This story came out of nowhere so we'll see where it goes. AU. Set in the feudal past. Pagan gods and demons and stuff.
Warnings? Not really. This chapter is pretty tame.
The village still waited for the water god to save it, but Allen was the one killing the demons. Allen shared a basket with Lenalee, the two of them bent over a garden of herbs. The drought had cracked the soil and dehydrated the plant life. Allen combed through the wisps of surviving weeds because as long as Lenalee searched he would too. Treatment for Akuma related injuries didn't cure; they attempted to numb the pain.
"Komui doesn't have much more saved up, does he?" Allen asked. He would have offered to search for more, but the drought stretched for miles. It had been almost half a year since they saw rain. The rest of the region was demons and wasteland. All those offerings to the water god and nothing had changed. The land had suddenly decided it didn't want to facilitate life and Allen secretly questioned whether resolving their problems was as simple as making peace with a water god.
Lenalee tucked her long black hair behind her ear. Her eyebrows drew together when she looked at him in an obvious display of concern Allen wondered if she realized was so easy to read. A few people had accused him of causing the drought toady. The same old 'you're cursed' thing that had followed him around all his life. The suggestion being that Allen's bad luck would damn the entire village. She wanted him to bring it up so she could assure him of what he wasn't. Allen would have preferred not to talk about it at all.
"Komui would have even less if it wasn't for you." Lenalee dared him to contradict her. Her dedication to Allen's cause almost outweighed everyone else in village's apprehension of him singlehandedly.
"I'm just helping you Lenalee." Allen reminded her. He directed most of his energy eradicating Akuma, not cleaning up the aftermath of their wake until she and her brother went into the business of making medicines. "Don't give me credit for your idea." Killing was breathtakingly easy compared to the competence it took to save someone else. Allen had tied to point that out to her at least a dozen times, but she always looked at him the way she was right now. Like he had no idea how the world really worked.
Lenalee concern for him turned into impatience. She brushed her hands on her skirt. "Those people called you a demon Allen. Don't pretend like it doesn't bother you."
"It's doesn't." Allen scratched his cheek. People called him that and worse all his life and he considered it normal by now. Most of the villagers waited until he was out of the vicinity to gossip about him though. Strangers had migrated into the village lately, trying to escape the drought, and they had no idea what to make of Allen and his stark white hair and lethal weapon arm.
"Well it ticks me off." Lenalee sounded like she wanted to vent, but Allen didn't want to take sides with or against the people who considered him an abomination, at best. "Considering what you do for everyone here."
Blood-red fingers searched in vain for the herbs Komui requested from them. Allen pretended to be engrossed in his work, despite the hole Lenalee stared in the side of his head, and after a second he actually found something a promising shade of green.
Allen beamed as he held it out for her to collect in their basket and, begrudging letting the demon conversation slip, Lenalee retrieved it for him. They lived most of their life as brother and sister. Komui took Allen in and raised them together almost as long as he could remember.
The sun blasted full force other them, which was part of what make the lack of rain so terrible. Allen brushed the sweat from his forehead. "The village elders are getting desperate." Allen decided. They sacrificed a bunch of farm animals and even a stray cat to the water god over the past few weeks. If the people of the village had a weakness, it was their overwhelming superstitions. "I hope—"Allen cut himself off. Talking about human sacrifice would only make it seem like an option.
Dark eyes took in his and held them. Lenelee nodded, suddenly serious. "Sometimes they scare me." A quiet confession, but it from someone he considered, in some ways, the strongest person he knew, the words stunned Allen. Whatever the elders decided, the rest of the village instigated. Mobs weren't unheard of or people hurt for petty reasons.
Lenalee bit her lip and Allen wanted to tell her those fears were unjustified, but couldn't. "I'm going to take these herbs to my brother."
She almost stepped on a lounging yellow and red snake. Allen grabbed her arm before her boot landed on it. Lenalee shrieked and squirmed. She put herself behind Allen and the snake, for all intents and purposes using him as a shield. For the first time that day, Allen actually smiled. He resolved to focus on the trust she felt for him rather than her rush to let him face the serpent alone.
