The infirmary was awfully loud, compared to the private rooms the Exorcists had throughout Headquarters.
Allen was listening to his stomach growling, body apparently done with the massive amount of food he'd managed to consume before the matron dragged him back to bed. Nobody was in their own space right now, though they were all ready to have their peaceful rooms back.
Kanda was sleeping like a rock two beds over, breathing so deeply that Allen could pick it out from all the other infirmary sounds. Lavi was awake in the bed between them, staring at the ceiling and occasionally rubbing the spot where his eyepatch itched against the bridge of his nose. They hadn't let anyone take a bath since they'd put all these bandages on, which mean he hadn't had a chance to wash his hair on his own yet. He'd rather have a clean face and risk drowning from bruised ribs, but there were more important things to be thinking about. What had just transpired in the Ark, for instance, or the whispered rumors he'd heard from the staff visiting the infirmary... or...
Allen jumped so sharply that he nearly jumped out of his bed when Lavi sat upright, nerves still absolutely frazzled from their battles. Even Kanda opened his eyes at the sound of movement, making a soft "che" of disapproval when he saw it was just Lavi, disheveled and wide-eyed.
"Hey. Hey. Allen! Yuu!" Lavi's whisper was a bit too loud to be any sort of secretive, but the only person close enough to hear was Chaoji, who was rolling over in bed and snoring without a care in the world. "You awake?"
"I'm right here," Allen replied, pushing his hair out of his face and propping himself up on his elbows. "You can see I'm up."
"Yeah, yeah. Hey, d'you know what tomorrow is?" Lavi ran his hands through his hair, trying to make it stop sticking straight up. It wasn't working very well.
"The day I'm leaving the infirmary," Kanda replied, tugging his sweater down from where it had been draped on the headboard and sitting up to put it on. "What about it?"
"That's something to celebrate," Allen retorted, though he was cut off by Lavi waving his hands enthusiastically to distract them from bickering.
"Don't start that up. Listen. It's 20 February tomorrow!"
"So what?" Kanda and Allen asked in unison, shooting one another a venomous glare across Lavi's bed.
"It's Lenalee's birthday!"
The revelation silenced them, contemptuous expressions replaced with surprise and mild confusion as they looked to the Junior Bookman.
"How do you know the date?" Kanda snapped, glancing around as if he were expecting to find a calendar on the infirmary wall. "We couldn't have been gone that long."
"I'm gonna be Bookman. I hafta know the date. Besides, the old man brings me the paper every mornin'! "
"What do you do for a girl for her birthday?" Allen interjected, not quite able to hide how lost he was in this kind of conversation. "She hasn't mentioned anything…"
"Girls don't just tell you when their birthday is! You have to know that kinda thing." Lavi explained, giving the white-haired boy a slightly exasperated look. "We hafta work on girls with you, Allen, or you're gonna end up being the nice guy friend for the rest of your life."
"She probably doesn't want anyone making a big deal of it. You should leave it alone." Kanda cut him off, rather eager to keep Lavi from starting a conversation about how women liked to be wooed.
"Kanda, that's just rude. Maybe she would like us to do something." Even if he didn't know what he was doing when it came to birthdays, Allen knew he didn't want to be on the same side as Kanda in an argument.
"It's been a rough couple of months. I think a party would be nice!" Lavi seemed thrilled by his idea, climbing up on top of his sheets and crossing his legs as he started fluffing up his pillows. "We can have Jerry make her a nice lil' cake and everything. You know it'll make her smile."
Kanda looked a bit pained by the prospect, but he wasn't getting up and leaving- Something that Lavi decided to take as a good sign. Allen was still intimidated by the idea, though, and it showed in his hesitation.
"There's no way they'll let us leave to find a present for her…" He finally said, scratching the back of his head and looking to Lavi for some sign that he could fix the problem. "And we don't have any money, anyways."
Lavi hummed, flopping back against the headboard (flinching when his ribs hit the pillows, but shrugging it off with all of the bravado he could muster) and stretching out his legs. "Well, there's all kinds of rooms full o' stuff here. We could find something little for her, maybe."
"All of the stuff in those rooms is creepy." Allen replied in deadpan, staring at a particularly ugly painting on the wall at the far end of the infirmary. He'd stumbled into enough of those rooms to know what would be waiting for them. Kanda actually harumphed in agreement, not that Allen acknowledged the noise.
"You just don't know enough to see how interestin' it is," Lavi dismissed them with a little shrug, looking up at the ceiling as he racked his brain for ideas. "Everyone likes books, right? Maybe we can find a novel for her or somethin'."
