Title: What is in a Name (or Pet Names)
Fandom: D. Gray-Man
Pairing: Kanda/Allen, +Lenalee being the awesome girl that she is. :)
Word Count: 1,220
Rating: T
Summary: "Do you guys do pet names? You've been together for a while—and yes I'm counting that period of time when you were sort of together but too dumb to notice."
A/N: College/Roommates!AU. Takes place after the end of DAYS PASSING BY but can be read separately. All you need to know is that they're in college and are roommates in the dorms. Also, established relationship. Written for weirdsquirrel11 at tumblr for a writing meme kind of thing. :D

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WHAT'S IN A NAME (OR PET NAMES)

- a part of Days passing By -

Few things changed even after they were 'officially' together, Allen mused, as he struggled to elbow Kanda so he could use their shared bathroom first.

"Move, Moyashi." Kanda hissed as he pressed his body against Allen in an attempt to overpower him.

Allen didn't budge, though, and pushed back equally harder.

Kanda let out a growl and suddenly—there were lips over Allen's and—oh no, you don't, he thought and pressed back into the kiss, slipping his tongue inside immediately and that was apparently unexpected for Kanda because his hand over the knob became slack and Allen swiftly pushed him away and slinked inside the door, shouting, "Not gonna work, Bakanda!" before slamming the door shut.

He could hear Kanda yelled back, "Fuck you!"

"Not now!" Allen retorted from behind the door and snickered as he heard the exasperated noise Kanda made.

.

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"I don't know whether to say it's adorable or if I should roll my eyes," said Lenalee as she took a bite of her own cookie. Allen had to wonder why he had thought it was a good idea to tell Lenalee that story—but she would have kept poking and prodding if he hadn't told her anything.

This was one of those days when she came to visit—bringing yet another huge jar of her cookies, which Allen very much welcomed.

Her teasing, however, was not very welcomed.

"We're not adorable," Allen murmured without looking up from the notes he was reading, shifting instead to lean back more comfortably into the pillows propped up against the headboard of his bed. "And Kanda is still pretty much a jerk."

"And you're still an annoying beansprout."

Both Lenalee and Allen immediately turned their heads to the door, finding one Yuu Kanda walking into the room with his backpack slung over one shoulder.

"Welcome back, BaKanda," Allen drawled lazily, then, "Here, have a cookie," he reached out a hand and held out a piece of cookie.

Kanda glanced for a moment, walked over to Allen's bed, leaned down and—bit down on the cookie. Directly from Allen's hand. And it would have been fine—if not for the fact that they were essentially giving Lenalee a free show.

"You—" Allen said, cheeks warming up, but Kanda simply raised an eyebrow at him and Allen huffed a resigned sigh. "Never mind."

"You know," Lenalee propped her chin on her knees from his position at the foot of Allen's bed. "If you want me out, just say so. I'll go home."

"Lenalee," Allen whined and Kanda snorted before pulling away entirely and walked to his desk to drop his bag.

And then that question just came out of nowhere: "Do you guys do pet names?" At Kanda's blank look and Allen raised eyebrow, Lenalee added, "You've been together for a while—and yes I'm counting that period of time when you were sort of together but too dumb to notice," she gave Allen a pointed look.

That wasn't entirely his fault, Allen wanted to argue, but what was the point? Instead, he looked at Kanda and let out an exaggerated sigh. "If you count 'Beansprout' and 'Moyashi' as pet names, then Kanda had always called me with a pet name, I doubt he remember my real name. How sweetis that?" Allen replied sarcastically.

Kanda though, only raised an eyebrow at him. Then, he tilted his head and, "I wonder. I think your name was Aaron or something…" Kanda trailed off when Allen glared at him. "No? Was it Alan? Ethan? Alonzo?"

"Now Yuu're just making it up," Allen shot back with a challenging look. "Yuu."

Kanda's eyebrow twitched, and Allen wondered if he shouldn't have done that. Even after all these times, he never did use Kanda's first name, because it felt—strange. He had always been 'Kanda'—or BaKanda, JerKanda, and any other insult he could fit into his name—that calling him with any other name, even if it was his first name, felt weird.

"Don't—" Allen would bet Kanda was going to reprimand him for using his first name, but Kanda halted mid-sentence and settling instead to look to the side and glared at nothing.

Allen felt like he'd done something wrong. So he fished another cookie from the jar and held it out to Kanda. "Cookie?"

It was always a sign of a peace offering, after all.

Kanda stared, rolled his eyes, and when he walked over and leaned down to take a bite for the second time, Allen wasn't flustered.

He was glad.

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Lenalee had made a hasty exit soon after, saying that they would probably need to talk some more, for god's sake, though Allen didn't quite know what was there to talk about—

Yeah, okay. He lied. He was curious about something...

Kanda was already preparing to sleep when Allen finally decided that, maybe he'd ask. Surely asking wouldn't hurt, right? He waited until the lights were turned off and Kanda slipped under the cover, because it was easier to talk when Kanda couldn't see his face. Now how to bring it up…

"Do you hate it?" Allen blurted out, and belatedly realized he should have given context first. "Umm. Your name, I mean. Your first name. Do you hate it when someone uses it?"

There were long seconds of silence until he heard shuffling from the other bed and finally, a loud exhalation of breath.

Allen curled under the blanket. "You don't have to answer if you don't want to—"

"I don't have good memories with it," Kanda half-whispered into the air, and it barely reached Allen's ear, but he still heard it. Allen waited for another five seconds for Kanda to continue—but then nothing. He almost thought Kanda had fallen asleep or something, when suddenly he spoke again. "Do you—want to call me that?"

Do I? Allen asked himself, mulling over it in his head as his eyes searched in the darkness—and came to the conclusion that it really didn't matter.

So Allen pushed himself up, slid out of bed, then walked across the room to Kanda, smiling down at him. Kanda's eyes met him in the dark, before he finally scooted over to give some room. Letting Allen slip under the covers beside him.

Allen threw an arm over Kanda's chest and snuggled closer to his neck. "No, I'm good with calling you BaKanda."

BaKanda snorted, then Allen felt a big hand over his head, fingers immediately carding in his hair. "Beans sprout," he said.

Allen let out a soft chuckle as he realized that—it was a pet name, wasn't? BaKanda. Bean sprout. Somewhere along the way, they had changed from insults into terms of endearment.

And he was fine with that. Happy, even. So this was alright. It didn't matter.

Though…

Allen turned his face upward to look at Kanda's face and asked, "Do you really not know my name?"

Kanda stared. Stared some more. Then, a low rumble sounded in his chest, escaping Kanda's thin lips in deep, stilted chuckle, and Allen's stomach fluttered.

"Idiot," Kanda finally managed, giving Allen that half-smile he had come to love so much and said, "Of course I do."

Then, Kanda leaned in, pressing his lips softly to Allen's and whispered into the kiss:

"Allen."

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~ * NeverEnding * ~

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I might write little snippets of their live after DPB, coz as I mentioned before, I do love this universe. Please do let me know what you think of this one? It would mean a lot. Thanks a lot for reading!