Kanda Yu

After I had finished the nasty job, Lenalee and Saeko (when did she come back?) evacuated Yoru into the tent. They did it in such a comical way that I had to raise a questioning eyebrow. Lavi slid smoothly towards me, looking dead serious. He spoke in a very serious and clear voice: "Yu-chan, best you go wash your face now. And by the way, why aren't you dead yet?" I glared at him as I unbuckled my long coat: "What, you got a problem with that?" Lavi cocked his head sideways, and replied in an idle fashion: "Eh, maybe." He cringed slightly, as if bracing himself for a punch. It looked stupid, if you ask me.

I gave a tired groan and slid off my coat. Parts of it were stained with Yoru's blood. I'll have to scrub it off somewhere; somewhere where the poison residue won't harm anyone. I wouldn't want to break Old Man Tiedoll's heart, as he would go sobbing for hours.

A fresh breeze blew at my bared arms, and through the sleeveless shirt I wore inside my uniform, my tattoo was peeking through. I touched it lightly with a gloved hand, and a cold feeling zapped through my body. I wondered about the time I still have left in the world, only to find … maybe one or two decades.

But it wasn't like I had anything to long for in this hellish world; however "that person" had yet to be found. I wouldn't give up that easy. I clenched my fist in frustration.

"Oh. I get it now." Lavi's voice snapped me to reality. His face was grave under the setting sun. I tried not to be a burden to my teammates (no matter how idiotic those jerks were), and thus I spoke coldly towards Lavi: "Just shut up and get me a towel." Lavi exited silently to find the towel. I peeled off the skin-tight shirt, slightly dismayed to find a few extra tendrils extended from it; a result of tonight's "saving the damsel in distress" act. However, it seemed that the lotus was okay. It would take some more time to make it shed a petal.

I stared at the setting sun blankly until it burned my eye and a trickle of a tear slid from the corner of my eye.

Allen Walker

Well, it turned out to be that Kanda wasn't really eating Yoru. He was actually sucking the AKUMA virus out of her. It was a very dangerous stunt, but I was glad to see that they were both okay.

As Kanda entered the tent, his coat and shirt slung lazily over a shoulder, Yoru jumped enthusiastically in front of him and asked in a curious manner: "Well, what do you want for diner?" It seemed as if Kanda's mind wasn't on food as he replied simply: "The normal."

I was more troubled when I detected a slight change in Kanda's tattoo pattern. Maybe he was working too hard. The AKUMA never seemed to run out, though the exorcists were fading fast. It was surprising that they received so many recruits over the past few days.

Kanda was asking Lenalee about Yoru's current health. I had heard that he made a promise to General Tiedoll; the content was to take care of Yoru. Maybe that was it.

Lenalee described to Kanda that Yoru was jumping about like a sparrow once they got into the tent. With a puzzled face, Lenalee complimented Kanda on his poison-extracting skill. I noticed that Kanda's dark eyes lightened slightly with relief as he looked towards Yoru. His face was a mask of the usual expression, realization of something, and something like regret.

I walked over to the makeshift dinner table and managed to dodge the towel Lavi threw towards Kanda (who scrubbed the blood off his face with it) and sit down next to Saeko. She seemed to be writing something down; maybe Kanda's out-of-character rescue. Her dark blue eyes reflected that she was raking her memory, trying to squeeze more out of a probably already-perfect entry. It was the way of the Bookman, I supposed.

All I had to wait for is dinner, and sure dang hungry I am.

Saeko

I felt rather angry, stuck at the dinner table recording things while my lethargic cousin joked about and laughed when he was supposed to be doing his "homework". His indolent attitude fired me to work, to be better than him. However, my memory wasn't as strong as his, and I did have some trouble recollecting what happened earlier this day.

As Yoru dragged the boy called Kanda (and thank God that he was now in a clean, white shirt that was not blood-spattered), Lavi that idiot was finally silent, no longer a continuously firing gun of words. However, my moment of peace was interrupted as Lavi opened his mouth in a brainless question, his face disappointed: "So we're eating Yu-chan for dinner?"

Allen Walker, the prophesized "Destroyer of Time" stared at the Kanda boy in horror at the mention of the word dinner. His frowned and said in a disgusted voice: "No way I'm eating Kanda; I bet he'll taste as foul as his attitude." Thus Kanda glared at him and said maliciously: "And I'm sure you'll be as tasteless as any old normal 15-year-old beansprout, idiot."

