A/N: One week through, a quarter of the way done. I'm exhausted. I don't know how I'm keeping it up. And things like this keep happening:
Deadline: You have half an hour to write the entire end scene.
Me: Bwahahahaha! Oh wait… you're serious… shiiiiiiiiiiiiit
Fanfiction: Oh, btw, we don't want to let you upload your document right now. Please try to fix a problem that you don't understand and try again later. Sorry for any inconvenience :)
7/4 formal.
The day we recived the invitation, all the exorcists at home in the Order were fighting in the practice room. There was a new training program which pitted us against each other individually, in teams, or one person against a team. The purpose was to make us learn how to work together better and also fight against different abilities and styles. That day, I was grouped with Noise, Crowley and Lavi egainst Kanda, Lenalee and Miranda.
Lavi was the first to notice the finder waiting by the door, unsurprising since he had been trained to observe absolutely everything about his surroundings. He paused to ask, "Do you need something?" He would have lost his head if he didn't duck under Mugen at the last second.
"Baka usagi, pay attention!" Kanda yelled at him. That caught the rest of our attention, and we glanced over, the rest of us noticing the messanger as well.
"Komui asked for all of you in his office," the man informed us and left in a hurry. I guessed that being in a room full of alert fighters with weapons activated was a little intimidating.
Lavi looked at the rest of us and shrugged before shrinking his hammer. I deactivated my innocence, Lenalee's boots returned to their normal size, and Kanda sheathed Mugen with a hint of reluctance. I knew he would go everywhere with that sword in his hand if he could. All of us trailed out of the training room and down the halls like a line of ducklings.
Komui's office was its usual disaster zone. We very rarely packed into the room all at once, so it was crowded trying to share space with the precariously balanced towers of documents. Miranda inevitably knocked into one, sending a landslide of paper skidding across the floor and burying the bottoms of our shoes. We had to dig out the poor girl, who was setting up a rapid-fire chorus of apologies and proclamations of her own incompetence.
In the confusion, Kanda had managed to snag the only seat in the room, a tiny bit of couch that wasn't covered in the mess. The rest of us had to cluster around in whatever standing room we could find and try not to move too much in case something else fell.
"How come you get the couch?" Lavi whined.
Kanda snorted, "First come first served." Then he scanned the room until his eyes came to rest on me. "Hey Moyashi, sit."
"Huh? Where?" I asked, slightly confused but still with a bad feeling about where this could be going. It was confirmed when he patted his knee. "N...no thank you, I'm fine."
He narrowed his eyes for a second, and then grabbed my wrist and pulled so I practically tumbled into his lap. My face turned a fiery red and I tried to escape, but he wrapped his arm around my waist so I was trapped. I had to settled with ducking my head and hoping my hair covered my blush as I tried to ignore the mix of laughter and exclamations of how cute we looked. To my relief, Kanda silenced them with a death glare.
By that time, we had almost forgotten why we were even in there, so it was a surprise when Komui cleared his throat for our attention. I knew I looked sheepish; Kanda just looked smug. The supervisor held up an envelope made of thick, high quality paper and addressed in fancy lettering. "One of the main financial sponsors of the Black Order is going to be in town next week. It seems he wanted to take a look at where his money was actually going. Our executives have decided to throw a reception for him, and they have requested, no more like demanded, the presence of all the exorcists stationed here. This will be a very high society event held at the country estate of one of the executives, so formal dress is required."
"Hell no, I'm not going," was the first thing out of Kanda's mouth.
Komui sighed in a resigned manner; he had be expecting to have to fight him over this. "It was a direct order; you don't have a choice Kanda-kun. Think of it like a mission if you must."
"No," he repeated flatly. "I'm not going to go suck up and show off to some rich bastard. That's the job of the executives, not an exorcist."
"I agree with Yuu," Lavi stated with a smile, leaning over so he was resting his elbows on the back of the couch. "Bringing him out into polite society would just be a disaster." The object of the teasing hit him over the head so he slipped forward and fell face first into a mountain of paperwork.
"This isn't a matter that's up for discussion," Komui scolded. "All of you will attend the ball, and that's the end of it. I'm assuming none of you have the correct attire, so Lenalee I'm leaving it up to you to find them all outfits. You can spend as much as you need."
"Thank you brother!" Lenalee exclaimed happily at the thought of shopping and all the money. She had a glint in her eye that made me nervous.
Half an hour later, Lavi, Kanda, Miranda, and I stared down the storefront of a boutique that sold black tie attire while Lenalee bounced around in excitement. It was only us because it turned out Crowley did have appropriate clothes, and lucky Noise got called out to deal with an emergency which would take too long to be able to attend the ball, and was therefore exempt.