Allen knelt and flung the snake into the bushes by the tail. The poor guy didn't even notice him there. "Okay, it's clear." He said over his shoulder to Lenalee who still had her hands pressed to her face in utter horror of what she almost stepped on.
"You are my hero." Lenalee said, clearly still suffering from the emotional trauma, but Allen nodded all the same. At least someone didn't mind a cursed boy saving their life.
Allen watched her take the path back into the village square. He didn't tell her that the only reason the village let him stay was because he killed Akuma. They tolerated him as long as he made himself useful. Allen put his gloves back on to spare the villagers the sight of his hand. He needed to patrol the perimeter.
Sometimes just being alone for a while made Allen feel less anxious. The villagers subtly and not so subtly told him Allen didn't belong there. Komui and Lenalee made a place for him in their lives at the cost of the quality of their own. Silver colored eyes ventured across the tree line. People stopped working as Allen passed and watched him. Maybe in case he suddenly decided to flip and turn into the demon they accused him of being, despite all the Akuma Allen had killed in order to protect them.
Allen climbed the giant tree on the outside of the village. Heights didn't bother him and the better view made it easier to scan the parameter. Allen stood on the outer branch of the oak, totally unconcerned about the thirty foot drop. Lenalee often mentioned offhandedly Allen's complete lack of self-preservation, but he had been through worse fighting Akuma and falling seemed like a slightly better death than by demon. Neither had happened so far.
The chance to be useful came when Allen spotted a fleck of black in the woods. He stiffened and tracked the slowly defining shape stride toward the village. A young man near Allen's age, with hair an argument between midnight blue and charcoal, noticed him in the trees. And then completely disregarded him. Most people stopped in their tracks noticing Allen's hair before they even detected the other stuff wrong with him.
The white of which must have stood out profoundly in the woods.
That's how Allen learned being ignored was almost as annoying as being gawked at. "Excuse me." He called out because demons came in human form and mostly beautiful ones. Maybe there was a lesson in how the soulless still clung to their vanity. This man's brutal grace and savage stare made Allen distrust him almost instantly.
Dark eyes took him in and then narrowed. "You're excused." He said, not stopping his tread toward the village. Allen noticed the katana at his side and knew he couldn't just let this guy passed him.
With a fluid sort of grace most people would consider sub-human, Allen slipped from branch to branch until he dropped in front of the man. A little closer than he intended. A cold stare evaluated him again, had no choice but to acknowledge him this time. "Something I can help you with?" He regarded Allen with distain. An emotion he was used to and could meet head on.
"What's your name?" Allen asked. Both an ice breaker and the kind of question Akuma immediately lacked an answer for.
The flat stare that answered him almost made Allen squirm, but it did completely wither his welcoming smile. "Kanda. Yuu. Now get out of my face before you don't have one anymore." Kanda scowled at him. The hostility on his face was at complete odds with his feminine looks.
Before Allen could come up with a response with that, Kanda pushed him to the side and attempted to keep going into the village. "I need to know you're not a demon first." Allen shouted at him. The sound of his voice raised shocked him, but Kanda seemed unfazed. Allen felt like he should apologize but also like he had Kanda's attention for the first time. "Tell me why you're here."
Kanda narrowed his eyes. Allen waited to be refuted, but Kanda answered him, "I'm here to meet someone. If that's all right with you?" He turned to regard Allen, but he knew better than to reply to that passive-aggressive statement. When he didn't answer, Kanda dusted his bangs from the center of his forehead. "You aren't completely stupid. Good, get out of my way then. " Allen got the creeping feeling that registered as a compliment for him.
Allen scratched his cheek. Most people migrating to the village had family there so his explanation made sense. "I could show you around." Allen offered and then wondered if that was an unfair offer to Kanda. He might be stigmatized before the villagers even found out about his terrible personality. "Or did you still want to rearrange my face or something?"
Cold black eyes regarded him and Allen fidgeted. Kanda nodded once and then moved to stand against Allen's shoulder. That close, he couldn't miss the design across Allen's left eye. Part of the reason people called him cursed. "Careful or I might take up that offer." Kanda shook his ponytail behind his shoulder. Allen wondered if he was as tough as he thought he was. "I don't have time to screw around." He shrugged. "Lead on runt"
Runt?
