A/N:Main reason why I struggled with this chapter is because it was just one of those chapters you have to write to get to the next part. (Like almost every second movie in a trilogy there needs to be that second one where it's usually crap or not as loved at the other two, but it serves a purpose of building up to the next movie) So honestly as you continue to read... I'm sorry if it's not that great as we get farther in I'm hoping things get better. I've also struggled to motivate myself to write this one because I am in the drafting stages of a fanfic that my beta and I have been planning and honestly it's on a topic I'm much more familiar and interested in than snowboarding ^^; (I do LOVE snowboarding but the next fanfic is on something... well that I've done TONS more research on XD)
Right so onto the mandatory stuffs:
Warning: Um... nothing major lots of language from Kanda mainly otherwise nothing else
Disclaimer: I do not claim to own D. Gray-Man or its characters those are all Hoshino-sensei's creations.
Enjoy!
[EDIT 12/1/12- I went through this chapter and just changed some minor things, mainly just the reporters name so that it was an actual DGM character, not some random name I came up with... ]
Chapter 10: An Unexpected Alliance
'Snowboarder Severely Injured'
'Snowboarding Wipeout'
'Is it the End of Kanda Yuu's Snowboarding Career?'
Lavi couldn't believe all of these articles. Almost every headline was about Kanda's fall, and each reporter made Kanda out to be some weak fragile thing that wouldn't be able to recover. "This isn't Yuu at all! Why do they write this stuff?" He threw down the newspaper he had been reading and looked across the table at his grandfather who simply sipped his tea and rolled his eyes at Lavi's outburst.
"Well for one it is their job to write that stuff, and secondly they don't know Kanda as well as we do." Lenalee spoke calmly but her eyes betrayed her feelings of sadness, they appeared bloodshot and puffy from crying so much earlier that day.
"Yeah, yeah I know… but still!" Lavi complained, but in his mind he could only wonder what had happened between Lenalee and Kanda earlier.
She hadn't said a word about it, and Kanda had almost ignored that he had even upset her. Before dinner Komui had approached the red haired skier asking why his beloved sister looked so upset. Lavi had said he could only guess that it was because of what had happened to Kanda.
Lavi was about to speak again when an Olympic aide came running into the mess hall, he saw Lavi and Lenalee and walked over to them, his steps were heavy and quick as he hurried over to them.
"Have any of you seen Allen Walker this evening?" The aide's face was tense and his breathing was heavy from having run clearly very far.
Lenalee was the first to speak up, shaking her head, "Not since this afternoon, he said he was going to be practicing on the half-pipe since the other course was closed."
The aide nodded in thanks and hurried off.
Lavi and Lenalee watched him run by the window towards the road that led to the half-pipe; confusion became written all over their faces as to why the committee would be looking for Allen.
"I wonder what that's about…" Lavi's voice trailed off, still not taking his eye off the window to the outside.
"Maybe Cross is looking for Allen?" Lenalee suggested and continued eating her dinner.
A cool breeze made Allen's silvery hair move around his face, his gray eyes looked out over the course ahead of him. He had said he would be practicing on the half-pipe, but really he just wanted time to think, and since Kanda was out of commission no one else would be practicing up there that late at night. He sat in the snow with his feet fastened to his board and his helmet beside his hip, at the top of the half-pipe.
He sighed and picked up his helmet, pushed the hair from his face then put his helmet onto his head. He then slid the goggles down from the top of the helmet over his eyes.
"I came all the way up here, I might as well do a few runs," Allen said to himself, his voice muffled behind his helmet.
The British snowboarder pushed himself up onto his feet and jumped a bit, to swerve his board vertically. With that he leaned forward slightly and let gravity take him down the starting slope. He leaned to the side a little as he reached the bottom of the slope, guiding his board over to the side of the pipe. The momentum of his board brought him quickly up the curved side of the pipe, giving him a large amount of air as he went over lip of the pipe.