"We won't be able to get her anything if we're locked in here," Allen pointed out, keeping his voice low as if the matron would come crawling out from beneath his bed. "How do you think we'll manage that?"
"We'll walk out. 'Sides, if Lenalee's still recoverin', she won't know we're planning something for her!" The redhead declared, sitting up straight and looking around for any sign of their jail keeper. She wasn't in sight, and the only nurse at hand was checking Crowley's wrappings with a tired inefficiency.
Grinning, Lavi crawled to the edge of his bed, pulling his boots out from below and pulling them on with his eye on the nurse. "We'll just walk out when that lady's done in here. Nobody'll notice."
"The matron always notices." Allen protested, but he was dragging himself out of his own bed, ignoring the little aches and pains as he reached for his shoes.
Kanda made a dismissive noise, flopping back down against his pillows and doing his best to completely ignore the two of them. That wasn't going to work for long, however; as soon as Lavi had his shoes on, he was throwing one of his pillows into Kanda's face, standing up and shaking his mattress with his knees. "Hey, Yuu! Yuu. Get up, Yuu. We're goin' on an adventure."
"Lavi!" Kanda snarled, rolling over to try and hit the boy and instead getting a fistful of Lavi's second pillow. "I'm going to wring your neck!"
"Naw, not today. Come on. We don't got all day before the matron comes back."
"Shouldn't you three be in the infirmary?" Jerry appeared the instant the boys stepped up to the kitchen door, putting his hands on his hips as his whisk dripped batter onto the floor. Allen flinched at the accusation, looking surreptitiously aside while Lavi threw his hands up carelessly.
"Hey, Jerry! We missed seein' you around, that's all." The Junior Bookman took a few steps into the kitchen, taking a deep inhale as if he were appreciating a sweet perfume instead of the smell of a busy kitchen. "You're so good at cookin' that we figured we'd ask you to help us out with something."
"You didn't have to come all the way down here to feed Allen, you know. He can just ask and the nurses can take more food up to him!" Jerry tsked, turning back to pick up an abandoned mixing bowl and starting to whisk the mysterious contents with expert speed.
"It's not for me!" Allen protested, shooting Kanda a dirty look as he heard the exhale that always accompanied his nasty little smirks. "But if you have something ready for dinner, I could use a snack-"
"Allen's just fine," Lavi cut him off, leaning one hip against the counter and trying to act less stiff than he was from his injuries. "It's Lenalee's birthday tomorrow, and we don't want anyone forgetting with all the distractions goin' on. I'm not too good at making things, and I don't want Allen messing up your kitchen. Would you want to make something nice for her, like a cake or somethin'?"
Lavi brushed his hair back with one hand as he tilted his chin down a bit, giving Jerry the sheepish grin he saved when he was asking nicely for something. "We dunno what she likes, though..."
"Chocolate cake." Allen and Lavi started at the sound of Kanda's voice, looking to the third (unwilling) member of their party in confusion. The swordsman scowled, crossing his arms over his chest and leaning against the doorframe."What, idiots? She likes chocolate cake. Do you pay attention to anything?"
"I don't pay attention to what a girl's eatin'. That's a little weird, don'tcha think?" Lavi looked to Allen, who gave a little shrug in response. He had noticed that Lenalee ate chocolate quite a bit, but they hadn't eaten together in the dining hall often enough for him to find any pattern in it.
"Could you make a chocolate cake for her, Jerry?" Allen asked, looking around at the slightly chaotic state of things in the kitchen. "I know you're really busy with all of these guests, so it's alright if you can't..."
"Don't be ridiculous!" Jerry interjected, waving his hand and flicking batter all over Kanda and Lavi as he turned away. The swordsman snarled as he wiped the mess from his face, but Lavi just licked off the back of his hand with a curious expression and a hum of approval. "Anything for my dear Lenalee. I can have it ready tonight, if you'd like."
"Why not make it fresh tomorrow?" Lavi interjected curiously.
"Because I have to cook for an entire council of churchmen tomorrow. It will keep just fine in an icebox."
The boys exchanged looks, and when Lavi's eyes lit up Allen realized that their ringleader had just been inspired. But would his idea be something brilliant, or something terrible...?
"Naw, we can take it tonight. Could you leave the kitchen unlocked, maybe, so we can get it later?"
Jerry frowned, turning back to look them over suspiciously. "Well, I suppose... So long as you don't take any of the other food. I can't have Allen taking any midnight snacks until we have fewer people to feed, you know."
