Title: Requiem of the Night
Summary: Welcome to Arkham, home to creatures of the night. If you are human, you flee, or stay and survive. You may, however, find what you seek should you choose to stay…
Prompt: Network
Warnings: Unbeta-ed. Blood and violence for the whole story.
Notes: Imagine my surprise when I saw that Allen/Lavi week is on this year! I'm late to the party, and will not be on time with the prompts, but I hope you will enjoy this story. It's a fantasy tale I've wanted to write about for a while. Cliches ahoy!
Disclaimer: I do not own D. Gray-man or its characters.

A long time ago, there were two men and a boy. The two men were brothers, and the boy was the adopted son of the elder brother. They loved performing and travelling wherever they could, and laughter followed their days…

.

"This is impossible."

Allen sighed and lowered the map, his eyes pleading for some road sign or helpful personage in a city too busy to care. He had made sure to board the correct train, had double checked the timing and the number and the destination. He was sure he was in the correct city. But the road to Arkham was nowhere to be found.

Asking the police had proven to be useless. They had taken a long look at the map before exchanging wary looks with each other. Then, cautious as though Allen had just checked out from a mental asylum, they had explained that there was no such road, though he was indeed in Lightfellow City.

So much for local knowledge. Do people know where their taxes even go to? Allen had thought with a friendly smile on his face.

But to his increasing horror, none of the people he had asked knew of Arkham either. One little girl had even asked him if it was his imaginary place, like how she had an imaginary friend. Nobody, not the convenience store workers, nor the businessmen, nor the school teachers. Nobody seemed to have heard of Arkham.

"But how could this be?" Allen muttered to himself as he slipped into an alley, the setting sun casting a long shadow into the dark road. From there he could still see the north wall, but there was no path beyond it, only the sea. He checked the second piece of paper he held in his hand, with the heading 'BAR KEEPER NEEDED' written on it. The terms were generous and he would be offered lodging, a tempting offer considering he had no place to call home. He had even called to book an appointment before travelling to the city.

In the end, did he travel to the wrong city? Was the map from the job offer website incorrect? Was it – he swallowed hard – a prank? The papers in his hands were getting increasingly crumpled in his anxious grip. Perhaps he just had to circle around the city from the outside…he knew about his tendency to get lost…Lightfellow was a good enough city to stay the night if he had to…

"You look troubled, sir," a voice said from within the alley. It was only from years of practicing his poker face that Allen did not jump. He turned to look, trying to make out something in the dying light. The voice did not sound hostile – but debt collectors never sounded hostile either, at first. He tensed, preparing to run.

He first saw a foot, clad in black heels, stepping into the sunset light. As his eyes travelled up the leg he realized it was a young lady, holding a grocery bag in both hands, who had spoken to him. Her dark eyes were friendly. The air around her was, Allen decided after a moment's scrutiny, non-threatening. He relaxed minutely.

"Oh, uh, I was just a little lost. I'm new to the city," Allen said with a quick bow of his head.

The girl smiled. "It is easy to get lost about these parts. Where are you headed?"

Allen winced internally, preparing himself to get another confused look or, at worst, disdain. There wouldn't be any harm in asking this lady – at least she was friendly. "Arkham. I've heard that it is Lightfellow City's neighbouring town, but I could not find the road that leads there."

The girl's eyes widened. Then her smile widened. She stepped closer to him with a calculating look which made Allen wary. It made him feel like a specimen on display. "As it turns out, I can bring you there," she offered, the first positive reply he had heard in the whole day.

His first emotion was relief. Arriving in the mid-day sun and searching for half the day without results had taken a toll. But then his instincts kicked in and he just looked at her for a while, keeping his poker face on.

What would a young lady be doing in an alley?

How could it be that she, out of everybody in Lightfellow, knew about Arkham?

Could he…trust her? No, not trust her. Just rely on her until he gets there?

