From Doomsday to Doomsday, Chapter 2
Title: From Doomsday to Doomsday
Pairing: Kanda/Lavi
Rating: NC-17 (For now, rating may go up for later chapters)
Summary: A Japanese Officer, Kanda Yuu, is sent to Germany before World War II break out to assist the German future ally for the investigations about some classified information's leaks. Assigned against his will to the Third Reich's SS corp he has to comply with unpleasant orders. During one of this tasks he meets Lavi, whose relative gets arrested right away, letting loose a chain reaction. Kanda/Lavi WWII
Warnings: AU, mention of racism, violence, etc., language, abuse, eventual offensive situations, boy/boy sex
Note: Please note that I in no way am encouraging or approving of racism. It's just that to keep the story as possibly close to its historical period, I must use terms, ways of thinking, and behaviors proper of the factions involved in WWII. So, if references to Nazism or to its ideology is offensive to you, please refrain from reading. I don't want flames about it. I want to make it clear that I don't approve in any way Nazi's actions and that I'm not a racist, I'm just using the historical setting as a background.
DISCLAIMER: I don't own D. Gray-man, all belong to Hoshino sensei... If it was otherwise...... Lavi and Kanda should have been together from like FOREVER!
Well, I know, a lot of time is passed from when I said I would update this within a few days... I'm so sorry about that^^;; Depending on a beta slows me a lot, and when I also have some other undertakings to manage with it's even worse... Anyway, here is the second chapter finally! And I started working on the 3rd, I hope to finish its translation soon!
Now, beta this time are two XD I was sure one was too busy to beta, and I asked to another girl^^" So in the end I could saw the point of view of two different person, which is always good to understand how is interpreted what I write XD
Beta were SeyuuRabu and Jolee Finch, thank you SO much for your precious help, your patience, and your willingness to explain things to me! *BOWS*
As always, if you spot any errors it's my fault, for changing something the beta suggested XD
FROM TO DOOMSDAY DOOMSDAY
Chapter 2: MACHINATIONS
After Kanda was gone Lavi stayed for hours contemplating the burning books. The crackle of flames fed by the wind gave him a feeling of helplessness as he watched the sparks falling, dancing on the ashes of that mountain of knowledge lost forever.
Mournfully he turned his back to the pyres, now almost entirely consumed, and walked back to his current 'home'.
The place was nothing but an hideout for dissidents, and, in his opinion, even a den of spies and seditionists. He was ninety percent sure that among the people living in the place there were at least five between British and Polish agents in disguise, plus several 'opponents of the Reich' of various nationalities taking part of unspecified plots.
The young man who had become a dear friend of his was certainly one of them, but that mattered little to Lavi as he wasn't involved in their dangerous machinations.
And now he was involved.
Completely.
He suspected that they had convinced the old Bookman to pass on their side failing to keep the role of 'observer' he was supposed to be, and this was really serious. His mentor was famous for impartiality and his ability to stay above events: get involved in a war not yet 'active' when he was only there to observe it was a terrible warning sign. It meant that the elderly historian was concerned for the world's fate.
"Hey, Lavi." The cheerful voice of his supposed 'friend' greeted him when he slipped silently into the building. "Everything's all right?"
Lavi shook his head, staring at the white-haired boy in a very eloquent manner.
"What's goin' on Allen?" He asked accusingly. "Why are the SS movin'?"
"The SS started to move?" The English youth looked at him in amazement. "When? How?"
"For how long now I dunno, but a few hours ago they took my grandpa and lit bonfires of books in the main square." Lavi informed the boy while sitting on a chair beside him, looking really tired and disheartened.
Allen seemed very surprised to hear such a thing, almost frightened by it. He visibly shuddered, then he blinked at Lavi, completely taken aback.
"They've arrested Bookman?" He exclaimed, turning to the girl who was next to him. "What are we going to do now?" He said to her in a worried tone.
"I'm still positive about going to sing for the Nazi's 'court'." The Chinese girl confirmed confidently, placing her hand onto Allen's one in a reassuring gesture. "I'm sure I can gather lots of information on their plans simply by sitting a bit at their tables after each song."
Lavi couldn't believe what his ears were hearing: so what he had just said meant nothing to them?
"Is that all ya can think 'bout?" The redhead snapped bitterly. "They could deport or kill my grandpa tomorrow, and you're thinkin' 'bout singing!" He stood up abruptly, opening his arms wide in a gesture of desperate helplessness.
The two youths stared at Lavi in surprise, the always cheerful boy looked so desperate, so broken that they nearly didn't recognize him. War is cruel, they both thought, holding tight to each other's hands and exchanging a meaningful glance.
Then Allen turned again towards Lavi, opening his mouth to tell his friend how much he was sorry about what had just happened to him when something else caught their attention.