"I'm not going to steal food." Allen sighed over a snort from Kanda, balling his fists behind his back as he resisted the urge to punch Kanda into a tray of breaded chicken for being so amused. "I promise."
"Well, I suppose it's alright, then. I should have it done by eight or so!"
"That's perfect!" Lavi replied, stretching his arms out as he started walking backward to try and herd his companions out of the kitchen behind him. "We'll see you when it's time for dinner, Jerry."
"We're going to be caught before then..." Allen mumbled once they were in the dining hall proper, looking up at the countless levels of walkway above their heads. The matron was likely to appear up there at any minute, peering down at the common areas to figure out where they had gone so she could hunt them down.
"Don't be so paranoid! She can't find us if we keep movin'." Lavi turned to face his companions with a grin, stepping past them so they could stand a little farther from the kitchen door. Most of the dining tables were empty at this time of day, thankfully, and standing between two tables wasn't a traffic issue the way it would be during a mealtime. "We just gotta figure out where we're goin' next."
"Neither of you could hide if you wanted to, with hair like that." Kanda grumbled, smoothing his own hair as he made sure there wasn't any batter clinging to it.
"Yeah, yeah. Like your pretty hair doesn't stand out in a crowd." Lavi was looking up as well, but instead of thinking of the matron, he was trying to remember where they could find books that nobody would miss. "Let's go look for that book or somethin'. I dunno where we'll find something she'll like, though..."
"Why don't we try the library?" Allen suggested blithely, adjusting his sleeve so it covered just a bit more of his Innocence. His gloves had been ruined in the Ark, and he hadn't been able to get a replacement yet. "I've been told they keep quite a few books there."
"A library full of books, huh?" The redhead turned to give Allen an unimpressed look, propping his wrists on his hips. "Never woulda thought to look there."
"You're both idiots. If we're done, I'm going to my room." Kanda interrupted their banter, moving to walk ahead and plowing right into Allen as he went.
"Watch where you're going, Kanda." The white-haired boy body checked the swordsman in his effort to stand his ground, and in the less than agile condition that Kanda was currently in, the push sent him face-first toward the ground.
Lavi reached out to catch Kanda automatically, but only succeeded in getting taken down as well, the angry swordsman's head nailing the Junior Bookman in his very sore ribs. The pair ended up lying in a tangle on the stone floor, breathing heavily and clutching their various injuries.
"Owww. That ain't even fair!" Lavi groaned, trying to extract his legs from beneath Kanda without much success. Allen cringed, looking at the mess with a remorseful expression- Well, for Lavi. The look Kanda gave him as he pushed himself up was enough to suck the pity out of a saint.
"Sorry, Lavi. I guess Kanda's still too weak to stay on his feet-" Allen began to explain, stepping over to help the Bookman to his feet. Kanda's fist in his the back of his knee took him down with a shout, however, and he landed right on top of the Bookman Junior, knee cracking into Kanda's back as he landed.
"I'm dyin'," Lavi wheezed, putting a hand on Allen's back and weakly trying to shove him off.
Allen wasn't moving terribly quickly, either, groaning as he tried to get up without making his own sides hurt any more. A few Finders walked by, chuckling at the sight of the hobbling Exorcists trying to drag themselves to their feet by the edge of the table, but not bothering to offer any help.
"WHERE ARE MY PATIENTS?"
The roar tore through the atrium like a train, echoing loudly as every person in the area turned to find the source of the noise.
"Shit." It was hard to tell who said it, but the boys all had the exact same thought. They were on their feet and sprinting for the stairs to the library instantly, taking down a few benches in their haste.
"She's going to kill us," Allen panted as they reached the relative safety of the stairwell, clutching his side as he looked back toward the source of their fear. "She's going to tear our ears off."
"Only if she catches us, eh?" Lavi rubbed his ribs with both hands, stretching gingerly before starting up the steps. "Hurry it up. She can run faster than us right now."
Allen wasn't sure what was stranger about their arrival in the library: The fact that Reever was sleeping on a pile of books right in front of the door, or the fact that none of them seemed particularly shocked by it. Lavi didn't even break his stride, just taking a flying leap over the scientist like some kind of stiff gazelle. His usual agility was somewhat lacking, of course, and the toe of his boot caught one of the stacks, sending him sprawling into the papers laying beside the scientist.
