Allen couldn't remember how he had ever thought that Kanda wasn't that bad. Kanda was the rudest, meanest, most idiotic man he had ever met!

"What's wrong, beansprout?" he said roughly. "Can't you even find the answer to this problem? It's not even hard." He smirked.

Allen could imagine his hands wrapping around Mr. Kanda's neck. The chalk trembled in his hand. He could just feel the pulse under his hands. His fingers tightening. Tightening. Tightening with a delicious rel-

His thoughts were suddenly disturbed by Kanda's tapping foot. Mentally shaking himself, Allen tried to focus but he couldn't help scowling. Why in gods name did Mr. Kanda have to pick him of all people? He knew that Allen was no good at math; yet he forced Allen to stand up here and waddle around like an idiot because he didn't know any of the solutions to the problems. And, Allen thought petulantly, why couldn't Mr. Kanda at least call him by his real name? And why beansprout of all things?

"Baka," Kanda growled, making Allen jump. "We don't have all fucking day."

Allen gulped and looked up at the problem again. He could hear some of the class giggling behind him. The equation 'y2 + 4y + x2 + 2x + 5 = 0' was written in chalk on the blackboard. Allen could feel a drop of cold sweat roll down his cheek.

He was never going to be able to answer this. And he would get another detention, his third time getting one. Allen clenched and unclenched his hands. He couldn't do it. Allen looked away from the blackboard, staring up at Kanda.

"I can't do it, Mr. Kanda," he said. He could feel his pride dwindling into oblivion. Again. "I don't know how."

Kanda's eyebrows furrowed, a bunch of lines bunching together between his eyes. His expression turned nearly murderous. His eyes bored a hole into Allen's face, the thin-framed glasses not relieving any of their intensity. Allen only gulped and stared resolutely back.

"You won't do it?" he asked quietly. Allen winced inwardly but slowly, he shook his head. There was a heavy pause.

"Detention after school today," Kanda said in a clipped tone. "Go back to your seat."

Hurriedly and with some sense of surprise at Mr. Kanda's lack of response, he went back next to Lou Fa, sinking heavily into the chair. He could feel his whole face getting red now, mostly from the embarrassment of it all. Lou Fa nudged him and smiled. Allen managed to muster a weak grin back.

Kanda continued on with the lesson, deciding to go on to the next concepts. When the bell rang some minutes after, Allen was the first to shoot up from his seat and rush to the entrance. He had almost gotten to his freedom when he heard the voice he dreaded most of all.

"Beansprout." Allen froze. "Stay for a few minutes."

The white-haired boy sighed. He had been so close…Grudgingly and with heavy steps, he slowly walked back to the teacher's desk.

Only when everybody else had filed out did Kanda raise his head. He glared at Allen.

"Oy, baka, what do you mean you can't do it? That equation was a parabola. It's one of the first things you learned in this class."

Flushing, Allen looked down. He didn't know what to say. He swallowed thickly, and apologized, muttering, "Sorry. I'll try…harder."

Kanda frowned. "Harder isn't good enough, beansprout."

Suddenly, Allen felt his temper snap and he glared at Kanda.

"I will do fine, Mr. Kanda. Just…just-"

Allen shut his eyes and ran his hand down his face. He didn't know anymore. All he felt was that Mr. Kanda was driving him to the breaking point. Allen took in a deep breath and exhaled slowly. He opened his eyes, the silver pupils contracting as he adjusted to the light.

Softly, he said, "I'll try anyway."

Kanda didn't say anything more. He watched silently with dark eyes as Allen swiftly left the classroom.

-*-*-*-*-

The bell rang shrilly, marking the final end of the school day. Allen stared at his desk, unseeing, unmoving as all the other students moved past him. Lenalee walked over, a look of sympathy in her eyes. She patted his back, bringing him back to the present.

"You want me to walk with you, Allen?" she asked, a soft smile on her face.

Allen paused but then shook his head. He smiled at her.

"There's no need, really. And you have a bus to catch, right? I'll be fine."

Lenalee frowned, leaning into Allen's face suddenly. Allen jumped instinctively back into his chair but didn't break the stare. Her purple eyes stared deep into Allen's silver ones, searching for something.

"W-what?" asked Allen, a little surprised. "Is there something on my face?"

Lenalee giggled but stood back up, saying, "Nevermind. It's nothing. See you later, Allen!"

With that, she waved and ran out to catch up with the other students. Allen cocked his head, a bit nonplussed. He shook his head and continued to pack up.

-*-*-*-*-

"Mr. Kanda?"

Allen popped his head through the doorway. The light was on but the teacher himself was nowhere to be seen. Pulling at his gloves, a bit uncomfortable, Allen tentatively sat himself at one of the desks.

He sat there for a few moments, observing the classroom. The walls were very sparse, nothing but a few necessities such as the notice board for homework assignments. Allen snorted, almost smiling. It was just like Mr. Kanda, wasn't it? To be absolutely cold and impersonal. That was probably his whole personality.

Suddenly, the door opened and Mr. Kanda walked in, his glasses in one hand and a coat in the other. Allen quickly put his head down and stared intensely at the desk below him. He didn't really much feel like putting himself in another argument and he got the feeling that if he so much as glanced at Mr. Kanda, they'd be fighting for the whole hour.

