Underneath

Chapitre Two

Found

And thus begins the second chapitre of Underneath! My, I'm surprised I got this many reviews; plus, someone added this to their C2, favourite list and even alert list! -Shock- Oh my, thank you. This really helped me since, well, I've been kinda… stressing out lately. Luckily this stress didn't jump at me on my birthday or on Saturday… Anyway, enough babbling for me; let's get started.

Random Note: PLEASE DO NOT READ UNLESS YOU HAVE FINISHED CHAPTER 110! -Insert excessive exclamation points- Here, I'll just put it in one big line just to warn you that it's a spoiler: Idontknowwhybutthecompleteideaofrhodekissingallenjustdisturbedmesinceimyselfcannotseethosetwoasacouplebutanywaywtfwasthataboutrhodekissingallenallofasuddenitwaslikesorandomthatijumpedinmyseatwhataboutrinaliwouldntshebeshockedheckiwouldjust(ressurectifheisdead)sickandaonthatfreakingnoahthingandtellhimtocutherintopieceswiththemugenbutthenagainthatsmyopinionsomeonemightactuallylikethatcouplebutyoureherebecauseitskandaxallenrightgood.

… Oh damn. -Laughs-

Disclaimer: D.Gray-man belongs to Hoshino. (Whoa, I remembered her name without looking it up! I think.)

Summary: Underneath the ground we stand thrives a civilization unknown to man, where creatures – half beast, half human. Among them is a young boy who got lost in the twisting labyrinth, eventually leading him to a single door that opens up to Earth's surface. There, he meets an older teenager, reluctantly bringing him into shelter. The boy who once lived underground learns of new things that the world above has always used, and with that, love.

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"Brother, there's a creature lying in our garden!"

Immediately a man popped out from behind a fine, polished, cherry wood door, slick hair tied up in a ponytail with a fashionable cap placed on his head, and stared at the girl who just randomly called out from outside. He blinked and, at the mere sight of a white haired figure slumping on the ground with horns sticking out from both sides of its head, sprinted towards the girl, grabbing her with such speed and strength that she felt her arms snap in half; he pulled her away instantly, checking to see if it was contagious after placing her far off in the side, and poked its head with a slender finger of his.

"Rinali, where did you find this thing?" the man slowly questioned, giving both the unconscious creature and his sister a look. Said girl pouted at her older sibling and replied, with great annoyance as she played with her violet hair pulled back in two ponytails,

"It was just here, brother, and I didn't touch it at all."

He hummed, intrigued by the magnificent species, and then muttered under his breath,

"Perhaps this creature is from outer space?" Rinali scoffed at her brother's proposition as he herself realized that his simple logic was ridiculous. Who would call this Neanderthal creature an alien from space? It would, of course, she thought, need some air tank to survive in the land without oxygen… Plus his clothes were completely worn out; they were just simple raggedy straps of leather, and were out of style. She wondered if this type of clothing was popular in its land.

"Brother, don't you think we should take it to the hospital and get a doctor to check what it is?" Rinali questioned after her brother picked the thin boy up and placed him over his shoulder. "I mean, we're not going to take him home, right? We don't have any room in our apartment…"

"Nonsense, Rinali!" the older brother exclaimed, throwing a hand up in the air dramatically as he ended up shifting around and placing the boy over his back in some piggy-back ride formation. "This boy here is obviously-!"

There was a loud, shrill whistle filled their ears, and the two knew what that meant. The man simply released the boy from his grasp and dashed into the kitchen at such velocity; all Rinali saw was a blur – with that unique shade of green and yellow on top – and then another shrill cry. However, it was not from the kitchen itself, but from her brother, who was too busy screaming and saving whatever it was in the room to care about the angry neighbors who lived close by.

