.: With mentioned Marie/Miranda and Tyki/Lavi :D This was supposed to be just a 300-word thing smut, but it suddenly grew x.x;; (1993 words.)
.: Part of my multifandom mafia/Shisengumi/police AU; more details in my profile/livejournal

*

Kanda is a person who takes his job seriously. He doesn't like protecting civilians, as well as receiving thanks and praises for his job. He doesn't like being given new medals for a job well done on the dirtier work that happens under the cloak of shadows and beneath the higher-ups' fingertips. But, it is something he is good at –exceptionally good- and it is the only thing that he can see himself doing.

He hates incompetence—especially if it's those useless morons who think that they're goddamn powerful just by possessing the badge and receiving clearance to use their weapons.

Moreover, it's because of said inept idiots that their raid is a bust. The intelligence was wrong and this particular mafia family has a strength that could easily overpower theirs.

Kanda Yuu pocketed his communicator when all he heard was static. It seemed that he was too far away from the others, separated by the bomb that exploded just as soon as they entered the front door of the supposed headquarters.

There was a slight sound—Kanda's Mugen was out in less than a heartbeat, his preferred weapon gleaming dully under the pale moonlight that entered the shattered windows. There was no sound of glass crunching down beneath Kanda's footsteps; there was no sound of labored breathing coming from Kanda's lungs.

There was another sound—Kanda wondered if the person was even trying to mask his presence. It made him feel one-part relieved and nine-parts insulted.

"Who's there?" Kanda's gruff voice called out, fingers gripping his sword tight, inching for a fight because he is not like those losers who are taken out in just one flashy explosion.

A voice replied, and it was nothing like Kanda expected. "Well, this should be interesting." Boyish, soft and friendly—it was something that Kanda would associate with innocent boys in the neighborhood, not with well-known drug traffickers and tyrants of the underground gambling world.

"Pleased to meet you, Kanda Yuu, squad leader of the Dark Order," The young man stepped out of the shadows and Kanda snorted because a youthful face and a small body greeted him.

"Figures that I'd get a beansprout," Kanda commented with a smirk, hands ready to strike at any moment.

"B-beansprout?!"

*

Kanda went out of the police headquarters with a slight nod of his head towards the surprised receptionist. Everyone involved in that failed operation are currently recuperating in a nearby hospital, but Kanda's almost-inhuman healing rate made him an exception.

Still, Komui told him to go home and rest, but Kanda wouldn't be doing that, because the memory of that stalemate with that old-man-hair beansprout bruised his ego in a way he would never admit out loud. He may be a member of the special task force of the police, but he's a swordsman first, and fighting with a mafia member using his fists and his body and not his sword was something that irritated him.

Of course, life would always throw irritating things at him, such as the very familiar mop of white hair seated on his welcome mat.

"What the fuck are you doing here, idiot?"

The hunched figure opened one sleepy eye and yawned. Kanda felt his eyebrow twitch. Nobody dared to yawn at Kanda. The sight of that irksome mafia made Kanda wish for his Mugen, but Komui was still repairing it and damn, Kanda wanted to wring that scrawny neck. "I can't believe you didn't go to the hospital."

Kanda didn't waste words on things such as 'How did you know?', or 'Why are you following me?'. Instead, he settled for a derisive glare and a "Stop stalking me, beansprout."

The policeman not-so-subtly kicked his unwelcome visitor, his hands already twisting his keys and opening the door. "It's Allen, you retard," Allen Walker whined, before slipping inside Kanda's apartment even before the owner could bang the door on his face.

"As if I care," Kanda snorted, feeling the weight of his gun against his pockets, feeling the incomprehensible stare Allen gave to his back, feeling the irritation at not winning against the fight.

"Let's spar," Allen suggested after getting bored of watching Kanda –washing dishes, drinking water, folding clothes- do things that looked painfully normal for someone as strong and feared as Kanda.

Kanda's only answer was a feral grin.

*

It became a strange arrangement between the two of them.

Kanda would come home from work or from a grueling mission, and Allen would be seated at his welcome mat, half-sleeping and always waiting for him. Then, Kanda would kick him, insult him, and threaten to cut off his annoying head, but would end up letting the other slip past the closing door.

Sometimes, Allen would bring food—lots of food, from different restaurants, ranging from Italian to French to Indian to Korean, but it would always include his favorite tempura soba. Sometimes, Allen would convince him to play cards, but after one game, Kanda would ask him to stop because it was an unsettling reminder of what Allen is a part of. Sometimes, Allen would stay until midnight, silver eyes wide open as though he was trying to absorb everything that Kanda is doing. Sometimes, Kanda would forget and call that brat 'Allen' outside of his thoughts.

They still sparred, because Kanda still needed to quell the urgings inside of him –asking with suspicious voices and haughty sneers- asking as to why he always allows his enemy inside his home. Allen has been to his apartment more times than the times Komui, Marie and Lenalee asked to be let inside only to end up being rejected.

Kanda didn't know how much time has passed with things staying like that, like he didn't know how many months has passed since he last cut his hair, like he didn't know how long as it been since his partner Marie has been with the receptionist Miranda.