Allen and Kanda stared at Reever expectantly, waiting for him to wake up and rail on the Junior Bookman, but the man didn't even stir. Lavi, on the other hand, was preoccupied with his efforts to not writhe in pain, holding his ribs and pressing his face into the worn Persian rug as he bit back a rather unbecoming whine.
"Maybe we should go back to the infirmary," Allen suggested, walking around Reever as Kanda did the same. "I don't think we're supposed to damage you more while we're out here."
"No, I'm fine." Lavi replied, voice rather hoarse and a little too high-pitched. "I got it. I can walk it off."
"If you say so. What books are we looking for, again...?" The white-haired boy started walking off, making a deliberate choice to go down an aisle that Kanda hadn't chosen.
"Allen," Lavi called after him, slowly pushing himself onto his side, struggling to roll over.
"You know, I've never seen Lenalee reading. Does she even like books? Maybe we should see if someone is going into town instead."
"Allen." The redhead was edging himself toward a bookshelf with his feet, sliding along like some sort of ridiculous carpet otter.
"Or we could go into the storage closets. You can go in first, though..."
"ALLEN." Lavi was rather certain he'd faint if he bent his spine right now, and the bookshelf wasn't really offering any purchase for a boy with bruised ribs to climb. "Allen. Allen. Allen."
"What?" Allen finally looked back over his shoulder, a hand on the spine of a random book.
"Help me up."
"Oh. Sorry."
"Cookbooks." Kanda came back around the corner as Allen pulled Lavi up to his feet, holding a crisp-looking but dusty volume in one hand. "She likes to cook."
Lavi stared at Kanda with a funny expression, letting Allen support him as he found his balance. "How d'you know all this stuff about Lenalee, Yuu? It's kinda creepy."
Kanda threw the book at Lavi's chest, turning away with a noise of disdain. Lavi yelped dramatically as he caught it against his ribs, and Allen cringed, putting a hand on the Junior Bookman's side as if he were concerned he'd fall apart if something hit his torso again.
"I gotta get some laudanum, Allen." Lavi wheezed, looking up at the ceiling as if he were searching for some divine intervention. "This just ain't right."
"Maybe if you stopped jumping all over the place, you wouldn't need something for pain." Allen suggested, giving his friend a patronizing little smile. "We're planning a birthday, not running a gauntlet."
"I ain't the one pushing Kanda into innocent bystanders," Lavi retorted, finally pushing Allen away as he found his footing and breath once again. "Why don'tcha put Reever's papers back?"
"What? No! You tripped over them. You're the Bookman, anyways, you're the one who would remember what order they were in!"
"D'you think I'm psychic or somethin'? I wasn't flippin' through them when I put my foot into 'em!"
"Are you morons coming, or do you just want to stay in the library all day?" Kanda's sharp voice came from the opposite end of the room. Allen and Lavi both jumped to attention, looking down at Reever and the mess of papers they'd left, then at each other.
"He can pick 'em up."
"... Yeah. He won't know that someone else knocked them over."
They took a few careful steps away from the scientist, watching to make sure that he wasn't going to wake up before turning and walking as quickly as possible after Kanda.
When the clock in the hallway struck midnight, Lenalee was still awake.
The matron had sent her to her own room in hopes that she would get some rest, but it hadn't been as effective as they'd hoped; staring at the ceiling, teeth worrying her bottom lip as she heard Hebraska's voice drilling into her mind again and again. Four hours seemed long enough to lie in the dark, however- She finally pushed herself up, reaching across the bed to turn on her lamp.
Hugging her pillow to her chest, Lenalee started to settle in for a long night of sitting up against her headboard and thinking. There wasn't anything else to do with her legs still in this condition, after all.
"Ouch!"
Lenalee looked at the door at the sound of a voice outside, blinking as she heard a scuffle in the corridor that ended with someone bumping into her door. For a moment, she thought that someone was just passing by- some Finders who had had a bit too much to drink, or something like that- but then some indiscernible whispering started up, followed by the sound of metal scraping on a plate.
Frowning, she pushed her covers aside, slipping out of bed and making her way across the room on silent feet. She listened at the door for a few seconds before turning the lock, pulling it open- and being greeted with Lavi falling into the threshold, dislodged from where he'd been listening against the door.
"What are you three doing here at this time of night?"
Allen and Kanda were standing behind him, staring down at the Bookman Junior blankly as he stared up at Lenalee. He was instantly scrambling to his feet, throwing his arms out to the side with a huge smile as if he hadn't just been caught in the act.
"Happy birthday, Lenalee!"
