Sheesh I really love you guys. Three chapters in one day?
Allen: Well you don't think highly of yourself at all, do you?
Huh?
Allen: Never mind. She doesn't own DGM.
Enjoy!
Chapter 7
The girls did stop once, but it was only for a short amount of time.
"…Are they doing what I think they're doing?" Lynn asked abruptly as they stood on the river bank.
"Who?" Gubbi asked.
"Them." Lynn replied, gesturing towards the couple in the middle of the river clearly having a rather passionate make-out session.
"Don't draw attention to them." Caitlin snapped quietly. "I already noticed but I didn't say anything."
"No I totally think that we should just stand here and stare at them." Lynn suggested. "Maybe it'll get their attention and they'll stop."
"Seriously, there are little kids here…" Gubbi mumbled, ignoring her blonde friend.
"Oh! Or we should shout 'GET A ROOM' at them." Lynn added with a rather evil grin. "Yeah…I like that idea."
"No." Caitlin said bluntly. "No way."
Lynn rolled her eyes and was about to mumble some choice words under her breath when she saw someone and groaned loudly.
"What is it?" Gubbi asked.
"Trouble." Lynn replied simply, pointing to a younger boy coming up the river in a kayak. "We should go now."
"How come?" Caitlin asked, sounding kind of suspicious.
"Because Jack is nothing but trouble, believe me." Lynn said, heading back to the canoe.
This time they were able to get the canoe in themselves, and began paddling away. However, not even a minute later, Lynn was dearly wishing they'd stayed on the river bank instead.
"Hey freaks!" Jack yelled from behind them, squirting them with a pump-action water gun.
"Just ignore him." Caitlin said from the front.
Jack followed them down the river and squirted at people he didn't even know as he passed them. Then he brought his kayak up to the side of the girl's canoe and squirted Gubbi in the head.
"Jack, quit it!" Lynn shouted indignantly. "I will hit you with this paddle if you don't stop!"
"You guys are freaks!" Jack retorted with a snicker, spraying water again. The tip of his kayak bumped into the canoe hard enough to make it rock. Lynn screamed again, clutching the sides desperately.
"Jack!"
He replied by squirting Lynn on the back, the water soaking into her white shirt.
"Jack stop it!" the blonde yelled again.
"Lynn, just ignore him." Caitlin said. "He'll go away if you do."
"No he won't…" Lynn mumbled, trying to paddle as fast as she could to get away from him. He was a couple years younger than her, but he was so rude that she didn't care. She would knock him out with a paddle if she wanted to.
Then he squirted Gubbi again, laughing as he did.
"Oh you wanna go?!" Gubbi cried.
"You guys are such weirdoes!" he laughed. "Weirdoes! Freakazoids!"
"Take a look in the mirror pal…" Lynn grumbled. She seemed to be doing that a lot lately. "Caitlin, let's stop here." She said when she saw the bank up ahead. "Please."
Caitlin nodded, and they began to paddle towards the bank. Unfortunately, Jack still followed them.
The girls jumped out of their canoe and dragged it up onto shore. Jack did the same thing, but at a distance.
"My God I hate him…" the blonde mumbled.
"I'm gonna get that water gun." Gubbi announced, skipping off to the kayak before Lynn or Caitlin could stop her.
And that's when everything took a very bad turn.
xxXXxx
"So you don't think there's anything here either?" Lavi asked as they paddled swiftly down the river.
"My eye hasn't activated yet." Allen answered. "Nor have I seen anything truly suspicious."
"Which means that this is just a waste of time." Kanda growled from the front. "There's no Innocence or Akuma. Let's just go then."
"But Kanda, we don't know for sure if there isn't Innocence here." Allen pointed out. "Just because there aren't any Akuma doesn't mean that there's no Innocence. We might have gotten lucky this time and gotten here first."
"Don't be stupid Moyashi." Kanda snapped.
"I'm not being stupid, I'm being positive; there's a difference BaKanda! Or are you too stupid to know that?!"
"Hey guys come on!" Lavi cried, trying to stop them before they got into a fist fight. Then he looked up slightly. "…Did you hear something?"
"Like what?" Allen asked, not moving his death glare from Kanda's back.
"…I thought I heard a scream."
"Idiot." Kanda scoffed. "We've been hearing screams all day, but they're always a bunch of stupid drunk girls."
"I know, but still." Lavi said.
"I don't think it's an Akuma." Allen said, now getting curious.
"I'm telling you, it's just stupid, drunk girls." Kanda barked.
They were getting closer, and the screams were becoming clearer.
