Triangle Chapter 09
Yahoo! Hika is back! After a week of writing nothing I had such a major writer's block when I started this chapter this morning, but as I got into it I found myself writing more than I intended... and the chapter became six and a half thousand words long D: woo! I just hope that it's not 6500 words of rubbish... my sister isn't here today to help me proof read it, so I'm sorry if it's awful! Dx Oh! And a HUGE thank you to my reviewers! Reviews are what keep me working (I know I keep saying this, but it's true!). Without reviews, this fic and I would die out and finish ;A; so THANK YOU!
I had a fantastic birthday, and I now also have a fantastic boyfriend :D so being 17 comes with loads of happiness straight away... but you probably don't care about stuff like that, I don't blame you though, it's kinda boring XD; so, on with the chapter!
Disclaimer: I do not own D.Gray-man. If I did, then Allen and Kanda would have had sex in the Ark. Repeatedly. Oho ;D
--
It had been a week since he'd attempted to talk to Allen Walker and tell him everything that he felt for him, a week since he'd been kissed by Lavi and nearly enjoyed it, a week since he'd backed out, gave up, on speaking to the Moyashi even after all of Lenalee's help and Lavi's apparent approval. He had failed.
Kanda stood in the doorway of the cafeteria, which was now decked out in many beautiful and elaborate decorations for the party that would take place later on that evening, watching the cursed boy that he cared for so much chatter away happily with Jerry the cook. He had a large smile on his face and was using his hands to exaggerate the point that he was trying to get across to the other man – they were apparently talking about food, as Allen was miming the size of something invisible and pretending to eat it while Jerry nodded enthusiastically and scribbled on a piece of paper that was clutched in his hand.
He had been all set to spill everything to the younger exorcist the week before, totally ready to confess and forget about his pride momentarily. So why hadn't he said anything? When he had left Lavi and then found Allen moments later as he was just about to enter his room, why had he just shut down everything in his heart and carried on walking by, only uttering a remark that sounded suspiciously like 'Damn Moyashi'? It made no damn sense to the Japanese man. If he'd just done as planned, then he could have saved himself a week's worth of angst and frustration and instead received a week's worth of kisses and loving moments. He blamed it all entirely on Lavi: that was the easiest option.
"Kanda!"
Kanda looked up from his feet – which he'd been staring at for the last few seconds – and his gaze met that of Allen's. He felt his breath catch in his chest briefly and the adrenalin begin to pump through his body at a crazy fast pace, but his fake expression of boredom did not falter.
"What is it, Moyashi." He said, feigning a mood of anger that was not really present and glaring at the white haired boy from the other side of the vast room.
Allen tried his hardest to smile happily at his friend, wishing that he would come closer to him; after a week of being rudely ignored for reasons he could not begin to fathom, this was the most they had said to each other since the party was announced. "Can you come over here and give us a hand? Jerry says your input will help a lot-"
"Che. I'm busy." Kanda's reply was spat out harshly, absolutely not reflecting his desire to take a running jump over the tables that stood between the two of them and hug the exorcist until he nearly suffocated.
Allen raised an eyebrow, the opaque star mark on his forehead lifting by a centimetre or two as he did so. "You're busy?" He said flatly, "Doing what? Blocking the doorway and looking grumpy? Wow, that looks difficult. Take your time with that, why don't you." He too managed to conceal what he was really thinking and what he really wanted to say with such expertise it scared him.
"I'll do my best." Kanda wanted to laugh at their short and bitchy exchange; regardless of whether Allen knew it was all intended to be in jest or not, the samurai found it to be amusing to say the least, as if they were behaving like a couple who were used to sarcastic verbal wars. "If you need someone, go and get the Usagi. I bet he'll love to help."
Allen looked at Jerry, who also found the conversation entertaining, and then looked back at Kanda with mild confusion written across his pale face. "Where is he anyway? I haven't seen him yet today. Is he on a mission? Or is he still in bed? He should be down here, ready to help if he's needed…"
"Che. Of course he's not on a mission, you idiot," Kanda said, almost rolling his eyes at the clear stupidity of the boy's remark, "No one is on missions at the moment. We're all needed here, remember? In case the Earl comes along and tries to take back that huge egg that Komui has locked up." Allen's face lit up as he recalled being told that, and Kanda found it irresistibly cute. "Think before you speak next time."
