Disclaimer: I do not own D. Gray-Man
Sorry for any grammar mistakes, especially on the Spanish. Oh, and I didn't provide translations for the Spanish, sorry, it's just late and I'm tired, but if you put them into Google translate they actually come out exactly as I wanted. I checked. I hate Google translate, but my knowledge of Spanish was not high enough to put together most of the sentences, simple as they were -_- Anyway, don't kill me, kill Google translate if they are utterly and entirely wrong.
Chapter 11: A Walk Down the Street
"How long has it been since we last saw a sign of the innocence?" Lavi complained, wiping a hand across her forehead, her hammer still clutched in her hand from their most recent run in with the Akuma. There seemed to be no end to the damn things. Whenever they finished one set of twenty, another set of forty would be waiting for them the next day. It was maddening.
Allen dropped onto the bed across from where his friend sat, falling back into the fluffy comforter. "A month. We may have not seen it, but the amount of Akuma says that the innocence is still somewhere in this town," he said, letting him mind drift into a half sleep. Even though he was still covered from head to toe in Akuma oil, he was too tired to give a single fuck.
"Where did the girls and Lovi go?" Antonio asked, walking into a room with a tray of tea. He set it on the side table beside Allen's head with a quiet clank. "Tea, you two?"
"Sure," Lavi mumbled, waving her hand about without much purpose. She didn't lift her head or even open her eyes to look at him.
Allen lifted his head just enough to catch a glimpse of Antonio. "They went to get some sweets. And, I think, to buy a new dress for Kanda. He's not gonna like that at all," he chuckled, eyes closing.
"I don't know why you're laughing. You're the one who's going to have to sleep with him tonight," Lavi quipped.
"Why do you do that?" Antonio asked before Allen could throw her a reply, holding out a cup to Lavi which she took without opening her one visible eye. He handed the next to the man he was talking to.
"Do what?" Allen asked as way of reply, voice distant.
"Use the pronoun he to describe Señorita Kanda. Is there something we don't know about her?" He waited for a long moment for his friend's answer, believing him to only be think, but when he turned, he found both Lavi and Allen sound asleep. Lavi snored loudly, her mouth agape, while Allen breathed deeply and quietly.
Laughing quietly, he shook his head. Stripping his friends of their sullied clothing so they wouldn't get Akuma oil all over the blankets, he tucked blankets around them. "I think I'll go find Lovi and the girls," he told his sleeping companions before slipping from the room.
...
"I don't need a dress, dammit!" Kanda shouted at Lenalee, struggling against Lovino's arms as he held her in place so Lenalee could hold a dress up to her front, comparing sizes.
"'Course you do," Lenalee countered, "Every cute girl needs a few dresses in her closet and I'm sure Allen will appreciate seeing you wearing one. Plus, these Spanish dresses are so cute." She grinned, pressing the dress to her front and spinning so the bottom flared out in an arc.
"Then buy it for yourself! Don't drag me into this!" Kanda shouted, glaring at her, "And stop using Beansprout against me!"
"Oh, but why would I do that when I know he's a good incentive? In other words, he works on you like sex does on Lavi." She smiled wider, turning to flip through the dresses the stall had hung up. "Maybe we could get some lingerie as well. Oh, Allen would really appreciate that."
Kanda raised an eyebrow at her, deciding she'd try and put that last comment out of her mind by turning the conversation towards her. "You bribe your boyfriend with sex?"
"All the time," Lenalee replied with that sweet innocent smile, "Now which would you rather have red, blue, black, purple or pink?"
Kanda sighed in resignation. "I don't care, blue or black. Do what you want, but let's get something to eat before you continue shopping." They'd only eaten around an hour before, but there was something her body was craving. She couldn't put her finger on what it was, and she had a feeling she really didn't want to why or for what she was craving.
Lenalee gave her a curious look. It wasn't exactly normal for Kanda to eat more than three meals a day, and sometimes not even that. "Well, we have those sweets we picked up to tempt Allen into doing a midnight patrol. You could have a few of those," she suggested as Lovino bartered with the stall owner in fluent Spanish. She opened the small bag of hard candy, holding it out to her.
"I hate sweets," Kanda gripped, wrinkling her nose at the bag, but her stomach thought differently of the idea. It growled loudly, trying to deny her claim it seemed. Denying her stomach, she turned her nose up at the bag. "I'm going to go find something else," she said, walking off without waiting for a reply.
Shrugging, Lenalee returned to her browsing. Kanda could handle herself perfectly fine so she knew there was no need to babysit the irritable samurai. The only thing she was really worried about was someone irritating the girl to the point that she drew her sword.
"Gracias," Lovino said with a flirtatious smile, taking the bag the stall owner offered to him. He turned and frowned. "Where did Manoscritto Kanda go?" He hurried across the road to Lenalee.
"He went to find something to eat. He went off that way," Lenalee replied, waving vaguely in the direction the other woman had disappeared. She ogled an ornately crafted rosary, running her fingers along the surface. She didn't care all that much for the religion it represented, but she could appreciate its beauty.
"Why do I have a feeling she's going to bump into Toni?" he asked aloud, looking to her with worry lines forming between his eyebrows.
She frowned, standing straight. "I don't know, but if that's going to be the case, we should find Kanda before that actually happens. He may be dating Allen, but people like Allen irritate him a lot. Antonio is Allen times two." They hurried down the road, but were quickly distracted by the bright colors of a stall.
