Author's Note:

First, just to warn you, we've only seen up to episode 80 and only read up to volume 9 so if anyone's OOC or anything impossible happens, it could be because we only know things that have happened up to those points.

Second, the parts in italics are memories and the parts in normal type are present thoughts. Also, it switches POV at the lines. When I use this:

--

It means it's the same POV but it's shifting from memories to present time. :3 You probably would have gathered that but I wanted to forewarn you. Enjoy!

I knew the minute I saw him.

I knew the minute I heard him.

The first time I saw them together and he looked at me with that "fix it, gensui" expression, I knew. And I remembered.

--

We took a walk together. We often took walks together. It was the only way I had found to calm him down without his knowing.

We often took walks together because he was often angry.

"It's a nice day, isn't it?" I was testing him.

"Che." We would walk a bit longer. "I don't like sunny days." Quite a bit longer.

"What do you like then?"

"Nothing."

"No, that won't do." I could feel him glaring at me, but I didn't look down. If I looked down it would all go down hill. "Think about my question before you answer it." He whipped his head back down to glare at the ground and his stomping feet. He kicked a rock. I wanted to look but it would all go down hill. I wanted to see if he was actually thinking or just sulking but it wasn't worth the risk. It was always hard to tell with Kanda.

We came to the end of the gravel road and took the bank that opened out to the grassy expanse. It was one step for me. I waited for him at the top. He tripped at the last second and lunged forward, grabbing my pant leg to stop his fall and then immediately letting go in embarrassed disgust as though it had all been my idea, as though I'd forced him to trip and, of all the evils, rely on me.

He made sure we were farther apart as we walked on but before we were even halfway across the yard we had drifted back together despite his valiant attempts and my respect for his reclusive tendencies. I could tell he was still studying the ground intently.

We came upon a dandelion, puffed out proudly in the sun, feathery seeds forming a perfect sphere and then- explosion. Our feet were speckled in spring snow and I knew it was safe to look down then.

"I like that." He smiled at me, actually smiled.

"This?" I kicked a dandelion gently, just enough to force the seeds to parachute off their perch.

"Hai." He scurried ahead and swatted at another and another and one more before turning back to look at me challengingly.

"Why?" I closed the gap between us, passing him as he stopped to pluck one of the barren stems and slowing so he could catch up again. We kicked each one we passed.

"They're foolish. I'm trying to make them smarter."

"They're foolish?" He was carefully dissecting a stem with his slim fingers.

"They are sitting around doing nothing. They are wasting their time when they should be doing their job the right way." Kanda lived and died by 'the right way'. It was his own special code, which he applied to all facets of life and all people he met without hesitation. The only problem with it was he would not alter his evaluations so if it was 'the wrong way', it was always 'the wrong way'. I was one of many constant offenders. "And they're… they're too…" he paused thoughtfully, continuing his stem destruction. "They're too pretty."

"Too pretty?"

"Yes. That's why I have to bop them."

"I see…"

We took a walk together. We often took walks together. People always thought it was because we were both quiet and enjoyed quiet company. But they were wrong.

It was because I liked to listen.

"I don't understand!" He was angry. He was always angry those days. "I can't do anything right all of a sudden…" He glared at the sky as if it was the source of all his anguish.

"Distracted." The key was to prompt and never state. Kanda liked to figure things out on his own. He looked down suddenly, face slackening unexpectedly and his voice caught at the same time he stalled in his usually steady gait.

"H-hai…" then stopped entirely. "Marie…" I waited.

He mumbled for a long time, looking at his hands. But I heard everything.

"Yes, let's sit."

He collapsed, folding up in a very un-Kanda way, pressing himself to his knees like he wanted to disappear.

I learned a lot that night under the stars with Kanda Yu at the base of Headquarters.

"So, who is it?" Even I had to strain to catch the breath carrying one word. "Ah. I see. I had my suspicions…"

Un-Kanda looked up with tense eyes.

"Am I obvious?"

"No." It's the truth. He isn't obvious and I am not a master of deduction; he is just Kanda and I am just Marie.

He leaned forward and snapped a dandelion, a fallen star that dulled in its descent, off its stem and stared at it for a long time.

"Che." It was Kanda again. "I hate this." He spun the weed, "It's so innocent… pure… pretty."

"Sure?" A puff of breath shattered the perfect orb and I realized it must have been a moon, not a star. Those were stars. Falling stars.

"Not anymore." He stood abruptly from the hips to shoulders to head. The stem still held a reluctant few specks.

He struggled with some thought, debating on whether or not to voice it. "I… I shouldn't have picked it." He let it drop. "Gomen." His hands were pressed together, his height halved, and his hair cascaded down, slithering over his shoulder to wave a few inches above the ground.

I waited several beats of shocked silence before he stood and I was forced to recover my senses.

"Let's go, Marie."

"Sure…"

--

I remembered what he'd told me that night, that secret he whispered to the stars and me that had never left the back of Headquarters. And it all made sense.

It wasn't the time to notice, but I couldn't help but notice, how could I not notice him glaring at my back with those angry, begging eyes?

I listened to the lecture that wasn't quite a lecture because General Froi Tiedoll has always had a good sense for who needs patronizing and who doesn't and I watched him pace a few feet away. I could hear his heart beating ten times faster than his gait would logically make it pulse.

So we took a walk.

We took a walk.

"Kanda…"

"What?" he snapped, glaring at me defiantly. He was always contradicting himelf.

"These are certainly rough times…" I could tell Kanda was thinking behind his scowl, trying to decide what we knew and what we guessed.

"It's best we stay focused for now, really…"

"Distracted." Marie spoke suddenly and unexpectedly. Kanda looked up at Marie abruptly with an expression that didn't quite fit on his features.

I studied my feet in respect for their silent conversation. I'm sure they thought I wouldn't understand it but they've been with me for so long now.

Un-Kanda stared at me and then Kanda clawed at me with accusations and then he just looked without being one or the other, just looked.

They were talking about the secret at the back of Headquarters that I strayed upon the next morning because I needed inspiration.

"But I realize it's not something you can decide, Kanda, even though you'd like to, I know you would, Kanda… You'd be so happy if you could just turn it on and off-"

"Shut up." We had made a lap and finally caught up to the voices I'd been listening to as we strolled, stalked, and plodded.

I had a feeling he cut the General off to prevent certain people hearing certain things and not out of irritation.

"Kanda, what's- hey! Don't just ignore me! What's your problem-"

"What's your problem, rookie? Can't you just mind your own business?"

"How was I not minding my business, HEY! Stop walking away from me while I'm talking to you!"

"Maybe if you didn't talk to me while I was busy walking away it wouldn't be a problem!"

I watched them fight. It was the first time I'd seen them together and I knew the minute I saw him.

Kanda had dropped what he shouldn't have picked a while ago without my hearing, he must have because he had picked another one (without my knowing) and was twisting it between his fingers, even now, poised to break the perfect sphere, even now.

I studied him well for the first time. He was slim, body like a stem or stalk, with wild shocked-silver hair sticking up un-uniformly, like… a certain weed, I can't quite remember…

I think he's done all right this time though. I think now was a good time for picking.

It seems as though I am not the only constant offender. I think Allen Walker… is too "pretty" (as it were).

I think he should hold on to this one. Hold on and not blow it.

I think it's a dandelion…

I think he's in love.

I remembered. It's a dandelion.