Yeah, it's me again. Finally.
This chapter was originally supposed to be a lot longer. Like, the entire scavenger hunt portion was supposed to be in chapter 2. But I have a ridiculously limited amount of time to write, so you guys would have had to wait another month for the chapter, and that is just not cool. So I finished what I have and that's what I'm putting up. As such, not much happens here, but it's kind of fun so yeah.
I want to thank everyone who reviewed the first chapter. You guys were so enthusiastic that I knew I had made the right decision to write a sequel. Thank you all so much for the overwhelmingly positive response!
Now, on to chapter 2!
The doorbell rang at 5:46 pm.
"I got it, I got it!" Lavi shouted, leaping up from the couch and bounding toward the door. This dislodged Allen, who'd been drowsing against the redhead's chest, and he tumbled to the floor with an "oof!"
"Oops," Lavi said, pausing to look at Allen and scratching the back of his neck sheepishly. "Sorry about that."
The white-haired boy just sighed and picked himself up off of the floor, as if things like this happened every day. Which, now that Lavi thought about it, they kind of did.
Hmmm. Maybe he'd have to work on that.
Lavi returned his attention to the door and flung it wide, beaming at the people who stood on his front porch. "Hello, friends!" he greeted them exuberantly.
"Calm down, Bookman," Daisya Barry grunted, brushing past him.
"Hello, Lavi," Arystar Krory said politely, moving past the redhead as well. Miranda Lotto came next, giving Lavi a shaky smile before quickly averting her eyes. She made it almost all the way into the living room before she tripped on the edge of the rug and fell flat on her face.
"Oh shit," Lavi said quietly, trying desperately not to laugh at the awkward girl's misfortune.
Miranda Lotto had always been a bit of an enigma to Lavi. This was rather distressing to him, because as a genius (which he totally was) not many things truly confused him. He met her at the truly epic Halloween party he had thrown the year before—in which he'd dressed as Spider-man and proceeded to save the world from all things boring and non-sexy—and he could tell from the start that this was one girl he probably shouldn't hit on.
This doesn't mean he didn't do it anyway.
The result was, predictably, a disaster. The moment Lavi had removed his Spidey mask and flashed his patented smile (okay, it wasn't really patented, mostly because you can't patent body parts—he'd checked) she'd proceeded to have a panic attack and collapsed, squeaking, to the kitchen floor. Lavi stood there, blinking stupidly at the quivering mass of black, as her pointed witch's hat fell from her head and fluttered to the dusty linoleum floor. Eventually, Lenalee wandered past, noticed the situation, and led Miranda to her bedroom where she spent an hour trying to calm the hyperventilating girl down.
Suffice it to say, Lavi had been extremely wary of her ever since.
"Are you all right, Miranda?" the last member of the four-person team inquired. Lavi was promptly flattened against the hall closet as the large boy pushed past him in order to help Miranda to her feet.
"Ye-yes, Marie," Miranda said shyly. "Thank you."
The boy smiled at her, and then turned back toward Lavi. "I'm sorry I smushed you," he said seriously.
"Eh, no big," Lavi said, trying to subtly massage his most-likely bruised ribs.
"Noise Marie," the boy said, holding out a hand.
"Lavi Bookman," Lavi said, shaking the proffered hand with a grin. The three of them made their way back into the living room—Marie helping Miranda stay upright, Lavi limping in a very manly and not-at-all-dramatic manner—where everyone else was crowding around the print-outs of the list of items for the hunt.
"This looks fun, Lavi," Krory offered as he continued to scrutinize his copy of the list.
"Hell yeah," Daisya said. "I love a good competition." He raised a threatening finger and pointed it in Allen's face. "You're going down, whitey."
"Wha—?" Allen began, taken aback.
Lavi started toward him, fully intending to defend his boyfriend from such vicious threats and uncalled-for face pointing, when Kanda popped out of nowhere and socked Daisya in the gut. The soccer-player doubled over, gasping.
"Kanda?" Allen said uncertainly.
"Whoa, Yu!" Lavi said, astonished. "Did you just defend Allen?" Could it be that his fabulous plan was starting to work already?
"What?" Kanda grunted, turning to look at Allen as if just noticing he was there. "Che. No way in hell would I ever care about the beansprout."
