Ways 11/69

69 Ways #11 -Refusal to Cooperate

._.

"Master, why did you knock out the debt collectors with melons?"

Allen was glaring down at his teacher, who was looking in the other direction to avoid eye contact.

"…"

He wasn't speaking.

"Master," Allen narrowed his eyes and added a sharpness to his voice. "Why did you do it."

Cross opened a magazine and pretended to read it in hopes that his student would leave.

"That's upside down," he pointed out.

"Oops." Cross flipped the magazine around. "Didn't notice."

"Yeah, that happens sometimes to me too," Allen admitted.

He waited a few seconds, but Cross was still pretending to read whatever article he was on.

"So why did you do it?" Allen tried again. "The scene screamed your name all over it, and I'm sure that there will be repercussions for assaulting those people."

Cross looked up from his magazine.

"Who the hell is going to admit to being knocked unconscious with a melon?" he exclaimed.

"Someone with extremely high medical bills," Allen responded flatly.

"The Order will take care of that," Cross dismissed the concern. "I've done stuff like this before and there was never any sort of trouble."

With an impassive expression on his face, he flipped a page and continued to read.

"But Komui did give you a penalty, didn't he?"

At this, Cross tensed visibly.

"Err…"

"I can wait."

"… Well." Cross set down the magazine. He cleared his throat and took a deep breath before speaking. He was about to say what the penalty was, but then he appeared to change his mind. "That doesn't need to be discussed."

Their conversation ended with that. Allen attempted to get information out of his teacher, but this proved to be useless; Cross kept his mouth shut. Standing around wouldn't be very productive, so Allen left the library and his master behind.

He wasn't even that interested in whatever punishment had been issued to that guy. The only reason he asked was because Komui had mentioned that he had been given a "separate assignment." Kanda had been given community service, and it occurred to Allen that perhaps his teacher had been told to do something along those lines.

It would have been comforting to learn that his trouble-making teacher had been instructed to be nice for a change (or at least helpful or productive) but it was fine if this wasn't the case.

Really, he was used to his master causing trouble. It was annoying, yes, but by now he knew to just walk away whenever something troublesome was about to happen. Doing anything else was too stressful for him.

With nothing else to do at the moment, Allen decided to visit Link in the infirmary. The inspector was still recovering after Lenalee had admitted to assaulting him, but he was expected to be released in about two or three days. Until then, he was likely busying himself with work involving papers. As if being stuck in bed for that long wasn't bad enough, that guy would insist on working of all things.

The walk over to the infirmary didn't take very long. Allen entered the room Link was in, and was about to say "hello" or "how's it going" but accidentally intruded on something very illegal.

"Lenalee!" Allen shouted, "What are you doing?!"

Lenalee had activated her Innocence, and from the looks of it, she had been very close to finishing the job. Allen ran over and separated the homicidal exorcist from the resting patient who luckily was asleep and unaware of the threat before him. He had her back away a few feet until she was standing at least five feet from the bed.

He understood that Lenalee wasn't very fond of the inspector. But for her to attempt to murder him? Something very bad must have happened between the two when he wasn't around.

Or maybe Kanda's behavior was beginning to rub off on her. Allen considered telling Komui that the two were "spending a lot of time together lately…" but he didn't know if this was true, and invoking the wrath of an overprotective brother on Kanda might be a little too cruel.

Lenalee pouted (Allen didn't think this was very appropriate given what she had just attempted to do) and sat down on a nearby chair to sulk. Her expression clearly conveyed her annoyance at being prevented from attacking the inspector and her body language said the same.

"Alright," Allen sighed. He drew up a chair and sat next to Lenalee to talk. "What's been going on with you? You haven't been acting like yourself."

Actually, she was completely out of character by this point.

Allen didn't say that as he wasn't sure how she might react to that kind of statement. He didn't want to end up like Link.

"I know it was him," Lenalee suddenly blurted out. "It had to be him."

This accusation alarmed Allen.

"What did he do?" he asked while keeping his mind open. He didn't want to believe that Link had done some horrible deed, but occasionally the inspector's personality did conflict with Lenalee's…

Lenalee glared murderously at Link. "He stole my chocolate cake," she sneered. "I know it was him! All he ever eats are sweets and pastries…"

As much as Allen would like to deny that this accusation was ungrounded, he just couldn't.

