Stray Chapter 2: II: the cursed boy, a d.gray-man fanfic

Title: Stray

Chapter: Two

Fandom: -man
Rating: T for Kanda's mouth
Pairing: Kanda x Allen

A/N: …thirteen reviews.

WHAT THE CRAP 8,D

I don't deserve all the love ;___;

And twelve subscribers!

;w;

I'll try not to disappoint you all. I'll really try c,:

Anyway.

The usual warnings.

This is AU. Don't like, don't read.

This is also shounen-ai. Again, don't read if you don't like.

Also, the little bonus at the very bottom is a little risque. Sorry, I just had to include it xD

Enjoy~

xxxxx

"Well, well, Yu-chan…this is a mighty pleasant surprise!"

Kanda, at the moment, was quite torn between remaining stoic, as usual, or letting his control snap and instead strangle the idiotic redhead that was sitting behind a desk in front of him. Said redhead, however, was enjoying himself immensely – he casually reclined back in his chair, eying the angry man before him with his one glittering green eye, the other covered by a black eye patch he always wore for unexplained reasons.

"Cut the shit and give me answers, stupid rabbit."

"Now now, Yu-chan, no need to get all hissy at poor Lavi! If ya continue to be such a grumpypants, maybe I won't tell ya anythin', hmm?" the man known as Lavi replied, now leaned forward so that his elbows rested on his desk and the palms of his hands were pressed up to his cheeks.

Kanda twitched, murderous intent now threatening to overrule his common sense. Clenching his fists, he growled, "Do not try my patience."

Lavi pouted, his face a mask of mock-hurt. "Boo, Yu-chan, you're no fun." Kanda twitched again at the continued use of his first name, but knew that if he was ever going to get anything out of the annoying redhead he was going to have to keep his temper in check and refrain from killing Lavi. For now.

Kanda let out a breath he didn't know he'd been holding and unclenched his fingers, instead settling for a death-glare in the cheery man's direction.

Lavi noticed the obvious restraint Kanda was employing and decided that in order to avoid death in the near future, he would have to sacrifice his amusement and tell the dark-haired man what he wanted to know. "Fiiine, I'll give ya some info. Jus' give me a moment and I'll let ya in on what I know, yeah?"

Kanda snorted. "Good."

Lavi grinned at the man and leaned back once more before kicking his feet up onto his desk and closing his one eye, focusing on ordering all the information he had stored away in his head.

Kanda watched this process through narrowed eyes, trying and failing to be patient as the redhead collected his thoughts. Sometimes the man didn't understand why he put up with Lavi – they had 'met' back in their sophomore year of high school – 'met' meaning Lavi's near-death at the end of Kanda's shinai in a dark alley one night as Kanda was coming home from kendo practice – and the stupid rabbit had bothered and annoyed him ever since. In fact, it seemed to Kanda was Lavi's sole purpose in life was to be as annoying as possible, and the redhead excelled in that category in all regards. If it weren't for the fact that Lavi had a photographic memory, access to massive amounts of information that came from god-knows-where, and had a certain amount of influence in certain things that could reap generous benefits when exploited properly (the previous two apparently coming from Lavi's mysterious, nomadic and rather affluent grandfather), Kanda would have cut the redhead's throat a long, long time ago.

But, as it were, fate seemed to have other plans.

Kanda had been waiting in brooding silence for a good five minutes before his patience snapped and he hissed, "Oy, stupid rabbit, are you going to tell me anything or not? Because I don't have the time to fuck around here for nothing."

Lavi lazily opened his one eye and shot a glare at Kanda for ruining his concentration. "Shush, Yu-chan, you and your vulgar mouth jus' killed my focus." After a few seconds in which Lavi stared at the ceiling and Kanda stewed in his anger, the redhead shut his eye once more and sighed. "…what was it you were wantin' t'know, again?"

It took the last of Kanda's self-control to keep from mauling the one-eyed man in front of him and instead replied, "Fucking rabbit, I asked you about the Cursed Boy."

"Oh. Him."

Lavi contemplated Kanda's reply for a moment before adding, "Well, about him?"

"Who is he?"

Lavi was rather taken aback by the ferocity in Kanda's voice. Lips curling into a sly grin, he chucked and said, "Ohoho, aren't you curious? If I may ask, why do you want to know, hmm?"

"Don't answer my question with another question!" Kanda barked, the question riling him up even more than before, if that was possible. Lavi noted the angry reaction and his smile widened.

"…guess I may not ask, then. Well, hold on a sec, I'm thinkin'…"

Kanda didn't know why he had been so irritating at the redhead's question – well, more irritated than usual, anyway.

Maybe it was because he couldn't answer.

"Lessee…" Lavi's muttering brought Kanda back to attention and he stared intently at the green-eyed boy, who was racking his brains (Kanda reckoned that process didn't take too long) and eventually answered, "Well, he's cursed. Duh."

Kanda rolled his eyes. "I thank you for your wise interpretation. Do you actually have anything useful in that hollow skull of yours?"

