I have no excuse... except that I'm addicted to Hetalia and Sword Art Online...
Page Break Key:::
•••••++••••• = room change/POV change/short time change (minutes)
•••••++••••••••••++••••• = long time change (days & weeks)
Disclaimer: I do not own.
Word Count: 2,609 words.
EDIT 03/01/15: change of 'Cloud' back to 'Klaud', please ignore any other spellings of her name
Chapter 6 - Ice hurts
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Allen's eyebrow twitched as he took in the jaunty looking sign that had been taped to the front of his (locked and barred) door. "Just what is whoever-did-this playing at?" Allen muttered angrily to himself. It had to be a prank, it just had to be, there was no way he would be genuinely kicked out of his room… was there?
It took a few minutes before Allen managed to snap himself out of the downer, he had just been in, enough to actually read the note. Silver eyes scanned it quickly, before widening in disbelief and reading it again… and again… and again… no way… he wouldn't! His, now panic filled, eyes ate up the words one more time before tearing it from his door and racing down the hall, it was time to pay Director Komui a little visit.
•••••++•••••
Kanda growled in annoyance at the ridiculous poster that had been messily stuck to his door. Whoever had done this was going to pay… with their life. He kicked the door open and stalked into his room, only to stop in shock. The windows had been reinforced with steel bars going along the edges; also, the room had somehow gotten bigger in his short absence to accommodate the other bed and associated items (bedside table etc.) that someone had stuck there.
Kanda didn't even bother going through the rest of his apartment, he knew what his eyes would tell him without wasting time to look. He turned on his heel, slamming the poor wooden door behind him. It was time to pay Director Komui a little visit.
•••••++•••••
Komui looked way too calm. Someone had just boarded up Allen's room and completely renovated Kanda's, shouldn't he be at least slightly surprised? Panicked? Whenever Komui remained calmly sipping his coffee after being told something he shouldn't know, it usually meant he was in on it in one way or another…
Allen glanced to his left, where Kanda was quickly getting more and more agitated. Komui had better tell them what was going on, and soon, or he may not live to see the bottom of his coffee mug.
Komui grinned, "Kanda… Allen… after observing your work over the past week I have come to the conclusion that in order to pull this off, you two have to learn to at least tolerate each other's presence for more than a few seconds. Therefore, as of today you two are officially roommates! Allen, your things have already been moved into Kanda's room."
A few seconds of silence passed and Komui used the opportunity to get as far away from Allen and Kanda as possible. The entire building shook as a thunderous roar echoed down the halls: "Kooooooommmmmmmmmmmmmmmuuuuuuuuuiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii!"
•••••++••••••••••++•••••
Allen flopped backwards onto his new bed. Why was this happening… was the world out to kill him? Well, he reasoned, the world may not be out to kill him but Kanda definitely was. Ever since Komui's announcement that the two would be living together, rehearsals had been worse than ever. Kanda seemed to be taking his frustrations out on Allen, and the silver haired boy wasted no time in returning the favour. Thanks to the increase in vigorousness the two had been practicing, the only scene they hadn't done was the middle one. Unfortunately their 'utter devotion and love to one another as Thumbelina and her beloved Prince' was nowhere to be found. The steps: perfect. The acting: not so much.
The next day they would be on the ice. The middle scene would be performed completely on ice, which meant more ways to fall and break bones. After getting the hang of skating around the rink in tandem, they would then go to a smallish (by 'Black Order' standards) purpose-built room next to the arena where they would practice their lifts. Once they perfected the routines off the ice, they would then be permitted to start rehearsal of the actual scene.
Figure skating is a delicate art that requires a lot of concentration, strength, teamwork and trust. Allen wasn't sure he would be able to pull off the last two, but stunts on ice were extremely dangerous so he would have to make himself trust Kanda. If you fell, you fell… there would be no safety net or crash mat. Just the freezing, rock hard ground.
•••••++•••••
The skin coloured figure skates felt odd on Allen's feet. There was a certain delicacy about them that wasn't present in regular ice skates. And yet, the lovely skates did nothing to prevent him from kissing the ice:
Allen grimaced as he once again smashed into the ice. Klaud did not look impressed.
"Again!"
