[Fic - Kanda/Allen] Slow Steps (2/?) -- REWRITTEN
Title: Slow Steps (2/?)
Chapter title: I Don't Bite, You Know
Author: a1y-puff
Fandom: D.Gray-Man
Pairing: Eventual Kanda/Allen
Genre: Romance/Humor/Angst
Word Count: 5649
Rating: PG-ish
Warning: None really, I think.
Summary: He wanted to believe that this was just some sort of a sick joke that the stupid rabbit made the bean do or something, and if that was the case, he would know how to deal with it; beat the hell out of the brat and the rabbit. But for the bean sprout to really be in love with him? Well, shit.
Disclaimer: Hoshino-sensei, who is that woman whom Yuu's core memory said 'I love you' to?
A/N: FINALLY the rewritten version of chapter 2! God, I'm so sorry it took so long. I have my reasons but I doubt you'd care enough to know. So let's just say RL has been mean to me? ^^;
Anyway if this is your first time reading this chapter, than lucky you for not having to read over my crap last time XD. With that said, I want to thank hakasha whose opinion had been really helpful for me to figure out how to rewrite this chapter, harmony283 for her advices, also for nayru774, bakafia_kawaii, eren10 and Afael Ishtar for their support, and finally to Nadramon who pointed out that this chapter needed to be rewritten in the first place.
Much, much thanks to my lovely betas: isumi_ilde who had to bear with me during the three revisions I went through, and may_unleashed who is an awesome beta with an eye for the details I often missed. Oh, and thanks to saphira112 who beta'ed the previous version of this chapter.
Finally, I know I can't make everyone happy, but I hope this version is better than the last (and it got ridiculously longer too XD). So anyway, enjoy~
First Chapter HERE
.: CHAPTER 2 :.
- I Don’t Bite, You Know -
It was warm.
Allen saw nothing and felt nothing but comfortable, lulling warmth that he hadn’t felt since his time with Mana. It was like sipping hot chocolate Mana had prepared for him in a cold winter night while sitting on the man’s lap, looking at the falling snow outside of the window-the warmth that left his body comfortable and his heart content.
Maybe he was dreaming?
Because he had known since long ago that he might never be able to feel this kind of warmth ever again after Mana had gone. But even if it was a dream, it was nice to feel the warmth again.
Then he felt something tickling his cheek and neck. Something light, feathery... hair? Silky, long hair it must have been. It tickled, but Allen didn’t mind and didn’t want to pull away.
Instead, he shifted closer to the source of warmth, and felt like his head was bent in an odd angle, and whatever it was he was laying his head on was rather too bony for comfort...a shoulder? A strong shoulder it was, Allen could feel it. Whose shoulder was this belonged to, he wondered.
His eyelids were heavy as if they were glued closed but he forced them open even just a bit, and the first thing he saw was black.
Black hair, black material...
...black...
Kanda?
Ah, what a nice dream he was having; he wanted to sleep a little longer.
He sighed in contentment...
And then he was shoved aside so hard his head made contact with the armrest on the other side of the loveseat.
Wait. What?
Blinking his sleep-glazed eyes, the British teen looked around blearily until he caught sight of a grumpy samurai glaring daggers at him. Allen frowned a bit. Now what was Kanda’s problem, first thing in the morning...
Oh.
So that hadn’t actually been a dream, Allen thought. He did get to share a blanket with Kanda and apparently, sleep on the older boy’s shoulder. He had been that close to Kanda, hadn’t he? It almost felt like a dream...
“Good morning, Kanda,” Allen greeted, words which the samurai rudely and coldly ignored as he made to stand and walk away to grab his outer coat hanging nearby, the action leaving Allen alone on the sofa with no trace of the warmth Kanda had offered before.
...And just like dreams, now he had to wake up. No big deal, right?
Right.
“We should prepare to leave soon. We’ve been delayed as it is,” came the inspector’s voice, and that was when Allen remembered that Link was there at all.
“Good morning, Link,” he greeted the inspector while folding the warm brown blanket he had been sharing with Kanda the night before. Allen felt the silly urge to just take the blanket with him, just for keepsake-oh, the memories-but that would be stupid. So instead, he said, “I’ll take the blankets back to the bedroom.”
“Alright,” replied Link as he gave the neatly folded pink blanket to Allen. Allen felt a tiny bit of regret for not seeing Link asleep while wrapped in that girly blanket. Just imagining it made his lips quirk up in a smirk. That would’ve been quite a sight.
Allen went to return the blankets to the room-he assumed Link got them from the cupboard, so he just put them there-all the while trying to recall the warmth he had felt before he was rudely awoken. Allen knew this kind of luck wouldn’t repeat itself, so at least he wanted to be able to hold onto the memories and keep them safe at the back of his mind-
There was a snort. A snort that was coming from inside his head. ‘What?’ he thought, ‘Can’t I be silly when I’m on my own?’
Another snort was heard, and Allen was reminded that now, he could never truly be alone. His eyes caught sight of an oval mirror with a silver frame carved with flowers hanging on the wall across the cupboard, and Allen could almost make out the mocking expression of the faceless shadow behind his reflection-how a faceless shadow could even manage a mocking face was beyond him, though he was sure it wasn’t only his imagination.
Right. He couldn’t even keep what little happy memories he could get from Kanda to himself now, could he?
How annoying.
When he returned to the living room, the fire had been put off, and both Link and Kanda were already wearing their outer coats again, ready to face the outside world.
He idly noticed Kanda had fixed his ponytail so it was neat again, and felt a not-so-tiny bit of regret from not catching the Asian male combing his hair. If only he hadn’t been arguing with the voice in his head...
Allen shook his head lightly, dismissing it as a silly thought, and went to grab his coat.
~ * ~ * ~ * ~
The weather today was friendlier, Allen noted, so much that they had quite easily ventured deeper into the mountains and found the innocence. A few akuma had showed up as well, but no level 4 this time, so it hadn’t been quite a trouble.
Overall, everything should have been okay. The mission was rather uneventful to the point that it wasn’t even worth mentioning.
Except that Kanda was apparently quite determined to be ignoring him, ever since he had roughly shoved Allen awake this morning.
Now, did he do or say something in his sleep? Or was it the mere fact that his head had accidentally rested on Kanda’s shoulder and now he was freaking out? Of course, his confession a few days ago wasn’t helping; even without knowing Allen was in love with him, Kanda would have freaked out from being that close to him.
Maybe he should apologize, then. But with Link around, Allen didn’t think it was wise to discuss the matter-though really, when was Link not around him?
The walk back to the nearest town had been long, and by the time they reached an inn, night was fast approaching, and Allen was quite worn out. He vaguely noticed Kanda’s voice in the background, hissing and swearing a little as the Japanese reported about the mission to their supervisor who, Allen could just imagine, was talking nonsense into Kanda’s ear through the telephone that their finder-a local finder that was waiting for them in town-was carrying.
“No, we got into a fucking blizzard. What is so lovely about that? Did you even listen to a word I said?”
Allen thought Kanda’s exasperated face while having Komui was funny and kind of endearing to watch.
Then, his face turned calmer and focused once more; Allen figured that Komui was finally being serious on the other line. A few curt words of ‘yes’ and ‘understood’ later, Kanda hung up and dismissed the finder from their shared room.
