Neeeeee...we are the knights who say NEE!... nothing to write here...except for Saya's feeling much better! A humidifier can do that for ya!

These are Hoshino's charas, Saya's stolen them from their universe and shoved them in her own. But she didn't make a penny.

Now rated M on occasion because Kanda's horneh...this chapter is K to T...

21. Something like Understanding

I stared at the ceiling from my futon, it was nothing interesting, but it was there. I was taking the time to feel bad about the episode I had earlier that day. I know that whenever I go akuma terminator it really gets too people, but I can't help it, it's compulsory. I really wish I hadn't shown Yuu that side of me either, the side of me that's changed into something horrid and obsessive. But I still acted like nothing was wrong when I came back, because if I didn't, then things would've stayed tense a lot longer than they did. As long as I can act like nothing's wrong, everyone else can too.

okay, guilt trip over.

So I get over things quickly, got a problem with that? Like I said, if I dwell on it too long, everyone else will. I feel bad about enough things already. Seeing as I was done being guilty, I felt the need to go out and talk to someone. Naturally, I went out into the lobby, because aside from the baths and their rooms, that's where everyone would be. I never actually got to the lobby though, because before I could, Lavi and Lenalee pulled me aside and shushed me.

"What's going on?" I whispered, giving the two strange looks.

"Look! It's like an alternate universe in there!" Lavi whispered back, pointing dramatically into the lobby. I followed his finger and my jaw dropped; it really must've been a different universe in there...because Tomoko was smiling, kindly, and being friendly...she was in perfect hostess mode, I could tell, because she looked like the pretty, welcoming hostess she was supposed to be. Why didn't our group get to deal with that Tomoko? No fair.

I was dragged away from the doorway, further down the hall where I'd just come from before I was released. I don't see why I was dragged along...but whatever.

"Hm...Somethin' seems ...off." Lavi stated, a hand going to his chin as he inspected me; geez, the guy knows how to make people self-conscious.

"...What...?"

"AHAH! That's it...You're alone. So, where are your Romeo and Lord Capulet?" Lavi asked, and I assumed he meant Kanda and Cross, though dammit he'd better not be assuming I'm Juliet.

"Hm...I don't know..."

"Really? Weren't you the last one with them?" Lenalee asked, looking worried, she was probably thinking they killed each other. "You went to the baths with them and then..."

It dawned on me then, and I decided to hit my head on the nearest wall for a good 30 seconds. I'd forgotten them...

Don't tell me they seriously stayed in the baths and waited for me to go back for them...what are they? Little kids? Don't they know how to break rules and sneak out of time-out?

Well of course they do, I know they do. Do you know how many times have I been interrupted while I was studying or something because Kanda had snuck out of detention and felt like sneaking off campus? And Cross...he's probably escaped from jail at least once in his life...and if not...he's escaped women, and debt collectors, the scariest forces on earth aside from the Earl.

I ran down the hall, towards the direction I remembered the baths being in. (Then again, we all know what happens when I trust my sense of direction.)

I just hope they haven't drown each other yet!

0 Earlier, in the Baths 0

Kanda and Cross had spent an ample amount of time glaring at each other, but it was getting old fast, and the air was going from hostile to downright awkward. Cross let out an annoyed sigh, pulling out a pack of cigarettes from under the bathrobe he'd snuck them in under. Kanda was sure that it couldn't be the healthiest thing to do, and the bathes were a no-smoking zone anyways, not to say Kanda ever really cared for rules. Really, he was just keeping himself in line for Allen's sake, no need to give him anything to worry over. Still, all those bad habits he'd accumulated over the years really didn't want to die.

I guess I'm just a delinquent at heart...

For some reason, Kanda liked to think of it that way, it seemed...well better than saying he was "rotten to the core" or some other term that old people like to slap on bad kids.

"Damn kid...thinking he can scold me..."