"But…" Lavi said, frowning. He gestured toward Daisya, who was still bent over and panting.
"I hate that guy," Kanda said, as if this was the most obvious thing in the world. "Every time I see him, I feel like punching him in the stomach. So I did."
Oh.
Well then.
"Good to see you too, buddy," Daisya wheezed.
"Shut up," Kanda commanded.
Lavi almost allowed himself to feel defeated, but then he remembered that the plan hadn't even really been instigated yet. He was the Undisputed Master of Instigation (as he just now decided to start referring to himself in his mind) so once the plan got going, he figured it would all definitely work out.
Somehow.
The doorbell rang again.
"Oh, I bet that's Fou. I'll get it," Lenalee chirped, sweeping out of the kitchen and wiping her hands on her jeans. She'd been doing the dishes before everyone got there, even though the chore chart said that it was Lavi's week to do them. For some reason, Lenalee was incredibly hesitant to let Lavi anywhere near anything housework-related. Whenever Lavi was in a helpful mood—which, he'll be honest, wasn't very often—he'd try to help her clean and she'd just freak the hell out. Once he'd picked up a broom and she'd hit the deck like he was brandishing a grenade launcher.
The green-eyed boy could hear Lenalee's excited greeting and Fou's dry response from the entryway. He tried to sneakily move behind Allen for some sort of protection, but his boyfriend was a good head shorter than him and made an all around ineffective, albeit adorable, human shield.
"Lavi?" Allen questioned, turning around and raising an eyebrow. "What are you doing lurking back there? You look rather suspicious."
"Don't worry about it," Lavi said, his eye trained nervously on the entryway.
Fou came around the corner then, trailed by people Lavi presumed to be the three friends that Lenalee had mentioned. When she caught Lavi's eye, he offered her a weak grin. She just smirked and raised a threatening fist. Lavi shrunk a little further behind Allen. This was just to stay out of her way, of course. It's not like he was cowering or anything.
"Oh my gosh! Allen?" one of Fou's friends inquired, pushing her round glasses up her nose in surprise.
"Ah, Miss Lo Fa," Allen greeted her warmly. "What a coincidence!"
"Didn't know you'd be here, Walker," one of the boys who was standing behind Fou said with a smile.
"Hello, Rikei," Allen said. "Sifu," he added, nodding to the remaining boy.
"You know them?" Lavi wondered, standing up straight and peering at the group over Allen's head.
"They were my bio lab group last semester," Allen explained. "Small world, right?"
"So, what's the plan, Bookman?" Fou asked, crossing her arms. "We gonna get this thing started or what?"
"Oh, right, right!" Lavi said, hopping up. "All right, here's how this is gonna go down. Everybody have a list?" He snatched Allen's list from his hands and waved it around a bit, giving a satisfied smile when everyone nodded. "Great! So, just collect as many items as you can from the list in 24 hours. If you're not back here when time is up, you're disqualified. Also, all four members of your team must remain together at all times. No splitting up to collect more items, because that's cheating. Now, some things are worth more points than others, and I don't think there's any way you can get all of them, so you'll have to make a plan about what you're gonna get and what you're gonna ignore. Any questions?"
"What do we get when we win?" Daisya demanded, raising his hand.
"When you win?" Lavi said, amused. "Pssh, in your dreams, Barry. We all know that our team is gonna kick your team's ass!"
"Before this gets out of hand," Marie cut in, placing a restraining hand on Daisya's shoulder as he began to make for Lavi. "I think that Daisya raises a valid point. What is the prize for winning?"
"Prize?" Lavi said, perplexed. He honestly hadn't thought that far in advance. This plan was less about having an actual scavenger hunt and more about getting Allen and Kanda to be able to exist in the same room without trying to bludgeon each other.
"It's a secret!" Lenalee cut in with a conspiratorial wink. "But I can tell you, it's a really awesome prize!"
And this was the main reason he loved Lenalee: she always knew just the right thing to say to save his ass.
"Hmm, mysterious," Krory murmured.
"Right!" Lavi said, giving the Chinese girl a grateful smile. "So, it is…"
"Six twenty-three p.m," Allen verified, checking his watch.