“We’re going on another mission to investigate some mysterious explosions at a cemetery,” the Asian man finally informed, looking at the general direction of where Allen and Link were standing.
“Mysterious explosions at a cemetery?” the white haired boy repeated.
“On the outskirts of London. We are to rest here today and tomorrow. We’ll head off to the church where we came from to board the ark and you will open the gate to another church near the graveyard. A finder will meet us there to give the specs,” Kanda explained coldly, not bothering to make any eye-contact with him.
“Wait, has there been any victim? Were the explosions big?”
“There are no serious casualties reported, and the explosions were small, but the citizens are disturbed and there might be innocence involved. Our finder will meet us with the specs at the station tomorrow.”
Okay. This rather formal-sounding Kanda had started to creep Allen out. He really needed to talk to him...
“Why are you ignoring me?” the question was out before Allen knew it. Okay, maybe that was a little bit too abrupt, but it was no use to take back what he had already said anyway.
He felt rather than saw Link watch him with a questioning look, but Allen kept his gaze firm on Kanda, letting the Asian male know he was talking to him.
Kanda raised an eyebrow. “I am talking to you.”
“Well yes, but it’s like you put up a barrier around so that I can’t really talk to you,” retorted Allen with a frown.
“Would be useful to actually have one so you wouldn’t be talking to me at all,” he bit out, “Now stop talking to me.”
“Why-”
“Whatever, bean sprout, leave me alone.”
“But-”
Kanda threw a sharp look on Link’s direction, signaling that they were not going to have this talk with the inspector around-or ever for that matter-before proceeding to walk out of the room. Allen just sat down heavily on his bed, still confused and bewildered, and God, he forgot to apologize, didn’t he? Though he wasn’t sure anymore what he should be apologizing for.
This was going to be a long night.
~ * ~ * ~ * ~
The train ride from the town they were in to a bigger city where the church with the Ark gate was... silent. Allen knew that Link didn’t talk unless he felt necessary, but Kanda... Though Kanda wasn’t one to start a conversation, Allen was used to him starting a fight. But so far, nothing.
It bothered him how Kanda suddenly decided to ignore him overnight after being almost nice just the night before. What was his problem? He wasn’t sure this was only about him sleeping on the older boy’s shoulder. Was it because of his confession? If yes, it was kind of late to react just now, wasn’t it?
“So, the mysterious explosion started not long after a funeral of a man named William Smith three days ago, and it is suspected that the innocence had a close connection with this man... it might be that he was a parasitic type, and since the host died, the innocence moved on its own accord to search for a new host, and for whatever reason, it’s now residing inside of a plant which happened to be near the man’s grave... is that even possible?” Allen started as he read the files in the folder, hoping to incite some sort of a conversation with Kanda. Even if it was business-like.
Link was the one who responded to that, though. “It might be that the innocence was searching for the nearest living object. The innocence’s traits in general are still a mystery. We can’t be sure about the limit to the possibilities.”
“I see,” the British teen responded weakly, kind of disappointed that even talking about the mission didn’t get Kanda to talk to him.
He idly flipped the pages of the files, no longer reading what was written but instead, Allen looked out of the rattling train window. It was still not snowing outside, and he could only see a row of dried trees, a mountain in the background and small houses every now and then. There was a boy who was riding a bike with a girl, both were smiling and then waving at the train with such bright smiles it made Allen somewhat jealous.
Then, he caught sight of the reflection of Kanda’s sour face on the glass surface, and for a second, their eyes met through the window, but then Kanda threw his gaze to the scenery outside.
Allen had had enough. He didn’t care anymore if Link was going to hear about this-the man knew almost everything there was to know about Allen anyway. If he waited until he could somehow sneak away from the inspector, Allen was afraid it would be too late if he didn’t talk to Kanda soon. Though too late for what, he didn’t know, but-
“Look, I’m sorry for falling asleep on your shoulder, okay? It wasn’t intentional,” Allen began, not even sure if that was the problem at all, but hey, it was a start, right?
Kanda spared him a glance from the corner of his eye, before turning his attention back to whatever it was that interested him outside the train window.
Allen’s brows twitched with annoyance, and the corners of his mouth pulled down in a scowl. “What is your problem?” he finally snapped.
That got Kanda’s attention. The dark ponytail swayed as Kanda whipped his head to face him and bit out, “You are my problem.”
“Is this about what I said before? Is that what this is all about?”
The Japanese male gave him an incredulous look. “You’re going to talk about it with him here?” Kanda asked while quite rudely pointing his finger at Link.
“Well, Link is stuck with me, he’ll always be around me and I think you wouldn’t want to talk about it with or without Link, so what’s the difference?” Allen couldn’t help noticing how he sounded angry more to himself about his predicament with Link rather than to Kanda, or even to Link.
Kanda glared harder at him. “There’s no difference. I am not having this talk and you are still an idiot.”
“Yes, you are having this talk with me now, and no, I am not an idiot.” -just desperate, the voice in his head so unhelpfully supplied.
“You’re so annoying!”
“Yes, and I’m not going to stop being annoying until you speak, so is this or is this not about what I said before?”
Kanda’s silence spoke quite a bit to Allen. He huffed and closed his eyes, pulling Timcanpy who had been nestling on his hair into his lap and started playing with the golem’s wings.
“I don’t bite, you know,” he said quietly, and as if mocking, Tim bit his fingers the moment the words left his lips.
“What the fuck are you talking about?” Kanda asked, his face scrunched up in confusion and a bit of bewilderment. Allen wasn’t sure if Kanda was taking his words literally.
The white haired boy tried to put on a disarming smile, before starting to explain, “I only said I was in love with you, not that I wanted to jump you, okay?” Well, he did want to, sometimes, but Kanda didn’t need to know that. It wasn’t like he was going to really do it anyways.
A coughing sound was heard, and both exorcists turned their heads to find Link clearing his throat. “Right,” the inspector said, schooling his expression into something neutral and blank, “Just keep talking and pretend that I’m not here.”
“You’re not going to write this down, are you?” Allen asked in a half-suspicious and half-pleading tone.
“If it’s related to the Fourteenth, I would have to report it.”
Allen fell silent at that. He chanced a glance at Kanda, who was trying to look nonchalant and annoyed, but still, Allen could catch the wary look in his eyes.
“However,” Link added, “I do not have to report in details the fact that you’re… in love with Yuu Kanda. Your personal affairs are none of my concern.”
“Thanks, Link,” Allen smiled a bit at the blond man, before turning his head back to face Kanda, and continued, “So Kanda, as I was saying-”
“Oh, fuck this,” Kanda murmured under his breath.
“I’m not expecting anything from you.” Allen started again, eyes cast downwards, staring at his golem on his lap-because he didn’t know where else to look. “And anyway, we’re in a war, it’s not like we have time for relationships. The Earl’s keeping us busy just fine as it is,” now he was starting to ramble and he didn’t know why. More like, he didn’t know what to say to Kanda. “And you’re pretty slow, aren’t you? Isn’t your reaction kind of late?”
Oops. Wrong thing to say, Allen.
“Just shut the hell up and leave me alone!” Kanda spat out. “And stop staring at me every-so-often. It’s creepy.”
