[Fic] Foresight Is 20/20 - D.Gray-man, Kanda/Lavi, 9/12
AAARGH. This story is driving me crazy. I've never had to make so many major revisions to a plot before, but it just will not cooperate. I only hope it turns out okay in the end, and doesn't seem forced. >.< It has now changed so incredibly much from its first outline that I'm honestly not even sure how it's going to end, because it certainly can't end the way it was originally supposed to. *grumbles about stubborn muses*
Title: Foresight Is 20/20
Series: D.Gray-man
Pairing: Kanda/Lavi
Rating: NC-17
Warnings: violence, angst, yaoi, swearing, the usual
Chapter length: 4070
Total length: 34,780
Forewarned may be fore-armed, but sometimes knowing in advance isn't everything it's cracked up to be.
"Ow." Lavi winced and tried not to jerk his arm out of Lulubell's grip. Not that he probably could have budged it; the other Noah was stronger than she looked. "Be careful, will you? I need that hand."
"Then you should not have allowed the Exorcist to hit you so much," she said, as haughty and aloof as the cat she sometimes was. The bell around her throat tinkled softly as she leaned forward, cleaning another of the long gashes on his arm. "Don't be such a baby. Hold still."
"It's not like I just stood there and let him cut me up, y'know," Lavi said, rolling his eyes. "He - ow! - he's too damned fast, and unlike the rest of you I don't have any offensive abilities. The best I can do is throw Akuma at him, and when I run out of those..." He made big, pathetic eyes at her, doing his best to look helpless and fragile. Considering he outweighed her by a fair bit and probably could have snapped her in half, it was difficult, but he gave it his best shot. Lulu was hot, right up his alley.
"Stop baiting him, then," she said, rather heartlessly in Lavi's opinion. As usual, she was either oblivious to his attempts to flirt or was choosing to utterly ignore them. He still wasn't sure which was the case. Ordinarily he was good at reading people, but she just didn't react like a normal human - or even a normal Noah. He was starting to believe she really was a cat that took on human form sometimes, and not the other way around.
"If you're not careful, Skin is going to be after your hide as well as that Exorcist," a deep, smooth voice interrupted. Lavi jumped as Tyki appeared abruptly beside them, with a smug little smile that said he'd seen Lavi's involuntary reaction. Tyki delighted in sneaking up on Lavi at every opportunity, and his ability to walk through solid objects allowed him to get away with it far too often for Lavi's peace of mind.
"Could you not do that, please?" Lavi said plaintively, looking up at the other man. "It freaks me out when you just show up outta nowhere like that." Not for the first time he desperately wished he was able to track the other Noah with his powers the same way he'd been able to do with the Exorcists.
"You're getting spoiled, always knowing what's going to happen next," Tyki mocked him, settling into another chair and watching with lazy interest as Lulu continued to clean the wounds. "Someone has to keep you on your toes. Though it appears that Exorcist is doing a decent job of it. Tsk, tsk. Getting careless, are we?"
"Yeah, I'd like to see you take him on," Lavi muttered, scowling. This was just rubbing salt in the wound, damn it. "Or rather, I'd like to see you take him on without being able to use your power. Just being able to see it coming isn't always enough to help me avoid it. Yuu's really strong!"
"There," Lulu said, and picked up the tray of glass shards and gravel fragments she'd collected from Lavi's wounds. "You're all done. Now you can stop whining at me and go be useful somewhere. Aren't you supposed to be tracking down one of the generals?"
"Yes, and not Tiedoll," Tyki put in. "As I said, Skin is getting rather irritated with you horning in on his territory. He won't be appeased with candy forever, you know."
"Yeah, but I'm not after Tiedoll," Lavi explained with exaggerated patience. He examined the long cuts and ragged scrapes that covered his arms. Now clean, they were already healing much faster than a normal human's wounds would, though far slower than usual for a Noah because most of them had been caused by Innocence. "The general can go hang for all of me. And I am tracking Socalo, I'm just waiting to get him in a position where he can't call for help and I can get enough high-level Akuma in the area to have a hope of taking him down. In the meantime, I'm having fun playing with Yuu, is all."
"Oh yes, it looks like a great deal of fun," Tyki said dryly, eyeing Lavi's wounds significantly. "It certainly sounded that way, when you were whining at Lulu just now."
"So I was a bit too slow this time," Lavi shrugged and leaned back in his chair, resting his feet on the table despite the lecture he knew he'd get if the Earl caught him at it. The Earl hadn't been around for days, involved with Road doing something with the Ark. "It wouldn't be half as much fun if it wasn't a challenge. Besides, it's all worth it for the frustrated look on his pretty face, every time I get away."
He smirked, and Tyki gave him a shark's grin in return. The tendency to 'play with their food', as the Earl put it, was something the two of them had in common. In fact, it had developed into a rather not-so-friendly rivalry, as Lavi continued to steal targets right out from under Tyki's nose. First Daisya in Barcelona, then Gwen, Tina and Sol from Klaud Nine's group later, plus at least a dozen finders in the last month.
