Work Text:
He hadn't remembered. He should've remembered.
He turned to go back the way he came before they noticed him. Before he noticed him. His hand was about to make contact with the door handle, he wanted to get out of there as soon as posible and-
"Yuu!" Too late. His shoulders tensed at the voice and he took a deep breath before turning on his heel to acknowledge the owner. Tiedoll was fast-walking towards him, soft smile on his face, his hair barely being held up by a few paint brushes and hands tainted with a few splotches of paint.
"It's been a while, I'm glad you came." Kanda ignored the smear of blue paint right below his eyebrow and instead tried to show the old man his most indifferent look. Which doesn't work because this was Tiedoll he was talking about. He let out the huge breath he didn't know he was holding and turned his head slightly towards the door.
"I didn't remember today was Thursday, I'm leaving." He turned completely in the direction of the door with the intention of getting out of there as soon as possible. He should know by now things are not easy with Tiedoll though.
"Wait!" Had it been another person telling him that, Kanda would've just ignored them and continued his way, he has no idea why Tiedoll's voice has the opposite effect on him. 'Maybe that's because he's been my art teacher for a while and because he....' Yeah, that must be. Kanda doesn't turn around though, he knew Tiedoll knew he had Kanda's whole attention. "There's a new student and, I know you don't like Thursdays, but he really needs it and I think you're the right person to work with him..."
Kanda's grip tightened around the door handle and he cursed himself at least five times once he realized there was a poster pasted to the glass door announcing today's class motive. Apparently he was too distracted to notice it before he entered. See, there's nothing wrong with Thursdays for Kanda, he actually enjoyed them since he had more time for his art works and gardening, the problem was, Thursday's art class was a big no-no for him. A fact he forgot in his artistic haste.
He peeked over his shoulder just to met with Tiedoll's soft smile and warm eyes and he knew he was fucked. He had no problem telling other people to fuck off but Tiedoll was one of the few exceptions. He groaned and closed his eyes, allowed himself a few seconds to curse the art god that got him so riled up, before turning completely towards the old man.
"Just for today. I'm not doing this ever again." Tiedoll's smile only widened with that and he nodded before turning to go back towards the front of the class.
"I'll go call him, your station is ready as always." Kanda let out a long sigh before moving to his place in the left corner of the room, the wooden table and chair remained in the same position from the last time he was there. He took a seat and looked around the room.
If he had to be honest, he really liked this place, his station was located a few feet away from the others, just beneath one of the high windows and he had a perfect view of the whole room. It's not big, barely fitting 15 people by the most, he noticed there were already another 5 pairs of people working together around the place, each pair in a different station. Kanda realized, once his eyes moved to the front, there's another similar poster to the one on the glass door pasted to the front wall. The words 'Body-Painting Therapy' reminding him of his huge mistake. He glared at the poster.
He had no idea where Tiedoll got the idea from, according to him some people simply needed the contact and it was a different way of painting, so all in all he could say it was a win-win situation, Kanda understood that. Given his first and only experience though, Kanda didn't understand why people liked it. That one time Kanda had been the canvas, it all had been good until the other student decided to start asking questions Kanda would rather not answer, given his position he couldn't move so he remained quiet and completely tense to the point his shoulders ached, while feeling extremely uncomfortable. Now he was being the painter though, and even if physical contact was not his thing, he guessed he could at least try helping this one person.
He turned to look at the people working around him, Lena was a few feet away from his table working with a tall auburn haired man, he could see the freckles running down his back from where he was sitting and the palette in Lena's hands showed a wide arrange of autumn colors. Lena turned his way and the surprised expression on her face almost made him scoff, not even 5 seconds later she smiled at him though. Kanda returned the smile before moving onto the next pair. Marie was chatting with a curly haired woman while she worked with something on his arm, he noticed how the usually shaking hands worked with confident strokes over the skin. Kanda didn't recognize the other pairs so he opted to look at the ceiling, the soft chit-chatting running through the room along with the smell of paint being enough to calm him a little.