Allen felt the urge to pull at his hair, but he didn’t, of course. He did roll his eyes though. “You’ve just realized it now? I’ve been staring at you since God knows when-”
Timcanpy bit his fingers again and looked like it was scoffing at him. Again, wrong thing to say. And in front of Link, too. Damn your mouth, Allen. Way to go to get Kanda to stop freaking out. It had quite the opposite of the intended effect on Kanda, judging by how his eyes widened and then the glare intensified significantly.
“Look, it’s a reflex, okay? My eyes just automatically follow you, but I’ll try to stop. So would you stop freaking out already?”
“I’m not freaking out. I’m ignoring you.”
‘Well, isn’t that subtle,’ Allen sarcastically thought. At least, Kanda was admitting it now. He tried not to dwell on the dull, throbbing pain in his chest that Kanda’s words had caused. “Fine, have it your way!” Allen finally said, throwing up his arms in resignation.
“Fine.”
“Fine!”
A chuckle was heard somewhere inside his head and Allen turned to the window to find the Noah’s grin got even wider, if that was even possible. Great. Now the Fourteenth was laughing at him. Enjoying his host’s little misery, wasn’t he?
“Shut up, you,” mumbled Allen under his breath.
“What was that?” the older male asked, apparently catching Allen’s mumble.
“I wasn’t talking to you,” the British teen said, and just for the hell of it, he added with an obvious blinding fake smile Kanda hated so much, “And you are free to not talk to me.”
Great, now he was openly sulking. Why was it that Kanda could always bring out the worst in him? He felt like crawling into a hole and dying of embarrassment.
“Tch. Fine.”
“Fine.”
Now they were both getting ridiculous. In front of an inspector from Central, no less. Allen could see the way Link rolled his eyes at them. Things couldn’t get more ridiculous now, could it?
Allen drew a deep breath and let out a long sigh.
Had it been wrong to tell Kanda about how he felt? But then again, it hadn’t been so much of a confession than an announcement he made as a precaution about the Noah residing inside of him. Still, he had been nervous and barely could keep his poker face. And he had felt better after telling Kanda about how he felt; like having a weight lifted off of his shoulders, even though Kanda’s reaction afterwards had been rather nonexistent.
Until now, that is.
But if he had known Kanda was going to react this way... No, he had predicted it too, hadn't he? Allen had imagined a thousand and one ways Kanda would react to this, and ‘ignoring’ had been on the top ten of the list.
Well, it was his decision to tell Kanda anyway, because the older teen’s safety was more important. Now, Kanda ignoring him was just a consequence of his decision, and he would just have to live with it.
~ * ~ * ~ * ~
So, the rest of the train ride, which was around eight hours, a very long time it was-had been rather awkward, right?
Allen had thought he would be happier when they finally got to the mission's location, because if there was any chance for Kanda to stop ignoring him, it would come about when the mission finally started.
Kanda was a professional and ignoring a mission partner would hinder the mission, and of course, Kanda wouldn’t let that happen.
Oh but how he was wrong.
He had recognized it along the way. The landscape, the streets where their finder led them to; he had realized it twenty minutes prior to their arrival to their destination, which cemetery they had been heading to.
And he was not happy.
It probably had shown on his face, or it had been inferred at how he had fallen completely silent during their walk. Although he noticed that Kanda glanced-or frowned, actually-at him quite a few times, and if Allen hadn’t been preoccupied with his own gloomy thoughts, he’d probably have been a bit happier to know Kanda couldn’t completely ignore him.
Once they reached the destination, Kanda did stop ignoring him, if only during the battle against the horde of Akuma which had come after smelling their innocence, and he even blocked a couple of attacks meant for Allen-while yelling at him for being an idiot-but what made Allen unhappy was the cemetery.
It was where Mana’s grave lay, where he had been buried all those years ago. This was the place where little Allen-who had been desperate and hadn’t known better-had accepted the Earl’s offer and called Mana back.
It was where he had killed Mana with his own bloody hands.
The British teen didn’t have time to dwell on his thoughts, though. The plant which was the cause of the mysterious explosions turned out to have healthy, greeny leaves even though it was winter, it was able to walk around and have been fighting the akuma by shooting bullets at them. Chasing it while fighting the bunch of akuma surrounding the cemetery at nighttime needed a great deal of concentration, so Allen pushed the thoughts about Mana to the back of his mind.
“Will we get shot too?” Allen asked as he ran to approach the plant while destroying the akuma who got in his way.
“It hasn’t been attacking me,” Link replied as he advanced towards the plant from the other side.
The possessed plant they were chasing wasn’t that big, only about as tall as Allen’s knee. The small Innocence-possessed plant crawled about the cold ground using its roots for movement, its three branches partially hiding the orifice from which green pea-like bullets were being expelled
It had been decided that Kanda would take care of the akuma while Allen and Link would try to secure the innocence. Feeling confident that the plant was only attacking akuma, the young exorcist hastened his pace to catch up with the tree. But when he was about three meters away from it, the plant suddenly turned around so it was moving towards Allen.
Allen’s eyes widened and he barely dodged when it started shooting at him. He jumped backwards in zigzag as the tree kept spitting bullets at him and started targeting him instead. Muttering some ungentlemanly curses under his breath, Allen worked his way around the cemetery, ignoring Kanda’s shout of “What the fuck are you doing, bean sprout?!” as the older male cleared the place of the akuma trying to maim Allen while he was running away from some crazy possessed plant. When the plant seemingly paused after shooting nonstop for fifteen minutes, Allen jumped towards it.
He did not see the three bullets that grazed his right arm, shoulder and cheek. The contact didn’t hurt so much as it was burning, the rather dull pain wasn’t on the surface where the bullets cut his skin, but it hurt his insides.
Before it could shoot more bullets, Link suddenly came up behind the tree and secured the Innocence-plant with his binding spell with minimum difficulties as it didn’t seem to be attacking Link at all. Allen winced as the wounds caused by the plant’s bullets started throbbing. Coupled with the dull burning of his insides, it hurt more than he had expected.
He watched as the plant immediately withered and died once the innocence was taken-and in the back of his mind, he wondered if he would suffer from the same fate should he lose his innocence which had merged with his heart. Shaking his head, the white haired boy suddenly felt his head throbbing, the pain searing through every fiber of his being, but he kept his ground, thinking that maybe, he had been injured worse than he thought during the fight and convinced himself that he could still handle it.
Some explosions and akuma and injuries later, the three of them had cleared the area of akuma, and the innocence was safe inside of Timcanpy. They were about to walk away, when suddenly Allen’s eyes activated. Allen didn’t even finish saying ‘akuma’ before an explosion came down right in front of their noses, followed by another, and another, and another.
Allen backflipped to avoid the attacks when he noticed Link rolling sideways to evade a blast of energy heading his way and Kanda skidding backwards as he held Mugen in front of him, trying to deflect the blow. The beams of energy kept raining down on them and Allen felt anger boiling in his chest as some of the tombstones were ruined in the midst of explosions. Immediately activating Crown Clown, the British teen rushed towards Link and pulled him to where Kanda was standing before finally setting off his cape to shield the three of them from the blasts of energy showering them from above until they subsided.
