Chapter five – Northward high
"So, where are we going exactly?" Allen asked as he joined his friends waiting just outside of the dorm. Lavi grinned widely and Allen noticed as bruise blossoming across his cheek – no doubt courtesy of the now fuming Kanda.
"The shopping centre." Lenalee answered. "There's something I need to buy."
"Jesus Christ, do you ever take your gloves off?" Lavi inquired, snatching one of Allen's gloved hands to inspect up close. Allen gave a light chuckle and pulled his hand back from Lavi's grasp with a wry smile.
"How are we getting there?"
"Walking." Lavi answered cracking his fingers. "It's not far from the school. Unless you don't like walking, that is." Lavi grinned at him.
Allen shook his head. "No. A walk sounds good." He agreed, adjusting his bag so it hung more comfortably off his shoulder.
Kanda was muttering under his breath and Allen had to strain to hear him. He was able to pick out some words which sounded like Mugen and some vague death threats. "Oh, lighten up BaKanda." Allen sniggered and Kanda glared at him.
"Alrighty then! Let's go so we can get back in time for curfew." Lavi strode easily towards the school gates and Lenalee lingered by them, making sure that Allen Kanda's petty squabble would not be blown out of proportion.
" – Leave behind one strand of hair for your insolence."
"But wouldn't cutting off your hair be better? You have waaay too much of it anyway."
A low growl resounded in Kanda's throat. "If I had my Mugen –."
"But you don't, do you? You don't have your Mugen." Allen gave a superior smirk at Kanda's enraged expression and Lenalee glanced worriedly behind her at the quarrelling pair that were so wrapped up in arguing that they were paying little to no heed to the surrounding area.
"If they keep that up they're going to –."
Thunk.
"… Run into a pole." She finished dully, wincing as she looked behind her to see Kanda staggering everywhere with a hand pressed to his head, a steady stream of profanities rolling off his tongue while glaring fuzzily at the power pole while Lavi and Allen laughed their asses off.
"Do you want to die?" Kanda hissed, stomping hard on Allen's foot. Allen's laughter ceased and he swore – which was odd really, hearing the ever polite British boy swear – hoping comically backwards as Kanda gave a victorious smirk.
"Guys, come on. We're wasting time." Lenalee pleaded as Lavi doubled over howling in laughter at the pain his two friends were feeling. Him being a good friend and all.
Kanda glared at Lavi but resisted the urge to take a swing at him, stalking off past his friends.
"Aww… Yu-chan needs to get a sense of humour." Lavi chuckled as he straightened up. Allen muttered under his breath as he gingerly put weight back on his sore foot and limped away, falling into step with Lavi.
"What time is curfew at the school?" Allen asked.
"A while yet." Lavi grinned up at him, sidestepping a pedestrian. "Don't worry about it. Even if we were late we could still get in." Lavi assured him.
"Oh?" Allen inquired curiously.
"Yes... yes, we could..." A dark shadow seemed to dance across Lavi's face as he rubbed his chin with his thumb and cackled evilly.
"Eh... Lavi?"
"Oh! Right, yes." Lavi jerked up right.
"What was... that?"
"What was what?" Lavi's eyes darted around. "Nothing happened."
"...Right." Allen chose to let the matter drop. It did not seem wise to push it.
The shopping district loomed before them; a gathering of many shops spread out over several streets, filled with many teenagers – some in various school uniforms others dressed casually as they were.
Allen cautiously watched the passing people as he trailed after his friends, not completely at ease with the over whelming crowds. There could be a pickpocket around any corner, a mugger at every short cut. It wasn't that he was paranoid. Really, it wasn't. It was just Cross had found it entertaining to feed him on the horrifying news headlines as a child and he'd grown up being told in detail day in and day out about various crimes and their victims.
The result a few years later was a suspicious and cautious Allen Walker and personal experience with human kind definitely didn't help.
"I want to go to the bookstore," Lenalee was saying, "They have the latest volume of a manga I'm reading and the new book by my favourite author should be out to. We can grab some dinner after that and head back to school."
"Sounds like a plan." Lavi agreed. Kanda huffed and looked away. "Is there anything you wanted to do Allen?" Lavi asked.
"Not really." Allen shook his head. "Wherever you want to go is fine with me."
"Easily manipulated." Kanda muttered under his breath.
"You don't seem to be doing anything either." Allen retorted. "Why don't you go get a stick and shove it up you -."
"-Eh!" Lavi cut in. "Language! Besides. Yu-chan already has a stick up his ass. There's not room for another one."
Kanda threw Lavi to the paved path and would have ground the redheads neck into the rough pavement had Lenalee and Allen not grabbed his arms and dragged him backwards, sparing Lavi's life.
"So worth it." Lavi coughed as Allen helped him to his feet. "You can be so thin skinned sometimes." Lavi shot at Kanda and received an uncaring shoulder shrug in return.
"Can we please just get to the bookstore." Lenalee begged and her male companions could do little resist her pleading tone.
The bookstore proved to be on the large side with neat and orderly shelfs, the manga with a whole wall to itself. Lenalee strode familiarly to one shelf and after a brief scan snagged what Allen supposed was her new volume.