Why was Mr. Kanda so mad with him all the time anyway? Allen had yet to figure it out....He was sure he hadn't done anything to provoke him. And why did he keep a sword? Why did he call it Mugen? Why was Mr. Kanda….? And it was all so confusing… Allen sighed sleepily. So much had happened this first week. It seemed that it had all finally caught up with him and Allen had to fight to hold back a yawn. He was about to fade into that pleasant land where dreams ran rampant when a screeching beside him jerked him awake. He looked up, startled, and was even more astonished to find Mr. Kanda moving a desk closer to the left of Allen's own desk.

"M-Mr. Kanda?" Allen couldn't help gaping, but quickly shut his mouth when the teacher glanced in his direction. Kanda scowled and quickly turned away to grab a sheet of papers beside him.

"Get out your homework," he commanded gruffly. His fingers fumbling, Allen clumsily grabbed his notebook and flipped it open.

Kanda quickly scribbled something down on a sheet of paper and shoved it towards the middle of the two desks.

"Beansprout. Look here."

Allen quickly rubbed the sleep from his eyes and looked over, curious. His eyes widened when he recognized the equation from his failed attempt earlier that afternoon.

"First you want to make these perfect squares. What you do is add the correct number to the equation for the numbers you need to make a perfect square, understand?" Kanda asked, circling certain parts of the equation to make his point.

Allen nodded. He rubbed his eyes again when Kanda turned back to the paper, not believing he was awake. It was impossible, this situation. How could Mr. Kanda be helping Allen of all people?

"Then you simplify the perfect squares into this: '(y+2)2 + (x+1)2 = 0'. Do you understand?"

To Allen's surprise, he sort of did. Smiling, he nodded again.

"Yeah, yeah, I do."

"Good. Now finish it out."

Looking over it, Allen found it was now quite obvious what the conic shape was. He grinned and quickly he sketched the graph, pushing it over to Mr. Kanda's side when he was done.

Allen didn't much see but rather could feel the smirk growing on Kanda's face. However, this fact didn't irritate Allen as much in this situation. It rather made him feel proud.

They then did more several practice equations of parabolas, all of which Allen got right.

Allen smiled, looking up towards the teacher, but Kanda wasn't looking at him. He was already continuing to go through other equations.

Allen let himself be distracted as he waited for the explanations, trying to blink sleep from his eyes. He looked towards the clock and was surprised that most of the time had already gone by. Sleepily, Allen looked back toward Kanda and absently noted the smooth curve of the bluish-black hair waving gently against the back. Kanda's long hair was mostly tied back into a loose ponytail, but some stray strands gently sloped and overlapped on his shoulders. Allen felt a sudden urge to touch them. He got the feeling that they would feel like silk. Silk? Allen knew deep down, that he should probably feel very disturbed that he was thinking about his teacher's hair, but he couldn't bring himself to care. A deep voice was talking in the background but it was muffled by the cover Allen seemed to be draped in. Everything seemed to fade and soften and Allen found he didn't feel much of anything at all.

He fell asleep.

"-nd that's the standard equation of the hyperbola. You recognize i-" Kanda stopped mid-sentence. He had turned around to find that his student was not listening at all. Rather, he was sleeping soundly on the desk, his mouth slightly open.

Kanda frowned. He leaned in close and shook Allen's shoulders, not too roughly but not all that gently either.

"Oy, baka beansprout. Wake up." He shook more insistently but Allen only groaned and moved his hand to swat away the pest on his shoulder.

He scowled angrily and sat there in silence for a few moments, staring intently at Allen's face. After a while, though, he realized that the beansprout really wasn't going to wake up any time soon, no matter how long he glared. Sighing, Kanda ran a hand through his hair, pushing the stray strands over his shoulder. He glanced surreptitiously back at Allen's face and, after a minute, stared curiously at the red scar streaking through Allen's left eye. He frowned and flicked a strand of white hair away from Allen's forehead. His finger, barely touching against Allen's skin, touched the red pentacle softly. Then, slowly he traced his finger down through the eye, stroking the blondish eyelashes, and ending at the bottom near Allen's lip. He stayed there, his expression bemused, until Allen rolled his head over, mumbling something about Cross and butter cookies.

Kanda leaned back into his chair. His hands withdrew into his pants pockets. For another 20 minutes, Kanda waited there until the afterschool bell rang. He kicked Allen's desk hard, jolting the boy awake, grabbed his coat and a few necessary papers and left the classroom. And Allen only stared blearily around, confused, as to what he was doing there in the first place.

-*-*-*-*-

Well, it certainly has been a long time hasn't it? And I do hope all of you who were reading it before will come back to read it now. I know I'm not the most regular updater but I hope you guys will stay with me because your reviews give me laughs and smiles as I read them.

Sorry if the writing's not up to standard. I sort of rushed this one because I thought that I had already left off the writing too long already. I haven't even read any of it through so I apologize for any awkwardness in writing.

Feel free, of course, to tell me if I could change anything to make my writing better. And of course, please review! Because I love all those who review my stories