As though she had read his doubts, she said, gently, "I know you have questions, especially since you're a newcomer. But for you to know about Arkham means…something. I cannot harm you, and if you wish you can choose to return after you've seen the road. You will know how to find it, once I show it to you."

Allen smiled, uncertain. The girl seemed sincere enough, and if it is true that he might choose to return…

"Far be it from me to refuse kind help, Miss," he said, clutching his suitcase tighter.

"Excellent. Please, follow me." So saying, she swept past him, leaving Allen to keep pace with her as she led the way through the market crowd.

Among the people she was a striking figure in her ankle-length black dress and black hair. There was too much noise and bustle about them to talk easily, though Allen had too many questions. But when she spoke her voice was as clear as a bell, cutting through the crowd's bustle.

"I'm Lenalee. May I know your name?"

"I'm Allen, Miss Lenalee."

"Allen," she said slowly, her dark eyes gazing far out. "And why are you travelling to Arkham?"

"There was an advertisement for a job. As a bar keeper," Allen clarified.

"And you decided to go all the way to Arkham to work? It isn't exactly accessible," she asked with curiosity, side-stepping a plump mother and her two kids efficiently.

Understatement of the century, Allen thought as they ducked under a stall's banner. She had a fair point. "I've been – well, I don't exactly have a home, per se. And this job has generous terms. There didn't seem harm in trying."

Lenalee laughed. Allen wasn't quite sure what was funny about what he had said. Her laughter didn't sound malicious, though. Only amused, as if she were laughing at an inside joke.

"I'm sorry. Not many people make their way to Arkham. It isn't known as a safe place, not exactly. Oh, it's not horribly dangerous," she said with a quick glance at him, "it's just a bit different. Most people cannot get used to Arkham. There are all sorts of beings there."

"Now you're making me scared," Allen attempted to joke.

Lenalee grinned. "You may not know it, but Arkham has already welcomed you."

The bustle of the crowd was gone, Allen realized. When he looked up from Lenalee's eyes they were on a small path that he had not previously seen. It was leading from Lightfellow City's north wall, and he could have sworn he had circled the area ten times just looking for the path, and now here it was?

"The path opens at night," Lenalee said, gazing up at the evening stars that had started to appear and the moon that was starting to rise from beyond the trees. Behind them the restaurants and cafes were busy with customers. All of them rushed by as though there was no world beyond the wall. "If you choose to return now, you may. If you ever want to find Arkham again, you just have to wait till the sun sets, and the path will always be here from Lightfellow's north wall."

She looked at him, her eyes revealing nothing. She still had a smile on, and her grip was tight on her grocery bag. Allen looked behind once more, at the bustling city that swept its eyes over them and the small path without seeing.

There was something tight in his chest. There was something very mysterious about all this, Arkham and Lenalee and the job offer. He was about to falter, and fall back into the safety of Lightfellow, before something he remembered from long ago rang in his head.

Keep on walking. Never stop.

"I would like to know – "

"You would like to know why, and how," Lenalee said with a nod. "I cannot explain all, and you may not believe me anyway."

"I might not," he agreed. "But I would like to hear."

Lenalee laughed again. "Most people would have freaked out by now. You are so calm, Allen."

"Yes, all these, paths appearing at night, nobody knowing Arkham but a young lady who I met by chance in an alley, it all sounds a little – " Allen shrugged and grinned. He was not as spooked as he thought he might have been, after calming down and remembering his well-loved phrase. Perhaps it was also all these years of travelling and seeing everything he thought he possibly could. Still, this was by far the strangest, and he hadn't even stepped into the city yet.

"A little," she agreed. She sat down on a patch of grass and waved her hand, inviting Allen to sit with their backs facing Lightfellow. The grass was dry in the late summer air. Once seated Lenalee stared at the trees while speaking. "To put it simply, Arkham is a city of the night. The people there are not all – " she paused, taking a while to choose her words – "human."

"So they're dead? Are you taking me to a graveyard, Miss Lenalee?" Allen asked, an eyebrow raised.

