7
Personal Umbrella
A Kanda Yuu love story
Chapter Nine-Weak souls
Jessica had immediately noticed a change in herself after a month of training. She was much fitter, for a start, which she had thought was nearly impossible, but as it turned out, she hadn't been that fit before, seeing as she had been reduced to being a teacher at the orphanage, and had only been sent out on missions when actual Akuma had been sighted. The second thing she noticed was that she ate a lot more and got up earlier to do so, which she found confusing, because, before now, she had been able to live for two weeks on two pieces of toast and a bowl of pasta.
There was also her uniform. She hadn't made any specific requests regarding it, but it had still turned out pretty cool. She had knee-length high-heel boots with white rubber soles and thick rubber, although she did trip over them occasionally; she also had creamy white pants that were thick and comfortable, with extra stitches here and there, and her coat had a zipper, unlike the others, and was more of a jacket than anything else, and was easy to move around in. It all went nicely with the charcoal-coloured tank top she had employed to wear with them. She had also added a belt with knives and other essentials around it, and two gunbelts around her mid-thighs.
The downside to these two improvements, however, was that Lavi stared at her wherever she went, and made flirtatious comments about her shoulder-length hair. The upside to this was that it was fun to punch him once he did; it released a lot of anger.
Jessica sighed and groaned in her bed. She didn't want to wake up yet, she'd just checked the clock and it was only four in the morning. She didn't need to get up for another hour and a half, and she wouldn't have, except she was hungry. She heard Lavi make quiet "aaaahh-pyew-pyew-pyew-pyew-pyew" sounds in his sleep. He was quite cute, really, when he wasn't being the most annoying person in existence. She groaned again and sat up, looking around the bedroom she shared with her three male associates. Allen was making involuntary movements, and Lavi seemed to be eating the blankets that were trailing from Allen's sleeping bag. She glanced around the room, looking for Kanda. She eventually found him, at the point as far away from the three of them as possible, snoring faintly, with his eyebrow twitching and his hair messy. Jessica giggled softly at the sight of the dishevelled samurai, and then sighed again, glancing at the clock. It was still four O'clock. She slipped her feet out of her bed and onto the cold timber floor, walking past the other three carefully. She opened the door to the bathroom, stepped softly inside, and glanced at the mirror. She was quite a mess. In fact, she looked just like a guy who had slept in and managed to bet two balloons taped to his chest. Her hair was messy, like a white-gold haystack, here eyes were half closed, and she wore a large grey T-Shirt with black and white striped pyjama pants. She gave a wide yawn and locked the door, lest perverted redheads decided they'd get up early to have a lech.
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Kanda was grumpy. Not just normal I-hate-you-annoying-people grumpy, but properly Jessica-got-up-before-me-and-wandered-off grumpy. He had woken to a completely empty room, probably due to his newfound tendencies to wake up at midnight and wander around in the grounds. He cursed under his breath and turned right towards the food hall.
Once he entered the food hall, he looked around to see if the Usagi or Moyashi were inside it. Luckily, they weren't, so he managed to walk up and order his soba in relative peace. His temporary peace of mind deflated slightly, however, when he noticed that the table furthest away from him was seating one pale blonde girl reading a history book and chewing absent-mindedly on a piece of toast. His anger rivalled with his sense of self-preservation, but lost in the end. He would not go over there and shout at her. There was no point.
It would make him feel a little better though.
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Jessica had been in for a very long, immensely boring day as soon as she opened her eyes. Life was like that when you woke up one morning to find your three roommates gone. She had expected to be woken up by Lavi's good-morning-glomp (she had taken to sleeping in lately) but instead had been woken up by the excited bounces of Lavi heading off to lunch. She grumbled as her feet hit the cold floor. She grumbled as she left the shower. She grumbled as she pulled on her clothes. She grumbled as she ate her brunch. She reminded herself to put room for grumbling on the schedule for the next day, and then she hurried towards the space where Kanda meditated every day.
It was the quietest place in the entire Headquarters; even birds would rather fly around than land in the eye line of Kanda Yuu. She arrived in the grounds in a flurry, and sat across from Kanda against the wall. She focussed all of her energy into the rock in front of her, trying her hardest to calm down. Her training commenced.
