Yes, you are not seeing things. I have actually updated Blogging. I'm as surprised as you are.
Shit, guys. It has been almost two fucking years. Shit has changed and I would like to formally apologise to you all for taking so long. Seriously, I am so sorry. Bluecandy145 and Amenokuma, you guys deserve a name drop. You kinda kicked my ass into gear, I saw your two reviews and felt so guilty. I mean, yeah, the guilt took months to set in, but still! This was the result.
In fact, thank you anyone for reading this old, crusty thing. I hope this chapter makes sense, I wanna rewrite the whole thing but am too lazy to do so, just hope this relates to previous chapters alright. And as warned, don't expect the next chapter too soon, I have rough ideas but it's all effort and timetable dependant. I'm a lazy poo so it might be another long wait. Again, I am so sorry.
Anyway, read and enjoy guys. Please leave a review if you think it's worth it, complain if it's not what you expected. Anything, I don't really mind.
Until the next awaited chapter, then! (/^.^)/
Allen pulled Lavi's shitty beanie over his head further, releasing a sigh as he watched the students leave the quad.
"Oh, stop sighing, Allen." Lenalee gushed, lightly smacking his upper arm. "Look, there's Lavi now." Allen followed the direction her pink nail pointed towards, and yes, he could spot untamed cowlicks bouncing in their direction.
"Guys alright?" He queried, plucking his hat from Allen's head and smothering his embarrassing locks. Allen grumbled as he crossed his arms over his chest. "What'd you say?"
"I said," Allen repeated stroppily, "that it went fine."
Lavi looked at the two, red eyebrow arched as he clearly couldn't grasp the event Allen was discussing. Lenalee laughed, readjusting the bag on her shoulder.
"He's just upset he had to spend his free time in the library."
The trio waited patiently. The minutes filled with the taller pair toying with Allen. Seemingly bored with the response the shorter gave, Lavi pulled his phone from his pocket, claiming to have sent Kanda a text to 'hurry the hell up'.
It was a further five minutes till the man strolled out the classics faculty. Allen opened his mouth, armed with fresh ammunition to fire at the asshole. Then he spotted the, faintly, familiar blond head of hair. Oh shit, he thought, swivelling his eyes to the girl beside him. She hadn't noticed.
"Finally, Kanda," Lavi called out, seeming to have spotted the guy also. "We've been waiting ages!"
"We weren't waiting that long, Lavi." Lenalee chided, swatting his forearm with a chuckle.
Jesus christ, Kanda, hurry the hell up, Allen screeched internally.
He swore he saw it in slomo. Her eyes turned to Kanda, then they flickered to his company. They widened a fraction, squinting to an upset expression. Eyebrows furrowed and lips grimacing. She turned to Lavi, slipping a false smile over the previous expression. Laughing a fake laugh at something unfunny Lavi had cracked.
Allen felt his chest crush. He felt for the girl, he really did. By this point in time, Kanda had bid his farewells and joined the trio. Allen smacked him, angry that he had to witness what he had.
"Jesus fuckin' christ, hi to you too," Kanda grumbled. Allen just huffed through his nose and turned to walk to the bus stop.
"Yo, Dude, you ain't gonna find the bus there," Lavi called out to him.
"'Yo, dude'? Did you just say 'yo'?" Allen heard Kanda ask, bemusement and amusement thick in his low rumble. He turns around, watching Lavi colour and smack his long term friend.
For a split second, Allen's detached from the group. He's snipped from the main body like some sort of tumour. He felt a twinge of something he didn't want to put a name on. He knew what it was, though. For a fraction of a second, Allen was jealous of their relationship. How close the three of them were. How new he was to the prehistoric friendship the three of them already had.
"Allen," he heard her call. "Allen, are you alright?"
And he's back, in the group. While he sat inside his head, the three had gathered around him, boys hitting one another and Lenalee noticing Allen's clear absence. He smiled up at her, rubbing the longer hair at the nape of his neck.
"Why aren't we catching the bus?" He asked, remembering Lavi's comment from before. The trio shared a look, Kanda sniffing and looking down the road, Lavi smirking at him and Lenalee smiling down at Allen as usual.
"Kanda took so fucking long," she spat, "that the bus left." The smile never left her face, Allen noted, utterly terrified.