Allen twisted himself in the air to bring himself back down onto the pipe facing forward. His board slid effortlessly across the smooth surface of the snow bringing him to the other side of the pipe, and he was brought up to the opposite lip of the pipe. He shoved off the side of the pipe and once he was freefalling in the air he twisted his body around and around. Impact; he felt his board hit the snow and let himself be brought back down into the center of the pipe.
"Walker! WAALKER!"
Allen blinked standing in the center of the half-pipe panting heavily was one of the Olympic aides, the one who had woken Allen up on the first day, Howard Link. As all of this went through Allen's head he remembered he had to actually stop himself from colliding with Link.
"Stop Walker! STOP!" Link's face looked worried as the albino swerved the snowboard horizontally, however the boy's momentum was too great and he was thrown forward right onto Link, who caught him.
The two fell onto the ground, Allen lying flat on top of Link, who winced and glared at Allen.
A muffled 'oof' was heard from Allen; he winced behind his goggles and helmet.
"Get… off!" Link bellowed shoving Allen off of him, then pushing himself up.
Allen sat on his knees, since his feet were still strapped his board, "Are you crazy? Why would you run in front of me like that, I could have run you over!"
Link raised an eyebrow, "What do you call what you just did then?"
Allen paused, as he pulled off his goggles and helmet and smiled a bit. He looked up at Link and said, "Breaking a fall."
"Whatever, look you need to come with me, Walker, I've been looking all over for you."
Allen fell back onto his rear letting his legs stretch out in front of himself, then leaned over and started to unstrap his feet from their bindings to the board. The small smile from his face faded, and he looked a little worried, "Why is something wrong?"
"I don't know," Link said flatly. He looked worn out and ran a hand through his blond bangs. "I have been… ordered… to bring you to see Kanda Yuu in the medical center."
Allen blinked; shocked; he definitely hadn't been expecting this, for a split second he was became worried Kanda had told the Olympic committee about the other night. "Why is something wrong with Kanda?"
Link hesitated then looked annoyed, "Just follow me okay? I don't have time to be doing this errand for Kanda Yuu anymore!"
The British snowboarder looked perplexed but nodded and stood up. "Alright let's go," He picked up his gear and followed Link down to the medical center. The whole way down Link remained quiet; he was clearly annoyed about having to find Allen for Kanda.
After leaving his equipment with Link in the lobby, Allen walked to Kanda's room. He knocked lightly on the door, worried about entering. Something seemed very off about having Kanda wanting to see him, again unless he wanted to beat Allen to a bloody pulp.
"Come in." A stern cold voice responded.
The white haired snowboarder pushed the door open slowly and peeked inside.
Kanda was sitting up in his bed; his eyes looked tired, but yet kept their same cold appearance. The Japanese's hair was down from what Allen had assumed to be his usual top knot-like pony tail; the ebony hair had fallen down around Kanda's shoulders, giving the same elegant contrast against his pale skin that Allen vaguely recalled from his one night stand with the older teen.
"Link said you wanted to see me…" Allen's voice was quiet and nervous as he entered the room, shutting the door softly behind himself.
Kanda nodded and looked Allen over, his navy eyes scanning over every inch of the albino it seemed.
After a moment of strained silence Kanda finally spoke, "I'm not one to forgive and forget, but I have very little choice in this situation right now."
Allen walked farther into the room, standing at the foot of Kanda's bed, the confusion that had already been written over his face only increased, his eyebrow rising slightly, "Situation? You mean your ankle?" Allen looked worried, "Look Kanda I know it's my fault but believe me I didn't know what I was doing that night! I had no intention of taking the medal from you-"
Kanda's dark eyes glared at Allen cutting him off. "That is not what this is about, Moyashi. I think for the sake of both of our careers you should sit down and let me talk."
Allen blinked, but obeyed and sat down in the single chair by Kanda's bed.
Once Allen was seated Kanda sighed. "I'm not going to gloss any of this over so I will get straight to it, you know our competitor, Tyki Mikk?"
The British teen nodded then paused, Does he know about what Tyki told me earlier today?