"What happened to my coffee? Didn't I set the time right? Maybe- Wait a minute!" Rinali's brother came marching up to the kitchen window which was, apparently, right beside the house's door. "Rinali, was Rabi here earlier?" The violet haired girl simply nodded as she craned her neck to see what was going on in that kitchen that made her brother freak out completely. "I think he was just toying with our coffee maker!"

Rinali sighed. Of course, a day without coffee for her dear brother Komui was like hell packed up inside the empty head of his, wrecking all chaos and havoc until he collapsed in defeat. It wasn't really a pretty sight, truthfully; the poor girl had nightmares after that incident when she inadvertently dropped the coffee maker, causing it to shatter into a dozen shards of glass. No, it wasn't a sight most amusing.

She grimaced as the shouting continued, then the fire extinguisher went off; more yells filled the small, smoky room, and the teenager knew she had to jump into the situation before her brother hurt himself – again.

As she dashed into the kitchen with whatever item that was closest in her reach – at that point it was another one of her brother's exclusive hats – and began waving it around to clear the air, all thoughts of the white haired creature slowly waking up were stashed deep inside her mind.

…

"Snow kiss kono mama kimi to good-bye nante iwa naide whoa-whoa!"

The redhead that literally muted Kanda with his horrid singing the day before was at it again, this time with a rock-pop song that a woman sang; her voice was incredulously high and Kanda wondered how this boy could reach those notes. Perhaps it was because he was just born that way; defective and annoying.

He tried to keep his mind off of the ghastly singing but it just ended up swirling and thrashing in his head, driving him insane that, at one moment, he was about to take the chair he was sitting on, throw it at the window with such accuracy and speed, and, if God was on his side, nail the boy right in the head just to knock him out for, say, a week or two. If he was lucky, perhaps he would even die. But of course he knew that deep, deep inside he didn't have the heart – or lack, thereof – to throw a wooden stool at a redhead who was singing in his own room. And then the raven haired boy wondered why that music coming from a room yards away from where he was reached his ears.

Thin walls, perhaps? Kanda thought as he grimaced and tried to cover both his ears whilst turning a yellowed page in his book To Kill a Mockingbird; to his dismay, it didn't work quite so well, for the redheaded boy next door blasted his music up – yes, again, Kanda noted as he tried very hard not to explode by gritting his teeth rather harshly – when another song started. It was, as usual, the kind he despised. Hard rock, and a vocalist who had the creepiest, lowest, and, in his pointed of view, what seemed like a lusty, seductive voice singing along; he loathed all types of music like such.

Scrambling in his seat, he searched over and under his desk for music to play, just to soothe and calm down the bustling anger ready to erupt, and came across a ballad mix that he received from his uncle years ago. He popped it in into the spare stereo that his aunt stashed in her closet one day, and sighed in content as a mellower, serene track played, washing away almost all anger and impatience away.

Kanda glanced out the window, purely out of curiosity, and cringed as the sunlight beat down straight towards his face and, no matter how much he tried, the music from next door was still too loud. Perhaps his aunt's husband, who was a policeman in London, had a spare shotgun he could use. With a sigh he heaved himself off the chair and to his bed, slumping quietly as his body shifted and turned to find the right position. It was hard to sleep in the afternoon for him, especially with blazing screaming that the redhead called music, but he tried his hardest – and failed – to close his eyes just for a brief second, just to see if he could succeed in sleeping.

All he got was a mental picture of a white haired boy, horns jutting out from its skull, and the most miserable metallic orbs that, glassy with tears staining his pale cheeks and-

His eyes snapped open suddenly and he gasped, and, spastically, tried to sit up from his bed but ended up failing terribly; Kanda accidentally rolled onto the floor, face first, and ended up in an awkward position with his legs in the air and torso pressed flat against the carpet. It was then that his mother decided to walk in.

"Yuu- Oh, what are you doing on the floor, boy?" the petite woman asked as she crouched down to meet her son face to face, and continued, "You look like an idiot, Yuu-chan." He grimaced inwardly at the nickname but decided against showing it to his mother; who knew what she would do if she found out that she upset her one and only son? Sometimes, Kanda thought, his "good man" instincts actually had a bright side in his life.

