Death is in Love with Us 2/(?)
Title: Death is in Love with Us
Pairings: LaviYuu/ LaviAre in equal parts.
Rating: PG13-esque...
Warning: AU, no surprise there. Um....OOC, most likely, again no surprise there... Nothing too bad though...not at the moment, at least.
Disclaimer: Story line insp' by "As the Death God Dictates," by Mimori Ao. Characters are Hoshino's~
Summary: Lavi's going to die in a month. He shouldn't be aware of this, but he his, and it's all because he can see the shinigami that plans to kill him! So now Lavi's got one month to confess to the Kanda Yuu, the love of his slowly ending life. There's just one problem with confessing; Death is falling in love with him...And isn't above using unfair means to get rid of Kanda...
Ah, Saya's got no idea where her original estimation for 10 chapters came from D: She's blazing through the original story so quickly that this will probably end with five chapters at most. Anyway....Not much in the way of Lavlen in this chapter, but plenty of LaviYuu. Lavlen gets the next chapter though. And probably the chapter after that ^^; Saya really should've writen this whole thing out before posting D:
2. My Name
“29 days…huh.” Lavi couldn’t even find it in himself to feel depressed when he realized he’d wasted a whole day just being upset over his death. He knew about it now, and sure he didn’t want it, but should he really be wasting his precious last days like this? In a way he was lucky; since he knew ahead of time he could make sure he didn’t waste his last days.
“29 days?” Kanda repeated, reminding Lavi that he was still in the room with him. Lavi shook himself out of his revelry and looked back at Kanda.
“Huh? Oh yeah, that’s how many days I’ve got left, it seems. So the countdown has begun…” The redhead sighed forlornly, he didn’t know if he wanted to just curl up and wallow in self-pity for the next month, or just give up everything he’d ever worked on in favor of spending his last few weeks goofing off and having fun.
“Well, you sound wonderfully resigned,” Kanda said, looking very unhappy about this. Lavi shrugged, he was starting to feel numb already. Perhaps it would be best if he just lived his last days out doing what he usually did? That way if he didn’t really die he wouldn’t have to worry about having messed his life up too badly?
“I’m just…very unsure of what to do at this point,” Lavi answered honestly; really, he was surprised Kanda didn’t think he was crazy. Could Kanda really just sit there and watch him talk to what seemed to be nothing, and then really believe he was sane? Maybe Yuu really did have a lot of faith in him.
“Hey Yuu, why are you even listenin’ to what I’m saying? I mean, I know I sound crazy right now.”
“You do sound crazy, yes,” Kanda said bluntly, and for a moment Lavi’s shoulders sagged in defeat, “But you also look afraid, like you really believe you’re going to die. Besides, I know how you are when you’re lying, I can tell you aren’t. To you, at least, that thing is real, so we’ve got to get rid of it.”
Lavi sort of wanted to turn into a blubbering mess and hug Yuu at the moment. So he really believed that Lavi was seeing this thing? Lavi had always known Kanda was a good friend, but this was just amazing.
“Putting aside that the thing following you is a death god and out for your hide,” Kanda said, bring Lavi’s wandering attention back to him, “there’s someone following you around, and you don’t like it, right?”
“Right.”
“Then I’ll find a way to get rid of it, so don’t worry over it too much by yourself.” Lavi looked up at Kanda; now he was offering to help, too? When had Kanda become so giving? Usually he just stayed out of anything that didn’t involve him, and yet here he was, sticking his nose into Lavi’s problem.
“You always try to do everything yourself. Let me… think with you for once, you ass.” Lavi’s expression turned into one of surprise. Had Kanda really just said that? Boy, he sure was full of surprises today. Abruptly, Kanda stood up and headed for the curtain that was pulled around Lavi’s cot. Lavi was sure that Kanda had done this to hide his face from him. No doubt he was red up to his ears now.
“For now, let’s just get you home, you’re in no condition to be in school,” Yuu said quickly, as though the air in the infirmary was suddenly too stifling for him. Lavi grinned just a bit at this, and got up to follow Yuu home.
000
“Hey, Yuu,” Lavi called out just as Kanda was turning to leave his apartment for the night.
“What?” Kanda looked back over his shoulder, giving Lavi a curious look.
“Thanks for believin’ me, even though I probably sounded insane to ya,” Lavi said with a small but genuine smile. Kanda turned to face forward again quickly, but Lavi could tell that the boy was probably blushing.
“Yeah well, that’s because you’re the one who said it,” Kanda said, looking over his shoulder one last time to stare Lavi in the eye. The redhead’s lone green eye widened just a bit, and Kanda rolled his eyes. “Don’t you get it yet?” He asked, and then made a calm retreat that left Lavi feeling exceptionally fluttery. All he could get himself to think was that Yuu was really cool sometimes, as juvenile as that sounded.
000
Lavi’s spirits couldn’t be higher while still being within his physical body at the moment. Sure, he was heading out to school, which had become a complete waste of time for him since he’d learned he was going to die, but he couldn’t get what Kanda had said out of his mind! It had definitely sounded like Kanda was confessing in his own roundabout way, but that could’ve just been his own mind embellishing his memory…
So he hummed a happy little tune that he’d heard on the radio the night before at his part-time job. It was an English song and he was pretty sure it was from the mid-80s but well, the 80’s would never die.
That morning would’ve been just dandy, if it hadn’t been ruined by the horrified scream that had come from some girl who was also walking to school that morning, and the screeching sound of tires slipping over asphalt. Lavi looked around wildly to find the source of the disruption, and saw that a truck was swerving dangerously, trying to stay on the narrow road. The girl who had screamed was most likely on one of the girls from the group closest to the car.
“Oh goodness! That’s horrible!” One yelled, pointing to the side of the road. Lavi grimaced when he saw the fresh road kill. It was a dog, it seemed, a small one, probably a stray. One of the girls called the pound to clean it up, and then they moved on, leaving just Lavi at the scene.
And that was when he showed up, the shinigami. Slowly he materialized next to the dog and kneeled down on the ground next to it. He gently tapped the top of the stray’s head, which was thankfully still in one piece. A gentle light enveloped the dog before leaving it in the form of a small orb. The death god picked it up and lifted it to the sky. Shining, the orb that Lavi could only assume was the animal’s soul levitated, and then popped. The clouds in the sky seemed to split just so that the soul could ascend beyond them.
Lavi stared at the shinigami with wide eyes, feeling just a bit moved by how beautiful that had been. He had always been easily touched by beautiful things (that was probably one of the reasons Lavi had been attracted to Kanda when they were younger), so something like that really made him want to take a minute to appreciate it. If death was that pretty, maybe it wasn’t so bad?
Of course, that display had not been nearly enough to prepare him for what came next. The shinigami turned and spotted him, but all Lavi noticed when he did were the tears that streaked down his face, rolling down that bizarre scar on the left side of his face. This, watching a shinigami cry, was also beautiful in a morbid way.
Lavi was so entranced that he hardly noticed when the pound workers came to take the dog away. The shinigami watched as they took its body away, before wiping his eyes and sitting in the grass. He looked so alone, sitting huddled on the ground with his knees pulled up to his chest and the tear streaks still on his face. Lavi couldn’t help himself, he walked over and sat next to the shinigami.
“So even death gods cry, hm?” Lavi asked, trying to sound nonchalant; he knew he wouldn’t want anyone bringing special attention to him crying in public. For a moment the shinigami didn’t answer.
