Chapter 5: A Rather Tasty Hashbrown

Hey, welcome to chapter five of Join Me By The Pool Tonight, Thank you to every one who faved/reviewed/watched you guys all get a cookie.

This has been redone as of 21/11/2013. It's new chapter updates from here on out. (provided, of course, that I actually finish this. Which I should. Which i shall. All i want to do is get to this one scene! Seriously. I regret, so much, making what should've been a long ish one shot into a multichap. Oh god, I can't even tell you.

Anyway. Read on and enjoy.

Allen lined up at the counter in the food hall, his ticket proudly displaying the number 14 was clenched in his fist. He had been woken up at about six by an urgent rumble from the vicinity of his stomach .

The Food Hall had summoned him.

Unfortunately for Allen and everyone else, there was a ten person long line at the ticket counter and a twenty person long line at the food counter. Allen was now desperately hungry and trying his hardest to contain the earthquake sized rumble that was building in his stomach.

Four people to go.

His stomach gave a little moan

"Oh gods." Allen thought to himself. Doing all of those acrobatics and workouts without having eating, or atleast having food on hand was such a bad idea. Seriously. Why did he even think that it was a good idea?

Three people to go.

A groan issued from his stomach.

Allen felt cold sweat break trickle down his back.

"Oh fuck"

Two people to go.

His stomach growled dangerous

"Shit! Hurry up!" Allen hopped impatiently from foot to foot. Oh, he could already tell this wasn't going to be pretty.

One person to go.

His stomache gave one last warning noise of a grumble.

"Shit, fuck, shit, fuck , fuck ,fuck, shit, shitting shit. fuck, fuck, Fuck it."

It was finally Allen's turn. And it was too late.

A thunderous rumble issued from his belly, a rolling noise which shook his entire body, as his hungry stomach finally decided to make it's true feelings known to everybody.

The noise reverberated around the room, growing in volume until all you could hear was the sound of Allen's stomach rumbling in a hungry call for food. It eventually died away like a yodellers call off a Swiss mountain top.

"Lost it" Allen winced and went beat red. This could not possibly get worse.

It did.

His traitorous stomach decided to make one last act of rebellion; a quiet gurgle.

The sharp shattering sound had people ducking and flinching where they stood or sat.

A rain of glass chimed where the shattered window was and the tinkle as the last peice fell was almost obnoxiously pretty.

There was a deafening silence.

The entire dining hall was now staring at Allen gobsmacked. Then all eyes travelled slowly to the smashed remains of the full length window that made up the entirety of the 15 meter left wall. Then all eyes travelled slowly back to Allen.

Then back to the wall.

Then back to Allen.

Then back to the wall.

Then back to Allen.

Then back to the wall.

They did this for a full two minutes before one person timidly picked their plate up and announced that they were going to get embarrassed and more than slightly weirded out, Allen took his food ( Ten stacked bowls of Rice bubbles and a single hash brown) from the counter and looked for an unoccupied table that was hopefully in the corner. All the tables had people sitting there, but there was one or two that only had one person sitting down. Allen headed for the one in the furthest corner that was out of the way. He weaved in and around the tables, trying to arrive at his destination as fast as possible before slowing down considerably as he reached the table. There really was no point in trying to hide that he was insanely embarrassed and more than slightly weirded out, but Allen would try anyway.

That persuado coolness lasted until he was actually standing there and his natural politeness overcame him. He hesitated, desperately wanting to sit down, but the man at the table hadn't even noticed him. It was, thought Allen, a growing trend in the Science division. People he wanted to notice him didn't, while people Allen didn't want to notice him did.

He was beginning to get really sick of it.

As he shifted from foot to foot, the britsh dilemma of politeness and pessimissm creeping up at him, the man looked at him.

"Yes?" He inquired gloomily.

The first thing that Allen saw about him was his abnormally long and sharp canines. Teeth that even Timcampy would be jealous of. The second thing was that his lips were really, really red.

