"C'moooon Yuu! You've been with Allen for how long? You've got to have done something kinky! Tell me," Lavi complained.
Lavi, Lenalee, Allen, and Kanda were all sitting at the cafeteria table during breakfast. Allen, with his usual pile of food, Kanda with soba, Lenalee with scrambled eggs and toast, and Lavi with a large stack of waffles. Chaoji, Miranda, and Krory were away on a mission in Egypt.
Mugen was pulled as usual, and as usual, Lavi cowered and raised his hands in defeat. "Shut up you fucking rabbit. Don't call me that."
"But come ON! Why can't I know? Tell me Y-" He was cut off by Link, who had somehow walked up to them without any of them noticing. And he interupted right before Kanda had to take out Mugen again.
"Lavi. Director Komui has a mission for you. Go straight to the Research Department." As soon as Lavi stood, Link took his place at the table, and Lavi waved them all a goodbye.
Lavi walked glumly to see the zany Director, wishing he could have gotten something out of the Yullen pair. He sighed, thinking of the man he could never be with, much less confess to. He probably wouldn't ever even be on friendly terms with him, but the man still wouldn't leave his mind after all the time he had taken in forgetting him.
He entered the cluttered mess of the Ressearch Department, waving to Johnny, Reever, and Bak who waved back with their coffee mugs in-hand. Komui was literally buried in paper work from over a year ago that had never been done, oragami flowers on top of the paper grave stone which laid behind the mound of papers folded into a tomb.
"Komui?" No response. "Director?" No response. "What's that? Lenalee's getting married?"
"NOOOOOOOO! Lenalee! Who is the awful man who is taking you away from meeee?" Komui erupted from the tomb, tears springing from his eyes like a sprinkler. "Oh. It's just you. Well here's your mission." He handed over a folder.
Lavi flicked through it boredly. "Only Level Ones?"
"Yes, it shouldn't take too long, it's rather simple but they have been wreaking havoc on some small villages around there. You know the area from past missions, just in the lower mountain ranges."
Lavi nods, "I'll leave now, it shouldn't take that long, as you say." He walked to his room, packed, and went to the boats so they could take him to the train. The train ride was long and lonely, all he could do was memorize the scenery, and even that got boring after a few hours.
Soon though, he saw the flashes of light and the black bullets in the air. A small village was being terrorized by about 13 Level Ones. Lavi, realizing this, jumped out of the train and extended his hammer innocence to the village.
A small and uneventful battle ensued, the Level Ones were much weaker than Lavi remembered. He stood in the center of the town square, on his hammer, and surveyed the area. A few townspeople were peering from around rubble and crying over their loved ones who were reduced to ash. In the distance though, small black dots were advancing on the village.
Level Threes and Fours were acompanied by two humanoid creatures. Noah! It was Road and Tyki. Tyki...
"Evacuate! More akuma are coming!" Lavi yelled to the villagers. He knew that they were after him and his innocence so he fled in the opposite direction of them. He headed into the mountains instead of toward the valley.
As soon as he reached the mid-section of the tallest mountain, he stopped and turned to wait for the akuma he knew he couldn't outrun. They came upon him in a matter of seconds and soon the ground was strewn with red and black blood, and akuma bodies.
"Lavi~! Come on! We just want to-" Road was cut off by Lavi trying to kill her by hitting her in the side of the face with his innocence.
Road fumed and commanded the remaining Level Fours to attack harder, while Tyki sat in the air in the back ground with a blank face. Suddenly, a large group of Level Ones appeared through Road's doorway, they swarmed all over. They all shot hundreds of bullets, which all landed in the mountain side, barely above Lavi.
"Missed me!" Lavi yelled gleefully.
"Wasn't aiming for you~!" Road chirped back.
Lavi's eyes grew wide as he looked up the mountain. The akuma had triggered a rock slide! Lavi tried to use his hammer to move away from the falling rocks, but a stray akuma bullet knocked it out of his hands, making it fall 50 yards away.
