Lovers City

A/N: That took forever and it's actually less that I intended it to be. Sorry. Some smexy scenes may come up in the next chapter (whenever it is that I decide to get it done). Anyway enjoy and thank you for reading/reviewing.


Gentleman coldness


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Allen wasn’t happy at all that morning as he made his way to the docks with the raven and a Finder leading the way. As far as that morning went, Kanda had already insulted him twice and as if that wasn’t enough in itself, he was forced to wear the kimono once again, this time waiting patiently for Lenalee to apply the make up (which truly convinced him that the day would go unchangeably wrong). She promised to keep it light, but the smell made him sneeze, spreading white powder all over the room and them both.

And although now he was dressed and ready to jump into action, all he ever did all was slip since his zori weren’t the best thing to wear on a rainy day. The only thing he had luck in so far was that, even if he did slip, the Finder walking at his side would at least catch him before his bum reached the cold (and wet) ground.

The view wasn’t exactly to his liking either. He preferred blue skies with seabirds flying serenely around while the sun shined brightly and warmly, instead the weather was horrible. All the picturesque beauty was covered by fog and a dense rain kept on falling without any signs of stopping anytime soon. The dock they were walking on was slippery, the old wood making strange noises every once in a while.

As on a silent command from heavens, Allen tripped on his own feet for walking so fast and quickly caught on the Finder’s arm to stop his descending. Why did HQ have to program a mission on the sea in such season, the boy just couldn’t understand. And weren’t the waters supposed to be more violent in winter or something?

“Are you alright, Allen-sama?”

The man asked kindly through the bandages covering half his face as he flexed his muscles to keep the teen Exorcist from falling. He draw an arm around the thin waist, supporting all the boy’s weight for a moment before helping him establish his equilibrium on the wooden sandals.

“Yes, fine. Thank you, …uh?” Allen simply could not remember the name of their guide and his concentrating eyes full of sorry must have showed his distress for the man was about to introduce himself once more.

“I’m Tsu…”

“Hurry up, moyashi. I don’t have all day to wait for you. Tsuroji, Renoshi, you may return now.”

Kanda stopped walking and just stared at the slightly blurry walls painted in what seemed to be pale yellow, black letters running high over their heads. Lovers City. The cruise. He still couldn’t get himself to even appear the little bit interested about the mission, but a look at his assigned partner was all he needed to understand that he would most probably be forced to follow the youngster all over the cruise since he committed to keep an eye on him.

Tsuroji didn’t took much in leaving all the suitcases and quickly disappearing from the sight, neither him or Renoshi wanting to angry Kanda even more, which was greatly appreciated by the raven as he could feel an headache already forming.

“What’s with you, you’ve acting strange all morning.”

The samurai couldn’t help a groan escaping him. Just how clueless was the moyashi? Couldn’t he event tell the impact his appearance had on others?

‘Ignorance is, indeed, blessed.’

Although, he couldn’t help but admit it internally, if the cursed teen ever found out just how strong the pheromones he released were and put them to good use, the white haired teen may find himself with the world in his hands someday. Thought, doing it unconsciously was even more of a danger.

For example, just before he interrupted the conversation between the Finder and the stupid bean-sprout, the boy was unaware of the looks he kept receiving from one he thought as a good Samritan and helping friend. The boy was really starting to get on his nerves with all his innocent face and expressions. Even Kanda could understand being cute to get something, or even to fool someone into doing what he wanted, but to be such a clumsy, go-happy person that offered gentle smiles to everyone without knowing their intentions was too much for him to cope with. He just hoped the mission finished without him having killed anyone because of the moyashi.

“Kanda, are you listening to me?” The porcelain, doll-like face popped out of nowhere in front of him pouting adorably at the frowning man. One of Kanda’s eyes twitched slightly as he prepared to snap awful things at his so called ‘fiancée’, but was interrupted by a grave voice.

“Hey, you two love birds, are you gonna get on or not? Were leaving in an hour for if you want to discuss some more.”