Of course, Lavi's toys tended to end up merely damaged instead of dead like Tyki's, but as he kept reminding his new family, that was hardly his fault. He just didn't have the kind of offensive abilities shared by most of his Noah kin. And 'broken' at least got the Exorcists out of the Earl's way for a while, even if it wasn't as good as 'dead'.
"Ah, well. That's a shame," Tyki said, a bit cryptically. "Perhaps you won't like your present very much after all, then. Maybe I should throw it away and find you another?"
"Present?" Lavi perked up, though a bit warily. The rest of the Noah had welcomed him into the fold in their own ways, and even he and Tyki got along well enough when they weren't competing for toys, but he'd learned that presents from his new family were always to be highly suspected. Some of them had rather odd senses of humour. "What for? It's not my birthday, and anyway you don't even know when it is."
"Do I need an excuse to get a present for my newest 'little brother'?" Tyki said, affecting a hurt expression. "Jasdebi even helped me get it for you. It wasn't at all easy, I'll have you know. But if you don't want it..."
"I don't even know what it is," Lavi reminded him, rolling his eyes. "How should I know if I want it or not? Gimme a break, Tyki. Where is it?"
Tyki chuckled and stood, gesturing for Lavi to follow. The asshole walked right through the wall, of course, forcing Lavi to detour around through the door and the hallway into the next room.
The smell of blood hit him the moment he opened the door, and Lavi's nose wrinkled in protest. For a moment all he could see was what looked like a lump of dark, bloody cloth in the middle of the floor of an otherwise empty room. "What on..."
A low groan reached his ears as Tyki nudged the lump with a toe, and Lavi realized it was a human. An Exorcist, in fact, unmistakeable now that he knew to look for the white accents at shoulders and cuffs. And that long, matted dark hair could only belong to one person.
"Yuu!" Lavi's first reaction was one of unmodulated horror, but he turned it quickly to anger as he rounded on Tyki. "Are you out of your mind? Bringing an Exorcist here? What if he gets loose? You might think you've got him cowed, but you have no idea how fast he heals or how powerful he is!"
Sweat had sprung up on his face, and he could feel it prickling over his back as well. This was bad, very bad, beyond bad. He hadn't seen it coming at all, and it was going to send all his careful calculations merrily to hell. Damn Tyki and his arrogant pride, so hurt that Lavi had stolen some of his thunder. This was meant to taunt him for his ineffectiveness at killing anyone, he was sure of it.
"So you don't want him after all?" Tyki asked, the very image of wounded innocence.
"I didn't say that," Lavi said, scowling as he moved forward. "But I like my toys in one piece when I start playing with them, thank you just the same. Not to mention I prefer not to have the Earl coming down on my head for letting an Exorcist get a look around the Ark. Don't underestimate this one, Tyki. He may not be as powerful as a general, but he's no slouch. Right, Yuu?"
He was somewhat relieved to hear a growl in response, and to see the gleam of Kanda's eyes glaring up at him through the tangle of hair. Kanda was bound securely with long strands of rusted metal wire that cut into his hands and arms, an ugly parallel to the wounds he'd so recently given Lavi. He was also gagged with what looked like strips of his own sword belt, which was probably just as well or Lavi wouldn't have been able to talk to Tyki over the sound of the Exorcist's cursing.
If Tyki killed Kanda now - or worse, forced Lavi to kill him - everything was going to fall apart. He needed Kanda alive for a good long while yet if any of his plans were going to have a hope in hell of succeeding. Crouching next to the Exorcist, remaining carefully just out of range of flailing feet, Lavi looked the other man over. The blood seemed to be mostly from the cuts from the wire, but he was bruised all over. The twins' doing, no doubt, since Tyki preferred to leave no marks on his victims in order to confuse people.
Which sent a chill running down Lavi's spine as another thought occurred to him. "Did you hurt him beyond what I can see?" he demanded, looking up at Tyki. "Where's his Innocence? You didn't destroy it already, did you?" He gave the other Noah an angry pout. "He's no fun if he's helpless and dying."
"He's not dying, I didn't use Tease on him," Tyki assured him loftily. "Honestly, would I give you a broken toy for a present? Jasdebi might have been a bit rough, but he already looks much better than he did earlier. And I have his Innocence right here." He lifted a hand to display the delicate, green-glowing cube in one hand.
"Well? Give it here," Lavi said, standing and holding out his hand. "If he's my present, the Innocence is mine too, isn't it?"
"Are you sure you don't want me to stay and help?" Tyki asked, a dangerous gleam in his eyes that Lavi had learned never boded well. "You've had so much difficulty dealing with him until now. Besides, it's about time you had some servants of your own, instead of just using the general Akuma all the time. I'll show you how to turn him, if you're not sure."
Lavi's eyes narrowed, and he met Tyki stare for stare. Belatedly it occurred to him that there might be more behind this 'gift' than simple taunting. "Are you testing my loyalty?" he asked, his own voice low and soft, just as dangerous as the glint in Tyki's eyes.