Lavi stared fearfully at the rocks that were sure to crush him, when he felt something crash into him, sending him and the whatever a bit closer to his hammer and into a cave, which created a small cave in the rubble. Lavi hit his head on a semi-large rock and began to fall unconscious, everything going black, but not before he heard the terrified muttering and breathing of someone in the cave with him.
"Oh hell...be okay Lavi..." It was in that voice that had haunted his favorite dreams for years, and he summed it up to mere delusion as he passed out.
Lavi woke up with his eyes closed, his head felt awful and dizzy. He stirred slightly and moved his hand to his forehead, a somewhat wet substance was caked there. He tasted it cautiously on one of his fingers: blood.
Lavi opened his eyes, expecting to see the clouds and sky from the mountains. But everything was still black, well except for a few small star-like openings in the ceiling above. Lavi felt the floor: dirt. His body ached all over, and the musty air confused him.
Suddenly he remembered what happened, the fight! He must be in the cave where he was pushed! Wait...pushed by who? He felt a rock wall to his right and the floor underneath him, but he felt nothing anywhere else.
His eyes began to adjust to the light, and he sat up and looked around properly. It was a vast space, enough for a football field, he could hear the sound of a small plinking sound of water, and the flapping wings of what could be bats. He saw that at the far end, a dark figure was slumped against the wall.
"Hello?" Lavi called uneasily.
The figure shifted and could have been looking at him now, but remanined silent.
"Who are you?" Lavi called again.
The figure nestled itself into a small indentation in the rock wall, ignoring him. Frustration coursed through him, so much so that Lavi pulled his aching body to his feet and tried with difficulty to walk over to the person.
The movement startled the figure, making the figure jump to his feet and rush forward a few steps before forcing itself to a stop. "Stop moving! You'll reopen you're wounds!"
That voice...That voice! It was the same one that he thought he heard before! "Tyki," Lavi managed to exclaim before tumbling to the ground, then moaning in pain when he felt the extreme pain in his body once again.
"You idiot." Tyki, now that he was found out, walked calmly over to the red-haired man and straightened him so that Lavi was now laying with barely any weight on his more painful injuries.
Lavi's mind was rushing, trying to figure out why he awas being kind to him. He could think of nothing, so he just asked. "Why?"
"Hm? Oh. I'm not good with busting through things, and you've got your hammer. So rest up so you can get us out of here."
"Why can't Road bring a door and rescue you?"
"Road is probably upset that I saved you."
"Why'd you save me in the first place?" Croaked Lavi.
"Our mission was to capture you, so Card Shark would cove to your rescue. We were warned not to kill you, I'm just doing my job."
"What's to stop you from attacking me if I bust us out of here?"
"My word?"
"Why should I trust you," Lavi said, trying to sound disgusted.
"Why should I trust you," Tyki countered.
"Where's my hammer?"
"I'm not giving you your innocence unless you agree!"
"Fine. I'll take it." Lavi sighed, slightly upset with himself for giving in rather easily. He heard Tyki sigh in relief, which played like music to his ears, well partly anyway. Lavi wanted Tyki to trust him, and he was already upset that they could never be together, even if Tyki felt the same.
"You should have something to eat," Tyki said after a few minutes of thoughtful silence.
"What is there? We're in a damn cave!" Lavi said, his demeanor sinking as he thought more and more of his troubles.
"Bats. Water," Tyki shrugged listlessly.
"Okay..."
Tyki got to his feet and walked over into the (more) darkness. He came back with a few roasted bats and a bowl shaped rock filled with water. Lavi was surprised that he could bounty so much from an almost empty cave, and apparently Tyki picked up on the surpised look.
"The bats I can suffocate, the bowl is chance, the water is from a little pool over there and I roasted them using some pieces of wood I found between the cracks in wall." He shrugs and helps Lavi to take a drink.