The boys, all of them, flinched. She had sworn. Lenalee doesn't swear, they thought in unison, unless she is pissed. Allen felt his throat tighten and sweat threaten to form on his brow. Glancing at the other two, he concluded they, too, had almost shat themselves.
And that was how Kanda wound up forking the bill the group had accumulated at the café.
The group had left the bus stop and meandered into town. With the sun starting to set and a crisp breeze prowling the streets, the trio pulled Allen into, what they claimed to be, the usual place.
He glanced up at the place, a large oaked sign sat above the primly painted door. The Ark. Real cute, he'd thought to himself, tailing the others inside.
Allen regarded the small café with a, surprisingly, pleased look. Large windows allowed clusters of light in the space and the polished oak tables with matching seats, all chiselled with matching embellishments, really completed the quaint feel of the place. Multiple worn, in the nice way, leather sofas and armchairs littered the front of the place, little coffee tables for magazines and cups and plates alongside them. Then he saw the counter, filled to the brim with, what looked to be, freshly baked cream cakes and pastries.
Oh yes, he thought. I like this place.
"We welcome you to the usual place," Lenalee laughed, swinging her arm out the quiet room, beautiful smile on her lips. "We come here every time Kanda's late," she finished, shooting the tallest a weak glare.
"Yeah, yeah," Kanda groaned, dropping his bag by the worn leather sofa that sat by the cafés front windows. "I assume everyone's the usual?" He sighed; reaching for the wallet nestled deep in his back jeans pocket.
The other followed him to the sofa, taking turns to dumb their bags and sit. Lenalee grabbed a magazine and glanced through it, Lavi pulled out his phone. Allen stood, unsure with what to do with himself. The pair hummed in agreement and Kanda placed a broad hand on Allen's head. Wide eyes regarded him with surprise.
"New kid helps order," he explained, giving Allen's head a gentle pull in the right direction. "And you actually need to order," he added as an afterthought, releasing white locks and moving to the counter.
"No need to manhandle," he grumbled, taking a firm breath through his nose and trying to calm his stomach. Kanda let out an amused grunt, leaning against the oaken counter.
They seemed to appreciate oak here, Allen noted with a dose of sarcasm. Then he drew his eyes from the counter, to man poised behind it.
No fucking way. No. Fucking. Way.
Kanda had laughed too, Allen realised.
"You shut the fuck up," the worker spat at him, foreign features drawn in a sneer as he waiting for Kanda to order.
"Oh, how the mighty have fallen," he squeezed out around his amusement.
"Shut the fuck up," he repeated, thin eyebrows scrunched together as he waited for Kanda to order.
"Say it," Kanda smirked. Allen noted, with some amusement, that Kanda was going to milk it. "Say it or I tell your boss you've been swearing at a loyal customer."
Tyki's lips screwed into a grin, "Go ahead, I don't give a fuck."
"So cranky," Kanda sighed loudly.
Something about the two's interaction felt off, Allen thought. But he didn't say anything about it, seeing how Kanda had told him he could order whatever, Allen felt making the guy buy him two cakes and an English tea had more importance then his relationship to the bully. At least, it did for now.
It was forty minutes till Allen decided to speak up about it. His tea had been drunk and his cakes eaten. Lenalee had gone to the loo and Lavi seemed to be toying with Tyki. In fact, it seemed Lavi was having more luck with it then Kanda had had. Well, that's what Allen had assumed, watching as Tyki swept the floor and Lavi trailed after him, laughing.
The small man nudged the taller next to him.
"What," he growled. Turning his phone off as he regarded Allen with a diluted glare.
"I'm bored," Allen mumbled.
"Well, we'll leave then."
"No," he sighed. He sighed a lot when it came to Kanda, he realised. "I'm bored of the blog."
Kanda's eyes widened ever so slightly, his eyebrows rising higher than usual. Oh, he had really surprised him with that one. He let his smartphone slip from his hand as he turned more towards the paler, evidently more interested in the conversation.
"You, Mr blog-worshipper-stalker-man, are bored of the worshiped blog." He stated, clearly unable to fathom the idea. "Who even are you?" He looked at Allen, a put on expression of bewilderment sat on his angular features.
