Scandal
Crime (I): Glance
Disclaimer: I don't own.
Clutching the thin cloth around her shoulders tighter, she paused, leaning weakly against the wall for support. Cold seeped in through her skin.
She gasped for breath, a puff of steam, before inhaling laboriously, her lungs tight.
Her lip stung from the cut splitting it down the middle, her swollen, purple, left cheekbone throbbing painfully.
Dragging her sprained ankle across the dirty concrete floor, she left a trail of blood on the ground behind her, straining against the pain on her back, her neck aching with bruises. Her inner thighs, arms and waist were decorated with purple bruises and angry, red contusions.
Her amethyst eyes squeezed shut in an attempt to suppress the cries of agony which lingered in her throat.
She wondered again, for the five hundred and sixty seventh time in her life, how she had managed to endure this almost everyday for the past eight years.
The only comfort anything provided at the moment was the soft jingling from the silver anklet secured around her uninjured right ankle.
-
Lavi dusted his hands off, glancing around at the unconscious guards who lay sprawled on the ground around him. In the midst of the fistfight, he'd counted twenty-three, twenty-four…?
He re-tied the small pony tail which had come loose on the back of his head, the hair tie dangling from between his teeth.
Maybe twenty-five.
He flexed his fingers, restoring them from their stiffness.
This was the… fifteenth sequence of the immense security this 'firm' had. And he hadn't a single scratch on him. He smiled to himself, continuing on to the main office.
He hadn't broken a sweat either, now that he thought about it.
As expected. Anything less and he'd be disappointed in himself.
He hoisted his pack further up his shoulder and stepped up his pace.
About two minutes after he'd continued to walk in the dim light of the skyscraper of a secret headquarters, his sensitive ears picked up a sound. Scraping, like something was being dragged across the filthy floors of the hallway.
And a… jingling sound…?
This intrigued him.
Not to mention it was getting closer. And seemed to be coming from the left side.
He ventured further along the corridor, coming to an intersection.
His eye alert, heart pounding slightly, the redhead paused, listening again as the scraping noise grew closer, gradually accompanied by the sound of heavy breathing.
He now stood in the middle of a cross junction wondering vaguely if it was some kind of threat.
He tensed, ready to fight back if need be.
The scraping and jingling was close, now. The heavy breathing echoed in the dimness of the corridor.
A shaped formed from within the darkness, staggering into sight.
It was white. A piece of cloth with silky black hair flowing down from the top.
A small hand branched out from an even skinnier wrist, the palm flattened against the dirty, blood-stained wall as if for support.
Lavi raised an eyebrow.
A ghost…maybe?
Not a threat.
He scratched his cheek.
Not plausible either though. (He didn't believe in such things.)
Then it must be a person.
The redhead pondered this. Whoever this person was, it didn't look like they'd noticed him.
And if they continued walking forward as they were, then they'd probably collide into him.
Or they were simply choosing to ignore his presence.
He contemplated.
The former was more likely, so he probably should alert them.
"Um, hello…?"
At his self-pardon, the person jumped, took a step back.
They seemed shocked that he had been there.
So they really hadn't noticed his presence.
And 'they', Lavi discovered, was a girl.
A girl who looked to be a few years younger than him.
What was she doing in a bleak, violent place like this?
She had a small frame; long, flowing black tresses; a pretty face; relatively pouty lips; a good figure; high cheekbones; and piercing, enchanting, melancholic violet irises.
In other words, she was quite the looker.
Though, what grabbed his attention most was that a large purple bruise had formed on one of her cheekbones, and that there was a large angry cut on her lip. And her ankle seemed injured. It was probably what had made that odd scraping noise, dragged around on the floor.
Not to mention the cloth – which looked like some kind of bed sheet? – draped around her shoulders, which didn't look like enough to keep her warm. She was trembling, which confirmed his suspicions.
His eyes widened at her state.
She on the other hand, just stared at him, frightened.
Lavi didn't think she was trembling from cold anymore.