Over the next few days, Lavi recuperates enough to stand and walk, much to both of their happiness. Tyki and Lavi trust each other more and more as the days go by, they even grow a routine.
One day, a week and a half after the rock slide, they are both completely healthy, besides the VItamin D deficiency of course, and Tyki goes to retrieve Lavi's innocence so they can leave. He comes back a few moments later with the slightly cracked hammer, and hands it over.
"Go on then, kid. Get us out." He motions in the general area of the rocky wall.
"Innocence Invoke!" The hammer grows larger and glows slightly in the darkness, but before he even goes toward the wall, we lowers the hammer and turns to Tyki. Lavi quickly grabbed Tyki's shirt collar and brushed their lips together, forming a light kiss.
Tyki is startled, but secretly please by this, and if Lavi hadn't backed off and crushed the wall, he would have deepened the kiss. He could have pulled the red-haired man back if he hadn't fled the cave as if he was being chased.
Lavi rushed out of the cave into the blinding light and ran down the mountain so fast he left a dust trail like some cartoon. He stopped at a lake in the valley where the villagers had laid camp after their village had been destroyed. The face in the water looked near to tears, starved, dirty and exhausted.
He heard a few familiar voices coming from the settlement, it was Allen, Kanda, and Lenalee. They were questioning the towns people about his whereabouts, and of course all of their information dated to before the rock slide. Lavi ignored their talk, as they didn't realize he was merely a few hundred yards away and he didn't feel like talking all that much.
He began to wash his face with the lake water and drink a few sips of the fresh water, thinking deeply about what happened. Why did he kiss him? Lavi knew he was in love with the Noah, but this? He so shouldn't have done that and he knew it, one: it was probably betraying the Order, and two: it was probably ruining his aquaintanceship with him.
He heard the irritated grunts of Kanda, the concerned voice of Allen, and the nervous chatter of Lenalee, although to him it was only white noise in the back of his mind. He shook his head to ward off the depressed thoughts, they came in two variations. 1: Why the hell did I do that? 2: Why didn't I do it sooner, or more? The shaking wasn't working, so he dunked his head under the water and screamed.
A few children noticed him now, notifying their parents, who pointed him out to the exorcist group. Lenalee and Allen perked up and grinned, but Kanda merely frowned thinking it was too bad that Lavi hadn't stayed gone. They went over happily, but as soon as they saw Lavi's face when he came up they frowned.
"What happened Lavi," Lenalee said, her voice dripping with concern.
"Nothing." Lavi coughed, and much to everyone's surprise he coughed up dust from the cave, making him frown at himself again.
"You've been gone for almost two weeks! It should have only taken two days!" Allen exclaimed.
"Complications," muttered the wet exorcist.
Kanda growled, "Moyashi dragged me out here to find you, least you could do was tell us what happened you damn usagi."
The usagi in question sighed and muttered, but the only things they caught were "Level Threes", "Level Fours", "Noah", and "rockslide". Although it was a jumble of words, they all sort of understood.
"What? Lavi are you okay? If you were caught in a rock slide you must be hurt!" Lenalee grabbed his arms and looked him over, but for once, instead of pretending to gladly be in her arms, Lavi pulled himself away indignantly.
"I'm fine."
"No, no! You must be hurt, I'm sure!" She regrabbed him, and this time noticed what Lavi had noticed in his time in the cave. His wounds were wrapped in strips of white cloth. "What are these from?"
It wasn't like he was going to tell the truth and say they were from Tyki's sleeves, so he didn't answer and turned to Allen. "When can we go back to the Order?"
"N-now if you want..." Allen said, stunned.
Lavi nodded and stood, they all walked back to the train station. Lenalee constantly asked questions that were never answered, Allen looked at Lavi strangely, and Kanda just enjoyed the fact that Lavi was silent the whole time.