As soon as the explosions eased up, the three of them jumped in different directions, to find that there were two Level Twos and two Level Threes grinning down at them. Immediately two of the Level Twos disappeared from view before reappearing right behind Kanda and charging at him, but Kanda was quick on his feet and easily deflected the attacks with his sword, in turn charging back at the two akuma. From the corner of his eye, Allen could see Link was struggling to keep the bind on a clown-like Level Three, but the British exorcist couldn’t waste anymore time watching his comrades when he had a Level Three rushing towards him.
Drawing his sword of exorcism, Allen turned the blade and used the broad side of his sword to deflect the Level Three with scythe-like arms and pushed hard, until the Akuma was thrown back, but it immediately halted midair and turned to charge towards Allen again, just as the boy leaped up and swung his sword out.
“Now, now, don’t kill him. I still want to talk to him,” said a familiar girly voice, making the Level Three stop at his attempt to blow Allen’s head off, and it jumped backwards. Bowing at the source of the voice with a maniacal grin, the Akuma then leaped towards the other two still fighting their own battles.
“Road,” Allen muttered, before noticing the other Noah standing just behind the girl. “And Tyki,” he added.
“Hello, Lad. We’re here especially for you. Aren’t you happy to see us?” the Noah of Pleasure greeted casually.
It was then that Allen noticed Road was standing on something. She was standing on top of a tombstone that looked painfully familiar to Allen and it made his blood boil.
Mana’s grave.
It was as if his mind was clouded with rage, blocking everything away. His body moved on its own and jumped right at the shorter Noah as he hissed, “Step down from Mana’s grave!” through gritted teeth, as he swung his sword of exorcism with killing intent. The blow forced Road to jump down and backwards, away from the grave. He swung his sword again to attack the girl, but Tyki jumped in the way and blocked the sword with his left arm.
“My, Allen, why so aggressive today?” Road’s tone was playful, but her face showed there was a hint of surprise there.
Allen didn’t reply, and instead he pushed harder against Tyki’s arm, but the Noah didn’t budge.
It was weird. Allen felt that his rage was overwhelming. Like it wasn’t only his own; this anger at the Noah for disrespecting Mana’s grave. His head hurt, it was throbbing, pounding-was it rage?-and the searing pain all over his body was blazing. Were the wounds he took from the plant’s bullets really that bad?
“Allen, why don’t you and the Fourteenth come join us?” Road said, suddenly sounding serious.
“Get real, Road,” Allen retorted coldly, “I told you before that I-”
Thump. The pounding on his head worsened, and Allen dropped his sword to clutch his throbbing head.
“I will,” he started again slowly, his voice dropping an octave lower and the corner of his lips involuntarily twitching upwards, as he continued, “I will kill the Earl and become the Millennium Earl myself, didn’t you hear me?”
No. That was not what he wanted to say. Dread started to creep up Allen’s mind, as he realized how faraway the voices sounded, how he seemed to be drowning in his own consciousness. He tried to open his mouth again, move his hand to pick his sword and just generally get his body to obey his commands, but-
“What are you trying to achieve by being the Millennium Earl? Why can’t you just come with us and we can all stay together? Aren’t we family?”
“Why are you even trying?” his mouth let the words out on its own, and his feet walked closer to the Noah of dream. His right arm then rose to reach out to Road, as he said again, in that icy tone of his, “And you can’t say all that after standing on my brother’s grave.”
This was wrong, Allen’s mind screamed. Yes, part of the anger was his own. Yes, he hated it that Road had disrespected Mana’s grave, but the hand now choking the girl Noah’s throat certainly didn’t move on his command.
And suddenly, there was a hand gripping his wrist, forcefully pulling it away from the girl’s neck. Then he was thrown aside, but again, his body moved on its own in reflex, swiftly landing on his feet and skidding backwards to a stop.
Golden eyes stared up coldly to meet those of Tyki Mikk’s.
“You do know you can’t hurt me that way, don’t you?” Road’s tone was, for once, not playful. Her eyes cold and hard, serious.
“What do you want to do now?” Tyki asked his sister, cocking his head towards Allen’s-or currently, the fourteenth-direction.
Road was silent for a moment, holding his gaze with those golden eyes which weren’t supposed to be on Allen Walker’s face, before finally sighing. “I knew that talking was going to be futile from the beginning,” the Noah girl waved a dismissive hand and continued to stare at, “Let’s just go back for now. We’ll let them have the innocence just this once.”
Tyki threw a meaningful glance to Road’s face, as if trying to figure something out. Then, he smiled and nodded. “Fine, let’s go.”
The first child of the Noah jumped backwards and floated mid-air, while her door formed behind her. “I like Allen, you know,” Road said, still with that serious face, “And I used to like you too, before that incident happened…”
Both Allen and the Fourteenth had nothing to say to that, so Road just retreated through her door, followed by Tyki who threw him-them-one last, calculating look before disappearing behind the door.
Allen’s body stood still, facing the sky where Road’s dimensional door had been just a moment ago, while Allen still struggled to regain control of himself, to move his arms and legs, to help his two friends still battling the akuma, but his body wouldn’t listen. It was like there was an invisible barrier that prevented him from taking over his own body.
No, Allen thought. No, he couldn’t lose now, he couldn’t-
“Go away and die, Noah.”
There was the tip of a familiar sword pressing against the side of his neck and cutting his skin, that if it pressed just a little bit harder, Allen realized with a bit of dread settling in his stomach, it’d cut a vein and he would die there and then.
But the sword remained still. And it was where Kanda went wrong.
There was a smirk tugging at his face while golden eyes glinting dangerously, and Allen could see how the Fourteenth who controlled his body moved in a split second. The next thing he knew, Mugen was clattering to the ground. The Noah was too fast, even for Kanda, and before Allen knew it, he saw Kanda being pinned to the ground, a hand possessed by strength that wasn’t his curled around the pale neck.
“I have nothing against you, Yuu Kanda,” the musician spoke, leaning forward close rested his forehead against Kanda’s. As if mocking Allen, he leaned in a bit further, his lips nearly brushing against Kanda’s as he spoke, “But you see, this boy is in love with you, and therefore, you’re a nuisance.”
Allen could only watch with horror how the Fourteenth pulled back to smirk down at Kanda, and even if the Japanese seemed to be having difficulty breathing, Kanda fought back, grabbing the wrist of the hand that was pinning him down to the ground with bruising force, trying to pull the offending limb away.
Amidst the sounds of a battle still ongoing between Link and the level four, Allen fought his own battle to gain control of his body back. All he could think about as the hand-his own hand, for God’s sake!-clutched tighter and tighter around Kanda’s neck, was that he needed to get back, he needed to get back now, and that he couldn’t do this to Kanda, he couldn’t let the Noah take over and he just… couldn’t lose.
He couldn’t... and Kanda couldn’t-
“B-bean…sprout…” Kanda choked out the words, still stubbornly struggling against his drifting consciousness as he looked straight at the golden eyes and way, way passed them, looking for Allen who was trapped somewhere within his own mind, and said, “…you…idiot…”
And in his mind, Allen whispered a low and repetitive, ‘No, no, no…’
- TBC -
A/N: I'd like to hear what you guys think of this, especially those who had read the previous version, so please do comment? And though I pretty much know what to write for the next chapter, I'm still trying to figure out a few things so I decided to wait for your responses to this chapter before writing the next chapter down. So please let me know what you think, yeah? And thanks :D
Chapter title: I Don't Bite, You Know
Author: a1y-puff
Fandom: D.Gray-Man
Pairing: Eventual Kanda/Allen
Genre: Romance/Humor/Angst
Word Count: 5649
Rating: PG-ish
Warning: None really, I think.