"No, it's not nearly so normal. You have heard of other creatures?"

"Animals?" Allen suggested, a strange sort of anticipation bubbling in him.

"Now you're just being deliberately obtuse. Creatures – wolves, yes, but werewolves?"

Allen breathed out. He did not dare to believe. It had been something he had treasured as a child, those tales with Mana and Nea…in a hushed voice – though there was nobody eavesdropping – he asked, "They're real?"

"Certainly. They're not all in Arkham – some are spread through the world – but there is a large population of them there. Mutants, hybrids, vampires, ghosts – they are all real, Allen. And no, I'm not under drugs, nor are you, or we're both insane together," she said with a smile.

"But nobody has ever reported seeing them, if they're spread through the world," Allen pointed out, rationality kicking in.

"Yes. No reports. There are ways to cover up sightings. And we hide ourselves well," Lenalee added, as though it had only occurred to her.

"So if somebody saw a werewolf – "

"They might have dismissed him as a very large wolf. Several species are capable of hypnosis, or erasure. And some are just hard to find, like the ghosts. Arkham's citizens are capable of many things, and more than anything we need to protect ourselves," she admitted. "The world isn't very forgiving. We all know of witch burnings."

"They've always been around, then?" Allen wondered if he had bumped into a ghoul or vampire without knowing it.

"For a long while," Lenalee agreed. She looked up at the moon and frowned. "I don't want to rush you, but I'd rather we travel once the moon is up. It only gets darker from here," she said, looking apologetic.

Allen felt the wind whistle through his hair as he thought. It all seemed too unimaginable, and he knew, as he had known all these years in his travels, that the only way was…

Forward. "I have to see this for myself," he breathed out.

Relief made Lenalee's shoulders relax. "You will understand more, once you're there," she promised. She got to her feet, her bag cradled in both hands. "You'll be under no harm. Visitors have Protection," she said. "And I'll help you too."

It was more than Allen could have hoped for. "Thank you," he said, before they started down the path that wound through the trees.

As they walked the trees grew dense, until the path could not be easily seen and the starlight and moonlight were blocked out. The sounds of the woods died down too, until it seemed there was no being alive except for him and Lenalee. She was humming as they walked, a halo of certainty in the unfamiliar terrain. Allen did not dare to disturb her.

Then the trees were not as dense. They grew sparser, though slowly, at the same pace at which they became denser when Allen and Lenalee had started their walk. When they emerged into open space they could see the huge gates of wrought iron and clinging ivy before them. The moon was rising from behind the woods they had just emerged from, adding light to their path. There was light too, in Arkham, and a strange sort of bustle.

"Welcome to Arkham," Lenalee said, her voice cheerful. "It doesn't look cheery, but it's home."

Allen couldn't quite speak. Images were rushing into his mind and he shook his head to clear it. Discordant images like a ghoul in a well, a harpy and a goblin engaging in a Nightlock tournament…he cleared his head, and when he opened his eyes it was only the open gates before him and Lenalee waiting with patience. The images had felt real, but he could have sworn he had never seen them before. Perhaps an overactive imagination, he decided.

At his nod they walked into town. Upon his first step into town Allen felt something envelop him, sending a shiver through his body, before the sensation lifted and he could step forth without resistance.

"You've just received Protection," Lenalee explained. It was still relatively quiet near the gate. "Protection from the Night Gods the residents here believe in."

"Protection…against?"

"Many things," Lenalee said in a vague, evasive way.

She led them through the main street. With the flame lamps and the starlight it wasn't hard to see by. The houses were disarmingly normal, with a mixture of apartments and one-storey houses. As Allen looked around he could see signs of life –

Signs of a very different sort of life.

Lenalee, as far as he could tell, had human features – he decided he would ask later if she was human or just looked human. He knew he had seen a child looking at him from a window. And when he had looked back the child ducked, but not before he saw the horns on the child's head. The child was only the beginning of many. Two ladies with bat wings and lizard tails swept past them, laughing with their heads bent close together. A short man with a beard as long as his body had been sweeping his front porch and staring at them with heavy suspicion. He was sure he had seen a three-headed puppy feasting on some mutant…rabbit…thing.

