Following the red rabbit ~ Late Laven Week
Cross, history teacher: Stupid apprentice! Will you pay attention to your history lesson now, you brat?
Allen, bored/half-asleep student: I'm sorry, master, but how can one possibly pay attention to a book with no pictures in it?
Cross: Stupid child, there are many good books in this world without pictures.
Allen: In this world, perhaps, but in my world, the books would be nothing but pictures.
Cross: Your world? Huh! What nonsense.
Allen: [getting inspiration] Nonsense?
Cross: Once more, from the beginning.
Allen: [to his yellow cat, Timcanpy] That's it, Tim. If I had a world of my own, everything would be nonsense. Nothing would be what it is, because everything would be what it isn't. And contrariwise, what it is, it wouldn't be. And what it wouldn't be it would. You see?
Tim: Meow.
Allen: In my world, you wouldn't say "meow." You'd say, "Yes, Mr. Allen."
Tim: Meow.
Allen: Oh, but you would. You'd be just like people, Tim. And all the other animals too.
Allen: Oh, Timcanpy! It's just a red rabbit with a eye-patch - and a watch?
Lavi, the red rabbit: Oh, my fur and whiskers! I'm late, I'm late, I'm late!
Allen: Now this is curious. What could a rabbit possibly be late for? [running after him] Please, sir!
Lavi: I'm late, I'm late. For a very important date, Laven Week, that's the name. No time to say hello. Goodbye. I'm late, I'm late, I'm late.
xxx
Written for Laven Week, day 1: Culture.
Allen carefully folded another of the weird papers he had been receiving lately, and put it under his pillow. It's been the same thing day after day, for almost a month now. Every morning, when he go up, he would find a small piece of paper under his bedroom's door. It was always a short phrase, every day a different one, all of them written in different languages.
It was certainly a mystery for the young exorcist, as he didn't know much of other cultures. He thought of asking someone about the meaning of those weird words, but the first time he did, it made him fear asking something to someone again.
He didn't know anyone who spoke those weird languages. Of course, there was Bookman. He was probably fluent on every language on earth, but Allen wasn't really comfortable around him, he'd always have the feeling of being analyzed, the old man would study him as to find out if he was the "Destroyer of Time".
There was also Lavi, but asking him wasn't an option. For some time now, he, for some odd reason, started noticing how strong the other's arms seemed, and wondered what it would feel like to be held tight by the Bookman Jr. He would also think of running his hands over the shiny red hair, and would always wonder what it would feel like. Was it as soft as it looked? So he started avoiding the redhead as much as possible, since he figured out he would blush and blabber whenever he talked to his friend. But Allen couldn't forget the other's scent, that always remembered him of the fights when, to protect each other, they would get very close, or when they desperately hugged each other when they were hurt in battle.
Shaking his head to avoid imagining his best friend a little too close of him, he got dressed and went to breakfast.
...
After getting his gigantic meal, the white haired boy looked around looking for a seat.
"Allen-kun! Here, I saved you a seat!"
He waved to Lenalee, and then to Lavi and Miranda, who were also with her. As soon as he got to the table, Lavi stood up with a obviously fake smile.
"Sorry, I have some things to do now." Then, he left his half eaten pancakes, without looking back.
This made Allen feel a bit guilty. Why was Lavi avoiding him? He shouldn't do it, Allen was the one supposed to avoid! This wasn't right, and he wouldn't believe that lame excuse the redhead gave them. Some things to do… humph.
"Was it something I said?" Poor Miranda.
...
Allen went back to his bedroom to change his now blood red shirt. Why? Miranda dropped her tomato juice on him, of course.
After he changed, he jumped onto his bed and grabbed his papers under the pillow, reading one by one.
"Je t'aime" Hmm, weird... never heard it before... next!
...
Next... next, next, next!
"Aloha wauiā 'oe" Hey! I've heard thes words before! I guess it was during that mission on that island with that delicious coconut candies! But I still don't know what it means, so… next!
...
"Aishiteru"...
Hold on... I guess this last one is in Japanese! I could ask BaKanda!
And then, joyful with this epiphany, Allen ran to the exorcists' training room, the piece of paper in his hand and a curious Timcanpy flying behind him.
...