"Thanks dude," Lavi said, ruffling his hair. "So, the hunt officially starts now. If you're not back by six twenty-three tomorrow night, you lose. Now, go forth!" He struck an impressive pose, and everyone marveled at his genius. Allen swooned.
Or, well, Lavi thought he probably would have swooned, had he not been too busy rolling his eyes.
"Let's go team," Daisya said, sprinting to the front door and waving his list like a flag. "We won't lose to these losers!"
"Who are you calling losers?" Fou demanded, striding after him. "Hey, get back here, kid. I'm not done talking to you."
Krory and Miranda smiled awkwardly and followed, Marie trailing silently behind. The boy Allen had identified as Rikei gave a salute and turned to follow, his eyes lingering on Lenalee perhaps a second too long. Sifu followed as well, studying his list carefully. Lo Fa stood rooted to her spot, staring (rather dreamily, Lavi noticed) at Allen. Allen was completely oblivious to her attention in general.
This, of course, was hilarious.
"Lo Fa," Fou barked. "Get your ass over here!"
"Oh, right!" she squeaked, blushing. "Um, see you later Allen!"
"Good luck, Miss Lo Fa," Allen said sincerely, glancing up from his list with a polite smile.
"Th-thanks," she stuttered, pushing her glasses up her nose again. She hurried toward the front door, stopping once to glance at Allen over her shoulder. The white-haired boy was once again immersed in his list, so she caught Lavi's inquisitive green eye instead. He gave her an amused smirk and raised an eyebrow. She flushed an even deeper red and tripped out the door.
"All right," Lavi said, mind back on the task at hand. He pulled Allen and Lenalee into a huddle, wisely refraining from touching Kanda. The swordsman stood at the fringes of the discussion, close enough to hear but not close enough to stab people for intruding upon his personal space. "Now, we obviously need a car. Allen's is the biggest, plus it has four-wheel drive to get over all of this snow, so we'll use that."
"Does this mean I get to drive?" Allen asked hopefully.
"Of course not," Lavi said. "I'll—"
"I'll be driving," Lenalee cut in, giving Lavi a very pointed look.
"But!" Lavi and Allen protested at the same time.
"No arguing," Lenalee said. "Now, let's go!" She led the way out the door, the boys trailing behind her. They crunched across the snow-covered lawn and into Allen's garage. He dejectedly fished his keys out of his pocket and handed them to Lenalee, who took them with a smile. She climbed into the driver's seat and Lavi hopped into the passenger side.
"Um," Allen said awkwardly, looking uncertainly at Kanda. "You want us in the backseat?"
"Uh huh!" Lavi said, nodding happily.
"Kanda and I."
"Yep!"
"Together."
"Yeah…"
"In cramped quarters—"
"Just get in the car, beansprout," Kanda grated, sliding into the backseat behind Lenalee.
"It's Allen," he snapped, crawling into the seat behind Lavi. "Why is it that you can't seem to get that right?"
"It's probably because I don't give a shit what your name is," Kanda growled, crossing his arms over his chest and turning to look resolutely out the window. They were still in the garage, so there really wasn't much to see—just an old sawhorse and a rusted old axe that Lavi had never seen before and made a mental note to hide so Kanda couldn't use it on them all in their sleep one night—so that was just a testament to how much the Japanese boy did not want to look at Allen.
Which seemed ridiculous to Lavi. Looking at Allen was one of his favorite things ever.
Allen made an indignant noise in the back of his throat and turned his head away as well.
Lenalee gave Lavi a look and buckled her seatbelt. "Sure hope you know what you're doing, Lav."
"Hey, you said this was a good idea!" Lavi defended. "You lent me your support, even!"
"This is a terrible idea," Kanda grumped.
"Quiet, jerk," Allen snapped. "Be nice to Lavi!"
Allen was defending him. D'aww.
"Yeah, well," Lenalee murmured, looking in the rearview mirror to see Allen and Kanda glaring daggers at each other.
"Well, okay, so here's the plan," Lavi said, trying to get things back on track. "Lena and I think that we should get the biggest thing out of the way first, so we're going to go get a picture with the giant badger."