"Let's just say, some of us are a little concerned that you might not be quite resigned to your fate," Tyki baited him, his shark-like smile widening. "I'm sure it's all just a misunderstanding. Kill him, or turn him, and we'll know you're really one of us. I'd hate for a silly thing like your lack of offensive abilities to lead to the rest of us thinking you might be a spy if you're not."
An outraged growl from Kanda told them what the Exorcist thought of the idea that Lavi might be working for the Order. Considering the lengths the man had gone to over the last month in an effort to kill Lavi, the anger was probably understandable. They'd tangled several times since Barcelona, and this wasn't the first time Kanda had injured Lavi, nor the worst Lavi had been hurt by him.
"All right, all right," Lavi conceded, giving in with ill grace. "I'll make a servant out of him, if you're that picky about it. Geez. Gimme his Innocence, though. I wanna taunt him for a bit first, at least."
"Oh, I think I'll just hold on to this," Tyki said airily, leaning back against the wall and crossing his arms, the Innocence still held securely in one gloved hand. "And I'd like to watch. It's always so much fun, the first time you turn someone, and usually the Earl takes Road along to oversee a new awakening. I never get a chance to see."
Lavi scowled at him, but Tyki clearly wasn't planning to budge. Automatically Lavi reached out to see what was coming in the near future, but as always his powers refused to show him anything about the other Noah. Tyki's own power protected him from Lavi's.
Are you Bookman-trained, or not? he asked himself, irritated. Just because he couldn't see Tyki's actions in the future didn't mean he had no way of predicting what the other man was up to. Studying Tyki's body language and the nuances of his smug expression, Lavi's heart sank. The other Noah wasn't going to budge. If Lavi insisted, he'd stop being polite and flat out order Lavi to kill Kanda, but nothing Lavi said or did was going to get Tyki to leave the room before Kanda was dead.
All right... he couldn't predict Tyki's reactions, but what about Kanda's? Lavi reviewed his options, and what he could see of the future leading from each one. Surely there was something he could do that would make this work out at least marginally in his favour. Not that... no, definitely not that idea... no... no...
Yes!
Lavi made a split-second decision that would throw every one of his plans into chaos, and leave him floundering in the aftermath. Unfortunately, Tyki had backed him neatly into a corner and he didn't have a lot of choice.
"Huh. Didn't know you were such a voyeur, Tyki. Guess I should've expected it, though, you being Noah's Pleasure and all." Lavi smirked back at Tyki, and shrugged. "Do what you like over in your corner there, but hands off. This one's mine, and I've been waiting way too long to get him helpless to wanna share now."
He grabbed the front of Kanda's jacket and hauled the Exorcist partially upright, leaning him against the wall so he was more or less sitting up. The position had to be putting Kanda's arms in agony, wrenched behind his back as they were, but the kneeling posture also meant he couldn't easily kick out at Lavi.
Knowing Kanda was going to make sure his death was long and painful in retaliation for this if the Exorcist ever did manage to catch him, Lavi leaned in close with a heated smile. "He's not as hot as Lulu or Lenalee, but I've always thought he was one of the prettiest members of the Order. Been dying to do this for ages."
Tugging the gag out of the way, he leaned in and kissed Kanda savagely before the other man could get more than the first syllable of a curse out. Kanda promptly tried to bite him, but Lavi would have seen that coming even if he hadn't been prescient. One hand trailed over the front of the heavy Exorcist jacket, flicking open one oversized button after another. Kanda wasn't wearing a shirt beneath, just a swath of bandages across his chest to cover the partially healed wound he'd taken from an Akuma in his earlier fight with Lavi.
Kanda writhed beneath him, and the sharp coppery tang of blood in the air increased as he struggled against the wire binding his arms. Furious growls punctuated his efforts, and it was all Lavi could do to keep the other man from squirming right out of his grip. In his head Noah's voice made an angry counterpoint, a hissing litany of 'Kill, Exorcist, kill, destroy!'
"Oh? My, my. I hadn't thought you were the type," Tyki commented, a thread of lascivious laughter running through his voice. "Is that why you've been toying with him instead of killing him? Well, Akuma certainly aren't terribly interesting to bed, even the second levels in human form."
Kanda's attention was transferred to Tyki, his muffled threats now clearly aimed at the Noah holding his Innocence hostage. Seeing that Kanda's eyes were fixed on what remained of Mugen, Lavi slipped his other hand behind Kanda's back. Carefully hiding his actions from Tyki's view, he found the place where the wire had been twisted together to form a knot, and untwisted it.
It took Kanda a moment to register that his hands were suddenly free, but Lavi saw the instant realization dawned. To give the man credit, he didn't waste precious time going after Lavi even though the redhead had been the object of his obsessive hunt for so long. He shoved Lavi aside and lunged for Tyki, his first intention obviously to retrieve his Innocence.
Startled, Tyki didn't quite manage to dodge in time. Kanda tackled him and they both went down in a heap, limbs flailing as Kanda struggled to snatch his precious Innocence away from the Noah before Tyki could destroy it.
