Chapter 10
27th March 2014
"Parent-teacher conference?" said Allen, pausing halfway through a bite of his sandwich, "Next week?"
"Yeah," replied Lenalee, "I don't have one because my brother's a member of the staff and checks up on how I'm doing anyway. But you guys have to have one. It's compulsory or something."
"Yeah, Gramps is coming and I swear I'm seriously going to be murdered afterwards," said Lavi morosely, "Make the most of the time you have with me guys, because I won't be in this world for much longer," he turned to Allen but the British boy immediately held up a hand and said, "Whatever romantically involving thing you're going to ask me to do, I'm not doing it."
"Goddammit," said Lavi, snapping his fingers, "You've got me all figured out Brit. But seriously, you turning me down with your, like, British accent is a serious turn-on."
Allen shuddered and scooted along the step closer to Lenalee. Kanda groaned and snapped, "For fuck's sake rabbit, I didn't need to know that."
"What're you doing for the parent-teacher Yuu?" asked Lavi, ignoring Kanda's immediate protest at the sound of his first name, "Tiedoll coming? Or one of your brothers?"
"You have brothers?" said Allen with a frown, "Are they all irritating pricks like you or were you just an unlucky draw?"
"Shut the fuck up moyashi," snapped Kanda, "And they're not my brother's and that fucking psychotic geezer is not my dad by any stretch of the imagination."
"Can't choose your family Yuu!" said Lavi. Kanda glared at him and snapped, "Don't call me that and yes I fucking can because I seceded two years ago."
"Doesn't stop them from being related to you."
"How many fucking times do I have to tell you rabbit, we're not fucking related! Fucking foster kid here, remember? Fuck…"
"They're still you're family though. They still love you."
"No, they're now my stalkers. I'm going to have to get a fucking restraining order soon. The geezer keeps finding me while I'm on the street and tries to follow me home, yelling shit about 'as my father he has a right to know where I live now.' It's fucking annoying and I have to lose him every fucking time. If that's not classed as being fucking creepy I don't know what is."
"That is very strange behaviour for a parent," said Allen thoughtfully. Kanda waved a hand at him, "See? Even the moyashi gets it and his skull's not big enough to house a very large brain so it must be fucking obvious!"
Allen glared at him and snapped, "Even when I'm agreeing with you, you insult me. You must be the one of the most ungrateful arseholes on the planet!"
As Kanda flipped him the finger, Lenalee exclaimed, "Wow! You made Allen say a swear word other than 'bloody'. He must really not like you Kanda."
"Whoopdie-fucking-doo," muttered Kanda. Lenalee ignored him and asked, "But the school will still have sent Tiedoll a message about the conference right? How're you going to prevent him from seeing that?"
"His mailbox was raided yesterday morning just after the postman arrived," growled Kanda, "And a certain letter was burnt soon afterwards."
"You really don't want this conference to happen, do you?" laughed Lavi.
"No, I just don't want to see him, talk to him, or have anything to fucking do with him. Or any of them for that matter."
"What happens when the school sends him an email?"
"He doesn't have a fucking computer. Says they rot your brain or some shit like that."
This sent Lavi into a laughing fit. Once he was done he snickered, "Dude, is your foster-dad stuck in the Stone Age or something?"
"Ex foster-dad," growled Kanda, "And yeah, I'm pretty sure he is."
"Okay, so Kanda's trying to prevent his interview from happening and that's fine, sort of, not really," said Allen, "But I've got another issue. My legal guardian has gone AWOL and if the school finds out I'm going to be put into some torturous state home or something!"
"The school doesn't know that you're living alone?" said Lenalee incredulously, "How did you manage to hide something like that?"
"Vice Principal Link is covering for me," admitted the white haired boy, "But I don't know how he's going to explain if my guardian just doesn't show up to any events or check up on anything."
"How'd you get the vice principal to cover for you?" asked Lavi, disbelief in his tone, "He's like the biggest tight-ass in the school. Apart from the principal of course but still…"
"He's a family friend of mine," explained Allen, "I've known him since I was seven. He used to live in England as well and his parents were friends of my dad's."
"WHAT!?" yelled Lavi, sitting bolt upright and drawing a few curious looks from students sitting around them, "OUR VICE PRINCIPAL IS BRITISH AND NOBODY TOLD ME? HOW COULD I NOT KNOW THIS? WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK?"
"Calm the fuck down rabbit," snarled Kanda, "We didn't know either. He doesn't have a fucking accent."
"Well, he has been in Australia for six years now," said Allen, "Maybe he dropped his accent."
"No one can just drop their accent moyashi," said Kanda, shaking his head. Allen stared at him incredulously for a while before the Japanese boy snapped, "The fuck are you staring at me for?"
Allen glanced quickly at Lenalee who gave a quick shake of her head and he sighed, "Nothing. Forget it."
"Our vice principal is British…" murmured Lavi, "A fucking Brit. How is that possible?"
"The world is full of mysterious things Lavi," said Allen, patting the redhead on the shoulder, "You'll get used to revelations like that."
"I don't think you should stress about the whole parent-teacher thing Allen," said Lenalee comfortingly, "I'm sure the vice principal will have it covered somehow. But anyway, I have something I need to ask you all," once she was sure she had their attention she asked, "Would you guys like to form like, a study group sort of thing? Just the four of us and we can hang out at one of our places each time we meet. Cause, you know, exams are coming up soon, and I know Allen doesn't have them but he can tag along anyway because he's, well, Allen. And I also want to spend more time with you guys because you're all awesome."