"Yeah, yeah, mother," Allen said, looking back at the list in Jerry's hands and writing something on it with the pen he swiped from the table beside him, "No need to nag. Leave that job to Lenalee, she's better at it."
Kanda opened his mouth to protest at being likened to a parent, but shut it again as he decided to let it go; being called mother was better than some of the other insults that Allen had come up with before. And then there was also Lenalee. He hadn't seen her since that day a week ago. Although he hated admitting it to himself, Kanda felt a deep-rooted fear whenever he thought of telling the girl that he hadn't talked to Allen about what the two of them felt for each other; memories of a hard-edged clipboard came to the surface of his thoughts when he imagined delivering news that she did not want to hear.
"Hey, Kanda-kun," Jerry called cheerfully, putting a stop to the long-distance conflict, "Come over here and stop being so antisocial. I need to hear what kind of food you want at this fancy do!"
"What's the point?" The Japanese man asked, "You know what I'm going to say. Just put my usual on the list."
Jerry whined loudly, sending shivers up Kanda's spine, and began prancing over to where he stood. Allen watched with wide eyes, wondering how the man would react. "Come on Kanda-kun! Don't be dull! Surprise us all and come up with some kind of fascinating food for me to cook to your liking!" He stopped short in front of the exorcist's face, grin still intact. "Please?"
Kanda took a step backwards to get away from the overly-happy cook and glanced at Allen, a unintentional look of pleading in his eyes that said 'get this idiot away from me!' Allen simply smiled at him, his silver eyes almost closing because of it. He wasn't going to help him out.
"Che, fine. Just get away from me first."
--
"And, and, there'll be tons of food! And music! And dancing! Oooh, and also slow-dancing!"
"I think slow-dancing comes under the dancing category, Lavi, they aren't really classed as two separate things as far as I know…"
"Yeah but, it's slow dancing. It's like, as intimate as sex, really."
"I don't quite think it is, to be honest…"
"Please, don't spoil my misguided hopes. It's as close to the real thing as I can ever hope to get with Yuu-chan."
Somehow, Lavi had managed to persuade Miranda into dropping her party-preparation-duties and come up to the library and hide in there with him. No matter how much he was looking forward to the event, the redhead didn't want to get involved with getting everything set up. Miranda had attempted to explain that he would feel a great sense of accomplishment if he did his part, but he wouldn't listen. Instead, Lavi had taken to getting himself worked up and excited to the point where he could barely keep his voice at a acceptable level to stay in the near-silent library. Poor Miranda wasn't sure how their conversation had turned into almost-sex with Kanda, and wasn't all that comfortable with where Lavi was going with the point he had made.
"But Lavi," she said, lightly touching his right knee in an attempt to bring him back down to earth, "I don't think Kanda-san would appreciate it if you let him know that you think of slow-dancing like that. He'd probably never speak to you again, or worse, he'd start thinking like how you do and try it on Allen-kun."
The apprentice Bookman had told the German woman all about what had happened after he'd left her in the library a week ago, and now the both of them were under the false pretence of Allen and Kanda now being an item since neither of them had seen the 'new couple' since they had apparently gotten together. That was the real reason why Lavi was avoiding preparation duties – he didn't want to see them together before it became inevitable.
"You're right," Lavi said, trying to keep his positive spirit up and dispel all mental images of his two friends embracing on a colourfully-lit dance floor. "I won't let him know about it. But still, if he found out, can you imagine the face he would pull? I think it'd look something like this-" the redhead then proceeded to arrange his facial features to match the expression that the Japanese samurai would most definitely display – eyebrows furrowed together, the one uncovered eye wide and pupil slightly dilated from poorly-hidden shock, and mouth slightly open as if trying to form words of disgust. Miranda laughed hard at his impression, barely able to look at her friend.
"Oh, Lavi," she nearly wept, holding a hand to her mouth to try and cease the laughter, "that's so good! You look just like Kanda-san like that! It's so accurate!"
"Of course," Lavi said, grinning and letting his usual smile return quickly, "of course it is."
"You know him pretty well, don't you?" Miranda smiled, the waves of laughter still coming, but slowing down now that Lavi had stopped looking like Kanda.
"Yup, I even have a degree in Kanda-ism. It hangs on my wall in my room for all to see. I passed it easily, of course."