Little did they know that far down the road, their fear was about to transpire in a more literal sense than they would have hoped. Kanda walked along at a leisurely pace, paying attention only to the food stalls lining the sides of the road, filling the air with the delicious scents of all different types of food. She collided with a very solid chest, reeling back and clutching her nose. "Dammit," she snarled, glaring up at the person she'd hit, "I'm going to ki… Antonio?" She came up short, her eyebrows pulling together.
"Oh, Señorita Kanda, I've been looking for you, Señorita Lenalee, and Lovi," Antonio said cheerily.
"Why? Did something happen? Is Allen alright?" she asked, her voice calm even as little spurts of panic flooded her system, the last question slipping out before she could contain it.
Antonio grinned. "Oh no, not at all. Well, Señor Allen is perfectly fine of course. He and Señorita Lavi just fell asleep," he explained quickly, waving his hands in dismissal, "So, what are you doing out here by yourself? Where are the other two? It's dangerous for a girl of your age and beauty."
"Tch," Kanda scoffed, turning her face away, but answered anyway. "I'm looking for something worth eating. The other two are down the street looking at the stalls buying shit we have no need for."
"Oh, I wouldn't say that, I'm sure the things are very important. I know some good food around here if you're willing to walk with me. Have you ever heard of paella?" Antonio asked enthusiastically, grabbing Kanda's wrist and pulling her along towards a stall with something that smelled of chicken and a variety of spices. A fine scented mist floated towards their faces, steam from the cooking.
"No," Kanda said without hostility and more curiosity, something that doesn't happen often.
"It's delicious," Antonio gushed, "It has red peppers and a handful of spices that aren't actually spicy, chicken, and rice. I think you'll like it."
They stood in line for all of five minutes before they'd finally reached the front of the line and were greeted with the smiling face of a young man. He had shockingly blonde hair and startling blue eyes. He looked Kanda up and down with an appreciative eye. He couldn't have been more than a year older than Antonio, if that. "¿Tu novia?" he asked Antonio in a thick French accent. He couldn't have been Spanish, but Antonio didn't seemed surprised to see him there.
Kanda didn't like the suggestive tone the man had to his words. She narrowed his eyes at him attempting in vain to understand the unfamiliar language. It was nothing like English or Japanese.
"No, ella es mi amiga," Antonio replied with a wry smile, "Mi novio está fuera con un amigo."
"Sabía que eras gay!" the man cackled, grinning at Antonio, "¿Cuántos?"
Antonio shook his head. "You would know. Dos," he said, switching to English for little more than a moment, holding up two fingers.
The man handed over two huge bowls that would have made Allen drool in anticipation, taking the money Antonio handed him in return. "Gracias. Y hermosa bonita, be safe!"
Kanda frowned at the man, muttering, "Thanks," before following Antonio back the way they'd come, "Why can't you people just pick one language to speak in, Jesus."
"Because it's more fun this way," Antonio replied cheerfully, "Though why he was here…" He trailed off, letting his words disappear into his own thoughts.
They ate in a surprisingly comfortable silence occasionally commenting on an overly colorful stall or a particularly interesting person on the street. "Hey, there you two are!" they heard Lenalee's voice call. Glancing up, they were greeted with the sight of Lenalee waving for them over the heads of the throng of people, and Lovino laden with bags stuffed full with clothes.
"We were looking for you," Antonio called back, waving his fork above his head. Well, it wasn't a completely lie was least.
"So you found something to eat?" Lenalee asked as she fell into step beside Kanda, her mouth watering at the sight of the food.
"Obviously," Kanda quipped. She held out the bowl for her to try some so that she would quit drooling everywhere, mainly into her bowl.
She scooped a forkful into her mouth and hummed in appreciation. "That's really good," she mumbled around the bite, covering her mouth with her hand, "I really like that."
Kanda conceded with a nod, returning her attention to her food. They walked back to the inn without incident, Lenalee and Lovino somehow picking out of Antonio's and Kanda's bowls without their hands being bitten off.
They opened Allen and Kanda's room door to find the pair groggily drinking cold tea in nothing but their underwear with blankets pulled around their shoulders. Kanda raised her eyebrow at Allen. "Exactly, where have your clothes disappeared to? They didn't just up and walk off your body."
"On the floor." He pointed to the oily pile with his pinky.
"Why?"
"Dunno."
"I took their clothes off so they wouldn't get the blankets dirty," Antonio explained, setting his bowl in front of Lavi, "You can have the rest. We're done."
Kanda jumped up on the bed, dropping against the wall beside her lover. "Here, beansprout, the rest is for you," Kanda said, holding out the half filled bowl.
Allen's stomach grumbled loudly, insistantly. Light sparked in his eyes, and he seemed to fully awaken. "Thanks," he said enthusiastically, taking the bowl and shoveling the food into his mouth without pause. "Ah, this is fantastic," he mumbled around the mouthful of food.
"Now what?" Lovino asked from where he leaned against the window. He'd dropped the bags by the table and was rubbing his sore arms to bring the blood flow back to them.
"Another patrol, then?" Allen suggested, setting the empty bowl on the bedside table. The others nodded in response. "After dinner of course." His friends rolled their eyes in unison.
Well, there you go. Sorry for the lateness. Hope you liked it. All I can say is that fucking AP test I took was shit and ridiculous and a complete waste of my time. I could have spent those four hours writing up this chapter -_- Anyway, can any of you guess who the stall attendant was? It's not really hard to think of xD How was it? Interesting? Funny?