The two Exorcists turned their head to the sailor that disturbed them from only a few metres to their right. He was dressed in a white and blue marine uniform, the horizontal lines complimenting his large frame, also making his torso more noticeable as it stuck to all the curves of his impressive muscles. His features, although rough, presented a warm smile under the generous moustache.

“Then, shall we go?” He asked pulling the boy under his umbrella.

He turned his head the raven, stunned at the tone he used, just in time to see Kanda smirk slightly at him. It crept the living days out of him to see the Japanese like that, but the white haired teen couldn’t help the shiver running through his small frame and which had nothing to do with the cold. Well, it was appealing but had a sharp feeling of danger at the edges.

Before he even had the time to answer, the older man took his hand and started walking towards the ship, suitcases forgotten in the rain. Allen couldn’t help a slight blush from spreading on his cheeks as he tried to get his hand free, but stopped short as he understood he would be blowing their cover.

Kanda’s hand was so warm.

They reached the sailor in seven quick strides (Allen was surprised he hadn’t fell with Kanda’s speed, but he knew the man would just have pulled him up before continuing), and both of them took cover from the rain, Kanda handing the wet umbrella to the older man.

“Do you have invitations?” The sailor-whose name was Tabby as Allen could read on a small badge attached to his shirt-asked in a bored tone while eyeing the couple. This one was a little strange his intuition told him, but he pushed it down as it was rude judging people by their appearance.

“Here they are.” As the raven handed him the pieces of paper Allen took a moment to observe the room they were in.

It looked like a lobby, taking in consideration the large aisle on which Tabby rested one of his large arms and the cushioned armchairs dispersed around two round tables. Orchids had been placed in the dull coloured vases. He approached the closer one to him and gingerly touched the flower. The arrangement was lovely, small water droplets stuck to his finger as the flowers were sweating from the difference in temperature.

“So, you’re Kanda Yuu and the lovely miss over here is your fiancée, Alice Walker.”

He focused once more as his fake name was called, turning around with a smile directed at both men. Kanda lifted one perfect eyebrow at him while the other seemed to study him, giving more than necessarily all-overs to the boy before stepping closer and asking what was he.

Slightly taken aback from by the question, Allen lifted the sleeve of the kimono to his mouth and leaned backwards to put some distance between them. Without stuttering, he replied with a question, “What do you mean, sir?”, slightly tilting his head to the right.

Kanda wasn’t in the least surprised seeing the man blush darkly and pull himself at a reasonable distance from the silver head Exorcist. They both had felt the pull, yet it was clear who was the one with better self-control. Tabby stuttered an answer barely intelligible. An pervert gleam could be seen in his eyes.

“W-w-w-well, you d-d-don’t look Japanese, s-so I was…j-just curious what's your nationality?”

That was a VERY lame excuse Kanda noticed.

“Oh, I’m English, sir.”

“I see. Now that I do think about it, I should’ve realized it from you name. Sorry for being silly.”

“No, no problem whatsoever.” ‘Alice’ replied with another innocent smile, his hair falling graciously around the boy’s face as he moved towards the raven and entwined their arms together.

“Then I’ll just sign this and you’re ready to go. I’ll call Edgar to take you to your room.”

The actual signature was just a number written on both the invitations. Tabby ran a rather big golden bell and told them he’ll take care of the suitcases of the two as Edgar stepped into the room.

Now if Tabby was well built and tall, the man leading them to their room was the total opposite of the sailor. While still rather tall, Edgar was slim and had greasy hair combed to hide his the bold spot right in the middle of his skeleton like head. Allen had a feeling he won’t like the man too much.

With Kanda’s hand on his lower back gently pushing him after the skinny man, Allen quickly picked up his pace as to not fall. He was expecting total silence when the raven spoke, close enough the boy could feel his breath tickling his earlobe.

“Where did you learn to do that?”

He asked in barely a whisper. He would have never thought the easy and air-head looking boy had such a don for acting.

Trying to suppress the urge to either pull away from the man or moan, Allen answered in a small voice. “My master dated a lot of women like that, all innocent looking but strangely with a lot of experience, and I pretty much got the idea from that. No man can resist an innocent girl, can they?”

“I can.”