Since that was exactly what Lavi had foreseen Kanda would do under those circumstances, he rolled easily with the shove and was back on his feet before Tyki had a chance to react to the unexpected assault. In mere seconds the other Noah would get hold of himself and start using his powers, and Kanda would be dead a heartbeat later as Tyki ripped out whichever internal organ was most handy. But Kanda had bought Lavi those necessary seconds, and he didn't intend to waste them.
With a precision of form that would have made a martial artist proud, Lavi drew back one foot and kicked Tyki in the temple as hard as he could. Nothing among the creations of earth could hurt Tyki Mikk - but a Noah's body, like a piece of Innocence, was outside of the realm of things Tyki could affect with his powers. Lavi's foot connected solidly, and knocked Tyki out cold.
Quickly Lavi snatched up the Innocence and backed out of Kanda's reach, holding the prize up so the other man could clearly see it. "Ah, ah, Yuu. Stop right there, and don't move. You don't want to make me nervous while I'm holding this, do you?"
Kanda froze, glaring at him furiously. "What the hell are you playing at now, traitor?" he hissed.
"Tyki's put a bit of a crimp in my plans, but I think I can still salvage some of them," Lavi said, his mind running rapidly over his options. God, but he wished he could predict the actions of the Noah! It would make things so much easier if he knew whether or not he could convince Tyki and the others that Kanda was the one who had somehow knocked Tyki out.
No, he couldn't risk it. He was fairly certain that Tyki had seen Lavi in the moment before Lavi struck him. Sighing, Lavi rubbed the bridge of his nose and tried to stave off a headache. "If you want to live, Yuu, do exactly as I tell you. Not a word of argument, understand?"
"Why should I trust anything you tell me?" Kanda said, his glare not letting up an inch.
"You shouldn't, obviously, but you're gonna have to," Lavi told him bluntly. "It's that or die here, it's up to you. Don't. Move," he added as a glimpsed a flickering vision of Kanda trying to tackle him the same way he'd done to Tyki. "If you make me twitchy, Yuu, I might destroy Mugen by accident. I'm not very good at controlling that part of my powers, yet."
That at least served to make Kanda subside again, though the other man growled and watched him like a hawk. Looking at Tyki's unconscious body, Lavi wished he dared allow Kanda to kill the Noah. Then he could convince the others that Kanda had escaped, without having to worry that Tyki would testify to Lavi's involvement. But that would mean giving back Kanda's Innocence, and Lavi was far too aware that the moment Mugen was back in Kanda's hands, Lavi would be as good as dead himself.
Finally Lavi removed his own long leather jacket, a gift from the Earl when Lavi had shed his Exorcist uniform on his first trip to the Ark. He shoved Tyki into a corner and draped the jacket over the man's still body to hide it from casual observation. It would have been nice if he could have bound Tyki with the same wire that had been used on Kanda, but Tyki would just phase right through it the moment he was awake again.
"Stay here, and for God's sake don't draw any attention," he ordered Kanda. "The only people who will hear you in here are Akuma and the other Noah. I'll be right back."
He flashed the Innocence again just so Kanda would be certain Lavi was taking it with him, then ducked out the door. There were always Akuma hanging around the Ark, just in case one of the Noah needed them. As it happened, the first one Lavi encountered was a third level, which made him a little nervous, but it couldn't be helped. Hopefully it wouldn't pay enough attention to the room to notice Tyki's badly hidden body.
"Hey, you," he called, summoning it with an imperious gesture. "Tyki brought me a present, but it's proving a bit difficult to handle," he said with a wry smile. "I need a little help."
"The Exorcist?" the Akuma asked, making Lavi wince. Did everyone on the Ark know about Tyki's plot? Well, if so, it didn't really make a difference to Lavi's hasty plan.
"Yeah. He got loose from the wire, but I've got his Innocence," he said, showing the Akuma the cube. The monster winced away from the bright green light, an instinctive reaction since it certainly couldn't be harmed by it in this form. "I need some help moving him. I'm going to bring him to my room for a little fun."
He let a bloodthirsty smile spread over his face, not unlike Tyki's own shark grin, inviting the Akuma to share in his glee. It smiled back at him, a distinctly chilling sight to someone not used to dealing with Akuma. "Of course, Noah-sama," it agreed.
Leading it back to the room, Lavi reflected that Kanda really was going to torture him slowly and painfully for all this. Shoving open the door, he let the Akuma precede him into the room.
Kanda's eyes went wide when he saw the monster, and the Exorcist scrambled to his feet despite Lavi's earlier admonition to him not to move. Lavi couldn't really blame him. "Knock him out," Lavi ordered the Akuma, ignoring Kanda's cry of angry protest. "Carefully, mind you. I want him alive when he gets to my room."
"You two-faced, traitorous turn-coat," Kanda snarled, backing rapidly away from the Akuma and searching for some way to fight it despite his lack of Innocence. "When I get my hands on you..."
"You'll have to get your hands on me first, Yuu," Lavi told him wearily, and watched as the Akuma neatly struck the Exorcist on the back of the head. Kanda dropped like a sack of rocks, out cold, and Lavi was reasonably certain he would wake again with nothing worse than a headache.