Summary: He wanted to believe that this was just some sort of a sick joke that the stupid rabbit made the bean do or something, and if that was the case, he would know how to deal with it; beat the hell out of the brat and the rabbit. But for the bean sprout to really be in love with him? Well, shit.
Disclaimer: Hoshino-sensei, who is that woman whom Yuu's core memory said 'I love you' to?
A/N: FINALLY the rewritten version of chapter 2! God, I'm so sorry it took so long. I have my reasons but I doubt you'd care enough to know. So let's just say RL has been mean to me? ^^;
Anyway if this is your first time reading this chapter, than lucky you for not having to read over my crap last time XD. With that said, I want to thank hakasha whose opinion had been really helpful for me to figure out how to rewrite this chapter, harmony283 for her advices, also for nayru774, bakafia_kawaii, eren10 and Afael Ishtar for their support, and finally to Nadramon who pointed out that this chapter needed to be rewritten in the first place.
Much, much thanks to my lovely betas: isumi_ilde who had to bear with me during the three revisions I went through, and may_unleashed who is an awesome beta with an eye for the details I often missed. Oh, and thanks to saphira112 who beta'ed the previous version of this chapter.
Finally, I know I can't make everyone happy, but I hope this version is better than the last (and it got ridiculously longer too XD). So anyway, enjoy~
First Chapter HERE
.: CHAPTER 2 :.
- I Don’t Bite, You Know -
It was warm.
Allen saw nothing and felt nothing but comfortable, lulling warmth that he hadn’t felt since his time with Mana. It was like sipping hot chocolate Mana had prepared for him in a cold winter night while sitting on the man’s lap, looking at the falling snow outside of the window-the warmth that left his body comfortable and his heart content.
Maybe he was dreaming?
Because he had known since long ago that he might never be able to feel this kind of warmth ever again after Mana had gone. But even if it was a dream, it was nice to feel the warmth again.
Then he felt something tickling his cheek and neck. Something light, feathery... hair? Silky, long hair it must have been. It tickled, but Allen didn’t mind and didn’t want to pull away.
Instead, he shifted closer to the source of warmth, and felt like his head was bent in an odd angle, and whatever it was he was laying his head on was rather too bony for comfort...a shoulder? A strong shoulder it was, Allen could feel it. Whose shoulder was this belonged to, he wondered.
His eyelids were heavy as if they were glued closed but he forced them open even just a bit, and the first thing he saw was black.
Black hair, black material...
...black...
Kanda?
Ah, what a nice dream he was having; he wanted to sleep a little longer.
He sighed in contentment...
And then he was shoved aside so hard his head made contact with the armrest on the other side of the loveseat.
Wait. What?
Blinking his sleep-glazed eyes, the British teen looked around blearily until he caught sight of a grumpy samurai glaring daggers at him. Allen frowned a bit. Now what was Kanda’s problem, first thing in the morning...
Oh.
So that hadn’t actually been a dream, Allen thought. He did get to share a blanket with Kanda and apparently, sleep on the older boy’s shoulder. He had been that close to Kanda, hadn’t he? It almost felt like a dream...
“Good morning, Kanda,” Allen greeted, words which the samurai rudely and coldly ignored as he made to stand and walk away to grab his outer coat hanging nearby, the action leaving Allen alone on the sofa with no trace of the warmth Kanda had offered before.
...And just like dreams, now he had to wake up. No big deal, right?
Right.
“We should prepare to leave soon. We’ve been delayed as it is,” came the inspector’s voice, and that was when Allen remembered that Link was there at all.
“Good morning, Link,” he greeted the inspector while folding the warm brown blanket he had been sharing with Kanda the night before. Allen felt the silly urge to just take the blanket with him, just for keepsake-oh, the memories-but that would be stupid. So instead, he said, “I’ll take the blankets back to the bedroom.”
“Alright,” replied Link as he gave the neatly folded pink blanket to Allen. Allen felt a tiny bit of regret for not seeing Link asleep while wrapped in that girly blanket. Just imagining it made his lips quirk up in a smirk. That would’ve been quite a sight.
Allen went to return the blankets to the room-he assumed Link got them from the cupboard, so he just put them there-all the while trying to recall the warmth he had felt before he was rudely awoken. Allen knew this kind of luck wouldn’t repeat itself, so at least he wanted to be able to hold onto the memories and keep them safe at the back of his mind-
There was a snort. A snort that was coming from inside his head. ‘What?’ he thought, ‘Can’t I be silly when I’m on my own?’
Another snort was heard, and Allen was reminded that now, he could never truly be alone. His eyes caught sight of an oval mirror with a silver frame carved with flowers hanging on the wall across the cupboard, and Allen could almost make out the mocking expression of the faceless shadow behind his reflection-how a faceless shadow could even manage a mocking face was beyond him, though he was sure it wasn’t only his imagination.
Right. He couldn’t even keep what little happy memories he could get from Kanda to himself now, could he?
How annoying.
When he returned to the living room, the fire had been put off, and both Link and Kanda were already wearing their outer coats again, ready to face the outside world.
He idly noticed Kanda had fixed his ponytail so it was neat again, and felt a not-so-tiny bit of regret from not catching the Asian male combing his hair. If only he hadn’t been arguing with the voice in his head...
Allen shook his head lightly, dismissing it as a silly thought, and went to grab his coat.
~ * ~ * ~ * ~
The weather today was friendlier, Allen noted, so much that they had quite easily ventured deeper into the mountains and found the innocence. A few akuma had showed up as well, but no level 4 this time, so it hadn’t been quite a trouble.
Overall, everything should have been okay. The mission was rather uneventful to the point that it wasn’t even worth mentioning.
Except that Kanda was apparently quite determined to be ignoring him, ever since he had roughly shoved Allen awake this morning.
Now, did he do or say something in his sleep? Or was it the mere fact that his head had accidentally rested on Kanda’s shoulder and now he was freaking out? Of course, his confession a few days ago wasn’t helping; even without knowing Allen was in love with him, Kanda would have freaked out from being that close to him.
Maybe he should apologize, then. But with Link around, Allen didn’t think it was wise to discuss the matter-though really, when was Link not around him?
The walk back to the nearest town had been long, and by the time they reached an inn, night was fast approaching, and Allen was quite worn out. He vaguely noticed Kanda’s voice in the background, hissing and swearing a little as the Japanese reported about the mission to their supervisor who, Allen could just imagine, was talking nonsense into Kanda’s ear through the telephone that their finder-a local finder that was waiting for them in town-was carrying.
“No, we got into a fucking blizzard. What is so lovely about that? Did you even listen to a word I said?”
Allen thought Kanda’s exasperated face while having Komui was funny and kind of endearing to watch.
Then, his face turned calmer and focused once more; Allen figured that Komui was finally being serious on the other line. A few curt words of ‘yes’ and ‘understood’ later, Kanda hung up and dismissed the finder from their shared room.
