Jessica & Karter notes: Alrighty, we mentioned this in a previous chapter edit, but we're going through and re-writing all the older chapters. No plot changes or anything, just some sprucing up of the writing style. That's all.

J: Yeah, Karter's old writing aggravates him xD So he's improving it.
K: Just...ugh, it's not that it's bad it's just so...not detailed? I don't know how to describe it.
J: Well, we ARE older now. There have been some improvements.
K: True. True. Anyways, the way you'll be able to tell of the chapter has been re-written is that it will no longer say "Byul and Hoshi" but "Jessica and Karter".
J: We have about 4 done as of now. Shouldn't take much longer to re-write the rest.

Show Biz: Act I

Scene XIII:
The Very Instant That I Saw You

"Eeeeeeeh!?" the surprised voices of three people rang throughout the room. Allen, Lavi, and Lenalee stared in shock at the grumpy man standing before them. Had they heard him right...?

"Are you feeling okay, Yuu-chan?" Lavi asked, seriously concerned as he reached up to feel Kanda's forehead. His hand was smacked away and a glare was sent his way, causing him to back off and hide behind Lenalee.

"So...you're sure about this? You were pretty against it before," Lenalee asked. Of course she knew the answer, but she wanted Kanda to say it out loud so everyone else could hear it.

"Che! I said I'll do it. Season two."

"That's great!" Allen chirped from his seat. "I'm glad. We'll be able to see each other...more...often..." Allen started of joyously but then trailed off, getting embarrassed by his own words. He coughed and took a sip of his coffee, looking away from the others. Kanda scoffed and turned his nose up, trying to pass as being unaffected but being unable to hide the light tinge of pink on his cheeks. Lenalee and Lavi just rolled their eyes at the two. They had been getting worse and worse lately. It was embarrassing for everyone around them, really.

"Alright, I'll call the director to settle things. You'll need to audition of course but it's only a formality. He's been eyeing you for this role for ages," Lenalee said as she headed off, hooking her arm with a surprised Lavi as she rounded the corner.

"Whoa wha-!"

"Those two are so thick. You've gotta help me here this is driving me crazy!" Lenalee whispered. She knew she was acting unprofessional, but she could care less at the moment. Right now she wasn't a manager, she was family worrying about her boys.

"I'm glad I'm not the only one. But what should we do? We can't make it too obvious, or Yuu-chan will catch on. And we can't be too subtle or Moyashi-chan never will!" Lavi sighed in frustration.

"This is tru- Wait since when did you start calling Allen by that too?"

"Just recently. It pisses both of them off, so it's even funnier."

Lenalee just sighed. These three were definitely a handful. Well, technically Lavi wasn't her handful. Bookman was still his manager.

"Well, anyways. I know it'll happen eventually but if we leave it to them, that "eventually" will be a year from now. All they need is a little..push," Lenalee say with a dark smile. Lavi gulped and wondered just what he'd agreed to.

"So what's your plan?" Lavi asked, a bit scared to hear the answer. Lenalee was nice and pretty but she could be pretty nasty when she wanted to be.

"Well you see…"

xxxxxxxxxx

The next morning, Kanda was making soba and no one else besides Allen was up yet. He had finished his arm exercises and taken a warm shower to loosen up. Since the only thing they had scheduled for today was some dance practices, a meeting with the director, and an interview - and all of those weren't until later in the day - Allen just threw on a loose pair of pyjama bottoms and a wife beater. Thankfully someone had already turned on the heater or he'd be freezing his butt off. He liked the cold, but it could get damned uncomfortable. Once he was out and about, he followed the smell of fresh food and saw Kanda chopping ingredients. Walking up behind him, but making sure to keep a fair amount of distance between them, Allen spoke.

"Soba for breakfast? Again?" he asked incredulously.

"You got a problem with my soba, moyashi?" Kanda said, reverting back to Allen's nickname whenever he was annoyed or when he wanted to get on Allen's nerves.

"It's Allen!"

He turned to give Allen a smirk, but got confused when he saw the other wasn't properly dressed and his hips were showing and his hair was wet and he was using Kanda's shampoo since his must have run out and he was actually really fit not that he didn't know that before and wow his arms-

Kanda mentally slapped himself and, in his confusion, the smirk had somehow turned into a scowl.

"...Do I have something on my face, Bakanda?" Allen asked, a small twitch in his brow.

"Che!" the other said, annoyed by these strange annoying feelings that he wasn't used to and continued chopping. Well, it's not like he could criticize Allen's appearance, he himself was only in a black long sleeve and some sweats, his hair in a low and lazy ponytail to keep it out of his face, though some strands hung loose at the sides.