The female exorcist almost believed him when he said that – knowing Lavi, it was more likely than the usual person would think. "Have you now." She said, teasing, "I'd like to see it some time." Lavi smiled at her, showing his two rows of white teeth, unsure whether or not she was taking him seriously or not. He decided not to question her about it.
It was partially true. If there had been a qualification in how well someone could recognise the body language of Kanda and see through the front that he put on, then Lavi would score a perfect one hundred percent for sure. He spent most of his time thinking about Kanda, stalking Kanda, trying to talk to Kanda, accidentally-on-purpose having to shower with Kanda in the communal shower room… the list went on and on. Not being able to do any of those things for the last seven days was pure agony for the Bookman. No matter how he longed to at least catch a glimpse of the person he loved, Lavi would not allow himself to do so in case there was a certain white haired exorcist there with him.
The sensation of a warm index finger prodding him delicately in the cheek brought a halt to his stream of Kanda-orientated thoughts; Lavi's unfocused eye snapped awake and alert, settling on Miranda's calm features as he made himself think only of her. She was here, now, in need of his attention more than the man who clearly didn't want him to linger over him. He flashed her a bright grin before she withdrew her finger back to her lap.
"Welcome back," the woman smiled, running her fingers through her hair once, twice, before threading them together with the digits of her other hand. "Were you thinking of someone in particular, by an chance?"
Lavi smiled sheepishly at her, a faint blush creeping over his cheeks as he scolded himself for being found out so easily. Miranda just smiled warmly.
"It's ok if you were, you know. I don't mind. You love him; it would be strange to not think about him regularly."
Lavi leaned back into the chair he was sitting on, blowing air up sharply through his lips and causing his red hair to flutter above his eyebrows. "Dammit, Miranda," he said, his eyes cast upwards, "Why couldn't we have fallen for each other? It's so unfair."
"Who? You and Kanda-san?" Miranda blinked expectantly at him.
"Nah, I mean you and me." He replied, looking at her now and winking cheekily. The German woman raised her eyebrows slightly in surprise. "We'd be so good together, don't you think? You're such a lovely person and all, and we get along really well, so… yeah… I can see you don't think it'd work."
Miranda was shaking her head slowly from side to side, her short ponytail brushing the sides of her neck softly. "I love you more than I ever thought possible, Lavi," she said gently, "But not in that way. And I know you don't see me like that too; you've said something like that before. Plus, you love Kanda-san, so it would be wrong to love someone else too. Love should be assigned to just one person at a time, I think." Lavi nodded his head in agreement, realising how stupid he'd been to say such a ridiculous thing to his friend.
"Yeah…" he said quietly, "forget I said anything, OK? Friends like us shouldn't be together. And you're right: I love Yuu-chan. I can't even consider being with someone else! Ahaha…"
Miranda nodded at him, and felt herself starting to become concerned with how much Lavi was bringing up this topic. How many times now had he made hints at wanting to get together with her? And how many times had they reached the agreement of it being unthinkable? It wouldn't work for a huge number of reasons and they both knew it, and yet he wouldn't drop the subject, despite being in love with someone else. No matter how much she tried to analyse his words and actions, she couldn't come to a clear conclusion due to so many of them conflicting and contradicting each other. It frustrated her a little bit.
"That's right," Miranda said and stood up, stretching her arms up behind her head, wrinkling her nose as she strained the muscles in her arms and released the stiffness that had built up in them, "You love Kanda-san. And right now, I think that the best thing you could do is go and find him. For all we know, we could be wrong – he might not be with Allen-kun. But because he admitted to you that he likes him, that complicates things quite a lot…"
"Yeah," Lavi said, reaching out to her with his right hand, his action clearly showing that he wanted her to pull him to his feet, "It complicates things way too much for my liking. If they're together then that's a huge problem for me, since I told him that if he got with Allen then I'd do nothing to break them up." Miranda gaped at him briefly at how maturely he'd handled the situation, and Lavi wiggled his fingers at her expectantly, silently demanding her to help him up. "But if they aren't together, then there's nothing to stop me from getting some dancing action tonight. Right?"
"Right," Miranda said, taking hold of her friend's outstretched hand and hoisting him up into a standing position beside herself, "Aside from the fact that he doesn't like you in the way you like him." It was better to be realistic at times like this rather than feeding him false hope.