"Well, get up, or else we'll have a visit with the doctor because of your back," she snapped playfully as she reached out and helped her son stand up with a huff. Kanda straightened out the navy green undershirt he wore and flashed his mother one of his rare grins.

"All right, mother, no need to care about me. Is Aunt Fumi fine? And what about Uncle Katsuhisa, is he back from work yet?" The raven added a silent "I need to shoot the redhead down next door with his revolver."

Of course his mother did not hear him and, as she left, giggling, Kanda let out a breath of relief. He certainly did not imagine himself jerking awake and stuttering at the image of the frail boy he spotted the other day. And then he thought: Was it a boy? As he remembered where he spotted the creature, Kanda poked his head out of his window to check if the redhead was still dancing and singing along with a random song; luckily, he found no boy screaming on the top of his lungs.

Slamming the window shut, the boy twirled around and swiftly made way to his door, and on the way down the stairs, he waved good bye to his mother, telling her that he would be back around the evening. She in reply simply smiled gracefully to herself as the sound of a wooden door slamming shut echoed, filling the blank, empty room with sound. The rushing of cool water running down her hands broadened her smile.

Perhaps, she thought, today would be the day where she would not cry in her room.

…

Kanda shivered as the freezing draft suddenly blew over him, knocking his senses out momentarily. He never really liked the cold and the fact that London still was not the warmest place on Earth – and that they still couldn't visit the Bahamas – only pissed him off more. Stepping out onto the paved sidewalk, the raven shifted his eyes to the side and spotted the redhead, his neighbor, huddling over something on the ground, playing with his bright orange scarf. He cocked an eyebrow in curiosity; what exactly was the redhead doing that sparked his interest like so?

Taking long, purposeful steps, Kanda made his way to the redhead on the other side of the street, just where he spotted the white haired creature the day before. Then, slowly, realization dawned on him.

Was the redhead taking that creature?

No! Kanda thought with sudden furiousness. I won't let such a perfect specimen fall into the hands of someone like him! He paused in his steps as he thought back to the previous day; had he not just thought of something similar to this? The raven ducked his head to recollect his thoughts and put on a threatening scowl, making up his mind while marching towards the redhead. He bent down and, as soon as he poked him, barked,

"What do you think you're doing?"

The redhead looked up suddenly, jumping in surprised; Kanda noted that the boy must had been paying attention to it with his whole mind and heart. Quickly the redhead flashed a smile to mask his surprise and in reply chirped,

"Well, I found a stray thing on the street. I was wondering if it was fine, lying down like this. Hey, aren't you-?"

"Rabi!"

A furious – that was unusual, said redhead noted – Komui came stomping down from his porch, hat firmly placed on his head in an odd fashion with a pink bunny cup in his hands. Rabi stood and walked towards the older man, showing a cheeky smile, an 'I-didn't-mess-up-your-coffee-machine-while-testing-out-a-few-inventions-of-mine-on-it!' type of smile.

Kanda simply watched as the man sparked off into an argument, waving and flapping his arms around to express his anger, half of which Rabi really didn't listen to. As soon as Komui stopped talking, Rinali poked her head out the kitchen window, scratches and what seemed like black ink smudged all over her arms and face. She eyed the three of them, that is, Komui, Rabi and Kanda, taking an excruciatingly long, leisurely look at the raven, before waving at her brother and shouting,

"I fixed the machine, brother!"

Said man let out a breath of relief, tenderly placing a hand over his chest to calm his speeding heart down. Rabi laughed nervously as he slowly inched away from the man, taking his chance of escape so he could avoid the man's strangle of doom. However the man caught him before he could sprint for his life, grabbed him by the collar, and set him down on the ground right next to the creature for a scolding.

