AN: What is this? An update after only a week? MADNESS. Anyway, I hope I have everyone in character since I'm not used to working with some of them. Thanks to everyone for the favs and special thanks to those who review! You all give me life.
It wasn't long before Allen and Lenalee were on their way into town. They commented on how nice of a day it was shaping into, though it looked like it was going to rain later. There was a moment where they were dumbstruck by the sight of an old woman's hat. It had had so many flowers and feathers on it that they had paused to try to figure out how her neck could support all the weight. The brim had been wider in circumference than the width of Allen's shoulders. Another pause had happened when Tim decided to wander off and they had to rescue him from the claws of an alley cat.
"Seriously, Tim? How many cats are you going to try to get eaten by in your life?" Allen had spent a solid five minutes scolding the golem. Tim had at least had the decency to sag his wings and tail as though he were ashamed. Allen, however, knew Tim would be back to irritating cats again before long. It didn't really bother him all that much—except that Tim had the unfortunate habit of managing to be eaten by the cats.
"Well, now that he's hopefully gotten that out of his system…. Let's go see if we can find the books I wanted to get." Lenalee distracted Allen from his harangue at the golem once she had managed to stop giggling at the sight. It was unusual to see a white haired exorcist lecturing a small golden ball with wings and a tail about getting eaten by cats. She did need to get through the list of things that she had brought with her though. "After we get those and anything you need, we can stop at the one pastry shop before heading back." Lenalee smirked when the words 'pastry shop' had Allen's full attention on her. She didn't bother to hide that she was laughing at him and his face tinted a little bit pink in response.
"Glad I'm entertaining." Allen grumbled something to himself under his breath as he followed his friend down the street. She had tied her hair back into one long tail and it bounced as she walked. It rather reminded him of Kanda. If Kanda were actually nice. And a girl. He'd never manage to be polite or as kind as Lenalee though. Allen shook his head at the thought of Kanda being kind. Or the publicly accepted definition of kind, anyway. The swordsman showed his heart in subtle ways that most people missed.
"Oi, oi, earth to Allen!"
"Aaaah!" Allen almost tripped over his feet when he looked up only to find Lavi leaning into his face. The redhead was so close that their noses were almost touching and Allen's heart felt like it had stopped before kicking back into gear twice as fast. "Don't do that!" Allen punched Lavi in the shoulder hard enough to push him back several steps. Lavi only started cackling. Lenalee was a few paces off with one of her hands pressed against her forehead. She was clearly exasperated by their antics already. Allen scowled at Lavi and sighed before stepping around the laughing fool to catch up with Lenalee.
"Why is he here?" Allen looked to Lenalee for answers. Lavi would only expel random, unrelated things if he were directly asked.
"I don't know. I did not invite him. Or tell him we were going to be in town at all." She rubbed at her temples in mock annoyance. The entire act was ruined by the slight smile pulling the edges of her mouth upwards.
"Hey! Don't talk about me as if I'm not here! And why are you leaving me behind!" Lavi's indignant yell had both exorcists laughing while he ran after them. The scowl on his face didn't last for long, as usual, and he crossed his arms behind his head as he walked. "If you really must know, panda geezer sent me to get more paper and stuff. Apparently, he feels the need to stock up on enough bookmaking stuff to run a business for the next eighty years. Assuming he lives that long." Lavi sounded exasperated and Allen laughed at him.
"You shouldn't call Bookman that. You know he always senses when you do." Allen had witnessed Lavi getting two booted feet straight in the face enough times to know that it was true. Bookman always seemed to know what everyone was saying at any given time, unless they were in their rooms or out on a mission—the exception was Lavi's 'nickname' for him. That, he always knew about.
"Yeah, yeah. He won't kick me if I'm carrying breakable things."
"Sure, he'll wait until you set it all down and go to leave. Then bang," Allen smacked Lavi in the back of the head, "you'll be face planting into the door or into the floor."
The trio shared bantering of a similar vein as they walked, pausing when they were in the bookstore because no one offended the little old woman who ran it. She was stronger and faster than she looked—and was the reason why Lenalee was shopping for Komui instead of him doing it by himself. The owner frequently remarked that there was no way it was possible for Lenalee to be blood related to 'that pompous cuckoo.' Lenalee had laughed herself out of breath and Lavi had to hide a smirk with his hand. Allen just shook his head and replied that no one in the Order really understood it either. The owner had tsked and handed Lenalee her books, giving the two boys the stink eye until they had offered to take some of the burden from Lenalee. Allen was already moving to take some of the bags before he saw the look. Lavi took a minute before he hurriedly took a few from Lenalee and then gallantly held the door open for her.
Once the door had shut, the three friends had a good laugh over being intimidated by a woman half Lavi's size. Lavi had then made a crack at Allen's height and took off running before he could be hit by the heavy bags in Allen's hands.
