Day 28; Bus 3
There was, Naomi decided, some sort of cosmic irony in all of this. Not that she was trapped in a deranged and possibly other-worldly asylum with a man she'd idolized for years and a boy who was being investigated for - among other things - the murder of her fiance. No, at this point, those were perfectly normal occurrences. Rather it was the
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Allen Walker didn't have that out; she knew his only family had been that Akuma who cursed him. There were no Akuma here, and ever if there were, that one wouldn't be amoung them. Allen had killed his beloved father, the man who had left him cursed.
His defense of having not shown up at all nearly made her sick. She picked through every inference she could find in his words and whittled them down to a basic sentence: "You weren't important enough." That's really what he'd said, wasn't it? Or what he had meant.
She wasn't important enough to him?
What a naughty doll he was being! Very bad! She had a mind to start scolding him right then and there, but she wasn't able to channel her irritation into words at all. Something was unfortunately keeping her from speaking out on more than a quick reflex as her earlier words had been. Something cold that made that basic sentence stab her far deeper than anything that would ever pierce a Noah.
"Why did you leave me alone, Allen?" When the words eventually formed, they were slow, and though her own, reflected nothing of what Rhode had intended them to. No irritation or scolding, not even a trace of playfulness. Nothing that was really Rhode as she was supposed to be. Only the flat, cold sadness of what a nearly faded curse had turned into a lonely little girl.
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"Let go Rhode!" he said in a hissed whisper. "I had other things to do, there were people in trouble! It would be a lot better if you'd just stay in your room and sleep at night like a good girl." Did the nurses really expect him to babysit her like this?
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"That's even worse. My roommate's a boring human, you know." Rhode could barely stand being around something so weak as that. Allen should at least be happy that she'd yet to kill the red-haired girl she was forced to share a room with, but nooooo, he wanted her to stay in that room with her! Surely he could see just how bad an idea it was telling a Noah to deal with such annoyance.
If Rhode did end up killing her because Allen had wanted her to "stay put", then she'd be sure to make Allen deal with that guilt. Oh, now there was an idea!
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Allen fidgeted, still trying to extricate himself from her grasp. He was not about to spend the entire day walking around with Rhode like he was her babysitter... or worse, like some kind of horrible date. "What is it you want from me?"
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"So I decided, if I was going to get involved with anyone, it would be you."
Word for word what she had said to him. She remembered his expression afterwards too. How his confusion had quickly turned to shock once she'd ordered that Level Two's self-destruction. How he'd jumped head first into an explosion to try and save that pathetic human's soul. How that Rinali girl had slapped him for it. And how she'd laughed. Such delightful memories of their first encounter. Yes, Rhode knew exactly why she had chosen Allen Walker and what she wanted from him for that decision.
But the game would be no fun were she to tell him that so easily. Her eyes trailed away from his face for a minute to think. What was all right to say? What did she want to say, actually? Come to think of it, she had been scolding him over one particular issue since she'd sat down with him, so there was as good an option as any!
"Say you won't leave me alone," she answered directly, her eyes setting firmly back to look at his own.
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"I refuse to make a promise I would never keep," Allen said calmly, returning her gaze. He might be kind enough to keep from killing another human, but that in no way meant he had to listen to her every whim and desire.
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As much as she would have liked for a concrete promise from Allen that he wouldn't leave her alone - he'd never break such a promise for his kindness - she knew getting one was an impossibility. Even back in their own world keeping such a promise would have been nearly impossible. Here, wherever "here" was, things were worse than that. They were herded like sheep during the day. The showers kept her from him and the rooms when they were forced to their rooms at morning and evening. The nighttime was hard too because of having to first find people before you could be together.
Somehow, Rhode knew she was doing a bad job of making him understand what she was saying. She stopped a moment to find some better words, then continued. "Like this: if I find you at night, you can't just go off and leave me. Same for the day too, unless those nurses split us up. Understand?"
It basically meant that Allen had to be with her before he could even have the chance to "leave her alone". If he didn't show up... then she'd be upset and probably complain, but he wouldn't have gone against his word at all. That was fair, wasn't it?
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"And if I refuse?" Allen asked, his usually bright face was serious and his mouth was set in a firm line. Not killing the Noah was one thing, but to go this far, surely he'd fall into Fault, his Innocence would reject him, wouldn't it? He'd be punished by God for such action.
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Fair for her and not for him, but still fairer than she could have been.
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He felt guilty being so blunt, but it was the truth! Maybe she was trying to be better, he didn't know. But good table manners couldn't possibly make up for the deaths of so many! That was just absurd!
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Yes, in her time, the Civil War had come and gone a few centuries prior. That was just a stone's throw away for a Noah.
She slackened her hold on his arm ever so slightly. "But there's no war here, is there? Except at night, and that's a lot different. I... don't have my powers," she admitted a little more than sadly, "and you don't really either. I bet I could even touch your left arm without it hurting me now."
Her hands tugged slightly at his odd clothes. "When there's no war, people are supposed to be friends... right?" The earlier certainty she'd used in speaking on wars had come and gone in a flash. Her lasts words were uncertain, nearly shaky too. All she had to base her assumption on was what she'd seen of the brief peace times the humans had. There hadn't ever been a time that the Noah could have been said to be in a time of Peace. Not once.
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