Only after a few minutes did Komui finally realize that the redhead was playing with the creature's snowy hair and was ignoring him. He stared at it with such a perplexed face and, trying to prove his inner conscience wrong that the creature was indeed there before him, reached out to pet the pallid, milky face, then the long eyelashes that stood too still. His breath hitched in his throat; was such a creature actually real?

"What're you staring at?" Kanda interrupted Komui's little examination by poking his head in front the man's face. He recoiled and fell back on his behind, the man's eyes still locked on the white haired boy before him. The raven's eyes slowly made their way to the boy too, staring directly at his face for the first time in his life, and, like Komui, he was suddenly entranced by the uniqueness in…

Beauty?

Is it truly in beauty, the boy questioned himself for a brief second, or is it some illusion that this species can cast on humans?

No, Kanda frowned, that's just jumping to conclusions. But… perhaps he has some-

"Kanda."

Said raven craned his neck to spot Rinali walking towards him, arms crossed behind her back, mini skirt swishing back and forth. She had an odd pink stain on her cheeks that Kanda couldn't make out, and finally, she spoke.

"This… This boy. You saw him yesterday, right?"

Taking a moment, he stared the petite girl up and down, confused. Yes, he saw him lying on Komui's garden the day before but how exactly did she know?

"You must be thinking 'How does this crazy girl know?' right?" Rinali chuckled, nervousness clear and evidential by the way she still fidgeted and stared hard at her feet. "Umm, well, I was looking out the window yesterday and saw you… staring at our garden." This time she glanced up, her eyes wide in expectation, and let out a sigh she did not know she kept in when she noticed the raven still in the same position as before, squatting and stolid.

First I was wondering if you were staring at me, she thought to herself in embarrassment, but quickly covered it by stammering, "And then today I realized that there was this creature on our garden, and I kinda fit the pieces together. You were staring at it in fascination, right?"

Fascination, the raven thought with an arrogant smirk and continued, yes, it was-

"Fascination," he said aloud, earning him a couple of looks from the three. He jumped; had he just said that aloud in front of these people? "I mean," Kanda quickly recovered by sending them a chilly glare, "yes, I was staring at the creature in fascination. Nothing more. What? Stop staring at me like that!"

He felt his face flush furiously and before he knew it, Rabi was laughing at him, pointing and just snickering, mocking his humiliation with no mercy.

It was then that something stirred in his lap.

The redhead was too busy guffawing to realize that the white mop of hair was shifting under his hand, but by the time the boy stood up on his knees completely, blinking blankly at everyone, Rabi noticed the boy.

First thing he wanted to do was cuddle the boy for, even though it was half dead, half awake, it was absolutely adorable. And, though no one outside his family – heck, anyone outside his bedroom – knew of this, he had some secret fetish for cuddly things; and this creature, this boy was one of them.

However he did not have the chance to stare at the silver, metallic eyes again for the boy quickly glanced at Kanda and focused his attention on the raven. Said boy cocked an eyebrow and sent him a harsher gaze which did not seem to work; the boy seemed absolutely unfazed by his scowl.

…

It was extremely, painfully bright when he opened his eyes after what seemed like forever. Fresh air hit his nostrils hard and fast, and he swore his brain shut off and on after he blinked several times for his vision to focus. He saw in amazement the same waxy material he remembered from whenever he woke up, the same azure sky, the same raven haired boy with such fierce, steel eyes that bore into his face…

The boy paused at that; a boy? Who was he? Why was he here? And why was he staring at that human with such a pensive look?

He couldn't see the other humans around him and focused only on the frowning raven, his eyes wide in pure wonder.

…

"And it's on," Rabi whispered to himself as he scooted far away from the two locked in each other's gaze, watching the small staring contest from a distance. "Who will win, Kanda or the creature?"

