CHAPTER SEVENTEEN: A Turn

Allen Walker was panicking. This is the first time, in all his days with Cross Marianne as his step father, that his step dad walked in on him while he was engaging in lewd activities with another person. He used to joke about how he'd say "In your face!" when it finally happened, pay back for all the times he had to endure the sights he'd walked into while he lived with Cross. But now that it actually happened, the look on his step dad's face makes it hard for Allen to laugh it off. He always thought his step dad's mortified face would be priceless; unfortunately it wasn't that expression he was faced with. This look on his step dad's face… it was a strange uncharacteristic mixture of confusion and anger. He looked like he was betrayed or something, which Allen felt was sort of ridiculous. Why should he feel betrayed?

"I said what are you brats doing?" Cross didn't quite shout it, but he said it with much conviction. Obviously the Englishman's wrestling quip had been ignored. The red haired man steps into the apartment and closes the door; he stands there by the entrance, arms crossed.

Allen detaches himself from Kanda, flops to sit beside him on the couch, feeling a bit too out of it to stand let alone say something. The Japanese notes that the shorter boy beside him is breaking a sweat whilst going pale. Overcome by a whim to be quite helpful for a change, Kanda says "That was probably exactly what you thought it was". He then frowns, suddenly aware that he seemed to not mind the fact, he quickly says "Unfortunately", adding it to his previous remark before it was too late.

Cross Marianne turns to look at Kanda "It looked like the kid was jumping you"

"Which he was" the Japanese says nonchalantly

The red haired man furrowed his eyebrows and gritted his teeth; he looked like he was considering something and getting frustrated about it. "So you brats are together?" he asks.

Kanda doesn't answer; he roughly nudges Allen with his elbow instead, causing the Englishman to jump.

The snow haired one's eyes frantically dart from Cross to Kanda for a moment, before he seems to finally digest the situation, he says "Not really" then gets a strange look on his face

"So you're fuck buddies, wankers?" Allen flinches, thinks that those were harsh terms he'd used to describe their situation, harsh even for his step dad

"We're sex friends" the Englishman decides to say, trying to seem calm "… and contrary to what you might think dad, that's entirely different from being fuck buddies or wankers"

Kanda, having never thought of what to call their relationship, decides to look like he doesn't care, and directs to his attention to his now apparently very interesting slippers.

Cross takes a deep breath, and then asks "How long has this been going on?"

"Not that long honestly, in fact it only became a—"Allen pauses, glances towards Kanda's direction for a moment, and after seeing the Japanese was trying to not listen says "It only became a thing last night"

The Englishman notes, relieved, that his step dad looks like he's absorbing this, and seems to be calming down.

"Before last night, we'd actually only done it once, although neither of us can really remember" the snow haired one then says, thereafter laughing nervously

"And when was that first time?" surprised that his step dad would even ask that, Allen gapes at him for a few moments

"Uhm, well, it was after we had dinner with Kanda's family, we ended up drinking too much liquor and—"

"You had dinner with Tiedoll and his boys?" Cross interjects

The Englishman starts feeling and looking confused "Ah… yes, yes I did, why?"

The red haired man closes his eyes and rubs his chin for a moment, huffing once he says "Get dressed, we're eating out"

Nobody moves, for a moment, Cross was looking at both of them expectantly while Allen gawked at him in surprise (and while Kanda was frowning at his slippers).

"What are you two brats waiting for, get dressed!"

Kanda head briskly turns to look at him "Why do I have to listen to yo—"

Allen laughs a strained laugh quite loudly, shuts Kanda using his palms. "Why don't I escort you to your apartment Kanda?" he says, and then stands up pulling the Japanese along with him towards 'that damn door'.

"What the fuck bean!" Kanda shouts once they're in his apartment, all doors closed.

"Look, can you just go along with this? Cross' acting weird, I don't think it's safe to defy him right now" the snow haired one puts on pleading eyes

The Japanese gives him a wary look.

"I promise I'll make it up to you" Allen adds, waggling his eyebrows.

Kanda raises his eyebrows and Allen is surprised that statement actually got the man.

The dark haired man grunts "Fine, but you're going to pay for everything I eat"

The Englishman makes a face, but then forces on a smile "Yeah, ok…" then more cheerfully he says "See you in five then!"

…………………………….

Not surprisingly, and much to Allen's relief, Cross Marianne doesn't take them anywhere fancy. They end up at a homey burger joint, and Allen ends up buying burgers for them all (though he'd expected as much). Cross makes Kanda and him sit across him, and then eats his burger while staring at them both intently. Kanda, unhelpful guy he is, stared at his vegetarian burger with disdain for five minutes before reluctantly starting to eat it whilst muttering how it was wrong to waste food to himself. Allen fidgets in his seat, taking little bites of his meal.

"Uhm, so why'd you come to my apartment anyway dad?"

"Oh that's right…" Cross reaches into his pocket, pulls out a piece of paper "…here"

The Englishman glares at the paper being handed to him. "Is this what I think it is?"

"I don't know, was that what I thought it was?"

Allen puts on a pout, grabs what he just knows is a bill and says "You could've just said yes you know"

"Well kid, you could have just told me what was goin' on back there instead of leavin' the explaining to your boyfriend over here" he gestures towards Kanda's direction lazily

"We're sex friends!" Allen screams, and it takes Kanda's really loud snicker to make him realize that he'd said that too loudly. Blushing madly, he mutters a curse. "Dammit! I'm going to the men's room!" he says, and then he stomps off.

Kanda snickers again, but when he meets the eyes of Cross Marianne he finds himself getting taken aback.

"He likes you, you know" Cross says "Too much for his own good I think"

The Japanese doesn't really know what to say, he didn't really see what his point was. So he just stares at the man indifferently.

"So I'm going to ask you to avoid him as much as possible"

Kanda blinks once, twice, and finds himself saying "What?"

……………………..

NOTES:

Allen's Age: Allen is supposed to be 20 years old here. The setting of this story is supposed to be in a fictional city in the USA. Now I know that means Allen's not old enough to drink, and that's why I'm thinking, maybe I should set it somewhere else.

A/N: So I'm FINALLY starting this story up again, I'm sorry to everyone who had to wait for so long. After the edit, I ended up making major changes to a couple of chapters, and minor changes to almost every single one. I tried to watch out for my typos and grammatical errors, but I think I still might have missed some (in light of that, anyone know someone I can ask to be a beta for this story?). Anyway, funny about this chapter, my dad asked to read a line from it since he saw me typing it down and I freaked out but in the end I let him read the last line (my dad knows I like guy on guy pairs but he doesn't know I'm THAT into it you see). I think my brother (only person in my family who knows I'm THAT into BL stuff), was laughing at me while I panicked.

ANYWAY, Thank you for reading this chapter.

BTW: This is unedited for now, haven't had the time to re-read it to get read of the more obvious mistakes either. Sorry.