“Dogs…are nice,” it said after a moment of silence. Lavi wanted to make one of those little “Awe” noises that his fans always made when Kanda abused him in class. This cute little shinigami was crying over a dog it had never met before just because he liked dogs? That was just too precious.
“Don’t worry kid, the dog was sparkling and happy when it went up, right? Nothin’ to worry ‘bout!” Lavi said, attempting to cheer the kid up. Why was he trying to cheer up a shinigami though? The very shinigami that would kill him in 28 days, at that! What, was he going to try and cheer it up when it cried over his death? Would it bother to cry over a human, or did this one only like dogs?
Lavi dug through his bag and took out the apple he’d brought in his lunch, offering it to the shinigami. Said death god just raised an eyebrow at him.
“Death gods don’t eat.”
“What? No way, I thought they loved apples! That’s the last time I listen to a manga when it concerns shinigami…” Lavi pouted a bit at the injustice done to him.
“It’s true. I’m not human, so I don’t get hungry or tired or anything. I guess I could eat if I felt like doing something weird but… I’m not exactly tangible in the plane of the living,” the shinigami said, and Lavi noted how the apple went right through his hand when he tried to pick it up.
“Then how come I can touch you?” Lavi asked, with a curious expression.
“I don’t know, you’re weird.”
“How blunt… But anyway, while I’m asking questions, what’s your name? You know mine but I don’t know yours… I’m getting tired of thinking of you as ‘the shinigami,’ or other such variants of that,” Lavi said, and shifted to face the shinigami.
“No answer.”
“Come on, tell me. It can’t be that embarrassing.”
“Like I said, I have no answer.”
“So you don’t have a name?”
“Of course not,” the shinigami gave Lavi a look like he was slow, “What do I need a name for? I mean, people can’t see me, except for you, and shinigami rarely ever work together. We have no families either, we just sort of…appear one day, and know what to do. With no friends or family, what’s the point of having a name?”
While Lavi couldn’t deny that having a name was pointless when there was no one to call it, he still felt that a nameless existence was a lonely one. He could only imagine how much more bleak it must’ve seemed, knowing that he didn’t really have an identity, not even on his own plane of existence. His expression must’ve been one of pity, for the shinigami went on.
“I exist to do my job and guide souls to Heaven, that’s it. I won’t age or die, I’ll just be happy doing what I do.”
“But that’s still so lonely,” Lavi said before he could stop himself. He knew a thing or two about being lonely, especially since his parents had been dead for so long. His apartment felt empty with just him in it, that’s why he’d always loved it when Kanda came over, because then he wasn’t alone.
“So you mean to say you’ve never eaten good food, or just kicked back with a few good friends? Can you really be happy doing that for the rest of eternity? How can you say that? I’d rather die than have to live like that! How can you just be okay with that?” Lavi couldn’t help but feel a bit enraged on the shinigami’s behalf; what being in the universe had thought it was a good idea to make such lonely creatures? It was cruel.
“I suppose one can’t miss what one had never had.”
“Say that all ya want but I’m not buying it!” Lavi declared, giving the shinigami a stern look. It looked back at him with curiosity, probably wondering why he was so angry. Lavi wondered the same thing.
“If you don’t have a name, then we’ll start there! I’m gonna give you a name, right here, right now!” Lavi exclaimed, standing up in his excitement. The shinigami scoffed.
“Don’t need one.”
“AHA! You don’t need one, but you didn’t say you don’t want one!” Lavi pointed down at the shinigami with a grin, he was making progress in his mind. The shinigami blushed a bit at this and Lavi contemplated how strange it was that a shinigami could do that. Then it shook its head, as though embarrassed.
“No, no, I don’t need or want one!”
“Come on kid, even if it’s just me, I wanna call you by name,” Lavi said with a smile. For a moment the shinigami looked too surprised to speak, and Lavi took that time to think of a name. The ghost was a foreigner, clearly, so it needed a foreign name… and well it was a he, and a cute he at that, so he needed a cute, short, simple name…
“Hey, you know… giving me a name won’t change the fact that I’m killing you in 28 days,” the shinigami said, which totally killed Lavi’s giving mood for good. He hit his forehead hard, cursing and calling himself stupid under his breath. For a moment he couldn’t help but think of the shinigami as just a cute kid and had forgotten that he was trying to name a shinigami. Damn it all.
“You forgot about school, too.”
“Oh hell! Yuu-chan must be so worried now!” Lavi said, and quickly turned to run towards the school.
‘Idiot! Getting all buddy-buddy with a shinigami!’
“Lavi.” Said redhead stopped in his tracks when he heard that innocent-sounding voice call out to him. Why did that shinigami sound so sweet, and why hadn’t he noticed it sooner?
“I’m looking forward to a name,” he said, and gave Lavi what had to be one of the most pure smiles he’d ever seen in his life. Lavi couldn’t help but nod in an almost shy way before turning to dash towards school. He refused to admit that it was the shinigami’s fault, but his heart was pounding just a bit and his face felt a bit hot.
Was that kid really a death god? Lavi wasn’t afraid of him at all, he actually found the kid to be cute and sweet. He had smiled and cried over a dog, just because he liked dogs. He’d even said he was looking forward to being named. He seemed far too sweet and gentle to be a god of death.
‘I can’t get myself to dislike that kid.’
000
Lavi was panting and breathing heavily when he finally made it to his classroom. He was happy that he’d made it in time for second period, but he still couldn’t believe that he’d just sat around and talked to a shinigami and missed his first class. Just as his breath evened out, he was hit over the head roughly.
“Ow….pain…” Lavi whined and turned around to see who’d hit him; he already knew who of course, Kanda’s knuckles had made a permanent indentation on his head, he was sure.
“Are you an idiot?” Kanda asked looking very annoyed with Lavi. “One day you’re saying you’re going to die and the next you don’t come into school on time. Your little friends were having fits all through first lesson.”
Lavi blinked a few times before what Kanda said sunk in. Oh, right, Lenalee and Daisya knew about the death god thing, he’d probably really spooked them by coming in so late. Judging from Kanda’s anger, he was probably worried too and just didn’t want to admit it. Despite himself, a smile crept onto his lips at the thought.
“And now you’re smiling. You know, some girl told me that she’d seen you talking to yourself earlier this morning by the roadside, are you going insane?” Kanda asked, giving Lavi a skeptical look. Lavi pouted and shook his head.
“No! I was talking to that shinigami and sorta got…caught up? And I was just smiling ‘cause I was happy to think you were worried about me!” Lavi huffed. Kanda made a surprised expression that bordered on denial. Clearly he was going to deny worrying.
“I-Idiot! I said your two friends had been worried, not me! I don’t worry,” Kanda said, scoffing in a forced manner and turning his face away. Lavi made a little “I don’t believe that for a second” smirk that was almost cat-like.
“Sure ya don’t Yuu-chan, sure ya don’t. But in any case, I’m here now, no need to freak out,” Lavi said with an apologetic smile. Kanda looked him over to be sure he seemed alright, before grabbing his arm and pulling him toward the classroom.
“Yeah, you are, and we’ve got a plan to make sure you stay here…”
‘A plan..?’
000
“Lavi..!” Lenalee was misty-eyed with relief when she saw Kanda leading Lavi into the classroom. Aside from the fact that most of the class was surprised to see Kanda making non-violent physical contact with someone and was therefore gawking, Lavi felt a bit awkward because of just how much his friends were worried. It was sweet, but guilt-inspiring.