Realisation dawned and his eyebrows shot up.
She had no reason to be afraid of him.
Well, unless she knew how he was with fighting. Which she probably didn't, so that was illogical.
He should probably say something.
"Uh… Are you okay, miss…?"
She continued to look at him, disbelief clouding her irises.
But she didn't make a sound.
He looked her up and down.
"It doesn't look like that's very warm."
He set down his pack, moving to remove his windbreaker.
"Are you lost? I don't think you're supposed to be here, are you?"
He motioned to drape the windbreaker around her shoulders.
She flinched away, but didn't run.
Lavi didn't give up. He reached further to properly set the thick, cold-resisting material on her shoulders.
Then he zipped it up for her.
"There."
Instantly, warmth began gathering inside the windbreaker.
The girl's eyes widened at this kind gesture.
Her mouth opened, but no sound came out.
Again the redhead raised an eyebrow.
"Say, do you need help getting back or something?"
Her mouth closed, and she shook her head rapidly, seeming to remember something. This something called on her attention and she scurried away, down the corridor on his right.
He simply watched with a goggled, confused eye as she disappeared again into the darkness.
Lavi was just about to follow her when his own agenda came screaming from the back of his mind, demanding that he focused on his mission.
He sighed, gritted his teeth.
He wasn't supposed to get too involved with the people here, just put up the barriers he usually had when he was around people, create a façade.
And then rat out this crazy mafia organization.
…But who was that girl?
She didn't look like she was one of the staff. To be honest, she looked as though she'd just been raped.
Then he noticed the trail of blood the girl had left on the ground.
-
Lenalee continued running, her injured ankle protesting.
She hadn't known what to do when she met the weird-looking kind stranger.
He'd asked to help her, and then he'd given her his windbreaker.
He'd asked if she was alright, and he actually gave off a concerned vibe.
He'd been handsome, too; red hair, green eye(s), good looking face.
The ebony haired girl shook these thoughts from her head.
Her mind was in jeopardy.
He'd seemed genuinely concerned.
But would he be if he knew she... were a prostitute?
She'd met many similar guys. But they'd all been the same. They'd only looked at her looks, and later, if they became members of the organization, wore her like a condom or stayed the hell away from her.
That redhead was probably here to become a staff member of sort. A desk job, or someone on the IT team; he'd seemed intelligent.
Which meant he was probably just the same as all those previous guys.
The bell on her anklet continued to tinkle and jingle softly as she came to a stop in front of a large wooden door.
Opening it, she entered her room, ready to once again lose herself in the heat of a warm shower.
She knew this wasn't a fairytale, and she'd given up hoping a long time ago.
But the redhead felt different.
She wondered why.
-
The redhead sighed. He'd finally finished the twenty-five sequenced security system.
It had taken some time, but finally, he stood in front of black double doors. And the only injury he'd sustained were a cut on the cheek.
Pretty good, considering they sequences had gotten pretty tough after twenty.
Lavi cracked his knuckles and stretched his neck.
Then he opened the door, combat knife in hand.
Carefully, cautiously, he advanced into the room.
It was dark. Darker than the dim corridors outside.
As soon as he was inside, the door shut behind him, and everything was pitch black.
He set down his pack, and there was a rustle of fabric from the other end of the room.
He instantly whipped out his gun from its holster on his thigh.
He held it up, alert and guarded.
Somewhere in the room, someone sniggered.
"Hello, Lavi."
The redhead in question tensed.
He sensed movement from within the darkness.
"Who's there?"
It was a demand.
"Oh, you know who it is already. Why do you ask such irrelevant, useless questions?"
A figure rose somewhere in the darkness.
The redhead could tell he was smiling.
"Tyki."
There was a clap and the lights came on, revealing a well-furnished room.
And a well-dressed gentleman with dark skin and golden eyes.
"Good job, boy."
He smiled.
"You've made it this far."
Lavi grinned.
"Hell yeah I have."
Tyki continued to smile, wiggling his eyebrows.