All Rinali could do was blush and silently root Kanda on; it wasn't her fault that the masculine, yet somewhat feminine boy was so good looking that a single glance could make any girl fall to her knees. She was, much to Komui's disappointment, one of those girls. She too stared attentively at the two boys, face-to-face, eyes unblinking, and knees drawn together in an almost casual fashion.

"Well," Komui coughed and instantaneously he caught both boys' attention, "this is rather awkward, no? This… creature just appears on our garden out of no where and it seems like it's already crushing on Kanda."

Kanda and Rinali stared at the man with flabbergasted looks on their face – Kanda was, as usual, masking that shock with another deep scowl – and the girl gasped. "You mean the thing is… is…"

"Now, now, let's not jump to conclusions!" the redhead jumped in, saving Rinali from a heart attack, repeating exactly what Kanda was saying in his head. He shot Kanda what seemed like a 'You-are-so-lucky-you-bastard' look, but the raven couldn't quite make out what the teenager was saying.

As everyone focused on the white haired boy before, what he said sounded like gibberish to him. Kanda saw his lips moving, but he heard sounds and gestures that made absolutely no sense to him whatsoever.

Perhaps, he thought, he's speaking a different dialect of English?

"… me? Hear me?"

That was when he realized that the boy spoke broken English. How that was possible was beyond his thinking.

…

The boy tried so hard to speak in sentences; years earlier they had been taught scarce letters and words of the human's language, and he vaguely remembered them. It was millennia ago when a great hero, a dwarf, went up to the surface and met humans for the first time in their history. He brought back artifacts, artifacts of what was called 'wood', and round, red things that were juicy when popped, called 'berries.' And that dwarf brought the very language, written in his dwarven language on paper, to the land underground.

It was passed down from generation to generation, but the documents were years before in the labyrinth they called their home, and slowly the knowledge of the human language decreased as time lapsed. It was then that the boy, a few years from aging into an adult, decided to venture out and search for those documents in the maze on a free day.

That was how he ended up being lost.

He felt the humans stare at him and murmur amongst themselves and hazily picked up a few words here and there.

Weird. Language. Creature. Demon. Lost. Found. Here.

So many of those words spun around him and he felt his consciousness slipping away slowly, but his eyes met the raven's eyes from his previous encounter and he sat still, unmoving, eyes wondering.

What did this human have that drew him into some unknown abyss?

"Human," he finally spoke as he raised a tan finger and pointed at the raven haired boy, who glanced from a man in front of him to him.

It was not a cold glare this time; however, it was more of a curious, imploring gaze that seemed to lure him in even further. He felt himself crawl forward on all fours, knees scraping against the waxy green points, leather shoes dragging against brown, rocky material beneath him.

And then he was up close to the raven, his pale face just a hair's width apart from the human's.

…

"And so it starts again," Rabi grumbled under his breath, still examining the two who continued their peaceful game of 'let's-stare-at-each-other-in-confusion-just-to-kill-time-and-annoy-those-around-us.'

Silence seemed to be pressing down on them as the tension rose; the two boys' game of staring never seemed to end, and slowly, ever so slowly, it was agitating Rabi. The silence, the tension, the boredom was nipping at his heart and he felt the desire to squirt lemon juice in both their eyes to force them to cry out in pain and blink their eyes; it was all for fun of course, not to watch them wither and shriek in the stinging smarting. No, he wasn't that malicious as some would think.

And then, much to his liking, Kanda blinked and pushed himself away from the creature. It wasn't out of distaste or revulsion, he noted, but more of alarm and self-consciousness. Kanda still did not take his eyes off the confused creature, however, and it seemed like another staring contest was going to kick in until-

"Stop!" Rinali suddenly snapped, pushing the two boys apart from each other. The girl gasped; what had just gotten into her? In a flash she stumbled back on the grass blushing profusely as both boys gave her a look, both in puzzlement. Rinali took the silent seconds to recollect her thoughts, breathing heavily.

