Marie had held his breath for what felt like the entire game of chess against Coulson. No matter how he tried, it was like the days after his parent's murder when he woke from vivid dreams. At some point he no longer woke to colors but to a deafening blackness that threatened to swallow him whole. Despite getting his sight back in this new world, there were moments when he woke in the middle of the night where he thought it all a blissful dream. It was only the glow of his alarm clock that kept him grounded, sometimes not until he found the light switch or Mack found him.

Like those dreams, Noise could not differentiate the past and future, and whether he heard Coulson's words correctly had haunted him.

"We found some of the others. Lavi, Yuu, and Allen."

Yuu.

Only days ago, perhaps weeks, Noise Marie, or Noise Mackenzie, depending on who asked, was reunited with Lenalee and Cloud when he had assumed himself alone in a different dimension.

Not only was he not alone, but most of the exorcist that had made it to the end of the war had been found.

Which was why he, Lenalee, and several agents distracted themselves in different ways across the small meeting room. In a corner, Daisy lifted Lenalee telekinetically off the ground, and the little girl squealed in delight, just as any three-year-old should. Marie had thought her young the first time they had met, when he had become an exorcist. Lenalee was only a child, quiet and untrusting of any Order staff with good reason. Her hair had been longer and her eyes more sunken, lifeless. He wondered if the Lenalee he sees now, unguarded and unrestraint, was the Lenalee before the Order.

Of course, the exorcist weren't completely sound. Several times Lenalee stopped her play to ask Coulson how much longer they would have to wait. Perhap she felt the same dread and excitement as he. Were the others as lucky as he and Lenalee to have found caring homes? Considering Kanda and Allen's past, probably not, but he liked to imagine this being their big break. To know the truth? Noise almost didn't want it, not for Kanda's sake.

So when the knock came on the door and Mack, his brother in this dimension, poked his head in, Noise's adrenaline kicked up once more, his legs heavy as lead as he stood. Lenalee stopped her play and was already running to the door.

The dread had made it hard to breath, his vision blurring and for a moment, as the people carded into the room, he felt ready to blackout. However, thought vision blurred and out of uniform, he recognized the team before him with children at their father watched the Battle of New York, coined by the press, sitting in front of the television holding his wife and son painfully close, watching the neverending stream of aliens leave the portal, reminding him of near the end of the Holy War when the rows of akuma seemed to not have an end. It was happening again, and his innocence hadn't activated. It wouldn't until was too late, just like last time-

But the Iron Man led a nuke right into the portal that the Black Widow closed just in time. Captain America spoke encouraging words to the press about rebuilding and hope.

It reminded him of Komui Lee who picked up the pieces after the war and made sure every exorcist got to live as humans, as people, again.

And now they and others he didn't recognize stood before him with three children that scanned the room too maturely for their age.

Lavi and Allen stood out like sore thumbs, with almost unnaturally red hair to most definitely unnatural white. Lenalee was already running to them, but Noise Marie was caught by the other little boy who glared right back at him.

Noise didn't know what to expect of Kanda. His easily annoyed, mostly silent brother who always took Allen's bait to fight. He could wield his sword like an extension of himself with the finesse of a master, rivaling any general.

Kanda Yuu preferred cold soba dishes, but liked to treat himself to yakisoba and other dishes in his time with the Eastern branch. He liked the rain and stomping in puddles next to Daisya until they chased each other. He slept lightly except when around him or Tiedoll, and he appreciated the trust more than he had ever told Kanda.

So when he saw for the first his little brother, there was no question which one was Kanda. Noise Marie had never seen his brother's face, but god did he know.

His hair was long, longer than lenalee's and his eyes were stern and guarded, similar to his stance like he would flee at a moment's notice that Marie knew well.

This was his little brother.

Perhaps this was Kanda the day they met, when Noise had searched for peace in the depths of the Eastern branch, away from the stench of antiseptic and blood that just couldn't be drowned out by bleach. Was the Yuu of the second exorcist project just as small?

Were his eyes just as untrusting at such a young age?

He remembered once grabbing his wrist where his hand wrapped too well around, where the styloid process prodded out too much to make sense for a boy of his age, and he wondered if the project team had ever considered him human.

But now, his body was full, just losing the rest of its baby fat as it should, but his neck and face full, cheeks pudgy as Marie's had once been.

And he nearly wept.

Instantly, recognition fled those guarded features and Yuu called to him. It was only a whisper, one would think would get lost in the wind, but Noise caught it just like he did all those years after losing his eyes.

"Noise."

He smiled, his heart constricting.

"Kanda."

Thank you for reading! Check out liketolaugh's Cosmic Composite on FF here: /s/11428562/1/Cosmic-Composite