The Japanese exorcist was too obvious when it came to his routine, since it never changed the slightest bit. The training room was empty, except for Kanda, who was furiously kicking a punching bag. It almost made Allen fear asking him. Almost.
"Hey, Ba… I mean, hey, Kanda!" Okay, you want his help, don't tease him right now… Control yourself, Allen.
"What is it, moyashi?" He answered without stopping kicking. How polite…
Allen rolled his eyes and grabbed Kanda by his shoulders to stop him. Then, he put the small piece of paper in front of his eyes so the samurai could read it.
"So? What do you say?"
"HELL, NO, YOU FREAK!"
The next thing Allen felt was a punch on his face, and everything got dark.
...
Lavi headed to the training room; it was not his favorite place in the Order but there he was less likely to be found by anyone. Especially Allen, but he doubted the boy would look for him, since he started ignoring him after he sent those notes. He knew it was a bad idea to confess that way.
At first, when he noticed his friend was always smiling at him and blushing, he thought that maybe… maybe Allen felt the same way… Now he would just laugh bitterly and think about how silly he was. After almost a month, the only response he got was to be ignored. He should have guessed, maybe he just doesn't think of me this way. Or worse, maybe he's straight. I must have scared him…
Blaming himself, he reached the training room, and saw a familiar dark blue ponytail in a corner. Maybe he would tease Yuu for a while just as a distraction.
"Hey, Yuu!" He faked his best happy voice; if he showed his actual mood, Kanda wouldn't bother.
Kanda then looked at him.
"You came at the right time, Usagi."
"Oh, did I, Yuu-chan?"
"Just cut it off! Baka Moyashi here is unconscious, take him somewhere and hide him, rape him or do whatever you want, but this has nothing to do with me," he threatened. The superiors have already adverted him to stop beating people up for no reason, and there was no way in hell he would explain why he punched the beansprout.
Only then Lavi noticed the boy lying on the floor, his face bruised on the left cheek.
"What the hell did you do to him?"
The samurai stood up and glared at him with the eyes of someone who could kill you without a second thought, and wouldn't regret it the slightest bit.
"Say a word about it and I'll cover you with akuma blood and tie you on that Dracula's bed. Naked."
"U- Understood."
"Now GET OUT OF HERE!"
Lavi put Allen's dead weight on his back and left the room as quickly as he could, but still heard Kanda mutter something about burning a paper.
Hell, Allen, now I've got to take care of you! And when you wake up, you'll think I have kidnapped you or something! Where do I put you now?
Maybe I should take you to my bedroom… it'll be awkward when you wake up, but I can't take you to the infirmary with that bruise and without a convincing excuse... I can't say Yuu did that to you, he'd kill me!
Feeling a little safer after the mental discussion with himself, Lavi made his way to his bedroom, making sure no one was seeing or following them. What would people think if they saw a guy hanging on another's neck, being carried, and both heading to a room?
I wish it was like this, though… "But you really could be coming with me on your free will, couldn't you, Moyashi-chan? That'd be a lot better…"
With some effort, he held Allen with only one arm, reaching his bedroom's key in his pocket with the other. As soon as he entered the room, he kicked the door behind him and tried to put the unconscious boy on his bed, but he cuddled up to him, not wanting to let go.
Who does he think I am?
"Lavi…"
The boy held his arms tighter on Lavi's neck and nuzzled his neck with his nose, still asleep.
With a dumb smile, Lavi sat on the bed, letting the sleeping Allen rest his head on his lap, while he stroked the smooth white hair.
"I guess I'm the one dreaming here, Allen…"
He then rested his head on the wall beside the bed and closed his eye.
...
Allen moved his head on his pillow. It smelled nice. It smelled like… Lavi… As he moved his head again, he felt a strong pain on his cheek, and let out a small whimper.
He then opened his eyes. The first thing he saw was white. White fabric, trousers, covering… thighs? Male thighs?
Looking further, he saw something else. Definitely not a pillow. And definitely male. He blushed.
And then, his hands touched something on the person's leg, which was held to the pants by a leather strap. A hammer. The hammer.
Bloody hell…
Even though he knew who it was, Allen looked up, hoping his senses were fooling him. They weren't. There he was, Allen Walker, lying on Lavi's lap.