She didn't react quite the way they had expected. She stared at Lavi for a long minute, then looked to Allen and the frosted chocolate cake he was holding, complete with her name on the top, and to Kanda, who was rather uncomfortably holding a few forks. When she finally looked back to Lavi, who had what appeared to be a book wrapped in newsprint and twine in one hand, she smiled, not quite able to hide the fact that she had tears in her eyes.
"You remembered."
"Of course. I remember everything, don't I?"
"She's crying," Allen stated the obvious, looking around nervously. Kanda's expression didn't change at all, but Lavi smiled, gently putting a hand on her shoulder and holding the book out for her.
"Kanda's the one who said you like chocolate, so if that's the problem it's his fault." He laughed quietly when she shook her head.
"Don't be silly. You shouldn't have..." But they had, and it made her so happy. After a moment, she stepped back, giving them the space to come into her room. They hesitated, obviously a bit nervous, but the sound of footsteps nearby scared them enough to send them in.
Lavi set up their little picnic in the middle of the floor, with the cake in the center and a pillow for Lenalee to sit on with her back supported against the dresser. Allen and Kanda settled down with wary glares in one another's direction, though they instantly dissolved into neutral expressions when Lenalee sat down.
"Here ya go," Lavi smiled as he handed her the first piece of cake as he cut it, grabbing a fork from Kanda without even bothering to look in his direction. "Jerry made it, so it should be just the way you like it."
"You three should be in the infirmary," Lenalee remarked, holding her plate as if she'd just been handed something especially precious. "How did you manage all of this?"
"We're your friends. We figured it out." Allen grinned, accepting a piece of cake from Lavi- but frowning when he didn't get a fork.
"Hold on. She's gotta take the first bite. That's what you do on birthdays." Lavi waved him off, smiling and watching Lenalee hurry to take her first bite so her friends wouldn't have to wait.
Her eyes lit up at the taste, and the boys all seemed to breathe a collective sigh of relief as she made a quiet hum of appreciation. Allen waited with his hand outstretched, until she swallowed and Lavi finally saw fit to give him his fork.
"Eat some cake, Kanda!" She frowned at the plate he had left sitting on the floor in front of him, giving him a rather commanding look.
"I hate sweets," he replied, deliberately looking at the wall until Lavi forced him to turn his head with a fork poking him in the leg.
"Yeah, Yuu. Eat it. It's Lenalee's birthday!"
He almost snapped something nasty, but there was something about Lenalee's smile that managed to take some of the edge from his temper. With a grudging noise, he picked up the plate, stabbing into the edge of his piece without any frosting and eating it as if he were putting dirt in his mouth.
"It's good, isn't it?" Allen asked, voice full of innocent intent even under Kanda's deathly glares.
"... Tch." Kanda scoffed, swallowing his annoyance as Lenalee beamed at him.
Once she'd finished her first piece of cake (and Allen had finished his second), she found Lavi pushing the badly-wrapped package he'd carried in toward her, smiling as if he were handing her jewelry instead of a book.
"Here, open your gift! We'll get you somethin' real when we can go to town, but this is just for now."
Lenalee picked it up, weighing it in her hands as if she had no idea what it could be. The bow was actually tied well, unlike the rest of it- It was the sort of knot Allen used on his own necktie, and she couldn't help smiling at the idea of her friends huddling together over a book and trying to figure out how to make all of the paper stay on.
"A cookbook?" Lenalee looked up at Kanda, well aware that he was the only one who knew about her rarely indulged hobby.
The swordsman looked away, setting his plate down- and then pushing it toward Lavi so Allen wouldn't be able to get ahold of it without standing up. The white-haired Exorcist frowned when he saw that, staring after the piece with a possessive sort of glare.
"Thank you, everyone." Lenalee's voice broke the tension, and all three boys turned to see her infectious smile as she clutched their present to her chest. "You don't know how much this means to me."
"You deserve a good birthday." Allen returned her smile with his own grin, scratching the back of his head the way he always did when he was feeling sheepish. "You're a good friend."
Lavi started to say something, but before he could even open his mouth, the door slammed open, revealing the silhouette of the matron against the light of the hallways. The boys all froze in abject horror, well aware that she was standing in the only exit available to them.
"YOU THREE." The matron snarled, pointing at the boys with what could only be described as an intimidating hand. The silence that followed was deafening, but Lavi was the first to move, reaching a hand out to slide the cake toward Lenalee.
"Save the cake, Lenalee. We're not gonna survive long enough to have another piece."