Pairing: Yullen
Rating: T
Theme: Silence/Voiceless (Dec. 18-19)
Hi everyone! I don't think there's a warning necessary for this one, but here's my first submission for Yullen Week! Looking over it again, I liked it better while I was writing it. XD Anyway, please enjoy~!
Least Resistance
Neither of them were happy about being partnered for another mission. Allen, despite his reserved nature, protested against Komui's decision. Kanda demanded in no uncertain terms that he get someone else on this assignment, or better yet let him go alone.
Komui stood his ground, sending them both on a train to a small Swedish village. They were to spend the next few weeks searching for Innocence rumored to have been sparking unseasonable brush fires in the area.
Neither Allen nor Kanda spoke a word on the long ride, continuing their silence as they checked into the first inn they came across. Content to avoid each others' company, they even split up to inquire among the townsfolk whether or not any of them had witnessed the fires. Even upon their return at dusk, their reluctance to share information was clear.
"Did you find anything?" Allen asked with strained cordiality. He had entered their shared room to find Kanda sitting on his chosen bed polishing Mugen with more concentration than seemed necessary.
"Hardly," Kanda spat, not bothering to mask his displeasure.
"What's that supposed to mean?" Allen had long since learned to read the obscure language of his comrade. However much he disliked having to prod the Japanese man to disclose information, it had to be done for the sake of the mission.
"Nothing more than what was in the mission description," Kanda clarified irritably.
Allen's frustration with the man was beginning to overtake his polite nature. "Elaborate, please."
"The fires start spontaneously and out of season," he said without looking up from his sword. "They're usually in the middle of a field and water doesn't put them out. No one's found any way to stop them, so they just let them die out by themselves, which they eventually do before reaching civilization. What?"
Kanda had finally glanced up to find Allen fuming, glaring at him intensely. The boy promptly unbuttoned his coat, casting it aside with disgust.
"Did you even read the information book?" he questioned. "It didn't say anything about not being able to put them out!"
"Those books are a waste of time," Kanda retorted. "The information I got was so basic, it's not my fault some idiot finder didn't put it in."
"That's unreasonable," Allen said. Kanda's lack of respect for finders was nothing new, but Allen could not fathom its origins. The finders did everything but destroy the akuma, yet Kanda saw them as nothing more than a hindrance to his mission.
"What's unreasonable is that you expect me to put in hours of reading so I can be reminded of things I already know." At this point Kanda's own blood had started to boil. It didn't take much when he was around the white-haired exorcist.
Allen opened his mouth, a heated reply on the tip of his tongue, when Kanda flipped the blade of his sword to hover inches from Allen's throat. He said nothing, but Allen got the hint. He swallowed his words reluctantly and made his way to his own bed.
After moments of silence Kanda spoke. "Well? Didn't you find something?"
"No," Allen admitted truthfully. "Nothing."
"Che. Useless." He removed his own coat. He folded it before sheathing Mugen and setting it atop the garment. Pulling the bedcovers back, he got in, immediately turning away from the person on the other side of the room.
"You're going to bed already?" Allen asked. It wasn't even completely dark yet.
"Bean Sprout, if I'm going to search for Innocence tomorrow, I have to start early. Whether you're awake or not is of little consequence to me," Kanda said flatly.
"It's Allen," the cursed boy said. He knew Kanda made a good point, even if he was reluctant to say so. After a moment of deliberation, he removed his boots and slid into bed himself. He slept more easily than he thought he would at this time, not waking until he heard the soles of Kanda's boots colliding with the hardwood floors.
Just as it had not been completely dark when they went to bed, the sky had not even begun to lighten when the two exorcists rose to begin their mission. Verbal communication seemed unnecessary to Kanda, but Allen tried in vain to break the perpetual silence.
"Where should we look first?" he asked, the night's sleep having renewed the better part of his personality.
"The places the fires start, obviously," Kanda said gruffly. Sleeping never did much for his mood, but suffice it to say Allen only made it worse. He had no desire whatsoever to entertain the kid's positivity today. Without waiting for him to follow, Kanda exited the room, on his way to the fields on the outskirts of town. It wasn't a terribly long walk, but this Innocence was unpredictable. It could have moved, and on top of that, Innocence in general was difficult to find without actually witnessing the strange phenomena surrounding it.