"Do you mind if I sit here?"

The man, turned his head away from Allen to stare at someone/thing and nodded his head in reply.

"Thanks" Muttered Allen, feeling snubbed. "My name's Allen Walker, I just got here." Allen was if nothing, determined to get a reply of some degree of politeness as he sat his plate down in front of the stranger.

"Aleister Crowley" This time he didn't even turn his head. As Allen moved to sit down, a look of panic came across Aleister's face and he went whiter than his usual Edward Cullen whiteness. The whiteness pissed Allen off, he wasn't that scary. For Goddess sakes, he'd only smashed a window. Really, some people.

"No, please don't sit there, uh, sit there instead." He franticly mentioned to the seat beside Allen.

"I'm sorry" Allen quickly moved his plate, but he couldn't help feeling some slight annoyance, If him sitting at this table was such a big deal, he would prefer it if Aleister just told him to go away. He preferred being politely snubbed to his face, then being politely received and treated as an unwelcome imposition. God, Allen so preferred poker etiquette.

"No, no, It's alright," Aleister waved his hand to indicate no hard feelings but then added in an under tone so Allen could barely hear it, "It's just that you were blocking my view of her."

Oh, Thought Allen, So that's why. Weird.

He shifted in his seat to look at the woman that Aleister was staring at and saw her instantly. She was very beautiful. Tall with long blonde hair and creamy skin, she was incredibly well endowed, an E cup at least. Allen could understand accurately why Aleister was staring, she was exactly the type of woman that Master would have defiled within the hour. He shuddered, trying to shake off unwelcome memories. It was futile, already Allen was lost in a haze of cigar smoke, gauze veils, Hot-boxed rooms, earthy cries and bared skin. Oh yes, very unwelcome memories, already Allen was trying to resist gagging.

"Um, Allen, are you alright?" The low and heavy voice of Aleister wafted towards him and Allen came to with a start.

"What? Pardon, you were saying?" Allen blinked intently at the man, assuming a face of absolute awareness.

Aleister looked at him with narrowed eyes, not entirely fool by Allen's alert expression and repeated his question "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine. Why? Did my hair go white?" Allen joked; trying to install some humour into what he could see was going to become an awkward moment.

Aleister looked at him oddly, a confused look on his face. "Your hair is already white,"

"Joke." Allen smiled in reassurance, it was a fake smile but Aleister couldn't tell the difference and he nodded in understanding before resuming his obsessive staring.

As Allen ate his breakfast with almost unnatural gusto and belly busting speed, he studied Aleister. His table buddy had a thin almost mournful face that was white, as if he never really saw the sun. His hair was a dark, shiny black with a shock of white hair in a overlong cowlick, which, in addition to the red lips and sharp teeth, made him look decidedly vampirerish. No wonder he went for the blond with the smooth creamy neck.

With mouth watering unbearably and rice bubbles finished, Allen started on his hash brown (with closed eyes and punctuating the gaps between bites with moans of happiness). He was swallowing the last delicious crumb of the mashed-and-fried-potato when a shadow fell upon him, stopping mid sigh, he opened his eyes wondering what they wanted. Probably Aleister He thought. He was therefore reasonably surprised to see the blond stand before him, arms crossed over her chest, unwittingly accentuating the size of her breasts. She had a look on her face which scared him, a mixture of annoyance and 'I swear to god him so bored right now, I could castrate you for fun. Do what I say'. Allen could now see the length of her slim, white legs. Very long slim, white legs.

She glared at him. "You."

Allen gulped, he had no idea what he had done now, but he was going to deny anything, anything .It was absolutely NOT his fault that there was currently thirty people missing money from the lobby. He had NOTHING to do with it.

Allen had to resist the urge to cough extravagantly.

"How can I help you?" Allen smiled at her, Look innocent, look innocent.

"Where is he?" the question was directed at Allen, who was still being glared at.