Kanda said proudly although some part of him didn’t quite agree. Despite all his ice man acting and his pride that insisted that it wasn’t true, the samurai couldn’t help but feel the pheromones the boy released hit him heavily. He just was…

“…too much of a jerk to notice. And-”

Allen was cut off by a furious raven. “What did you just say you idiot bean? Who the hell are you calling a jerk?!”

Fingers shoved themselves into his back, drawing a pained gasp from the boy. Allen was about to snap something at the man, but the valet beat him to it.

“We’re here. Now, we have a few rules we would like our passengers to comply to.”

Opening the door the man started explaining what they could and couldn‘t do. First, publicly displaying too much skin was not allowed; for example, they could expose the legs, but not too short of a dress as to show everything under the materials. Smoking in the rooms was also not encouraged. If the passengers needed any form of bondages or toys, those could be requested, any other than those provided from the cruise would be removed and not to be used.

“But we didn’t bring any toys. I asked Lavi and he told me it’ll be too cold to play any kind of games so I let my ball home.” Allen explained to the skeleton man, this last one looking at him like he couldn’t understand what those things had to do with one another.

Kanda felt like hitting his partner.

A few more rules (which the silver head still couldn’t quite understand and so he didn‘t give too much thought) and the valet left to his chores, leaving the two Exorcists alone.

Finally having the time, Allen looked around the room; they had two chambers and a bathroom for private use and, although the first impression of the mission hadn’t been a good one, Allen could feel part of his enthusiasm returning.

Like a child in a new house, he started exploring: studying the complicated embroidery of the silk sheets on the bed and the soft purple wallpaper with rose motives, opening the great windows in the bedroom and admiring the view before closing them once more in favour of looking around more. The sofa in the living room was very comfortable and the flower arrangements in the rooms were lovely. The large table in the living room was of dark wood and felt nice to touch, its chairs made with soft, purple plush.

It didn’t look at all like the small four walled cabins both of them saw in the newspaper or used every once in a while during their travels; this room had certainly ascended from a mere cabin to a piece of art and a room good enough for royalty.

A sole painting was resting on the wall opposite from the canopy bed just above the fake hearth, its colours complimenting the room’s rather cold appearance. It represent a woman dressed in a white dress looking at the ocean while the wind played with the many layers of her dress blowing them rather furiously.

“Stupid moyashi, stop jumping on the bed!”

The Japanese lost his always too little patience at the childish behaviour the teen had adopted. While he himself felt rather pleased with the room, and despite the people at HQ that kept on telling him he had to relax in this journey and how they envied him for being assigned with Allen (thing that , of course, the samurai couldn‘t understand). How was he supposed to enjoy himself when he had to baby-sit a bean?

“What happened to you, baKanda? Do you by any chance have multiple personalities disorder?”

The teen commented pouting, but stopped his actions nonetheless. He wasn’t surprised the raven turned back to his icy behaviour; Kanda being nice actually gave him uncomfortable shivers, making the hair on his neck stand.

Not wanting to anger the man further, nor wanting to spend all day trapped inside a room with a grumpy samurai when he could go exploring, Allen snatched Kanda’s arm pulling him towards the door.

“Just where do you think you’re going, moyashi?”

“How about we make a tour of the ship?” He proposed happily, the glare he received not making his friendliness drop even a little. He tightened his gasp on the man’s arm just to be sure Kanda wouldn’t escape. “You must know where you’re moving when looking for something.” His argument was plausible and he really hoped to get the other to approve and take a walk together.

“And if we do that, who’s going to unpack the suitcases, you moron?” He snapped although he strongly believed Tabby would not bring their things until later in the day. That, however, didn’t mean he couldn’t use it was a reason not to comply with Allen. Yet when the boy pulled away and rang the golden bell the valet had felt them twice, a young maid entered the room. Allen instructed her to unpack their belongings when they arrived.

Kanda groaned as he was pulled forward by the over excited boy, this last one stopping at every round window to look inside, gasping jokingly at the interior only to annoy the raven, or so Kanda thought. After some more exaggerate gasps, it became clear he was doing it on purpose for the small smirk the bean wore widened whenever he furrowed his brows.