"..." After standing there for a bit, also taking notice of Kanda's appearance and thinking that the jerk looked rather good without even trying, Allen sighed and moved to stand next to Kanda, grabbing a knife and chopping block of his own. "I'll help."

"The hell you will," Kanda said, not wanting anyone to mess with his soba but him.

"The more helping hands the faster you get your damn soba-"

"Ah, excuse me, Allen, I need to get something from this cupboard," Lenalee chirped as she came up to them.

"Oh, sorry, here let me move for you," he said with a smile. Lenalee took something from the cupboard from his left, causing Allen to have to move a bit closer to Kanda. He did his best to keep enough space between them so they didn't touch. It wasn't that he didn't want to touch him. It was just a... thing he had. Yes, he liked Kanda, he admitted that completely and fully now. But if he wasn't in a relationship with him he'd prefer not to touch him. All it would do is send his heart racing and make it more painfully obvious than it already was. Plus he still wasn't completely sure if Kanda liked him in that way. They never really flirted or anything, though considering the fact that this was Kanda that was probably impossible. After everything, he knew that they had some sort of connection. He just didn't know what it was exactly. Besides, Kanda had yet to revoke his statement about how he didn't do the whole relationship thing...

"Oi, oi what's with the attitude change, moyashi?" Kanda said, noticing the shift Allen made between talking to him and talking to Lenalee.

"I thought you didn't like me being all smiles, Bakanda," Allen quipped back. "I thought we agreed a long time ago that there wouldn't be any false airs between us?"

Kanda just blinked, and remembered that day, months ago now, when they had silently agreed to that in the dance hall.

"Che. That was before I know just how annoying you were," Kanda grumbled.

Allen smiled at Kanda, glad that he understood and was suddenly aware of how close they were to each other. He wanted to back off a bit more, but Lenalee was taking an awfully long time getting whatever it was she needed. Then she shifted a bit and accidentally bumped Allen's shoulder, causing him to get even closer to Kanda. He averted eye contact at all costs and used every ounce of his willpower not to blush like some schoolgirl. Kanda raised an eyebrow at Allen's odd behavior. Through the last week this guy kept switching between wanting to be next to him and then not wanting to touch him the very next second. It reminded him of the time when Allen got really self conscious about touching him. Was this like that then? He guessed he should take it as a good sign that Allen liked him, but it still annoyed him to no end. He himself was finding it harder to restrain himself, but at least he wasn't obvious about it like Allen and how long did it take to look through a damn cupboard?

"Have you found it yet…?" Kanda ground out, beginning to think that Lenalee was doing this on purpose.

'Damn, got caught,' Lenalee thought as she quickly grabbed his brother's mug and closed the cupboard.

"Sorry! It was in the back!" she lied with a smile as she walked off to meet Lavi around the corner. She gave him a thumbs up and whispered, "If we just keep doing stuff like this Kanda will snap and just go for it. I'm sure of it. He isn't the type to put up with Allen avoiding him."

"Well," Lavi added, "Not avoiding persay. He's just so damn self conscious around Kanda. It's even starting to tick me off…" Lavi saw Lenalee give him a small look of concern and smiled. "Not for that reason. Allen and I are fine, really."

Lenalee smiled at the reassurance and patted Lavi on the shoulder as she passed by "Remember to do your part," she said as she slipped something into his hand.

Lavi looked at what she had given him and grinned maniacally.

"Lenalee is scary. A genius. But scary," he thought aloud before pocketing the item and heading off on his way, humming one of the tunes he'd recently thought up.

xxxxxxxxxx

The next morning, Allen was doing his usual exercises. He had gotten up early, as usual, and quietly gotten dressed. Kanda was a pretty light sleeper, and he'd woken him up a few times before, but Kanda had just gone about his business instead of inquiring where he was going - not that he didn't know already - or worse, following him. Then, after her was dressed he'd made his way to the the dance hall and began to stretch. He didn't start with his arms, since he preferred to save those for last since they took longer. He began with rotations. Neck, shoulders, wrists, hips, knees, ankles. He made his way down steadily, then sat on the floor and stretched his legs to the sides as far as they could go. He took a deep breath and reached for his toes as he exhaled slowly.

'One, two, three, fo-'

"You're not a damn contortionist," came a sarcastic remark from the doorway. Allen shot up with a surprised gasp, making his back pop slightly.

"Kanda!" Allen exclaimed. He stood up immediately, his routine already disrupted anyways, and said, "Why did you follow me?"

"Don't flatter yourself," Kanda said as he pushed off the door frame and walked towards Allen. "I came here because I wanted to start stretching too. Is there a problem?"