"Lenalee... Please, be careful." The voice of a man came between the other two, and from the nearby room appeared a tall, dark-haired male with oriental features.
"I promise, brother." The Chinese girl said, smiling as she was preparing herself to leave the place. "Lavi, I'm really sorry... but we must continue to fight for freedom. Soon the war will break out, we can't be unprepared."
Lavi shook his head in disbelief, glaring at them all, following the girl with an angry glance while she left the room. He wasn't as convinced as his supposed 'friends' seemed to be that the war would break out so soon.
"Sure," thought the redhead, "but your doings are weighing on our shoulders."
"Komui, how is it proceeding?" Allen asked the Chinese man, seeming to ignore the young Bookman's protests, much more interested in the mysterious researches that the guy named Komui was carrying out in absolute secret.
This was another thing that made the redhead suspect that the activities carried out in the 'hideout' were anything but legal, and was even more irritating to Lavi in his actual state of mind. He thought that the English boy was too young to even understand what he was doing, let alone understand the consequences to which such actions could lead.
"Nothing doing yet, we can't force the code." The man answered, shaking his head sadly. "But Reever is optimistic, we won't give up."
"Sure, continue plotting, you'll see what end awaits you." Lavi muttered in a sharp tone, turning his back to Allen resolute to leave the conspirators alone. "I'll manage it by myself with that Officer."
"What Officer?" Suddenly the English boy's attention was completely focused on him, and with a hand he blocked Lavi's wrist to stop him from moving further.
"Oh, now you care?" Bookman Junior rebuked, casting him a really upset look. Allen let go of him, and the redhead moved his arm away immediately.
"You can't trust German Officers Lavi, you'll end up like your grandfather." The English boy warned him putting on a grave look. He too stood up, a worried expression all over his baby face making the strange scar he had over his left eye more evident.
"I guess not, but he offered t'help me." Lavi spread his arms again, shook his head repetitively and sighed. "I don't have so many alternatives, I must try."
Allen sighed too, wondering how his friend could be so foolish to actually believe the word of an SS Officer.
"Who is this 'he', do you at least know his name?" He insisted, wondering on how this thing could be used to their advantage if confirmed.
"I heard the soldiers callin' him Kanda." Lavi mumbled while recalling in his photographic memory the image of the Japanese youth.
He saw the albino boy opening his eyes wide hearing Kanda's name, frightened, and he couldn't stop himself from feeling a cold chill running through his spine. Lavi had never seen Allen so upset before, so it left him with a really unpleasant sense of foreboding.
"Did you personally speak with that Kanda?" Allen gasped in disbelief. That was bad, he thought alarmed, that was really bad! "The SS Special Unit's Commander? One of the most merciless and coldest men that are currently in their ranks? And has he offered to help you?"
"Well, yes... the name was Kanda." Lavi confirmed as much shocked as Allen by that revelation.
It was the first time he had seen the Japanese man, he didn't think Kanda could be that cruel and dangerous given his calm and composed countenance. No, he had to admit to it, it was because of Kanda's beautiful appearance...
"And you believed him?" The English boy was increasingly dismayed by the naivety of his friend.
"Why shouldn't I?" Lavi said in a defending tone. "He seemed sincere."
Well, maybe. He wasn't that sure anymore now that he had been told that the Japanese Officer was a heartless bastard.
"You're crazy Lavi, he only fooled you." Allen grabbed him by the shoulders, shaking him a bit in an attempt to bring him back to reality. "He surely wants to use you against Bookman," he stated as matter-of-fact, receiving back a questioning look.
"You're not better than him," thought the redhead freeing himself from the young albino's grip.
"Then tell me, since ya seem t'know so many things 'bout this Kanda, what should I do?" Lavi asked in a bitter tone, seeing no solution for his currently desperate situation.
At that request, even if muffled with sarcasm, Allen seemed to be thoughtful for an instant on what answer give to his friend, rubbing his chin with two fingers.
"Play along." He suggested, a strange light in his eyes that Lavi didn't like at all. "Did he ask you to go to him?" The albino boy was really curious to learn all the details.
It was a perilous but interesting situation, if Lavi had somewhat succeeded in getting on the right side of the dangerous Commander, then it could be worth to take the risk.
"No, quite the contrary. He warned me not to." Bookman Junior revealed, increasing Allen's concern with that statement. "He said that he would 'try to gain release' for my grandfather and told me to go home."
"The Nazis never do anything for nothing, it's strange." Pondered the English youth, rubbing his neck now with the same two fingers as before. "Maybe he's expecting you to give him something in return."
"Like what? Information 'bout you? It's not like I know that much, and ya would be gone b'fore I'd finished speakin'..." Lavi pointed out, casting a suspicious look at the other occupiers of the room, and the other youth seemed thoughtful again.