"Um, isn't that in the next town?" Allen asked, furrowing his brow. "That's a bit of a drive…"
"Just twenty minutes there and twenty minutes back. And it's worth 2000 points!"
"All right," Allen said slowly. "So what'll we get after that?"
"Well…" Lavi began.
And now they were at the heart of his fantastic, genius plan. He knew that Allen was surprisingly competitive, had actually found this out the hard way when the white-haired boy had refused to speak to him for a full day when he'd suspected Lavi of cheating at Monopoly.
Which he totally was, by the way. There was a reason he always volunteered to be banker, and it had nothing to do with the fact that he was practically a human calculator. Which, again, he totally was. But it's not like Allen really had any right to complain, what with the positively fiendish way the gray-eyed boy played poker. Lavi was still sore over that whole situation.
But anyway. Allen hated to lose, and of course Kanda hated to lose. Kanda hated most things, of course, but losing would probably be in his top five. Which was actually quite impressive, given the truly extensive list of things Kanda admitted to hating.
Lavi figured that he could put Allen (who hated to lose) with Kanda (who also naturally hated to lose) together on a team in a competition with other people (to whom the two would not enjoy losing, as has been repeatedly established) and they'd be able to work together toward a common goal and, in the process, learn to get along.
It was all so touching Lavi almost shed a tear.
"Well what?" Kanda demanded.
"We haven't really planned it out any farther than that. So why don't you two look at the list and decide what we should gather to get the highest amount of points?"
Lenalee gave him an encouraging nod as she turned the key in the ignition and pressed the button for the garage door opener.
"You want us to work together?" Allen asked, horrified.
"I am not working with the stupid beansprout," Kanda insisted.
"Well, Lena's driving, and I'm navigating," Lavi said, fishing a map out of Allen's glove box and spreading it across his knees. "Come on, men! Draw us up a battle plan! Don't want to lose to Daisya Barry now, do we?"
Kanda and Allen looked at each other for a moment, then looked back at Lavi and shook their heads.
"I guess we can make it work," Allen said grudgingly.
"Whatever," Kanda said. "I'm only doing this because I've hated Barry longer than I've hated you."
"And this is a good thing?" Allen said, frowning.
"Che."
Lenalee pulled Allen's Jeep out into the alley and toward the road. "All right, so which way am I going, Lavi?"
"You'll want to take a right up here," Lavi pointed out. He glanced over his shoulder to see Allen and Kanda leaning over the same list, talking in low but relatively civil tones, while Kanda used a pen he'd found on the floor to circle some things and cross out others.
"Captain's Log," Lavi whispered to himself, grinning. "Six thirty-three pm. 'Operation: Friendship' has begun."
Captain's Log—6:57 pm. Commence "Operation: Locate Giant Badger."
"Who the hell makes a statue of a giant badger?" Kanda wanted to know.
"A sculptor who has a lot of problems, clearly," Allen answered. "Are you sure we're going the right way?"
"I'm sure I'm sure," Lavi insisted, skipping ahead of them. "And just so you know, Yu, badgers are some of the most vicious creatures in these parts. They've been known to go toe-to-toe with black bears and win."
"What?" Kanda scoffed. "Nothing can beat bears." He paused for a second before adding, "except maybe other bears."
"Nope, nope, it's true," Lavi assured him. "I saw it on the Discovery channel. The Discovery channel would never lie to me."
"Don't they always put on those programs about how the pyramids were built by aliens and how Leonardo Da Vinci was psychic and whatnot?" Allen put in with a frown.
"No, that's the History channel," Lavi said, grimacing. "We do not speak of the History channel."
Lenalee giggled, swinging her digital camera bag on the sparkly strap that clipped to her purse. "That's a really sore subject for him."
"That isn't real history!" Lavi shouted, waving his arms wildly and startling the elderly couple that was strolling toward them on the park's pebbly walking trail.
"We know, Lavi," Lenalee placated.
Allen chuckled and Lavi shot him a sad look. "Oh, I'm sorry," Allen said, patting him on the back. Lavi was appeased. It was relatively easy to appease Lavi, especially if your name was Allen Walker.
"Is that it?" Kanda interrupted, pointing at a granite statue of a badger rearing up on its hind legs, claws out and fangs bared. It was extremely terrifying. If Lavi had seen this as a child, he would have been scarred for life.