The ride on the train and boat was only filled with Lenalee talking for once, which even the Finders found strange. As soon as they reached the fortress the group steered Lavi to the infirmary instead of his room. Komui was there to help attend to Reever and Johnny who had passed out from work exhaustion.
While the head nurse settled Lavi on a stool and removed the bandages, Lavi snuck one into his pocket to remember Tyki. She commented on how well his wounds were cleaned and tended, and marveled about h ow well he had healed since she could tell how badly he had been hurt.
"Wow, I didn't think you were this learned in medicine Lavi." The nurse said.
"I'm not..." Lavi muttered, strange looks fall upon him. "But I don't want to talk about it. Ever."
"You'll have to file a mission report Lavi." Komui reminds him.
Lavi shrugs, he's always been a convincing liar ayway. Silently he gets up and leaves for his room, which he doesn't leave for several days. He drowns in misery and sort of wishes he had never busted out of the cave. The mission report was handled by the exorcist group who had guessed roughly what had happened.
They guessed that the Noah had shown up with Level Threes and Fours, causing a rock slide. He got caught in it and was hurt. Some mountain person took him in and healed him, then once he was healed he left and was too embarrassed by the injuries to talk about it.
Tyki sat in the air, watching the Order's fortress. He wanted desperately to barge in and steal Lavi away, but knew that, that wasn't why he was there. He was supposed to storm the fortress and cause mayhem amongst them.
He got an incredible idea, and grinned. He was going to do both! Hopefully Lavi wasn't going to hate him for this...
Lavi heard the crash from his room, he guessing immedietly where it had come from. The cafeteria. He heard screams and a bamging on doors. From that he knew that it was an akuma attack.
Lavi swung open his door and ran past the Finder who came to warn him. He joined the exorcist crew who were hurtling down the hallway in the same direction. They looked mildly surprised to see him, but even more surprissed to see the absolute dread on his face. He just hoped it wasn't Tyki Mikk...
His wishes were dashed when he saw the handsome man sitting in the air above an akuma battle looking smug. As soon as Lavi reached the room and saw him, he halted in his tracks and turned pale. A few strange looks were sent his way, and to keep up appearances he launched himself in the air with a fake angry look on his face, brandishing his hammer.
The two grappled and fought for several minutes, neither gaining any ground or getting tired. Soon the other exorcists focused on the Level Fours who had come with the Noah, completely ignoring the two, giving Tyki the perfect moment to speak to Lavi during their fight.
"Lavi..." Tyki murmured in the red-haired man's ear.
"Tyki," Lavi responded, hiding his nervousness.
"I missed you," The words came out fluidly, and Lavi sprang away from him. The rabbit stared at the Noah for a few seconds, then determined by the look only he could see, that he was telling the truth, and sprang forward.
"Why?" Lavi could guess why, but he really wanted to hear the Noah say it.
"I'm absolutely infatuated with you. I love you, Lavi." Tyki whispered quickly as another fake attack was made.
"I love you too, Tyki. We can't do this though..." Lavi's voice was low and disappointed.
"Just go along with this then," Tyki responded, deciding to put his plan into action.
In a quick and fluid motion, Tyki hooked his one arm around Lavi's neck, causing him to choke and cough at the roughness, and pinned Lavi's arms behind his back even rougher, making him drop his hammer. The sudden stop of the loud hammer, the coughing fit, and the drop on the stone alerted everyone to what was happening.
All motion stopped as Lavi fake struggled to break free, but couldn't. Tyki took a knife from who-knows-where and put it to Lavi's throat, grinning maniacally.
Then, Tyki said for everyone to hear, "Just like old times, huh kid?"
Lavi growled in fake menace, letting a bit of fake fear poke through to convice his skeptical friends. Allen was about to take off with Crowned Clown, Lenalee was about to take off with the Dark Boots, and Kanda was about to take off with Mugen, all to attack Tyki, but Tyki pressed the knife harder to Lavi's throat, making a thin red line appear on his pale skin.