"You're very quiet," Lenalee said.

"Just…observing," Allen said faintly, still wondering if he was in a dream. The strap of his suitcase digging into his hand felt real enough.

Lenalee hummed and accepted the explanation. "The bar you're looking for – there's only one bar, Luna – it's in the center of the city. We might have to take a warg…"

Surely she had meant a bus? Allen held his tongue while Lenalee looked around. Her eyes lit up at something ahead of them. A big something.

At a twisted lamppost a large animal was lying down. It seemed a hybrid of a wolf – an enormous wolf – and a bear. Lenalee walked over and pulled the rope hanging on the post. The green flame on the lamppost flared huge and bright and let out a deep growl.

The animal – he must be the warg Lenalee had spoken of – blinked open his eyes and turned his head to look at Lenalee.

"To Luna, please," she said. Her hand grabbed Allen's arm to pull him closer. The warg looked at Allen, eyes scanning his figure.

"He's new," the warg said in a deep voice.

Allen had just seen enough strange things that a warg speaking did not surprise him. Too much.

"Yes. But he knew about Arkham," Lenalee said.

Allen would have cut in to say he did not so much "know" as "stumbled across", but the warg blinked twice, then nodded. Lenalee grabbed hold of his fur and hopped onto his back. Seeing no other option, Allen sighed and hauled himself up as well, trying not to swing his suitcase too much. Even if pulling his fur did not hurt, maybe poking him with something sharp might.

The warg stood up, alert, eyes scanning the street. Before Allen could ask Lenalee anything else the warg sped off and the world was a blur.

.

It might surprise some, but it wasn't too difficult to move around in Arkham as a blind man. The sounds each creature made were rather distinct, for one. And a device a scientist had invented could describe or read out the details of the items he touched, as long as he had the device switched on. As he touched Allen's file he could hear the device in his ear saying, "ALLEN WALKER. AGE: UNKNOWN. ORIGINS: UNKNOWN – "

He removed his hand and the voice buzzed down.

Noise Marie didn't know much about the boy except that he had been brought to Arkham by Lenalee Lee, which meant he had already received a badge of approval even if he hadn't known it then. Then the boy had introduced himself as Allen Walker, the very same person who had called about the job offer, and Marie had given him a double badge of approval. There were few who knew about or had the power to even contact Arkham. It meant the boy had connections, or some innate ability.

He was a good bar keeper, Marie knew at least that much from the past three weeks. He could tell by the sound of him mixing up the various concoctions. Nobody could work a shaker like he did unless they had some experience. Krory added that Allen knew how to perform, that he could toss the bottles and shakers around and catch them neatly. And he easily won over customers as well, if not with his skill at mixing their drinks, then with his conversation charm. He'd heard that sirens swooned over him and considered using their voices, but didn't because he was still under the Protection of the Night Gods, and because Lenalee would likely kill them all if they did –

The sound of footsteps on the stairs made him lift his head. He counted silently until there was a knock on his door.

"Come in," he said.

The door creaked open. "Hello, Marie," Allen greeted. Marie could hear the smile in his voice.

"Allen, hello. You're early today," he said by way of question.

"Thought I would clean the bar up a bit more. There's still the smell of puke," Allen said with a grimace clear in his tone.

Marie laughed. That was another thing he liked about Allen. He took his job seriously. It was true that the puke smell was getting to Marie as well.

"Go ahead, then. I will settle some accounts here and join you later."

"See you later," Allen said brightly before he closed the door behind him.

Marie waited until his footsteps faded away before sweeping his hand over Allen's file again.

"ALLEN WALKER. AGE: UNKNOWN. ORIGINS: UNKNOWN. RELATIVES: UNKNOWN – "

He didn't know why Allen had chosen to come to Arkham. And perhaps it wasn't his place to pry. But, Marie thought grimly, the Protection wouldn't last much longer. Then Allen would be on his own to brave Arkham, like so many of the other humans here. Like how Marie had chosen and had paid the price for it.