“You’re a jerk to have worried us like that!” Daisya said, pouting. Lavi heard Kanda scoff and suspected he’d rolled his eyes, and sat down with the same sorry grin he’d had on his face since he’d first seen Kanda.
“Sorry, sorry…just got sort of caught up this morning,” Lavi said, hoping to stop the worry before Lenalee really broke into tears. She pouted at him, showing that she didn’t appreciate the vague excuse but let it slide.
Daisya sighed in a relieved way before saying, “Well, at least you’re alright. Really! You told us about that evil spirit-”
“-Shinigami.”
“Fine, that shinigami yesterday and really freaked us out! Do you know how many worst-case scenarios went through our heads when you didn’t show up? But it’s okay now, you’re here now. Kanda-kun was telling us about it this morning, and we all decided that we’d bring you to my church to have it exorcized. Tiedoll-san will be sure to get rid of it!”
“Yuu-chan…?” Lavi’s eye widened and he looked back to Kanda, who once again had his head down on his desk. He let out a little “Che” but didn’t look up at them.
“You two have damned big mouths. Couldn’t wait to tell him until after school, could you?” He muttered, and the three friends couldn’t help but chuckle a bit.
“So…you asked them about exorcizing it?” Lavi asked. He was starting to feel uneasy about getting rid of it. He didn’t really know why the idea was so worrying, but he just felt wrong about exorcizing the boy.
“Yeah, I did. What about it?” Kanda asked in that gruff, angry voice that he usually used to cover up his embarrassment.
“Nothin’, just…thanks,” Lavi said, not really sure how to tell Kanda or his friends about his unease. How strange would it seem if he said, “Please don’t exorcize my shinigami! He’s cute.” Besides, they were all just worried about him, he should be grateful.
Class started, but Lavi was too unfocused to pay attention; luckily he was one of those people who could learn without paying attention. Would he really be able to get rid of the shinigami? Would the exorcism work, or would it just make the shinigami angry at him? What if it did work? Would it kill the shinigami, or just make him go back to where he came from? And if it didn’t die and didn’t get pissed at him and kill him early, then what would he name it?
‘If he’s gone, I might be saved…I might not die. If he’s gone…’ Lavi thought back to the teary face of the shinigami as it cried over a stray dog when it died (would the shinigami cry for him, too?), and his smile when he said he was looking forward to a name. Could Lavi really stand to hurt that kid? Maybe exorcism was painless, then he wouldn’t feel so bad…
‘Don’t think about it Lavi! You’ve got a life to live, you can’t let it end just because you have a cute shinigami after you. You’ve gotta graduate, you’ve gotta really tell Yuu that you like him! You can’t die yet!’
000
Lavi blinked when he walked into the church Daisya had lead them too. He himself wasn’t a religious person, and neither was Lenalee, Kanda was a Buddhist who didn’t actually give a damn about Buddhism. Daisya was one of the few Christians Lavi knew (they didn’t exactly run rampant in their town), and he happened to live on the same street as the priest at this church.
So when Lavi saw the church that’d he overlooked a million times on the way to work, he was surprised to find that it was there. He was a bit more surprised to find the resident priest not doing…whatever priests usually do, but instead messily painting with oil paints on a drawing board. His cassock was smudged with blues and yellows and reds, and there was a bit of paint on his face, too.
He looked up when the four walked into the church and smiled in a fatherly way when he saw them. He put his half-finished painting on one of the pews, before walking over to them.
“Hello Daisya-kun, is one of these three the friend you told me about?” The man asked, as he looked over the four teens. His eyes immediately stopped on Lavi. “It’s the redhead, right?”
“Yeah Tiedoll-san, he’s the one with the ghost problem,” Daisya answered with an easy-going smile. Clearly he felt much more comfortable here than anyone else did. Lavi was about to sigh and remind them all that it was a shinigami, for Heaven’s sake, but the kindly priest told them to wait as he went into a back room and changed into a clean cassock.
The four teens sat in the front pew, and while Daisya and Lenalee occupied themselves by admiring the priest’s painting, Kanda and Lavi sat in a slightly awkward silence.
“Yeah well, that’s because you’re the one who said it. Don’t you get it yet?”
Lavi really wanted to ask Kanda what he had meant the other day when he’d said that, but he was unsure of whether or not Kanda would actually answer him. Besides, it seemed like something he should already know the answer to, and Lavi had his suspicions but he didn’t dare believe them. But he had to ask, and he had to do it soon! If this exorcism thing didn’t work then Lavi would really only have a month to live, and he couldn’t waste that time being indecisive.
Quickly, Lavi looked around to see if the shinigami was hanging around, or if anyone was paying attention to him. Thankfully the death god wasn’t there and Lenalee and Daisya were still talking about something else. Screwing up him courage for this one question, Lavi finally asked, “Yuu, what did you mean yesterday… when you said that…stuff?” Goodness, he couldn’t even get himself to be specific, Lavi was so lame.
Kanda looked surprised by the question, whether it was because he was surprised that Lavi had asked, or he was surprised because Lavi had to ask at all, the redhead wasn’t sure. All he knew was that it was becoming increasingly difficult to look Yuu in the face.
Kanda opened his mouth to answer, but was interrupted when the priest, Tiedoll-san, walked back into the room. They definitely couldn’t talk about their odd relationship in a church, could they? Lavi cursed in his mind; it figured that the priest would be ready just as he had asked that ever-so-important question…!
Lavi had to say though, Tiedoll looked a lot more like a priest now than he had a moment before. Lavi had doubted him at first, but now he seemed a bit more legitimate.
“So tell me about the spirit that has been following you around,” Tiedoll said, standing before Lavi. The redhead described how the shinigami looked and what it had said, and Tiedoll just nodded and made the occasional comment about him.
“Well, it seems that this shinigami is affixed to you, bothering you from the outside but not going in… In which case, I know the perfect ritual. Wait here a moment.” Once again the old priest went into the back room, and after a moment returned with something that looked like a small fountain. He placed it down in front of the group, and put a small white candle on top of what looked to be the spout of the fountain. Soon enough the old man had filled the lower bowl with water (probably Holy water, Lavi thought with a mental snort).
“This is an exorcism rite unique to this church,” Tiedoll explained, “It’s fairly simple, I will call the spirit here by lighting the candle. The melted wax will fall into the water, and when the candle has melted completely, the spirit will be gone. The candle is a representation of the spirit, burning it will exorcize the spirit.”
‘Burning…’ Lavi wondered how painful this would be for the shinigami. It sort of felt like Lavi was betraying the shinigami in some way…He was the one who had made the death god look forward to being named, he was the one that had been kind first… But Lavi wasn’t going to give up his life over a bit of guilt! He couldn’t die yet…
Tiedoll lit the candle with a long match, and Lavi secretly prayed that the shinigami wouldn’t come. His prayers were not answered however, for a moment later the kid was floating right next to Tiedoll, blinking curiously at the candle.
“Lavi-san, did you call me here with this weird candle?” He asked, peering at Lavi through his silver bangs. Lavi looked at the priest, who was focused on reciting some prayer or other. He didn’t seem to notice the shinigami’s presence.
“Ugh…I feel ill, what are you doing here…?” The shinigami certainly looked worse for wear, and Lavi had to blame the candle for it. That meant that the exorcism was actually working, wasn’t it? Lavi was unsure of how to feel about that.
Suddenly, the boy made a pained expression, and clutched at the material over his chest. It gave a little groan of pain, and stumbled back.
