Cross My Heart
Author's Note: Hi again! I've suddenly found myself with more time to write, as well as more inspiration! Maybe it's because November is Nation Novel Writing Month...I don't know, but I like it. I'm also celebrating the fact that I am no longer failing AP Calculus! Go math! XD
Anyway, I will do my best to update as often as I can, but I can make no promises.
Reviews:
E. R. Burke - I'm glad you like her. And goodness, you're making me blush! *^^* Oh, and updates will hopefully come quickly for the next month or two (kind of depends on school and soccer). Thanks for reading!
SeikaDragon - Thanks for clearing that up! I will admit that my Spanish is getting kind of rusty thanks to the fact that I don't have any free periods for Spanish class this year, so I appreciate all the help that I can get! And I'm also glad that you like my story!
Lathya - Ah yes...Kanda was SO tired because he was *cough* worried *cough*. Not that he would admit it or anything...even Kanda can be cute sometimes!
LenaleeLee01 - Thanks for your messages! I started writing this story when -Man went on hiatus just after the battle with the level 4 at Timothy's orphanage to pass the time until Hoshino-san updated again. I'm glad you like it!
Disclaimer: If I owned it, I wouldn't be writing for free for a fan fiction web site. I'd be raking in the cash with my mad drawing and writing skills. So yeah, Chloe, other OCs, and the plot belong to me, and I'm just borrowing the -Man characters to make my story better. Enough said.
One more note: This chapter is just a bunch of interaction between Kanda and Chloe, as well as a bit between Allen and Chloe. I wanted to give my poor OC a chance to heal a bit before another mission...anyway, enjoy!
Chapter 10: Melee
The spacious infirmary made Bellerose appear even smaller than she already was, Kanda decided as he watched the red-haired girl. It was unsettling to see someone he possibly considered an equal in strength (not that she would ever know that) in such a place. Humans were so fragile.
"How do you feel, Chloe?" Lenalee asked from her seat on Chloe's left.
"Better now that I'm not missing three pints of blood," the red-haired girl replied with a smile.
"I'd think so," Allen chipped in from his place at the foot of the bed.
"Is it true that Yuu-chan carried you all the way to the infirmary, Rouge-chan?" Lavi asked from beside Lenalee.
The three exorcists leaned forward in anticipation of Chloe's answer, and the red-haired girl flushed lightly while nodding.
"I was…indisposed, and Kanda didn't want me to slow him down, so…"
Chloe trailed off in mid-thought and turned her head towards the window.
"Aw, Yuu is so sweet!"
"Watch it, Usagi," Kanda growled while crossing his arms.
"Yuu-chan, you meanie!"
Chloe let out a sigh. Lavi could be such a child sometimes.
"As much as I hate to say this, I have to ask all of you to leave now," Matron said as she approached Chloe's bed. "I need to change Miss Bellerose's bandages, and I'm sure she would prefer to have it done in privacy."
Lenalee, Lavi, and Allen said a quick goodbye to Chloe before heading for the exit, but Kanda stayed behind. He had something he needed to confirm.
"Kanda-kun, if you are going to stay, please turn around," Matron ordered.
The Japanese exorcist refrained from rolling his eyes and obeyed nonetheless. It would be easier to get what he wanted if he indulged the woman's whims. He noticed Chloe's breathing hitch occasionally as Matron quickly wrapped fresh gauze bandages around her wounds, and he heard the sheets rustling when Bellerose's hands gripped them. She was still in pain even after a week of healing. Kanda vaguely wondered if all humans recovered at such a slow rate.
"Let me know if you need anything, Chloe," Matron said when she finished.
"I will. Thank you."
Matron shuffled away as Chloe settled back against the pillows, and Kanda turned back to face the red head.
"Why do you go so far for people you hardly know?" he finally asked after a few moments.
"I think that's the longest thing you've said to me since we met, Kanda."
"Stop being stupid, Bellerose."
Chloe smirked at Kanda.