"Everyone says that he has no interest in women, Lenalee has never succeeded in approaching him. Maybe he appreciates something else..." Allen raised his arms in a questioning way.
"I'm not sure o'what you're suggestin' me to do..." The redhead murmured, shivering at those insinuations. He couldn't deny that Kanda was alluring, but...
"I'm not suggesting anything, it was only an hypothesis on why he's interested in you." Allen specified, shrugging meanwhile carefully pondering all of Lavi's reaction.
The English boy would have loved to get rid of someone like Kanda in so simple a way, if really Lavi was his type and the SS Officer actually wanted him.
"He wasn't at all interested in me. Actually he wanted t'get rid of the annoyance the way I saw it." Bookman Junior complained, pouting. "Oh, this whole situation is absurd!" He whined and turned his back to the albino boy, wanting to go to sleep and forget about the whole damn thing.
"It's up to you to decide." Allen sighed, patting his friend on the back. "As you pointed out, we'll move away quickly if they hold you back. Good luck Lavi, you need it." That said, he hugged the redhead, really hoping he won't put himself into bigger trouble, thereby involving them in it as well.
Allen then went back to confabulate with his accomplices, leaving the young Bookman alone with his thoughts.
Lavi only nodded, more to himself than to Allen in acknowledgment, still upset at his so-called friend. He left without adding a word further to the conversation, and headed to his room. He really needed to sleep, figuring out the beautiful day that awaited him in a few hours.
Lavi found it difficult to fall asleep that night: he was thinking over the passed day's events and he was also worried about the upcoming visit to SS Headquarters planned for the day after.
He wondered how much truth there was in Allen's words, and how much hope he had to come out unscathed from this nasty situation together with his old man.
Also... If indeed the war was about to break out, if Hitler was really moving the first steps to prepare a world invasion, secretly organizing his war machine and following his unlimited ambition as Bookman seemed to fear, then all of them were doomed. Was this the war that his mentor so longed to observe? A catastrophic conflict that would surely come to involve the whole world? Lavi couldn't believe it.
Dawn found him still turning in bed, half awake, prey to baleful nightmares.
Sighing, the redhead quickly got dressed up. He then slipped quietly out of the hideout, and got on the first tram available.
Kanda was about to leave his office, mentally reordering the happenings related to his latest duty. He had to issue the hated report concerning right that thankless task he had accomplished the previous day, and he wasn't at all pleased at the thought. He walked towards the door, when, as he opened it attempting to exit, someone else banged into him trying to enter the room.
The Japanese Officer, to his great surprise, recognized in the nuisance, who had just collided into him, the young redhead who'd contributed by 'animating' the 'book burning' affair the previous day.
The one whose grandfather he had arrested.
Yeah that. He had forgotten.
"Is knocking no longer in use?" Kanda rebuked the youth abruptly, backing up one step and leaning on the door, his hand still gripping the handle to avoid ending up on the floor because of the push he had received.
"Oh, yeah, sure... I was afraid t'be seen..." Lavi apologized, scratching his head awkwardly.
At that statement Kanda looked at him more closely, and his eyes widened in astonishment: he was wearing the Reich's uniform!
"Where did you get that!" The Officer immediately exclaimed, half stunned, half furious, in a tone that was anything but friendly which made his poor victim quake. "How did you..."
"Well, I didn't want to, y'know... but he said that it would make it easier talkin' to you." Lavi excused himself, smiling in the hope of being forgiven.
Kanda took a deep breath in an attempt to calm himself as well as to avoid killing the fool in front of him right there and then.
"HE? Who is this 'he'?" The Japanese Officer asked incredulously.
Kanda already had an idea of the only idiot who could have done such a thing, but he wanted a confirmation from the mouth of this other idiot.
"Oh, look, I dunno the name, he's a guy with his face half covered 'till the nose." Bookman Junior gestured to help the description. "He was so kind t'help me, he had t'feel sorry for me."
The Japanese man shook his head in annoyance: Toma, as he suspected. If that harpy, Howard Link, the other SS Commander assigned under General Tiedoll with him, had noticed this thing they all would have had a lot of problems. The guy was a real bitch about all the rules and the fucking duties of an SS Officer.
Dammit.
He made a mental note to kill his current orderly later. Because idiots recognized each other, and he knew he was surrounded by idiots, and... Oh, shit!
"Come in and explain what's happening." Kanda ordered the redhead, stepping aside and closing the door after the youth entered.
"There, it's for my old man. I'm very worried and I wanted t'know if there's any news." Lavi said casting a hopeful look at the SS Commander and moving a step forward.
Kanda sighed, he had to have known that the idiot wouldn't give up. He silently walked to his desk to rummage through a pile of paperwork. He picked up one of the sheets and took a good look at it before speaking again.