Kanda's hand reached towards his katana, but Lavi stopped him. Unfortunately for my cousin, he came up with a surprisingly foolish to say: "Make dinner, not war." Kanda seemed set to chop Lavi instead of Allen now. Oh well, I'm just fine with that. Maybe I'll enjoy it.

Yoru twirled a wooden spoon and gave a sigh: "Hopefully, I'm the one making dinner; I wouldn't really want to eat Senpai's rabbit stew." I was fine with rabbit stew, though maybe not something like beansprout noodle soup.

Oh well, it wasn't really like Yoru's cooking would taste bad or anything.

Lenalee Lee

As Yoru went back into our makeshift kitchen, Bookman slid into his seat silently. Lavi complained towards Saeko and Bookman: "You guys weren't even at the fight!" Bookman retorted: "It's none of your beeswax!" Lavi pouted: "Since when wasn't recording part of my business?" Bookman raised his eyebrows impishly and reminded Lavi: "And you have recording homework today, idiot." Lavi gave an exasperated: "Dang it!"

Yoru then barged in, her skinny arms full of plates; around her waist was a stained gingham apron. She passed out a lot of the food to Allen, who thanked her politely and started diggtookinto the food. Lavi had more yakiniku, and he blinked his eye gratefully at Yoru. My dumpling soup was perfect, and as I took a sip, I saw that Bookman was enjoying his meal of minestrone and crackers, and Saeko was devouring a set of mini-pizzas; Shirou was digging in heartily into his roast chicken, and his happy smile seemed to tug at something inside me.

Something that I couldn't quite put my finger on.

Igetsu Yoru

As I surprise, I arrived with Senpai's soba last. It was the best I could do, with handmade noodles and tsuyu sauce, crispy tempura, and such. Senpai's eyes widened slightly in awe, though I didn't think it was enough to thank him; maybe I would try it the way westerners do?

As I cruised back into the kitchen (for my own dinner), I decided that I would use that trick for a little laugh. Sure, Senpai wouldn't like it, but it would be worth it, just watch.

Kanda Yu

Shortly everyone was finished with dinner (and I had to admit that the soba was very good), Yoru came with chocolate cake and rice crackers. Lenalee seemed strangely interested in the cake, and so was Allen and Lavi, but sweets weren't my thing. I reached with casual grace for a rice cracker, thank you very much.

And when I bit into my cracker, I saw form the side of my eye the worst thing I could see at the moment.

An evil glint in Yoru's eyes.

Instantly, my already-pale skin went as white as my shirt. Yoru was up to no good. She strode towards me as if nothing wrong was happening then announced to everyone: "I would like to thank Senpai for helping me earlier this day, though you could have used my antidote for the virus." She extracted a syringe filled with a translucent blue liquid. Instantly, I wished that I knew Yoru better and used the syringe when she was dying of the virus.

Yoru smiled in understanding at me, and said: "But still, Senpai gave and effort; and my arm was numbing at the time, and Senpai really saved my life." And what would be the most embarrassing event in my entire life happened.

She kissed me lightly on the cheek.

Everyone in the room went berserk. Lavi was rolling on the floor, laughing and gasping for air, Lenalee looked shocked and looked as if she was about to faint, Beansprout was suppressing a giggle (which turned it into an unfortunate snort), Bookman was trying not to teem over with amusement, and Saeko was documenting every little bit of this hellish scene.

I managed to keep my face from turning as red as Lavi's freaking flaming hair this time. Trying to keep my cool, I turned towards Yoru, my voice seething with a venomous anger: "Why?" Yoru said cheerfully: "I thought you could take a joke, Senpai."

A wisp of her ebony-black hair stroked my cheek. It smelled lightly of a blooming lotus flower.

My heart ached at the familiar smell. My time was dwindling.

And to make matters worse, I'm pretty sure that thing's won't turn out the way I envisioned it. It's probably going to be really bumpy and tough, and I'm going to be stuck with a band of idiots. But at least I still get some seriously good soba.

But that's about the only advantage on my part.

To be continued

Author's notes:

Poor Kanda ... the center of the taunting ... ahahahah. However, putting aside the tormenting, this chapter was strangely ... emo. Maybe it's because of the influence of the later chapters ... all the stuff about lotus flowers and such ... I just hope I'll be able to stay on track with my original plot. Please R&R!