No, I wasn't jealous or anything, the girl reminded herself, screwing her eyes shut. I think it was just… wrong to see two boys staring at each other like that? I mean, Yuu- err, Kanda… The girls at school wouldn't like it if they figured out that, somehow, Y- no, Kanda and… this…

"Rinali," Komui interrupted, receiving a look from his younger sister and the perplexed white haired critter that, no matter how hard he tried to listen, still could not fit every single piece together. "I think we should try talking to this creature, not scare the living daylights out of it by glaring at it." He shot Kanda a look which he took offensively.

"Apparently it's not human," the redhead butted in by shoving himself between Rinali and Kanda. "I mean, what's it speaking, some kinda deranged German?"

All three of them shot him a look, and Rabi cowered back behind Kanda, who tried his best to ignore him. "Well," Kanda spoke up, "he probably didn't fall from the sky. If he did, he'd probably be dead by now."

They pictured the white haired boy, still lost, lying on the grass, unconscious, with his skull cracked in half. In unison they all shivered in disgust.

"Plus, look at its horns!" Rinali cried as she pulled at one of the ivory horns that stuck out from the top of his skull. "But doesn't it make him look adorable? The horns, I mean. And then the loin cloth; who wears that? Some ancient civilization that lives underground?" She laughed as everyone except Kanda joined in with her.

Underground. Now was that really possible for a being that needed oxygen to live underground? Wouldn't they be just breathing in their own carbon dioxide over and over again as they inhaled and exhaled?

The raven frowned as the questions racked through his head in an annoying fashion. He blocked out the different noises from outside where he was sitting in the middle of a garden beside Komui's house, examining a white haired creature that just popped up onto Earth.

"Oh, Yuu-chan, live a little!" Rabi laughed, punching in the shoulder playfully, earning a deep frown from the ebony haired boy. "But seriously, do you think this kid," the redhead joked as he ruffled the creature's hair, much to its surprise, "just popped up from underground?" Kanda stared at him in silence, lips pressed together in an angry fashion: one, Rabi just called him 'Yuu-chan', and two, he felt like an idiot when he thought that, unconsciously, the redhead just called him a dope.

"Actually," said raven grumbled under his breath as he casted a sideway glance, "I do think that."

Rinali gave him a hard look, thinking that something in her precious – Wait, precious? – Kanda's brain went defective. It was only a joke after all; does he take everything literally?

Well then again, Rinali giggled to herself girlishly, Kanda never really was the smartest kid in class…

Suddenly the kid began coughing, hacking as he clutched as his barely covered chest, and tried taking deep breaths without getting lightheaded. Rinali reached out and patted his back repeatedly, sighing as she watched the boy stop his coughing. Said white haired creature doubled over, one hand grasping at the grass as the other wrapped around his stomach, and moaned loudly.

Rabi got up to his feet frantically as he exclaimed that he would run for a glass of water or something, thinking that something got caught in his throat and was the cause of the wheezes. The raven only saw a blur of red and orange zip past him.

"Kanda, do something!" Komui barked almost angrily, pulling the boy to his side and forcing one of his pale, thin hands upward towards the creature's forehead. "Feel around his neck and forehead; maybe he has a fever? Wouldn't be so surprising because he's wearing such scanty clothes like that – if you can even call them clothes," he muttered the last part before he too ran into the house in search of some medicine as soon as Rabi came out with a towel and water.

Poor Rinali was bustling around, feeling his forehead, touching the sides of his neck, trying to pry the creature's hand off from the grass, and for the first time since winter two years back, she felt extremely paranoid and sick. Her brother, Komui, had fallen ill and for two weeks straight she had to take care of him, for her parents passed away in a car accident one snowy day. The feeling of despair and anxiety seemed to run through her body, and those feelings were the only reason why she was so jumpy and acting motherly towards the apparently sick boy.