"Har har, Kanda. You're hilarious. But, seriously, I'm not really getting anywhere, so I'm all meh over it."
"Meh over it, you're feeling 'meh' over it. It's like I don't know you anymore," a little more honesty trickled into his voice this time and Allen was finding it hard to tell if he was still joking.
"Are you not?"
And Kanda stared at him. He sat, back against the armrest, feet folded underneath himself, with an unidentifiable look on his face. Then it was gone, he reached up and tightened his ponytail, sniffing slightly.
"Not really, I thought it was kinda fun." Kanda removed his finger from the hair tie and folded them neatly in his hands. "Like, you had this fuckin' lame check list, and this really stupidly cute drive to find out who they are. It's the kinda shit you can, surprisingly, get sucked into, you know?" A grin found its way to his thin lips, "No, I guess you don't."
"No, I do," Allen found himself saying, hot under his collar as he watched Kanda stare at him expectantly.
He called me cute.
"I get it, I really do, but these points aren't really going anywhere. And there's the fact that I seem to be forgetting I'm at college, I have studies and coursework but all I'm interested in is this bloody blog-" Allen found himself gargling words out, his brain detached from his mouth as he watched stupid babble leave his lips.
"But then, that's what made it so surprising." Kanda interrupted him, rubbing under his nose and kneading the muscle in his shoulder. "Little loser kid Allen who gets bullied in English class has so much fuckin' fire for something he's into." He huffed a laugh and looked away from Allen, scratching a non-existent scratch on his neck. "It's kinda fuckin' awesome."
"I think it's Lenalee," Allen said through his red faced embarrassment. Kanda blinked away his own awkwardness and looked at him, shock visible in his features. "I mean, I think it's her, but then I think it's you, then Lavi. I think it's everyone. And I'm tired of it. I'm tired of thinking everyone is lying to me."
"What would you do if it was her, or him, or any of us?" Kanda asked quietly after a small gap in the conversation. He wasn't looking away; in fact, Allen kind of wished he was. Kanda's deep eyes were seriously starting to get to him.
He took a small moment to think about it. "Honestly," a paused, eyebrows pushing down agains't his eyes, "I think I'd be pretty crushed." He tried to laugh the thought off, Kanda huffed.
"Well it's a good fuckin' thing it isn't."
They sat for a bit, Tyki awkwardly muttered something about cups as he came over and gathered the china from the coffee table. Allen watched him leave, watched as he placed his hand on the girls shoulder, a small, sad smile on his face. Then he returned behind the counter. Lenalee had returned from the toilet, looking uncomfortable as she stood behind the sofas. Clearly she had heard their conversation.
She came over and sat stiffly on the sofa opposite and fiddled with her bag strap.
"You alright?" Kanda gruffly huffed, an eyebrow arched at the confident girl's odd behaviour.
She stood up, not really looking up at either of them as she rose from the sofa. "Yeah. Yeah, I'm fine. Brother phoned while I was in the toilet, he wants me home soon so I should really get going. I was going to tell you earlier but you two were pretty engrossed in your conversation," she laughed and gave them both a small smile.
"Lenalee, are you feeling alright?" Allen tried. Her behaviour wasn't what it usually was. She looked at him and smiled in a way that didn't reach her eyes. Laughing stiffly as she waved of their concern.
"Yeah, no I'm seriously fine, Brother just sounded a lil' angry is all," she grimaced as she remembered. "Can you two tell Lavi I've gone home? I seem to have lost him."
And with that, she briskly left the café, throwing a small wave and terse smile over her shoulder.
The two looked at one another, equally confused.
The trio were there a further hour; Lavi had wormed his way into the kitchen and further aggravated Tyki. Allen and Kanda avoided re-discussing the blogging situation, neither wanting to delve back into the weird atmosphere the discussion had created earlier. As soon as Lavi returned to the pair, Allen explained Lenalee's behaviour and excuse for leaving without them. It was only when Tyki came over to give Lavi a formal warning from his boss, that Allen demanded to know what he'd been doing for almost two hours.
'I was defending your honour, Allen. Getting him back for the English classes!' had been Lavi's excuse.
Kanda had laughed.
Allen just sighed, hoping that by shaking his head he'd hidden his shit eating grin.