Allen returned moments after Alma finished talking, which explained why his friends had all fallen silent. He kissed the top of Lenalee's head as he placed a plate down in front of her. She didn't pay much attention to the food, she was more intrigued by the martini glass he was offering. "Here, I thought you might need this."
She took the glass, sipping the bright green liquid tentatively. He wasn't wrong that the alcohol would help, though it actually would have been much more helpful before the biting conversation, but the drink he had brought confused her immensely. It was a green apple martini, her favorite cocktail. But they had never talked about drinking before. "Thanks... But, how did you know what I would like?"
He looked embarrassed and Alma laughed. The purple haired vampire spoke into Lenalee's ear as he gave Allen his chair back. "He didn't. Hevlaska did. Her matchmaking power works on food and drinks just like it does on blood. That's why she tends the bar."
Lenalee's attention finally focused on the plate Allen had set down: it held a mountain of golden fries and a bacon cheeseburger. The burger made her mouth water just from looking at it. Allen forced Alma away from her, not caring that the other vampire lost his balance in the process. "I kinda forgot you needed dinner, otherwise I would have taken you someplace nicer than this."
She couldn't help smiling at the sheepish look he gave her. "Don't worry about it. I already spend too much time at fancy restaurants. This looks great."
"It should be." Lavi stole a few fries from the plate. "Kevin makes great burgers."
The redhead froze as he reached for more fries. He let out a long, slow whistle. The others all turned to see the hot blonde he was making eyes at. After yelling, "Strike!" he got up from the table.
Lenalee turned her focus towards the table, mildly put off by the fact that the boys were still ogling the girl. "So what-?"
Allen smiled softly as he stuck a few fries in her open mouth. "Ssshhh. This is the good part!"
Curious as to what he meant, Lenalee turned back towards Lavi. They watched the redhead as he made his way through the crowd towards the blonde. He paused for a moment to adjust his hair, and then he approached her. It was too loud in the bar for the humans to hear, but the vampires all snickered when he said, "Can I borrow a quarter? I need to call my mother and tell her I found the girl I'm going to marry."
The blonde gave him a very disgusted look, scoffed, and turned away. Lavi didn't give up though. He moved back into her line of sight. "Come on, babe, I'm serious! There's something wrong with my cell phone. It doesn't have your number in it."
"Back off, creep." When he tried to follow her again, she threw her drink in his face.
Lavi returned to the table, and everyone moved to make it look like they weren't watching. He looked around, noted the half hidden smirks, and flopped into an empty chair. "Come on guys! Was it really that bad?"
Lenalee picked up her burger and took a big bite so she wouldn't have to answer. The others laughed at the redhead. Hard. Lavi shook his head at his friends. "You guys are mean. What about you Lenalee? My stuff's not as bad as they think, right?"
She laughed with her mouth full and ended up choking a little. "Dude, your lines are awful."
Her reaction disappointed the redhead and he sulked at her. "How can you say that? You didn't even hear them!"
Lenalee flung a fry at him. "I didn't have to. I've been hearing them for the past six months."
"But you said that they were cute!"
"I was humoring you so that I could pay for my books and leave." Lenalee smirked at him and took another bite of her burger.
The guys all laughed at the look on Lavi's face. All of them, and especially Allen, enjoyed seeing the redhead get taken down by Lenalee. Alma placed his hands on Lavi's shoulders. "See? We weren't lying when we said you suck at flirting."
Lavi crossed his arms over his chest and scowled at the wall. "Fine, fine. Can we change the subject now?"
"Of course!" Alma grinned. "So, Lenalee, how many guys did you date before our little Allen?"
Lenalee almost choked on another mouthful of food. She narrowed her eyes at the purple haired vampire. "I haven't told him that yet. What makes you think I'd tell you?"
Allen frowned at his friend. "Al-ma! You promised to be nice."
The table fell silent for a moment before Lavi smirked; he was back to his usual self now that the attention was on someone else. "Well I made no such promise. If you want me to keep your secrets and not pester her with embarrassing questions, then it's gonna cost you."
Lenalee smirked back. "And if you don't want me to tell him what you've already spilled, you'll shut up and do what he wants."
Alma oohed and Krory laughed. Lavi turned beet red and clasped his hands over his mouth. That was three times now that the new girl had made him feel stupid. "I'll just be shutting up now."