“We’re going on another mission to investigate some mysterious explosions at a cemetery,” the Asian man finally informed, looking at the general direction of where Allen and Link were standing.
“Mysterious explosions at a cemetery?” the white haired boy repeated.
“On the outskirts of London. We are to rest here today and tomorrow. We’ll head off to the church where we came from to board the ark and you will open the gate to another church near the graveyard. A finder will meet us there to give the specs,” Kanda explained coldly, not bothering to make any eye-contact with him.
“Wait, has there been any victim? Were the explosions big?”
“There are no serious casualties reported, and the explosions were small, but the citizens are disturbed and there might be innocence involved. Our finder will meet us with the specs at the station tomorrow.”
Okay. This rather formal-sounding Kanda had started to creep Allen out. He really needed to talk to him...
“Why are you ignoring me?” the question was out before Allen knew it. Okay, maybe that was a little bit too abrupt, but it was no use to take back what he had already said anyway.
He felt rather than saw Link watch him with a questioning look, but Allen kept his gaze firm on Kanda, letting the Asian male know he was talking to him.
Kanda raised an eyebrow. “I am talking to you.”
“Well yes, but it’s like you put up a barrier around so that I can’t really talk to you,” retorted Allen with a frown.
“Would be useful to actually have one so you wouldn’t be talking to me at all,” he bit out, “Now stop talking to me.”
“Why-”
“Whatever, bean sprout, leave me alone.”
“But-”
Kanda threw a sharp look on Link’s direction, signaling that they were not going to have this talk with the inspector around-or ever for that matter-before proceeding to walk out of the room. Allen just sat down heavily on his bed, still confused and bewildered, and God, he forgot to apologize, didn’t he? Though he wasn’t sure anymore what he should be apologizing for.
This was going to be a long night.
~ * ~ * ~ * ~
The train ride from the town they were in to a bigger city where the church with the Ark gate was... silent. Allen knew that Link didn’t talk unless he felt necessary, but Kanda... Though Kanda wasn’t one to start a conversation, Allen was used to him starting a fight. But so far, nothing.
It bothered him how Kanda suddenly decided to ignore him overnight after being almost nice just the night before. What was his problem? He wasn’t sure this was only about him sleeping on the older boy’s shoulder. Was it because of his confession? If yes, it was kind of late to react just now, wasn’t it?
“So, the mysterious explosion started not long after a funeral of a man named William Smith three days ago, and it is suspected that the innocence had a close connection with this man... it might be that he was a parasitic type, and since the host died, the innocence moved on its own accord to search for a new host, and for whatever reason, it’s now residing inside of a plant which happened to be near the man’s grave... is that even possible?” Allen started as he read the files in the folder, hoping to incite some sort of a conversation with Kanda. Even if it was business-like.
Link was the one who responded to that, though. “It might be that the innocence was searching for the nearest living object. The innocence’s traits in general are still a mystery. We can’t be sure about the limit to the possibilities.”
“I see,” the British teen responded weakly, kind of disappointed that even talking about the mission didn’t get Kanda to talk to him.
He idly flipped the pages of the files, no longer reading what was written but instead, Allen looked out of the rattling train window. It was still not snowing outside, and he could only see a row of dried trees, a mountain in the background and small houses every now and then. There was a boy who was riding a bike with a girl, both were smiling and then waving at the train with such bright smiles it made Allen somewhat jealous.
Then, he caught sight of the reflection of Kanda’s sour face on the glass surface, and for a second, their eyes met through the window, but then Kanda threw his gaze to the scenery outside.
Allen had had enough. He didn’t care anymore if Link was going to hear about this-the man knew almost everything there was to know about Allen anyway. If he waited until he could somehow sneak away from the inspector, Allen was afraid it would be too late if he didn’t talk to Kanda soon. Though too late for what, he didn’t know, but-
“Look, I’m sorry for falling asleep on your shoulder, okay? It wasn’t intentional,” Allen began, not even sure if that was the problem at all, but hey, it was a start, right?
Kanda spared him a glance from the corner of his eye, before turning his attention back to whatever it was that interested him outside the train window.
Allen’s brows twitched with annoyance, and the corners of his mouth pulled down in a scowl. “What is your problem?” he finally snapped.
That got Kanda’s attention. The dark ponytail swayed as Kanda whipped his head to face him and bit out, “You are my problem.”
“Is this about what I said before? Is that what this is all about?”
The Japanese male gave him an incredulous look. “You’re going to talk about it with him here?” Kanda asked while quite rudely pointing his finger at Link.
“Well, Link is stuck with me, he’ll always be around me and I think you wouldn’t want to talk about it with or without Link, so what’s the difference?” Allen couldn’t help noticing how he sounded angry more to himself about his predicament with Link rather than to Kanda, or even to Link.
Kanda glared harder at him. “There’s no difference. I am not having this talk and you are still an idiot.”
“Yes, you are having this talk with me now, and no, I am not an idiot.” -just desperate, the voice in his head so unhelpfully supplied.
“You’re so annoying!”
“Yes, and I’m not going to stop being annoying until you speak, so is this or is this not about what I said before?”
Kanda’s silence spoke quite a bit to Allen. He huffed and closed his eyes, pulling Timcanpy who had been nestling on his hair into his lap and started playing with the golem’s wings.
“I don’t bite, you know,” he said quietly, and as if mocking, Tim bit his fingers the moment the words left his lips.
“What the fuck are you talking about?” Kanda asked, his face scrunched up in confusion and a bit of bewilderment. Allen wasn’t sure if Kanda was taking his words literally.
The white haired boy tried to put on a disarming smile, before starting to explain, “I only said I was in love with you, not that I wanted to jump you, okay?” Well, he did want to, sometimes, but Kanda didn’t need to know that. It wasn’t like he was going to really do it anyways.
A coughing sound was heard, and both exorcists turned their heads to find Link clearing his throat. “Right,” the inspector said, schooling his expression into something neutral and blank, “Just keep talking and pretend that I’m not here.”
“You’re not going to write this down, are you?” Allen asked in a half-suspicious and half-pleading tone.
“If it’s related to the Fourteenth, I would have to report it.”
Allen fell silent at that. He chanced a glance at Kanda, who was trying to look nonchalant and annoyed, but still, Allen could catch the wary look in his eyes.
“However,” Link added, “I do not have to report in details the fact that you’re… in love with Yuu Kanda. Your personal affairs are none of my concern.”
“Thanks, Link,” Allen smiled a bit at the blond man, before turning his head back to face Kanda, and continued, “So Kanda, as I was saying-”
“Oh, fuck this,” Kanda murmured under his breath.
“I’m not expecting anything from you.” Allen started again, eyes cast downwards, staring at his golem on his lap-because he didn’t know where else to look. “And anyway, we’re in a war, it’s not like we have time for relationships. The Earl’s keeping us busy just fine as it is,” now he was starting to ramble and he didn’t know why. More like, he didn’t know what to say to Kanda. “And you’re pretty slow, aren’t you? Isn’t your reaction kind of late?”
Oops. Wrong thing to say, Allen.
“Just shut the hell up and leave me alone!” Kanda spat out. “And stop staring at me every-so-often. It’s creepy.”