Kanda really didn't know what to do at this point; usually he would stop by his aunt's room to watch his mother take care of the woman and eavesdrop as she would consult with the doctor, but that was it. All he saw was some thermometer and pills on the wooden bureau set beside her bed. So how was he, a boy in high school with no medical interest whatsoever, supposed to help out in this situation? Perhaps Rabi had helped around the house since he saw a couple of kids running around the field a few days ago – all with the amusingly red-orange hair – and figured that Rinali was always the motherly type. All he could do was sit there, cross-legged, watch the boy cough up what seemed like blue blood, and let his hand rest against his back.

What did Komui tell him to do again? Feel around his face to check if he was too warm and pat his back?

Let's follow my instincts then, Kanda thought helplessly as he began pounding the boy's back with no mercy or care in his actions. The uptight girl beside him gave Kanda a look that clearly said: Just-what-in-the-world-are-you-doing-you-bastard?

Not usually falling for other people's looks, the raven was surprised to see Rinali glaring at him and quickly scooted away, holding his hands up in the air as if caught red-handed.

Well now, he made a quick mental note, following your instincts is not the way to go.

"Here, Yuu-chan, make the boy drink water," Rabi commanded almost menacingly, shoving the clear glass of refreshing water into his chest. His hands wrapped around it instantaneously, but he still gave the redhead a look.

"Why do you want me to? Why not Rinali? She is the mother after all," he stated matter-of-factly, and in return he simply got a harsh, cold stare from Rabi.

I don't think this kid usually frowns like that, Kanda commented uselessly, cocking a stubborn eyebrow up as Rabi got up and left to Komui's house in search of blankets. Then he stared at the glass of water to the coughing boy to the stressing Rinali and then back to the cup.

Grasping the boy's chin lightly, Kanda turned his face towards his own, holding up the water with his other free hand. Carelessly he pressed the rim of the glass against the boy's pale, trembling lips, still wondering why he was doing this, and let out a sigh of relief when he heard gulping. No, not relief that the boy seemed much more better, but more relieved because he had done his job peacefully without being strangled by any of his odd neighbors. Rinali had also let out a breath of exhaustion as she gracefully settled down beside the white haired boy, heartbeat steady, on the grass.

…

It was odd, he thought as the solid yet clear object was pressed against his lip. What it was was beyond his thought and it felt odd to have such a smooth item against his lips. But then he felt a somewhat familiar substance trickle down his chin, just ten times better tasting than what he drank underground. Greedily, lusting over the refreshing substance, he opened his lips and swallowed up what flowed almost endlessly from the solid, cylindrical bowl-like thing that the raven was still holding against his lip.

Lagua, he thought to himself as his parched throat from all the coughing was no longer dehydrated, water.

Then he sat back down, eyes drooping, mouth slightly ajar, as he savored the taste of fresh, crisp water. The water he lived with was usually lukewarm and never as freezing as this.

Perhaps it was a gift from their god, this revitalizing water?

He felt a body settle down next to him and put on a fond smile as the girl who had been worried sick over him finally had to chance to relax. Only guilt got to him as he watched her wipe sweat from her forehead, breaths heavy and labored. Then he glanced to his right where the raven haired boy whom he had two staring contests with was kneeling, relaxed and calm without a worry. His eyes went down to the cylindrical object he held loosely with his fingertips, and wondered if there was anymore of that water left.

Reaching out almost hesitantly, he fingered the raven's hand, just to pull it away from his grasp and childishly held the item in his hands. It felt cool in his palms, probably because it mysteriously held the freezing water inside. His blue eyes peered into the inside of the cup and, as he cocked his head to the side, traced one of his slender fingers along the bottom of the object. He grinned when he felt some liquid substance wet his fingers; pulling out his fingers quickly, he stuck it in his mouth and sat there, still smiling.

…

Kanda gave him a look of pure, sheer curiosity. Was this boy deprived from water for him to enjoy what they drank daily? It wasn't that intriguing for a human like him since he had water day by day, but for a creature like him to be blissful over a glass of water…

"I'm back!" Komui exclaimed after moments of silence and quickly seated himself in front of the boy, staring at his silver eyes.