Allen's mouth opened and closed comedically. How was he supposed to tell someone he didn't like other people seeing him do his arm exercises? It was something he'd always been self conscious about.

"I...well, no but-"

"Good," Kanda interrupted before Allen could finish, leaving the other no choice but to start his routine over again, this time with Kanda joining in. He had to say he was impressed. Kanda didn't complain at all, and once they got to the more exerting stretches and poses Kanda kept up just fine. There were a few where he couldn't stretch quite as far as Allen, but he was close. And...well, Allen couldn't help it. He kept stealing appreciative glances at Kanda throughout the whole thing and he could feel the other's eyes on him too every now and then. He did his best not to get too distracted but dear lord those triceps-

"Onto the next set!" Allen said loudly to try and snap himself out of it.

"...What's the next set?"

"Eh?"

"We've done everything already, arms, legs, back, some yoga poses, how can there be a next set?" Kanda restated in mild frustration.

"Oh...It's...it's my arm therapy exercises…"

A slightly awkward silence spanned between the two of them and Allen rubbed the back of his head. "Thanks for joining me up til now," he tried for a subtle approach, but should have known that beating around the bush would get him nowhere with Kanda.

"...? Are you asking me to get the fuck out?"

Allen laughed awkwardly. "Well, uh...yes…?" he said tentatively as a glint came into Kanda's eye.

"Say it clearly or I'm not leaving," Kanda huffed.

"...Eh?"

"Che," he said before walking over to the corner and retrieving a small blue blanket, a bit larger than a towel and more square, hanging on the railing that Allen had never really noticed before. "I'll meditate while you do whatever you need to do," he said as he laid the blanket down and started to get in the proper position.

"...You meditate?" Allen asked incredulously.

"Yes, moyashi, I meditate. I helps me put up with idiots like you and that rabbit," Kanda grumbled.

If that was true Allen would hate to see a Kanda that didn't meditate.

"How come I've never noticed?"

"Because you're never around when I do it," Kanda replied, sounding surprisingly patient. He was about to ask when Kanda normally did this but the other must have seen his question coming. "I'd usually do it in my spare time. Before I came to the Order I used to do it in the mornings. But this is the only quiet place and you're always in here, so I avoided anything troublesome and just do it on my own time."

Allen felt a strange feeling of satisfaction that Kanda had considered him even back when they both glared daggers at each other.

"You're actually surprisingly nice, aren't you."

"I'm not nice," Kanda growled.

"Hmph, are too," Allen replied under his breath, earning a glare from Kanda, which got the grump a stuck out tongue in return. "Fine, stay then."

Oddly enough he didn't mind as much as he normally would. It was a mix of factors, really. The fact that Kanda wouldn't be watching him, the fact that it would still be quiet, the fact that they had actually spent a pleasant half hour together already...of course, the biggest factor was the simple fact that it was Kanda.

Allen unfolded one of the chairs from the corner and set it close to a wall, being as quiet as possible so he wouldn't disturb Kanda who had already closed his eyes and evened out his breathing. He began with a simple one to loosen him up. He placed his good hand on the seat of the chair and bent over slightly, letting his left arm dangle beneath. Then he started to gently move it in circles, like a pendulum, and the circles got bigger and bigger. Once they got to a certain size he stopped, moving on to the next exercise. He took a few short breaks between exercises where he just sat in his chair and relaxed himself as completely as possible. He finished his last exercise and looked at the clock. Twenty minutes had passed already and it was almost time for them to head down for breakfast. At around the same time he finished Kanda exhaled deeply and stood up slowly, folding up his mat and hanging it in it's spot.

"Let's head to the dining room, I'm starving," Allen said, feeling very comfortable and relaxed in his current situation. He never imagined he'd be this comfortable around another person. He walked towards the door to make his way to the dorms where the dining hall was.

'I never would have thought that Kanda of all people would be the person I'm most comfortable with. It's such a nice thou-'

"...It's locked," Allen said as he tried the door handle again.

Kanda nudged Allen aside - the white haired boy barely holding back a small sound of nervousness - and tried the door himself. When he couldn't, he turned to allen with a controlled expression.

"Open it."

"I don't have the key."

"Where's the lock?"

"Outside."

"..."

"..."

"..."

"Dammit I don't wanna be trapped here with, Bakanda!"

"You were all fucking smiles a second ago!"

"This is different!" Allen said, the pitch of his voice rising in panic. He turned back to the door and jiggled it again just to be sure. Yep. Still locked. How did this happen? "I must have flipped it accidentally when I came in…" Allen cursed.

Kanda kept his mouth shut, but he had other ideas as to why the door was locked.