"Your hair is as red as ever."
Again, the eighteen year-old grinned.
"Thanks."
"What brings you here, Deak?"
The redhead pointed his gun at him.
"It's Lavi now."
Tyki raised an eyebrow.
"Oh? Still work for the Bookman clan then, I take it."
"That's none of your business," he hissed.
Again the dark-skinned man laughed.
"Now, now. Don't need to be so wound up."
The redhead grinned.
"I've come to join."
The dark-skinned man looked surprised.
"Oh really, now?"
He snapped his fingers.
Screens appeared on the wall behind him.
He gestured to them.
"You've taken out all my guys so easily and you want to join? Doesn't the fact that they're all so weak give you an idea of how pathetic this organization is?"
Lavi snorted.
"Hah. Don't try and fool me. I know you want me on your team along with your bunch of monkeys on 'that' team."
At this, a thirteen year-old girl appeared at Tyki's side, pouting visibly.
She had pale porcelain skin, blue eyes and spiky hair, dressed in a blouse, topped off with a vest, a pair of shorts and blue-and-white striped mid-thigh-length socks and purple sneakers.
She tugged on the man's sleeve.
"Mou, Tyki. How can you let this weak scum call us monkeys?"
Her appearance changed in an instant, and she resembled the older dark-skinned man; her skin grey and her eyes a cold gold colour.
Tyki laughed.
"He's not weak scum. He took out all the people we had protecting the place, Road. See?"
He gestured to the screens behind him, images of defeated men scattered all over dirty cement floors littering their screens.
The girl, Road, turned around, scrutinizing the images.
"They were all weak."
Tyki raised an eyebrow.
Then again, his little sister had always been hard to please.
Lavi, across the room, grinned, holding his hand up in a thumbs-up position in agreement.
"I have to agree. No one even landed a hit on me."
Road didn't look impressed.
Again, the older of the two laughed.
"Then where'd you get the cut, friend?"
The redhead shrugged.
"I cut it with my knife when I was careless."
The spiky-haired girl perked up at this.
"See, Tykki. He admits he was careless. That makes him unworthy, don't you think?"
Said person shook his head, an amused smile playing on his lips.
"Nah. I know of his true potential."
Road pouted.
"I don't think he's good enough."
Tyki smiled at her.
"Then why don't you test him?"
The petite girl perked up at this.
"I can? Really!?"
Her enthusiasm bewildered Lavi.
"Wha...?"
But then his expression changed.
Out of nowhere, dangerous-looking daggers appeared between the girl's fingers, and she took up a fighting stance.
He blinked, realising he'd probably been wrong about what she was doing here.
"Wait a minute. You don't mean to tell me this midget kid," he pointed at her, "is a part of 'that' team?"
Road's jaw dropped.
"Who're you calling a midget kid!? I'm a teenager, you know! And I'm a hundred and forty centimetres, too!"
Lavi sniggered.
"You're the midget kid I'm talking about, obviously. There isn't any other short stack here."
He jabbed his thumb in his own direction.
"Besides, I'm five years older than you, and thirty-eight centimetres taller."
He smirked.
Insulted, the thirteen year-old gritted her teeth and charged at him.
Fast.
She managed to graze the redhead's arm as he dodged away.
"Whoa! You don't expect me to fight your kid sister do you, Tyki?"
Road continued jabbing her daggers at him, moving swiftly.
But not swift enough.
Tyki laughed.
"No, that wasn't my intention. But you've gone and aggravated her, so I think you deserve it."
Lavi rolled his eye and dodged another dagger forced at his face.
He sighed and grabbed Road's wrists tightly, forcing the daggers out of them before pinning her to the ground effortlessly, her hands behind her back.
"O-Oi!" she protested.
The redhead laughed.
"Play time is over, kid."
He smiled at her.
"Good enough for you yet?"
Tyki laughed on the other side of the room.
"See, Road? I told you he was good."
He chuckled again.
Road looked at him incredulously.
