Words are Easy Like the Wind - Faithful Friends are Hard to Find
Notes: Usual disclaimers apply, not for profit, for fun.
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When he was at the orphanage, he knew that the people around him were not his friends. The Sisters who ran the mission, were duty bound to look after and care for him. Gave him lessons in educating him as regards to knowing letters, language and numbers. They were so proud of him because he picked everything up so easily, but no, not any of them would he have called friend.
Certainly not the other children who were there in the same boat as him, but his hair and his eyes set him apart, and it gave them something to band together for and tease him mercilessly about. No one ever stood up for him, and he was never bothered about it in the first place. Thick-skinned and stubborn. Survival instincts make you toughen up.
When he started his travels with Bookman, he remembers asking the old man once.
"Are you my friend?" He asked with open honesty, hopeful and yearning.
"No." The answer was quick, short and curt.
… and he did not let himself be hurt by it, because at the time he thought, We're just new to each other, of course we're not friends yet. He does not know me yet.
Their travels take them further away from the orphanage and they begin to circumnavigate half the globe. He learns that the idea of friendship such as he is looking for, is a nebulous concept that will forever be out of reach due to the very nature of what and who he is training to become.
He's learnt a bit more by the time they're halfway to England. He asks Bookman again about friendship, "I'll never be allowed friends will I?" The long look he receives in return is slightly sorrowful and sorry, but stern at the same time and firm.
"Who are you?" Bookman answers with the question in the now familiar litany.
"I am the Bookman's successor."
"Why do you distance yourself from others?"
"So I do not become attached to others - merely ink on paper and eventually disappearing into the annals of history."
"Bookmen have no need of a heart." This last they say together.
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By the time the Bookman Junior arrives in England, he's turning out to be quite the Bookman. His prowess for graphic, numerical and factual recall is nothing short of prodigious. Bookman has oft felt the justification in picking the boy for his apprentice. However that feeling is usually balanced by the equal misgiving that the boy is wont to thinking too much and Bookman knows, no matter how many times they repeat their mantra, the boy still questions too much. Since coming to the Order and joining its ranks, never has the boy been so tested, so tempted with promises of comradeship, of friendship. Thoughts of attachments that Bookmen do well not to dwell upon. At all.
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Bookman watches his apprentice as he progresses in training and his regresses with a critical eye. Ever ready with an admonishment, or a heavy hand if need be. Some degree of connection he cedes is necessary and probably unavoidable. However as time wears on he is uncertain if the boy might yet fall in the final hurdles. Time has yet to tell.
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"Hey, are you my friend?" Lavi asks Lenalee once they are training together.
"Uhm, of course you are. Everyone's my friend, you're family now." Lenalee is wide-eyed and earnest, and is not quite the answer that he wants to hear. Even, if it is more or less as he guesses the answer would be.
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"Hey, are you my friend?" One night when they're playing chess, he asks Johnny Gill.
With his hand over his heart and eyes aglow, "We of the Science Division are all the exorcists' friends, because we're giving them support in whatever way we can. To ease their burden in the fight against the Akuma." The answer is heartfelt and no less earnest than Lenalee's.
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"Hey, are you my friend?" He had even asked Doug the Finder once.
"Truthfully? No, not really, but you're friendly and I'd trust you if we worked together again," the look he received is guarded, but honest.
Lavi, thinks disappointedly, there in that case he did try, but he accepts the reply as genuine and devoid of artifice. A year later the point is moot anyway as he learns that trust can be broken like glass. A point in favour towards the Bookman ideals.
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They're on a mission together, in Inverness, in the ruins of Urquhart Castle and for the umpteenth time Kanda Yuu draws Mugen against the redhead.
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"Why do you make me do this?" Kanda asks.
"Why do you hate it so much?" Is his rejoinder.
Kanda regards him with brows pinched almost to a 'V', but does not answer. The dark of his eyes hide much and gives nothing away. He sheathes Mugen.
So far no innocence yet. Kanda knows it's around here somewhere and he wants to retrieve it before the Akuma he knows are just waiting to jump them, interupts.
"Yuu, I have a question. Do … do you consider me a friend?" Lavi tries a different tack.
"Wha- at?"
"A friend. Do you think of me as a friend?" Lavi is insistent.
"What kind of stupid ass question is that?"
"Well?"
"..."
"THAT is NOT any kind of answer."
"Well … we work together… does that count?"
"No, not even close, here let me define it for you." with an inward groan Kanda knows what's coming. The cue for irrelevant information from that idiotic mouth sometimes just does not care for the timing. "Circa AD 900 Middle English; friend, frend, Old English; frēond, friend, lover, relative - ;cognate with Old Saxon; friund. Old High German; friunt ;German Freund, Gothic; frijōnds. Originally present participle of frēogan, cognate with Gothic - frijōn to love."
"You do know that we have work to do and there are Akuma waiting to kill us don't you?" Kanda says with more than a touch of exasperation.
"I know."
Lavi scrutinises the forge, feels with his hands along the firepot and hearth. He walks over to the anvil, then feels along the surfaces of the cast and wrought iron. He looks up to open sky. The ceiling to the forge long since fallen to disrepair and ruin.