"Jesus," Lavi breathed.
"Didn't that program say that Jesus was an alien, too?" Allen said thoughtfully.
"We do not speak of the History channel!" Lavi yelled. "Why are you speaking of the History channel?"
"Sorry," Allen said, smiling sheepishly.
Lenalee ignored them like a pro. "What's with this fence?" she wondered, poking the top of one of the wrought-iron points that surrounded the statue. "Is this thing really so valuable that they need to guard it?"
"Maybe it's because it's so scary, they don't want people taking a crowbar to it," Lavi said, squinting. "That's what I'd do."
"You'd destroy public property with a crowbar?" Allen said, raising an eyebrow.
"Wouldn't be my first time."
"Well, come on then," Kanda said, hopping over the four-foot-tall fence in one fluid motion. "Let's get this picture and get the hell out of here. I'm getting snow in my shoes. I hate getting snow in my shoes."
Lavi clambered over next, and then hefted Allen under his armpits and swung him up and over.
"Really, Lavi," Allen groused, blushing. "I could have done that myself."
"S'kay, babe," Lavi said, grinning. "I was mostly just showing off how strong I am. Impressed?"
"Oh yes, very," Allen said drily, rolling his eyes yet again.
"Stop flirting and get your asses over here," Kanda growled, scowling. Lavi was struck by how closely he resembled the horrifying badger statue when he made that face. He almost mentioned it to him but decided that he'd rather not be mauled tonight. As ridiculously fun as it was picking on Kanda, he had to put the good of the plan before his own personal enjoyment.
And Lavi never put anything before his own enjoyment. This whole plan was incredibly noble of him, he decided. Noble like a knight. Yeah, that was good. Knights were cool. They got to wear shiny armor and wave swords around and save people from dragons and stuff. If a dragon thought that it could just fly in and make off with someone—he had a brief mental image of Allen in a flowy pink dress with one of those tall cone-shaped princess hats on his head—well, that dragon had another think coming. Allen would be all "save me, Lavi!" and Lavi would be all "never fear, fair, uh, dude! I am here to rescue—"
"What the hell are you doing?" Kanda bellowed, interrupting Lavi's fantasy of his knightly badassery. "Quit just standing there and get in the damn picture."
"Are you all right, Lavi?" Allen asked, concerned. "You've been standing there staring off into space for about a minute now."
"Nothing to worry about, your highness," Lavi said, flipping him a salute. He clambered up onto the base of the statue next to the gray-eyed boy, giving the stone badger a wary glance.
"Your highness…?" Allen said, perplexed.
"All right everyone," Lenalee said, holding up her baby-blue digital camera. "Smile!"
Lavi threw his arm around Allen's shoulders and flashed a smile. Allen grinned as well, leaning into the one-armed embrace. Kanda glowered, which, frankly, was to be expected.
The bright flash blinded them for a moment, and then the three of them hopped down off of the statue and clambered back over the fence.
"Well, I think that was a pretty successful first mission," Lenalee said, turning off the camera to save its batteries. "Where to next?"
Kanda pulled the folded-up list out of his pocket and shook it open with more force than was strictly necessary. "The stupid beansprout and I thought that we could gather a bunch of these smaller items in a short amount of time, and then go to some of the bigger things later."
"My name is Allen," said beansprout huffed, kicking a rock at Kanda's calf as they trudged back up the path toward the parking lot.
Kanda whirled around, glaring. "You did not just kick that shit at me," he snarled, pointing at the rock, which was now lying innocently in the middle of the path.
"Oh, I believe I did," Allen said, smirking.
"That's it, you're dead," the Japanese boy said, starting toward him with murderous intent.
"Now just a second, Yu," Lavi said, stepping in between them in order to fulfill his knightly duties as protector of the admittedly not-completely-innocent boy.
Allen took this opportunity to spin on his heel and flee like a coward.
"Get back here," Kanda demanded, sprinting after him.
Lavi hung his head and sighed. "This isn't going well."
Lenalee laughed and patted him on the shoulder. "The night is still young, my friend."
I'll do my best to get the next chapter out as quickly as possible, I promise! Drop me a review to let me know what you guys think so far!