Wanting this scary yet beautiful person to leave him alone, Allen jumped to a quick conclusion that should effectively end the conversation. "I don't know where Cross is! Ask Komui! I am really sorry if he defiled you but there's nothing I can do about that and there is no way you could have had a kid by him so please don't ask for childcare money there is no point in trying to get money out of him as he is constantly in debt and I have to keep paying it so please talk to Komui if you need any information as I know nothing of his whereabouts and last time I saw him he was in Turkey and now he is probably wanted there by now so he is probably in a different country by now and that was a month ago so I am sorry but I know nothing at all." Allen finished his discourse and promptly stated panting. He has just said 131 words in the space of a minute and the blond was standing there with a bewildered look on her face.

"What. The. Fuck." She had by now, stopped glaring at Allen and was now staring at him, her mouth open and left eyebrow raised. "Who the hell is Cross?"

Allen blinked at her.

"Oh, so you're not looking for Cross?" Allen's voice was very small.

She began glaring at him again. "I just told you that I don't know who the hell this Cross person is, what do you think? Of course I'm not looking for whoever he is."

"Oh" Allen recovered quickly, "So you're looking for Aleister?"

"The cutie with black hair with the white streak in it?"

Allen nodded in conformation as he thought, 'Cutie? Well there's no accounting for type. "Yeah that's him," He turned to where Aleister was sitting and was taken aback at the emptiness of the seat, "What? Aleister was just there, where did he go? What the hell?" he looked up at the blond, apologetic. "Sorry, he was just there, I..."

The blond sighed and Allen couldn't quite tell if she was dissapointed or pissed off. "Well it's obvious that you don't know so next time you see him, can tell him that I said to tell you that next time he sees me, go over to me and ask me OUT!" She unfoldd her arms and turned to go, before she paused and swivled back to face him. "Will you tell him my name's Eliande, okay? A listen, I know I probably sound like a bitch, but I know he's been checking me out for ages, and I'm getting kinda sick of waiting for him to get the balls up to speak with me, yet running away every time I approach. Seriously, I'm constantly turning men down just in case he asks me out. So, can you please pass the message on for me?" Eliande then spun on her heel and left a shell-shocked Allen behind her.

Allen stared at his plate, a little gobsmacked, then suddenly, right Aleister's face appeared righ in frount of him.

"What did she say?"

Allen yelped, and jumped back in his chair. "Ack!"

Aleister had reappeared again. Gods he become more and more like a vampire the longer I'm around him.

"What did she say!" Aleister looked to be on the verge of shaking him and Allen hastily relayed what the blond had told him.

"Oh." Aleister said very softly, before a wide smile spread like sunshine across a face that wouldn't see much of the day. The man rose very quietly in his place, and almost glided across and out of the hall, leaving a weirded out Allen behind him.

As Allen slowly returned to normality, he felt the sudden need to get away from all this madness. It's not that he minded the all black decor, in fact he quite liked it, it was the strange people here. The outlandish chef, Jerry who was definitely gay and had pink hair, Aleister the staring vampire, the people who didn't even gasp when he smashed the dining room wall/window and left it open to the 39 story drop off the side of the hotel, to even the fact that the porter was afraid of the very name of the Science Division. Quite frankly in the sea of abnormality Allen was going to go mad. But there was one saving grace for this place. The food was damn good. And just for that he was ready to stay for a little while. Or until the quality of the food went down.

And, with that decided, Allen picked up his tray and moved towards the food counter again. This time he was going to get two hash browns and one for timcampy of course.

A well as a stack of pancakes.

Better make that six stacks.

Thanks for reading, drop me a line or whatever. Seriously. If you want me to get this done, just PM like crazy. I feel ultra guilty when I get reviews and you guys are going, 'don't leave us hanging please!' I have the sinking feeling i've turned into one of those fanfiction writers who drive me crazy; the ones that write wip's and never finish or adopt them out.