Contrary to Kanda's deepest wishes that Allen would stay behind, or at least take a different route, the younger boy caught up quickly. He walked feet from Kanda, which, in the Japanese man's mind, was still far too close. Allen made him uncomfortable in a way no one else ever had, not even Lavi, who insisted on invading everyone's personal space as if it were his own.
Then again, the feeling wasn't entirely unpleasant. Allen made him more serious about his work, gave him a rival he hadn't had before, and for all it was worth, made the day interesting to some extent. The interest came more often than not in the form of a heated argument, but it filled in the space between missions well enough.
Allen, in the meantime, glanced to his right to find Kanda tensed as if getting ready to fight an invisible force. His eyes, seemingly unfocused, were glued to the horizon, face contorted into a scowl. While the latter was not at all unusual, Allen wondered what it was that set Kanda so off kilter.
"Are you okay?" he finally asked out of genuine concern.
Kanda blinked as if coming out of a daydream. "Fine," he said. "Why?"
"You just looked…" Allen trailed off in search of the right word. "Distracted."
"I was thinking," Kanda stated bluntly, implying his unhappiness at being interrupted.
"About what?"
Kanda was caught off guard. It wasn't like Allen to press for details, and of course he couldn't be honest here. "The mission," he said simply.
Allen sighed. "Do you think of anything other than missions?"
"It's none of your concern," Kanda snapped irritably.
"I was just worried about you, that's all," Allen muttered, averting his gaze.
Kanda scoffed and kept walking, resolved to maintaining a look of alertness. Still, he didn't mind that much that his fellow exorcist noticed when things weren't right with him.
That thought dissipated as the two explored the edges of the town, searching for any telltale signs of Innocence, whatever form it may have taken. Every time the sun glinted off a rock, they whipped their heads around in hopes they had caught the spark of a brush fire.
The longer they searched, the more desperate it got. Allen felt waves of panic wash over him now and then as the thought of akuma and the Millennium Earl reaching the Innocence before the exorcists entered his mind. Kanda's frustration escalated at their futile efforts, though he tried his utmost not to let it get the better of him.
It continued like this for the first two weeks. They moved into a wider area, looking through every spot they laid eyes on. They weren't about to give up; not until they found something or knew what had happened to it. They'd both been on longer missions going after Innocence with fewer clues than they had right now.
"How are we supposed to find this damn thing in just three weeks?" Kanda finally wondered, slicing the tall grass before him in half to make some semblance of a path.
"Maybe we should ask Komui to stay longer," Allen suggested.
"That won't do any good if it's not here," Kanda growled, swinging Mugen again. "We need to search outside of this stupid village. The people are no help at all, anyway."
"People don't understand what we're looking for," Allen explained. "It might be here, but we can't rely on the villagers much more than we already have."
"Who's relying on them?" Kanda scoffed.
Allen frowned. "You know, you can't just go by what's in your head all the time. Every mission and every Innocence works differently, so you could at least be open to more possibilities."
"Shut up," Kanda said, still plowing through the grass away from his comrade. "I'm not interested in that philosophical crap of yours."
"You're really difficult to work with, you know that?" Allen called after him. He received no answer.
Suddenly, out of the corner of his eye, he caught a subtle glow. At first he wrote it off as the sun gleaming on a rock, taking a few steps further before realizing the shimmer didn't disappear or flicker as it usually would when he moved.
Deviating from the path Kanda had cut, Allen waded into the waist-high grass and toward the glow.
Kanda noticed the rustling sound and shouted after him, "Oi! What are you doing?"
"I think I found something," the snowy-haired boy called over his shoulder.
Kanda approached, abandoning his attempts to trim the ocean before him.
"It's Innocence!" Allen proclaimed as he approached the object with Kanda still tens of feet away. However, when the fifteen-year-old bent to touch it, a spiraling pillar of flame engulfed his arm as his fingers brushed the substance. He drew back immediately as the fire exploded in all directions, swallowing his body and spreading rapidly in Kanda's direction.
Kanda raised Mugen instinctively, the flames splitting on either side of him when they came in contact with the blade. He couldn't see Allen at all through the massive fire.
As quickly as they had spread, the flames receded instantaneously to be replaced by a billowing cloud of black smoke so dense that anyone within it wouldn't be able to breathe, let alone see.