“Kanda?”

He looked at the boy calling his name, answering violently, almost barking into the boy’s face. “What?!”, his sour mood increased as it didn’t move the smile even a little bit from his partner’s lips.

“Let’s go eat. I heard that they have some special desserts and I want to try them.”

The Japanese couldn’t say anything this time since he had been warned to let the boy eat as much as he likes by the younger Lee. And who would dare not listen to Lenalee was either a stupid man or one who wanted to end his life, quickly but quite painfully. As he was none of the two before mentioned types, he decided to please the bean-sprout and go with him in case he lost his way. He didn’t wanted the idiot out of his sight. But that didn’t stop his complaining. “Is food all you think about?”

“No, it’s not, baka; I didn’t have time for breakfast this morning because of Lenalee and Komui-san and their idea to dress me like a girl. Besides, if I’m hungry I can’t fight and that means leaving as many demons as there are to you. And you wouldn’t like that at all, would you, ‘dear’?”

He grinned childishly as the other groaned and turned around, making his way to the dining room he saw in his little exploring of people‘s windows. Still having a pretty strong grip on his fiancé’s arm and preoccupied by what he would eat, the Exorcist didn’t saw the wall appearing suddenly before him.

Allen stopped in his tracks, his nose buried into soft and good smelling clothes. Grey eyes stared at white before he took a step back and looked at the man he ran into.

“Are you alright, miss?”

Bright smile on the not too pale skin of the blond greeted the young ‘lady’ and shone mischievously as he took in the appearance of the frail person.

An adorable blush rose to his usually pale cheeks and Allen bowed his head in apology, showing embarrassment to the blond he had not seen before.

“Y-yes. I’m sorry for running into you, sir. Please, do forgive me.” To emphasize his point, the teen gave a small smile of his own. He pretty much knew he would be forgiven since, as he earlier told the older Exorcist, who could resist an innocent girl?

The unexpected answer came quickly after.

“I refuse to forgive you.”

“Eh? I mean, excuse me?”

He watched with wide eyes as the man leaned closer to him, putting an arm around his shoulders to pull the boy closer. A shiver went through the small frame; if Kanda’s touch, a man who he knew and more or less cared for, made his hair stand on edge, this handsome man’s made his skin crawl in disgust. It felt like insects had crawled under his skin, tearing at his flesh, hurting him.

Just as the blond was about to say something else, Kanda decided to take part in the action . He pried the man’s hand from the slim shoulders, replacing it with his own in a rather possessive gesture and glared with passion. Not that he was concerned about the bean-sprout’s safety or anything of the sort, not at all, but if the boy complained to a certain black haired Exorcist girl they both knew that would be trouble for Kanda, and he really didn’t need another headache.

“What‘s your problem?” Kanda didn’t fait to notice the man’s rather disrespectful way of addressing him. Even the glare the man threw him as he stepped between him and his prey was nothing compared to the ones the Glare King himself could summon, proved by example.

“My name is Kanda Yu and the problem is you’re eyeing my fiancée.” He stepped on bitter commentaries at the wide eye expression he received, making a small and evil smirk appear on the samurai’s face.

Feelings of superiority ran through him since he gave the man a shock. Kanda angered further at his own mind for taking pride in something so simple, yet he realized that sometimes even he didn’t really put any effort in doing it, he still managed to shock or mock people. Knowing that it pleased him somehow.

“Ah, haha, I see. I’m sorry, Kanda.” he didn’t seem sorry at all, actually he looked like he just discovered something he could make good use of; the blond patted Kanda on the shoulder in a friendly manner. “Allow me to invite you and your lovely fiancée to diner tomorrow to apologize for my behaviour.”

The blond man received another daggering glare from the Japanese for the fact that he dared touch him; he shrugged the hand on his shoulder immediately not liking people touching or stepping into his personal space.

“My name is Laurent Dismount. Let’s meet up at the clock staircase in the lobby at seven sharp. Sounds alright to you?”

“Sure.” Allen answered before he could refuse. His young comrade was presented with a glare himself but the boy didn’t seem to notice.