Allen had been insulted in a thousand different ways, but never called that. He guided Kanda into the village anyway, a little dumbstruck and equally awed by the stranger. Kanda stuck by him the entire time. He even touched his shoulder where the streets were crowded so they wouldn't get separated. Lenalee and Komui were the only people who ever treated Allen like he didn't have the plague. But at the same time, Allen perceived the cold stare that was Kanda's answer to everyone and everything bore into his head. "Who exactly are you looking for?" Allen asked.
The drought made the village less impressive than a few years ago; less people, less food, problems abundant. "Not sure yet." Kanda said and he had to notice the scowls the villagers sent Allen and him by extension, but he didn't acknowledge them until, "I just know I have to be here. I'd ask why everyone's staring at us, but it's kind of obvious grandpa."
Allen halted to protest or explain maybe that he was cursed and his physical appearance wasn't something he had control over, but Kanda pushed him forward. "Don't mistake me for someone who cares." He dismissed Allen's past without fanfare and that was the end of the discussion. Allen bristled at his curt responses to everything. Demons he could deal with, but impolite people truly irritated him. Saying harsh things out of fear or misunderstanding, Allen accepted, but Kanda didn't have hang ups for cursed people, just other people in general.
Unsure what to do with his vague answer; Allen escorted Kanda to Komui's hut for the injured. Maybe someone in there would recognize him and Allen could introduce Kanda to Lenalee. The swordsmen's eyes narrowed, but he followed. The villagers staying here sustained injuries from an Akuma attack while out hunting. The few that hadn't succumbed to poison prayed on clean linin sheets for quicker deaths.
A man with dark spots under his eyes glared at Allen. By now the delirium set in. The basket Lenalee and he used earlier to collect herbs sat at the older man's bedside. "The water god" He breathed staring down the both of them and Allen noticed Kanda stiffen. "Why did it stop raining Allen? He used to protect this village from the demons." He didn't say it exactly, but Allen got the feeling he was being accused of something.
Allen pushed his hand though his hair. He tried to keep his tone neutral because if people realized that the insults bothered him, it would only make them worse. "I'm sorry. I can't answ—"
"Are you asking the runt?" Kanda took control of the conversation and Allen watched in horror at how he talked to the dying elder. "How the hell would he know?" And Kanda wasn't exactly defending his honor was he? Just insulting the sick man along with Allen. "Maybe this piece of shit village just isn't worth—"
Allen didn't think, he just fit his hand over the swordsman's mouth and instantly regretted it. "Sorry elder. Kanda doesn't know what he's saying. He's new to the village and troubled." Allen checked in with those midnight colored eyes with the promise of an apology. The backlash would come, but Kanda was still processing what Allen just did. A moment later, he came back to himself and punched Allen across the face with enough force to send him barreling into the injured man. They collided into the make-shift bed.
Komui jogged to check on the commotion in time to hear Allen say things at Kanda that made the children visiting giggle and the adults drop their jaws, aghast.
"Who is that person?" Komui demanded at everyone but the man in question. Kanda evaluated him with the same cold dark stare he directed at everything and then his gaze flickered back to Allen. It was ridiculous, but no one else knew Kanda enough to introduce him. If Allen didn't vouch for him, they might force him out of village for being a stranger. Or, Allen became bitter, give him an award for punching the demon boy. Komui wouldn't, but the other villagers were a different story.
A drop of blood pooled under Allen's noise that he busied himself wiping away. How long would he have to deal with Kanda? "He's. . . "Allen hesitated. A wealth of frustration and inappropriate, but accurate, expletives. He hadn't been very clear on his identity beyond this name.
"The water god." Kanda answered for him with trying patience. The village pestering him for the last several months should recognize the being they tried so desperately to summon. He folded his arms.
After the heavy silence that followed, "And for god's sake, are you just going to lay there?" The deity scowled at Allen. "I didn't hit you that hard."