.

It never truly gets bright here, Allen thought as he looked out the window. The gray sky darkening into dark blue ink made him think of sunset and, for a moment, the world he had chosen to leave. He shook his head to clear the thoughts and continued wiping down the bar, making the black marble shine. Marie was already in the office doing their accounts, and Krory should be arriving once night has settled.

The bell tinkling made him look up. Krory should be entering by the back door. He straightened up and called, "I'm sorry, we're not open yet – "

"Alllllllleeeeeeen!"

Allen sighed at the whine and a smile came unbidden. "Lavi," he said as the man slammed the door closed behind him and gave a winning smile. Allen wasn't fooled. "Who is it?"

"Who what?" Lavi said with an aura of innocence.

"Who is the poor soul you tricked, tripped, lied to, tried to hit on, or maimed…this time?"

"That's cruel!" Lavi peeked out the window and sighed in relief. When he looked back Allen had an eyebrow raised. "It wasn't anything, I swear. Just told some harpy that I could straighten out her ruffled feathers for her – it really was ruffled!" He added in defense when Allen snorted.

"And I thought human pick-up lines were bad," Allen said, folding the cloth up and placing it in the bucket under the sink. Lavi huffed and bounded across the room. When Allen looked up Lavi was already seated in front of him with an expectant look. "What?"

"How's my favourite bar keeper doing today?" Lavi asked with a bright grin.

"Better before you came in," Allen said. He had always loved seeing Lavi pretend that his heart had been stabbed. Lavi didn't fail him today.

"Ouch. That would have hurt if my heart was still beating."

"Lucky for you it isn't, then." Allen took out the glass Lavi liked, a medium-sized one with red swirls of flame. Lavi's eye lit up at the sight of it. "It's today, isn't it? Which type? We just got fresh stock yesterday."

"Ooooh, I don't know…" Lavi hummed and hawed while Allen unlocked a cabinet. He twirled his glass on the marble. "I'm thinking O."

"O it is then," Allen agreed. He took out the specially crafted bottle, which had inner lining that normal wine bottles didn't have. The red seemed dull from the outside, but when he carefully poured it out into Lavi's glass the liquid shone in the light of the fire lamp.

"Ta." Lavi reached over and ruffled Allen's hair. Allen wrinkled his nose.

Lenalee was the first friend he had made in Arkham, but Lavi was a close second. Allen wondered about the siren girl – she did say she was busy since her brother needed her help. Having Lavi around was enough company for three or four though. His personality was as vibrant as his hair – at least, the personality he had chosen to show to the world. He turned to keep the bottle and smiled when Lavi let out a satisfied sigh, much like old men did after a draft of beer.

"Thank goodness for Luna. Can you imagine what us poor, feed-less vampires will have to do otherwise?" Lavi said. He had already downed half the blood in his glass.

"Starve?" Allen suggested.

"Oh, we're not as innocent as you think we are, Allen darling," Lavi said, eye dark and smile wide. Allen didn't much like that expression. It made him shiver. "Well, those that don't abide by the law, that is. Some of us do treasure our human friends."

"You've told me about this before," Allen said, curiosity rearing its head again. "But you didn't explain."

"You were too new at the time," Lavi said, waving his hand flippantly. "Didn't want to scare you off, did I?"

Allen snorted. "Just having you around might have scared me off already."

"And here you are, nearly a month in Arkham!" Lavi beamed. "Marie must be paying you damn well. Oh, wait. There's me, of course. No one can resist this fine specimen of vampire-kind."

"Of course. The burning desire cannot be contained. Who can resist unwashed hair after all?" Allen deadpanned.

"Lies!" Lavi exclaimed, one hand flying up to pat his hair down. "I've just washed it this morning. With this new lemon shampoo a gnome sold me. It doesn't smell gnome-y, does it?"