That arrangement came crashing down when Kanda and the rest of Team Exorcist has been called by their Head Supervisor for a mission briefing. It would be an infiltration mission to the underground casino that the Noah Family is supporting. Noah Family. Allen Walker.

Marie raised a questioning eyebrow at him, but he ignored it, in favor of focusing on keeping his breathing still, on stopping his hands from shaking, on memorizing the mission details.

*

Kanda led Squad Gamma to their rendezvous point. He was supposed to go inside as a gambler, and then he would take out the Noah Family's leader. His squad members would be the one to handle the security from their area; Marie and the others were assigned to the other top brass in the mafia's ranks.

The 'Leader', their information said, always made it a point to talk to the gamblers, indulge in a few games, but would always retire to his makeshift throne, always unattended by bodyguards. It reeked of carelessness, cockiness and naïveté, but their intelligence is certified this time. Kanda always regarded Lavi as an annoying idiot, but his information-gathering skills are certainly top-class.

Kanda remembered asking Lavi how did he manage to get that kind of information, but the redhead only grinned cheerfully and mysteriously said, 'sleeping with the enemy gives you loads of advantages'. Kanda didn't really believe him as Lavi constantly lied, but then, he didn't really care about how the data was gathered. As long as it gave him enough information as to how to execute the plan, he would accept it.

He was supposed to sneak behind the throne and quickly kill the Leader wearing that shiny silver-mask and fluffy white coat.

Kanda made his footsteps as silent as possible, his face schooled into an unreadable façade. Ten more seconds before Daisya would turn off the power supply and engulf this underground casino into complete darkness. Ten more seconds before Kanda swiftly dealt with this thorn to the police's actions.

Even before the panicked screams resounded in the air, even before the sounds of gunshots rang like mad bells, even before the darkness fell completely in front of his eyes, Kanda's gun was already out and his fingers were ready to pull the trigger, but the Leader was ready too, and Kanda's hand was already held in a painful grip.

Kanda pulled his hand away harshly, the gun escaping his from his hold, but he was already drawing out his sword and making a neat slice and taking out a half of that ridiculous-looking coat. His next slice was blocked, but not completely, and he was able to contact that silver mask. The Leader whirled and made a sweeping kick, aiming at Kanda's legs, but Kanda didn't mind, as he was waiting for that opportunity to bring his opponent down and closer to him. He didn't lose his hold on Mugen, but the Leader managed to scramble away from him in a series of fluid movements.

It was on the third swift movement of his sword when Kanda managed to remove the annoying get-up altogether; it was also on that third slice that Kanda felt his heart stopping even though he was the one ready to cut the other's head off.

"Beansprout," Kanda said, and it was all he could say, even as the torrent of fighting went on around them, because Allen-fucking-Walker was there, underneath all that gaudy costumes, underneath that mission duty of Kanda killing the Noah's Leader.

"I'm sorry, Kanda," Allen said, face blank and silver eyes apologetic, and that was all Kanda could see before his vision was clouded with darkness.

*

Kanda walked slowly towards his apartment, his head ringing with the reproaches from the Chief Head of Police, Leverrier. They failed to exterminate the entire Noah Family, failed to capture prisoners, failed to pinpoint their main headquarters' location, and more importantly, the prodigy of the secret task force, Kanda Yuu, failed his mission to kill the Noah Family's Leader.

Furthermore, Lavi was said to have been kidnapped by the mafia –by Tyki Mikk, according to the reports of the few survivors- but Kanda knew that Lavi went there willingly, because he couldn't be captured unless he allowed it. Leverrier was taking over the chain of command starting Monday, and Kanda didn't know if it was worth it to stay with the police. All the people he more-or-less tolerated were either gone or assigned to new departments, and—

"What the fuck are you doing here?" Kanda asked irritably, annoyed at the piles of newspapers and magazines -and damn, were those suitcases?!- piled in front of his front door.

"You know, I was thinking—"

"A miracle, I'm sure," Kanda cut off with a snort, his brain thinking wildly as to why that idiot beansprout is here, damn it, they were enemies, and he was ready to kill him just a week ago, and—

Allen huffed angrily, but it only looked childishly cute and certainly not threatening in any way. "Shut up, jackass. I was thinking, and your apartment is really small, you know? Bare too, and boring, and—"

Kanda was already entering his apartment after successfully sidestepping the piles of junk. He didn't shut the door, but he would be damned before he would help that idiot carry those… things inside his home.

"And Paris sounds lovely, don't you think?"

Allen was looking at him again with those brilliant eyes. Kanda sighed and didn't waste words on 'I haven't even resigned', or 'But you're the Noah Family's Leader', or 'Why are you even bothering with me?'.

Instead, he leveled the still-chattering Allen with a serious stare, "Only if you're paying."

"You bastard," Allen said affectionately, and it almost smothered Kanda, but then Allen cheekily related his next words, which made Kanda only want to smother Allen with a pillow instead.

"Only if you're the lovely housewife."

And it was a start of a new arrangement—only this time, it didn't look like it would end anytime soon.