"Uhm...excuse me?" Yeah, that was just his luck, just when he was starting to relax. He turned towards the owner of the voice, a young man with silvery-white hair down to his shoulders and a long albeit thin scar running down his left eye, ending a bit above his jawline. Kanda raised an eyebrow, letting him now he was listening. "Do you know where I can find Kanda Yuu?" Now that made him raise both his eyebrows.
"You're speaking to him." The young man's eyes, which were previously running around the place, suddenly snapped back to look at him.
"Ah, my name's-"
"Allen!" Tiedoll's sudden voice made both of them turn in his direction, the old man coming their way with a big smile on his face, and once he was close enough he gave the other man, Allen, a quick hug. "I'm glad you're here."
"I'm glad to be here, thanks for the...opportunity." There's something in the way he smiled that gave Kanda an odd feeling. He had no time to dwell on it however because the next moment Tiedoll has a hand over his shoulder.
"Ah I see you already met...anyway, Kanda this is Allen Walker, Cross Marian's adoptive son." Kanda recognized the name, Cross Marian was an old friend of Tiedoll, or at least that's how he referred to him. Tiedoll then turned to look at the shorter man. "Allen, this is Kanda, my best student and son, and the one you'll be working with today." Kanda rolled his eyes at the word 'son', Tiedoll always omitted the 'adoptive', not that it was necessary though; both of them where like black and white. He said some other things he didn't bother to listen, something along the lines of 'have fun' and 'call if you need me' before sending Kanda a glance that said 'do your best' and going back to his place at the front.
As soon as Tiedoll left though, the shorter man's anxiousness seemed to appear. He wouldn't meet Kanda's eyes and he had started fidgeting with the edge of his shirt, his hair fell over his face and if he had to be honest Kanda hadn't taken this shorter man as the shy type. Though he was starting to get irritated.
"Oi Beansprout," that got the other's attention, brows furrowing at the nickname. Kanda didn't even know where that came from, the word simply appeared in his mind and traveled down to his mouth. "we don't have all day. You're gonna have to take your shirt off."
That got the shorter man even more tense, which got Kanda confused, yet he didn't ask. Even if Kanda were to work with the arms instead of the back or torso, the shirt needed to come off (though if he were to be honest he'd rather work with the back, that'd give him more space). He was about to say something else when the man in front of him took a deep breath and pulled the shirt up and off. Kanda couldn't have stopped the sharp intake of air even if he had wanted to.
Even under the sunlight filtering through the window, the skin before him was of a pale, almost sick, tone. Kanda could see the thin veins running along Allen's back, the skin was just so pale...'Like being washed by the moon' he thought for a moment. However, that wasn't what got his attention the most, but the many silvery lines adorning the body before him. Kanda had never stopped to think much about scars, mainly because he was not familiar with them with his body being quite the fast healer. Allen's body however, carried so many of them it almost depicted some kind of abstract work of art. Short and long, thin and thick, his torso showed a wide number of scars, it was almost unnerving. There was a particular long and thick scar, the faded pink contrasting hugely against his skin, running from his hipbone up to the last upper rib, the still ragged skin made Kanda's hand itch. But he had no right to question, everyone carried their own secrets and he was not about to nose into this man's life.
"Is it okay to work on your back? It can be anywhere from your upper body, though that's the easiest and widest place to work..." Kanda moved his attention to the wide collection of paint over his table, waiting for the other's answer.
"Uhm, yeah it's okay." It was then Kanda understood it was no shyness showing on Allen's face. It was...shame? Embarrassment? Kanda couldn't decide. Regardless of which was it, Kanda knew the feeling came from the idea of being exposed like this.
"Take a seat then," Allen does as he's told, turning the vacant chair in front of Kanda's before sitting down, his back towards Kanda and his arms crossed over the back of the chair. "if you get tired or need a break at any moment just say it." Kanda then turned back again towards his 'canvas'.
Kanda wasn't surprised to find Allen's back just as adorned with scars as his front, though that didn't make it any less astounding. Back here the long and thin scars were more, with a few shorter and thicker ones scattered around, none of them following a particular pattern, some of them criss-crossed while other ones simply stretched along each other. The few scars sunlight reached shimmered in a dull silver color. Over some places, small groups of freckles were spread, so pale Kanda was sure if they weren't grouped he wouldn't even have noticed they were there. Kanda could feel that unscratchable itching that brought him here in a haze to begin with, slowly making its way under his skin. He got the paint he would need ready, his mind already running wild with an image to do, a wide variety of blues and grays along with white sitting over the table he had moved aside.