As he gestured for the Akuma to pick Kanda up and follow him out the door, Lavi added silently to himself, At least you'll be alive to try.
Title: Foresight Is 20/20
Series: D.Gray-man
Pairing: Kanda/Lavi
Rating: NC-17
Warnings: violence, angst, yaoi, swearing, the usual
Chapter length: 4070
Total length: 34,780
Forewarned may be fore-armed, but sometimes knowing in advance isn't everything it's cracked up to be.
"Ow." Lavi winced and tried not to jerk his arm out of Lulubell's grip. Not that he probably could have budged it; the other Noah was stronger than she looked. "Be careful, will you? I need that hand."
"Then you should not have allowed the Exorcist to hit you so much," she said, as haughty and aloof as the cat she sometimes was. The bell around her throat tinkled softly as she leaned forward, cleaning another of the long gashes on his arm. "Don't be such a baby. Hold still."
"It's not like I just stood there and let him cut me up, y'know," Lavi said, rolling his eyes. "He - ow! - he's too damned fast, and unlike the rest of you I don't have any offensive abilities. The best I can do is throw Akuma at him, and when I run out of those..." He made big, pathetic eyes at her, doing his best to look helpless and fragile. Considering he outweighed her by a fair bit and probably could have snapped her in half, it was difficult, but he gave it his best shot. Lulu was hot, right up his alley.
"Stop baiting him, then," she said, rather heartlessly in Lavi's opinion. As usual, she was either oblivious to his attempts to flirt or was choosing to utterly ignore them. He still wasn't sure which was the case. Ordinarily he was good at reading people, but she just didn't react like a normal human - or even a normal Noah. He was starting to believe she really was a cat that took on human form sometimes, and not the other way around.
"If you're not careful, Skin is going to be after your hide as well as that Exorcist," a deep, smooth voice interrupted. Lavi jumped as Tyki appeared abruptly beside them, with a smug little smile that said he'd seen Lavi's involuntary reaction. Tyki delighted in sneaking up on Lavi at every opportunity, and his ability to walk through solid objects allowed him to get away with it far too often for Lavi's peace of mind.
"Could you not do that, please?" Lavi said plaintively, looking up at the other man. "It freaks me out when you just show up outta nowhere like that." Not for the first time he desperately wished he was able to track the other Noah with his powers the same way he'd been able to do with the Exorcists.
"You're getting spoiled, always knowing what's going to happen next," Tyki mocked him, settling into another chair and watching with lazy interest as Lulu continued to clean the wounds. "Someone has to keep you on your toes. Though it appears that Exorcist is doing a decent job of it. Tsk, tsk. Getting careless, are we?"
"Yeah, I'd like to see you take him on," Lavi muttered, scowling. This was just rubbing salt in the wound, damn it. "Or rather, I'd like to see you take him on without being able to use your power. Just being able to see it coming isn't always enough to help me avoid it. Yuu's really strong!"
"There," Lulu said, and picked up the tray of glass shards and gravel fragments she'd collected from Lavi's wounds. "You're all done. Now you can stop whining at me and go be useful somewhere. Aren't you supposed to be tracking down one of the generals?"
"Yes, and not Tiedoll," Tyki put in. "As I said, Skin is getting rather irritated with you horning in on his territory. He won't be appeased with candy forever, you know."
"Yeah, but I'm not after Tiedoll," Lavi explained with exaggerated patience. He examined the long cuts and ragged scrapes that covered his arms. Now clean, they were already healing much faster than a normal human's wounds would, though far slower than usual for a Noah because most of them had been caused by Innocence. "The general can go hang for all of me. And I am tracking Socalo, I'm just waiting to get him in a position where he can't call for help and I can get enough high-level Akuma in the area to have a hope of taking him down. In the meantime, I'm having fun playing with Yuu, is all."
"Oh yes, it looks like a great deal of fun," Tyki said dryly, eyeing Lavi's wounds significantly. "It certainly sounded that way, when you were whining at Lulu just now."
"So I was a bit too slow this time," Lavi shrugged and leaned back in his chair, resting his feet on the table despite the lecture he knew he'd get if the Earl caught him at it. The Earl hadn't been around for days, involved with Road doing something with the Ark. "It wouldn't be half as much fun if it wasn't a challenge. Besides, it's all worth it for the frustrated look on his pretty face, every time I get away."
He smirked, and Tyki gave him a shark's grin in return. The tendency to 'play with their food', as the Earl put it, was something the two of them had in common. In fact, it had developed into a rather not-so-friendly rivalry, as Lavi continued to steal targets right out from under Tyki's nose. First Daisya in Barcelona, then Gwen, Tina and Sol from Klaud Nine's group later, plus at least a dozen finders in the last month.
Of course, Lavi's toys tended to end up merely damaged instead of dead like Tyki's, but as he kept reminding his new family, that was hardly his fault. He just didn't have the kind of offensive abilities shared by most of his Noah kin. And 'broken' at least got the Exorcists out of the Earl's way for a while, even if it wasn't as good as 'dead'.
