Cat and Mouse: Chapter 1
Pale grey clouds swept across London's late November sky. They watched the city like silent angels, sending down a soft, quiet snow that instilled everything with a calm, sleepy air. The streets were deserted, as everyone in their right mind was inside getting and staying warm. All of the streets, that is, but one: a remote avenue in the unlikeable part of town. There stood a man about as out of place as an urchin in a 3 star restaurant. He was tall and slender, with dark, wavy hair and piercing gold eyes. He wore an expensive suit and a top hat, both of which did little to disguise his ashen grey complexion and the row of 7 crosses splayed across his forehead. He was one of the Clan of Noah, and very pissed off.
He checked his watch and made a face: it was 5:15. He had been waiting at that exact spot since 10 in the morning. He glanced around nervously, like a rabbit searching for a fox: a very fat fox wearing a huge grin and an obscenely decorative top hat. The Noah was afraid that the Earl might pop up out of an alley and start beating him with his pumpkin-headed umbrella. This sort of thing had happened before and it was not pleasant. The Noah was missing a family dinner for this and would be reprimanded later, especially seeing as the Earl had expressly forbidden his coming here.
He glanced at his watch again and began whistling a tune he'd heard Road singing. He forgot the refrain and fell silent. Music echoed through the falling snow and left an eerie quiet in its wake. He shuddered, shifted his feet and lit a cigarette, the small flame lighting up his face like that of a demon."Where is that dumb akuma?" he said, voicing his thoughts out loud. As if waiting for his question, a small girl with long blond hair, smothered in winter clothes skipped down the street towards him.
"Good morning, Lord Noah!" she said cheerily.
"Evening." he said, his voice dangerously calm. "It's evening now. You're 7 hours late."The akuma lost all of its previous pep. Fear flashed on its face.
"Oh... I'm t-terribly sorry Lord Noah. It won't happen again." Her voice was a whisper. He looked daggers at her. "But I did retrieve the Innocence like you told me to, Lord Noah. Here it is, Lord Noah."She said proudly, handing him a small white cube from deep inside her coat. It sparkled slightly in the half-light as she presented it to the handsome Noah before her.
The man took it in his hands. He felt none of the usual surging energy he had encountered in other Innocence. Recently a strange obsession with the stuff had come over him. He planned not to destroy it, but to perform experiments on it to put his insatiable curiosity to rest. He held it up and examined it, confusion growing on his face with each passing second. Taking his cigarette in his free hand, he stuck out his tongue and licked it. Rage twisted his grey features and without warning, he slapped the small girl in front of him so hard that the skin on the right side of her face was completely torn away, revealing the metal skeleton underneath. The akuma fell to its knees in the snow, clutching its mutilated head. "Have I done something wrong Lord Noah?" it stuttered.
"Yes, you idiotic piece of shit!" he yelled. "This is a sugar cube, not Innocence!" He threw the lump of sugar down in front of the akuma. All that time wasted, for a sugar cube! He thought. ""Did you even listen to my instructions? There are 24 Innocence in the Black Order, all kept in the same place."
The akuma nodded meekly "Yes, Lord Noah. There were 24 in a fancy bowl on an important looking table, next to a teapot." It said "I counted them several times."
The Noah struggled to maintain calm. "What idiots would keep the essence of their very existence in a bowl on a coffee table?" he knelt down and leaned into the girl's face "And what idiot would mistake a lump of sugar for Innocence? Go back. Get me my Innocence. And this time, don't fuck it up."
"I can't, Lord Noah." said the akuma quietly. "My hat slipped and one of the exorcists saw my pentacle." She indicated the star on her forehead. "He had red hair." She added for no apparent reason.
The Noah rolled his eyes. Akuma were so clueless. "Then get a new body. Little girls don't walk around with half their face missing." He said by way of dismissal. She began walking off. "Oh, akuma, don't call me 'Lord Noah'. It's so annoying."She stopped, asking him what he would prefer. "My name is Tyki Mikk." He said.
"Yes, Lord Tyki Mikk." The akuma curtsied and scurried off. Tyki sighed and decided to get something to eat. He walked away from the grimy street he'd befriended over the past 7 hours. He found a quaint little bakery that radiated warmth and entered, rubbing his frozen fingers.
"Are you sure you haven't seen any small girls with stars on their heads?" said a voice with an elusive, strange accent. From his location, Tyki could see only that the speaker was a young man with messy red hair and wearing an exorcist's uniform. Tyki was intrigued. Something about this exorcist was different. He felt a strange attraction to the redhead. Destiny? a small part of Tyki's mind suggested. Shut up. That sort of stuff doesn't exist. The rest of him quickly squashed out that idea, or so he thought.
"No. You're the only customer so far since the time you mentioned." said the baker, a portly man with a fluffy moustache. Tyki walked slowly up to the counter and noticed that the exorcist was eating a strawberry chocolate cheesecake Danish and looked like he was enjoying himself thoroughly. He had green eyes, or rather, one green eye, as the other was covered in a black eye patch. "Excuse me, sir, how may I help you?" asked the baker.
