AN: i love you all! so many reviews on chapter 10! THANK YOU SO MUCH! VIRTUAL COOKIES FOR EVERYONE!
Chapter Eleven
"R-red stripes wrapped around my body?" Allen fell onto his knees, his face was contorted into one of confusion and pain. The class watched silently from the audience.
"Excited about seeing yourself naked?" Kanda said in a monotone as appeared from off stage and walked over to Allen's crouched figure.
"N-Nezumi? What's going on?" Allen's voice emulated that of Shion's, but his eyes narrowed suspiciously; Kanda wasn't in character.
"This happened when your fever went down, but the change is only skin deep, there isn't even any swelling. You're lucky."
"Lucky? What about this is lucky?"
"Do you regret that your alive?" Allen's eyes were cold for a small moment, Kanda was supposed to kneel down beside him and lift up Allen's chin, Kanda was supposed to care for him. Instead, the samurai stayed standing where he was.
"Excuse me, Professor Tiedoll? Can Kanda and I have a moment?" Allen turned, abandoning the scene. The professor nodded and Allen dragged Kanda off stage.
"What the hell are you doing, baka moyashi?" The samurai was pissed.
"Why aren't you acting well?"
"Che, you must be crazy if you think I'm acting that crap out."
"Oh, I guess too worn out from using up all of your crappy acting skills on Saturday then."
"What the fuck moyashi? I can act just fine!"
"Then prove it, BaKanda!" Allen smirked and walked back center stage, he knew by now how to manipulate the samurai.
"Baka." Kanda's eyes narrowed and he walked back onto the stage, except this time he crouched down beside Allen. Allen's heart was pounding, he wasn't sure what he was so nervous about now. He was angry that Kanda wasn't acting more intimately, but now that he was, the white haired boy was the tense one.
"Look at me, Shion," Kanda's voice was soft as he gently lifted up Allen's head. "Do you regret that you let yourself live?"
The audience gasped, the change in the Japanese boy's voice seemed like blasphemy, he must've been ill or poisoned. Allen blushed slightly; the position had forced his eyes to gaze into the softened cobalt ones and Kanda's breath was warm as it made contact with his face.
"Nezumi, I want to live," Allen's acting was creepily impeccable; he was even able to produce the tears on cue. One would've truly thought that he was Shion as he used his hands to try to the tears and fait blush.
"Too late to hide it now, idiot. It's amazing that you can still cry so defenselessly."
"You caught me off guard. I'm still recovering, stop teasing me."
"You know, if it bothers you that much we can dye it back but I think it looks good."
Allen's heartbeat quickened. He knew that Kanda was going to do next: using his finger, the samurai would delicately trace a line across the smaller boy's chest. He sweated slightly with anticipation, but he waited in vain. Kanda had lifted his hand to touch Allen's hair, as he was supposed to, but it stopped mid-air. The samurai seemed to discern that, even though he was acting, he had just stated that he liked Allen's snowy hair and that he was about to caress it; the faintest shade of pink touched his cheeks as he remembered what the next line was. His eyes drifted to the audience. His face hardened as he shifted back to Allen. "Besides, a red snake coiled around your body– isn't it kind of cool?"
Kanda's hands never moved, his voice was cold again; Allen was confused and angry. Why was the samurai refusing to cooperate? He had ruined the romance of the scene: changing both the lines and actions. Allen glared at him for a moment, but continued on with the scene.
"It doesn't make me happy coming from your mouth," Allen barely managed to compose himself.
"Likewise, don't think that just cause you're naked you can make me happy. Put your clothes on." This line should've been humorous or at least somewhat amusing to the audience, but Kanda's monotone had soiled it.
The scene was over. The other students applauded.
"What the hell was that Kanda?" Allen glared at the Japanese boy; all traces of Shion were gone.
"What are you talking about, moyashi?" Kanda glared back, he never understood why the boy was always pestering him.
"It's Allen, but I guess it makes sense that if you can't even remember a simple name then you wouldn't be able to remember your script." Allen spat. He couldn't tell why, but the fact that Kanda ruined the amity of the scene had frustrated him.
