High Seas - King Of Hearts
The King of Hearts - A Tyki/Allen One-Shot
Allen felt like he had been walking for hours, with no idea where he was, or where he was going. The path behind and ahead of him was shrouded with a sweet-smelling smoke, like burning flowers, that reduced his vision to a mere metre or so in front of and behind him. If he slowed at all, it closed in like a silent predator, cloying his lungs, only abating when he sped up again. He felt as if he was being toyed with, drawn slowly into a trap like a fish on a line. There was no choice but to keep walking. He smirked as he paced onwards. Walking forward was what he was good at afterall.
Light increased as he walked forward, piercing the smoke with milky, refracted beams. The smoke began to thin and part, revealing dark tree trunks on either side of him, the grass between them thick with dew. He marvelled at the silence of the place, no birds, no rustling leaves, even his own footsteps were muted. With a determined smile he began to jog through the dissipating smoke, determined that whoever or whatever stood at the end of the path would pay for teasing him so.
Unexpectedly the smoke completely disappeared and his eyes were hit by a blast of brilliant light. Stunned, he halted completely and took in his surroundings with awe. In front of him lay an immaculately trimmed lawn, cut with the dark and light green stripes that made his eyes swim as they got further away. At his feet, a path drew him through the garden to an exquisite mansion, larger and finer than any he had previously seen on his travels. The strangeness of the situation nagged at him, but still he couldn't help but admire his surroundings. He glanced behind him at the dirty path disappearing into the swirling smoke and shook his head.
“Forward it is then.” he murmured, allowing himself a smile.
Sunshine warmed his face as he finally mounted the steps to the mansion terrace. For the first time in a long time he felt completely relaxed. At least until he reached the final step, and the mansion's occupant came into view, sipping tea at a table.
“You.”
“Welcome, Allen Walker.” The tall man leaned back in his seat and took an appreciative drag of his cigarette. Tendrils of smoke trickled over his lips as he stretched them in a smile at the Exorcist.
“INNOCENCE, ACTIVATE.” Allen took a defensive pose and prepared for the tingle of activation throughout his body. The absence of sensation left him breathless and wide-eyed at the anti-climax.
“Now Allen, none of that. It would be impolite to fight now, after all the effort we put into meeting here...” He reached out with a foot and elegantly pushed out the chair opposite him. “Won't you sit?”
Allen stood resolutely where he was.
“You killed me.”
“And yet you're still here.”
“Why are you here?!”
“Well... for one thing, I'm bored. And I think you must be too, to be dreaming of me.”
Allen relaxed. “This is...just a dream?”
“Well... maybe not just. Will you sit?” The Noah rested his hand on his chin and raised an eyebrow at Allen's reluctance. “I won't hurt you.”
Allen stared back into the man's hypnotic gold eyes, remembering the last time he'd seen them, above that same lazy smile. Slowly he came over and sat stiffly opposite the Noah.
“It occurs to me I never got a chance to pay you back for cheating me out of my clothes, boy.”
Allen's eyes narrowed.
“It occurs to me I never got a chance to pay you back for having your creepy butterfly eat my heart.”
The man's mouth twisted into an offended pout. “They're called Tease!”
“Whatever.” The man broke into a laugh, making Allen jump.
“Well then, this would seem to be the perfect opportunity for a little revenge.. Afterall, I'm bored, and I can't leave until you wake up.”
“What did you have in mind?” Allen's free hand drifted to his left shoulder and he tensed.
“How about a game?” The Noah placed his cigarette in an elaborate ashtray in front of him. He smirked at the boy, “I enjoy games... in case you don't remember.”
“Fine. We'll play a game. Poker.” A dark smile crossed his face at the thought. He may not be able to physically beat this man, but poker was one game he'd never lose at.
The Noah removed his top hat (which was a ridiculous adornment, Allen decided. This man had tortured his colleagues and yet insisted on trying to appear as a gentleman.) and casually pulled pack of cards from inside, marked with his trademark skull-joker.
“What are you, the Mad Hatter?”
“Wouldn't that make you Alice? What a pity you didn't bring your rabbit along to complete the collection.”
Allen gritted his teeth and resolved to completely thrash the man. Even in a dream, even in a game of cards, punishing him would be extremely cathartic. He watched the man shuffle elaborately, his hands wreathed in the smoke from his dying cigarette. Besides, he'd insinuated that Allen was a girl.
“Stop stalling and deal. If I have to be here till I wake up, I'd rather spend my time beating you.”
“We'll see, boy.” The Noah appeared slightly affronted at him, as if surprised that Allen could possibly be so rude. He began to deal, Allen watching him with eagle eyes for any sign of bad dealing.
They begun the game in silence, Allen already feeling confident as he replaced one of his cards with a spare from his sleeve. He sat, hunched over his cards, curved tightly in his hands so the Noah couldn't see them. This seemed to amuse the gentleman greatly.
“Why are you so tense, Allen? You know I can't hurt you here.” In the blink of an eye he vanished to reappear behind Allen, gloved hands resting delicately on shoulders that stiffened at the touch. For a dream it was incredibly vivid. He could feel the man's breath on his cheek, warm as he whispered in his ear. “Do you know who I am Allen?” Fingertips started to massage his shoulder blades. “I'm the Noah of Pleasure.” He purred the last word seductively. Allen smacked his hands away.
“Get back to the game. Stop trying to see my cards.” Allen's eyebrow twitched in annoyance. This was obviously a distraction technique and there was no way he'd let it get to him.
“I know what you're doing, trying to distract me and it won't work.”
“It seems to be working just fine so far.”
Allen's lip curled at Tyki's crude attempts to see his cards. He bristled, trying to think of something insulting to say, but he was perhaps a little too nice to be able to think of a truly barbed insult, making his own strategy seem more than a little peculiar. "Well... you fight like a cow!"