"I can't believe I'm stuck with you..." Cross looked over to Kanda, taking the time to think over what he knew about the other man. As far as he knew (and since he'd read Kanda's school records and the like he knew a lot.)Kanda was ill-tempered, disrespectful, disruptive, anti-social, and violent. He then thought of what he knew of Allen (and of course he knows about Allen), generally a sweet kid, a little too naïve, hard-working, peace-loving, a good student, socially awkward but in a way that makes others like him, and he could easily beat out any of America's housewives with his domestic abilities. Well, accept for cooking, Martha Stewart beat him there.

So how, how on earth...did Allen...end up with that

Cross sent a half-hearted glare in Kanda's direction, he seriously wanted to know how it happened. He didn't have a son-complex, really (he did), but he still had to worry about the well-being of his apprentice, right?

"So..."

"So..."

Oh, the awkward silences.

"How the hell did the innocent Allen end up with you, of all the people who populate the world. Of all the 7.5 billion people out there, how did you get him?" And there it was, the question that'd been troubling poor Cross for ages (months?). His direct nature was a bit difficult for Kanda to deal with, because he was used to adults pussy-footing around issues that involved him, always trying to put things in "kind, correct" terms. Kanda faintly thought that he should stop thinking of older people as adults, seeing as technically, he was one too. He'd have to start thinking of them as "the man" or something though, because there was no way he was like all the other stiffs out there.

Cross decided that maybe he should put things in less abrasive terms, lest he incur Allen's wrath...again. "I mean, you seem more like me that ya do the idiot, that other red head strikes me as more the kid's type. How did Hoshino's most recent delinquent end up with Allen?"

"Hey, how did you-"

"I'm a General, it's called abusing my power."

So straightforward...

"So, get on with it, confess your sins, how did you seduce Allen?"

"I Didn't seduce him! When I first met him I totally hated him!"

"Ooooooh, tell me about it." Cross said, looking for all the world like a teenage girl eager for gossip. The worst part was that Kanda couldn't tell if he was faking the look, or if he was seriously a gossip... "GET ON WITH IT! I'M NOT PATIENT!" the slap to the head he received was indication enough that Cross was at the end of his rope already.

"Fine, fine! He got lost and I had to help him get to his class!"

"Well, aren't you just the most upstanding of citizens? Though that does sound like Allen..." Cross that back to the many times Allen had gotten lost while under his care, it was always hilarious. "Go on, now, surely that wasn't it."

"Well, after that Lenalee brought him to the library where Lavi, her, and I used to always hang around. It pissed me off that she brought him there every, single day, but I wasn't about to change what I did everyday while skipping detention for his sake. He was a pretty good distraction for the fangirls...but ..." Kanda rubbed his head, where he had a permanent indent from all the times Lenalee had hit him with an encyclopedia, clipboard, or some textbook. To his surprise, Cross was doing the same.

"Ah...that brings me back. I remember doing the same thing to Komui when he was a freshman. I was a senior, Cloud was a junior, and Reever and Komui were both freshmen. Komui was the cute little Chinese foreign exchange student, and the perfect way to get those girls off my back."

"Never thought I'd hear you getting annoyed over having women all over you."

"Please, I was a senior, do you really think I was interested in little high school girls!? They're so annoying with all their "Kyah! Kyah! Kyah!" and they're so damned immature!"

Kanda sweat dropped, Cross was an ...interesting...character, to say the least.

"Yeah, so Cloud really got at me for abusing the lower classmen. She could brandish a clipboard more fiercely than any woman I've ever met. Anyway, enough of me, back to you." Though Cross believed there was no such thing as too much Cross.

"Well, after that he started getting cuter and cuter and it was almost disturbing, he's way cuter than any human being as the right to be, it was like he wasn't even aware of it." For some reason, when Kanda said this, it sounded like he was falling into an abyss, rather than going on about how cute his boyfriend was.

"He probably wasn't aware of it..."

"Right, and around that time, those damned Noahs came into the picture, and suddenly, we were both the odd-men out... but the way he was so damned happy over anything that made anyone else happy was way too-"

"Cute?"