"Ah, well. That's a shame," Tyki said, a bit cryptically. "Perhaps you won't like your present very much after all, then. Maybe I should throw it away and find you another?"
"Present?" Lavi perked up, though a bit warily. The rest of the Noah had welcomed him into the fold in their own ways, and even he and Tyki got along well enough when they weren't competing for toys, but he'd learned that presents from his new family were always to be highly suspected. Some of them had rather odd senses of humour. "What for? It's not my birthday, and anyway you don't even know when it is."
"Do I need an excuse to get a present for my newest 'little brother'?" Tyki said, affecting a hurt expression. "Jasdebi even helped me get it for you. It wasn't at all easy, I'll have you know. But if you don't want it..."
"I don't even know what it is," Lavi reminded him, rolling his eyes. "How should I know if I want it or not? Gimme a break, Tyki. Where is it?"
Tyki chuckled and stood, gesturing for Lavi to follow. The asshole walked right through the wall, of course, forcing Lavi to detour around through the door and the hallway into the next room.
The smell of blood hit him the moment he opened the door, and Lavi's nose wrinkled in protest. For a moment all he could see was what looked like a lump of dark, bloody cloth in the middle of the floor of an otherwise empty room. "What on..."
A low groan reached his ears as Tyki nudged the lump with a toe, and Lavi realized it was a human. An Exorcist, in fact, unmistakeable now that he knew to look for the white accents at shoulders and cuffs. And that long, matted dark hair could only belong to one person.
"Yuu!" Lavi's first reaction was one of unmodulated horror, but he turned it quickly to anger as he rounded on Tyki. "Are you out of your mind? Bringing an Exorcist here? What if he gets loose? You might think you've got him cowed, but you have no idea how fast he heals or how powerful he is!"
Sweat had sprung up on his face, and he could feel it prickling over his back as well. This was bad, very bad, beyond bad. He hadn't seen it coming at all, and it was going to send all his careful calculations merrily to hell. Damn Tyki and his arrogant pride, so hurt that Lavi had stolen some of his thunder. This was meant to taunt him for his ineffectiveness at killing anyone, he was sure of it.
"So you don't want him after all?" Tyki asked, the very image of wounded innocence.
"I didn't say that," Lavi said, scowling as he moved forward. "But I like my toys in one piece when I start playing with them, thank you just the same. Not to mention I prefer not to have the Earl coming down on my head for letting an Exorcist get a look around the Ark. Don't underestimate this one, Tyki. He may not be as powerful as a general, but he's no slouch. Right, Yuu?"
He was somewhat relieved to hear a growl in response, and to see the gleam of Kanda's eyes glaring up at him through the tangle of hair. Kanda was bound securely with long strands of rusted metal wire that cut into his hands and arms, an ugly parallel to the wounds he'd so recently given Lavi. He was also gagged with what looked like strips of his own sword belt, which was probably just as well or Lavi wouldn't have been able to talk to Tyki over the sound of the Exorcist's cursing.
If Tyki killed Kanda now - or worse, forced Lavi to kill him - everything was going to fall apart. He needed Kanda alive for a good long while yet if any of his plans were going to have a hope in hell of succeeding. Crouching next to the Exorcist, remaining carefully just out of range of flailing feet, Lavi looked the other man over. The blood seemed to be mostly from the cuts from the wire, but he was bruised all over. The twins' doing, no doubt, since Tyki preferred to leave no marks on his victims in order to confuse people.
Which sent a chill running down Lavi's spine as another thought occurred to him. "Did you hurt him beyond what I can see?" he demanded, looking up at Tyki. "Where's his Innocence? You didn't destroy it already, did you?" He gave the other Noah an angry pout. "He's no fun if he's helpless and dying."
"He's not dying, I didn't use Tease on him," Tyki assured him loftily. "Honestly, would I give you a broken toy for a present? Jasdebi might have been a bit rough, but he already looks much better than he did earlier. And I have his Innocence right here." He lifted a hand to display the delicate, green-glowing cube in one hand.
"Well? Give it here," Lavi said, standing and holding out his hand. "If he's my present, the Innocence is mine too, isn't it?"
"Are you sure you don't want me to stay and help?" Tyki asked, a dangerous gleam in his eyes that Lavi had learned never boded well. "You've had so much difficulty dealing with him until now. Besides, it's about time you had some servants of your own, instead of just using the general Akuma all the time. I'll show you how to turn him, if you're not sure."
Lavi's eyes narrowed, and he met Tyki stare for stare. Belatedly it occurred to him that there might be more behind this 'gift' than simple taunting. "Are you testing my loyalty?" he asked, his own voice low and soft, just as dangerous as the glint in Tyki's eyes.
"Let's just say, some of us are a little concerned that you might not be quite resigned to your fate," Tyki baited him, his shark-like smile widening. "I'm sure it's all just a misunderstanding. Kill him, or turn him, and we'll know you're really one of us. I'd hate for a silly thing like your lack of offensive abilities to lead to the rest of us thinking you might be a spy if you're not."