Kanda moved his own chair closer and very carefully placed a hand over Allen's nape, moving his hair aside, the body before him tensing immediately, and pushed down softly as to indicate for him to lower his head and arch his back a bit more towards him, Allen did so. Kanda grabbed a medium-sized brush and dipped it in one of the many bottles of blue paint, moving then to start working. The first strokes were slow, the skin underneath reacting with shivers and goosebumps, he heard the sharp intake of air coming from ahead and watched the ribs expanding once Allen took a deep breath trying to relax. His backbones slightly shifted with every tremor of his body and only then Kanda noticed how much they showed, just like his ribs and shoulder blades. 'Does he even eat properly?' He pushed that sudden thought to the back of his mind and kept painting.
He worked alternating between short and long strokes, slow and quick, he moved the brush from side to side, from ribs to ribs and up towards his shoulders. Even though Kanda was being careful he could still see the tension in Allen's body, his shoulder blades kept shaking, his shoulders seemed strained and occasional shivers made the skin tremble. Kanda kept painting with his right hand while he carefully brought the left one up to move a few strands of hair that had fallen over Allen's back again, his hand accidentally brushing against the first bones of Allen's spine, making the man jolt in surprise.
And then a sudden urge to touch assaulted Kanda's body. He felt that familiar itching moving to his fingers, screaming for him to touch, and feel, and more. He tried pushing the odd feeling away, it made him feel annoyed with himself, but it only got worse the more he kept painting. So he gave in, later on he could blame it on his bothering artistic self. He ran the pads of his fingers over the bumps of the shorter man's spine, down to the middle, he heard a soft yelp and very slowly spread his hands over the painted skin. He felt more than heard the deep breath that followed, ribs expanding under his hands, shoulder blades moving slightly closer and he could see Allen's fist tighten over the chair.
Kanda slowly started to move his hands, applying pressure with his fingertips, sliding his fingers softly until his palms were back against the skin, and then repeating the process. He went up, occasionally slipping his fingers through the spaces between every bump of his spine, he reached the nape and then pressed with his thumb, quickly sliding it down against every single bump. He took a glance to the man sitting before him only to find him with his head hanging low over his shoulders, he took the soft sighs as a sign to keep going. He slid his hands to the side, over the ribs, fitting his fingers against the spaces between and then running only his fingertips over them in quick movements, bringing them back again to the center. He moved to the shoulder blades, using his palms to cover them with paint and running his thumbs along the bone to spread it. Every movement was delicate, spreading and mixing the paint with no excess of pressure, Kanda could even feel now and then a few bumps of ragged skin hiding under the paint. He kept working with the blues, applying them over the whole area while creating lights and shadows with the different tones.
Kanda worked like this for a while, in complete silence, his mind utterly focused on the skin before his eyes, until the tension finally eased from Allen's body. He could feel the other man's body slowly relaxing as he started working with the white and gray colors. Kanda's own mind and body started to relax as well, the itching under his skin to paint, to create, finally subsiding to a pleasant hum.
Kanda didn't even realize he lost the track of time. His mind had completely closed off any other thoughts that weren't related to the skin beneath his hands or the work taking form by his fingers. He started to work with the grays and white, slowly tracing his fingers over the blue paint so they wouldn't mix, giving soft pats with his fingertips that made Allen's back tremble. Kanda wondered if this was the feeling people came for, the detachment from reality, the connection between one's mind and other's body, both working together to create something. Kanda actually felt...good, and he hated it. This wasn't supposed to feel so comforting. He wanted to kick the shorter man for making him feel like this. He kept painting instead.