"Fuckin' A Lenalady!" said Lavi with a grin, "I'm in!"
Allen shrugged and said, "Sure. I'd be happy to."
Kanda paused for a moment before turning his head to the side and saying, "Che. Why the fuck not?"
"Yay!" said Lenalee happily, clapping her hands, "Can we meet sometime next week a my house? My brother's being all weird and doesn't like me hanging out with you all because he doesn't know you. So I'm hoping that him meeting you will make him calm down a bit."
"The fuck?" snapped Kanda, turning to face her, "Your brother's known me for three years! Why's he being so fucking stupid still?"
"I think firstly, because you're male, and he doesn't trust males who are around me. Second, he hasn't gotten over the beaker incident."
"Oh, what the- Jesus, he needs to get the fuck over it."
"Hold on," said Allen, frowning, "I'm in his class. He knows me!"
"So am I man!" said Lavi pouting, "And I've been to your house a bunch of times. I thought we had established a bond of trust here!"
Lenalee shrugged an replied, "Like I said: He's being weird."
31st March 2014
On the Monday before the parent-teacher conferences began, after school Lenalee, her brother and the three boys piled into the Lees' car and drove off towards their house. Allen, being the smallest, was elected to be sat in the middle, jammed in between Kanda and Lavi. Kanda refused to look or even talk to him and Lavi kept trying to touch parts of the white haired boy's anatomy that he didn't want to be touched, so the entire car ride was a constant battle of trying to keep Lavi's hands to himself. The two Lees sat in the front, chattering about the school day and other things. Eventually, Lenalee turned around in her seat to face them and asked, "So, you guys are staying for dinner right?"
The three in the back looked confused for a moment, unsure whether they could when Komui said, "My darling sister just invited you all to dinner. It would be rude to turn her down."
There was something in the tone of his voice that made the three of them say in union, "Yes, I would like to stay for dinner thank you."
"Brother…" sighed Lenalee exasperatedly whilst Komui nodded approval. It turned out that the Lees lived in a terrace house in Fitzroy, which, Allen thought, was a very nice suburb. Most of the house were all heritage buildings built in the Victorian Era, and each had a very well tended garden. As they drove down the street she lived on, Lenalee explained that this area was mainly student housing because one of Melbourne's many universities was nearby. So it wasn't uncommon for there to be riotous parties at least once a week and for some reason some of the students had taken to hanging teddy bears by the neck from the tree in the Lees' front yard.
Lenalee's house had four storeys, including an attic, and was incredibly narrow. It looked old on the outside but the inside was actually incredibly modern. Allen had to admit that whoever designed this place did a very good job and the Lees had a tasteful eye for furnishings. The staircase to the upper levels was at the end of the corridor leading from the front doorway and just as Lenalee mounted it, Komui said, "Lenalee dear, may I have a talk with your friends for a moment?"
Lenalee groaned and said exasperatedly, "Brother! Don't, you're just going to embarrass yourself and me for that matter!"
"I'll try not to and it'll only be for a moment!" whined Komui. Lenalee stared at him for a moment before sighing and saying, "You're not going to let them come upstairs without having this talk, are you?"
Komui shook his head and Lenalee huffed, "Fine! But I expect them up in the attic in three minutes, alright?"
Komui nodded eagerly and the Chinese girl disappeared up the stairs, throwing an apologetic smile towards the three boys. Allen's face fell and he thought, Great. There goes our last line of defence.
Komui then turned on them, a very dangerous glint in his eyes as he said in a low voice, "Now. Let's have a little chat, shall we?"
"It's official!" said Lavi as the three of them came into the attic ten minutes later, "Your brother is crazy! Completely crazy! Bat-shit, too many roos loose in the top paddock, round the bend insane! Seriously, I could send him to court for some of the threats he made!"
"It sounded like he'd actually carry them out, too," said Allen, shuddering, "Lenalee, I hate to break it to you but the chance of you being allowed to have a boyfriend before you're thirty is pretty much zero."
"I know," groaned Lenalee, pinching the bridge of her nose, "Please to rub it in. God, he's so embarrassing. I'm really sorry about that. But I swear he gets better… sort of."
"Lenalee, there's a reason that whenever I come over we have to sneak in through the back window," growled Kanda, "Your brother's fucking insane."
Lenalee sighed, looking tired and embarrassed and opened her mouth to say something when Allen exclaimed, "Hold on! Lenalee… are you an Otaku?"
The walls of Lenalee's attic room were covered with posters of different animes and quiet a few good drawing that looked like Lenalee had done herself. One side of the room was covered with an enormous bookcase that not only supported novels but also dozens of volumes of manga, numerous anime DVDs and along the top, lots of anime plushies, lined in rows.
"Hm?" said Lenalee, following Allen's gaze, "Oh yeah, I love this stuff! Do you watch any?"
"Not really," said Allen, walking up to the wall to examine one of the drawings, "Did you do these fan art ones yourself?"
"Some of them," she replied, "But others were done by an artist I know. He's really good at drawing in this particular style."
"Allen," said Lavi, a warning note in his tone, "Don't get her started. It could go on for hours."
"Oh, I do not go on for that long!" protested Lenalee. Kanda folded his arms and said, "Che. Yes you do. Just like everyone one else in your goddamn fandom."
A/N: Yay! Civilisation! And you have to admit that Kanda's last comment is true about the majority of Otakus (myself included). See you next time!