"Ah," Lavi sighed, a somewhat happy and knowing smile on his face, "but Yuu-chan is a pushover. No really, he is!" Miranda had raised her eyebrows at that comment. "If I kick up a big enough fuss and embarrass him enough, then he'll give in and dance with me, no matter how much he doesn't wanna. Isn't he cute?"
'Cute' wasn't exactly the word Miranda would have used to describe the easily-angered exorcist, but she still smiled and nodded regardless. "Come on then," she said, taking hold of the Bookman's arm and giving it a tug by the elbow, "we've skived off enough for one day. Let's go and help everyone get everything ready before we get changed. There's only 5 hours left until it kicks off!"
Lavi chuckled as she led him to the stairs, thinking about how long it took women to get ready and make themselves pretty for special occasions. "You've changed, Miranda," he said affectionately, "And I think it suits you well."
She looked at him expectantly, wanting to know what he meant by 'you've changed', but she never found out. Lavi descended the stairs before she did and vanished out of sight before she could even open her mouth.
--
This was it, this was his chance, and he was going to do it. Damn it, he'd do it no matter what! He couldn't let it slip by; this was the first time in a week he'd been this close to him, and he wasn't going to put it to waste. He wasn't going to back down and give up, he wasn't going to run off blushing and ask Lenalee instead. He was going to ask Kanda.
It had been so sudden and unprompted that Allen wasn't even sure if he fully believed in what he'd been told; when Jerry had somehow, miraculously, made Kanda go and move some tables to the sides of the room so that a dance floor could be created, the cook had grabbed the white haired exorcist by the shoulders roughly and told him, very seriously, that every single exorcist needed a date for this Welcome Home celebration, and that it had to be with another exorcist – no Finder x Exorcist couples were allowed, not that that mattered to Allen, since he didn't know any of the Finders well enough to ask them to accompany him to the party.
The first person who'd sprung to mind had been Lenalee, which surprised him slightly, but he'd soon reasoned that she was his closest female friend and that a date consisted of two people, one male and one female. But then the Chinese girl was banished from his thoughts as he wondered if going with a feminine man could suffice instead.
He would do it. He would do it now. Allen was going to ask Kanda Yuu to be his date to the celebration.
No matter how rude he'd been lately, or how bitchy he was, or how mean he acted, Allen still liked him just as much as he'd told Lenalee. The guy was like a magnet, and Allen was a paperclip; he was constantly drawn to him, no matter how much he tried (or didn't try, in Allen's case) to refuse and get away. So this was it; he was going to ask him. Right. Now.
His legs shaking violently and the butterflies in his stomach flitting around so much that he was convinced they'd actually come flying out of his mouth if he opened it, the white haired boy stumbled over to where Kanda was still grumpily stacking tables, moaning to himself about doing pointless manual labour when Jerry was just as capable as he was to do such a menial task. The Japanese man didn't hear Allen the first time he said his name, but looked round at him when he was forced to repeat it.
"What do you want, Moyashi?" He asked, panting a little and leaning against the heavy table that he was supposed to be lifting up onto another to get it out of the way. "You here to help me with this? I think the tables are too heavy for someone like you, to be honest."
"BaKanda," Allen huffed, closing his eyes to the sight of a tired out Kanda and wishing he could stuff something into his ears so that he wouldn't be able to hear his friend breathing heavily in that seductive way, "Of course I'd be able to lift one of them. I'm pretty strong, you know."
"Oh yeah?" Kanda said, exhaling heavily and attempting to control his breathing, "Those things are damn difficult to move. I reckon each one of them weighs more than you do, or around the same. Try shifting more than twenty of them and then see how tired you are."
Allen's silvery eyes opened again so soon after closing, deciding that yes, he did want to see Kanda like that. He always wanted to see him, no matter how he looked or what he was doing. "That's the most you've said to me in a long time, Kanda," he said, the warmth in his heart coming through into his voice, "It's kinda… nice."
Kanda raised an eyebrow, also thinking about how much he enjoyed talking to the Sprout but refusing to show it. "Che. I'm talking to you about moving tables. It's not that fantastic."
'Yes, it is. Every time I speak to you it's like someone's set fire to my soul – I can't calm down.'
"Yeah, but it's still something," Allen replied, not wanting to fall into an argument so soon into the conversation. He had a reason to talk to Kanda now, and he wasn't going to use it up by fighting over tables and who was stronger. "I'm not here to help you with the tables, sorry. But I can give you a hand if you need it."