"I think I can get this one. Coincidentally it's a hammer that worked the metals on the anvil, so," He stands about four feet away and gestures at Kanda to step back. He takes his hammer out twirls it "Innocence, Activate!" and smashes the hammerhead down upon the anvil and impossibly but somehow shattering it.
With the pieces of metal all round, there in the heart of the anvil, lies a green glowing cube. Kanda picks it up and pockets it. He allows the Bookman's apprentice only a few moments of breathing space, he nods to the other man. They head out with Mugen activated - Kanda in readiness for offense, likewise Lavi has Ozuchi, Kozuchi also at the ready.
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Kanda stands at the edge of the vast lake, the ruins of the castle loom large behind them, beyond the dilapidated smithy. Lavi, two three paces behind, a wary eye on their surroundings.
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The waters of the lake froth and foam and the level two that has risen from the depths is a like a water dragon with canons for its gills, and a razor sharp tail, churning the water into huge waves threatening to swamp them on the shoreline. Perhaps it means to sweep them out to the lake. After all it reckons that may be it is more difficult to battle them from the water. For sure, neither Lavi nor Kanda want to fight a battle from the depths of the Loch itself.
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A familiar whine comes from the line of trees to the side of the ruins and ah, here they are, three level ones. Lavi decides for once they have to change things round a little. He knows Kanda has a fondness for throwing himself at the bigger things, thinking if he just powers through and hits them harder, faster and before he gets hit, he'll win the fight. This time though, that dragon thing is over water and Lavi knows that Kanda's forte with water is questionable (not that he will ever say it to Yuu himself). But he does fight smarter, as is his wont. Due to his Bookman instinct for self-preservation.
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"Kanda," Lavi has to yell over the metallic song of the machinated evils, "take the Level ones, I'll handle the dragon, you can help me finish it off if I'm struggling yeah?"
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Kanda hesitates momentarily, but sees the sense in Lavi's plan. As one, they side step in a circle never taking their eyes off their quarry and they're back to back with Lavi facing the water now and Kanda aims for the trees at a dead run. Zig-zagging faster than the Akuma can train their cannons on him. He uses the base of a tree to give him a jump of point to somersault over and land himself on the nearest threat to him. Slashing that in half before he's off through to the next, which provides him with even more elevation and he cuts through the last one like butter, landing on his feet. The blasts behind him rustling his hair with the aftershock. The back of his coat is covered in Akuma ash and that oily slick they call blood.
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He then turns to see how Lavi is faring and wonders if he does need help after all.
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Lavi unlocks his Level Two Innocence, and the familiar chant of 'Hiban! Gouka: Kaijin!" fills the air and with a commanding wave, the redhead directs the great fire snake over the water straight through to the centre of the water dragon. The hit is palpable but only dents the side of the creature, however it does skew it to one side, its tail slapping at the water causing more waves to head for the shore. But the red fire snake, still aglow isn't quite finished as it twists out of the way to hit the dragon-Akuma on its other side before dissipating. Even as it fades, Lavi is chanting again.
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"Konbo Ban! Gouraiten!" - and another, this time an elemental snake of Fire and Iron. A legend of old come to life, it is an impressive sight. Lavi does not mince about as he sends this creature straight towards the Level two dead on. Even with all its cannons whirring and firing, the misbegotten creature knows its last moments are nigh. Lavi grows the hammerhead to shield them from the bullets.
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As suddenly as it starts, the ensuing silence is loud.
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Kanda walks up to Lavi. They glance over each other, checking the other for wounds. In silence they turn and head up the hill, round the castle walls and over the drawbridge. They see their finder waving to them, where he had been waiting all this time, out of the way.
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"I trust you enough to fight with and have my back." YuuThe dark-haired one says out of the blue to the redhead.
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"Ah-ha, yeah, Yuu, I guess that'll have to do for me," Lavi's laughter rings out over the highlands as he drapes his arm and weight over Kanda's shoulder.
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They make about four, maybe five steps, when Kanda jabs his elbow deep into Lavi's side and pushes him off.
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"Ow!" the redhead rubs himself gingerly, he's still smiling though.
"And that's enough of that."
With his hands in his pockets Lavi starts to whistle some Scottish air that he seems to have picked up whilst they've been in the Highlands. With that, the Innocence and their finder they head back home.
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Lavi will probably ask questions, all his life, because of and in spite of all the training. This will be the thing that sets him apart from all other Bookmen previously. THAT -is also the reason Bookman is unwilling to admit, on the worst of days (depending on whose point of view it is) is the thing that will probably lead to his apprentice to being a Bookman for all Bookman that will come after. Probably.
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FIN
Notes: This is for posting date 24 Aug. If it was your birthday then Happy Belated Birthday.
First time writing a bit of action there. Not too confident about that. The deal with pacing, continuity and everything is quite difficult for me. So apologies if it fell a little flat.
Title is from a series of poems attributed to Shakespeare ... (I love Old Bill so he'll creep in whether or not I'm conscious of it.
If the sea dragon is reminiscent of a Gyaradon (Pokemon - the blame lies with my children ^_~)
*sigh* There are probably a lot of things that I haven't noticed up there - so yeah give us a shout out if there's anything glaring - have cleaned it up some but if there are still things do tell
Once again - to everyone who reads, thank you so very much. You are all so loved. -Zan
Part 25 of the 49 Days series