Allen felt the urge to pull at his hair, but he didn’t, of course. He did roll his eyes though. “You’ve just realized it now? I’ve been staring at you since God knows when-”
Timcanpy bit his fingers again and looked like it was scoffing at him. Again, wrong thing to say. And in front of Link, too. Damn your mouth, Allen. Way to go to get Kanda to stop freaking out. It had quite the opposite of the intended effect on Kanda, judging by how his eyes widened and then the glare intensified significantly.
“Look, it’s a reflex, okay? My eyes just automatically follow you, but I’ll try to stop. So would you stop freaking out already?”
“I’m not freaking out. I’m ignoring you.”
‘Well, isn’t that subtle,’ Allen sarcastically thought. At least, Kanda was admitting it now. He tried not to dwell on the dull, throbbing pain in his chest that Kanda’s words had caused. “Fine, have it your way!” Allen finally said, throwing up his arms in resignation.
“Fine.”
“Fine!”
A chuckle was heard somewhere inside his head and Allen turned to the window to find the Noah’s grin got even wider, if that was even possible. Great. Now the Fourteenth was laughing at him. Enjoying his host’s little misery, wasn’t he?
“Shut up, you,” mumbled Allen under his breath.
“What was that?” the older male asked, apparently catching Allen’s mumble.
“I wasn’t talking to you,” the British teen said, and just for the hell of it, he added with an obvious blinding fake smile Kanda hated so much, “And you are free to not talk to me.”
Great, now he was openly sulking. Why was it that Kanda could always bring out the worst in him? He felt like crawling into a hole and dying of embarrassment.
“Tch. Fine.”
“Fine.”
Now they were both getting ridiculous. In front of an inspector from Central, no less. Allen could see the way Link rolled his eyes at them. Things couldn’t get more ridiculous now, could it?
Allen drew a deep breath and let out a long sigh.
Had it been wrong to tell Kanda about how he felt? But then again, it hadn’t been so much of a confession than an announcement he made as a precaution about the Noah residing inside of him. Still, he had been nervous and barely could keep his poker face. And he had felt better after telling Kanda about how he felt; like having a weight lifted off of his shoulders, even though Kanda’s reaction afterwards had been rather nonexistent.
Until now, that is.
But if he had known Kanda was going to react this way... No, he had predicted it too, hadn't he? Allen had imagined a thousand and one ways Kanda would react to this, and ‘ignoring’ had been on the top ten of the list.
Well, it was his decision to tell Kanda anyway, because the older teen’s safety was more important. Now, Kanda ignoring him was just a consequence of his decision, and he would just have to live with it.
~ * ~ * ~ * ~
So, the rest of the train ride, which was around eight hours, a very long time it was-had been rather awkward, right?
Allen had thought he would be happier when they finally got to the mission's location, because if there was any chance for Kanda to stop ignoring him, it would come about when the mission finally started.
Kanda was a professional and ignoring a mission partner would hinder the mission, and of course, Kanda wouldn’t let that happen.
Oh but how he was wrong.
He had recognized it along the way. The landscape, the streets where their finder led them to; he had realized it twenty minutes prior to their arrival to their destination, which cemetery they had been heading to.
And he was not happy.
It probably had shown on his face, or it had been inferred at how he had fallen completely silent during their walk. Although he noticed that Kanda glanced-or frowned, actually-at him quite a few times, and if Allen hadn’t been preoccupied with his own gloomy thoughts, he’d probably have been a bit happier to know Kanda couldn’t completely ignore him.
Once they reached the destination, Kanda did stop ignoring him, if only during the battle against the horde of Akuma which had come after smelling their innocence, and he even blocked a couple of attacks meant for Allen-while yelling at him for being an idiot-but what made Allen unhappy was the cemetery.
It was where Mana’s grave lay, where he had been buried all those years ago. This was the place where little Allen-who had been desperate and hadn’t known better-had accepted the Earl’s offer and called Mana back.
It was where he had killed Mana with his own bloody hands.
The British teen didn’t have time to dwell on his thoughts, though. The plant which was the cause of the mysterious explosions turned out to have healthy, greeny leaves even though it was winter, it was able to walk around and have been fighting the akuma by shooting bullets at them. Chasing it while fighting the bunch of akuma surrounding the cemetery at nighttime needed a great deal of concentration, so Allen pushed the thoughts about Mana to the back of his mind.
“Will we get shot too?” Allen asked as he ran to approach the plant while destroying the akuma who got in his way.
“It hasn’t been attacking me,” Link replied as he advanced towards the plant from the other side.
The possessed plant they were chasing wasn’t that big, only about as tall as Allen’s knee. The small Innocence-possessed plant crawled about the cold ground using its roots for movement, its three branches partially hiding the orifice from which green pea-like bullets were being expelled
It had been decided that Kanda would take care of the akuma while Allen and Link would try to secure the innocence. Feeling confident that the plant was only attacking akuma, the young exorcist hastened his pace to catch up with the tree. But when he was about three meters away from it, the plant suddenly turned around so it was moving towards Allen.
Allen’s eyes widened and he barely dodged when it started shooting at him. He jumped backwards in zigzag as the tree kept spitting bullets at him and started targeting him instead. Muttering some ungentlemanly curses under his breath, Allen worked his way around the cemetery, ignoring Kanda’s shout of “What the fuck are you doing, bean sprout?!” as the older male cleared the place of the akuma trying to maim Allen while he was running away from some crazy possessed plant. When the plant seemingly paused after shooting nonstop for fifteen minutes, Allen jumped towards it.
He did not see the three bullets that grazed his right arm, shoulder and cheek. The contact didn’t hurt so much as it was burning, the rather dull pain wasn’t on the surface where the bullets cut his skin, but it hurt his insides.
Before it could shoot more bullets, Link suddenly came up behind the tree and secured the Innocence-plant with his binding spell with minimum difficulties as it didn’t seem to be attacking Link at all. Allen winced as the wounds caused by the plant’s bullets started throbbing. Coupled with the dull burning of his insides, it hurt more than he had expected.
He watched as the plant immediately withered and died once the innocence was taken-and in the back of his mind, he wondered if he would suffer from the same fate should he lose his innocence which had merged with his heart. Shaking his head, the white haired boy suddenly felt his head throbbing, the pain searing through every fiber of his being, but he kept his ground, thinking that maybe, he had been injured worse than he thought during the fight and convinced himself that he could still handle it.
Some explosions and akuma and injuries later, the three of them had cleared the area of akuma, and the innocence was safe inside of Timcanpy. They were about to walk away, when suddenly Allen’s eyes activated. Allen didn’t even finish saying ‘akuma’ before an explosion came down right in front of their noses, followed by another, and another, and another.
Allen backflipped to avoid the attacks when he noticed Link rolling sideways to evade a blast of energy heading his way and Kanda skidding backwards as he held Mugen in front of him, trying to deflect the blow. The beams of energy kept raining down on them and Allen felt anger boiling in his chest as some of the tombstones were ruined in the midst of explosions. Immediately activating Crown Clown, the British teen rushed towards Link and pulled him to where Kanda was standing before finally setting off his cape to shield the three of them from the blasts of energy showering them from above until they subsided.