An outraged growl from Kanda told them what the Exorcist thought of the idea that Lavi might be working for the Order. Considering the lengths the man had gone to over the last month in an effort to kill Lavi, the anger was probably understandable. They'd tangled several times since Barcelona, and this wasn't the first time Kanda had injured Lavi, nor the worst Lavi had been hurt by him.
"All right, all right," Lavi conceded, giving in with ill grace. "I'll make a servant out of him, if you're that picky about it. Geez. Gimme his Innocence, though. I wanna taunt him for a bit first, at least."
"Oh, I think I'll just hold on to this," Tyki said airily, leaning back against the wall and crossing his arms, the Innocence still held securely in one gloved hand. "And I'd like to watch. It's always so much fun, the first time you turn someone, and usually the Earl takes Road along to oversee a new awakening. I never get a chance to see."
Lavi scowled at him, but Tyki clearly wasn't planning to budge. Automatically Lavi reached out to see what was coming in the near future, but as always his powers refused to show him anything about the other Noah. Tyki's own power protected him from Lavi's.
Are you Bookman-trained, or not? he asked himself, irritated. Just because he couldn't see Tyki's actions in the future didn't mean he had no way of predicting what the other man was up to. Studying Tyki's body language and the nuances of his smug expression, Lavi's heart sank. The other Noah wasn't going to budge. If Lavi insisted, he'd stop being polite and flat out order Lavi to kill Kanda, but nothing Lavi said or did was going to get Tyki to leave the room before Kanda was dead.
All right... he couldn't predict Tyki's reactions, but what about Kanda's? Lavi reviewed his options, and what he could see of the future leading from each one. Surely there was something he could do that would make this work out at least marginally in his favour. Not that... no, definitely not that idea... no... no...
Yes!
Lavi made a split-second decision that would throw every one of his plans into chaos, and leave him floundering in the aftermath. Unfortunately, Tyki had backed him neatly into a corner and he didn't have a lot of choice.
"Huh. Didn't know you were such a voyeur, Tyki. Guess I should've expected it, though, you being Noah's Pleasure and all." Lavi smirked back at Tyki, and shrugged. "Do what you like over in your corner there, but hands off. This one's mine, and I've been waiting way too long to get him helpless to wanna share now."
He grabbed the front of Kanda's jacket and hauled the Exorcist partially upright, leaning him against the wall so he was more or less sitting up. The position had to be putting Kanda's arms in agony, wrenched behind his back as they were, but the kneeling posture also meant he couldn't easily kick out at Lavi.
Knowing Kanda was going to make sure his death was long and painful in retaliation for this if the Exorcist ever did manage to catch him, Lavi leaned in close with a heated smile. "He's not as hot as Lulu or Lenalee, but I've always thought he was one of the prettiest members of the Order. Been dying to do this for ages."
Tugging the gag out of the way, he leaned in and kissed Kanda savagely before the other man could get more than the first syllable of a curse out. Kanda promptly tried to bite him, but Lavi would have seen that coming even if he hadn't been prescient. One hand trailed over the front of the heavy Exorcist jacket, flicking open one oversized button after another. Kanda wasn't wearing a shirt beneath, just a swath of bandages across his chest to cover the partially healed wound he'd taken from an Akuma in his earlier fight with Lavi.
Kanda writhed beneath him, and the sharp coppery tang of blood in the air increased as he struggled against the wire binding his arms. Furious growls punctuated his efforts, and it was all Lavi could do to keep the other man from squirming right out of his grip. In his head Noah's voice made an angry counterpoint, a hissing litany of 'Kill, Exorcist, kill, destroy!'
"Oh? My, my. I hadn't thought you were the type," Tyki commented, a thread of lascivious laughter running through his voice. "Is that why you've been toying with him instead of killing him? Well, Akuma certainly aren't terribly interesting to bed, even the second levels in human form."
Kanda's attention was transferred to Tyki, his muffled threats now clearly aimed at the Noah holding his Innocence hostage. Seeing that Kanda's eyes were fixed on what remained of Mugen, Lavi slipped his other hand behind Kanda's back. Carefully hiding his actions from Tyki's view, he found the place where the wire had been twisted together to form a knot, and untwisted it.
It took Kanda a moment to register that his hands were suddenly free, but Lavi saw the instant realization dawned. To give the man credit, he didn't waste precious time going after Lavi even though the redhead had been the object of his obsessive hunt for so long. He shoved Lavi aside and lunged for Tyki, his first intention obviously to retrieve his Innocence.
Startled, Tyki didn't quite manage to dodge in time. Kanda tackled him and they both went down in a heap, limbs flailing as Kanda struggled to snatch his precious Innocence away from the Noah before Tyki could destroy it.
Since that was exactly what Lavi had foreseen Kanda would do under those circumstances, he rolled easily with the shove and was back on his feet before Tyki had a chance to react to the unexpected assault. In mere seconds the other Noah would get hold of himself and start using his powers, and Kanda would be dead a heartbeat later as Tyki ripped out whichever internal organ was most handy. But Kanda had bought Lavi those necessary seconds, and he didn't intend to waste them.