"Jack, back off!"
"…That sounded kinda like Lynn." Allen said, sitting up straighter. His suspicions were confirmed when he heard another shriek. "That's them, I know it!"
"Yuu, paddle faster!" Lavi commanded.
"Don't call me that baka usagi!"
"Just paddle you idiot!" Allen yelled, getting frustrated.
When they came around the bend, they saw what was going on.
Caitlin was practically in a fist-fight with a boy around her height. Lynn was standing about two feet away a pump action water gun in hand, yelling at them to stop, and Gubbi was about ten feet away, looking concerned.
"Jack, stop it!" the blonde yelled as the boy swung at them with a paddle.
Caitlin lashed out with her foot and kicked the boy in the leg, but he didn't stop.
"Oi!" Kanda barked, jumping out of the canoe. "Knock it off you idiots!"
Lynn and Gubbi were the only ones who heard; Caitlin and Jack were too busy fighting.
Then Jack lunged at her with the paddle, and Caitlin grabbed it in defense. She started to push back, trying to knock him over, but she'd hurt her foot when she'd kicked him.
"Jack back off!" Lynn yelled again. In an attempt to get the boy's attention, she chucked the foam pump action water gun at him, hitting him squarely in the forehead. And with the sound that came with it, it sounded like she'd hit him quite hard too.
Jack wrenched the paddle out of Caitlin's grip and swung at Lynn's head instead. Instinctively, she shrieked and ducked, falling on her butt as she did.
"HEY!" Allen cried as he raced from the canoe with Lavi at his heels.
Caitlin kicked at Jack again, and he lunged at her. She grabbed it again and they re-started their inverse-version of tug-of-war.
"I said stop!" Kanda yelled, becoming angrier and angrier with each step.
Then Jack pushed forward a little, making Caitlin step back. When she did, her right foot slipped on the rocky shore and sent her tumbling over backwards, letting go of the paddle as she did. Jack raised the paddle, like he was about to hit her, but before he could, or before Caitlin could lash out again with her foot, something got in the way.
In the blink of an eye, Kanda was standing in between them, his hand on the paddle, with a very dark scowl on his face. He lifted the paddle up, thus lifting Jack off the ground as well.
"I. Said. STOP." Kanda growled menacingly. "Do you understand me you little piece of shit?"
"Put me down you freakazoid!" Jack shouted, kicking Kanda in the stomach. However, the samurai just sighed in extreme irritation, not affected by the kicks in the slightest.
In annoyance, Kanda literately threw the paddle – and Jack – into the water, effectively stopping the fight.
"You tried to beat me up!" Jack yelled indignantly from the water.
"Uh yeah." Kanda snapped. "Now get out of my face; just looking at you is sickening."
Jack stuck his tongue out at Kanda and then ran to his kayak before paddling away like the Devil himself was chasing him.
Allen helped Lynn up from the ground. "You okay?"
"Yeah, thanks." Lynn replied, taking his out-stretched hand and standing up. She re-adjusted her hat.
"Who was that?" Lavi asked.
"…My cousin." Lynn mumbled, crossing her arms.
"Your cousin?"
"Well, technically we're not really related; he's from Russia, and someone on my Dad's side adopted him." Lynn said. "Thankfully, I don't see him much. I mean, I know he has some problems, but I personally don't think that it excuses his behavior."
"Problems?" Lavi repeated.
"Yeah, he has back problems." Lynn explained. "From what I know, when he was a baby, his mother didn't want him and dropped him out a two-story window."
Lavi was probably the only one to notice Allen's stony expression.
"That's sad." Gubbi remarked.
"Yeah, it is. But really, he's a complete brat!"
"That's mean."
Lynn turned to Allen, who had a dark expression.
"If anything, he should be getting your sympathy."
"Oh geez…" Lavi moaned, putting his hand to his forehead.
"Sympathy?!" Lynn repeated. "You don't know him at all!"
"Neither do you!" Allen retorted. "You just said 'from what I know'; there could be something else going on entirely that's causing him to act out!"
"Why are you taking his side?!" the blonde shouted in disbelief, having to stand on her tip-toes to get in Allen's face. "He came at us with a PADDLE!"
"You provoked him!"
"He's a jerk! Ask anyone!"
"Who started it?" the redhead asked, interrupting the fight which was quickly escalating.
"What?" Lynn asked, looking at Lavi.
"The fight."
Gubbi and Lynn kind of looked at each other. Lavi groaned.
"Please don't tell me that you actually started it…" he said.
"Well…"
"Seriously?!" Lavi cried in surprise.