(Meanwhile, Allen felt as if he was slowly melting under Kanda's hands, completely pliable to whatever the man decided to do. There was something extremely unnerving about letting someone not only see but also work on your most vulnerable side, letting a usually hidden part of yourself exposed for them to do as they pleased, but it was also very thrilling. Allen had expected for Kanda to look at him with pity as everyone who had seen had done, however, the strong look in those eyes only showed understanding and just, maybe, a bit of respect. He felt so relieved. And when the brushes had finally given way to those hands, Allen could finally comprehend the magic of this therapy. Kanda's hands were so warm, unconsciously working all the muscles on his back to a relaxing state, the paint was cold every time he applied more, but the difference in temperature only soothed his skin even more. He could feel those fingers gracing over the sensitive silvery lines and bumps, never halting, not even once had he felt those hands doubt on their way. Allen felt accepted under those hands. He loved it.)
By the time Kanda was done with the last finger taps of gray paint over white one, the room was a lot quieter. He glanced around and realized two of the five pairs where already gone, the other three were starting to clean. He noticed Lena's work, a beautiful piece of art depicting a forest in autumn, bright reds and oranges contrasting against the tanned skin of the tall man, Lena had applied a light layer of paint over the leaves, allowing the freckles to show slightly and creating some kind of texture. All in all it was an amazing work. He was too far away to pick details from Marie's skin work, from his place all he could see where birds, of many kinds and colors, covering both his arms and over his shoulders.
Kanda turned his attention back to his own living canvas, the shorter man had his face resting sideways against his arms, eyes closed and completely relaxed. Kanda took a deep breath and stood up.
'Oi don't fall asleep,' the moment those words were out of his mouth, a single grayish-blue eye opened to stare at him. Kanda took a rag from his table and started cleaning. 'We're done. There's a mirror right there,' he pointed to the corner of the room where a ceiling to floor mirror rested. 'and there's a faucet outside for you to wash your back.'
He watched Allen stand up, stretching his body a little before he made his way towards the mirror. Kanda couldn't help but watch the movement of muscle beneath paint, feeling very intrigued which then made him feel like kicking himself. But what could he say? He was very proud of his work. The image resting on Allen's back depicted a lake in the middle of the night, the huge full moon resting above the water creating quite the show of lights and shadows. There were so many shades of blue it was basically impossible to know where one finished and the next one started, the huge moon resting between his shoulder blades was a perfect mix of white and gray, and the clouds laying over his shoulders almost seemed to pop out of the skin. Kanda had managed to allow the scars to show, some of them mixed with the moon's own painted scars, other ones rested on the water giving it the effect of movement, and a few of them were simply part of the deep blue sky.
Judging by the way Allen's eyes went wide like saucers once he managed to take a peek on the mirror, Kanda knew the other man liked the work as well. So yeah, he allowed the huge wave of proudness to wash over him. A huge smug grin made its way on Allen's face once he caught Kanda staring through the mirror.
"You are actually as good as I heard." Kanda glared at him through the mirror before bringing his attention back to the brushes he was cleaning.
"Hell yeah I am," Had he been looking up he would've noticed the now soft smile gracing Allen's face and the way he slowly traced his fingers over his painted ribs. "you can go wash outside now."
Next time Kanda looked up Allen was wearing the most shit-eating grin he had ever seen. The shorter man moved towards the chair he had dropped his shirt over and no, Kanda was definitely not watching the way his front muscles flexed. Definitely not.
"Nah, I'm leaving it for a while." He put his shirt on after checking the paint was dry enough. Kanda raised an eyebrow at this and Allen answered back with a shrug. "I'll wash it off at home," and then he was moving closer to Kanda. Too close for his liking. Too close Kanda could now pick up the faint scent of honey coming from Allen. Too close he could now see there were also small group of freckles running over his collarbones. Too fucking close. "I'll see you next week...Kan-da~"
Kanda scowled at that. So Allen didn't know this was a one-time thing, better fix that now. He opened his mouth to tell him, the words over his tongue ready, but no sound came out. He closed his mouth. Then there was a huge grin in front of his face, and then Allen was gone.
For god knows how many times this day, Kanda felt like kicking himself. There was no way he was coming back, this had been a huge mistake he was not planning to repeat.
The huge knowing-smile Tiedoll was throwing at him once he turned around only made him feel like burning the place down. He was not coming back. This will be his one and only time doing this.
(Except it wasn't. When next week came around Kanda 'forgot' it was Thursday again. Allen was already waiting for him.)