The Wager

Part 10 - Yuu Kanda

Yuu Kanda believed in an orderly universe. There was a proper place for every object. There was a proper explanation for every action. There was a proper path for each life to follow. Yuu didn't spend all day dwelling on philosophy – his was the path of the warrior, after all, and warriors have better things to do than daydream – but he knew what he believed.

It was natural, then, that Yuu should feel irritation, even anger on occasion, when something seemed wrong or out-of-place. It was contrary to the way the world worked, or the way the world SHOULD work in any case. Contradictions were at the root of what annoyed him most about Allen Walker.

But Allen Walker was nothing more than a mild irritation to Yuu – a symbol of a far greater problem, like a tender scab of clotted blood concealing a deep and grievous wound.

That wound was Cross Marian.

A warrior of the highest caliber, who spent all his time gambling and carousing. Never a moment spent on training, and yet the man's skills stayed razor-sharp. A powerful leader, both as a general among the exorcists and as Allen Walker's teacher - Kanda might despise the beansprout, but his combat ability was first-rate, just like his master's. And yet despite his own authority, Cross never recognized the authority of anyone else. Cross Marian was a blight on the Black Order, a foul miasma spreading chaos and decadence wherever he went.

But he was also a general, and as much as Yuu despised the man, Yuu's sense of duty demanded his deference and his obedience. So when Yuu had received a summons – well, maybe it had been more of an invitation, but it amounted to the same thing – when Yuu had received a summons to join Cross for dinner, there had been no honorable way to refuse.

Yuu knocked on the door to the general's quarters. A voice answered him from within. "Is that you, Kanda? Please, won't you come in and join me?"

Yuu felt his eye twitch. Cross Marian being polite with him? Biting off a curse, he opened the door and stopped dead in his tracks.

Candlelight illuminated the general's quarters, coming from every corner of the room and giving Cross's furnishings a warm, yellowish glow. A heavy oak table filled the center of the room, and two elegant place settings sat across from one another. The smell of fresh bread and pan-seared filet mignon filled the air. To anyone else, Yuu was sure that the food arrayed on the table would make for a delicious feast. Yuu's own stomach rumbled in protest, craving soba.

Cross Marian sat at the table, his back to the door and a wineglass in hand. He didn't turn at the sound of Yuu's entry, but sipped languidly at his wine.

"Have you ever been to Portugal, Kanda?" Yuu slipped around the table and took the seat opposite from Cross. "The Portuguese own an archipelago – oh, about five hundred miles west of the mouth of the Mediterranean. The islands are called the Madeiras."

What on earth was the man talking about? Yuu looked longingly at the door.

"These islands, they really aren't good for much. For a while, the Portuguese grew first wheat and then sugarcane there, but they had to carve each acre of farmland out of the forests that riddle those islands. Then there wasn't enough rain, and they had to irrigate the land. Then, the Portuguese settled Brazil, off in the Americas, and even Madeira's sugarcane crops became obsolete."

This was pointless. Yuu didn't want to have to endure any more of this man's mad babbling. "With all due respect, General, did you summon me here for a geography lesson?" Yuu fought to keep the anger out of his voice, but it was difficult.

"Patience. Patience, Kanda." Cross Marian reached over the table to take Yuu's wineglass, and poured him a measure of the same dark-red vintage that the general himself was drinking. Yuu accepted the glass grudgingly when Cross offered it back to him, and out of politeness, took a small sip.

Cross smiled at Yuu, and continued undaunted. "So what were the Portuguese to do with these islands which had now lost so much of their practical value? They began producing wine. And, as it turns out, Madeira wine is perhaps the finest wine known to man. Because it ages in a tropical climate, the wine ferments differently than many other wines. It lasts longer, too. I don't know how much appreciation you have for wine, Kanda, but the vintage we're drinking is from 1746. It's more than one-and-a-half centuries old. Any other wine would have turned to vinegar long before now, but not a Madeira."

Yuu noticed belatedly that he had been tasting the wine all through Cross's explanation. The glass was now more than half gone. Worse still, Yuu found that he wanted more.