"I'll have one of what he has." Tyki said, snapping out of his daze. He stood, staring at the exorcist, transfixed. Try as he might, he could not take his eyes off the boy. This bothered Tyki. He decided to scare him a bit to relieve some of this emotion. Silently, he let a few of the Teez materialize in the air around him. The exorcist didn't notice. The Noah sighed and took his pastry.
"Lord Tyki Mikk!" said a tall, blonde man, striding into the bakery. "I found myself a new body, just like you told me to! I'm going back to the Black Order for the Innocence now." God, that IDIOT! Tyki thought, staring at the akuma he had talked to just 10 minutes before, seething. The exorcist's head snapped up. For a few seconds, he sat, staring at Tyki, then one word escaped his lips: Noah... Tyki took a step towards him and he sprung to life. He was out of his seat so fast no one saw him get up. He ran, slamming headlong into one of the ornate steel and cherry wood chairs, knocking it over. He swore, stood up and bolted out the door. Tyki couldn't let him get away; besides, he wanted to find out more about this exorcist. He followed.
"WAIT!" he called after the boy as he disappeared down a side alley. He turned into the same alley and almost ran into the redhead. He had taken out a small hammer from a holster on his thigh. At a word from him, it grew to the size of a small cow.
"Fire stamp!" the exorcist said to the hammer and Tyki suddenly found a flaming snake rushing at him. He stepped aside as the fire dissipated.
"Wait, I just want to talk to you..."he said putting his hands up to show he had no weapons. The exorcist turned and disappeared, running like the Devil himself was following him. Maybe he is. Tyki thought. "Teez," he said, addressing one of the purple and black glowing butterflies fluttering around him "follow him." The butterfly shaped demon flew off after the boy, leaving Tyki standing alone with a strange feeling in the pit of his stomach. He couldn't put his finger on it, but something about that exorcist made Tyki feel both depressed and ecstatic all at once. He punched the grimy wall of the alley, though he knew full well that wouldn't help any.
Later that night, Tyki slunk into the Noah's hideout, wary of anything that might give him away. He took off his clothes in a daze and curled up in his bed, feeling empty. He closed his eyes, and images of the redheaded exorcist filled his mind. He smiled weakly and fell into a restless slumber.
When he woke up, he felt drunk. Have I been drinking? Tyki asked himself as he pulled some clothes on and stumbled downstairs. He was greeted by the rest of his 'family', Jasdevi arguing over something, Road cramming for a test and Skin crunching small candies between his shark-like teeth. The slightly salty scent of bacon frying wafted up to him from the kitchen. The Earl poked his smiling head out from behind the kitchen door "Ah! Tyki-pon is finally awake!" he said.
Tyki sighed and sat down. Almost immediately, he found a large plate of eggs and fatty bacon under his nose. "I'm not hungry..." he said in a moody grumble. Road looked up at him.
"Where were you last night, Tyki? You were supposed to help me with my English test." she asked him, holding out her thick textbook in disgust. Tyki grabbed it and opened it to a random page. "The theme of an article of prose is reflective of the summation of the article's main ideas." He said in a bored tone and handed it back to her.
Road glared at him "You're no help at all." She said. "Where were you?" she repeated.
"Indeed, Tyki-pon, you missed dinner!" the Earl said, sitting down at the head of the table.
"Lucky Tyki. It was a piece of shit." David sniggered.
"Yeah! Shit! And boring to." Chimed in Jasdero. A death glare from the Earl silenced them.
"I was in London." Tyki said evasively.
"Why?" asked Skin.
Oh, so he CAN speak. Tyki thought sarcastically. "I...needed to do something." He said. The Earl asked him what. "The Teez were getting restless, I needed to find a host for them." He lied.
"All the way in London?" the Earl probed.
"There isn't a living human within 30 miles of here, it's all akuma." Tyki said. This seemed to satisfy his fellow Noah. Skin stood up and lumbered off and the Earl went to go do whatever it was he did every day. David picked up an apple, but just as he was about to bite into it, Jasdero pulled out his revolver and shot the fruit out of his twin's hand. David pulled out his gun and started shooting madly at the blonde next to him. Jasdero returned the favor and the two disappeared, only to be replaced with a tall man with hair as long as Rapunzel's. After a moment of surprise, Jasdevi walked off, grumbling to himself, leaving Tyki and Road alone.
After a few minutes, Tyki decide to break the silence. "I think something's wrong with me, Road." He said.
"Like how?" she asked, not bothering to look up from her work.
Tyki took a moment to think before answering. "Like: I feel empty and full at the same time, happy and extremely depressed. I'm restless and I can't stop thinking about someo- someTHING. I can't sleep and I'm losing my appetite. I feel like all my life, something has been missing, that I found that thing, and then let it go. It's almost like-"
"I think you're in love, Tyki." Road said, interrupting him.
"WHAT?!" Tyki was outraged. "I'm not in love! How am I in love? Does it look like I'm in love? Road, you've finally lost it, I am NOT in love!!!"
"Definitely in love." she said, going back to her textbook. "Tell me, who is it?" she asked, like she was reasoning with a child.
Tyki was silent for a few moments. "You'd never believe it if I told you." He said at last.
