Eh. -_- Not my favorite, but whatevs. Not much to say.

Summary: When playing the piano, it was almost like he was in a trance. It was never as easy to stop playing as it was to start.

Rating: T

Ficlet #12:

Hypnosis

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For a while, Allen just stared at the piano. He stood and stared, his eyes blank and his hands clenched in fists at his sides. Kanda pulled up his fist, and in an uncharacteristic gesture, sweetly kissed Allen's knuckles.

Allen started, his eyes suddenly gaining life again as he blinked and turned to look at the Japanese man. Kanda said quietly, "Go on," and Allen smiled and nodded. He walked forward slowly and sat down on the bench, staring at the ivory white keys that glistened in the dim sunlight filtering through the windows.

Hesitantly, he pressed on three white keys and listened to the sound they made. C minor. Beautiful.

"Kanda, could you…" Allen trailed off, biting his lip. "I could like to be alone – if you don't mind." He scrambled to find the right words as to not offend the other man, who only smirked and walked out of the room.

Allen took a deep breath, and started playing. Kiss the Rain filled his ears, and he smiled serenely. He always felt so alive when he played the piano. He never wanted to stop. Before he knew it, his fingers were flying over the keys quickly, playing a song even he did not know.

Allen's eyes drifted in and out of focus and became half-lidded, until all he heard was music. All he saw was music; notes and chords drifted across his vision as if his brain was a projector, and time was nonexistent. It could've been minutes or hours or days and Allen would not know. He was oblivious to the world.

Every now and again, his vision would focus back on the piano keys, though they were no longer white. They were a bright scarlet, and Allen wanted to look away, but he couldn't. He felt tears; fat and sticky, roll down his cheeks, and his tongue flicked up to taste them.

He expected them to taste salty, but was instead presented with a metallic flavor. Blood, Allen realized subconsciously, but it didn't fully register in his mind, and so he didn't really care.

Only moments afterwards, everything went black.

- - - /

Allen… Allen… Allen. He opened his eyes, blinking them up into Kanda's own midnight blue orbs. It only took two seconds to register that Kanda was shaking him and yelling his name, and only ten seconds to realize that he was covered in blood.

"What?" He questioned dumbly, cocking his head at the samurai. Once Allen had spoken, Kanda sighed and stopped shaking him.

"You were in here for two hours, you know," Kanda started quietly. Allen swallowed and nodded for him to continue. "I came in because I was worried. You were playing the piano like crazy, and your fingers and eyes were bleeding. You were just staring forward with this blank look in your eyes. I called your name, and you started to cough up blood. It wasn't until I pulled your fingers away from the piano and started shaking you that you snapped out of it and stopped bleeding," Kanda concluded, and Allen stared at him for a moment before sliding off the piano bench onto his knees.

"This… this is why I stopped playing," Allen murmured dejectedly. "It's wonderful, at first, when I'm playing. It makes me feel alive." He stopped, staring past Kanda with a frown. He felt the tears start to gently slide down his cheeks, though this time they didn't feel like the bloodied ones that trailed there only minutes earlier.

"I'm so–" Allen sniffled, hanging his head. "I'm sorry. I'm afraid one day I might unconsciously hurt someone."

Kanda averted his eyes and reached for Allen, pulling the boy to his chest and rubbing small circles on his back. "You won't have to worry about that. Worry about you. You're… you're only a danger to yourself, Allen."

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