Kanda scoffed at the white haired boy's, currently prone, form from the hard ground. "Che, baka moyashi. Have you had any ice-skating experience at all?" Allen stared at the ground.
"Are you fucking kidding me?! Opening night is less than five weeks away!"
Klaud sighed, "Kanda, go do your individual work. Give me three days, after that time return to the ice rink. I guarantee that Allen will be up to your standards by then."
"Fine, but if he is not then I will have no choice but to request the production to be cancelled." Then, without so much as a 'che' in Allen's direction, Kanda's long ponytail disappeared out the door.
"Right," Klaud got straight to business, "we only have three days to make you a professional figure skater, so let's get to it. How much do you know of pair's figure skating?" Allen gripped the side of the (extremely large) ice rink and somehow managed to struggle to his feet, "Um, not all that much actually. I've seen a couple of soloists skate before but they weren't really competition skaters."
Klaud Nine nodded, "Ok then, it seems we've really got our work cut out for us. I hope you really love ice, 'cos you are about to become one with it!"
•••••++••••••••••++•••••
Three days. That was how long Allen worked individually with Klaud for. In those three days he gained more bruises than he even thought possible, in places he definitely would never have thought possible, and come close to breaking bones more times than he could count. And still, these lessons were for solo skating not for pairs skating.
Allen thought back to the second round of auditions, he remembered thinking that he didn't really want to imagine how tough an actual class with the instructors would be. Well, now he didn't have to imagine. Because he had just experienced it firsthand.
He angled his skates ever so slightly and did a complete 360 turn before slowly coming to a stop in front of Klaud and Kanda, his right foot leaning on the toe pick. Klaud turned to Kanda, "Does he meet your standards, Kanda?"
"We'll begin in the 'fly room'."
"Very well then."
Allen skated to the edge of the rink, Kanda slightly in front of him, and proceeded to take off his skates, not noticing the way a pair of sapphire eyes lingered a tad longer than usual.
•••••++•••••
The 'fly room', it seemed, was the name given to the room next to the ice rink that was used for practicing lifts and other such stunts. The entire floor was covered in crash mats of different sizes and several harnesses hung from heavy black cables attached to the ceiling.
Klaud moved a few of the larger crash mats off to the side so that a reasonable sized spot was left in the middle of the floor. Allen had a feeling he would be spending a good deal of time in this room and would probably become well acquainted with the blue mats as well.
First, Klaud instructed Allen and Kanda to stand one behind the other (Allen in front) in the middle of the floor. She used a long metal hook to release one of the harnesses above their heads and spent a few minutes adjusting various levers, pullies and knots before fastening it securely around Allen's torso, shoulders and hips. After making a few more adjustments, Klaud nodded and stood back a few steps to assess her handiwork. Satisfied, she motioned for Allen to stand with his arms outstretched and his legs shoulder width apart. The silver haired teen gave her a slightly confused look before complying with her request.
"Alright Allen, Kanda is going to pick you up and you have to remain as still and solid as possible ok?"
Before Allen had a chance to reply, Kanda had grabbed him by the inner thighs and hoisted him up in a perfect second split just above his head. Klaud slowly circled them, "You know, for a couple of boys who don't get along you sure do know how to hold yourselves. Allen, don't look so startled how else did you think Kanda was going to pick you up?"
Allen struggled to suppress the blush that was slowly crawling across his cheeks, "Um, well I've never seen pairs figure skating before so I didn't really know what sort of lifts were involved so… um…"
Kanda glanced up at him briefly through his lashes, Allen was grateful he didn't look fully up, that would have been a tad awkward.
"You'd better get studying then moyashi, this lift is basic compared to the ones outlined in the script book. I'd hate for you to crack a finger nail on the ice."
And just like that… all previous gratefulness was thrown out the window.
Klaud sighed, she really didn't know how this was going to work but she trusted Komui as the current director. For his company's sake she really hoped his judgement was as good as he thinks it is.
•••••++••••••••••++•••••
Three weeks. That was how much time was left before the opening of Thumbelina. All the routines had been committed to memory and the company members were working harder than ever to make sure whatever stage time they had would be worthwhile. Allen had been attending extra classes outside of his normal rehearsal time with Kanda, to ensure he knew his other routines as well. There were only a few scenes in the entire production that Thumbelina didn't appear in after all.