Totally embarrassed, he got up hurriedly, and that woke Lavi up.
"Yo, Allen, are you feeling better?"
"I g-guess so… What happened to me, Lavi?"
"What? You're talking to me again? Then I guess you understood my messages, after all!"
Allen was nervous. Lavi was smiling to him, as if he expected him to do something. The problem was: he didn't know what to do. He has been ignoring Lavi since he noticed the weird feelings towards the other exorcist. It wasn't normal a man wanting to be this close of another, was it? And, well, Lavi wouldn't like him back, not in that way. He never said "strike" to me…
But then it hit him.
"You mean those papers under my bedroom door? Was it you?"
"Of course it was. Do you know how scared I was when you didn't answer them?" Lavi had a smile on his face, and put one hand on Allen's knee, caressing it. "By the way, you are scaring me a lot these days. What did you do to Yuu? He was really pissed, and your cheek is bruised!"
"Oh, it's because I showed him one of the papers, the one in Japanese, and the idiot hit me, from nothing!" Allen said, exasperated.
Lavi muffled some giggles with his hand, and as the other looked at him angrily, It's not funny!, he tried to calm down.
"You actually said 'aishiteru' to Yuu-chan? Man, what the hell were you thinking?"
"I knew it, Lavi! Coming from you, it had to be something offensive! Stop playing pranks on people, for God's sake!"
"You mean… you don't have any idea of what I wrote?"
"Of course not! Do I look like a polyglot or something?"
With this, the redhead could no longer hide his laughter, and was almost breathless. Now, now, it's not everyday Yuu gets a love confession! He gradually stopped laughing, and smiled tiredly to Allen, who was currently blushing and staring at him.
"So… you have no idea of what I was trying to tell you? Geez, Allen, I knew you were slow, but I honestly didn't think you were THAT stupid!"
"Is the offense session over yet?"
Lavi leaned closer to Allen and brushed the white bangs out of his reddening face.
"Sorry, Moyashi-chan! Next time, I'll write it in a language you know." Allen opened his mouth to say something, but Lavi was quicker.
"Then, you better hurry and go to the infirmary take care of your face! Make up some excuse, I don't want to be beaten by Yuu-chan, 'kay?"
Before he knew, Allen was pushed out of Lavi's room, the door slammed on his face.
He then went to the infirmary. Because his face was aching, and, well, Lavi could wait.
...
Allen entered slowly, as he silently ran his eyes around the room. The medical sector was almost empty, with only a few scientists who were injured at the chemistry sector, apparently something exploded there that afternoon. Afternoon? Damn.
Before he could escape to the cafeteria, a hand grabbed his waistcoat.
"Where do you think you are going, young man?" Allen turned around to see the head nurse, with her hair wrapped in a bun and a severe look on her face.
"Oh, good afternoon, ma'am, I was just heading to the cafeteria, you see, I missed lunch…" He put his best charming smile, he knew women found him cute when he did that.
"It is not an excuse, Mr. Walker. I shall treat this terrible bruise on your face. Now, be a good boy and follow me." The woman pulled him all the way to a bed and forcefully made him sit.
"By the way, how did you get it? For all I know, you haven't gone out for missions recently."
Wanting to get rid of her soon so he could eat, Allen told her the truth. Or something like that.
"Oh, yeah, Kanda punched me. I pulled his hair." Not a bad excuse at all, I mean… Lavi comes here almost every week because of that, right?
"Dear, you can't be influenced by your older friends! Bullying is a bad thing , you can't do everything that redhead asks you to! He's such a troublemaker!" Allen would like doing whatever the said guy asked, but focused his mind on getting out of the infirmary. The only way for that to happen would be letting the nurse take care of him. Damn… I was unconscious and forgot to EAT!
The woman cleaned his face and put some herbal pomade on it.
"Lay down, dear. It will be half an hour until the pomade dries, you better relax for a while."
His stomach didn't agree, and made a loud noise to show it.
"But Mrs. Nurse, I am starving! I missed lunch!"
Old ladies never terrified Allen before. Now they did.
"You are not leaving this infirmary until this pomade is dry, do you hear me?" She said slowly, with an almost devilish face.
