Shot 2 : Prank

Standard disclaimers apply

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Everyone thought Yuu Kanda was abnormal. Well he wasn't normal in having a lotus that preserved his life but on top of it, everyone assumed that he had no feelings for nuts. Afterall who in the right state of mind (or heart for that matter) could maintain that stone cold demeanor no matter rain or shine? The only thing close to emotion that was emitted from Kanda was annoyance. In fact one finder observed that Kanda was more of a constantly annoyed fighting machine rather than a full blown human being with heart and flesh.

But no, they had all been tricked by Kanda. The problem with Kanda was not that he did not have any emotion – the contrary was true. But Kanda learnt that emotions were useless in this world, if anything, it was a weakness that enemies could exploit. Emotions was thus, in his opinion, was something to be avoided at all cost because indulging in them was a sure road to disaster. Therefore, he learnt to control feeling anything.

To aid himself in that he needed to make sure that other people believed that he had no emotions at all so that they would not try to elicit any emotion from him. The first thing he knew he had to do was to keep his distance away from people. The further away they were from him, the less likely they were able to do any harm to him. The finders were easy, all he had to do was to scorn them, pick up a fight with them once in a while and they would be easily taken care of. Afterall, with the Dark Order hierarchy, finders were at the bottom of it so a little exercise of his higher rank would do. Next he needed to reduce the amount of socializing with fellow exorcists. Before Lavi came to the Dark Order, it was working out fine, with him basically eat, sleep, train or go for missions. All invitations by fellow exorcist for parties, gatherings were rudely rejected by him.

True enough, before long, Kanda was the dreaded one in Dark Order.

Until Lavi came into the order. From then on the illusion that Kanda built was slowly being shattered. Lavi was literally haunting Kanda all day and all night. It was obvious that Lavi wanted to be Kanda's friend for some strange reason. No matter how Kanda tried to brush him off, being rude, threatening him etc, Lavi just would stubbornly not back off. Slowly and unconsciously Kanda, he would rather die than admit it, began to enjoy Lavi's presence around. There was something comparatively comforting to have someone constant around. Kanda began to entertain thoughts about friends and companionship which had not crossed his mind for a very long time. Part of Kanda wanted to continue to block himself from the world, he couldn't afford to let emotions take over, but yet another part of him was beginning to crack slowly.

But Lavi wasn't enough to undo what Kanda had built up for the past 10 years. It was Allen, Allen Walker who would complete the job. The first time he saw Allen, there was already a sense of intimacy. He saw how Allen was not being accepted by the gatekeeper because of his curse, and it immediately brought to his mind how he was kicked out by his own township because of how his wounds just healed by themselves. He remembered how people shouted that he was a cursed boy and devil's advocate as they stoned him– their voice still rang in his head if he thought about it. He began to superimpose Allen's innocent pleading with his own childhood ones. No, Kanda would refuse to shake hands with someone who reminded him so much of his past. He could not be dragged further into the emotional abyss.

Kanda had silently hoped that he would see as little of Allen as possible in the Dark Order. But life had a sense of humour. Through Lavi, then his self proclaimed best friend, he was brought into the presence of Allen every single day. And every single day, Allen's curse would remind him of his own curse and how he was banished from everything because of it.

Allen Walker was also a master in hiding his emotions. It would be difficult for anyone normal to see through the facade but a master could always see through a master. It had always been clear to Kanda that there were a lot of things that Allen did not want to do. Lavi, for example, was too irritating at times. But instead of telling the noisy Bookman Junior off, Allen just smiled, listened and even encouraging him to go on. Time and time again, Kanda wanted to scream at Allen for being such a pretentious freak but the moment that thought crossed Kanda's mind, he knew he was losing it. He was losing control of his own emotions. The hold that Kanda had on his own emotions was reducing by the moment. And then Kanda was desperate. He thought of stepping up the insults.

Of all the planning that Kanda put into making sure that he would not let any emotions set in, he had not counted on someone to have Allen's guts. He thought he was able to intimidate people away but no, Allen Walker refused to be intimated. If anything, Allen intimidated him sometimes. Not only was his tongue as wicked as himself (or possibly worse than him), Allen could easily be on par or more powerful than him. Suddenly, Kanda's mediation times ended up with thoughts on how to better Allen – be it in curses, or in akuma fighting skills or whatever.

Whenever the younger exorcist went for a mission, Kanda always felt something nagging at the back of his heart. But everytime that feeling rose within his heart, he chucked it away. But the tugging got progressively stronger and Kanda found it difficult to uphold the illusion that he doesn't care. The furtive glances that he found himself stealing at Allen during at missions could hardly be explained as Kanda being competitive.

No, he didn't care about Allen, he tried to convince himself again and again. He wasn't reliant on Allen, he didn't need Allen to make himself feel complete. All he was feeling was simply an interest in a new specimen.

But Allen dismissed all his futile rationalizations by placing his lips on Japanese.

Kanda managed to trick everyone into believing in his heartlessness, but life decided to throw him a prank in the form of Allen Walker.

And he fell for him.

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Firstly, thanks for all the reviews for the previous shot. I am personally, not very pleased with the ending myself. Apparently I got into an argument with my mum towards the end and I couldn't get the feel of the story back. What do you guys feel? I actually had a very hard time trying to come out with this one because I am simply not gifted in the art of humour. So here goes, a whacked up interpretation of Prank. I worked around the theme of Life's a prank and this is what I got. It's pretty sappy I know but hey.. REVIEW?

P.S: I promise better ideas for the next few fics!