"On the night of the party when you…" Kanda seemed to hesitate almost hating to admit what had happened, "When you fucked me… he saw you carrying me out of the party. Tyki is smart, I will give him that, so when he saw both of us show up late to practice, and me limping he put two and two together and figured out what happened."
Allen paled, "H-he knows?! Then is he going to tell anyone?"
The older teen looked serious, "He hasn't yet but he is planning to, if you don't play right into his hands."
"Wait… me?"
"With me out of commission Tyki had one obstacle taken right out of his way, you are all that truly remains in that bastard's way of getting the gold medal, and he will play every card he has against you if he has to, so he can win." Kanda took in a deep breath, and let it out, "He told me he will blackmail you to drop out of the competition so that he can take first place." The Japanese snowboarder looked over at the other teen to see his reaction.
Allen looked down, he was silent for a moment then looked up at Kanda, a mask of resolve covered his face, "Then I will drop out, this competition is not worth all of this, besides I'm just the newbie anyways."
Kanda scoffed, "Idiot. That's not an option."
The albino looked confused, "What do you mean? It's the safest thing I can do!"
"I refuse to let that bastard win! I hate you for what you did to me Moyashi, but I refuse to let what you did to me, in your drunken horny state, allow that fucking bastard to win this competition!" Kanda glared at Allen, his dark eyes were filled with determination.
Allen couldn't explain the feeling those two dark eyes stirred within him with that single glare, but it certainly stirred something. The determination Kanda had to win created a spark in Allen and made him nod. "Alright, fine, if you know a way to beat him tell me."
Kanda looked pleased by Allen's response; the glare from his eyes faded and almost seemed to soften a little. "I've beaten him before, I know his tricks, you just need to learn them and learn how to counter them. In the end though all that matters is that you're faster than him and make it to that finish line before him."
Allen nodded again, he was prepared to listen to Kanda, and he wanted to gain Kanda's trust after he'd caused so much trouble for the other snowboarder.
Kanda looked at Allen, who was sitting beside his hospital bed, soaking in every word Kanda was saying about Tyki's style and tricks. "He'll try to make it look like an accident, by having his board knock yours, or by swerving so that snow spray distracts you, whenever you see him start moving in, you move away. If you see an opening speed up and cut him off," Kanda said.
He'd been going over all of the counters and tricks for over an hour now and he was getting tired. He knew he should let Allen go so that he'd be rested for practice the next morning but having the albino there shockingly calmed him a bit. He wouldn't admit it out loud, but Allen's presence and the conversation they were having distracted him from his busted ankle and from the pressures of everything else.
Allen covered his mouth as he yawned, and glanced at the clock in the room, it was past midnight now and he remembered that Link was still in the lobby with his gear.
Kanda caught the other snowboarder looking at the clock and sighed, "I think that's all I can tell you… watch him closely though. He will probably approach you about what happened to try his blackmailing. Keep a calm face and just act confused and deny anything happened, understand?"
Allen nodded, "He can't release anything to the press without better proof, and if anyone asks you about your… erm hips… I guess…"
"They got bruised from the fall." Kanda finished for him, also not comfortable with discussing what had really happened between them.
"Yeah that sounds good," Allen stood, "Well… uh… goodnight Kanda." As he turned to leave Kanda felt some strange emotion, what was it? Sadness? No that couldn't be it was just the moyashi leaving. It wasn't like the white haired idiot was anyone majorly important to him, except when it came to foiling Tyki's plans.
Kanda shook his head a bit and turned away as he heard the door close behind Allen. He wouldn't admit any feelings for Allen, the thought of even having such feelings seemed absurd to the Japanese snowboarder. He practically raped me! How could I ever have feelings for that idiot?!
Kanda lay back on his bed, the room was still lit and he couldn't sleep at all with it the bright hospital lights on around him. He reached for the remote to the television that hung from the ceiling on the other side of the room. After turning the television on he instantly wanted to turn it off but couldn't bring himself to, as he saw what was on.