“What’s going on, Lavi…?” He asked through pained gasps. Clearly the shinigami was in pain, and Lavi wasn’t sure if he could watch this until the end. The death god swayed on its feet before dropping to its knees. He clutched his head as though he was hearing something particularly grating. “Ah…Lavi, make it stop…!”
Lavi squirmed uncomfortably in his seat. This was too hard to watch, it was too much to hear. He couldn’t think beyond that fact that the shinigami was in pain and asking for his help! He was starting to get upset by this in a way that he shouldn’t have been. Sure, the kid was a death god, but it wasn’t a bad spirit, so why did it have to suffer?
When the shinigami fell to the floor, still looking at him pleadingly, Lavi shot up from his seat. He wanted to live a long life, but there had to be a less painful way to get rid of this shinigami and the death sentence that loomed over Lavi’s head!
“Be patient, Lavi-san, the candle is almost out,” Tiedoll said, misinterpreting Lavi’s movement as one of excitement. For one last moment Lavi hesitated, because he couldn’t think of any other way to get rid of his problem but…
He walked forward and kicked the small fountain over. The water sloshed over the sides and onto the wood-paneled floors, the candle went out just before reaching the end of the wick.
“Phew…it’s out… It’s ok now, you’re safe,” Lavi said, feeling relieved. He looked over to the shinigami, but found it was still lying on the ground. For a moment, Lavi panicked; maybe he had not acted quickly enough and the shinigami had died…? But shinigami weren’t supposed to die, right? Even as he thought that, Lavi couldn’t help but think that he had just killed the death god.
‘Oh goodness, I think I did…’
“Pft…” Wait. That wasn’t a sound of death.
“Hehe… hahaha…” Lavi’s jaw dropped. The shinigami was laughing. Laughing. Hadn’t he just been in pain a few seconds before? There was no way that the kid could just recover like that, unless…
The shinigami looked back at Lavi with a devilish grin on his face. “Fail,” it said, before laughing more.
‘That bastard.’
“Sorry, but you can’t get rid of me,” the shinigami said once it came back to its senses. “There is no human being on earth that has power over a death god. Exorcisms work on spirits, but I’m not a ghost. Let’s not try any mean tricks like that again, okay Lavi-san?” The shinigami wagged a scolding finger at Lavi, who pouted and shrank back to sulk.
“Still…I guess it’s… sort of nice to know that you were worried about hurting me…” Suddenly the shinigami wasn’t teasing him, it looked nearly flustered when it said that. The kid was even blushing a bit, and Lavi still found it weird that a shinigami could do that. Darn, that death god was too adorable for his own good… too cute for Lavi’s good, too.
“Um… Lavi?” Lavi’s back straightened and he turned around to look at his three confused friends and one curious priest. Kanda was walking towards him with a cautious expression. “Is something wrong…?”
Lavi was unsure of how to respond to that. He couldn’t just say “But the poor dear was in pain, I couldn’t let you kill him,” and he couldn’t just say that the exorcism was a dud. It didn’t seem like either comment would be appreciated. As everyone started questioning him about what he’d just done, who he’d been talking to and the like, Lavi cursed the shinigami to hell for tricking him.
000
“I’m so sorry… I know you guys went through a lot to set that up for me and that you’re all worried and everything… But, well…He looked like he was really dying, painfully at that, and I couldn’t watch that…Of course, the kid turned out to be acting through the whole thing. I wasn’t really expecting that, the kid seems so sweet and innocent; you wouldn’t think he’d pull something like that…”
Lavi sighed when Kanda didn’t answer him. Because they lived near each other they were walking home together, but Kanda wouldn’t answer him. Lavi could understand why, after all to Kanda it must’ve looked like Lavi had saved the shinigami from being exorcized. Well he had, but it wasn’t really saving because the kid had never been in any danger in the first place.
“I guess I just thought he was a nicer guy than that, or somethin’…” Lavi mumbled, scuffing his feet on the ground. Kanda turned to glare at him incredulously, and Lavi stopped in his tracks. It was rare to see Kanda glare at him with such venom.
“Sweet? Innocent? A nice guy? What the hell Lavi, why are you getting all buddy-buddy with a death god that’s after your head? You get us all worried one day because you’re so upset by this guy, and then the next day you’re talking like that thing is your long-time friend!” Kanda sounded so indignant; Lavi couldn’t do much but let him rant on. “He’s a shinigami, not a nice guy!”
“I…I know it seems stupid…but he likes dogs, actually cried when one died. Yeah, I was afraid at first, but then I talked to him and he was more cute than scary…It was just too hard to hate ‘im.” Kanda gaped incredulously at him, and Lavi wondered what he said that was so crazy.
“Che, you think it’s cute? I should’ve figured something was up when you gave the priest that unnecessarily detailed description of it…You’ve been checking out the shinigami!”
“What?” Lavi was genuinely confused there. Yuu thought he was looking at the shinigami in that way…? And if his reaction was anything to go by, he was jealous too, wasn’t he? But that wasn’t the point, the point was that Kanda was stupid enough to think that Lavi would really look at anyone but him!
“Maybe you’ve fallen for the shinigami…” Kanda said in a way that was almost, almost upset. He turned from Lavi and started walking forward again, and Lavi ran to his side to stop him.
“Wait, ya can’t seriously think that Yuu!”
“I could tell that you didn’t really want to go through with the exorcism, even from the beginning. You like the thing Lavi.”
“I do not!” Kanda gave Lavi an annoyed glare, as though he was pissed that Lavi would dare to lie to him about something like that. Clearly, he didn’t believe Lavi, he actually doubted Lavi!
“Don’t be such an ass Yuu-chan! Clearly the only person I love is Yuu!” Lavi declared much more loudly than he’d meant to. For a moment, there was silence as Kanda stared at Lavi with wide eyes, a rosy blush creeping across his cheeks. Lavi had always wondered what sort of expression Kanda would make when he finally worked up the nerve to tell him that, but he’d never imagined Yuu would look so… well, beautiful.
“Uh, I …Ah… God, I’m an idiot…!” Lavi looked around for something to hit his head on when his embarrassment got to be too much for him. He wasn’t supposed to confess like that, and besides he wasn’t good enough for Yuu yet! Why couldn’t he just crawl into a hole and die already? He beckoned to the shinigami, wherever it as, to kill him now.
“Lavi,” Kanda said when it seemed that Lavi wasn’t going to calm down any time soon. Lavi was too busy trying do decide between fleeing and just killing himself then and there to even think that it would be possible for Kanda to not reject him.
“Lavi,” Kanda called again with a bit more force in his voice, and took the redhead by the shoulders. Lavi jumped at the contact and immediately started to apologize for just springing that on his friend.
“I am so sorry I just said that. It must’ve been real awkward to hear, just pretend ya didn’t hear tha-” Lavi was cut off when a pair of soft lips- lips he’d never really thought he’d get a chance to taste for himself.
Holy hell, Kanda Yuu was kissing him.
‘Well, I’d better kiss back before he gets the wrong idea,’ Lavi thought happily, and took control of the kiss. Kanda was sweet, softer than Lavi had imagined, but somehow it suited him perfectly. This was most definitely the happiest moment in his young life, and he wouldn’t have minded at all if he was struck down now.
Lavi was still thankful that he wasn’t actually struck down though. When the two pulled apart, Lavi smiled sheepishly at Yuu, who blushed and averted his eyes. Neither of them could really think of anything to say after that, so instead Lavi just took Kanda’s hand and led him home, face flushed all the while.