"I told you I wasn't going to act that shit out again. It's your memory that's faulty, not mine."
Allen and Kanda didn't realize this, but the whole class was staring at them trying to stifle giggles. Lenalee sighed as she rose from her seat, jumped onto the stage in between the fighting teenagers and pushed them apart.
"That's enough already! Both of you, sit down!" She scolded them. Slowly, the two boys walked to the audience and took their seats.
"Lenalee, being as you're on the stage already, you and Lavi can go next," Professor Tiedoll smiled at her and Lavi encouragingly.
"Come on Lavi!" Lenalee beamed as she magically produced a corset from behind her back. Lavi gulped as he shakily followed Lenalee backstage. There was a moment of silence and then the class heard loud, girl-ish pants and gasps from behind the curtains.
"S-Sebastian!"
"Come, put your hand against the wall. Please relax a little."
"Ah! No! It feels terrible!"
"You will get used to it."
The whole class shifted awkwardly in their chairs. Professor Tiedoll coughed and adjusted his glasses.
"I said my organs are coming right out!" Lavi yelled as he stumbled onto the stage, the corset tied tightly around his waist and Lenalee pulling on the strings in the back.
"There has yet to be a woman whose organs came out because of a corset." Lenalee stated coldly as she tightened the corset.
Lavi and Lenalee giggled throughout the lunch period. Except this time, Allen and Kanda fully knew why.
"Guys, can you stop laughing? It really isn't that funny," Allen pouted as he ate through his food. Ever since their performance, people have been calling the two teenagers Nezumi and Shion, giggling whenever the two passed by in the hallways.
"But you and Yuu were so cute together!" Lavi responded, and then laughed at his own pun.
"Shut up baka usagi! Or I'll make sure that corset does disembowel you, got it?" Kanda added angrily. Lavi paled but laughed sheepishly, he still couldn't believe that Lenalee had found and used an actual corset. He trembled slightly remembering how much putting on the dreaded thing actually hurt.
"But you two are the spitting image of Nezushi!" Lenalee declared excitedly. Kanda and Allen stared at her with blank faces.
"What's that?" Allen asked, but he wasn't sure if he wanted to hear the answer though. Everything about Lenalee since the Theatre assignment was announced had made her seem like one of those creepy fan girls on the Internet.
"Nezushi? It's the name for Nezumi and Shion's relationship! Nezumi's name is first cause he's the dominant and Shion's second because he's the uke!" Lenalee was too busy explaining to realize her friends had started glaring at her.
"Why the fuck would you think that I'd ever be in a fucking relationship with the fucking moyashi?" Kanda growled. He's been trying, and failing, to figure out why everything involving Allen and himself turned into some complex and annoying situation, especially ones in which people assumed that they're in an intimate relationship. He angrily ate his soba.
Lavi's green eye snapped into focus and observed the samurai for a moment. Over time Lavi had noted that when the word 'fuck' was used more than two times in a sentence, Kanda was not only angry, but also frustrated by something. He made a mental note to pester the ponytailed teenager about it later.
"It's not like I'd want to be your boyfriend anyway, BaKanda!" Allen glared at the samurai.
"What?" Kanda's voice wasn't only angry, but slightly confused by the kid's response.
"You're such a jerk! You'd be a horrible boyfriend!"
"I'm going to fucking cut you to pieces, moyashi!"
"Oh, and then there's the temper! You have absolute no control! That's why you'd have to be the submissive one in the relationship and I'd be on top!" Allen stopped his tirade for a moment, realizing what he just said: why was he actually thinking of him and Kanda being in a relationship and had thought of them having…? Allen blushed, but he had no time to wander through these thoughts because the samurai had tackled him to the ground.
"You're fucking weak, moyashi! You'd never dominate me," Kanda growled as the two began to wrestle.
"I'm not a bean sprout, BaKanda! I'm definitely stronger than you!"
"Then fucking prove it, short-stack!"
