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Kanda tapped his feet impatiently as he stood before the snack counter. The Moyashi was late. He sighed and twirled the single rose he was holding in his hands.

It was a red rose; there was nothing particularly extravagant about it. He'd heard that girls liked roses, so he'd bought one on his way to the Cineplex.

Now that he was waiting, though, the date didn't seem like such a good idea after all. For one, none of the films available appealed to him. He could try to persuade Allen to go for dinner with him, and then leave it at that, but that too presented some problems - He wasn't very enamoured with the idea of spending an entire hour (or longer) with the girl. He would definitely have nothing to say, and the awkward silence that would arise between them would sour their budding attraction for each other.

Kanda sighed.

"Kanda!"

Kanda looked up to see Allen walking towards him, a small smile on her pale face. Quick as lightning, he tucked the rose back into his bag.

"Moyashi." He greeted her.

"So… what movie are we catching?" Allen asked brightly, a little colour tinting the pale clouds of her cheeks as she looked up at him with starry eyes.

"I think it'd be better if we leave the movie till next time." Kanda told her. "Let's just go for dinner today."

"Dinner sounds fine!" Allen agreed.

Over dinner, Allen chattered on about trivial issues, her mind half on food and half on Kanda. Meanwhile, Kanda twirled the rose in his fingers, beneath the table, wondering if he should give the rose to Allen. He didn't feel comfortable holding a rose, much less handing one over to a girl, even if he fancied the girl in question.

He fidgeted. Allen noticed the action. "Do you want to leave now?"

"Yeah, let's go." Kanda said. The anxiety was giving him a headache.

"It's a pretty night, isn't it?" Allen asked as they walked back toward the campus. "The moon is so round… and so bright…"

"Yeah." Kanda said, not wanting to answer but answering anyway.

Allen smiled, and Kanda's heart skipped a beat through the mist clogging his brain. His hand reached out to hand over the rose, but he soon pulled his arm back. Not yet, he told himself. Later.

Later never came. After he deposited Allen at the front door of her hall, he made his way towards his own room in another hall, rose still clutched in his fingers, his nails shredding its stem.

He tossed it in the bin.

There was nothing to it – he wasn't a flower guy and Allen couldn't expect him to bring her a flower. That was all there was to it.

No flowers. No emotions. He was Kanda, and Kanda did not do that sort of thing.

......

"Allen!" Lenalee waved her friend over to her table. "Over here!"

Allen saw the hand amidst the many heads in the cafeteria, and slowly made her way towards the hand.

"Hey Lenalee."

"Are you okay, Allen? You loo really tired and worn out…" Lenalee stared at Allen with growing concern. Allen was easily tired on a normal basis, but she'd never seen Allen with such huge dark circles under her eyes yet.

"I'm fine, Lenalee. I just… I don't know." Allen answered.

"You can always tell me if something's bothering you, you know. We are friends, aren't we!"

"I… I think I like Kanda. And I think he likes me too. But I can't be sure. So I stayed up last night thinking about him and analysing all his actions to see if I could get any clue out of it. In the end I couldn't fall asleep. So my eye bags are bigger than usual." Allen sighed as she picked up her fork.

"Oh! So you like Kanda!" Lenalee's eyes opened in shock. "That's why you refused Lavi!"

"Huh?"

"Hmm. But you don't know if Kanda likes you back…"

"Yeah. He's been bringing me to the movies a couple of times already, but we don't talk much."

"Oh so you two prefer to touch?" Lenalee grinned, a look of understanding on her face.

"What? No! We don't even hold hands. We just go there and catch a film and have supper and maybe talk a bit. That's all. That's why I don't know how he really feels. And I think he likes, or used to like, this hot girl named Lulubell. I'm no match for her..." Lenalee was surprised to see Allen merely picking at her food. That was really unusual.

"You poor girl." Lenalee patted Allen's shoulder comfortingly. "Don't worry too much. You know how Kanda is – he isn't very expressive. So he may take quite a long time to really warm up to you. And the fact that he actually brought you out, well, it says something already. You're the first girl he's ever asked out. And about this Lulubell – well, I've never heard him talk about any girl before."

Allen looked up at this. "The first?"

"You didn't know?" Lenalee was a little amused.

"He looks like the sort who has many girls fawning over him…"

"He does. But he ignores them completely, so that's that."

"Oh."

"Trust me, Allen, time will show that he really does like you."

"Okay."

"So, have you completed your homework?"

"Yeah."

