitwaitwait, wait. Saved him? From what exactly?"
Lavi could honestly say that he had no clue what Kanda was talking about. When was he supposed to have saved the little guy? There hadn't been anything dangerous happening in this town for weeks. He had read the newspapers everyday and there hadn't been any car-crashes, vases falling out of windows, or robberies as far as he knew. Wait, robberies. Hadn't there been an armed robbery just a few days back? The report had even said that one civilian had been shot, but that the civilian had refused to get medical help.
"Hell Yu-chan, were you guys involved in the robbery four days ago? Please say no."
Kanda raised an eyebrow at him. A bored look on his face that clearly said that he couldn't have cared less.
"So?"
"SO?" Lavi sprung to his feet and stared at Kanda in disbelief.
"Don't act like this is another daily event for you. You said you saved Allen. Did he get shot?"
"Would you fucking calm down? And no, that brat didn't get fucking shot. I covered him."
And just like that Lavi let out a sigh of relief and fell down on the couch again.
"Phew, don't scare me like that, man. It's not good for my heart."
"And the fact that I might have gotten shot didn't hit you at all?"
"You got shot?"
There was genuin surprise in Lavi's voice as he asked. That Kanda might have gotten shot hadn't hit him at all, for some strange reason. Not that he didn't care, but Kanda just seemed like someone who just wouldn't die on a whim. He knew it was weird to believe that, but he also knew that Allen had much less chance of survival in a situation like that.
Thud!
A dull sound reached their ears. They both looked up at the roof where the sound had come from, as if expecting it would suddenly just fall down.
They looked at each other.
"What was that?"
"How the fuck should I know?"
Another thud reached their ears, followed by another one. If Lavi didn't know better, he would say the sound reminded him of someone falling.
The next thing they heard surprised them both even more. It was the sound of heavy footsteps, that obviously did not belong to Allen, and the slamming of a door.
"What the fuck?"
Kanda ignored Lavi and made way for the hallway. He didn't know why, but that sound pissed him off.
"Yu, wait!"
But he didn't wait. He was outside Allen's door as fast as his legs could take him and nearly kicked the door when he found out it was locked. He didn't bother knocking.
Lavi was there not long after.
"Make yourself useful and open this now, fucker!"
Scowling, Lavi went over to the door with the bobby pin already in hand.
"Ai ai, captain."
The door opened with a few twists of Lavi's hand, and he barely had time to open the door after unlocking it before Kanda barged in.
"Hey, give me some credit, would you?" He yelled after him, even though he knew he'd be ignored.
Kanda didn't have to go far to discover the cause of all the ruckus. A quick look into the bedroom and he saw the Beansprout on the floor. The first thing he noticed was that his shirt was open, and sliding of his shoulders. The buttons that had been holding it together seemed to have been ripped off with brute force. The look on the kid's face told him that it had not been willingly. He looked scared and put off. Kanda could even see the beginning of a bruise on that usually white chin of his.
The boy looked at him as he entered the bedroom, a mix of confusion, sadness and relief shone in his eyes.
"K-Kanda?"
"Beansprout? What the fuck are you doing?"
Allen opened his mouth to answer, but before he had the chance to say anything the door opened wider and Kanda was able to see who else was in the room, and the cause of all this.
"Who the hell are you?"
AN: Sorry for the delay. But since this update was so late, I made it longer than normal. Yay! :D A total of 5292 words. I hope it lived up to the expectations. If you find anything that should be corrected (like typos, grammar mistakes, spelling mistakes, words I have used that doesn't really exist, etc), please let me know, 'k? Thanks!
And to those who read this story and likes it. If I get 13(+) reviews by Wednsday, then the next chapter will be up within Sunday the week after. You have my word. (Usually I don't do things like this, but it would be my first story to get more than 100 reviews ^^ it would be really cool~)
This time I'm going to answer every single review I get. (Unless it's anonymous of course). So I'm looking forward to it~
Thank you for reading :)
Btw: Anyone looking forward to the new chapter that will be out tomorrow? 8D I'm so excited, the fact that it's the first day of school doesn't even matter. I know it will take some time before it gets scanlated, but that won't take many days. ^^ And since Binktopia is going to scanlate it (or so I've heard), then there will be high quality too w I can barely wait!!!!