Neither of them noticed the scowling shinigami that hid behind the trees.
Pairings: LaviYuu/ LaviAre in equal parts.
Rating: PG13-esque...
Warning: AU, no surprise there. Um....OOC, most likely, again no surprise there... Nothing too bad though...not at the moment, at least.
Disclaimer: Story line insp' by "As the Death God Dictates," by Mimori Ao. Characters are Hoshino's~
Summary: Lavi's going to die in a month. He shouldn't be aware of this, but he his, and it's all because he can see the shinigami that plans to kill him! So now Lavi's got one month to confess to the Kanda Yuu, the love of his slowly ending life. There's just one problem with confessing; Death is falling in love with him...And isn't above using unfair means to get rid of Kanda...
Ah, Saya's got no idea where her original estimation for 10 chapters came from D: She's blazing through the original story so quickly that this will probably end with five chapters at most. Anyway....Not much in the way of Lavlen in this chapter, but plenty of LaviYuu. Lavlen gets the next chapter though. And probably the chapter after that ^^; Saya really should've writen this whole thing out before posting D:
2. My Name
“29 days…huh.” Lavi couldn’t even find it in himself to feel depressed when he realized he’d wasted a whole day just being upset over his death. He knew about it now, and sure he didn’t want it, but should he really be wasting his precious last days like this? In a way he was lucky; since he knew ahead of time he could make sure he didn’t waste his last days.
“29 days?” Kanda repeated, reminding Lavi that he was still in the room with him. Lavi shook himself out of his revelry and looked back at Kanda.
“Huh? Oh yeah, that’s how many days I’ve got left, it seems. So the countdown has begun…” The redhead sighed forlornly, he didn’t know if he wanted to just curl up and wallow in self-pity for the next month, or just give up everything he’d ever worked on in favor of spending his last few weeks goofing off and having fun.
“Well, you sound wonderfully resigned,” Kanda said, looking very unhappy about this. Lavi shrugged, he was starting to feel numb already. Perhaps it would be best if he just lived his last days out doing what he usually did? That way if he didn’t really die he wouldn’t have to worry about having messed his life up too badly?
“I’m just…very unsure of what to do at this point,” Lavi answered honestly; really, he was surprised Kanda didn’t think he was crazy. Could Kanda really just sit there and watch him talk to what seemed to be nothing, and then really believe he was sane? Maybe Yuu really did have a lot of faith in him.
“Hey Yuu, why are you even listenin’ to what I’m saying? I mean, I know I sound crazy right now.”
“You do sound crazy, yes,” Kanda said bluntly, and for a moment Lavi’s shoulders sagged in defeat, “But you also look afraid, like you really believe you’re going to die. Besides, I know how you are when you’re lying, I can tell you aren’t. To you, at least, that thing is real, so we’ve got to get rid of it.”
Lavi sort of wanted to turn into a blubbering mess and hug Yuu at the moment. So he really believed that Lavi was seeing this thing? Lavi had always known Kanda was a good friend, but this was just amazing.
“Putting aside that the thing following you is a death god and out for your hide,” Kanda said, bring Lavi’s wandering attention back to him, “there’s someone following you around, and you don’t like it, right?”
“Right.”
“Then I’ll find a way to get rid of it, so don’t worry over it too much by yourself.” Lavi looked up at Kanda; now he was offering to help, too? When had Kanda become so giving? Usually he just stayed out of anything that didn’t involve him, and yet here he was, sticking his nose into Lavi’s problem.
“You always try to do everything yourself. Let me… think with you for once, you ass.” Lavi’s expression turned into one of surprise. Had Kanda really just said that? Boy, he sure was full of surprises today. Abruptly, Kanda stood up and headed for the curtain that was pulled around Lavi’s cot. Lavi was sure that Kanda had done this to hide his face from him. No doubt he was red up to his ears now.
“For now, let’s just get you home, you’re in no condition to be in school,” Yuu said quickly, as though the air in the infirmary was suddenly too stifling for him. Lavi grinned just a bit at this, and got up to follow Yuu home.
000
“Hey, Yuu,” Lavi called out just as Kanda was turning to leave his apartment for the night.
“What?” Kanda looked back over his shoulder, giving Lavi a curious look.
“Thanks for believin’ me, even though I probably sounded insane to ya,” Lavi said with a small but genuine smile. Kanda turned to face forward again quickly, but Lavi could tell that the boy was probably blushing.
“Yeah well, that’s because you’re the one who said it,” Kanda said, looking over his shoulder one last time to stare Lavi in the eye. The redhead’s lone green eye widened just a bit, and Kanda rolled his eyes. “Don’t you get it yet?” He asked, and then made a calm retreat that left Lavi feeling exceptionally fluttery. All he could get himself to think was that Yuu was really cool sometimes, as juvenile as that sounded.
000
Lavi’s spirits couldn’t be higher while still being within his physical body at the moment. Sure, he was heading out to school, which had become a complete waste of time for him since he’d learned he was going to die, but he couldn’t get what Kanda had said out of his mind! It had definitely sounded like Kanda was confessing in his own roundabout way, but that could’ve just been his own mind embellishing his memory…
So he hummed a happy little tune that he’d heard on the radio the night before at his part-time job. It was an English song and he was pretty sure it was from the mid-80s but well, the 80’s would never die.
That morning would’ve been just dandy, if it hadn’t been ruined by the horrified scream that had come from some girl who was also walking to school that morning, and the screeching sound of tires slipping over asphalt. Lavi looked around wildly to find the source of the disruption, and saw that a truck was swerving dangerously, trying to stay on the narrow road. The girl who had screamed was most likely on one of the girls from the group closest to the car.
“Oh goodness! That’s horrible!” One yelled, pointing to the side of the road. Lavi grimaced when he saw the fresh road kill. It was a dog, it seemed, a small one, probably a stray. One of the girls called the pound to clean it up, and then they moved on, leaving just Lavi at the scene.
And that was when he showed up, the shinigami. Slowly he materialized next to the dog and kneeled down on the ground next to it. He gently tapped the top of the stray’s head, which was thankfully still in one piece. A gentle light enveloped the dog before leaving it in the form of a small orb. The death god picked it up and lifted it to the sky. Shining, the orb that Lavi could only assume was the animal’s soul levitated, and then popped. The clouds in the sky seemed to split just so that the soul could ascend beyond them.
Lavi stared at the shinigami with wide eyes, feeling just a bit moved by how beautiful that had been. He had always been easily touched by beautiful things (that was probably one of the reasons Lavi had been attracted to Kanda when they were younger), so something like that really made him want to take a minute to appreciate it. If death was that pretty, maybe it wasn’t so bad?
Of course, that display had not been nearly enough to prepare him for what came next. The shinigami turned and spotted him, but all Lavi noticed when he did were the tears that streaked down his face, rolling down that bizarre scar on the left side of his face. This, watching a shinigami cry, was also beautiful in a morbid way.
Lavi was so entranced that he hardly noticed when the pound workers came to take the dog away. The shinigami watched as they took its body away, before wiping his eyes and sitting in the grass. He looked so alone, sitting huddled on the ground with his knees pulled up to his chest and the tear streaks still on his face. Lavi couldn’t help himself, he walked over and sat next to the shinigami.
“So even death gods cry, hm?” Lavi asked, trying to sound nonchalant; he knew he wouldn’t want anyone bringing special attention to him crying in public. For a moment the shinigami didn’t answer.