Kanda 'che'd at him and turned back to dragging the table closer to the wall, ready to stack on another. "If you're not here to help, then kindly go away. If I drive a table into you because you're in the way, then I'll get the blame and Komui will have a fit because he'll think it was deliberate. So get lost, Moyashi."
Kanda had to bite the inside of his mouth as punishment for saying the complete opposite of what he really wanted to say again. He didn't ease the grip on the soft flesh until he could taste the tangy flavour of his own blood on his tongue.
Allen knew what he was doing – he could see it clear as day even though Kanda was no longer facing him properly - but had no idea why. "Kanda!" He protested, grabbing him by the shoulders and turning him round to face him, "What're you doing? Don't bite your mouth, you idiot, it'll hurt! Here, open it for me, I'll take a look and see how bad it is."
"I don't need you to look, Moyashi," he said thickly, the blood flow increasing a little as he spoke, "this is nothing, and self-inflicted. It's punishment."
Allen's eyes widened. "Punishment? What've you done wrong to deserve self-punishment?" He paused momentarily. "Are you a masochist, Kanda?"
Kanda suppressed a laugh poorly, but masked it well by faking a hiccup. "No, Baka Moyashi, I'm not. This is necessary to… che, never mind. It's none of your business." His cold blue eyes met Allen's shining silver ones and he looked into them deeply, wondering if he could kiss the boy now and get away with it. He decided that it was highly unlikely, and did not act upon his thought. "You said you weren't here to help me. Was there actually a reason at all, or are you just bored and can't find Lavi to play with you?"
Allen's eyebrows met together as he frowned at the taller exorcist; he didn't play with Lavi, for God's sake. He merely had very interesting and extremely funny conversations with the guy, and occasionally chased Timcanpy with him.
"No," he said, slightly irritated, "that's not it. I was going to ask you something, but I don't think I'll bother now, not if you're going to be so… Kanda-like."
Kanda snorted, almost laughing again, and licked the inside of his cheek to try and cease the blood that was still leaking out of the wound. He didn't want Allen to leave so soon after arriving at his own free will. Wasn't the boy meant to like him? If he did, then why was he acting like this?
"Wait, Moyashi," Kanda said, surprising himself by how he was acting, "What were you going to ask? If there's something else that needs to be done then forget it; it's Lavi's turn to do some work here."
Allen grinned evilly, making the Japanese man feel slightly uncomfortable in his presence; his reverse psychology had worked on Kanda, for once. The cursed boy was a little shocked that it had actually proven effective.
"Well, if you want to know so badly…" he teased, tilting his head down a fraction and looking up at Kanda through his bangs as they fell into his eyes.
"Che, I don't want to know that badly," the samurai said, fighting the urge to pull Allen into his body and molest him for looking so damn adorable and gorgeous. "Don't tell if you don't want to."
"But I do want to," Allen said in the same tone of voice as before – almost whining and pleading: rather childish, Kanda thought.
"Go on then. I don't have all day; these tables won't move themselves." 'That'd be so cool if they could,' Kanda thought, imagining the tables walking over to the walls and settling there without him having to even budge an inch. He felt lazy today, for the first time ever. Maybe it was because he wasn't overly keen on doing something for Jerry.
Allen's cheeks suddenly flushed a pretty shade of pink as he realised that he was seconds away from asking Kanda out. Even though it was only to a gathering arranged by The Order and they would be around other people all night, it was still a date in Allen's mind – that was how Jerry had put it, and that's how it remained in the teenager's brain. A date with Kanda. He opened and closed his mouth several times before any sound emerged from his throat, the whining tone completely gone now.
"I… me-with… um… aha… Kanda, do you - no, wait, I mean…. Um… dance? Party, with the floor, and… yeah…" he stuttered, unable to make a full sentence that was even vaguely English.
Kanda couldn't fight it any longer; Allen was too much for the very tiny portion of him that reacted to anything funny today. His lips broke into a smile and he laughed quietly, eyebrows raised at the boy in amusement and disbelief. "What?" he said, unable to wipe the foreign facial expression off his features no matter how much he wanted to, "You want to party with the floor? You're strange, Moyashi. Did you eat something funny this morning?"
"No!" Allen protested, angry with himself for gabbling like an idiot, "I don't want to party with the floor! What the heck? That doesn't even make sense…"
"Che, you're the one who said it, Baka."