It actually smelled quite nice, but Allen wasn't about to tell him that. He snapped his fingers. "Stop trying to change the subject. Krory tried to explain, but you know how he is, still pining. Eliade is actually quite charmed, if you ask me. In any case," he fixed Lavi with his best stern look, "pay up."

"Not exactly payment if you're the only one benefitting, is it?" Lavi said with an amused glint in his eye. Allen glared until Lavi held up his hands in surrender. "Alright, alright, anything for my favourite bar keeper. Do we have time?"

Allen glanced out the window. The gray had almost disappeared. By his calculation they have about fifteen, maybe twenty minutes before Marie would open shop. "Enough time."

Lavi sighed and took another sip. His eye and voice were grim when he spoke. "You know of the Noahs. Well, they don't just want a feed relationship with humans, to put it simply."

Most vampires were looking for feeds, Allen knew. It wasn't easy, since the human had to be willing to give up mortality, and there was blood compatibility and all the science stuff behind it. But it wasn't impossible. There were quite a lot of vampires in Arkham who had found a feed, and he knew Krory was close to winning Eliade over. If the Noahs weren't looking for feed relationships –

"They're looking to kill?" Allen murmured. "But the law – "

"The law is not as strong as the instinct to feed. They can come to Luna, but they don't like old blood. To be fair, not many vampires do. But they know they can't just kill. Or create endlessly. They'll run out eventually," Lavi explained with the analytical tone of a professor. He flicked his gaze from the glass to Allen.

"Then what are they looking for?" Allen managed to ask.

Lavi tapped his finger on the glass. There was a glint in his eye from the flickering flame lamp. "Dominance. Puppetry. Mind control. Whatever you want to call it. To be the master of humans. And the Noahs are strong. They have skills vampires take centuries to master. Mind control is not out of the question," Lavi smirked without amusement. "You can imagine that the humans won't be very happy about this."

Allen shook his head. "The hunters? Do they know?"

"They might. Or they suspect, at least. Leverrier is a hard-ass though. Any vampire that doesn't have a feed is on his list," Lavi said coolly. "I think they're trying to reduce the number of vampires."

Lavi stopped talking then and drained his glass. The moment of silence gave Allen time to sort his thoughts. "You? You're their target, too?"

Lavi smiled. It wasn't a nice smile. "I don't have a feed, Allen. Unless you haven't noticed, I've been in Luna every week."

"Of course I've noticed!" Allen snapped, fingers tight on the marble edge. "But you didn't – you've never – "

Lavi's eye softened and he said, almost gently, "They won't target me first. I'm an information broker, remember? They still need me."

"And what if they don't? What if they decide that they just need to destroy all the vampires, even the ones with feeds? And Central is just sitting around, doing nothing?" The blunt press of marble into his palms was starting to hurt.

Lavi stood up. For a moment Allen feared he was just going to leave, after dropping this bomb of information on him, when he felt a cool hand under his chin, tilting his head up. When their eyes met Allen only became angrier at the emotionless glaze of Lavi's eye. He scowled.

Lavi dropped his hand and attempted a grin. It was a weak one, but Allen preferred it to his too-wide smiles. "Hey…it's all still conjecture, at this point. The hunters and the Noahs haven't made any moves yet. I'm more worried about you, actually."

"Me?" Allen asked, surprise deflating his anger. "Why?"

"Your Protection is running out. You arrived on a full moon, didn't you? At the next moon the Night Gods cannot protect you anymore. Can you manage here? Blood isn't the only desirable thing humans have," Lavi warned. He looked genuinely worried.

Lenalee had explained what she knew. Visitors always had Protection, so none of the night creatures could harm him. But it lasted only a month, at the end of which he should either leave or survive his own way in Arkham. She had urged him to think of his Alliance. With the unspoken premise that he needed to be of value for the partnership to work.

"You could ally with the humans…" Lavi said slowly.