“Dogs…are nice,” it said after a moment of silence. Lavi wanted to make one of those little “Awe” noises that his fans always made when Kanda abused him in class. This cute little shinigami was crying over a dog it had never met before just because he liked dogs? That was just too precious.
“Don’t worry kid, the dog was sparkling and happy when it went up, right? Nothin’ to worry ‘bout!” Lavi said, attempting to cheer the kid up. Why was he trying to cheer up a shinigami though? The very shinigami that would kill him in 28 days, at that! What, was he going to try and cheer it up when it cried over his death? Would it bother to cry over a human, or did this one only like dogs?
Lavi dug through his bag and took out the apple he’d brought in his lunch, offering it to the shinigami. Said death god just raised an eyebrow at him.
“Death gods don’t eat.”
“What? No way, I thought they loved apples! That’s the last time I listen to a manga when it concerns shinigami…” Lavi pouted a bit at the injustice done to him.
“It’s true. I’m not human, so I don’t get hungry or tired or anything. I guess I could eat if I felt like doing something weird but… I’m not exactly tangible in the plane of the living,” the shinigami said, and Lavi noted how the apple went right through his hand when he tried to pick it up.
“Then how come I can touch you?” Lavi asked, with a curious expression.
“I don’t know, you’re weird.”
“How blunt… But anyway, while I’m asking questions, what’s your name? You know mine but I don’t know yours… I’m getting tired of thinking of you as ‘the shinigami,’ or other such variants of that,” Lavi said, and shifted to face the shinigami.
“No answer.”
“Come on, tell me. It can’t be that embarrassing.”
“Like I said, I have no answer.”
“So you don’t have a name?”
“Of course not,” the shinigami gave Lavi a look like he was slow, “What do I need a name for? I mean, people can’t see me, except for you, and shinigami rarely ever work together. We have no families either, we just sort of…appear one day, and know what to do. With no friends or family, what’s the point of having a name?”
While Lavi couldn’t deny that having a name was pointless when there was no one to call it, he still felt that a nameless existence was a lonely one. He could only imagine how much more bleak it must’ve seemed, knowing that he didn’t really have an identity, not even on his own plane of existence. His expression must’ve been one of pity, for the shinigami went on.
“I exist to do my job and guide souls to Heaven, that’s it. I won’t age or die, I’ll just be happy doing what I do.”
“But that’s still so lonely,” Lavi said before he could stop himself. He knew a thing or two about being lonely, especially since his parents had been dead for so long. His apartment felt empty with just him in it, that’s why he’d always loved it when Kanda came over, because then he wasn’t alone.
“So you mean to say you’ve never eaten good food, or just kicked back with a few good friends? Can you really be happy doing that for the rest of eternity? How can you say that? I’d rather die than have to live like that! How can you just be okay with that?” Lavi couldn’t help but feel a bit enraged on the shinigami’s behalf; what being in the universe had thought it was a good idea to make such lonely creatures? It was cruel.
“I suppose one can’t miss what one had never had.”
“Say that all ya want but I’m not buying it!” Lavi declared, giving the shinigami a stern look. It looked back at him with curiosity, probably wondering why he was so angry. Lavi wondered the same thing.
“If you don’t have a name, then we’ll start there! I’m gonna give you a name, right here, right now!” Lavi exclaimed, standing up in his excitement. The shinigami scoffed.
“Don’t need one.”
“AHA! You don’t need one, but you didn’t say you don’t want one!” Lavi pointed down at the shinigami with a grin, he was making progress in his mind. The shinigami blushed a bit at this and Lavi contemplated how strange it was that a shinigami could do that. Then it shook its head, as though embarrassed.
“No, no, I don’t need or want one!”
“Come on kid, even if it’s just me, I wanna call you by name,” Lavi said with a smile. For a moment the shinigami looked too surprised to speak, and Lavi took that time to think of a name. The ghost was a foreigner, clearly, so it needed a foreign name… and well it was a he, and a cute he at that, so he needed a cute, short, simple name…
“Hey, you know… giving me a name won’t change the fact that I’m killing you in 28 days,” the shinigami said, which totally killed Lavi’s giving mood for good. He hit his forehead hard, cursing and calling himself stupid under his breath. For a moment he couldn’t help but think of the shinigami as just a cute kid and had forgotten that he was trying to name a shinigami. Damn it all.
“You forgot about school, too.”
“Oh hell! Yuu-chan must be so worried now!” Lavi said, and quickly turned to run towards the school.
‘Idiot! Getting all buddy-buddy with a shinigami!’
“Lavi.” Said redhead stopped in his tracks when he heard that innocent-sounding voice call out to him. Why did that shinigami sound so sweet, and why hadn’t he noticed it sooner?
“I’m looking forward to a name,” he said, and gave Lavi what had to be one of the most pure smiles he’d ever seen in his life. Lavi couldn’t help but nod in an almost shy way before turning to dash towards school. He refused to admit that it was the shinigami’s fault, but his heart was pounding just a bit and his face felt a bit hot.
Was that kid really a death god? Lavi wasn’t afraid of him at all, he actually found the kid to be cute and sweet. He had smiled and cried over a dog, just because he liked dogs. He’d even said he was looking forward to being named. He seemed far too sweet and gentle to be a god of death.
‘I can’t get myself to dislike that kid.’
000
Lavi was panting and breathing heavily when he finally made it to his classroom. He was happy that he’d made it in time for second period, but he still couldn’t believe that he’d just sat around and talked to a shinigami and missed his first class. Just as his breath evened out, he was hit over the head roughly.
“Ow….pain…” Lavi whined and turned around to see who’d hit him; he already knew who of course, Kanda’s knuckles had made a permanent indentation on his head, he was sure.
“Are you an idiot?” Kanda asked looking very annoyed with Lavi. “One day you’re saying you’re going to die and the next you don’t come into school on time. Your little friends were having fits all through first lesson.”
Lavi blinked a few times before what Kanda said sunk in. Oh, right, Lenalee and Daisya knew about the death god thing, he’d probably really spooked them by coming in so late. Judging from Kanda’s anger, he was probably worried too and just didn’t want to admit it. Despite himself, a smile crept onto his lips at the thought.
“And now you’re smiling. You know, some girl told me that she’d seen you talking to yourself earlier this morning by the roadside, are you going insane?” Kanda asked, giving Lavi a skeptical look. Lavi pouted and shook his head.
“No! I was talking to that shinigami and sorta got…caught up? And I was just smiling ‘cause I was happy to think you were worried about me!” Lavi huffed. Kanda made a surprised expression that bordered on denial. Clearly he was going to deny worrying.
“I-Idiot! I said your two friends had been worried, not me! I don’t worry,” Kanda said, scoffing in a forced manner and turning his face away. Lavi made a little “I don’t believe that for a second” smirk that was almost cat-like.
“Sure ya don’t Yuu-chan, sure ya don’t. But in any case, I’m here now, no need to freak out,” Lavi said with an apologetic smile. Kanda looked him over to be sure he seemed alright, before grabbing his arm and pulling him toward the classroom.
“Yeah, you are, and we’ve got a plan to make sure you stay here…”
‘A plan..?’
000
“Lavi..!” Lenalee was misty-eyed with relief when she saw Kanda leading Lavi into the classroom. Aside from the fact that most of the class was surprised to see Kanda making non-violent physical contact with someone and was therefore gawking, Lavi felt a bit awkward because of just how much his friends were worried. It was sweet, but guilt-inspiring.