Kanda leapt backwards in an attempt to avoid the brunt of the noxious gas. For the first time, he registered his concern for the boy, unsure of whether or not he would survive. He heard nothing but the wind whistling and smoke wafting past his ears.
"Bean Sprout!" he yelled, waving a hand in front of his face. "Hey, Bean Sprout!"
Raising his arm to shield his nose and mouth from the smoke, he stepped closer to the cloud. It burned his eyes even before he entered the thick of it.
To make matters worse, he suddenly heard a shrill cackling from above. Looking up, he saw four akuma – a Level three, two Level twos, and a Level one. Kanda cursed under his breath. Of course Allen would be incapacitated at a time like this.
"What a stupid exorcist you are to venture so willingly into the smoke," giggled the Level 3.
Kanda unsheathed Mugen with his free hand. "Innocence, activate! First Illusion, Hell's Insects!" He aimed, not at the higher leveled akuma, but at the Level one, knowing it would be far more likely to get out of the way early on and so prevent his own demise. Or at least prolong it.
The other three akuma merely laughed at his attack. The Level twos were almost identical in concept, in the shapes of contorted human bodies. Their torsos and hips were in the right places, but, although they had the correct number of appendages, they appeared to have been stuck haphazardly in the body. One had its face in the center of its abdomen, arms protruding from where its head would be. The other had a head and neck sticking out from the center of its chest, legs in the place its arms should have been while its arms intertwined with the neck. It gave the thing a very top heavy appearance.
The Level three did not resemble a human or anything related to one. It was angular, as if an amateur sculptor had fused together all of his worst works. It had oddly shaped facials features scattered around what Kanda guessed was the upper half of its body. Multiple eyes gazed down at him. Two mouths laughed at him. He found no noses or ears on the monster at all. It spoke as if two voices sounded in unison.
"We've come to collect the Innocence for Lord Millennium," Level 3 said without moving. "Get it for us."
Kanda gritted his teeth and stood his ground. Akuma often demanded things of him, but none seemed to understand he was an exorcist, not a minion of the Earl. Here, he was at a disadvantage. There was no telling what had happened to Allen, and the focus of all three akuma was on Kanda. He had no doubt he could defeat them all given the right circumstances, but these were definitely not ideal.
Suddenly, golden rods shot out of the smoke at the akuma. Most missed the demons, but a handful lodged themselves in their bodies. When the Level 3 was distracted dodging the attack, Kanda launched himself into the air, katana poised to slash through the akuma.
The akuma sensed his approach at the last minute, and to Kanda's surprise, actually split apart. Every geometric piece of it separated and scattered into the air. Even when he landed on one and smashed it to pieces, the others simply collected themselves again as if nothing had happened. It appeared he would have to destroy each piece individually, and quickly.
He soon found out these sections of the akuma were also its attack method. While he contemplated a strategy to defeat it, the demon pelted a giant rock-shaped chunk of itself at him. He leapt out of the way as four more boulders came flying at him and then watched as they were seemingly vacuumed back to the main body.
Glancing to his left, he saw Allen barely fending off both Level twos. His Innocence was in its claw form for close combat, and there was already a gash running down his forearm.
Kanda once again activated Mugen's First Illusion, sending Hell's Insects to at least distract the akuma. While he did have a rule against getting involved in his comrades' battles and helping out, he also had one that said akuma can't have the Innocence. Allen wasn't exactly guarding it, but he was much closer to it.
The attack averted the akumas' attention just long enough for Allen to regain his balance and strike once more. It looked like he was out of breath, though Kanda couldn't watch him for long.
The Level 3 had transformed into a whip-like line, flinging one of its ends at Kanda repeatedly. Kanda dodged, unable to properly aim an attack at the flailing target.
When it tired of toying with him, it disconnected the last link in the chain. Although Kanda tried to block it, it detonated mere feet from him, the explosion blasting him back into the ground. He coughed as the air left his lungs. Staggering to his feet, he fought to regain it quickly as the akuma repeated the attack three more times, Kanda barely avoiding each one. He skidded back across a circle of charred earth, springing into the air to bury his blade in one of the monster's misshapen eyes. Even after wasting so many of its pieces, the akuma still had four boulder-sized ones left.
Kanda was puzzled when it cackled at him, many eyes rolling back in their sockets.
"Your friend isn't faring well, is he?" it remarked.