"Traitor."
Again the older man laughed.
"Okay, Lavi. You can let go of her now."
The redhead in question nodded, grinning widely.
He released her.
She chanced a swipe at him, missing.
"Hmph."
And with a snort, she was back at Tyki's side.
The man made no attempt to hide his amusement.
"Alright then. Welcome to the organization."
Lavi grinned, rubbing the back of his head.
"Butbutbut! Tyki-"
Road, being stubborn, attempted to protest.
"I bet Allen could beat him!"
Lavi raised an eyebrow.
Somehow, this name alarmed him.
His mind raced.
Who was this Allen person? Was he tougher?
More importantly, was Tyki going to make him fight this 'Allen'?
Tyki smiled at her and chuckled.
"Come on now Road. He's defeated you pretty easily. That should be enough."
Ah. Apparently not.
"Besides, it would trouble Allen to get his ass down here from France right now."
The spiky-haired girl pouted at this.
"Well... I suppose."
She jabbed an accusing finger in Lavi's direction, and the redhead raised an eyebrow.
"But when he gets back, I demand that Allen face this eye-patched rabbit. If Allen wins, we kick this guy out!"
This time, it was the redhead's jaw which dropped.
The older man rolled his eyes.
"Oi! What 'rabbit'?!"
Tyki waved it off.
"Fine, fine."
He turned back to Lavi.
"Anyway, Lavi."
He walked up to the redhead, offering a hand to shake.
"Welcome to the organization."
-
"I don't understand why I'm escorting you. Don't get the wrong idea. I don't like you, rabbit."
Lavi rolled his eyes.
"Yes ma'am."
Road snorted, her arms folded.
They stopped at the intersection Lavi'd been in the middle of earlier.
Jabbing her thumb to the right, the spiky-haired girl spoke.
"That way's the dorms. You'll be rooming with Allen."
The redhead nodded.
"Thanks."
"Though I completely disagree," she muttered.
She sighed and fished a set of keys out from her pocket.
Dumping them in Lavi's open hand, she faced the other way.
"Hmph."
"Not my fault."
Road sighed again, her arms falling to her sides.
"I know. And since they're Tyki's orders, I can't object either."
Her left hand came to rest on her small waist and waved her right hand in the direction of the dorms.
"Oh yeah. The cafeteria – with open bar – is on the way to the dorms too. You'll pass by it on the way to your room; since Allen has a huge appetite, we had to put him in the room nearest to the cafeteria."
Lavi looked at her contemplatively.
She blinked. Then her eyes narrowed at him.
"What?"
The redhead shrugged.
"Nothing. I was just thinking that you like this Allen a lot, huh?"
Road snorted.
"Yes. I do. He's a fantastic fighter, and a gentleman."
She waved him away.
"Well, then. Get going."
Again, he rolled his eyes.
"Yeah, I'm moving."
A vein threatened to pop on Road's head.
"You know, there's a saying that if you roll your eyes too much, you'll be blind when you go to heaven, or in your case, hell."
Lavi yawned.
"Whatever, childish midget."
The girl gawked at him.
"You ungrateful little-! I escort you around and you-"
The rest of the words failed to register in the eighteen year-old's head.
Just then, something clicked in the back of his mind.
"Say, Road..."
He turned around, facing the opposite corridor.
"What's down that way?" he asked, pointing a finger in the abovementioned direction.
The spiky-haired girl blinked. Apparently she hadn't noticed that he hadn't been listening. And didn't seem to care that he'd interrupted her self-righteous speech.
"There?"
Road tilted her head to the side, taking a moment to recall, and tapped her chin with a finger.
"I think that's the way the house keepers, slaves and prisoners are."
Lavi's eyebrows rose at this.
"The dungeons huh?"
He looked down at the line of reddish brown on the floor, toeing it mindlessly.
The thirteen year-old folded her arms behind her head and shrugged.
"I guess you could call it that."
"Hm."
The redhead ran a hand through his hair.