"He's under custody, waiting to be questioned." The SS Commander finally said, and Lavi slumped his shoulders, downcast, his head hung low.
"There's nothin' ya can do?" He asked then, a vein of despair in his voice; the other shook his head.
"Just wait." Kanda concluded flatly.
"If... if it's because I have nothin' to offer in return, I... Well... you can have me." Lavi murmured while approaching the desk without taking his eye off from the Japanese Officer's dark ones.
Kanda was astounded, and the fact that the other had just addressed him in such an informal way was overshadowed.
"You what?" He exclaimed, incredulous.
"I've just my body to offer you, so..." Lavi tried to say, but Kanda cut him off immediately.
"It was Toma who suggested to you such a clever thing, right?" Noting Lavi's puzzled look the Japanese Officer explained himself better. "The idiot who gave you the uniform."
"Uh, no. I was told that you have no interest in women, so I thought..." Lavi truly wanted to apologize, but the other didn't let him finish his sentence.
"No." Kanda clenched his jaw. Again those fucking rumors, if only he could catch who had been spreading them around! "If I consider a waste of time running after women it doesn't mean that- Oh, fuck!" Kanda smacked his palm against his face.
Why the hell was he justifying himself to this idiot then! It was absolutely incredible!
"I MUST GET RID OF HIM," screamed his mind from sensing his already compromised self-control threatening to abandon him.
Suddenly he had a brilliant idea: he would pass the hot potato to General Tiedoll. That way he'd get rid of two problems all in one go, the report and the idiot. But first of all...
"Tell me who it was." Kanda ordered in a menacing tone, but he got back again a puzzled look. "Who told you that!" He growled, and Lavi jumped at the new change in Kanda's tone.
"Ah, well... A student who was with me at the square yesterday." Bookman Junior lied, hoping to be believed. "I don't know him, I was just telling him what happened to me and..." Kanda grabbed the redhead by the arm, dragging him along.
"Come on, I'll take you to someone who may help you." The Japanese Officer snapped in an angry tone while forcing the poor shocked redhead to follow him.
Even the students now! If he discovered the source of those rumors, many heads would roll, Kanda swore to himself.
"I'm sorry!" Lavi continued to complain.
"Shut up and walk!" The Japanese man continued to repeat to him.
"Dammit, if he says it once again, I'll shoot him here in the hallway!" Kanda thought exasperatedly, his fingers twitching in irritation as he walked angrily down the corridor, dragging the whining redhead along with him.
Arriving in front of General Tiedoll's office, Kanda let go of his victim's sleeve and prepared himself to knock on the door, when said victim spoke again.
"Seriously Kanda, I'm sorry!" The pleading tone that the redhead was persisting with irritated Kanda beyond his endurance limit.
"Shut your fucking mouth!" The Japanese Officer thundered. "And don't be so familiar with me! You must address me as Herr Kanda, and I won't repeat it a second time!"
"Oh, yes, sure, I'm sorry..." Lavi said again, looking disconsolate.
Kanda rolled his eyes and was about to strangle Lavi when the door in front of them opened.
Inside the office Tiedoll was listening to another Officer's report when both men heard a rather excited quarrel just beyond the door.
The General smiled, recognizing Kanda's voice and imagining that the other should be his orderly, since he was answering in Japanese.
His interlocutor turned his head to the door baffled, unable to understand a single word of the speech. He imagined it must be from Commander Kanda, since he was the only Officer almost completely unable to speak German.
With a wink the blond Officer asked General Tiedoll's permission to open the door, and the man gave his consent with a nod.
Kanda turned abruptly to the noise behind him, and found himself staring at Howard Link's puzzled face.
"What's happening?" The man asked calmly, eyeing Kanda carefully.
"Nothing," was Kanda's cold reply. "In any case, it's none of your business."
The eyes of the two Officers met, and each of the two men held the other's glare with a defiant look, both too proud to concede something to their opponent.
Lavi shifted uneasily, predicting that he would become the next target of the blond haired man.
"Who is this new recruit, I've never seen him before." Commander Howard Link asked, realizing only then that Kanda's young comrade wasn't the usual orderly.
The Japanese officer's eyes went slightly wide, and a subtle panic seized him. What now? How would he justify Lavi's presence?
"Oh, Yuu-kun, come in!" Tiedoll's voice came from inside the room, and this time Kanda welcomed it like the light of a lighthouse on a starless night.
"Che." Kanda frowned at the sound of his first name, but he was grateful that the General's invitation to enter allowed him to avoid answering that question, and went in without saying a word. Lavi and an unsatisfied Howard Link immediately followed him in.
NOTES:
- Schutzstaffel: full name for the SS.
- Sicherheitsdienst: SS Intelligence Division, the Reich's secret Police.
- Herr: "Mister" in German.