"Going back to our main story for the day, we turn towards the Winter Olympics where a career crushing accident took place." The male reporter looked at the camera, speaking with a serious tone, "The legendary snowboarder, Yuu Kanda, took quiet a fall early this afternoon on a practice run for the downhill snowboarding competition. We go now to the slopes with Brigitte Fey for more on this story."
The screen cut to a pre-recorded clip of the mountains around the Olympic slopes, a woman's voice providing commentary over it, as she set the mood for the story, "The day started out like any other for the Japanese Athlete-"
Kanda watched the segment and scoffed a bit, "Hardly, bitch, hardly… I usually don't wake up butt sore!"
"-He showed up for practice a bit later than most of the other snowboarders, but so did the competition." A clip was shown of Allen talking with his coach who did not look pleased at all with his pupil. "The competition, Allen Walker a new British snowboarder, seemed to be struggling with the course as he began his runs, making others think this may be their day to prove themselves better than him." Another clip of Allen was shown, as he almost lost his balance on the course. Of course Kanda knew this was from him being hung over.
"Over an hour into practice and the previous Winter Olympic gold medalist finally appeared. He started out with what seemed to be amazing run as he went down the course faster than Walker had been going earlier. But that speed in the end turned out to be his fall," The screen now showed Kanda as he had begun his run down the slope, then they showed his crash though it was hard to see what happened with the cloud of snow debris he had created in his fall.
"After the crash many were shocked to see the Japanese gold medalist get back up and actually make his way down the course. Once at the bottom of the course he was taken to the medical center by the onsite emergency crew." The shot cut to the female reporter who had been doing commentary over the clips, she stood at the bottom of the previously mentioned course wearing a blue winter coat and holding a microphone in her hand, her short copper colored hair was pressed to her face from the cap she wore.
"Now after the crash the Olympic committee sent many of their safety inspectors to look at the slope to see if they could find any form of sabotage that could have taken place; however nothing was found. They believe that it was simply human error, on the snowboarder's part. This announcement by the committee shocked many fans because of Yuu Kanda's record of being almost perfect with his snowboarding maneuvers. We talked to Kanda's coach earlier today and he simply said he 'cannot think of any reason for Yuu's fall… he has been known to be able to stop himself from having accidents such as the one that happened today'."
The reporter paused for a moment and the previous male reporter's voice was heard asking a question, "So no one can really account for what caused the crash besides just a loss of concentration?"
Brigitte nodded, "That's right."
The male continued with his questions, "Do we know the status of Yuu Kanda at this moment? Will he be able to perform at all in the Olympics now?"
At this Brigitte consulted a slip of paper she held, "We found out from the Olympic committee that Yuu's condition is nothing life threatening however he did break his ankle badly, it seems, which they believe will prevent him from competing. This is really too bad for him since he was going to be competing in both the downhill and half-pipe snowboarding."
"Yes that truly is a shame," The male reporter said. "Has there been any idea now who might win, now that one of the lead competitors is out of the race?"
Brigitte smiled a bit at this question. "Many fans have said they still expect the new snowboarder, Allen Walker, to pull through with this competition, but after his runs today they are left unsure. However after today's practice runs someone new has appeared on top, that being Tyki Mikk from the Swiss team. In the previous Olympics he had come very close to winning however he was cut off by Yuu Kanda right towards the end of the race and came in second."
The screen cut to the male reporter, "Well we shall continue to watch this snowboarding competition at the Olympics with great interest. Thank you Brigitte."
Kanda turned off the television, he felt furious that no one seemed to believe he would be able to make a comeback, well no one except the Baka Usagi.
He threw the remote away from himself and heard it clatter on the floor. "I can't believe them! I'll show those idiots though… I'll prove them all wrong, including Lenalee!"
The clatter must have startled a nurse near the room because sure enough a nurse poked her head into the room, "Is everything alright, Mr. Kanda?" She spoke softly.
"No. I can't sleep with these damn lights on, Tch." He glared at the ceiling as he heard the nurse when she shuffled into the room and turned off the lights.