"Why does everyone have to do that? I hate that damn name!" Allen groaned as he and Lenalee trailed behind their idiot friend at a slower pace, content to let him wear himself down. They knew were the scribing supply shop was anyway and that was where Lavi had said he needed to go, so they could just meet him there. Maybe he'd have gotten some of the stupidity out of his system by then. Allen really doubted it.
"Because you react to it. Why else do you think Kanda keeps doing it? He doesn't harass Lavi because Lavi doesn't react or when he does, he just makes fun of everything he can think of that gets under Kanda's nerves." Lenalee shrugged. Boys.
"Tch. I wish they'd stop. I don't think it'd work if I ignored them either…." Allen shook his head in dejection. Truth be told, it didn't really make him that mad anymore when Kanda insulted him simply because it was Kanda and he insulted just about everyone. I guess it should bother me less when Lavi does it since it is obviously his goal to annoy people.
"If you'd ignore them, they would. Lavi, though, he'll just find something else to annoy you with."
"Heeeeeey, why are we talking about me without me?" It was as though Lenalee had summoned him. Allen shook his head and took Lenalee's bags from Lavi before he could drop them. His own burden was nearly three times the amount that Lenalee had gotten. Now they understood what Lavi had been griping about earlier. "Dammit, panda geezer. This is heavy." He kept up the string of complaints while they walked to the bakery that also served as a small eatery. Lavi was the first to sit down, dropping dramatically into a chair and nearly toppling it over, while Allen and Lenalee sighed and set their burdens down. Lavi volunteered to guard their bags while the other two got their food first before getting his own.
Once everyone had gotten something and taken their seats, Lavi leaned forward with his elbows on the table; fingers laced together, and fixed an intent stare on Allen. The silver-haired exorcist pretended not to notice for a while, giving up when it became clear that Lavi was content to sit there and stare all day until he was acknowledged.
"What." Allen's tone was annoyed and tired all at once and he didn't bother with trying to make it into a question. He knew Lavi would answer anyway; there was a stupid gleam in his eye that he only got when he was intending to pry into people's lives.
"How was your mission?" A harmless enough question but Allen had the feeling that Lavi was going to end up going somewhere weird with the answer.
"Normal? We got there, got attacked—there were more Akuma than the initial reports said, we actually did find Innocence there this time, and then we came back home. It's not really that interesting." Allen shrugged and bit into one of the pastries he had gotten.
"What, neither of you got injure this time? That's amazing."
Allen glared at Lavi, chewing furiously, and swallowed. "Excuse me? I don't always get hurt!" Allen narrowed his eyes at Lavi. The other boy held up his hands in mock surrender but the indignant look on Allen's face didn't leave or soften in intensity.
"You can't deny that whenever you get paired with Kanda, one or both of you ends up getting injured because you two fight with each other just about as much as you fight with the Akuma."
"I guess. We didn't really argue much. No physical fighting, anyway." Allen raised an eyebrow as Lenalee and Lavi exchanged a look. "What? We don't fight every time we see one another."
"I dunno, Allen. Every time I see you two at the Order, you're both glaring at one another like you want to throttle the other." Lenalee rested her cheek in a hand and grinned slightly, as though to say sorry for taking Lavi's side. Lavi himself was grinning from ear to ear, tapping a finger on the tabletop. Allen scowled at the pair of them and stuffed an entire cream puff into his mouth so he wouldn't have to bother with answering. I was right, this is an interrogation.
Kanda split away from Allen at the first opportunity. He needed space, needed clarity, and he needed quiet. All three were hard to have in the company of Allen Walker. Even when the kid was silent, there was a sense nervous energy that seemed to amplify ordinary sounds and set Kanda on edge. Now that the report was in, he was looking forward to going to his usual training room and just meditating for a while. He was the only one who really ever used that room, at least that he knew of, because no one wanted to bother him and risk being maimed.
He offered small head nods to the few people that he passed on the way to his room, which was thankfully few. The nearly empty room looked the same as ever and Kanda could already feel some of the tension ebbing away. Nothing was out of place from the lotus on the table to the mess of papers on the desk. Home. Dropping his uniform jacket onto his bed, Kanda stripped out of the clothes he had been wearing. He pulled on a clean tank top and looser pants, still all in black, and slipped into his soft-soled shoes. Meditation required comfort and combat boots started to hurt after a while.
Having changed into more comfortable, and causal, attire, Kanda slipped his uniform coat back on. He would attract less attention on his way down if he wore it. He grabbed Mugen and spun on his heel before exiting his room again. The door shut with a sharp click and he was already striding down the hall. Thankfully, the halls were even more devoid of people now that most everyone was in the cafeteria for lunch. Kanda was secretly thankful that few would even realize that he was back so no one would really be looking out for him to be there. He would eat later, once his head stopped hurting and he knew which floor he was standing on again. Dammit, everything around that brat gets complicated so fast.