"It wasn't really our fault!" Lynn protested. "He was being mean!"
"Do you have any idea how much you sound like a toddler right now?" Allen said with a dead-pan expression.
The blonde scowled and stuck her tongue out at him. The glaring contest between them resumed almost instantly.
"You're really not helping your situation acting like that."
"Gubbi's the one who took his water gun!"
"How about we all just stop fighting?" Lavi suggested. "Let's just forget this whole exchange happened, alright?"
Lynn and Allen both scowled deeply.
"Fine." Lynn snapped, crossing her arms and spinning around.
(A/N: Later on at my house, we did learn that there is a legit reason as to why Jack acts the way he does; he has a form of autism or something that leaves him socially inept. He has no idea how to act in public.)
xxXXxx
They continued to move down the river, but things were different this time. The backs of both canoes were eerily silent, as both Lynn and Allen weren't talking anytime soon. In everyone else's opinion, the two were acting very childish. Kanda was the only one who didn't think that; instead, he just thought they were complete idiots.
Gubbi suggested they all stop at one of the rocky islands in the middle of the river, which had a lot of other people on it, including Lynn's Dad, sister and brother.
Thankfully by the time they'd landed Lynn had cooled off considerably, but she still didn't say anything to Allen. She knew it was probably stupid, but she was waiting for him to take the initiative and start talking again.
"Woah!" Lavi cried, shielding his eyes from the sun. "Look at that cliff! People are jumping off!"
Sure enough, there were about three or four guys in their early to mid-twenties jumping off the cliff-face and into the water.
Kanda smirked. "Wonderful idea usagi; go jump off a cliff and don't come back. I'll even help you drown."
Lavi chuckled a bit nervously. "Eh, no thanks Yuu!"
"Don't call me that!"
Gubbi and Caitlin sighed and rolled their eyes at the two who had started fighting again. Well, Kanda was fighting while Lavi was running for his life.
xxXXxx
The float continued on, and when Lynn looked up into the sky, she noticed how late it looked. The sun could no longer be seen in the sky, saving Caitlin from anymore sunburn.
"You're gonna look like Neapolitan ice cream." Lynn joked.
"I know. It's so irritating." Caitlin sighed in annoyance.
"Oh, I like ice cream!" Lavi cried happily from the middle of the canoe.
"Really? I never would have guessed." Gubbi said sarcastically.
Then, for the first time in nearly an hour, Allen spoke up. "Is it just me, or are we being followed?"
"Well, it is a float." Lynn said, not looking at the white-haired boy. "So, technically yes."
"Baka Moyashi." Kanda scoffed from the front.
Allen frowned and looked behind him. There were numerous canoes and about two kayaks more than forty feet behind them, but Allen couldn't shake the feeling that something…sinister was following them. It wasn't an Akuma, or he would have sensed it long ago.
Was it possible that he was just being paranoid?
Allen wasn't used to missions where nothing at all happened. Every time he went on a mission, he usually had at least one near-death experience. He couldn't remember being on one mission where everything was completely calm and peaceful.
He turned his head forward and caught Lavi looking at him with a knowing glance.
So he wasn't just being paranoid.
Something was out there, and it was getting closer. Before they did anything, they needed to get the girls out of harm's way. Allen would never forgive himself if something happened to them. Lavi would care too, but, being a Bookman, he'd probably try not to show it. But he'd probably blame himself for it. Kanda…Allen wasn't sure what Kanda would do. Probably scoff and say some comment about how it was their own fault.
"I think we stop here." Lynn said, quietly paddling in the back.
"You sure?" Caitlin asked.
"I think so…" Lynn replied. "Then again, I'm not sure; my family isn't the only one on this float."
"Let's stop here anyways." Lavi suggested. "And if it's not the right place, then we can just go and find the right one."
So they paddled towards the shore, and nearly toppled over when the bottoms of the canoes scraped the riverbed with a loud grinding noise.
Lynn took this moment to steal a glance at Allen. When she did, she almost wished she hadn't.
…Almost…
It had gotten so hot earlier that Allen had been forced to unbutton his dress shirt, which almost caused Lynn a nosebleed. His chest was partially exposed, and she could see that he was very toned. Not too muscular, but not to lean either. And was that a scar? It looked huge; stretching all the way from his collar bone to his hip. Actually, there seemed to be a couple of them…
The blonde couldn't think of a hotter sight than the boy beside her.
She instantly blushed and looked away. Thankfully he hadn't noticed her looking, but she had a feeling that Lavi saw, since he was grinning wider than before.