“You’re a jerk to have worried us like that!” Daisya said, pouting. Lavi heard Kanda scoff and suspected he’d rolled his eyes, and sat down with the same sorry grin he’d had on his face since he’d first seen Kanda.
“Sorry, sorry…just got sort of caught up this morning,” Lavi said, hoping to stop the worry before Lenalee really broke into tears. She pouted at him, showing that she didn’t appreciate the vague excuse but let it slide.
Daisya sighed in a relieved way before saying, “Well, at least you’re alright. Really! You told us about that evil spirit-”
“-Shinigami.”
“Fine, that shinigami yesterday and really freaked us out! Do you know how many worst-case scenarios went through our heads when you didn’t show up? But it’s okay now, you’re here now. Kanda-kun was telling us about it this morning, and we all decided that we’d bring you to my church to have it exorcized. Tiedoll-san will be sure to get rid of it!”
“Yuu-chan…?” Lavi’s eye widened and he looked back to Kanda, who once again had his head down on his desk. He let out a little “Che” but didn’t look up at them.
“You two have damned big mouths. Couldn’t wait to tell him until after school, could you?” He muttered, and the three friends couldn’t help but chuckle a bit.
“So…you asked them about exorcizing it?” Lavi asked. He was starting to feel uneasy about getting rid of it. He didn’t really know why the idea was so worrying, but he just felt wrong about exorcizing the boy.
“Yeah, I did. What about it?” Kanda asked in that gruff, angry voice that he usually used to cover up his embarrassment.
“Nothin’, just…thanks,” Lavi said, not really sure how to tell Kanda or his friends about his unease. How strange would it seem if he said, “Please don’t exorcize my shinigami! He’s cute.” Besides, they were all just worried about him, he should be grateful.
Class started, but Lavi was too unfocused to pay attention; luckily he was one of those people who could learn without paying attention. Would he really be able to get rid of the shinigami? Would the exorcism work, or would it just make the shinigami angry at him? What if it did work? Would it kill the shinigami, or just make him go back to where he came from? And if it didn’t die and didn’t get pissed at him and kill him early, then what would he name it?
‘If he’s gone, I might be saved…I might not die. If he’s gone…’ Lavi thought back to the teary face of the shinigami as it cried over a stray dog when it died (would the shinigami cry for him, too?), and his smile when he said he was looking forward to a name. Could Lavi really stand to hurt that kid? Maybe exorcism was painless, then he wouldn’t feel so bad…
‘Don’t think about it Lavi! You’ve got a life to live, you can’t let it end just because you have a cute shinigami after you. You’ve gotta graduate, you’ve gotta really tell Yuu that you like him! You can’t die yet!’
000
Lavi blinked when he walked into the church Daisya had lead them too. He himself wasn’t a religious person, and neither was Lenalee, Kanda was a Buddhist who didn’t actually give a damn about Buddhism. Daisya was one of the few Christians Lavi knew (they didn’t exactly run rampant in their town), and he happened to live on the same street as the priest at this church.
So when Lavi saw the church that’d he overlooked a million times on the way to work, he was surprised to find that it was there. He was a bit more surprised to find the resident priest not doing…whatever priests usually do, but instead messily painting with oil paints on a drawing board. His cassock was smudged with blues and yellows and reds, and there was a bit of paint on his face, too.
He looked up when the four walked into the church and smiled in a fatherly way when he saw them. He put his half-finished painting on one of the pews, before walking over to them.
“Hello Daisya-kun, is one of these three the friend you told me about?” The man asked, as he looked over the four teens. His eyes immediately stopped on Lavi. “It’s the redhead, right?”
“Yeah Tiedoll-san, he’s the one with the ghost problem,” Daisya answered with an easy-going smile. Clearly he felt much more comfortable here than anyone else did. Lavi was about to sigh and remind them all that it was a shinigami, for Heaven’s sake, but the kindly priest told them to wait as he went into a back room and changed into a clean cassock.
The four teens sat in the front pew, and while Daisya and Lenalee occupied themselves by admiring the priest’s painting, Kanda and Lavi sat in a slightly awkward silence.
“Yeah well, that’s because you’re the one who said it. Don’t you get it yet?”
Lavi really wanted to ask Kanda what he had meant the other day when he’d said that, but he was unsure of whether or not Kanda would actually answer him. Besides, it seemed like something he should already know the answer to, and Lavi had his suspicions but he didn’t dare believe them. But he had to ask, and he had to do it soon! If this exorcism thing didn’t work then Lavi would really only have a month to live, and he couldn’t waste that time being indecisive.
Quickly, Lavi looked around to see if the shinigami was hanging around, or if anyone was paying attention to him. Thankfully the death god wasn’t there and Lenalee and Daisya were still talking about something else. Screwing up him courage for this one question, Lavi finally asked, “Yuu, what did you mean yesterday… when you said that…stuff?” Goodness, he couldn’t even get himself to be specific, Lavi was so lame.
Kanda looked surprised by the question, whether it was because he was surprised that Lavi had asked, or he was surprised because Lavi had to ask at all, the redhead wasn’t sure. All he knew was that it was becoming increasingly difficult to look Yuu in the face.
Kanda opened his mouth to answer, but was interrupted when the priest, Tiedoll-san, walked back into the room. They definitely couldn’t talk about their odd relationship in a church, could they? Lavi cursed in his mind; it figured that the priest would be ready just as he had asked that ever-so-important question…!
Lavi had to say though, Tiedoll looked a lot more like a priest now than he had a moment before. Lavi had doubted him at first, but now he seemed a bit more legitimate.
“So tell me about the spirit that has been following you around,” Tiedoll said, standing before Lavi. The redhead described how the shinigami looked and what it had said, and Tiedoll just nodded and made the occasional comment about him.
“Well, it seems that this shinigami is affixed to you, bothering you from the outside but not going in… In which case, I know the perfect ritual. Wait here a moment.” Once again the old priest went into the back room, and after a moment returned with something that looked like a small fountain. He placed it down in front of the group, and put a small white candle on top of what looked to be the spout of the fountain. Soon enough the old man had filled the lower bowl with water (probably Holy water, Lavi thought with a mental snort).
“This is an exorcism rite unique to this church,” Tiedoll explained, “It’s fairly simple, I will call the spirit here by lighting the candle. The melted wax will fall into the water, and when the candle has melted completely, the spirit will be gone. The candle is a representation of the spirit, burning it will exorcize the spirit.”
‘Burning…’ Lavi wondered how painful this would be for the shinigami. It sort of felt like Lavi was betraying the shinigami in some way…He was the one who had made the death god look forward to being named, he was the one that had been kind first… But Lavi wasn’t going to give up his life over a bit of guilt! He couldn’t die yet…
Tiedoll lit the candle with a long match, and Lavi secretly prayed that the shinigami wouldn’t come. His prayers were not answered however, for a moment later the kid was floating right next to Tiedoll, blinking curiously at the candle.
“Lavi-san, did you call me here with this weird candle?” He asked, peering at Lavi through his silver bangs. Lavi looked at the priest, who was focused on reciting some prayer or other. He didn’t seem to notice the shinigami’s presence.
“Ugh…I feel ill, what are you doing here…?” The shinigami certainly looked worse for wear, and Lavi had to blame the candle for it. That meant that the exorcism was actually working, wasn’t it? Lavi was unsure of how to feel about that.
Suddenly, the boy made a pained expression, and clutched at the material over his chest. It gave a little groan of pain, and stumbled back.