"Yeah, well you laughed at it, BaKanda."
Both exorcists stood in silence, staring at each other, unsure on how to act now; they'd both made fools of themselves in front of each other in some way, and felt equally ridiculous. The sounds of Jerry singing merrily to himself as he cooked in the kitchen reached their ears as they stood in silence.
"Anyway…" Kanda said quietly, coughing into his hand and glaring at Allen in an attempt to get back into his usual character, "You want to try saying that again? Without any of the stuttering, preferably – I'd like to understand what you're trying to say this time, if that's not too difficult."
Allen scowled at Kanda and unfortunately noticed that the top that he was wearing was skin-tight and sleeveless, showing off all of the deliciously tight muscles that were usually well hidden from view. 'Oh, great,' he thought with a small sigh, 'now I'm going to have to ask him while drooling over his gorgeous body…fantastic. Bloody brilliant.'
Kanda inclined his head to the left ever so slightly, not realising that in doing so the slight muscle in his neck became more defined than usual, and Allen found it harder to concentrate. "What now?" He asked, "You look like you're in pain, Moyashi."
"I'm fine!" Allen said, his voice sounding tense as he tried to focus only on the man's eyes and not his rapeable body. "I just got… sidetracked momentarily." He gripped his cursed black hand in his normal one, not paying attention to the sweat that had formed in his palm. "OK, I'll just say it, Kanda. Jerry told me just now that everyone has to go with someone else – a date, and-"
"Hang on," Kanda interrupted suddenly, resulting in Allen stopping in mid sentence with his mouth hanging open like a drugged person, "This is the first I've heard of this. Where did Jerry hear it from? Or has he just made it up himself?"
Allen's slack jaw slammed back up and came into contact with it's counterpart with a loud clack of his teeth hitting each other as he realised the obvious: Jerry had made it up on the spot. How dare he! He had no right to say anything like that! Allen relaxed slightly regardless of his indignant thoughts; now, he didn't have to ask Kanda to accompany him, but instead he would go and have some angry words with the currently singing cook. It was all going to be OK – he didn't need to panic anymore. He could just attend the party and confess to Kanda there when he forced him to dance with him – that had been his initial plan for several days now.
But, wait.
Allen looked at the Japanese man who was waiting for him to give his reply, a frown on his slightly feminine features. The white haired exorcist felt his heart squeeze as if a fist had grabbed it; he did want to go with Kanda – he wanted to have a date with the man, no matter how un-date like it really was. He wanted an excuse to be with him for as long as possible that evening.
"Jerry heard it from Komui," Allen said at last, fabricating the lie so well that he knew there was no way for Kanda to see through it, "Komui told Jerry to pass the message along because he knew that Jerry's more likely to see all of us before he does."
Kanda nodded, looking in the direction of the kitchen slightly suspiciously. "Sounds believable," he said, "But stupid. Why do we need dates? How annoying."
But that wasn't want the samurai was thinking at all. Inside, he was screaming with a kind of joy he didn't know he had within him; he wanted to run around in circles cheering, because in that second he'd figured out what Allen's question was. He wasn't dense – he now knew that the silver eyed boy was shy and nervous to ask him, him, to be his date. And if he actually did manage to pop the question before they both keeled over and died from old age, then the answer would be a fuck yes please.
"Yeah, annoying," Allen laughed lightly, his voice slightly higher pitched than usual, "It sure is… haha…"
They stood in silence, neither looking at the other and both finding their feet immensely interesting all of a sudden.
"So… you asked Lenalee yet?" Kanda said, going for the casual approach when he realised that Allen had rendered himself unable to speak.
The boy shook his head quickly and looked back up at Kanda, his eyes round and wide. "No!" he exclaimed, "No, I haven't. I don't want to go with Lenalee! I mean, no wait… it's not that I don't want to go with Lenalee, it's just that… there's someone else that I'd rather go with…"
'Lenalee was so right,' Kanda thought to himself as he chanced a glance up at Allen's blushing face, 'the Moyashi honestly likes me.'
Quietly, so quiet that Allen had to strain his ears to catch the softly spoken words, Kanda said, "Who is it that you want to go with, then?"
'It's now or never,' Allen told himself, feeling the heat in his cheeks rising considerably as he wet his slips to answer the samurai, 'do it!'