"Try me." She said, placing a bookmark in her half- completed school work and looking intently at him. "Is it an exorcist?" she asked.
"How did you know?"Tyki asked and swore. "Road, that's just mean."
"How so? It was you who told me." She said. "Is it that one green haired girl?"
"No. I don't know her." Tyki said.
"I can't picture you with that one Miranda woman either...and General Cloud Nine is in Morocco..." Road said thoughtfully. "Is it one of the male exorcists?"
"NO! What about the other female exorcists?" Tyki asked, startled by Road's quick –and correct- conclusion.
"There are none. I bet it's that red haired exorcist with the eye patch." said Road with almost total certainty. Tyki's silence told her she was correct. Road grinned. "Tyki's in love." She said, dragging out the last word. "With a guy exorcist!" she taunted.
"Shut up. I know you have a soft spot for that Walker boy." Tyki snapped. Road glared at him. A noise at the door caused them to look away from each other. Jasdevi stood there, looking triumphant. They had managed to separate themselves.
"What are you talking about?" they asked.
"Tyki's in love with a male exorcist!" Road said gleefully.
"No I'm not!" Tyki snapped indignantly. If Jasdevi knew about the boy he'd met last night, he'd never hear the end of it.
"Ahh, love..." David intoned dramatically, leaning against the wall and smirking at Tyki.
"Hehe! That's priceless!" Jasdero giggled, crouching on the coffee table in front of Tyki, giving him an unpleasant view of the blonde's already accentuated mid-section. "What's he like?" Jasdero teased the glowing bubble on his head inches from Tyki's face.
Tyki stood up and walked towards the door. "I could find better company with Lero." He said, but the truth was, he was grateful to Road. She had helped him realize the truth behind his feelings. And now that he knew what it was that made his heart so heavy, he could better think about what to do with it. He told himself repeatedly that it was stupid to fall head over heels for an exorcist. He was a NOAH, and that exorcist was a GUY. Tyki found himself walking through town. He needed to get the exorcist out of his head. He grabbed the first hooker he saw, pressed a wad of money into her hand and dragged her off to a high end hotel.
Later that night, Tyki lay there in the dark, alone. The woman had left, and now all he had for company were his thoughts. And those seemed to refuse to go in the direction he wanted them to. Visions of red haired men whirled through Tyki's head like a thousand demons, monsters that he himself had invited in. He tried to sleep, but he would dream about the exorcist, he would do things he never would have even imagined if it hadn't been for that damn boy! Tyki woke sweating and breathing heavily for what must have been the 4th time that night. Something was fluttering around his head. It was the Teez he had sent to trail the exorcist. It came to rest on the finger he extended for it and all it had seen came flooding into Tyki.
The exorcist was walking down a snowy street, looking troubled. He wandered into the Black Order and Tyki saw nothing but walls as the Teez found an open window to fly through. When it located the exorcist, he was sitting stretched out on one of the couches in the lounge, staring into a cup of black coffee. "Lavi!" a voice said and the redhead looked over to its source. So his name is Lavi, Tyki thought.
"Oh, Lenalee..." Lavi said, disappointment lacing his every word. He went back to staring at his drink.
"You look down." Said the girl, sitting next to him.
"No, just confused. I saw a Noah today." She reacted with shock and concern, asking him about the experience. "He walked into the bakery I was eating at. He chased me into an alley, but then he just stood there, staring at me. He didn't even attack or anything. It was really weird."
"You should get some rest." The girl said. Lavi agreed and walked off, leaving his coffee.
In his room, Lavi wasn't alone; there was an old man with thick, black makeup around his eyes lying on the top bunk of the bed. There was no furniture, just mounds of old newspapers and books. "Hey Panda-face," he said to the old man. "Does the Noah have some sort of connection to us Bookmen?"
"What? No. Why do you ask?" the old man said drowsily.
"I saw a Noah today, and felt this strange bond with him, like we were destined to meet or something." Lavi said, as casually as possible.
"Hmmm... Interesting. I don't know what that was, but it's nothing I've ever felt." Said Panda-face.
"Oh. Well never mind then."He said, wearily stripping off his black leather uniform. Tyki caught a good look at the exorcist's toned upper half and did nothing but stare, drinking in every curve of his body.
"Hey Lavi." said the old man."What's that butterfly thing above your head?" That was all Tyki saw, as the rest of the Teez's memory was of flying swiftly towards Tyki's hotel room.
Tyki sat silently for a few minutes, deep in thought. So, exorcist, you feel the same way about me as I do you. We should meet, soon... Tyki said the exorcist's name out loud, savoring its flavor on his tongue. "Lavi..." Tomorrow, we'll meet; get this whole thing sorted out... Tyki closed his eyes, no longer trying to drive out images of this exorcist that had stumbled into his path. "Tomorrow... tomorrow I'll properly introduce myself..." he said, grinning sadistically as thoughts of Lavi danced through his mind.
Ha-ha. Sorry it's so long! Please review, and be honest, I hate when people don't tell me ways I can improve... I don't know if this story will last, but I'm working on chapter 2 right now...