He kept glaring until the blond left his sight (after he graciously kissed his ‘fiancée’s’ hand); the younger male pulling on his arm claimed his attention once more and the boy continued dragging him all the way to the dining salon.

“You could really use some happy pills, you know? I mean, he wasn’t doing anything.” Allen yelled at his room mate from the bathroom while he was undressing. God, he thought pulling on the second tying of the kimono, did those clothes have a lot of layers.

Struggling to multitask, he pulled the obi undone, reached for his feet and took the white socks off and massaged his cold feet rather annoyed. Damning his boss and his sister for dressing him so girly and in clothing so inadequate for the cold, for as many layers his kimono had it was made of silk and was not the best material for windy days. He wouldn’t even start with the shoes. After getting some circulation to his toes, the boy entered the tub happy with the warm water.


Kanda just kept quiet and just continued looking out the window . He tuned off the bean-sprout easily, diving into his own thoughts concerning the evening they just had. He found out that the stupid bean-sprout didn’t pay attention to anything else when eating and that converted him into the boy’s bodyguard from the waiters, in an unwilling and rather violent way. Although he still couldn’t understand why he had to baby-sit the boy while he could be elsewhere hunting down akuma, samurai was rather protective of the little man.

‘Well’ he thought to himself, ‘it could be worse. Like having to baby-sit the stupid rabbit.’ Now that was a mission he was sure he would not be able to succeed at without cutting the man to pieces before the very first day passed. No, the bean-sprout was a lot better.

‘And he looks a lot better in a kimono than Lavi.’

He caught himself as soon as the thought formed. What was he thinking?! He asked himself furiously, standing up from the bed in his rage. The bean-sprout, looking good? Had he lost his mind? Just where had the thought came from?

Something must have been in the wine he drank, he decided after a few silent moments.

Surely not, he continued the anterior line of thought with negations, but he couldn’t help but keep his eyes on his partner all day long. Always tracing every artificial curve the formal clothes made with (he hoped) alert eyes, always watching the pale neck as the wind blew the silvery hair away and the doll like, powder covered face. It was like his eyes had a mind of their own to follow the Exorcist whenever the boy was near or left his side. It was becoming an obsession.

He shook his head to chase the thoughts away, fairly hearing his name being called. Allen was repeatedly shouting his name from the bathroom and it was getting on his nerves.

“What!” he called in an annoyed voice, slowly opening the door to find the boy inside the bathtub filled with colourful bubbles, his hair shining from the water weighting it down.

“Finally.” he mumbled not lifting more than just his head from the water. “Bring me a spare of clothes from the closet, please. I forgot to take them before coming in.”

Allen threw in a smile to sweeten the groan he received from the man before he dived into the warm water again. It felt SO good after a rainy day.

Kanda didn’t comment further, although he was debating interiorly if he should or shouldn’t help the moyashi. He decided to do it for he was more than sure he wouldn’t like to take care of a bean with high fever because the boy had had to parade naked in the cold November air.

Pulling a yukata from one of the drawers of the closet (and admitting the personal knew how to do their job well), he quickly strode back to the bathroom, opening the door and leaving the cloth on the floor, not concerned that it could get wet with the perspired floor tiles, and returned to his anterior thoughts.

When he resurfaced, after hearing the door close, Allen got out of the bathtub slowly as not to slip and break his neck and looked around for his clothes. He was about to call again when he saw the small mound next to the door. Patting carefully on the slippery floor, he lifted it to find a summer kimono.

“Kanda! You bastard, I told you to bring me my pyjamas not a yukata!” He slipped the cloth on (he wouldn’t appear naked in front of people even if they paid him) and tied it strongly before stepping out glaring at the one that left the offending yukata . He continued staring hard as he moved towards the closet as the man didn’t answer right away.

“It’s the only thing you can sleep in from all those clothes, unless you want a formal kimono.”

Not believing the older Exorcist, Allen strode towards the closet and opened. A shriek of horror ran through the whole ship.


A/N: This is longer than what I usually write, yet shorter than I wanted it to be. I just hope the plot bunnies will visit quickly.