My black-haired samurai looked particularly annoyed, so I took his hand and gave it a reassuring squeeze. He turned his head to the other side and said, "che," but I could tell he didn't mind. It was also a bit of a plot, because since I had a grip on him, he had to follow me into the shop. Inside looked very upscale, with lots of wooden displays along the walls and a relatively small selection of items. I would be scared to see the bill Lenalee could rack up in this place.
"Miranda, why don't you go find some things you want to try on while I get these three set?" Lenalee shooed her off and then looked at us, all lined up, like some sort of general inspecting her troops. "Three piece suits for all of you of course. It's a shame men don't have more of a style selection for this sort of thing, but that can't be helped," she remarked. "We'll just have to spice things up with the color pallet."
She called over a sales associate and started down the row. She pointed at Lavi, "For him, I would like a black suit and tie with a white shirt and a dark green vest, something that would go well with his eye."
"Good selection, miss," remarked the young man she had brought over to help us. Lenalee was about to move on to Kanda's outfit description when the salesman noticed Kanda and my hands, which were still linked between us. "Would you like these two matching then?" He asked with a bit more than a hint of derision in his voice.
I blushed and tried to drop Kanda's hand, but he just held my fingers tighter. "Do you have a problem, asshole?" he demanded, steaming.
The man opened his mouth, probably to make a homophobic remark, but Lenalee cut across him, "I would appreciate if you wouldn't comment about my friends or we will take our business elsewhere." Then she continued her clothing description as if nothing had happened. "Please put him in a white suit, vest and tie with a black shirt," she indicated Kanda, "And finally a black suit and vest with a white shirt and red tie for him," she described my outfit.
"Very good miss," the salesman said, his voice tight as if he was trying to refrain from making some remark that would lose him the sale. Then he disappeared into the back room to pull the pieces for her requests.
As soon as the man disappeared, Lenalee dropped the uncaring act and fumed, "He was so rude! I'm going to report him to his manager."
"No, no, Lenalee it's alright," I said, holding up a hand. "Thank you for defending us though."
It turned out Lenalee didn't need to report him though, because an old woman emerged from the back with the stack of suits instead. "I heard what happened," she told us, "I apologize for his behavior. Now, why don't all of you go try these on and we'll get them fitted." A suit apiece was dumped into our arms and we were shooed toward the dressing rooms while the old woman led Lenalee off to help her find a dress.
As soon as the three of us emerged in our suits, we were attacked by three seamstresses and quickly swallowed in a cloud of pins and tailors chalk. As the dust settled, I was able to truly appreciate Lenalee's brilliant styling skills. I would have never thought to put Kanda in a white suit, but it set off his coloring perfectly, contrasting with his raven hair and making his skin glow golden. The only imperfection was the tie, which he had just draped around his neck. "You have to tie your tie," I reminded him.
"I don't know how to tie the damn thing," he said absently. I could feel his eyes on me, tracing languidly down my body. I had to repress a shiver and a blush.
To try to break the tension in the air, I stepped forward and tied his tie for him. "There." I had meant to step back right away but my hands lingered at his collar for a moment.
"Aww, isn't he just the perfect little boyfriend?" Lavi teased, peeking over Kanda's shoulder.
"Shut up baka usagi," he ordered. Then he leaned in close and whispered in my ear, "that's my line." The shiver that ran down my spine that time was irrepressible.
The afternoon before the ball, Lenalee couldn't stop chattering about it. She had never been to such a fancy event before, and she was unbearably excited. The more enthusiastic she got, the more annoyed and grumpy Kanda became. It was a relief when she and Miranda disappeared to do their hair and makeup because the man could calm down some.
Kanda decided that once it wasn't constantly being waved in his face anymore, he was going to ignore the reality of the ball until the last possible second. We spent the rest of the afternoon in the lounge; he read a book and I curled up at his side with my head on his shoulder, half asleep.
About half an hour before we were supposed to leave, Lavi poked his head through the door and informed us, "The Lenalady said to tell you to start getting ready right now or she'll come out here and kick you all the way to the estate with her dark boots."
Kanda grumbled all the way back to his room, but I counted myself lucky he didn't put up more of a fight than that. I had to tie his tie for him again, which was a very slow and distracted process this time because he decided to use the proximity to nibble on my ear. As a result, I was very red by the time we met Lavi and Miranda in the front hall. The skinny girl had found a shimmering black dress with a full skirt and lace at the hems. She looked confused at my face, but Lavi gave me a raised eyebrow and then a thumbs up which only made my color deepen.