"Kanda," he said as he turned his neck to the left, nodding his head to where the creature was seated, "tell him to suck on this cough drop." Again the raven gave him a quizzical look, this time perhaps more of annoyance.

"Why me?" was all he asked before the man took his hand and pressed a wrapped-up cough drop against his palm.

"Because I said so; plus this kid seems to like you already."

Now there's a nice excuse, Kanda thought sarcastically as he silently rolled his eyes and let out a "Tch."

After taking off the paper-like cover wrapped around the cough drop, he held the candy between his index finger and thumb, holding it before the creature's wandering eyes.

"See this?" Kanda said slowly whilst pointing at the red candy. "You're going to suck on this so you don't start coughing again? All right?" He took the boy's hand and opened each closed finger one by one, finally placing the cough drop in his palm. "Suck."

Everyone around his snickered as the creature, in return, gave him a queer look with his both his eyebrow raised and one end of his lip cocked upward. He copied Kanda with a confused tone and repeated,

"Suck?"

"Yes," Kanda said almost desperately. "Just suck the candy and let's get this over with." Rabi giggled at his impatience.

Finally popping in the candy between his plush lips, the four of them sat quietly around the white haired creature, watching a small lump jutting out from his left cheek, then to the right, and then left again. They let out a sigh of breath; perhaps the boy actually understood them?

…

He had no idea what this raven headed boy was talking about.

Suck? He gave him an odd look. What is 'suck?'

Giving it a shot, the boy popped the candy in his mouth – mainly because he was afraid of the quiet, subtle, threatening look the boy before him was giving him – and gave a contemplated hum, shifting the hard thing side to side with his tongue. It didn't taste bad, nor did it taste really good. It was sweet yet, in a way, sour.

He caught the relieved looks on the people around him and couldn't help but feel proud.

Perhaps, the boy thought in his native language, they mean 'swallow' instead of 'suck?' I have never heard of the word 'suck' from the scriptures…

Once again he took a whack at it and, though he knew that something in the back of his mind was gnawing at him, telling him not swallow, he swallowed the sweet thing that the raven had handed to him.

Only after swallowing it did he realize that he made a huge mistake.

…

Everyone jumped at once as they saw the boy coughing, choking, and grasping at his throat in desperation. Kanda sat there, aghast, and slowly felt his usually cold mask slip away. What had he just done?

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I needed some way to wrap things up a bit, yah? So I decided to give the boy a cough drop; poor boy.

Uhh… If things got confusing for you, tell me, and I'll sort things out. Maybe it's about the whole story about how the human language got to there in the first place, Rinali's secret crush on Kanda (What? I couldn't help myself!), Kanda's actions and character (Oh boy) or anything else. Things are slowly… revealing. Slowly. But since this is more of like a fantasy and slice-of-life story, it'll take a while. Can't rush everything now, can we?

I hope you enjoyed this. Maybe I didn't put too many things with Komui in it. Or Rabi. Oh dear, I'm worried. Then again I did finish this when I was like, one third bored, one third tired, one third just like, distant. So forgive me if there are any awkward moments. Which would be a lot of them.

Ah. Time didn't really roll past them as quickly as you think it would've; let's say that… that happened all during the afternoon, perhaps not even a few hours. Who knows? So yeah, I'll leave you all to imagine what'll happen next until the next chapter.

I think you can also figure out what 'lagua' means, no?

By the way, I know this is random but, to those who actually reached this far, do you think JUNE (You know, the Korean guy who sings D.Gray-man's second ending and the ninth ending of Bleach?) sounds like a girl? Even my mom thinks he sounds like a girl; and I swear he doesn't! I'm worried now; maybe I'm the only one who actually thinks that JUNE's voice sounds (somewhat, note the somewhat) masculine…

-Muffinizer, haku