First of all- yes, Link did eat a lot of sweets, and he sat close to Allen in the cafeteria. Allen sat close to Lenalee (and some other people, including the Bookman, Lavi, and his own teacher) so it would be easy for Link to mistake Lenalee's food as his own.

Second, Link had picked up his habit of eating sweets from Lvellie, who Lenalee disliked to an almost extreme degree. As she viewed Lvellie negatively, she likely saw Link in the same light. She wouldn't believe that Allen (who ate everything in sight) would take her cake, but she wouldn't hesitate to accuse Link (the sweets addict) because of who he was.

And third, Lenalee loved the chocolate cake made here. Of course she would be pissed if someone swiped it from her.

"Lenalee, did you actually see him take your chocolate cake?" Allen looked directly into her eyes to see if she was telling the truth.

"No," she answered honestly. "But it had to be him! It would be easy for him to mistake the plates, wouldn't it?"

"Well, yes," Allen agreed. "Link isn't the type to steal other people's foods, though. He would have just ordered one for himself if he really wanted a slice."

Lenalee's shoulders slumped. "Yeah, I suppose so," she muttered.

"…" Allen looked at Link, who was still sleeping. "Um, Lenalee?"

"Yes?" She straightened her posture to sit properly. Judging from her expression, it seemed as though she had given up on the idea of Link being the culprit.

"You didn't do anything to Link before I got here, did you?" he nervously glanced at Link. The bruises from the beating were very visible and recent. He couldn't tell whether or not she had landed any blows before he arrived. "Because he's taking a long time to wake up, and I was informed that he would be awake…"

Lenalee shook her head.

"No, but the Head Nurse did walk in naked for some reason," she told him.

"Oh."

So that naked thing was still going around, wasn't it?

Allen didn't know what to think of it, but he had a feeling that he shouldn't ask.

"I… hope she had a censor bar," Allen said awkwardly. "She did have a censor bar, didn't she?"

"Yeah," Lenalee nodded absently. "She did."

"O-okay, that's good."

The door opened and Allen nearly screamed in fright (thinking it would be the Head Nurse) but someone else entered the room.

"Peace, maaaannn," a stranger slurred as he was escorted via stretcher to the nearest bed. The medics helped this person (who was dressed in strange, multi-colored garments with beads) until he was safe.

"That sure was one ugly scene," one of them said. "Where are all of these hippies coming from, anyways?"

"Beats me," the other responded. "We should probably hurry back and get the others…"

"…"

Hippies?

Allen stood from his chair. "Excuse me," he called out to the staff. "Was there an accident?"

"No, one of the exorcists got angry on the training grounds when a group of people started smoking weed."

Allen vaguely recalled the Bookman talking about hippies showing up around the Order, but he hadn't cared too much to stay and listen. He had left to go take care of the paint, so he had left without thinking anything about the topic.

At any rate, the angry exorcist was probably just Kanda.

"Should we go?" Allen looked to Lenalee after the medics exited. "If you're going to interrogate Link about the chocolate cake, you might have to wait a while for him to wake up."

Lenalee considered this, but she eventually stood. "Alright, let's go stop Kanda before he kills anyone."

._.

Cross looked up from his magazine when he heard a commotion outside. He heard shouting coming from the outdoors, and glanced out the window to see what the trouble might be about.

The exorcist with the sword stood before a group of smokers in tie-dye colored shirts. He seemed to have just returned from training, but this group of people was in his way and from what he saw, they were trying to convince him to "protect the environment," which wasn't working at all.

A fight soon broke out, and Cross winced as some people started to get hurt. He turned away to pretend that he hadn't seen anything.

He didn't see anything at all.

As he tried to focus on the magazine he had picked up randomly, his stomach began to growl.

"Good thing I took that chocolate cake with me earlier," he said as he took out a fork from his pocket. He picked up a plastic container from the floor and removed the lid so he could eat.

He took a few bites of the dessert.

"Oh, this is good," he said through one mouthful. "I wonder who this belonged to, though."

Although he didn't really care.

Cross never cared about those sorts of things.

"Ah well, they won't miss it," he told himself. "It's just a piece of cake."

._.

Damn it, Cross. You just had to take the cake.

As promised, the next chapter should be posted immediately. Thanks for waiting patiently!