"O-okay, ma'am!"
...
Allen went running to cafeteria as if demons were chasing him, his hair and clothes all messy. People looked strangely at him when he passed. Why would the usually neat and polite Allen Walker run around the Black Order Headquarters and to its cafeteria? To eat, of course.
He had succeeded in escaping from the infirmary, and now just had to get his meal. It was already night, and finders, exorcists and scientists were having dinner. As expected at this time, there was a not-so-small queue in front of the ordering counter. But they all looked at the boy's desperate entrance, and were kind enough to let him order first. He looked like he would kill anyone who were between his food and him, anyway.
Somewhere in the same room, a bluish-black haired samurai stood up and left.
Lavi looked amused at the white blur as it ordered its food. The blur revealed itself as Allen, carrying an enormous tray that was almost hiding his face, and tried to put it on the table in front of him, the same one the redhead was sat at.
His smile at the other faded when Allen sat down, his tray no longer hiding him. The white shirt had its sleeves rolled up to his elbows, his usual red tie loose around his neck. His hair was messy, almost covering his eyes, and his face was flushed. The younger licked his lips looking at the food, and this simple action made Lavi blush.
"Strike…"
Allen stopped what he was doing to stare at him. He just said 'strike'… to me? The boy started eating to hide his embarrassment, but after he took the first bite of his roast beef, he remembered how hungry he was, and forgot about the 'strike'.
Lavi could only watch, waiting for him to finish eating so they could talk.
"So, Lavi…" Said Allen, already cleaning the corners of his mouth with a napkin. "Won't you tell me what those words on those papers mean?"
The other smiled, his green eye sparkling as if it was smiling too.
"No, no, Allen. It's foreign culture, that's all I'm saying. I told you, I'll send you one in English tomorrow! Can't you wait for a while?"
"Bloody hell, Lavi, why don't you just tell me already? I'm curious!"
He chuckled.
"Easy, beansprout. Just wait, ok? I promise you'll like it."
The boy glared at him and got up.
"Then I'll just find out by myself!" And with this, he left the cafeteria, leaving a very amused Lavi behind.
...
Later that night, Allen put aside another foreign dictionary. He was surrounded by a lot of them in his bedroom, trying to translate the papers Lavi sent him. It was almost impossible, since he didn't know which languages he was looking for. That's why he got the dictionaries from the Order's library, they had almost every language he could imagine.
But after a while he found something. In an English-Portuguese dictionary, he found some words that sounded like one of the papers he had, the one which read "Eu te amo".
Hmm, 'Eu', let me see… Oh, I got something! Eu means I! Okay, next word!
'Te' … it means you! I'm in the right way now, just one word left! If my theory is right, all the phrases mean the same thing, but in different languages…
The sun rose behind him some time ago, but he didn't seem to notice.
'A', letter A. Amo. It means… master? Oh my, it doesn't make any sense, 'I you master'! Oh, wait! There's something here! There's another word here! Amor, with an r at the end… Let's see, maybe he misspelled.
'Amor noun love: uma canção/uma história de ~ a love song/love story * o ~ da minha vida the love of my life * carta de ~ love letter LOC amor à primeira vista love at the first sight: Foi ~ à primeira vista. It was love at the first sight. fazer amor com to make love (to/with sb)
E.g.: Eu te amo I love you.'
Oh my God. Is it… ?
Hurriedly, he opened his door. He had to find Lavi. Who happened to be crouching in front of his door, putting a rose and a note there. The younger pulled him so he would stand up, making the other drop the note, blushing.
Allen put both his hands on Lavi's face, and got closer, almost tiptoeing. With gray eyes staring at the lone green one, he raised one hand to the soft red hair.
"Eu te amo"
Lavi smiled. "Je t'aime".
Allen got closer and wrapped his other arm around Lavi's neck. "Aishiteru".
"Shut up, Allen".
And they kissed.
And a small piece of paper lied on the floor. It read:
I love you, stupid uncultured Moyashi-chan. ~
A.N.: So, this was fun to write. Though it took me one entire week, since I was studying for my final exams, but I hope it's worth it. Review it, so I can be sure (or not). The next one is coming tomorrow, I guess. Happy late Laven week y'all!
xxx