With a precision of form that would have made a martial artist proud, Lavi drew back one foot and kicked Tyki in the temple as hard as he could. Nothing among the creations of earth could hurt Tyki Mikk - but a Noah's body, like a piece of Innocence, was outside of the realm of things Tyki could affect with his powers. Lavi's foot connected solidly, and knocked Tyki out cold.
Quickly Lavi snatched up the Innocence and backed out of Kanda's reach, holding the prize up so the other man could clearly see it. "Ah, ah, Yuu. Stop right there, and don't move. You don't want to make me nervous while I'm holding this, do you?"
Kanda froze, glaring at him furiously. "What the hell are you playing at now, traitor?" he hissed.
"Tyki's put a bit of a crimp in my plans, but I think I can still salvage some of them," Lavi said, his mind running rapidly over his options. God, but he wished he could predict the actions of the Noah! It would make things so much easier if he knew whether or not he could convince Tyki and the others that Kanda was the one who had somehow knocked Tyki out.
No, he couldn't risk it. He was fairly certain that Tyki had seen Lavi in the moment before Lavi struck him. Sighing, Lavi rubbed the bridge of his nose and tried to stave off a headache. "If you want to live, Yuu, do exactly as I tell you. Not a word of argument, understand?"
"Why should I trust anything you tell me?" Kanda said, his glare not letting up an inch.
"You shouldn't, obviously, but you're gonna have to," Lavi told him bluntly. "It's that or die here, it's up to you. Don't. Move," he added as a glimpsed a flickering vision of Kanda trying to tackle him the same way he'd done to Tyki. "If you make me twitchy, Yuu, I might destroy Mugen by accident. I'm not very good at controlling that part of my powers, yet."
That at least served to make Kanda subside again, though the other man growled and watched him like a hawk. Looking at Tyki's unconscious body, Lavi wished he dared allow Kanda to kill the Noah. Then he could convince the others that Kanda had escaped, without having to worry that Tyki would testify to Lavi's involvement. But that would mean giving back Kanda's Innocence, and Lavi was far too aware that the moment Mugen was back in Kanda's hands, Lavi would be as good as dead himself.
Finally Lavi removed his own long leather jacket, a gift from the Earl when Lavi had shed his Exorcist uniform on his first trip to the Ark. He shoved Tyki into a corner and draped the jacket over the man's still body to hide it from casual observation. It would have been nice if he could have bound Tyki with the same wire that had been used on Kanda, but Tyki would just phase right through it the moment he was awake again.
"Stay here, and for God's sake don't draw any attention," he ordered Kanda. "The only people who will hear you in here are Akuma and the other Noah. I'll be right back."
He flashed the Innocence again just so Kanda would be certain Lavi was taking it with him, then ducked out the door. There were always Akuma hanging around the Ark, just in case one of the Noah needed them. As it happened, the first one Lavi encountered was a third level, which made him a little nervous, but it couldn't be helped. Hopefully it wouldn't pay enough attention to the room to notice Tyki's badly hidden body.
"Hey, you," he called, summoning it with an imperious gesture. "Tyki brought me a present, but it's proving a bit difficult to handle," he said with a wry smile. "I need a little help."
"The Exorcist?" the Akuma asked, making Lavi wince. Did everyone on the Ark know about Tyki's plot? Well, if so, it didn't really make a difference to Lavi's hasty plan.
"Yeah. He got loose from the wire, but I've got his Innocence," he said, showing the Akuma the cube. The monster winced away from the bright green light, an instinctive reaction since it certainly couldn't be harmed by it in this form. "I need some help moving him. I'm going to bring him to my room for a little fun."
He let a bloodthirsty smile spread over his face, not unlike Tyki's own shark grin, inviting the Akuma to share in his glee. It smiled back at him, a distinctly chilling sight to someone not used to dealing with Akuma. "Of course, Noah-sama," it agreed.
Leading it back to the room, Lavi reflected that Kanda really was going to torture him slowly and painfully for all this. Shoving open the door, he let the Akuma precede him into the room.
Kanda's eyes went wide when he saw the monster, and the Exorcist scrambled to his feet despite Lavi's earlier admonition to him not to move. Lavi couldn't really blame him. "Knock him out," Lavi ordered the Akuma, ignoring Kanda's cry of angry protest. "Carefully, mind you. I want him alive when he gets to my room."
"You two-faced, traitorous turn-coat," Kanda snarled, backing rapidly away from the Akuma and searching for some way to fight it despite his lack of Innocence. "When I get my hands on you..."
"You'll have to get your hands on me first, Yuu," Lavi told him wearily, and watched as the Akuma neatly struck the Exorcist on the back of the head. Kanda dropped like a sack of rocks, out cold, and Lavi was reasonably certain he would wake again with nothing worse than a headache.
As he gestured for the Akuma to pick Kanda up and follow him out the door, Lavi added silently to himself, At least you'll be alive to try.