'This has rabbit written all over it!'

xxxxxxxxxx

Meanwhile, just outside the second set of doors, Lavi jingled the set of keys that Lenalee had given him yesterday.

Cackling maniacally to himself, he pocketed them and walked away to give them to Lenalee.

"Let them sit and stew for a while~!"

xxxxxxxxxx

Allen just sighed, then walked away to take a seat against the opposite wall.

"Well, we're stuck in here until Komui or Lenalee comes to get us," he said. "Might as well relax while we wait."

Kanda reluctantly agreed and took a seat beside Allen, leaning his head back against the wall and closing his eyes. He had gotten up much earlier than usual. And that was saying something since he usually got up pretty damn early. He wasn't sleepy so much as tired, so he was resting his eyes.

A few minutes passed before Allen broke the silence.

"Say, Kanda."

"Hn."

"What did you think when you first saw me?"

At first, Allen though he wasn't going to answer, but Kanda opened his mouth and said, "I thought what kind of weird person you must be to bleach your hair solid white." He wouldn't admit that he was thrown for a loop when he found out it was natural. One confession at a time.

"Eh? So you too…"

He was slightly worried that he had said something wrong until Allen continued.

"The first thing I noticed about you was your hair too."

"Should I ask?"

"I thought you were a pretty girl."

"You…!" Kanda growled whipping around to face Allen and taking a small swing at him, which the other easily dodged with a laugh.

"I'm going to smother you in your sleep. You're lucky I'm tired right now or you'd be dead," Kanda grumbled, leaning back against the wall and closing his eyes again as he folded his arms in a huff.

Allen took the opportunity to admire Kanda without the other looking at him funny and giving him butterflies. After he's gotten his fill the silence dragged on. Not awkward, not comfortable, just there. It was because he knew this would happen that Allen had panicked when he'd discovered they were trapped in here. Silence meant he had time to think. And when he thought of things, he usually wanted to share them, though he usually kept himself from doing so...but...there was something he'd been wanting to tell Kanda for a while. Something that, after today, he felt ready to tell him.

"It was paralyzed."

Kanda's eyes open as he snapped back to attention, but he didn't look at Allen. He kept looking forward, not wanting to interrupt.

"My arm I mean. I was born being unable to move it. Thankfully it wasn't something untreatable. But apparently my parents didn't want to go through the trouble. Or maybe they didn't have the money. Maybe it was some other reason entirely…" Allen shrugged and took a deep breath. "I don't know and I never will. It's just one of those things I guess…" he whispered, bringing his hand up to stare at it. This thing had given him so much trouble. He remembered wishing he could just chop it off when he was younger and the therapy wasn't working as quickly as they'd hoped. But now he was glad he still had it, of course.

"...Why are you telling me this now?"

"I just felt ready to tell you."

"Hm."

"..."

"Allen."

His heart jumped at the sudden calling of his name, and he turned to find Kanda staring at him, with a small quirk in his lips that Allen had learned was his way of smiling.

"Y-yes?"

"Than-"

Before Kanda could finish there was a jingling of keys and the sound of the door opening.

"There you two are! Honestly you ought to be more aware of your surroundings. Locking yourself in like that. Really!" Komui huffed, beginning to rant about how they needed to hurry up and eat since they had an interview today.

Kanda grumbled about never being able to finish anything and then stomped out, but not before doing the customary check over his shoulder to check if Allen was following him.

'What else would I have told him if we kept talking like that?' Allen thought to himself. Honestly, he wasn't sure why he was still hiding the fact that he was Mana's son from the others. At first it was because he didn't want to remember anything. Then it was because he didn't want others to see him and just see the image of his father. And even now, he didn't want that to influence the way they saw him. Plus he would feel guilty for hiding it…so he decided.

'When the moment is right, I'll tell him.'

xxxxxxxxxx

Throughout the next day, Kanda noticed that Lavi and Lenalee's antics were getting more and more obvious. He had merely suspected it at first, but now it was plain for all to see…

...except Allen.

The idiot was completely oblivious to their schemes, believing everything - from the locked doors, to the accidental shoving of the two towards each other that would leave Allen a stuttering mess, and the fact that Lavi and Lenalee would purposely leave the two alone every chance they got - to be coincidences. It was getting ridiculous.

And it seemed like there was only one way to make it stop.

'Well, it would happen sooner or later...' Kanda thought as he stared at Allen shovel a seventh bowl of cereal into his mouth. 'Might as well do it now, really.'

"Oi, Allen."

"Hm?"

Lavi and Lenalee stopped the conversation they were having, an unmistakably eager glint in their eyes.