"Yes. And then he just had to go and be a brat one day, and when I told him to shut he told me to make him, so I did!"

Cross picked up on what he meant immediately. "YOU FIEND, I KNEW YOU WERE A HUSSY! You rotten molester."

"Hey, he asked for it! Stop makin' me the bad guy!"

"You are the bad guy. Now continue with your confession, I'd like to hear about all the awkwardness that ensued."

"Gr...well after that... he didn't exactly have the time to be awkward...Yeeger was killed soon after that..." Kanda's mood darkened a bit upon remembering the untimely death of the respected general. "On Christmas eve neither of us could sleep so I stole him and took him to bed with me."

"You...well that's one hell of a birthday present. I KNEW YOU WERE A HUSSY."

"...I didn't mean that! we simply occupied the same bed! Get your head out f the gutter!"

"It's stuck there."

"I can see."

"Well, I guess I see why Allen went for you, they do say girls go for guys who are like their fathers... Master in this case."

"...Allen's a boy."

"Not in this relationship..." Cross went for another cig, it had to be his fourth, at least. Kanda was amazed that the man could yell at him while smoking. One long drag later, and Kanda decided he had enough of the smoky air, he didn't need to stay here like some little kid!

"Don't bother going anywhere, Allen will be back in a few minutes." Cross said, waving for the kid to stay in the water.

"No he wont, it's been forever. We've been forgotten."

"No, he'll be back any minute now, because we've talked things out and have "reached a better understanding" of each other or some shit like that."

Kanda wasn't sure what "understanding" they had reached, but if it meant he would get a break from the constant glaring, it was all good. Cross had decided that he'd give his partial blessing to Kanda, because Kanda was like the next coming of himself, except without the womanizing, which made him all the more better for Allen. After all, in Cross' mind, no man was better than a man like him...unless they were with his apprentice... then the will to commit was crucial. "Whatever, how does that mean Allen will suddenly remember us?"

"Because that's how these things work." to prove his point, he put up one hand, and started a countdown from five. Sure enough, when he hit one, hurried footsteps could be heard coming their way.

0 Allen's POV 0

"I'M SORRY I'M SORRY I'M SORRY I'M SORR-...eh?!" I wasn't really expecting to find Cross and Kanda simply sitting there, looking relaxed and happy...it was frightening, the fact that they weren't killing each other, which doesn't make sense, I know.

"Finally remembered us, did you? What a horrible mother, to leave her scolded children in the corner." I flushed with anger, but it was Cross who'd said that, so I couldn't really do anything. Had it been Kanda I could've just said "no touching me for a week. At all." And that would suffice as punishment. But like I said, it was Cross.

"Sorry...you two can get out now." I hadn't expected them to actually stay...are they stupid or something?

"Oi, Moyashi...come here for a minute." Kanda said. Without thinking, I went to the side of the bath. I really should've thought first, because the moment I was in arm's reach, I noticed their evil grins, and I realized I'd just foolishly walked into their trap. An arm shot up from either side of me, and the next thing I know, I've been pulled into the water, clothes and all. When I resurfaced, glaring at Kanda indignantly, I noticed that Cross was out of the water and back in his bathrobe.

"Go on, pursue your love with reckless abandon." He said over his shoulder, before leaving the area. I must've missed quite a lot if Cross was giving something akin to his blessing.

"Well, now that I'm friends with daddy-in-law..." Kanda was going into pervert mode, I could tell. Too bad for him.

"Kanda...no touching me for a week. At all."

"...you're cruel."

Yes Allen, very cruel! Finally, Kanda can screw you senseless without having to worry about being shot to death, and you say he can't even molest you! For a whole week! Who will cave first? Oh, Saya wonders...

And, you may have seen this in Less than Innocent, but because it seems to be causing some people annoyance, Saya feels she should ask as many readers as she can for their opinions. Should she stop using third person pov for her author's notes and just talk normally? If it's annoying you, say so now, or forever hold your peace.