Against his better judgment, Kanda turned part of his attention to Allen. As pathetic as he was, he hadn't even defeated one of the two akuma he fought. They converged on his obviously weakened body. Together, they picked him up before slamming him back into the ground.
To Kanda's surprise and horror, the Innocence tumbled out of the boy's pocket. "You idiot!" he yelled reflexively. Why would he keep it with him if he wasn't capable of protecting it?
Allen lunged feebly at the glowing substance in an attempt to grab it before the enemy. He hardly had a chance to reach for it when one of the demons swung its arm and caught him across the throat. He somersaulted backwards, landing in a heap, face down, and didn't get up.
The akuma picked up the Innocence, rejoicing as they did so and uttering what sounded like chattering laughter.
"Come back here!" the Level 3 demanded as Kanda forgot his own battle and rushed at the two holding the Innocence.
They were caught off guard when he sliced through them like butter using Mugen's Second Illusion. It truly appeared effortless.
The Innocence landed with a soft thump on the burnt grass. The Level 3 dove for Kanda when he picked up the object. Shoving it in his pocket, he turned to face his aggressor. In one fluid motion, he stabbed one of the remaining blocks. It detonated, taking out the two on either side of it, and in one last slash, Kanda destroyed the final piece.
Surveying his surroundings, he noted that the black cloud had dissipated at last. The area in which he stood was charred and dead from the fire, and the grass where Allen had been thrown was torn up. The exorcist himself lay still where he landed.
Kanda ran to his side, exhausted as he was. Kneeling down next to Allen, he nudged the boy's shoulder. When that produced no effect, he shook it vigorously and called out to him.
At that, he finally received a response. Allen's arms and legs shifted and he raised his face out of the dirt. It was scratched and the wound on his left arm looked awful. The boy's lashes fluttered as if he were waking out of a very deep sleep. Glassy eyes gazed around in bewilderment.
When he tried to talk, he broke into a dry coughing fit before raspy words finally escaped his lips. "What happened to the akuma?"
"I took care of them," Kanda said flatly. "You were just a nuisance."
"S-sorry," Allen said hoarsely. Even as he tried to clear his throat, it just hurt. When he touched the Innocence, he inhaled so much smoke, it filled his lungs and made it impossible to breathe. His eyes stung and overflowed with tears as he had stumbled out of the cloud. Cleaner air did little for his already afflicted lungs and that had made it difficult to be of any help to his fellow exorcist.
"Let's get back to the inn," Kanda suggested, standing now that Allen was conscious. He even extended a hand to help the fifteen-year-old to his feet.
Stunned, Allen took it, finding himself very unsteady at first. He tried to keep pace with Kanda on the walk back to the town, but he felt perpetually out of breath. Swallowing was difficult, and the lack of oxygen getting to his lungs made him dizzy. He stumbled once, but insisted he was fine. That is, until his vision darkened periodically around the edges.
"K-Kanda, I…" he gasped, trailing off before his knees hit the dirt road just as they reached the town. Kanda turned in time to see the younger boy crumple to the ground.
"Bean Sprout," he said, stepping over to Allen. Kneeling, he brushed the kid's hair back to reveal a pale, if soot-covered complexion. His breathing was shallow and quick like he had just run for miles. Kanda touched his forehead and cheeks, but there was no sign of fever.
"Hey," he said a little louder. "Bean Sprout, can you hear me?"
He shifted Allen so he laid on his back, but the motion only induced a pained grimace and fit of coughing from the boy that only stopped when Kanda picked him up and leaned Allen so his back was against Kanda's bent leg. After another futile attempt at waking the boy, Kanda lifted him and positioned him securely on his back.
Carrying him back to the town, he was distracted by the noisy, erratic breathing in his ear. It wasn't a good sign. Kanda was no medic, but he knew enough to practically diagnose him with smoke inhalation. That blow to the throat probably hadn't done much for him either. If his assumption was correct, he had to get Allen medical attention before the problem escalated.
He asked around town, and after several people gave him vague directions, he found the hospital. Because the town was the only real civilization for miles, it was a vital resource to the people, however small it was.
By now, it had been quite a while, hours, since they fought the akuma, and Allen was still not awake. Kanda's concern was so prevalent even he couldn't find some mind trick to use to deny it.