Kanda had drifted off to the more violent manga's down the end and with lack of anything better to do Allen picked up a brightly coloured book from the shelf and flicked through it.
"What cha' looking at, Moyashi." Lavi asked, appearing beside Allen's shoulder is the younger teen thumbed through the pages looking oddly disturbed.
"I... Have no clue..." he choked out, closing the book to look at the blurb on the back.
"Lavi?"
"Yes?"
"What the hell is a 'seme' or 'uke'?"
Lavi choked on his own saliva and Lenalee who had heard the question dropped her manga.
"Surely there's a limit to how naive you can be, Benasprout." Kanda drawled as he approached them, one eye brow cocked in amusement and a sneer on his lips.
"Hey." Allen said reproachfully. "Just because I don't speak Japanese –." He was cut off by Lavi – who by now had found the whole situation so hilarious his laughter had turned silent and his eyes were wet with unshed tears. Allen cast him an annoyed glance and looked to Lenalee for an explanation.
"Eh... How should I say this...?" She cast around for examples.
"Let me explain." Lavi said breathlessly in-between laughter. "Between you and Kanda, Kanda would be the seme and you'd be the uke."
Lenalee – who had just picked up her book – nearly dropped it again, uncontrollable giggles sliding through her slips and Kanda choked and spluttered for a moment – making it all the more funny in Lenalee and Lavi's eyes – before resorting to his usual response of violence.
Lavi having expected such a response danced out of Kanda's reach, a taunting smirk playing across his lips as he ducked under Kanda's hands.
Allen watched them for a minute – still completely confused about the manga – before he heaved out a sigh and made a mental note to look the terms up himself at some later point.
Lavi had been caught and Lenalee was now prying the murderous Kanda off of him begging with him to stop it before a shop assistant saw them and they got kicked out.
Lavi gasped for precious air as Kanda finally settled down again. Rolling her eyes Lenalee picked up her manga from where she had set it and headed to the counter, snagging a novel from the display shelf as she went.
"Just these two please." She smiled, digging through her bag for cash.
"I recognize you guys. You're students at Black order academy."
Lenalee's head snapped up and her smile faded as she caught sight of the boy working behind the counter. Kanda swore lightly and took a cautious step forward with Lavi. Allen just stared in bemusement at the light haired teen that looked normal enough – besides for the fact he was staring at Allen with obvious contempt.
"Northward high student?" Lenalee asked, dropping thirty dollars on the counter. The boy whose badge read Julian smirked in answer.
"Just pay for the damn books so we can leave." Kanda muttered under his breath and Lenalee shot him an exasperated look and gestured towards the money clearly saying, I am.
"You're hanging out with them." Julian addressed Allen now as he rang up the sales. Allen didn't bat an eyelash.
"Obviously."
Julian chose to ignore this, leaning over the counter to give him an upraising look. "Are you a student at Black Order too?"
"Just transferred."
"Che."
Besides Kanda, Allen had never heard anyway use 'che' like that and although he wasn't particularly clear on the situation he gazed at Julian coolly.
"Would you mind giving Lenalee her purchase? We would like to leave. "
Julian snorted and slid the books in too a paper bag, all but throwing it over the counter at Lenalee.
"What's with the white hair and tattoo?" Julian inquired, resting his chin on his open hand as he glowered at Allen.
"It's a scar and it's none of your business." Allen didn't give Julian a chance to respond, turning sharply on his heels and striding swiftly out of the bookstore.
"What the hell was that about?" He asked curiously as soon as the whole group was out of hearing range. Kanda snorted and Lavi pulled a bitter face.
"Northward high and Black order academy have never been on really good terms and it's carried over to its students. It's just a bunch of petty squabbles, really."
"Petty squabbles, my ass." Lavi interrupted. "Last year there was a huge brawl. A lot of students ended up hospitalized." He wrinkles his nose. "Myself included."
"You can hardly call a broken wrist 'being hospitalized'." Kanda muttered. Lavi cast him an annoyed look.
"Well sooorry. Just because some of us don't heal at an unnaturally fast rate doesn't give those of us who do an excuse to lord it over us."
"There was a fight?" Allen interrupted. Lavi turned away from Kanda and back towards him.
"Yeah." He confirmed. "A bunch of Northward guys – or black order, no one's really sure any more – jumped some students and the whole thing just got out of hand."
Allen looked a bit sickened. "That doesn't sound like nothing. That sounds serious."
"No matter what Lenalee would like to believe; it is. And you're a new student in the Junior year, they're not going to take to kindly to that. And no offence Allen, but you're hardly inconspicuous. Be careful."
The mood had dropped and everybody could feel it. Allen frowned. The last thing he wanted to do was get caught up in some stupid school quarrel just because he was the new guy and on the attention grabbing side.
"Alright then!" Lenalee called, taking action against the sombre atmosphere. "Let's go get something to eat!"
"Sounds like a plan to me." Lavi readily agreed.
Kanda huffed and Allen smiled, allowing himself to be led down the street to a fast food joint.
oOo_O_oOo
A/N: Sorry for how short this chapter is. I'm really tired right now having been busy studying for a test and trying to sort out my school work. You can rest assured that there will be another chapter out soon.