He opened his mouth to ask it. The words were on the tip of his tongue...but nothing came out.

'...Thats fucking...weird...let's try this again.'

"Wi...ll…."

Well he got one word out this time.

"Will…?" Allen asked, an extremely confused look on his face that looked really cute and wait when did his heart beating this fast?

'...No. No! I am not!'

Oh, but he was. Kanda. The Yu Kanda... was nervous.

"Will...Will….Will you hurry up and eat? We're gonna be late!"

Lavi and Lenalee nearly fell out of their chairs in disappointment. This was worse than they thought. Time for their last resort…

xxxxxxxxxx

[Text to: Lavi]: operation make-them-so-embarrassed-they-have-to-ask-each-other-out is in motion

[Text to: Lena]: r u sure about this? i might die

[Text to: Lavi]: u know what to do just take one for the team

[Text to: Lena]: fine but if i die remember me well

[Text to: Lavi]: lame

Lavi pouted and got in the back seat of the car along with Allen, who was in the middle, and Kanda, who'd taken the other window seat. Komui was driving this time and listening to music on his phone* and Lenalee also had her earphones in, but wasn't playing any music. The plan was to head to the ark for their second interview that week. This time, all three of them would be answering questions about season two.

As soon as they were out of the driveway Lenalee leaned her seat back a bit and Lavi took up as much space as he could in the backseat, making Allen have to scoot closer to Kanda. He fidgeted uncomfortably, extremely aware of their close proximity.

"Uh, Kanda? Could you scoot over a bit?"

"Hah? Why should I? ask the dumb rabbit to move instead," Kanda retorted before going back to looking out the window. He knew just what Lavi's ploy was and he wasn't about to let another annoying scheme mess with the timing he was working on. Because that's all he was waiting for. The right timing. That's the only reason he was putting it off. No other reason whatsoever.

"Lavi, could you maybe, move a little bit?"

"Sorry, Allen, no room, sa!"

Allen chuckled nervously and tried to avoid looking at Kanda. Seeing that he needed to push it just a bit further, Lavi relaxed a bit and leaned back, taking up even more space as he settled in for what looked like another one of his naps.

"Uh...Lavi?"

The redhead didn't answer.

"...Kanda are you sure you can't-"

"I'm not moving dammit!" Kanda grumbled childishly, "What's with you and your thing about not touching me at all?" Kanda asked in frustration.

Looking desperately for an escape, Allen turned to Lavi again only to be greeted by a loud snore.

"..." Allen sweated and fidgeted nervously in his seat.

"Are you going to answer my question or not?" Kanda growled.

"...I'm just unsure is all." Kanda quirked an eyebrow and Allen continued his explanation, "I know we have this...this thing. But I'm just not sure where it's going and I'd rather not mix any signals until…"

Kanda stared at Allen as silence spread throughout the car. After this continued for who knows how long, Allen began to get irritated. His brows furrowed and he stared back at Kanda stubbornly.

"What?"

"Nothing. I'm just wondering how you're so dumb."

"What are you on abou-"

Suddenly no words could leave Allen's mouth. His vision was blocked by raven colored locks. The tips floated across the bridge of his nose, tickling his skin. A warmth spread through his cheeks and over his lips. And his heart nearly exploded out of his chest.

Because Kanda was kissing him.

Kanda.

Kanda was kissing him.

Kissing. On the lips. Kanda. And him.

He froze at first, not really believing what was happening. But soon enough his eyes were closed and he was leaning into the kiss, soaking in the euphoria of the moment.

It ended much too soon in Allen's opinion, Kanda pulling back and settling back into his seat.

It was amazing really. Allen knew Kanda wasn't a man of words, so he understood what it had meant. Kanda may never say it out right, but he supposed he had been stupid. He should have know what everything Kanda had done for him meant.

A deep blush spread across his cheeks and he leaned forward and rested his forehead against Kanda's shoulder.

He sighed and said, "Alright I get it. You win. Bakanda."

"Took you long enough, moyashi."

Lenalee smiled in satisfaction and slid one of her hands between the seat and the car door palm up so her hand could be seen from the back seat.. Lavi cracked and eye open and smirked as he reached over and gave Lenalee a small high five of victory.

"We saw that," came two voices from the side of him.

'Shit.'

[Scene end.]

T.B.C.

*In Korea, people do not give shits about having earphones in while driving it's scary okay

J: FUCKING FINALLY U HO
K: Whoops.
J: Okay guys, good news is the chapter is out.
K: Bad news is there's only one chapter left for Act I.
J: It's been a long and wild ride.
K: And we're so so grateful to all of you.
J: See you seen for the final chapter!