"Sorry," she said. "It's what I've always been taught to do."
"You've been taught to risk bleeding to death to save people?"
"You could say that."
Kanda shook his head.
"You're an even bigger idiot than Moyashi."
"And your hair is twice as long as mine, making you more girly than me," Chloe said while sticking out her tongue.
It took every ounce of Kanda's will to keep from hitting the girl, and he could feel his left eye twitch when Chloe started to chuckle at him.
"Anything else, Kanda?" the red-haired girl asked once she regained her composure.
"Che. Just get healed already, Bellerose," Kanda replied while turning towards the exit.
"Aye, aye, el capitan."
He could hear the laughter in Chloe's voice and smiled slightly. She was going to be all right after all.
On most Sunday afternoons in the Order, everyone used their sanctioned "day of rest" to take some leisure time. The cafeteria stayed busy for most of the day, while the training area and the science department stayed mostly empty. No matter what function any one person served at Headquarters, he or she was allotted Sunday to rest and recuperate. In times of fierce battles against the Earl and his akuma, such luxuries as a day of rest were few in number, but Komui felt that everyone—not just the exorcists or the scientists—needed a break from work. No one objected.
However, this particular Sunday afternoon, most of the occupants of the Order could be found in one place.
"My God! Are those two even human?"
"I didn't know the human body could even move like that!"
Who could everyone be talking about?
"That girl…she's a monster!"
"Nah. It's just Rouge-chan."
Ah.
"BaKanda is getting his ass kicked…by a girl!"
"Allen-kun!"
"Sorry, Lenalee…"
Yes. On a nice, sunny Sunday afternoon, most of the Dark Order was crowded into the training area to watch Kanda Yuu and Chloe Bellerose beat the living daylights out of each other.
At first, Kanda and Chloe had only exchanged light blows that wouldn't even leave marks as a warm up, but as time progressed, they began to challenge each other with fancy footwork and other moves that the small group onlookers could barely follow. The random finders and scientists milling about the training area had quickly gathered around where Kanda and Chloe were "sparring," which in turn spread news of the match to the entire Order in a matter of minutes. A large crowd gathered around the training area, but the two exorcists were too engrossed in their fighting to pay much attention to anything else.
As in any good fight, bets were taken as to who would come out the victor of the match, and soon, two sides were formed around the training area. One side cheered enthusiastically for the red-haired newcomer, while the other side rooted for the familiar Japanese exorcist. Lavi, Lenalee, and Allen decided against picking a certain side (though Lavi did periodically shout, "Good one, Rouge-chan!" when Chloe landed a good hit against Kanda) but stayed to watch.
The two combatants appeared to be completely ignorant of the onlookers as they fought. They battled with such grace and fluidity that it seemed as if they were locked in a deadly dance with no clear ending. Ten minutes after the "warm up," Kanda and Chloe were still going strong and appeared to be evenly matched in speed and strength despite their differences in body type and size.
One of the finders on Kanda's side decided to try to solve this "problem" by tossing a bokken into the middle of the fight. Kanda easily caught the wooden training sword, and he turned to Chloe with a smirk. However, Chloe's "fans" (to keep from losing their hard earned money so early in the fight) managed to obtain a bokken for the red-haired girl as well, and Kanda and Chloe were facing off once again.
To the crowd's (and Kanda's) utter surprise, Chloe Bellerose was not only an excellent hand-to-hand fighter, but she was quite proficient at using a sword as well. While her style was not as elegant as Kanda's own, Chloe held her own against a fully trained samurai without much trouble. It was an amazing sight to witness.
From the two fighters' points of view, this match was nothing more than a way to release the stress that had been weighing them down for weeks on end. They hadn't planned on fighting for so long and with such a large amount of people watching them, but the thrill and adrenaline pumping through their veins wouldn't allow them to stop. Plus, neither of them really wanted to lose.