The three halted and glared at Tyki while Lavi struggled quite believably. "D-don't move!" Lavi managed to get out.
"Aah...Yes children don't move. You wouldn't want eye-patch to lose his head, would you?" Tyki teased.
They all growled at him, but Tyki merely smiled. Lavi watched as Allen took off, and knew that he was about to get hurt. Tyki muttered a sorry that only he could hear as he said for all to hear, "Teez" and a black butterfly pierced Allen through the stumoch. Lavi winced and knew that Tyki would have prefered not to do that.
"Ah, goodbye then exorcists! I'll be taking eye-patch with me! Level Fours, RAMPAGE!" Tyki yelled and pulled Lavi quite forcefully away. After they were a safe distance from the Order, Lavi began to run with him. They ran until they reached a train station, and from there they went to London, and from there to a flat on the second floor of an apartment complex. They rushed inside and slammed the door behind them, panting heavily and laughing slightly.
"Kanda's going to kill you for hurting his Moyashi," chuckled Lavi.
"Wouldn't've had to if Card Shark didn't rush at me with that awful sword of his." Tyki shrugged.
A few minutes of panting silence ensued, then Lavi ventured to ask, "Why did you come back for me like you did?"
"You'll have to go back or we're both dead, but I am the Noah of Pleasure, you know?" Tyki grinned devilishly.
Lavi, catching on, smiles and is gladly leaded to the bedroom in the back of the flat.
They lay closely in the sweat covered sheets in Tyki's flat. After the sex they'd just had it was to be expected. Mostly they were wondering how they were going to work this out, since they definately weren't going to let this get away.
"I could meet with you on every mission you have alone. The Noah's been pretty inactive lately, save for the mountain incident, I mean," Tyki offered.
"Yeah, I think that'll work," Lavi said, brushing a kiss against his lover's cheek.
They pulled each other even closer, even though the now-humid and hot air was smothering. The two of them fell asleep soon after.
When they woke up, they clothed themselves and ran to the train station. They took a train to a stop, one stop away from the Order's closest. They got off and ran in the rain to the foothills where they smeared Lavi's clothes with mud, then dropped some of Lavi's blood on the clothes and smeared it.
Once the clothes looked pretty convincing of a fight, Tyki kissed Lavi goodbye passionately, it was the kiss he wished he could have given the first time Lavi had kissed him. Lavi grinned as he ran back to the station from their hiding spot and as soon as he reached it he put on an upset facade.
The kiss still made his lips tingle, even as he bought a ticket, even as he boarded the train, even as he rode on the 3 hour train ride. EVEN as he climbed up that huge mountain and walked up to the entrance. Even as he stared at the gatekeeper who stared at him skeptically.
"Who are you," asked the gatekeeper.
"Lavi."
"Lavi the exorcist?"
"Yes."
"Impossible, Lavi was taken by the akuma and given up by the Central Agency."
"I am Lavi though," he persisted.
Up in the Research Dept., Komui, Reever, and Johnny were staring at the moniter. Central had forbidden them to dispatch exorcists to find him, telling everyone he was probably dead by now. But here he was, asking to come inside. It was all to good to be true.
"Run a scan," Reever ordered the gatekeeper, nervous of the response.
They watched as the gatekeeper beamed light on him, then a mechanical voice rang out.
"Akuma! This man is an akuma! Traces found all over!"
"Damn! They really did kill him and make him an akuma! Send the exorcists," Komui exclaimed.
"What? I'm human! I'm human," Lavi yelled at the gatekeeper.
Out of the corner of his eyes he saw Allen run forward from the left, Lenalee from the right, and Kanda was running straight down the large fortress. He fell back on the ground and yelled loudly, terrified since he knew Kanda wouldn't hesitate to attack him, and he was going to get there first.
"Stop! I'm human! Yuu! Stop," Lavi screamed hysterically and hyper-crab walked away from the large building.