Allen smiled and leaned over to kiss Lenalee on the cheek. "You're amazing."
She hid her blush behind another bite of her burger. The boys began talking about something trivial, taking the unspoken hint that Lenalee wanted to be left alone while she finished eating.
When she was done, she sipped at her cocktail and leaned back in her chair. Allen's right hand found her left, and their fingers entwined. Seeing that her food was gone, the boys let their conversation drop, and once again, everyone's attention was on Lenalee. Lavi was the first to come up with a topic that he hoped wouldn't piss Allen off. "So, Lenalee. This has been nagging at me since the subject came up earlier. Have you ever been bitten?"
She frowned at her lap. "Once, when I was seven."
The three vampires all winced at the young age. Alma patted her shoulder. "What happened?"
Lenalee shuddered as the memory of the night her parents died flashed through her head. Her mumbled, "I don't want to talk about it", was drowned out by the sound of a chair clattering to the ground.
She looked up to see Allen visibly shaking. He was holding his right hand like it had been electrically shocked. He was glaring death at Alma and spoke through gritted teeth. "Why would you do that?"
Alma backed away from Lenalee quickly, moving around the table to hide behind Kanda. "I'm sorry! I didn't mean anything by it! It was an accident! I swear!"
Krory cleared his throat and forcibly changed the topic of conversation. "So Miss Lenalee, you're a senior, right? What are you studying?"
"Sociology. I'd like to work with foster children when I graduate." She answered the question, but couldn't help staring at Allen as he collected himself and righted his chair. He sat down but he didn't take her hand again.
The boys made generic conversation about their majors and school experiences, but Lenalee wasn't paying attention to what they were saying. She leaned towards Allen and whispered, "What just happened?"
It was clear that whatever it was had hit him hard. He was still shaking slightly as he shook his head at her. "Later."
She didn't press the issue. It was weird for her to see Allen freaked out like that. The Allen she knew was never fazed by anything.
With the subject effectively switched away from Lenalee's experience with vampire bites, the lively mood returned. Allen's friends began to act like they would if she wasn't there. Lenalee couldn't help watching their every move. They were clearly all normal twenty-somethings, despite the fact that at least two of them were immortal.
Lavi left the table a few more times to flirt with random women, but he always struck out and came back. Krory went off with a girl to have a drink. And the way Alma openly and incessantly flirted with Kanda even though the guy was clearly not interested, was both appalling and intriguing to Lenalee.
After hanging on the back of the Japanese man's chair didn't work, Alma went and sat on Kanda's lap. The navy haired man growled and shoved him off immediately. "Get the fuck off me. Do you want to get stabbed?"
Unfazed, Alma leaned in close and ran a hand up Kanda's thigh. His voice was husky and laced with sexual innuendo. "Absolutely. You can stab me with your weapon anytime, anywhere."
He suddenly gasped and doubled over, recoiling in pain from the punch Kanda delivered to his solar plexus. "Moron. Say that again and I'll hit somewhere a lot further south than that."
Alma looked as if he were going to do something that would get him hit again, but he was interrupted by Allen. The younger's tone was authoritative, like he was talking to a small child. "Alma. Sit down in your own chair. I don't want to have to clean up your blood."
The purple haired vampire sulked, but did what he was told. Allen's premonitions were not to be messed with. Kanda focused his glare on Allen. "Damn it, Moyashi. You ruined my fun. You're not supposed to use your power on us."
Allen stuck his tongue out at the Japanese man. "It reacts to violence all on its own. It's not my fault you set it off, Bakanda."
"You didn't have to warn the idiot! You could have let me teach him a lesson first!" The glare morphed into a scowl. At this point Kanda knew that Allen was right, and he was simply arguing because he could.
"And let you get us kicked out of the bar?" Allen's raised eyebrow was immediately followed by a snort. "No thank you. I've been kicked out of enough places for one day."
Kanda scoffed. "Like you've ever been thrown out of anywhere in your entire life. You'd just charm your way out of it, like you do with everything else."
"Actually, I can think of at least three gambling halls that he's not allowed to show his face at anymore." Lavi corrected.
Lenalee had been following the conversation fairly well up to that point, but now she was confused. "Why would you have gotten thrown out of a gambling hall?"
Allen blanched at the question. The others all laughed in amusement. Alma began petting Lenalee's hair. "So pretty."
