But somehow, that little shit showed up on the front porch anyways.
Kanda stood in the doorway, arms crossed over his bare chest and glaring at anything but the white-haired kid in front of him.
"What the fuck do you need, Moyashi? Aren't you supposed to be at class or something? How the fuck did you even find this house?"
Allen shifted his backpack to the other shoulder and swallowed. Kanda considered putting a shirt on. He also considered shoving the kid against the wall and… punching him? Kanda wasn't sure what he wanted to do, but shoving Allen against the wall felt like a good place to start.
"It wasn't difficult to figure out where you lived," Allen said with a smile. The scare curved across his cheek, following the swoop of his grin. "I mean, we walk the same way home every day. I live a few blocks beyond you, but I see you stop at this house. I'm not stupid."
Allen laughed, but Kanda clicked his tongue and looked down the road in the direction Allen had pointed. It was a rough neighborhood, but that wasn't Kanda's problem. It never would be.
"What the fuck do you want?" he asked again.
"Oh! I, um…" Allen looked down at his shoes, "I brought you the homework you missed from math, and in English we got assigned to do a project together. So I thought maybe we could get some work done on it today…" His head snapped up. Kanda resisted the urge to bury his fingers into that white hair, to smooth down the messy strands. He also resisted the urge to smack Allen across the face. Kanda pressed his hand against his own forehead and took a deep breath.
"Only if you have the time to work on it! I don't mean to impose, but it's due Friday… The teacher didn't give us any notice because apparently it was in the syllabus, but I didn't know…"
Kanda moved aside. "Either come inside or shut the fuck up and go away."
Allen nodded and shifted his backpack again as he stepped over the threshold. "Sorry about this, I know working with me on a project is probably the last thing you want to do."
"Stop fucking apologizing," Kanda said. He gestured at the couch as he walked in the opposite direction. He had to find a fucking shirt.
"Didn't you wear that yesterday?" Allen asked when Kanda reemerged wearing a black tank.
"Yes, and shut the fuck up. Who the fuck cares anyways?"
Allen nodded and looked down at his hands, folded in his lap. A small stack of notebooks and textbooks lay beside him on the couch.
Kanda sat down on the floor opposite Allen, coffee table between them. Allen slid off the couch and onto the floor.
"So…" Allen muttered. He was still looking down at his hands. And blushing for some reason.
"What?"
"Are your parents home?" Allen glanced around the room, liquid mercury eyes catching on the paintings of plants that covered the walls. Tiedoll's work. "I like your art."
"Stop asking questions. Get back to the fucking project. What the fuck is it even?" Kanda snapped. He wanted to get this done, get the beansprout the hell out of the house.
"Oh! Well, we've got to do a powerpoint on some biography."
"Biography?"
"You know, a book someone wrote about someone else's life."
"I know what a fucking biography is, Moyashi."
"What does Moyashi even mean?"
"Shut up. So we just pick a fucking book and talk about it or something?"
"Yeah, more or less… and it would probably improve our grade if you didn't cuss while we presented…"
"Shut the fuck up," Kanda replied. Allen smiled and laughed.
"Well, I was wondering if we could do a biography about Robert Mapplethorpe? His photography was amazing, and it would give us some good visuals for the presentation. If you've got a computer somewhere I could pull up some pictures. I've read a few biographies about him already, so—"
"I thought you were illiterate."
"Don't be mean! I'm just… kinda behind." Allen looked back down at his lap.
Kanda leaned against the coffee table and snorted.
"What's that supposed to mean? Do you think it's funny that I'm behind?" Allen asked.
Kanda looked over at him and saw that he wasn't staring down into his lap anymore. Without meaning to, Kanda met his eye. There was something…defiant about his gaze. And electric. Kanda looked away. He suddenly needed a cigarette. His chest felt weird.
Kanda clicked his tongue.
"It's not my fault," Allen said softly.
"It's never anyone's fault when you're an idiot but your own."
"And what the heck is that supposed to mean?" Allen's voice was growing louder, and Kanda wasn't sure he could even find an answer to that question.
"It means you're an idiot," he finally said.
"Stop calling me dumb. I'm not dumb."
"Yes you fucking are." Kanda wasn't even paying attention to the words anymore. He just wanted to see the kid's face get red; he just wanted to hear the kid yell. He just wanted to make Allen squirm.
"If I'm an idiot then you're a… you're a fucking cabbage."
"Rather be a cabbage than an idiotic moyashi."
"What does that even mean? You've been calling me this name and I can't figure out what the hell it means. I even asked Lenalee—"
"Why did you ask Lenalee?"
"Because she speaks Chinese and I thought…"
"You think all Asians look alike and all Asian languages are the same, don't you? I'm not Chinese, you dipshit."
"That's not what I meant! I just thought that, you know, with kanji and…"
"Fuck you." Kanda stood up and pressed his heel against the coffee table, sliding it towards the couch in a single fluid motion so Allen was pinned.
"Kanda, what the hell?!" he gasped. He pushed against the table with his gloved hands, but Kanda pushed back, digging the edge of the table into Allen's ribs.
He really needed a fucking cigarette.
"What on earth is this all about?" asked the bald young man standing in the doorway with a grocery bag in one hand, cane in the other. Kanda shoved past him.
"I don't wanna deal with your shit right now, Marie."
Kanda slammed the door so hard it bounced back open and hit his shoulder. He kicked the door and dented the cheap wood.
There were cigarettes hidden under one of Tiedoll's potted plants, and Kanda retrieved them before collapsing on the porch steps. He could hear Allen and Marie talking inside.