Well, if Cross was so proud of his wine, how would he feel if Yuu treated it like any other beverage. Yuu raised the glass to his lips and tipped his head back, draining the wine quickly. He banged the wineglass back onto the table, making the silverware jump a little. "It's very good, General. But if you wouldn't mind, please, telling me why you wanted to see me?" The forced civility made Yuu want to rip out his own tongue.

Cross gave him a mysterious smile. "Oh, I just thought we could spend some time together and talk. My apprentice tells me wonderful things about you, Kanda."

For some reason, Yuu very much doubted that. He wished that calling a man a liar to his face wasn't considered uncivil. "He's… well-trained, General."

Cross laughed and leaned across the table. "He's a brat, Kanda, and we both know it. Why are you being so nice to me?"

Yuu flushed, glaring back at the man. "Because you're a general." After a pause, "Sir."

"Oh, don't let that stop you. I can see how hard it is for you to bottle up your anger. Yuu-kun."

Heat suffused Yuu's face, suffused his whole body. But where he should have been angry, he felt… something else, something he couldn't quite place. Yuu's mind just wouldn't seem to stay focused on Cross Marian. For some reason, he kept having the oddest thoughts about Lenalee. "I… I… hate… you," Yuu croaked weakly.

"Working already?" Cross rubbed his chin, pleased. "Reever said strong emotion would speed up the effects, but I never thought the drug would activate this quickly."

"Drug," Yuu mumbled, "What drug? What did you do to me, you bastard?" Lenalee flashed through his thoughts again, but he tried to push her away.

"Oh, I just slipped a little something into the wine bottle after pouring myself a glass. I'm glad Madeira keeps, because I plan on making that bottle last as long as I can, now. It's just a little drug the science division cooked up for me, something to make sure you're sufficiently… pliable… to go along with what I have in mind."

Yuu knew he should feel horrified. He knew he should feel angry. Instead he felt… aroused. "Wh- why," he stuttered. Words didn't seem to form correctly anymore. He opened his mouth to ask again, but all that came out was a shivering moan.

"Why? Because I made a bet with Klaud, of course. I told her I'd prove you were a girl within three weeks, and tonight is three weeks from the night we made the wager. And this time, Yuu, nobody's going to keep me from proving it." Cross stood and began walking around the table toward Yuu.

Yuu felt a thin thread of fear tinge the needful longing coursing through his veins. He raised his hand weakly, praying that he could fend off Cross's advances, but his eyes clouded over and he lost sight of the room around him. Instead, Yuu found himself facing a vision of Lenalee, nude and as flushed as Yuu himself felt. Why was he seeing Lenalee? Lenalee was a friend, a good friend but nothing more. Why was she caressing his cheek? An involuntary thrill shot up Yuu's spine. Lenalee would never do something like that, and a part of him knew he wanted her to.

Yuu opened his mouth to protest to the illusion. It wasn't right. It wasn't proper. Instead, he found himself leaping from his chair, pressing his lips hungrily to her own. Yuu felt her tongue slip into his mouth, gently twining with his own. He felt a hand tracing down his chest, sliding into the waist of his trousers.

Yuu only lost four buttons getting his shirt off.

Cross had to force Kanda's arms away as he laid the whimpering youth on the king-sized bed in the corner of his quarters. When Kanda had torn off the shirt, Cross had been surprised to see how small the young exorcist's breasts were. He had expected more, else why did Kanda bother with chest-binding so often? Still, Cross was confident he would win his wager.

Cross gripped the waist of Kanda's trousers and pulled down firmly.

"Oho?"

Kanda squirmed uncomfortably on the bed. Cross caressed the exorcist's stomach calmingly.

"Klaud is going to love this," Cross muttered to himself. "And who would have thought the little Japanese boy would be this well-endowed?"

He traced his hand down across Kanda's skin, until it encountered the rock-hard evidence that Cross had lost this particular bet. Cross teased Kanda gently with his fingers. Oh well. The boy was still beautiful. No sense letting the aphrodisiac go to waste just because he was the wrong gender.