As soon as the explosions eased up, the three of them jumped in different directions, to find that there were two Level Twos and two Level Threes grinning down at them. Immediately two of the Level Twos disappeared from view before reappearing right behind Kanda and charging at him, but Kanda was quick on his feet and easily deflected the attacks with his sword, in turn charging back at the two akuma. From the corner of his eye, Allen could see Link was struggling to keep the bind on a clown-like Level Three, but the British exorcist couldn’t waste anymore time watching his comrades when he had a Level Three rushing towards him.
Drawing his sword of exorcism, Allen turned the blade and used the broad side of his sword to deflect the Level Three with scythe-like arms and pushed hard, until the Akuma was thrown back, but it immediately halted midair and turned to charge towards Allen again, just as the boy leaped up and swung his sword out.
“Now, now, don’t kill him. I still want to talk to him,” said a familiar girly voice, making the Level Three stop at his attempt to blow Allen’s head off, and it jumped backwards. Bowing at the source of the voice with a maniacal grin, the Akuma then leaped towards the other two still fighting their own battles.
“Road,” Allen muttered, before noticing the other Noah standing just behind the girl. “And Tyki,” he added.
“Hello, Lad. We’re here especially for you. Aren’t you happy to see us?” the Noah of Pleasure greeted casually.
It was then that Allen noticed Road was standing on something. She was standing on top of a tombstone that looked painfully familiar to Allen and it made his blood boil.
Mana’s grave.
It was as if his mind was clouded with rage, blocking everything away. His body moved on its own and jumped right at the shorter Noah as he hissed, “Step down from Mana’s grave!” through gritted teeth, as he swung his sword of exorcism with killing intent. The blow forced Road to jump down and backwards, away from the grave. He swung his sword again to attack the girl, but Tyki jumped in the way and blocked the sword with his left arm.
“My, Allen, why so aggressive today?” Road’s tone was playful, but her face showed there was a hint of surprise there.
Allen didn’t reply, and instead he pushed harder against Tyki’s arm, but the Noah didn’t budge.
It was weird. Allen felt that his rage was overwhelming. Like it wasn’t only his own; this anger at the Noah for disrespecting Mana’s grave. His head hurt, it was throbbing, pounding-was it rage?-and the searing pain all over his body was blazing. Were the wounds he took from the plant’s bullets really that bad?
“Allen, why don’t you and the Fourteenth come join us?” Road said, suddenly sounding serious.
“Get real, Road,” Allen retorted coldly, “I told you before that I-”
Thump. The pounding on his head worsened, and Allen dropped his sword to clutch his throbbing head.
“I will,” he started again slowly, his voice dropping an octave lower and the corner of his lips involuntarily twitching upwards, as he continued, “I will kill the Earl and become the Millennium Earl myself, didn’t you hear me?”
No. That was not what he wanted to say. Dread started to creep up Allen’s mind, as he realized how faraway the voices sounded, how he seemed to be drowning in his own consciousness. He tried to open his mouth again, move his hand to pick his sword and just generally get his body to obey his commands, but-
“What are you trying to achieve by being the Millennium Earl? Why can’t you just come with us and we can all stay together? Aren’t we family?”
“Why are you even trying?” his mouth let the words out on its own, and his feet walked closer to the Noah of dream. His right arm then rose to reach out to Road, as he said again, in that icy tone of his, “And you can’t say all that after standing on my brother’s grave.”
This was wrong, Allen’s mind screamed. Yes, part of the anger was his own. Yes, he hated it that Road had disrespected Mana’s grave, but the hand now choking the girl Noah’s throat certainly didn’t move on his command.
And suddenly, there was a hand gripping his wrist, forcefully pulling it away from the girl’s neck. Then he was thrown aside, but again, his body moved on its own in reflex, swiftly landing on his feet and skidding backwards to a stop.
Golden eyes stared up coldly to meet those of Tyki Mikk’s.
“You do know you can’t hurt me that way, don’t you?” Road’s tone was, for once, not playful. Her eyes cold and hard, serious.
“What do you want to do now?” Tyki asked his sister, cocking his head towards Allen’s-or currently, the fourteenth-direction.
Road was silent for a moment, holding his gaze with those golden eyes which weren’t supposed to be on Allen Walker’s face, before finally sighing. “I knew that talking was going to be futile from the beginning,” the Noah girl waved a dismissive hand and continued to stare at, “Let’s just go back for now. We’ll let them have the innocence just this once.”
Tyki threw a meaningful glance to Road’s face, as if trying to figure something out. Then, he smiled and nodded. “Fine, let’s go.”
The first child of the Noah jumped backwards and floated mid-air, while her door formed behind her. “I like Allen, you know,” Road said, still with that serious face, “And I used to like you too, before that incident happened…”
Both Allen and the Fourteenth had nothing to say to that, so Road just retreated through her door, followed by Tyki who threw him-them-one last, calculating look before disappearing behind the door.
Allen’s body stood still, facing the sky where Road’s dimensional door had been just a moment ago, while Allen still struggled to regain control of himself, to move his arms and legs, to help his two friends still battling the akuma, but his body wouldn’t listen. It was like there was an invisible barrier that prevented him from taking over his own body.
No, Allen thought. No, he couldn’t lose now, he couldn’t-
“Go away and die, Noah.”
There was the tip of a familiar sword pressing against the side of his neck and cutting his skin, that if it pressed just a little bit harder, Allen realized with a bit of dread settling in his stomach, it’d cut a vein and he would die there and then.
But the sword remained still. And it was where Kanda went wrong.
There was a smirk tugging at his face while golden eyes glinting dangerously, and Allen could see how the Fourteenth who controlled his body moved in a split second. The next thing he knew, Mugen was clattering to the ground. The Noah was too fast, even for Kanda, and before Allen knew it, he saw Kanda being pinned to the ground, a hand possessed by strength that wasn’t his curled around the pale neck.
“I have nothing against you, Yuu Kanda,” the musician spoke, leaning forward close rested his forehead against Kanda’s. As if mocking Allen, he leaned in a bit further, his lips nearly brushing against Kanda’s as he spoke, “But you see, this boy is in love with you, and therefore, you’re a nuisance.”
Allen could only watch with horror how the Fourteenth pulled back to smirk down at Kanda, and even if the Japanese seemed to be having difficulty breathing, Kanda fought back, grabbing the wrist of the hand that was pinning him down to the ground with bruising force, trying to pull the offending limb away.
Amidst the sounds of a battle still ongoing between Link and the level four, Allen fought his own battle to gain control of his body back. All he could think about as the hand-his own hand, for God’s sake!-clutched tighter and tighter around Kanda’s neck, was that he needed to get back, he needed to get back now, and that he couldn’t do this to Kanda, he couldn’t let the Noah take over and he just… couldn’t lose.
He couldn’t... and Kanda couldn’t-
“B-bean…sprout…” Kanda choked out the words, still stubbornly struggling against his drifting consciousness as he looked straight at the golden eyes and way, way passed them, looking for Allen who was trapped somewhere within his own mind, and said, “…you…idiot…”
And in his mind, Allen whispered a low and repetitive, ‘No, no, no…’
- TBC -
A/N: I'd like to hear what you guys think of this, especially those who had read the previous version, so please do comment? And though I pretty much know what to write for the next chapter, I'm still trying to figure out a few things so I decided to wait for your responses to this chapter before writing the next chapter down. So please let me know what you think, yeah? And thanks :D