There weren't many groups of humans. The hunters were one such group, and Allen didn't quite like the idea of joining this vigilante force when their rules were so…unyielding. He could join the skilled labourers, but they valued survival skills, and he was pretty sure bar keeping wasn't a skill they would want. Technically, he was of help to Marie, but Marie himself was allied with the skilled labourers, so he would have to go straight to their boss. An Alliance, Lenalee had emphasized, with one of the night creatures was safest. Each species had their strengths and wouldn't risk conflict by attacking a human allied with one of them.

"I don't know," Allen shook his head. He pulled up a small smile. "If I really cannot safeguard my life…I will leave."

Lavi looked at him with a sharp gaze. Allen kept his smile firmly on.

"That so?" Lavi finally said, a bit too cheerfully. "That might be best…but think about it a little more, yeah?"

It wasn't obvious, but since Allen had cheated his way through life, he had learnt to read other people with more skill than the average being. And he thought – surely it wasn't his imagination? – that there was a slight plea in Lavi's question.

"I will," he said with a hope he didn't quite feel. He had to find his Alliance fast. He still needed to stay in this city. He had to.

"Good," Lavi said. He scratched his chin. "Well…that's my payment, then. Satisfied? Or – " he fluttered his eyelashes – "should I pay with a kiss, my darling?"

Allen pushed Lavi's face away. "You're lucky you were even allowed in. Now scram. I still have a bar to keep."

Lavi sniffed. "I'll have you know harpies and sirens fall over themselves for my kiss."

"Fall over themselves trying to run away, more like." Allen placed Lavi's glass in the sink and wiped down the tabletop. "Don't you have somewhere else you need to be? Some unfortunate sod's bed?"

Lavi had a pout on. Allen would never tell him, but it was quite adorable. He hadn't thought a vampire two centuries old was still capable of such an expression. Then again, there were many things he couldn't have imagined before coming to Arkham.

…Lavi's lips were even wibbling.

"Oh, for heaven's sake – "

"Arkham's sake. There's no heaven for us," Lavi helpfully added.

"You're impossible. Get out before I chase you with a broom. I'll see you at the usual spot."

Lavi's expression brightened. Allen turned away so Lavi couldn't see his grin.

That didn't stop Lavi. With inhuman speed Lavi had crossed the bar and ruffled his hair once more before he was gone, swinging bar door in his wake. Allen blinked, both disgruntled and amused. He managed to rearrange his hair before Krory walked through the back door at a sedate pace and they started setting up shop.

.

On the chilliest of winter nights they would stay home. The crowd would be too dismal for them to earn anything decent for their performance. One look at the snow outside and Nea would pronounce them snowed in, to which Allen would squeal and grab his uncle around the waist. They never made much, but they had enough for a small fire to huddle around and a simple dinner of warm porridge. Then the stories began.

Mana always went first. He told stories of ghouls and wolves and harpies. They've always excited Allen – there were so many clever creatures in those stories, and excitement and adventure. Mana and Nea made a team – they would pretend to be creatures of the night, with fangs and claws, to scare Allen. Allen never got truly scared though. He would pretend shriek, but he knew he would always be safe in their huddle of blankets, between his two favourite people in the world.

When their laughter died down it would be Nea's turn. Nea's stories were as good as Mana's. He always told them stories of vampires. Allen never got tired of them, because the stories would always be new. Nea would tell him of a girl vampire who could never fall in love, or sibling vampires that travelled the world. It all felt so real to Allen. He could see the towers in Nea's tales, the seas and mountains in every word.

By the time they finished Allen would be sleepy, though he would always deny it. He would even mutter something, try to scold them when they put him in his bed, but they would laugh and tuck him in, Mana's hand smoothing away stray hair and Nea pulling the blankets up to his shoulders. The next day the snow would stop and they would perform again, braving the cold and the wind. But it was okay, because Allen knew he would always have Mana and Nea with him.

Until the one day he grew up and they were nowhere to be found, leaving only their old books and maps behind.