"I guess I'll get going to the dorms now, then. Thanks, Road."
The person in question turned to leave.
"Mmn. Sure, eye-patched rabbit. And I'm getting a rematch, you hear? Then I'm going to kick your sorry ass. I only underestimated you just now, so don't get cocky, you bastard."
She smirked and began walking back in the direction of the well-furnished room they had just been in
Lavi sighed. It wasn't really something a person could really smirk about.
Maybe Road really was childish.
And he didn't think it was appropriate that such a young girl spoke so crudely.
He faced around to the corridor leading off to the dungeon one last time before heading down the corridor which led to the dorms.
"Dungeon, huh? Hm."
Just as Lavi stepped into the dimly lit corridor, he heard Road call back to him.
"Hey, stupid rabbit!"
The redhead turned, a sloppy crooked smile on his face.
"What is it, midget?"
The spiky haired girl's face puffed up in irritation as he said this, but she let it go.
"I forgot to tell you that I've slipped a little book with the rules and stuff that go around here into your pack."
Lavi's eyebrows rose towards the middle, and he presented a questioning smile.
"There are rules in a mafia organisation?"
Road grinned from afar.
"Yes. Just read them. We need some kind of order here too, you know."
She waved.
"Byebye!"
-
The redhead set down his pack, collapsing onto the bed, his arms folded under his head.
He observed the furnishing of the room.
It was simple; there was a single desk next to the window, and two single beds laid out next to each other, separated by a bedside table as well. A trunk at the end of each bed acted as some kind of storage for belongings, and there was a shared toilet at the far end of the room.
Not to mention the air-conditioning unit on the wall above the door.
Or the fact that the sheets on the bed were crisp, the air coming in from outside via the window fresh and cool.
It actually looked and felt like some kind of hotel.
The side of the room that the window was on had already been slightly decorated, the desk equipped with a desk lamp.
Lavi briefly wondered what this Allen looked like.
He recalled the briefing he'd been given before setting out on this meeting.
There was supposed to be an Agent 'Walker' already sent in. He knew what the agent looked like, but hadn't been given a first name, which was relatively inconveniencing, in his opinion.
Sitting up, he reached for his pack, deciding to start unpacking. He would be here for a while yet, after all.
As he pulled out his toothbrush, a small black booklet with words in fine print spelling out 'Rules and Regulations/Conditions' on it fell to the ground, seeming to have been pulled out along with the toothbrush.
The redhead picked it up, his eye scanning it attentively.
Swimming pool rules.
Permission rules.
Very commonplace rules.
Then, he came to a point which caught his attention.
...23.(Note: Only applicable to male members.) When a member of the combat crew or Arch Team accomplishes a successful mission, they are allowed a 'session' with the prostitute. She becomes the property of the lucky guy for a full day. They are allowed to do as they like with her.
Lavi raised an eyebrow at this.
The next ten to fifteen points after this one all regarded the 'prostitute'.
"What the hell?" the eighteen year-old muttered to himself, "They have a prostitute to reward those who succeed in completing missions?"
His mind flitted back to the petite girl with the split lip and bruised cheekbone he'd run into in the hall earlier on his way in. She'd been dressed in...
He glanced at the bed, noting the same cream white colour the cloth earlier had been.
So she'd been dressed in a bed sheet.
She looked like she'd been raped and beaten, too.
"She's the prostitute...?"
A/N: Okay, don't kill me yet.
To those of you who are waiting for Metamorphosis to update, I'm sorry for the huge cliffhanger. :3 (Though not as huge as the one where Allen kisses Lenalee out of the blue.) Either way, yeah. I'll update that soon. This has just been nagging on my mind.
:X Sorry to the AxL fans. I know AxL season just started today, and I feel like a traitor. Sorrysorrysorry. Don't be mad. I've just fallen in like with LaviLena. :3
Either way, tell me what you think. :3
I hope it was okay, considering how tired I felt after writing it, though that doen't make sense. xD Please leave a review~!