Brain hardly forming rational thoughts, he slammed his hand down on the receptionist's counter, shouting, "Help him, now!"
After her initial shock wore off, she ran off to return with a nurse and a gurney. Kanda didn't follow. After chastising everyone else for getting in the way, the last thing he wanted to do was jeopardize this situation. At this point, he was sure the young exorcist wouldn't die or anything, but even that thought didn't stop his anxiety.
He paced the foyer, aggravated that he had nothing to do here, nothing to keep him busy. Since he'd met Allen, he'd done nothing but ignore him and argue when they were forced to make contact. Why was he only realizing there was more to it now?
When a nurse eventually came out and spoke to him, he jumped, gripping Mugen automatically.
"D-do you want to see him?" she stammered, eyeing the sword with trepidation.
Kanda rubbed the back of his neck, mulling it over. It wasn't often he was truly lost for words, but he was now. "I…yeah," he eventually said in defeat.
The nurse smiled kindly and led him down the hall past several rooms before stopping near the end. She moved to open the door for him before Kanda brushed past her and did it himself.
He beheld Allen's thin body propped up on the bed with an oxygen mask covering his mouth and nose. His eyes were open, but unfocused until the door clicked closed behind Kanda. At the sound, he snapped to attention, grinning involuntarily when he saw his visitor. The grin dissolved slowly as he took in the scowl on the Japanese exorcist's face.
He opened his mouth to speak, presumably, but no words made it past the barrier. He simply couldn't make his vocal cords work, and if he were honest with himself, it was kind of painful to try.
His left arm was bandaged shoulder to wrist, although any exorcist would know that did nothing to fix the injury. His stomach churned at the thought of Komui's giant drill and whatever else the supervisor would see fit to torture him with upon their return.
"You could have died, you know," Kanda snapped, bringing Allen out of his reverie. "It was stupid of you to just pick up the Innocence when you had no idea what it would do. Do you think anything through?"
Allen mouthed something that looked like "sorry" before the mask fogged up with his breath.
"Don't give me that crap," Kanda growled, storming over to the bed and inviting himself to sit. "I don't know why Komui sends you on missions with anyone. All you do is get in the way and make people worry. You lose your battles so someone else has to fight them for you and then I have to carry you to a doctor so you don't die afterwards."
Allen pulled the mask from his face momentarily. "Worry?" he whispered, incapable of proper volume.
"Yes!" Kanda barked. His eyes betrayed a fierce determination to make Allen understand what he was trying to say. It infuriated him that positive communication was so hard for him. That is, verbal communication.
Without warning, he grasped Allen's hand over the oxygen mask, pulling it farther away from his face. Allen had little time to even look surprised before Kanda's lips met his own.
It was a gentle kiss. Firm and forceful, but not overbearing and with minimal tongue. Allen's supply of oxygen dwindled more quickly than Kanda's, but he stayed connected until he shuddered from lack of air.
Kanda complied with the unspoken and reluctant request, pulling away and placing the oxygen mask back where it belonged. Allen fell back, inhaling deeply for a few moments. He tried to convey through his eyes what he wished he could speak, and Kanda appeared to understand.
However, when he rose from the bed, preparing to leave, Allen clutched his uniform jacket. When Kanda attempted to pry his hand off, he found the boy's fingers to be immovable.
"Let go!" Kanda demanded.
Allen yanked him back, just hard enough that he stumbled and had to sit down again. Allen held up one finger on his left hand, resting it on his lap since he couldn't raise it very high.
It took Kanda a moment to interpret it, taking it as a number. "One?" he mused. One what? Minute? Hour? Day?
Allen frowned, gesturing sharply for Kanda to pay attention and think more deeply. He pointed to where the older exorcist sat and then raised his finger again.
"What do you want me to do?" Kanda asked, frustration bubbling to the surface.
Allen drew his eyebrows together, finally pulling the mask down again. "Wait," he rasped. "Can't you read more deeply than words?" Although talking hurt, he didn't want to be left alone in a hospital, and Kanda was as dense as the best of them.
At that, Kanda softened perceptibly. "Fine."
Grabbing a spare chair from across the room, he did just that and Allen taught him to speak without words.
Thanks for reading! Please feel free to review! I'm not opposed to constructive critique either, I'd just like to hear your thoughts on the fic. I'm still working on the actual Yullen aspects of this stuff. ^^;