Their voices trailed off love and went on to other more mundane subjects, blending in with the incessant chatter in the room.

......

"Kanda! I'm here!" Allen walked up to the tall male, smiling sweetly like she always did. Kanda looked at her as she came up to him, and permitted his mind to admit that Allen did really look cute. But outside, he merely grunted and nodded at her, before turning and entering the cinema.

Allen sighed and went in. Were all their dates destined to be cold affairs with one-sided conversations? Why didn't Kanda talk? He was making life really difficult for her. Seeing him standing there, leaning casually against a pillar, shirt tucked out, looking so… well, beautiful, was enough to make her blush. And now he refused to talk to her, condemning her tongue to endless mindless chatter just to fill in the awkward silence between them.

Kanda made his way to their seats, one eye glancing back to make sure Allen didn't fall down the steps. She could be such a klutz sometimes. He hated the silence between them. He would say something if he could, but sometimes he really was at a loss for words. When he'd seen Allen coming towards him, he had made up his firm mind to say something pleasant. But when she stood less than a foot from him, he could smell the faint fragrance of her perfume. The tendrils of the aromatic perfume danced into his nose, addled his brain, and refused to let him utter a single civil word. So a grunt came out instead. I hope she isn't angry with me…

The movie was a particularly lousy one. It was of the horror variety, and Allen had been rather frightened. Once, she clutched at Kanda's arm in fear, but no strong arm came out to comfort her. She shut her eyes and felt anger slowly build up in her, resentment flaring, ready to explode at the last straw.

After the movie, Kanda took Allen to an ice scream stand. He handed Allen a cone, which the anger in her said to push away. So the girl pushed the proffered ice cream away.

"Che, take it."

"No thanks. I'll buy my own." Allen turned towards the stand and made to walk towards it. A sudden weight on her shoulder stopped her.

"Take it." Kanda commanded, sounding rather irritated.

"No." Allen shrugged off his arm.

"I said take it, Moyashi!" Kanda turned Allen around so she was facing him. She saw anger etched into the dark pools that were his eyes. She flinched.

"Why should I? And my name's Allen, not Moyashi, Bakanda!"

"Che."

"Look, I don't know what you're thinking, because you aren't telling me. But I will pay for my own food, thank you very much!" Allen jabbed Kanda in the chest before taking a step back.

Kanda raised an eyebrow.

"Don't stare at me like that! I don't know what you're playing at, asking me out and then not bothering to talk to me, staring at me like I'm some curio from some god-forsaken place… Kanda, I'm not an antique that you're bringing out for a walk so it won't get bored in the museum! What the hell do you think you're doing? If you don't like me romantically, say so. Don't drag on like this. I hate this meaningless charade that we're doing! Asking me out to watch movies, and then not talking! You've done this countless times. Do you seriously not care?"

"Moyashi, calm down." Kanda placed his hand on Allen's shoulder to get the girl to breathe and calm down.

"No!" The fury in Allen was taking over her brain. Kanda's highhandedness had succeeded in sparking the flame that burned on resentment. All her grievances spilled out. "If you don't like me, say so now!"

"I…"

"Damn you!" Tears were gathering in her eyes now. The grey eyes flashed at Kanda as he tried to calm the girl down. "You think I don't know what you're thinking? I know you regret asking me out. You'd rather go out with that blondie, that Lulubell you like so much. Go then! Why are you still here? I saw you this morning, talking to her, standing so close that your bodies were touching. And you've never stood so close to me before!"

Kanda stared at her, momentarily speechless. What is she talking about?

"Damn you! Damn you and your feelings!" Allen turned and ran away from Kanda, through the seething crowd, away, to a quiet place where she could cry in peace.

Kanda watched the running figure, suddenly tired. He needed a rest. His legs felt like jelly and his mind buzzed with increasing exhaustion. Something rather foreign to him – the emotion known as sadness, settled into his once-stony heart and hatched there, filling his emotional void with a crushing pain that rendered him unable to think. He groped his way back to his quarters.

A/N: I finally updated! Okay actually it hasn't been that long – what, it's been only 2 weeks? Right. Hahaha uhhh I hope you liked this chapter. I'm quite ambivalent towards this. I didn't plan to write the first part (you know, the first date), but I inserted it today because it's Valentine's Day! I don't really make much sense, do I? xD

Yupps I don't think I have anything else to say. So yeahh thank you everyone who reviewed the previous chapter.

Thanks for reading this chapter too. Reviews are welcome! And ohhh – happy CNY and happy Valentine's Day! (: