Ladies and Gentlemen, guess who finished their Art exam... I did! Oh yeah, that baby took me five whole hours... And it was my college's open evening tonight too, I've been at college since 8am this morning... 13 hours. 13! My god I might as well live in that place. I'm such a teachers pet! The Art department loves me~
Anyway, hope you enjoy as always and please review, I'll love you forever (/^.^)/
"So we're looking for someone who takes English-"
"-Need to narrow it down more-"
"I was getting there."
They both stared at each other, the need for silence pressing down on them, making their lungs feel tight. Speaking was becoming harder with every word. One had his head resting on his open palm, small smirk present. The other had a hand combing its way through white locks. Allen had a sudden lack of enthusiasm and dropped the biro he was holding onto the notebook. He sighed and pushed, both the pen and notebook, across the table till it was in front of Kanda. Said man looked down at the previous brain storm they'd created a whole week before and sighed himself,
"Dun' wanna-"
Allen leant back in his chair and released a whispered version of the anguish he felt. Kanda, on the other hand, silently leant forwards till his head met the surface of the desk, groaning as he did so.
"-It's so boring"
"Where'd your enthusiasm go? A week ago you where, what I'm guessing to be, excited about finding out who it is. But now… now you're-you're…" Allen waved his arms around pointing at Kanda multiple time for emphasis, "This. You're this"
"Alright, alright" He pulled himself upwards so he could stare blankly at the brain span again. "Why don't we… Tch, I dunno. Erm, we could bunch the points into personality traits? Yeah, there-" He placed the pen down and pushed it to Allen, "-My part done."
"Surely if we don't know who it is… we can't bunch them together?" he saw the eyebrow raise, then his fist curling and uncurling and then of course, there was the subtle 'Oh god-' look at the ceiling closely followed by the 'I'll kill him' glare. Oh yeah, he was getting good at reading him.
"Alright. Fine. Whatever. Your way it is." They were quick, sharp reply's and Allen felt them stab at his face. He was irritated all right. Kanda reached for the notebook and yanked it back towards himself; he got the biro and started scribbling down people's names. Allen felt himself lean in closer to get a proper look.
"What're you-"
"We can write the names down and see who does the things we've listed-"
"That'll take forever-"
"Oh yeah, right. Because you have a better idea-"
"If you'd let me speak, then yes. I might-"
A sharp 'Shh' caused them both to flinch and look up; their eyes met the face of a slightly wrinkled frowning face. It was the librarian who had started her round of the second floor, obviously the two of them had been talking too loud and were disturbing the 'no talking' policy. Allen found himself apologising whereas Kanda grumbled as he grabbed the biro and started doodling. Allen watched the elderly woman hobble off and heard a mumbled,
"Kids these days…"
He felt himself smile and turned his attention to Kanda's doodles, useless squiggles, the kind of squiggles you do when trying to get a pen to start again, but the squiggles were become more circular. Circular squiggles, circular squiggles that started placing themselves atop other circular squiggles. Like snowmen squiggles, snowmen squiggles with tails and triangular ears. It was a cat squiggle, a cat squiggle that was created a squiggled mess all over his notes. Allen felt the start of a headache gnaw at his temples, the word squiggles sounded strange to him now.
He went to look up and pull the notebook from Kanda's grasp but found himself spotting a steadily approaching redhead. Lavi noticed Allen spot him and held a finger to his lips and winked, Allen arched a fine eyebrow and smiled slightly. When Kanda looked up Allen pulled the notebook from his doodling biro and smiled in a rather sarcastic manner at him.
Kanda jumped as someone pulled lightly on his ponytail, he spun round and couldn't stop the glare he gave the redhead. Lavi smiled widely in reply as he took the seat next to Kanda, when Allen opened his mouth to greet his friend his eye's caught the elderly librarians. She placed a frail finger to her thin lips and Allen felt the greeting die in his mouth.
"You two sure do spend a lot of time together lately-" Allen bought his attention back to the redhead, "-Starting to think I'm intruding" He laughed brightly as Kanda gave him another glare. Allen could see the librarian staring in their direction
"Lavi, Shhh-" he held a finger to his own lips but then placed it back in his lap as he realised he'd mirrored the old lady, "-We're in a library…"
"Pssh… means nothing to me my lil'friend" Allen could see lavi's eye's work their way up the desk to his notebook so he leant forward, snatched it from Kanda and held it as he reached to grab another pen from his bag. Finding another one of his many biros, he placed the notebook on the table and set to doodle over Kanda's squiggle cat. Lavi sighed and leant back in his chair, the action caused Kanda to shift in his seat and visible grit his teeth. Allen deducted that Lavi's sheer presence was enough to piss a certain long haired teen off… he was impressed.
"Argh, you guys are SO boring, what're you doin'?"
"Work."
"Yuu, you have nothing in front of you."
"Tch."
Allen smiled as he watched the two share friendly exchanges, Allen thought about whether it could be called 'friendly' as only one of them is being so, however due to spending so much time with the long haired teen, he felt he could tell when Kanda was being friendly. As he watched Kanda swat Lavi hand from his hair he decided that yes, Kanda was being friendly.
"How 'bout we play a game? C'mon Yuu, you know you wanna play a game" Lavi bit his bottom lip and stared at Kanda's face. The look had already won over Allen as he had already placed the pen atop the closed notebook. Kanda sighed as he glanced around the library; the librarians were huddled around their librarian desk talking. Hypocrites.
"Tch, fine. Go."
"What're we playing then Lavi?"
"The mother of all old school games, young grasshopper-"
"-Get on with it, you loser-"
"Persistence is needed when playing this y'know Yuu." Lavi stared at Kanda until he shifted uncomfortably, Allen just laughed quietly to himself at the two friends. "We'll be playing Eye spy of course-"
"Eye spy!"
"Yes Yuu. You, me and Allen. Right here. Right now. Eye spy match till the death"
"Till the death…?" Allen felt himself raise his eyebrows as he watched the hyperactive teen rock in his chair, excited for the match.
"Well, till the other players give up, so, yes. The death."
"You're so sad-"
"-Okay, I spy with my little eye…" Lavi made a point of stroking his chin as he glanced around the large library, smile never leaving his face. "Something… beginning with… N"
"N?"
"Yep, N"
"-As in nuts?"
"Yes Allen, as in nuts" Lavi smiled,
"Something beginning with N…"
"I think we've established the fact that it begins with an N" Kanda snapped at the two idiots as he glanced around the room. Allen smiled as he watched Kanda trying to figure out what it was. Lavi was smiling; eyes closed, leaning heavily against the back of his chair.
"N, N, N, N, N…" Allen looked from item to item. Clock, not N. Chair, not N. students, not N. Kanda, not N. Allen, not N. Lavi, not N. There was no item beginning with N. He could feel his frustration build as he listed the items in the library; he even stared trying to think of any word that began with an N. It seemed his brain had given up on him.
"I give, I have no idea-"
"-Say I'm a winner."
"Lavi's a winner…"
"Aww, thanks Al'" Allen sighed as a smiled spread across his face. Lavi really was one of a kind. Lavi and Allen both turned their attention to Kanda who had actively started staring at the ceiling.
"You give Kanda?"
"Yeah Yuu, say I'm a winner."
"Notebook."
"Wha'?"
"You spy a notebook. N, as in N-ote. Notebook." Allen turned to face Lavi, double checking what Kanda said was true, and by the looks of Lavi's sudden deflation, he was.
"You're such a spoilsport!"
"How am I a spoilsport if I won?"
"You won! I'm supposed to win. Argh."
"Does Notebook really count? I mean, there isn't one out…"
Allen watched as Kanda smirked and Lavi scoured the surface of their table, trying to find Allen's notebook. Allen twiddled with the lone biro and smiled as Lavi frowned at him.
"Allllllllen… you hid the notebook…"
"What notebook?"
"The one you two were getting all cuddly over-"
"-Cuddly!-"
"-Yeah. That notebook, you've hid it from me haven't you! You're spending too much time with Yuu y'know…"
"There was no notebook out; I put it away before the game started…" Allen didn't feel bad, not at all. He was surprisingly bitter when it came to losing and saw no harm in sabotaging their game of eye spy just because he hadn't won. It made perfect sense, he liked winning and it had been too easy to lie to Lavi.
"Seriously? I swear it was out-"
"-Yeah, it was. Before we started the game it was out but I put it away at the suggestion of a game… I didn't want to get distracted" He scratched the back of his head and laughed nervously, just to add the effect of being embarrassed. Oh yeah, when it came to lying, Allen was number one.
"It didn't help though did it," Lavi laughed as loud as the librarians would allow him, "You still gave up in the end didn't ya" Allen knew Lavi was only messing but he still couldn't stop some of the bitterness from filling his gritted smile.
"That I did Lavi. That I did."
"So… what were you guys doing before I got here?-"
"-Why?" Allen knew he had asked to quick, he sounded anxious. How stupid. It wasn't like Lavi would know what they were doing. It was Lavi.
"I've never seen you both sit on the same table without arguing before, figured it musta been something pretty interesting…"
"We don't always argue-"
"-We argue." Allen turned to look at Kanda, eyebrows furrowing slightly.
"Not always-"
"-Pretty much all the time-"
"-Not really."
"Really."
"Guys..." Lavi leant forwards and tried to stop the fighting he'd accidently caused, laughing to himself nervously as his presence didn't change a thing,
"It's not arguing-"
"-It's obviously arguing-"
"No. It's really not you asshole-"
"It really is idiot"
"No. It's not."
"Seriously guys..." Lavi recoiled as the two carried on and leant towards one another,
"What else could it be?"
"-Heated discussion-"
"-You're such a fucking moron-"
"-I'm not a fucking moron you little shit-"
"Ha. I'm the little one-"
"-Oh so it's a height thing now is it!"
"You bought height into it-"
"No I didn't!"
"Guys please, the scary librarians looking…" Lavi tried to smile at the woman but she carried on giving the trio warning signals,
"It's always about my height-"
"-'cause you're so fucking tiny-"
"I'm not tiny!"
"-There's gotta be children taller then you-"
"Just 'cause I'm not a fucking giant-"
"-At least I'm not a dwarf-"
"-I'M JUST VERTICALLY CHALENGED!"
"So that's what they call it these days-"
"Seriously! Would you just shut up!"
The two teens startled and turned their attention towards their redheaded companion. He had a half smile, half frown on his face and was stealing glances at the librarian every now and again, seemingly anxious about what the old lady would be doing.
"You always exclude everyone else when you start fighting," He watched as they both opened their mouth to answer, "-It's no fun." He fitted in before they could speak; he smiled as he heard the click of their mouths shutting. He reached into his backpack and pulled out his own notebook, "I'm going downstairs to get a geography book, please don't embarrass me while I'm gone-"
"Promise" Allen smiled as he watched the red head get up and make his way to the staircase, he waved at him as he looked back, double checking they were behaving. Kanda leant back in his chair and bought his hand to his face to rub his eyes, sighing as he did so. Allen leant forwards slightly and voiced a question he'd been thinking about for a while,
"Don't you think Lavi has strange speaking habits?" He reached for the norebook that he'd slipped onto the floor earlier, placing in on the desk and opening it to the previous page. He used his biro as a pointed and pointed to one of the lists bullet points.
Use of 'Argh' shows a spoken habit?
Kanda raised an eyebrow as he thought back to everything his redheaded friends had said,
"I didn't hear that many 'Argh's'-"
"No, it says he might have a spoken habbit-"
"Yeah…" Allen made a noise of frustration, Kanda didn't see where he was going. Obviously Allen was paying more attention.
"He repeats 'you' all the time." Kanda raised an eyebrow and leant onto his open palm,
"He does?"
"Yes! How did you not notice? It was, like, every other sentence."
"So he says 'you' a lot, most people do-"
"-No they don't!"
"Yeah. They do. We're a group, he can't constantly call us by our names so he says 'you' instead" Allen felt realisation dawn on him; Kanda didn't understand what he meant.
"Ohhh, right. You think I mean… No. I mean he says 'you' loads, as in, 'you you'"
"What?" Kanda sat upright and furrowed his eyebrows as he tried to understand what the whitette was talking about.
"Yeah, he said 'you, you' loads just now, surely you get what I mean now, right?"
He watched as Kanda leant back in his chair, he bought his hand up to his mouth and bit on the side of his thumbnail. He stayed like that for a few seconds and Allen idly wondered how long it took for Lavi to find a geography textbook. When Allen next looked up he was baffled as Kanda had taken to looking at him with an almost smile on his face,
"What."
"You're so stupid"
Before Allen could retaliate Lavi pulled back his chair and sat down. It was awkwardly silent for a few seconds until Kanda got up out his seat and started walking towards the staircase. When Lavi called out he mumbled something about a classics book. Allen looked at Lavi while turning the notebook page, preventing the redhead from spotting the list. He was startled slightly as his pocket vibrated and Lavi briefly looked up to smile at him.
[Ask the idiot about what you just asked me]
[I thought I was the idiot?]
[No your moron]
[-_-]
Allen looked up from the phone he'd placed on his lap and watched Lavi, he had his cowlick pinned back with one of Lenalee's hairclips and was chewing on his pen lid as he read from the textbook. Allen shifted in his seat to have a sneaky peak at the contents of the page; he read words like coastal squeeze and long shore drift and felt like he was intruding so instead coughed lightly in a lame attempt to grab the redhead's attention. He smiled sheepishly as Lavi tore his eyes from the page,
"Um, hey. Bit of a stupid question…" Lavi sat up and placed the pen down, he leant forwards slightly and smiled for Allen to continue, "Well, I was just wondering… actually, no. It's nothing. Sorry." He looked down and attempted to write something down on the notebook, however his brain had other ideas as it went blank, affectively preventing him from writing anything on the page.
"What? You have to tell me now Allen…"
"No, no, no. It's nothing"
"Al'…" Something in Lavi's tone made Allen feel like blushing, he looked up and sighed as he tried to word the question in his head,
"Okay, I was just wondering… If you knew that you had a weird way of speaking-"
"-Speaking?"
"Yeah."
Lavi sat and stared at him, he inclined his head forwards and Allen realised he was telling him to continue.
"Oh right. Well, it's nothing major, I mean, I only just noticed really-"
"-Al', seriously. Get on with it."
"You say 'you' twice." Lavi leant back, crossed his arms over his chest and raised an eyebrow. Clearly not believing what the smaller teen was saying.
"I say 'you' twice?"
The redhead stared at the wall behind Allen as he tried to figure out what the whitette meant, he was too confident for it to be a lie but Lavi was almost sure he didn't repeat 'you' in a sentence.
"Yeah. As in, 'you you' Like, twice in a row. A stutter! Like a stutter, god why didn't I think of that in the first place. Jeez, then you and Kanda would have understood sooner."
Lavi arched his eyebrow higher at the mention of Kanda; Allen had asked Kanda before him? Why hadn't he just asked him? Why Kanda…? Kanda… Lavi felt the realisation hit him hard. Oh god… He could feel the laughter building in his stomach. His eye's stung slightly as tears gathered in the corners, bless him!
"Allen… do you know Kanda's first name?" He watched the teen stare up at him, clearly not understanding the link between the two subjects.
"No… when I asked he mumbled and changed the subject…" He jumped as the redhead laughed, he felt a slight panic flood trough him as he glanced towards the librarians desk.
"Ah Allen. Allen, Allen, Allen. You're so adorable, you know that?" Allen blushed slightly as the redhead carried on laughing at something Allen had done,
"What? What've I done now?"
"Oh Al', Kanda's first name is Yuu"
"You? His name is You?" Lavi seemed to spit the laughter from his mouth as he leant forwards, clutching his stomach as he did so.
"NO! No, No, No…" He wheezed, "Its Yuu"
"Yuu?"
"Yes Yuu" Lavi wiped at his face and re-clutched his stomach; he hadn't laughed like that for a while.
"His name is… Yuu?" Allen couldn't get over it. He doubted he ever would. What kind of name was that?
"He hates it too, no worries-"
"Yuu?"
"Yes Yuu. Jeez Allen, the kids name is Yuu-"
"-But it's so… feminine… can I say that?"
"I wouldn't if you liked your face the way it is now-" Lavi was totally hanging out with these two more often. He watched as Kanda returned from his suspiciously long trip downstairs; Allen looked up at him and Lavi couldn't contain his laughter when Allen said the name to the longer haired man. His reaction was beautiful.