"There is that better?" She smiled a bit, keeping her voice calm and polite.
"Yeah, yeah, now leave." Kanda snapped at the nurse.
Startled she rushed from the room, closing the door softly behind her though.
The Japanese snowboarder let out a sigh and closed his eyes, "Finally, I can get some sleep already!" Though for the first hour as he tried to sleep he couldn't. There were too many things on his mind that he just couldn't ignore, the main one being the moyashi. Would the albino boy be able to out maneuver Tyki? Why was it that Kanda had suddenly felt some connection to the boy? He groaned a bit, not wanting to even think about the second question. He pushed it from his mind ignoring it. He didn't want to feel anything with that idiot, besides hate. The moyashi had so far only caused trouble for him and he wanted no more of it.
As for the first question, he hated to think it, but he knew all he could do is just have faith in the British snowboarder and hope that he had listened well to Kanda, and would be able to apply what he had been told to his snowboarding.
Allen had walked down the hall quickly to where he found Link sitting on a bench in the lobby, with Allen's snowboarding gear beside him.
"What's been taking you so long?!" Link had yelled, his face turning red with anger. He had stood up quickly and glared at Allen, "I have better things to do than search for you then sit by your stuff for over an hour!"
Allen grabbed his board and other gear from Link and smiled apologetically, "I'm sorry… Kanda had some serious stuff to talk to me about… and I kind of lost track of time."
Link had rolled his eyes at Allen then the two of them had left the medical center together. Soon the two split up since Link, in an annoyed tone, had told Allen he had a lot of work to do.
Allen trudged back to his room, his helmet tucked under his arm, holding his snowboarding boots in one hand and his board in the other. He looked up at the clear sky and smiled a little, he was glad that Kanda had suggested teaming up for a bit. Though the reasoning was just to protect their drunken mistake from the press, in Allen's eyes it would help him get closer to Kanda.
He didn't know why but Kanda fascinated him. Maybe it was that both of them had been orphans who had lost those closest to them or something like that, but Allen felt a connection with Kanda that for the moment he couldn't explain.
After a few minutes of walking Allen reached his room. He set his equipment against the wall as he unlocked the door. He then carried everything inside and shut the door with his foot.
When he saw the shape his bed was in a small blush rose in his cheeks. The blankets and sheets were twisted and all messed up across the bed and his clothes from the previous night were still thrown about the room.
Quickly he cleaned up the room, as if worried the police would come in searching for evidence to use against him in a rape case. He changed the sheets on the bed and threw the dirty ones into the hamper provided in the room. After he was done he looked around the room again to be sure he hadn't missed anything. He nodded upon seeing his now clean room, got changed into a loose night shirt and pants, and then collapsed onto the bed.
It had been a long hard day and tomorrow seemed like it was only going to get harder. Allen stared at the ceiling remembering the determination he had seen in Kanda's navy eyes. "I can do this… I can beat Tyki and make it up to Kanda. I promise I will… I promise to Mana." He held up his scarred hand's fist and made the pact with himself that he wouldn't back down. Ever since his adoptive father had died Allen had used him as a guide. If Allen ever made a promise to Mana he made sure to keep it, this promise would be no different from the others.
In three days when it was the final run for the downhill snowboarding, he, Allen Walker, would beat Tyki Mikk.
A/N: Well I hope that wasn't too bad for you XP As I said it's a chapter that needed to be there, I needed it there to build on Kanda and Allen's relationship and to set up for the final run of the downhill competition.
Oh and yeah... there was a little LinkxAllen in there... I don't like that couple that much but I have a friend who likes it so I was like "Pft what the heck I'll let Allen fall on Link and that's about it" XD
I will try hard to get going on the next chapter and have it out to you before the end of June, but no promises. However as we get closer to the end of June I give you permission to message me telling me *nicely!* to get the chapter out, because sometimes I just need to hear it from others to be motivated to write it.
Please leave constructive criticism please!
~Torra