1. VICTORIA STATION

Allen cleaned his dark uniform from the dust. That damn akuma was taking him more than he had expected. Sighing, the boy stood up and moved a lock of white hair from his eyes.

The Earl's creature was laughing and screaming things that made no sense at all. "He he he he! It's useless! So very useless!!!" those words were really pissing the white haired exorcist; akumas had surely grown bolder and stupider recently, level 1 above all.

With a quick and precise gesture of his claw, everything was over.

Again, white locks had fallen on his eyes. Allen was really considering cutting it, or maybe tying it into a ponytail, or wearing a headband like Rabi's… but that would have been so out of character. He liked his hair like that. Maybe.

"Moyashi!" a smiling Rabi approached him.

On the younger exorcist's forehead a vein popped. Rabi… "It's ALLEN, A-L-L-E-N! Got me, Rabi?!"

The redhead waved his hand in a gesture that meant 'yes, yes', without conviction.

"Allen-kun! Rabi-kun! Are you done?" Lenalee was tying one of her pigtails, while the other surely needed fixing up as well.

As the boys nodded and looked behind her, as if looking for someone else's presence, the girl spoke, gesturing with her head to her left, as both her hands were busy. "Kanda-san is over there"

Allen moved to take a look, and yes, actually the Japanese was cleaning Mugen's blade right where Linalee had indicated.

"Wonder what the hell were all these akuma doing here" the thoughtful bookman's apprentice commented "they were like…like…too many! Level one, ok, but still, too many! How many did you kill, moy-… Allen-chan?"

Allen seemed to think of it for a second. "Don't know. 20? 30? You know I never count them, Rabi-kun."

The older boy wore a victorious smile "Yay! Then I won! It's 33 for me, Allen-chan!". Allen shook his head.

"Still, I can't find an explanation for this massive presence here; the docks of London are not that interesting, after all. Dirty and dangerous, yes, full of opium-addicted, yes, but really, what could any akuma want here?" Linalee didn't seem willing to change the subject, and Kanda, who had just joined his comrades didn't really seem in the mood for speaking. After all, Rabi was already all over him, trying to tick him off hitting him with the mini-version of his fighting hammer in random and annoying places.

"We shall go back to the HQ. Komui should be able to explain us something" Kanda managed to say throwing the lively bookman away and walking ahead of the group.

Linalee and Allen sweat-dropped. "H-hai Kanda-san…". When Kanda was pissed, it was much better for anyone to nod and do as he said.

----

River sighed, hardly making his way into the forest of papers.

Where the hell was he?!? As soon as he had found him, he would have kicked his skinny ass until he was more than willing to do all that paper work. He turned the corner of a pile of…he really didn't know what of, and kept insisting on his quest.

That was bad. That was so very bad.

Komui had learnt to use the mountains of books and paper at his advantage; they had become a place full of hiding places for whenever the man did not want anyone to find him.

What didn't make sense was, it had been Komui asking for him…sigh.

Suddenly a strong smell hit River's nostrils.

Could it be…? No, no way. Even if Komui was…was…no. He had seen him just a few hours ago. His corpse couldn't have…or could it?

Disgusted with his own train of thoughts, River decided to follow the smell.

And it turned out to be the best decision, as he found that the source of the rotten smell corresponded to the actual location of Komui-san.

The man was reading some yellow, brown stained paper.

He looked at River, and handed him the paper.

"She'll be arriving at Victoria Station at eight. I want you to go and pick her up."

"Y…yes" was all River was able to reply.

----

It was cold. Colder than in Venice, and way colder than in Rome. That was for sure.

When the hell would they come and pick her up?! The girl sighed. It would have been better if she had been given an address or something; at least moving would have kept her from freezing. Or dying because of boredom.

She was having a hard time in understanding what people told her; they talked too fast for her to fully understand every word. Or maybe she was just tired and didn't want to waste energy in listening to the useless talks that filled the air.

Sighing, she did the only thing she could think of at the moment. After all, Victoria station was quite a sight, for someone who used to live in a city built on channels and bridges. Not that she had ever been out of Venice, no, but Italian cities were sooo very different from London.

The girl grabbed her haversack and a sketchbook and a charcoal pencil, and began tracing lines on the white, rough surface. First, the curves of the roof; that reminded her of Milan's railway station. No, that was way bigger than Milan's. Then, she concentrated on the perspective; the walls, the ground…and when she was satisfied with that, details began to fill the scene she was drawing.

People of all ages, walking, sitting, waiting, with clothes of all shapes and fashions appeared on the sides of the black and white sides of the rail lines, while trains arrived and left, puffing clouds of steam.

"I was told by Komui-san that you were good at drawing. He was right." A man in his twenties told her. The girl studied him with distrust.

"I'm River. I was sent by the Black Order to pick you up…" he said smiling.

After a moment of uncertainty the girl smiled back. "Lucrezia Buonarroti" she said.

"I know." River said, grabbing her suitcase.

Yeee! I couldn't resist but making up an Italian character after all, Kanda is Japanese, Allen is English, Linalee and Komui are Chinese, Crowley is Romanian, Tiki is Portuguese…yes yes, someone Italian was definitely needed. And that's not only 'cause I'm Italian… I'll try my best to make her as less mary-sueish as possible…I swear!

What do you think about it? I would looove to read your reviews!

Ciao ciao