The next day, professional photographers would visit the Black Order so they could take photos for the posters that would be displayed throughout the city. After the photo-shoot, there would be an 'open day', where members of the public would be able to view the cast in full costume. The open day was the most important day next to the weeks of production themselves as it's the prime source of advertisement. As this day was so important the company members involved would, not only have to be in full costume, but also full act. This meant that the public would meet, not just people from the Black Order and the NPA, but the cast from Thumbelina itself.
Allen and Kanda, as the two main characters, would need to act as 'in love' as possible. Which, of course, is something the rest of the crew would be biting their nails over. If Allen and Kanda are able to act totally besotted with each other (without so much as a glare in the other's direction) then the actual performance should be cake. But if not, the show may as well be cancelled right then and there.
•••••++•••••
Allen stared at the unfamiliar person that was staring back in the mirror in front of him. The costume makers, make-up artists, hair stylists and dressers grinned as they admired their masterpiece. Allen couldn't even recognise himself.
The dress was form fitting and was more of a unitard than a dress until it reached his hips, from there a flowing-looking, but actually quite stiff, see-through skirt travelled from one hip (round the back) to the other, gathering slightly on one side and leaving the front completely bare. The unitard continued past the skirt down to his ankles where soft pink slippers (in a sort of Chinese style) covered Allen's feet. The costume itself was quite simple looking, in shades of white, pink and red (of course this costume was just Thumbelina's traveling outfit, the wedding gown and final dress would be much more elaborate), but it was the little things that gave it this stunning simplicity. Like the way the bodice was crafted to give the illusion of a bust and slightly narrower shoulders.
The costume artists were delighted to note that, though the new Thumbelina was male, his natural feminine figure and delicate porcelain looks gave him a gorgeous profile. This meant no hideous breast inserts and unnecessary alterations that made the end result look like a deformed potato instead of a lovely young lady.
Like the costume artists, the make-up artists loved Allen's natural looks. They didn't apply too much make-up, opting for a simple pale foundation, slightly darker eyelashes and a small dusting of rouge and pale pink lip gloss.
The hair stylists added long hair extensions to Allen's existing hair, leaving most of it out free and curling a few strands in an elaborate pattern around the crown of the head, giving Allen a headband of braids.
The end result was simply stunning. Allen looked every bit the Thumbelina, and once in character he would be believable in act too.
Allen spun away from the mirror when Lenalee's voice sounded around the corner, "Allen! You ready yet? Marie just sounded the fifteen min–"
Lenalee cut off as she appeared in the doorway, her mouth agape and her eyes widened. Soon, her features took on a delighted smile and she rushed into the room to give Allen a bear hug before holding him at arm's length to give him a proper once over, "Wow, you look amazing! If I didn't know any better I'd say you were Thumbelina!"
Allen shifted a bit, uncomfortable under her awed gaze, "Thanks Lenalee, you look really good as well."
Lenalee grinned, "Thanks! But you really do look incredible, just wait till Kanda sees you! I bet he'll stop in his tracks when he sees how beautiful you look."
"Uh… I'm not sure I really want that to happen. This outfit is gonna turn out to be blackmail material for sure." Allen groaned, his head hanging. Great, just what he needed, another topic for a fight between Kanda and himself. LenaLee winked at him, "Nonsense! Just wait and see."
"…"
Another wink, "Just wait and see Allen! You'd be surprised."
Before Allen could ask her what she meant by that final statement, she had retreated out the door and a familiar head of black hair came into view. Allen mentally prepared himself for the biting remarks that were sure to fly any minute now, but to his surprise those remarks never came. Instead, Kanda grabbed him by the upper arm and led him out the door without uttering a single syllable.
EDIT 30/08/14: I won't elaborate very much on the times when Allen and Kanda share a room. I just didn't feel that it needed to be added except maybe for the comedy factor. At the moment the two of them don't really harbor any major romantic feelings towards the other (just attraction and admiration at the moment) and I just think that having a chapter with them sitting on opposite ends of a bedroom glaring at and avoiding each would be a bit boring. But I may use Komui's order later on when the romance side of things actually begins to pick up.
If you made it to here you deserve a virtual cookie! *gives* thank you so much for reading this and please review if you have the time :)