"Kanda," he said firmly, looking at his friend straight in the face, and then in the eyes when the man looked up at him properly, "I want to go with you. Will you please do me the honour of accompanying me tonight?" The last sentence was rather rushed, but Kanda heard it all the same. The man's blush then grew to match that of Allen's.
"Che," he said, looking away. "Do I have a choice? It's not like I have anyone else to go with. Don't want to go with the Baka-Usagi, that's for sure. And Lenalee will get the wrong idea if I ask her… and Miranda will cry if she gets something wrong. So… sure."
Allen's smile grew so huge that it threatened to swallow up his entire face. His eyes grew wide too, and he threw himself at the unsuspecting exorcist, hugging him tightly.
"Thank you, Kanda!" He squealed, wanting nothing more than to meet the lips that were dangerously close to his, "Thank you so much! This is going to be great!" He pushed himself up onto his toes and kissed Kanda's forehead clumsily, blushing brighter than the sun shone on a summer's day. "I'm gonna go tell Lenalee! See you when it starts!" He backed away hurriedly, turned around and ran out of the cafeteria, shouting "I'll come and get you later, OK?"
Kanda stood in shock, mouth hanging open, right hand reaching out in front of his body slightly as if trying to take hold of the younger exorcist who was no longer in the room. That had been so… rushed. "See you, then, Moyashi." He whispered, too shocked to cheer or scream or react in any way possible. Today was going too perfectly.
"Smooth," came a voice from beside him, making the Japanese man jump violently and spin round on the spot to see who had evilly snuck up on him without him noticing, "He really handled that well, didn't he?"
There, standing next to him, was none other than Lavi, the person who had avoided him for the last week. Kanda mouthed something, but no sound came out. "You're a bit out of character today, Yuu-chan," Lavi smiled, laying a hand on his friend's shoulder, "Normally, you would have shouted at me or hit me for sneaking up on you by now. Does Allen really have that much of an affect on you? Having a boyfriend must be nice…" the redhead deliberately added the 'boyfriend' bit as a test to see whether they really were together – if they were, he planned to take a huge pile of food up to his room that night and eat through it while ignoring the celebration. If they weren't… well, he wasn't entirely sure how he would behave tonight. It was more exciting that way.
"Boyfriend?!" Kanda almost shouted, wondering how Lavi had reached that conclusion, "The fucking Moyashi doesn't have a clue that I like him yet, so how could he possibly be my boyfriend? Baka-Usagi."
"Eh?" Lavi said, his mood rising heavenwards like steam from a kettle, "But last week, you were on your way to tell him how you felt-"
"I didn't do it." Kanda said shortly, folding his arms and not looking at the Bookman, who was now smiling, his eye glinting happily. "I couldn't. I lost my nerve after being assaulted by you."
Lavi nodded. "I see…" he said knowingly. "Well, like I said, if you two get together then I won't interfere. But until then, I can get away with this."
He placed a quick kiss on Kanda's lips but stepped away quickly, knowing full well that it was possible for him to be hit around now, but the punch never came. Kanda merely glowered at him, his bangs partially covering his dark eyes.
"Do that tonight in front of Allen, and I'll kill you." He said plainly, not redirecting his gaze even when Lavi drew close again. "I mean it. Stay away."
"Aww, you're no fun," Lavi said miserably, brushing the hair away from his love's eyes with long fingers and resenting the way Kanda had used the white haired boy's real name for once, "That just makes everything boring."
"Make yourself useful," Kanda said shortly, moving away from Lavi and striding towards the doorway, "and tell everyone that they need to attend with a date. Komui was meant to pass on the message but it seems like he hasn't." There was no way he'd be the only one turning up with a date that evening; that would make it so obvious that the two of them liked each other.
"Can I go with you, Yuu-chan?" The redhead asked hopefully to the man's retreating back.
"No. I'm taken."
Lavi scuffed the toe of his boot along the sparkling clean floor in annoyance, pissed off because Allen had beaten him to it. Still, there was always Miranda he could go with…
--
That wasn't too bad... was it? ;A; next chapter will have the actual party; I'm sorry it's taking so long to get there! Dx I'm having so much fun writing this fic again :3 I REALLY want to get Lavi and Miranda together, but then if I do then it'll no longer be a love triangle, which is the whole point of the story... we'll see how it goes, ne? ;D Review pretty please (if you want) :3!