"My sons, what are you doing?" A worried and familiar voice called out.
Allen and Kanda froze; their eyes maneuvered themselves to see the caring face of Professor Tiedoll.
"Why are you fighting Allen, Yuu-kun?"
"I'm not your damn son. Stop calling me by that name!" Kanda growled as he stood up.
"Why must you always be so cold, Yuu-kun? You need to cast away all that anger!"
"I said to stop calling me that, you old geezer!" Kanda stormed out of the cafeteria.
"Wait Yuu-kun!" The professor called out after the enraged samurai.
Allen stood up slowly and made his way back to his friends.
Lenalee giggled, "Totally Nezushi."
"Oi Lavi, can I ask you something?" Allen asked hesitantly from behind a few stacks of books.
"Sure Allen," Lavi half-heartedly responded, his eye never moving away from the pages in front of him.
He and the redhead were sitting in the library after their classes. Lavi was already on his third book while Allen was only able to read half of one before getting bored and resorted to staring blankly into space. His mind wandered aimlessly, fixating itself on no specific point as he thought of his current life, but he noticed something about earlier that set him off now.
"Well, this is going to sound weird," Allen continued hesitantly, "but is Kanda really Professor Tiedoll's adopted son?"
Lavi looked up at Allen and chuckled.
"Tiedoll isn't Kanda's father, but being as he also taught Marie, he took it upon himself to treat them as his family."
"But why would he do that?"
"Professor Tiedoll was a friend of Kanda and Marie's parents before they passed."
"Wait, Kanda and Marie's parents are dead?" Allen's mind drifted to the image the cozy apartment, he should've realized that it was too small for a full family.
"Yeah, a few years ago—"A giant book appeared out of nowhere and smacked the back of Lavi's head.
"Idiot student! Why aren't you reading?" The old Bookman chastised.
"But Allen was asking me questions about Yuu!" Lavi pouted. Bookman's eyes drifted curiously to Allen's direction.
"You want to know of Kanda Yuu's past?" Allen nodded. "It is interesting that the boy who was claimed to be cursed should be so curious about the boy who was called a traitor."
Lavi's eye shifted downwards while Allen's silver eyes widened with interest.
"Kanda's a traitor?" He stuttered.
"Kanda Yuu was almost banished from his family's clan."
"Banished? What happened?" Allen's voice rose with curiosity.
"How much do you know of Japanese culture?" Lavi asked the boy.
Allen sheepishly admitted that he knew virtually nothing about the country, so Bookman explained.
"Japan's society is based off of respect, tradition, and honor. In previous centuries, when one was dishonored they were either exiled or committed suicide. In the modern era, such punishments are almost nonexistent, however, there are few families and clans that uphold a moderated version of the previous laws. Kanda Yuu's clan was one of them." Bookman paused to observe Allen's reaction.
"So, what you're saying is that Kanda had broken some tradition and was exiled?" Allen's brain was trying to make sense of all the information.
"No. Kanda Yuu was almost exiled. He never received his punishment."
"But what stopped it then?"
"Allegedly it was Alma Karma," Lavi said glumly, but perked up a moment afterwards. "Hey, Panda, can I go now? I finished the books."
Allen shifted his attention to the large and dense book the ginger had in front him. Allen shook his head with disbelief; he couldn't fathom how the non-stop sugar rush known as Lavi was able to concentrate on anything.
"You may leave." Bookman consented.
"Yay! Let's go moyashi-chan!" Lavi jumped out of his seat and grabbed Allen's arm, almost dragging him as he pranced out of the library.
"It's Allen!"
eh, i'm deciding if i actually want Alma to show up eventually or not. i also have the most minimal knowledge of traditional Japanese culture so i apologize if that paragraph just sounded like a load of bull. how's my yullen progressing so far? were people OOC? IC? acting weird?
i'm really sorry if i don't get ch 12 up before tuesday- its a holiday this weekend and i'm going to be busy, but i'll try to have it up saturday or sunday.
reviews=love