Twenty minutes after the match had "officially" started, Kanda and Chloe were standing on opposite sides of the training area with tired, yet determined expressions on their faces. Chloe's bokken was split down the side and splintering. Kanda's weapon was cracked in the center and on the verge of breaking in half. Chloe's shirt and pants were torn, revealing patches of bruised or bloodied skin, and a large purple bruise was blossoming on her left cheek. Kanda's clothes and skin didn't look any better off than Chloe's, but he had also managed to lose his hair tie sometime during the match. He had a suspicious feeling that it was in Chloe's pocket, but the red-haired girl wasn't allowing him anywhere close enough to confirm it. Her technique was rough but had no openings whatsoever.
"I think it's about time we finished this," Chloe said while swiping at the hair falling into her eyes.
"Agreed."
"Terms?"
"Winner gets to order the loser around for a week."
Chloe shook her head.
"A day."
"Five."
"Three."
"Four."
"Two and a half."
Kanda nodded after a moment.
"You're on."
With the stakes in place, the crowd watched in anticipation as Kanda and Chloe prepared for the final charge. No one blinked or breathed.
Finally, after what felt like an eternity, Chloe's left foot moved forward a fraction of a millimeter, and Kanda reacted to the change by lunging towards the red-haired girl as fast as he could. The Japanese exorcist aimed a bone-crushing horizontal slash at Chloe's ribs, but the red-haired girl back flipped out of the way without hesitation. Kanda continued forward as Chloe landed and thrust the bokken in the girl's face in order to throw her off balance and gain the upper hand. Chloe sidestepped the attack and ducked underneath the slash that followed after it. She turned sharply on her heel and aimed a blow for Kanda's side, but the Japanese exorcist easily parried the bokken. Chloe broke the parry and lunged forward. She pulled back her right fist to punch Kanda and found her hand crushed in Kanda's left one. Both Kanda and Chloe took that opportunity to bring up their individual bokken for one last attack, and the crowd gasped when the fighting abruptly came to an end.
Kanda had his broken bokken pressed against Chloe's throat, and the tip of Chloe's shattered weapon was resting directly above Kanda's heart. Both would have been killing blows had they been using real swords.
"It's a tie. What do we do now?" Chloe asked after a moment.
"Whatever. Let's just take their money and get out of here," Kanda said while eying the crowd.
Chloe smirked and lowered her bokken.
"That's the best idea you've ever had, Kanda."
Lavi, Lenalee, and Allen recognized the evil expressions on the two exorcists' faces and hightailed it out of the training area as quickly as possible. The poor onlookers never saw it coming, and when they woke up a few minutes later, they realized that they had been completely cleaned out and that Kanda and Chloe were no where to be seen.
"Royal flush, gentlemen."
The group of finders surrounding the table sighed and reached into their pockets. Allen smirked as a small pile of crumbled bills landed in front of him. The sad thing was that he hadn't had to cheat much at all the past few rounds to win, but that was all right. He didn't want to give his poker secrets away just yet.
"Mind if I join in?"
Allen grinned when he saw Chloe standing beside the table.
"Sure. The blind is a shilling," the white-crowned exorcist replied.
The finders made room for the red-haired girl, and she reached into her pocket for the necessary coins as Allen dealt the cards. Once he finished, Allen glanced at his cards and resisted the urge to smirk. He wouldn't have to cheat much this round either.
The first two finders on Allen's left immediately folded, but Chloe and the final finder made bets. Allen decided it was worth trying to get as much money from his two opponents as possible and also made a bet. Chloe didn't object. The finder, however, let out a sigh and laid his cards down on the table. Allen flipped over three cards from the deck and placed them on the table in front of him. They were the jack of hearts, the queen of hearts, and the ace of spades. Allen had the eight of hearts and the nine of hearts, so he was set.
"Would you like to bet?" he asked Chloe.
The red-haired girl frowned slightly and raised the corner of her cards. She glanced up at Allen for a moment before reaching into her pocket once more.
"I'm all in," Chloe stated while dropping a large wad of bills down on the table.