She shoved him away. "Allen?"
The white haired vampire sighed and slumped back in his chair. "I may as well tell you. It's not like you haven't already seen that side of me."
Allen smiled darkly at her. "I am really good at cards. I never lose. Ever."
"Because you cheat." Lenalee caught what he hadn't said yet. It wasn't hard to put together, and it answered one of the questions she had forgotten to ask him the other day: Allen's card skills were the reason the Noah had recruited him.
"Yeah." This smile wasn't sheepish or embarrassed, it was proud. "I-"
"And that's enough of that." Krory received a glare from Allen when he interrupted. "She's got the picture now. There's no need for you to regale us with any of your gambling stories."
"Seriously buddy, we don't want to hear them." Lavi messed up Allen's hair, causing him to scowl.
Lenalee frowned. That was really odd. She thought that Allen's friends would want to try to embarrass him with those stories.
Allen swatted Lavi away and smoothed out his hair. He caught the slightest hint of concern on Kanda's face and realized what he'd almost accidentally said. "Fine. I get it. You don't like my stories. Killjoys."
Alma spoke quickly to keep the conversation going. "I guess that makes it your turn to ask the questions, Lenalee. Anything you want to know about us?"
She blushed lightly at being put on the spot, and asked the first question she could think of. "How do you all know each other?"
The innocent question was met with silence. They hadn't expected her to go straight to something so complicated. It wasn't like they could tell her they were all FBI consultants. And it wasn't until that moment that it occurred to them that they should have come up with a cover story to give her.
Allen laughed briefly before he started talking. The others sat back and let the professional liar make something up. If his story was believable then they'd go along with it. "Kanda runs a dojo. We've all taken classes from him over the past couple years."
Lenalee eyed the Japanese man skeptically. With his long navy hair pulled up into a ponytail, black trench coat, and torn jeans, he didn't fit her image of a martial arts master. "Really?"
Lavi laughed, he could tell what she was thinking; he'd thought it too when he first met Kanda. "Kanda's the best in the area. He's who you want to go to if you want to learn to defend yourself against vampires. The techniques he's developed are top notch."
It was an offhanded comment, not something he normally would have said in front of Kanda, but that didn't make it any less true. However, it did something that no one expected: it gave Alma an idea.
The purple haired vampire's eyes sparkled as he whispered something in Allen's ear. Allen shoved him away. "What? No way!"
Having heard the whisper, Krory spoke up. "That's actually not a bad idea." He said more, but he spoke lower than the humans could hear.
The three vampires proceeded to hold an inaudible conversation. It continued until Lavi got fed up. "Alright! That's enough of the secret vampire talk. Time to share with the rest of the group!"
There was one more whisper from Alma. Allen threw up his hands in defeat and scowled at him. "Fine! Fine! I see your point! But you have to suggest it. I'm not going to do it."
Alma smiled brightly at Kanda, making the Japanese man scowl and scoot away. "What the fuck do you want?"
The purple haired vampire sighed inwardly at the missed opportunity to flirt; he needed to focus on the issue at hand. "It occurred to me that maybe you would want to find some time in your schedule for her," he gestured at Lenalee. "She could probably use some self-defense training given what she does for a living."
It was a much more reasonable request than he had been expecting, and Kanda agreed on the spot. "I can do that."
Allen blinked; he didn't expect Kanda to be interested in doing him a favor. "Really?"
The Japanese man smirked at the vampire's surprise. "I assume you'll be paying me of course."
"Of course." Allen sighed. He should have known Kanda would have conditions. Money was at least a fair one. "Will Tuesday and Thursday mornings work?"
Kanda pulled out his cell phone and clicked through his calendar. "I can fit her in at either eight or eleven."
"Better do it at eight. She's got a class at noon."
Lenalee looked back and forth between the two. Everything was done and arranged before she had even processed that they were talking about her. "What did I just get signed up for?"
Her question received laughter as a response. After it was explained to her, she sighed. Their logic was hard to argue with, and she had to admit that the idea of self-defense classes intrigued her. Though she was unsure whether she should be be impressed or miffed that Allen knew her schedule that well.
She pulled out her phone to write it down, and gasped when she saw the time. "Is it really ten?"
Allen leaned over and looked at the display. "Apparently. I guess we should be getting you home."
.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.
Edited February 2017