"Fft. O'course I do, silly. Nah, well, the kid's a bit…strange, yeah? His name's Allen." Lavi stopped for a second, as if he was trying to decide what or what not to say. "He used to live with this older fellow named Mana Walker – not his father, I don't think, but the closest thing the poor kid had to one. Well, at least before Walker died."

Kanda blinked. "Died?"

"Yeah. Arsonists set their house on fire, no idea who they are or what their motive was – Allen barely survived as it is, his left eye and arm are pretty messed up."

Kanda now knew why the boy known as Allen had been so keen on that coat of his. Did he not want people to see his scarred arm? And the boy's hair had been covering his left eye…

Kanda now wondered why he remembered these things.

"…did that answer your question, Yu-chan?" Lavi questioned, dragging Kanda back from his thoughts again.

Kanda pondered for a moment before answering. "…you call him 'cursed'. How come?"

Lavi's smile twitched slightly and slowly curled down into a frown, folding his arms over his chest and exhaling. "Well…after Mana Walker died, Allen was sent to an orphanage. Cute little kid like him, didn' take long for someone to come 'round and pick him up. Problem is…everyone who's attempted to adopt Allen Walker has met their unfortunate, premature end."

Kanda blinked once more. "You mean they died?"

"Yuuup. Every single one. First was a man named Howard Link, who perished in a train wreck while returning home from some kind of business trip. Next were the Lee siblings, who vanished after three months without a trace and were later found hanged in a forest near Berlin. Don' ask me how they wound up there, I have no idea. Anyway, you get the picture. Even the ol' man who ran the orphanage eventually met his end – died of a heart attack. Seeing how old he was, no one could really blame Allen for that 'un, put the poor kid was convinced there was some kind of curse folloin' him 'round. He was tired of having people drop dead 'cus of him, so after the orphanage chief kicked it he jus' took to the streets. Be livin' the hobo life ever since."

After he concluded his narrative, Lavi studied Kanda's expression, looking to see the long-haired man's reaction to the story of the Cursed Boy. To Lavi's surprise, Kanda was looking down, stoic as ever, as if he was digesting all that the redhead had said. When he looked up, however, the man's dark blue eyes did betray emotion. It was an emotion that Lavi knew to be disgust.

"…why is everyone so afraid to touch him?"

Kanda's question caught Lavi by surprise, and it took the one-eyed man a while to answer. "Well, y'know…ya don' really wanna touch someone who's cursed, yeah?" He shrugged.

"…and if this is such a well-known story, how come I've never heard it before?"

At this, Lavi couldn't help but roll his eye. "With your winning personality, Yu-chan, I'm not surprised. Cold, anti-social bastards tend to be out of the loop, y'know."

"Fucking rabbit. I'm going to kill you."

"Uh-huuuuh. Jus' like last week."

"Shut up."

"Gladly."

Silence reigned.

After a while mulling over his thoughts, Kanda abruptly stood up and stormed out of the office, leaving a confused Lavi (who had by then engaged himself in a staring contest with the clock) to call out "Oy, Yu-chan, you can't jus' take off like that!", which was met with silence as Kanda put as much distance between him and the irritating redhead as possible.

Lavi sighed, slightly dismayed at Kanda's speedy disappearance, and leaned back once more to the point where his chair was about to topple over. Folding his arms across the back of his head, his glittering green gaze scrutinized the ceiling as he, too, mulled over the thoughts now storming in his head.

"I don't know what you're thinking, Yu-chan!" he cried out is dismay, laughing slightly as he did so. "But, y'know how the old saying goes, Yu-chan…if ya play with fire, yer gonna get burned."

xxxxx

A/N: Uwaaahh~! I'm finished with chapter two! 'Course, I sacrificed my math homework to do so, but who really cares about math these days? Not me, that's fer sure. (Note: Never take study tips from 27.)

Anyway, I wrote out this chapter both last night and during math class today and didn't really think it was any good as I read it on paper…but after transferring it onto Word and beta-ing it/tweaking it, I actually think it came out….relatively ok. At least I got to write Lavi. That was a bonus.

Oh, and I got to say that Link and Lenalee were dead c: That made me happy (although I'm a little sad 'bout Komui tho. Oh, well, cest la vie.)

Anyway! Sorry this chapter is lacking in Moyashi-chan, I thought that the whole cursed boy situation needed more explaining before I jumped right into Kanda meeting Allen again….but not to worry! That will be coming up in the next chapter, which I was originally going to save 'till next week 'till I learned that my big P.E. project I thought was due on Thursday is actually die next week 8,D So I'll probably have chapter three up, oh, either tomorrow or Wednesday. So that's good…if anyone cares, that is ;w;

In closing to my uber-rant-that-no-one-should-care-about, I hope I didn't disappoint anyone with this, I tried my best to make it interesting ^^ Next chap will be exciting, I promise!

So, till then,

xxxxx

*BONUS!*

Lavi's eye twinkled and he broke into a rather perverse grin. "Well well, Yu-chan, I never knew you were into fucking around…"

"….fucking perverted rabbit."

"…So you like fucking perverted rabbits?"

"….I'm going to kill you."

"I love you too."