She ended up spending the rest of her afternoon focussing her Innocence into things, which was really quite easy once you'd done it a few times. She made the rock do a few loop-de-loops in mid-air, she made the tree rock backwards and forwards, in general, she bent everything to her will once it was turned into an Anti-Akuma weapon. At last she got bored with occupying mundane things, and stole Mugen from Kanda's side for a while. Not with his consent, of course, but he was quite surprised when she activated the First Illusion.
When the blue-purple of twilight crept through the windows and through the forest surrounding the Headquarters, Jessica stood up and walked past the other Exorcist to leave. She planned to go to the Library and switch her current book with one she'd had her eye on for a while.
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Kanda walked pat the Library on the way to his room. On his way past the door, however, he bumped into an extremely solid Something in thick heeled leather boots. The next thing he knew he was on his back and the space immediately in front of him was occupied by information about Vikings. He scrabbled to a sitting position, which was quite a feat, seeing as Jessica was trying to do the same. Kanda felt extremely annoyed as the blonde girl glared at him.
"Watch where you're going, you arrogant, conceited, ignorant idiot!" She growled, jumping to her feet and jaunting off, the book miraculously appearing in her hand.
Kanda growled an inaudible retort at the retreating back of his rival. Once she was gone, he looked around. There was no one there. Or anywhere, as a matter of fact. He stood up, confident that no one had seen him fall, and stalked off, ignoring the sniggering from behind the oak doors of the Library.
---
Jessica lay on her bed and flicked through her newly borrowed book. For some reason, she couldn't focus properly, her chest hurt. She'd already taken painkillers that day, but it still really hurt. She groaned and curled up on her bed, rocking backwards and forwards. Shit, it hurt. It felt as though her heart had been ripped out and replaced with molten lava. A single tear ran down her cheekbone and suddenly she was sobbing uncontrollably. It was almost midnight; she hadn't been able to sleep at all for the past week. She set the book on the table and rolled onto her stomach, releasing small sobs into her pillow. She stayed like this until her tears subsided. Once she was confident that she wasn't going to be reduced to a ball of confusion, she got up and wandered outside.
The halls of the Black Order were silent and empty. It cast a distinct air of spookiness over wandering around at night. It made you feel like a terrible murderer from a horror story. Jessica sighed and wandered on, her boots thudding faintly on the wooden floors. She eventually came to the door that led onto the grounds from the food hall. It was only a small door by the kitchen, but it served better than the huge entrance doors. She picked its lock and slipped outside, bathing her figure in the silver light. She turned and set off clockwise around the grounds, towards the sakura blossom tree on the other side.
Her casual mood changed, however, when she arrived at the tree. Sitting underneath it, watching her patiently, was Kanda. She took a step back in alarm, at the same time that he stood up. She could see that Kanda's eyes were slightly absent, as though he was acting purely on instinct. Then she felt it. A wave washed over her, a wave of pure possession, and for a few moments, she floated, with no feeling at all. When she overcame it, she was standing rather closer to Kanda than necessary. She lost herself again, for immeasurable amounts of time. It could have been hours, for all she knew in her bubble. She started banging against her mental walls once she realised what was happening. The self that was being controlled by something else was moving closer to Kanda, her eyelids fluttering closed. The Inner Jessica screamed. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no! NOOOOOO!!!! She yelled to the self that was breathing on Kanda's face.
"NOOOOOOO!!!" The physical Jessica screamed, stepping back and tripping over her feet.
Her scream seemed to wake Kanda from his possession, too, because he jumped and swore. Both Exorcists glared at each other, although the effect was lost slightly because of Jessica's blush. Eventually, Jessica stood up.
"I just want you to know," She said. "I wouldn't usually do that, and I had no desire to."
They looked at each other with mutual disgust.
"Agreed." Kanda growled sullenly.
"Good. Then I have nothing more to say to you." Jessica said, turning on her heel.
"Me either." Kanda muttered.
Jessica got as far as the corner before she realised her body was really hot. Too hot. She could see her skin, tomato red in the silver light. She felt very hot, too hot to move. She looked back at Kanda, but she couldn't see his face. Her eyelids fluttered closed as she felt her fever peak.
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A/N: No Authors comment today. Too bored, can't be stuffed.
Except: good news! I got 99% on my Japanese exam! Happy days are here again! And I got 83.5% (which was the highest mark in the class *sweatdrop*) in English! *happy dance*