Kanda stopped his sword an inch from Lavi's face, Allen stopped his a foot away, and Lenalee had her leg in the air like she was about to use her heel to slam his head into the ground. He was holding his hands up in a surrender and was whimpering and pleading fro them not to kill him.
"I'm human I swear! Please don't kill me...C'mon guys. Yuu, Moyashi-chan, Lenalee...I'm not an akuma. I swear."
Allen activates his cursed eye and looks him over. "He's not. He's alive!" Allen smiles and deactivates his innocence, Lenalee follows the example happily, but Kanda deactivates Mugen sadly, he just lost his chance of killing Lavi.
"Lavi! I thought you died! I'm so glad you're alive!" Lenalee squealed. She hopped into a knealing position next to him and hugs him. She grins at the shaken Lavi, and taking a chance, she plants a kiss on Lavi's lips.
They could literally hear Komui's screams from the tower as she did this. Lavi was wide eyed and stiff, nothing like the reaction he would have had before he had met Tyki, so Kanda and Allen were bewildered. After regaining his bearings he pushed her off, jumped to his feet, and wiped his mouth off.
Lenalee stared at him like this was the exact opposite of what he expected, especially when he said, "Not cool Lenalee, not cool at all."
She looked about to cry, and Lavi turned his back on her. He took out a handkerchief he'd swiped from Tyki's flat and wiped his lips again. Good thing no one could recognize it.
"I love you Lavi! I thought you felt the same! That's why I..." She trailed off as she wiped tears from her eyes.
Lavi thinks about how he's gonna die by Komui's hands because he's about to break his little sister's heart, but can't stop himself. "No, I don't love you."
"There must be someone else then!"
Lavi falters, so everyone knows there is, but doesn't want to ask in front of Lenalee, because they suppose it's someone in the order that she knows. Reever runs out of the fortress and pulls Lavi inside, leaving the Yullen couple to handle damage control with Lenalee.
"Tests! We have to know why you're stained with the akuma presence." Reever mutters as they walk quickly up the stairs.
"Maybe because I was kidnapped by a Noah and taken back to an akuma nest." Lavi shrugged.
"An akuma NEST?" Reever stops.
"It's no big deal."
"You didn't have your innocence!"
"It was empty, and that weird Noah just said that they wanted Allen to come after me, then fell asleep. It was pretty easy to escape, but getting back was difficult."
"Okay...okay. That sounds...reasonable." Reever looks at him like he knows he's holding something back, but doesn't know what. "You can go." Reeve lets Lavi's arm go and leaves for the Research Dept.
Lavi goes back to his room and lies down, gripping the handkerchief and sighing in contentment as he thinks about the past weeks. He couldn't believe he could be so LUCKY. To have such a wonderful lover, and to keep his-somewhat-normal life.
As Reever returned he walked up to Komui, who was still sobbing about the events wiht Lenalee. "Sir, I think we may have a problem."
Komui stopped crying and cocked his head, "What problem, besides what happened to my dear sister?"
"Yes, what problem?" Came the serious tone of Rouvelier. He walked in with Link trotting behind him, Rouvelier's permanent scowl seemed deeper today.
Reever gulped and turned to them, standing at attention, and stated clearly, "It's probably nothing."
"No, no. Tell us what is wrong." Rouvelier persisted.
"I-I think that Lavi is witholding something from us..."
"Put him on watch then." Rouvelier commanded, turned on his heel, and left the room.
((AN/ First of all, please excuse spelling mistakes. Now on to the actual note: What do you think? Should I leave it at that, or should I make another chapter? My mind is crushed right now! I have a whole bunch of tests coming up and a project on the telegraph due on the 21st. In addition to my academin issues, my dad's harrassing me about my grade in gym, because my bitchy gym teacher keeps giving me awful grades. I know my problems are petty, but I'm a wuss, sorry for ranting. Review please?))