Kanda shook his head and walked faster, resolving to just not think right now. His head was hurting from recurring nightmares of Alma and the overly perceptive attention from Allen had not helped one bit. It was unnerving how well the younger exorcist had been able to read Kanda. It reminded him of Alma and then the cycle started up all over again. It frustrated Kanda but at the same time, he was almost grateful. Had no intention of ever saying that out loud but there it was. Allen's prodding meant that he at least marginally cared. So very few actually cared. Komui did but there was enough bad blood between Kanda and most every authority figure in the entire Order that he distanced himself at every opportunity. There was something that was almost pity in the back of Komui's eyes and Kanda hated it. Knowing Komui, it wasn't pity so much as empathy. The man had gone through something vaguely similar, with Lenalee being an exorcist, so Kanda could not bring himself to actually hate the man. He could, however, heartily disapprove of the stupid experiments he carried out. It had been a while since the last disaster and something told Kanda that another one was due soon. He just hoped he would be away when it all went downhill.
The farther down Kanda walked, the quieter it became until his footsteps were the only sounds. They echoed softly off the stone walls as he turned a corner and strode to the last door in the corridor. He didn't even bother to see if anyone was there, he just pushed it open and walked inside. It was empty, as per the usual, and he sighed in relief. Solitude. Finally. He shrugged out of his coat, thankful to whoever kept the lights going down here, and paced to the center of the room. Long legs folded and he dropped to the padded floor and fidgeted around until he was comfortable. Kanda drew in a slow breath and rested his hands on his knees. Exhale. Slow inhale again. He could practically feel the stress peeling away.
Time ceased to exist in that room as Kanda settled into a rhythmic pattern of breathing. His mind was blissfully blank. All the thoughts, fears, and memories that had been plaguing him for the last week slowly settled to the back of his mind as he centered himself. They would stay there until he was ready to deal with them. For some of the memories, it would be a very long time before they were allowed to surface again. He prided himself on being able to lock down the painful ones for the most part. As the minutes stretched into nothing, Kanda let himself relax. He was almost fully calm and open, his emotions in check, and he focused on one thing at a time. The feeling of his lungs expanding and contracting. His heart beat steadying out. It was pure bliss.
"Yo! Welcome back!" A loud voice accompanied the door crashing open. Before Kanda could even do more than gasp in a startled breath, someone had started tapping their hands on his head. He growled audibly and the intruder just laughed and changed the tempo of their tapping. "Nice to see you're friendly as ever. And by that I mean I'd rather hug a badger."
"Then go fucking find one, Daisya." Kanda whipped an elbow back, hissing in disappointment when he didn't connect with anything. The tapping on his head did stop though, so maybe there was a small victory anyway. Kanda slowly turned just his torso to glare at his fellow exorcist. Daisya was leaning against the wall now, near where Kanda had left his coat, and grinning so hard it was a wonder that it didn't break his face. I never really noticed how much this moron reminds me of Lavi. Fuck. When Daisya started openly laughing, Kanda lunged to his feet. "Leave."
"Nah, you'd miss me."
"The only thing I'd miss is the urge to break your face."
Daisya gasped and clutched a hand to his heart. "Oh, you wound me so, Yu!"
"What did you fucking call me?" Kanda froze, his eyes narrowing down into slits. When Daisya grinned at him, he swore his eyes went out of focus from fury before going back to normal. Aside from the shaking in his muscles.
"Your name." Even Daisya was not stupid enough to repeat himself. He might have wanted to rile Kanda up but he did, in fact, value his manly bits. Kanda had once threatened to make sure that the world was not 'inflicted' with more of him. Kanda exhaled a hissed breath through his teeth.
"Why are you even here? How the hell did you know I was back?"
"Hmmm, because I want to and because I know." Daisya smirked and shrugged. He enjoyed watching Kanda get mad. He knew that his brother-in-arms meditated as a way to push down all this thoughts and emotions. Sure enough, there was a flicker of steel in Kanda's eyes. Daisya titled his head to the side. Got him. Hook, line, and sinker.
Kanda had had enough of Daisya and his evasive not-answers. All he had wanted to do was come down here and meditate for a while. All Kanda had wanted was to get away from idiots. Yet, one had followed him down. He saw his teammate shift his stance and he lost the rest of his patience. Kanda lunged at Daisya, sweeping a leg at his knees. He came here to piss me off. He wanted a fight. It rankled that he was playing into Daisya's hands but it was too late now. At least he could work off steam. It had been a while since Kanda had sparred with anyone and he knew that Daisya, at least, could keep up with him.