Allen was speechless. There had to be at least…ten thousand pounds in that wad! He had to win!
"Same here," the British exorcist said as he pushed his own pile of hard-earned cash into the middle of the table.
"Flip, Mr. Dealer."
Allen could hardly contain his excitement as he reached for the deck. He flipped the top card and nearly squealed in joy. He laid the ten of hearts down on the table and proceeded to flip the final card. It was a mere two of clubs.
"All right, show," Allen said with a grin.
He just knew he had won! He felt sorry for his fellow exorcist, but the fact that such a large amount of money was about to be his…Chloe would deal with it in time.
Too bad Allen Walker wasn't prepared for a tiny setback in his plan.
"Royal straight flush," Chloe stated as she tossed her cards onto the table.
Allen felt his jaw drop as he stared at the ace of hearts and the king of hearts lying in front of him. Chloe had won.
"Mr. Dealer, are you going to show your cards?" the red-haired girl asked.
Allen resisted the urge to glare at the girl and gently laid his eight of hearts and nine of hearts face up on the table.
"Straight flush," he murmured.
"Sorry, Allen," Chloe said while reaching for the pile of money. "Looks like it's my win."
The British exorcist was speechless as he watched Chloe count the money she'd won. He had purposefully stacked the deck so that he would get a straight flush and everyone else would get low pairs. How did Chloe get such good cards?
"I want a rematch," Allen said as Chloe got to her feet.
"On another day, perhaps," the red-haired girl said.
She climbed over the bench and took a few steps towards the door before turning back around to face Allen.
"By the way," she began, "stacking only works if you know the order of the deck. Even with shuffling, some cards just tend to magically appear in certain places, if you know what I mean. And besides that, gambling is a sin."
With that said, Chloe walked out of the cafeteria, leaving a handful of extremely confused finders and a fuming British exorcist in her wake.
Kanda was, needless to say, surprised when he heard the "news."
"You beat Moyashi out of how much?"
Chloe stopped walking for a moment to do a mental calculation or two.
"I don't know…around twelve thousand pounds, I guess."
"You guess?"
The red head shrugged.
"I stopped counting after five thousand. Allen looked too heartbroken by then."
"What did his face look like?"
"Kind of depressed mixed together with surprised with anger added to it."
Chloe attempted to mimic Allen's expression, and Kanda couldn't help but smirk.
"Wish I'd been there."
"I feel bad for Allen."
"Don't. Moyashi'll get over it somehow."
"I hope you're right. I'd feel bad taking his not-so-hard-earned money from him if you weren't."
"Whatever, Bellerose. You know you don't feel bad at all."
Chloe glared at the Japanese exorcist.
"That's not true! Of course I—,"
"You had no qualms about taking the money from the crowd earlier, so why would you feel any different now?" Kanda asked with a smirk.
The red-haired girl opened and closed her mouth a few times as she contemplated an answer to the Japanese exorcist's question, but in the end, she gave up trying to find a reason and settled for glaring at him instead.
"It was your idea," Chloe finally murmured.
"What was that, Bellerose?"
The loudspeaker squealed loudly, interrupting Chloe's next comment, and both exorcists winced at the high-pitched noise grating at their eardrums.
"All exorcists report to Supervisor Komui Lee's office, immediately."
Kanda and Chloe exchanged glances. The red head shrugged her shoulders, and the Japanese exorcist rolled his eyes while turning around to head in the opposite direction they had been going. What could Komui possibly want this time?
And that's it! So, what do you think dear ole' Komui wants with the exorcists? (I don't even know, and I'm supposed to be the one writing this story...oops...)
So that's the update for now! There was no translation section this time, sadly. Maybe next time?
Anyway, I might be able to update again this weekend, but don't hold me to that! I might be getting out of school tomorrow to go to college for a day, but that just means all of the homework I left undone tonight will have to be done tomorrow along with tomorrow's work. Ain't high school great? Where's my diploma? I want to graduate already!
All right, rant done. Reviews are welcome, and thanks for reading!