“What’s going on, Lavi…?” He asked through pained gasps. Clearly the shinigami was in pain, and Lavi wasn’t sure if he could watch this until the end. The death god swayed on its feet before dropping to its knees. He clutched his head as though he was hearing something particularly grating. “Ah…Lavi, make it stop…!”
Lavi squirmed uncomfortably in his seat. This was too hard to watch, it was too much to hear. He couldn’t think beyond that fact that the shinigami was in pain and asking for his help! He was starting to get upset by this in a way that he shouldn’t have been. Sure, the kid was a death god, but it wasn’t a bad spirit, so why did it have to suffer?
When the shinigami fell to the floor, still looking at him pleadingly, Lavi shot up from his seat. He wanted to live a long life, but there had to be a less painful way to get rid of this shinigami and the death sentence that loomed over Lavi’s head!
“Be patient, Lavi-san, the candle is almost out,” Tiedoll said, misinterpreting Lavi’s movement as one of excitement. For one last moment Lavi hesitated, because he couldn’t think of any other way to get rid of his problem but…
He walked forward and kicked the small fountain over. The water sloshed over the sides and onto the wood-paneled floors, the candle went out just before reaching the end of the wick.
“Phew…it’s out… It’s ok now, you’re safe,” Lavi said, feeling relieved. He looked over to the shinigami, but found it was still lying on the ground. For a moment, Lavi panicked; maybe he had not acted quickly enough and the shinigami had died…? But shinigami weren’t supposed to die, right? Even as he thought that, Lavi couldn’t help but think that he had just killed the death god.
‘Oh goodness, I think I did…’
“Pft…” Wait. That wasn’t a sound of death.
“Hehe… hahaha…” Lavi’s jaw dropped. The shinigami was laughing. Laughing. Hadn’t he just been in pain a few seconds before? There was no way that the kid could just recover like that, unless…
The shinigami looked back at Lavi with a devilish grin on his face. “Fail,” it said, before laughing more.
‘That bastard.’
“Sorry, but you can’t get rid of me,” the shinigami said once it came back to its senses. “There is no human being on earth that has power over a death god. Exorcisms work on spirits, but I’m not a ghost. Let’s not try any mean tricks like that again, okay Lavi-san?” The shinigami wagged a scolding finger at Lavi, who pouted and shrank back to sulk.
“Still…I guess it’s… sort of nice to know that you were worried about hurting me…” Suddenly the shinigami wasn’t teasing him, it looked nearly flustered when it said that. The kid was even blushing a bit, and Lavi still found it weird that a shinigami could do that. Darn, that death god was too adorable for his own good… too cute for Lavi’s good, too.
“Um… Lavi?” Lavi’s back straightened and he turned around to look at his three confused friends and one curious priest. Kanda was walking towards him with a cautious expression. “Is something wrong…?”
Lavi was unsure of how to respond to that. He couldn’t just say “But the poor dear was in pain, I couldn’t let you kill him,” and he couldn’t just say that the exorcism was a dud. It didn’t seem like either comment would be appreciated. As everyone started questioning him about what he’d just done, who he’d been talking to and the like, Lavi cursed the shinigami to hell for tricking him.
000
“I’m so sorry… I know you guys went through a lot to set that up for me and that you’re all worried and everything… But, well…He looked like he was really dying, painfully at that, and I couldn’t watch that…Of course, the kid turned out to be acting through the whole thing. I wasn’t really expecting that, the kid seems so sweet and innocent; you wouldn’t think he’d pull something like that…”
Lavi sighed when Kanda didn’t answer him. Because they lived near each other they were walking home together, but Kanda wouldn’t answer him. Lavi could understand why, after all to Kanda it must’ve looked like Lavi had saved the shinigami from being exorcized. Well he had, but it wasn’t really saving because the kid had never been in any danger in the first place.
“I guess I just thought he was a nicer guy than that, or somethin’…” Lavi mumbled, scuffing his feet on the ground. Kanda turned to glare at him incredulously, and Lavi stopped in his tracks. It was rare to see Kanda glare at him with such venom.
“Sweet? Innocent? A nice guy? What the hell Lavi, why are you getting all buddy-buddy with a death god that’s after your head? You get us all worried one day because you’re so upset by this guy, and then the next day you’re talking like that thing is your long-time friend!” Kanda sounded so indignant; Lavi couldn’t do much but let him rant on. “He’s a shinigami, not a nice guy!”
“I…I know it seems stupid…but he likes dogs, actually cried when one died. Yeah, I was afraid at first, but then I talked to him and he was more cute than scary…It was just too hard to hate ‘im.” Kanda gaped incredulously at him, and Lavi wondered what he said that was so crazy.
“Che, you think it’s cute? I should’ve figured something was up when you gave the priest that unnecessarily detailed description of it…You’ve been checking out the shinigami!”
“What?” Lavi was genuinely confused there. Yuu thought he was looking at the shinigami in that way…? And if his reaction was anything to go by, he was jealous too, wasn’t he? But that wasn’t the point, the point was that Kanda was stupid enough to think that Lavi would really look at anyone but him!
“Maybe you’ve fallen for the shinigami…” Kanda said in a way that was almost, almost upset. He turned from Lavi and started walking forward again, and Lavi ran to his side to stop him.
“Wait, ya can’t seriously think that Yuu!”
“I could tell that you didn’t really want to go through with the exorcism, even from the beginning. You like the thing Lavi.”
“I do not!” Kanda gave Lavi an annoyed glare, as though he was pissed that Lavi would dare to lie to him about something like that. Clearly, he didn’t believe Lavi, he actually doubted Lavi!
“Don’t be such an ass Yuu-chan! Clearly the only person I love is Yuu!” Lavi declared much more loudly than he’d meant to. For a moment, there was silence as Kanda stared at Lavi with wide eyes, a rosy blush creeping across his cheeks. Lavi had always wondered what sort of expression Kanda would make when he finally worked up the nerve to tell him that, but he’d never imagined Yuu would look so… well, beautiful.
“Uh, I …Ah… God, I’m an idiot…!” Lavi looked around for something to hit his head on when his embarrassment got to be too much for him. He wasn’t supposed to confess like that, and besides he wasn’t good enough for Yuu yet! Why couldn’t he just crawl into a hole and die already? He beckoned to the shinigami, wherever it as, to kill him now.
“Lavi,” Kanda said when it seemed that Lavi wasn’t going to calm down any time soon. Lavi was too busy trying do decide between fleeing and just killing himself then and there to even think that it would be possible for Kanda to not reject him.
“Lavi,” Kanda called again with a bit more force in his voice, and took the redhead by the shoulders. Lavi jumped at the contact and immediately started to apologize for just springing that on his friend.
“I am so sorry I just said that. It must’ve been real awkward to hear, just pretend ya didn’t hear tha-” Lavi was cut off when a pair of soft lips- lips he’d never really thought he’d get a chance to taste for himself.
Holy hell, Kanda Yuu was kissing him.
‘Well, I’d better kiss back before he gets the wrong idea,’ Lavi thought happily, and took control of the kiss. Kanda was sweet, softer than Lavi had imagined, but somehow it suited him perfectly. This was most definitely the happiest moment in his young life, and he wouldn’t have minded at all if he was struck down now.
Lavi was still thankful that he wasn’t actually struck down though. When the two pulled apart, Lavi smiled sheepishly at Yuu, who blushed and averted his eyes. Neither of them could really think of anything to say after that, so instead Lavi just took Kanda’s hand and led him home, face flushed all the while.
Neither of them noticed the scowling shinigami that hid behind the trees.