Lenalee arrived last in a gold silk sleeveless evening gown that was tight down to her hips and then dropped straight to the floor. She lined us up for a final inspection, armed with a comb and a bottle of hair gel. "Sorry guys, I forgot to tell you what to do with your hair," she apologized, shaking her head at the thought that she could have let something so significant slip her mind. She snatched the hair band out of Lavi's hair first and attacked it with the comb and hair gel until it was slicked back. I could tell he wasn't happy with that particular style. Next, Lenalee took Kanda's hair out of its ponytail and brushed it down so it hung sleek and shining down his back the temptation to run my fingers through it was nearly unbearable. Finally, for me she produced a black top hat from behind her back and placed it on my head.
"Hey, how come he gets a top hat while I get my hair smothered in gel?" Lavi complained.
"He looks better in a top hat than you would." Lenalee stood back to give us a final look-over. "Everyone looks great. Now you just have to remember that this is a very formal event with a lot of guests who are important and powerful in the Order. They will be expecting us to follow the standards of high society and to act with decorum. We all need to be on our best behavior."
"Um, Lenalee, why do you keep looking at us when you say that?" I asked.
Her face grew sympathetic. "Oh, Allen, it's just that all the higher ups in the Order are really intertwined with the actual Catholic Church, and this relationship between the two of you is forbidden in their minds. None of us care," she reassured quickly, "we understand that there are more important things than the gender of the person you love. Just, be really careful and don't display any affection. You could get in big trouble with them."
I could tell Kanda wanted to say something about it. Before he could open his mouth, I said, "We understand."
Lenalee nodded and then reached into her purse for something. They were silver pins that she attached to each of our lapels, and then the shoulders of her and Miranda's dresses. I pulled it closer for inspection and saw it was a miniature version of the Black Order insignia from our exorcist uniforms. "Alright, let's go."
Komui had ordered us a carriage to carry us out to the estate. Lavi, Lenalee and Miranda climbed in one side, leaving the other for Kanda and I, most likely on purpose. He insisted on holding my hand on the seat between us the entire ride. I suspected it was in part a statement of defiance.
The carriage came to a rumbling halt before a massive with a large balcony off the front, supported by Roman columns. Laughter and light drifted out through the open second floor doors. We were welcomed and ushered inside by a pair of servants. The main hall was an enormous space that drew exclamations of wonder from the girls and a whistle of appreciation from Lavi. He got an elbow to the side from etiquette master Lenalee for that. A massive marble staircase with mahogany rails brought us up to the second floor and the ballroom where the event was taking place.
The servants held open the large double doors for us and announced, "Presenting the honored exorcists of the Black Order: Miss Miranda Lotto, Miss Lenalee Lee, Mister Lavi Bookman, Mister Yuu Kanda and Mister Allen Walker."
I was stunned by the number of people in the room, every one of whom had their eyes on us as we made our entrance. We all put on our polite smiles and beamed at the crowd, except for Kanda who was still scowling because they said his first name.
We were almost immediately whisked off to our tables for dinner. We were all seated in different places, most likely so as many people as possible could get the chance to sit with an exorcist. I had a group of distinguished men who looked like the types that held a significant amount of power in society. The meal was a five course torture session for me. I had been instructed that in polite society, people ate normal (microscopic in my opinion) sized portions of food over a length of time. I plastered on my mask and made small talk through the entire affair, and tried to hide the fact I was staring down the plates of my tablemates.
I was relieved when the last plate was cleared away and the band struck up the dancing music. There was no shortage of dance partners; everyone wanted to dance with an exorcist, especially the famously predicted 'destroyer of time.' That title had somehow circulated during dinner, much to my displeasure. I ended up dancing with both Lenalee and Miranda, the former who was fairly skilled and the latter who stepped on my toes, as well as what felt like every other woman in the room, but not the one person I wanted to dance with the most. He had gotten unhappily stuck with partners as well, and moved quite gracefully for someone I suspected had no dance instruction. I caught his eye several times across the room, wishing I could be in his arms instead of dancing with a girl I didn't know.
When I finally got a break from the constant stream of dance requests, I escaped the floor quickly and found one of the couches that had been conveniently placed around the perimeter of the room. Lenalee joined me moments later, out of breath and with a light sheen of sweat on her forehead. "Isn't this fun?" she asked.
I nodded absently, watching Kanda, who was still stuck on the dance floor. "I want to dance," I told her.
"Didn't you just dance with every female in the place?"
"No," I said, "I want to dance with him."
She nodded, but left me be. Only moments later she was whisked away by another dance partner. I allowed myself to drift into fantasies of what it would be like to dance with Kanda.
I was so absorbed in thought that I didn't notice him until his shadow crossed my face and blocked the light. Even though he knew our relationship was forbidden, even though we could get in serious trouble, he gave me a devil-may-care smile and held out his hand. "Can I have this dance?"
A/N- Today I received a sign from the gods in the form of a perfectly timed tumblr post. I used the picture to draw some of the inspiration for the clothing, especially Kanda's outfit. A link to the picture is on my profile.