Tyki pulled a face, looking rather undignified. "I'm quite offended, Allen, but how is that even remotely relevant? Is this your own form of distraction technique?"
“Is it working?”
“Not really. You should work on your insults.”
The Noah sat back in his chair and took out his cards again. The game continued, only interrupted by the delicate tapping of his cigarette into the ashtray. Allen was growing bored with it all, and looked up with a sigh as his opponent delicately drew another two cards... from the bottom of the pack, his fingers slipping through the cards on top. Allen firmly placed his hand over the Noah's, preventing him from withdrawing his arm.
“If you're going to cheat, try to be less blatant about it. Anyway, how come you can use your powers but I can't use my arm?”
“Who knows? Your dream is governed by your subconscious, not mine. Maybe you like the idea of being powerless near me.” He leaned across the table in an intimidating manner, craning his neck to see Allen's hand.
Allen flushed, his mind racing. His own psyche was against him! And of all the people to conjure up for this torture... Did he really want to be powerless against this man? No... of course not. He'd just felt powerless before... so this was just a manifestation of it. Obviously. Using the card game was his mind's way of rationalising a win against this man and healing the defeat. He nodded to himself. Of course that was it. Nothing like what this man was insinuating. Honestly, his playboy attitude was worse than Cross'. Allen raised his hand and pushed the man's face away, imbued with new confidence.
“I think not. Sit.” The man resigned back to his chair. Allen smiled at the victory and relaxed a little, taking the time to enjoy truly crushing this psychological obstacle.
Five minutes later his confidence was rattled once again when his patient construction of a devastating flush was interrupted suddenly by a movement on his leg. Risking a glance down he saw the elegant man's legs brushing his own with a nonchalance that made him unbelievably uncomfortable.
“W-What do you think you're doing?”
“Like I said, I am the Noah of Pleasure.” He fanned himself with his hand of cards. “I'm enjoying it. Why... aren't you?”
“I don't find that at all pleasurable!” Allen squeaked.
There was a clatter from under the table. Tyki leaned underneath and tutted. “A spare deck? I'm surprised at you Allen. I thought you were a good old-fashioned sleight of hand con-artist, not a double deck trickster.”
“Gotta move with the times.” Allen muttered as he swiped some cards from the bottom of the deck only to drop them as his opponent ran a hand up his leg. He kicked out and was pleased to see the man withdraw.
“Tch. You got my glove dirty.”
“Your fault. Play the game.”
“I am playing.”
“Play THIS game!”
To Allen's relief, the Noah sat back and began to play again. He just wished the man would stop smiling like that. And staring. To his unending horror, he found himself blushing under the sharp golden gaze, which only seemed to amuse his annoying opponent more. Frowning he began to pull out all his best tricks to finish the game as soon as possible.
“I win.” Allen slammed the cards down, more unnerved by the Noah's increasingly playful behaviour than he'd let on. “I'm going to wake up now and forget this.”
The Noah seemed disappointed in him. “I don't think you're quite ready yet. How about another game? Old Maid? Snap?”
Allen finally snapped, and slammed both hands down on the table, leaning forward into the man's face, bristling with anger.
“NO! I don't want to play games with you.”
Instead of backing off, this only seemed to amuse him more and Allen suddenly found himself nose to nose with his enemy. The man's fingers reached up to grip his chin firmly.
“Ah, so you want to get serious with me hmm?” His other arm whipped out to snake round Allen's shoulders. Allen struggled, desperately trying to activate his Innocence. “Afterall, you're the one who came here unarmed, made yourself helpless in front of me... Maybe you're just playing a different game.” As Allen tried to jerk his head out of the man's hand, the Noah dragged his chin down and pressed his lips firmly against Allen's. Allen's eyes widened and his struggles increased. He felt the sensation of falling, the man falling with, and then through him as the sights of the dream disappeared.
He awoke in a panic, flinging himself out of bed and struggling to extricate himself from his tangled, sweaty sheets. He felt exceptionally dirty all over, and definitely couldn't sleep anymore. What the hell was wrong with his subconscious to dream up that?
“A walk... fresh air...”
He stood up and dragged his coat over himself, shuddering as he tried to purge the memory from his mind. As he shoved his hand roughly into his sleeves, two of his reserve cards dropped out of the lining to fall at his feet. Absentmindedly he turned them over to reveal the King of Hearts and a Joker. He smiled as he remembered Lenalee telling him that one could use playing cards to tell tarot. Apparently the turning of cards revealed specific things about a person. He looked at them again, hand shaking, before crumpling them and walking out of the room. She'd also mentioned there being a bar near here. That would do for a start.
Across the other side of the world, Road looked up as Tyki closed the elaborate door to her kingdom.
“How was the field-trip?” she asked, waving the entrance away with one hand as she ran to greet him.
“It was... pleasurable. Afterall, the best games to play are inside peoples' minds.” He adjusted his top hat to cover the grin spreading across his grey face.
“Come on, the Earl wants to see us. And you have to help with my homework.” Road took his hand and began to pull him away. Laughing, he let her drag him away, letting his cards fall to the floor, all but two, which he slid into the band of his hat. The King of Hearts, and behind it, the Joker. He had to leave some hints afterall.
This is another High Seas fic that mutated from what I originally had in mind. I had fun writing though, Tyki is just far too fun. He rather reminds me of Frank Sinatra... I was so tempted to include an omake with Allen's response to an impromptu dance number from Tyki.
There's a subtle gaming reference hidden in this fic :3 The first person to guess where it's from... well... you can either have the rather cliche virtual cookie or you can choose what pairing I write next.
Really do have to thank timydamonkey for her help in this, dialogue, prompt and company.