Change of Heart

Change of Heart

By : Minerva-sama

Chapter One : A Bloom from Idle Hands

The azure blue sky spread widely over the tall buildings and city streets. The white clouds, thick like balls of cotton, lulled lazily across the sky's blue-threaded tapestry. In the middle of it all, there was the sun—shining uninhibited in the highest point in the sky, like a fresh egg yolk.

The sun's light drifted down in rays that struck a French-style window, and inside, illuminated a gray-skinned, blue-haired girl who was lying on her stomach on a beige-carpeted floor.

Road sighed. With no one home, the house sure was quiet. The young Noah had never really noticed it before…she had always been too busy trying to entertain herself, or find a new way to harass Tyki, or any number of other things.

But not today. The gray-skinned girl took in a deep breath, and furrowed her brow as she let it out. No, today there was but one thought plaguing her mind and one alone:

Allen Walker.

She didn't really know why—it was just there! But not just the name…everything was there. His voice, his smile (or rather, what she envisioned his smile to be like), everything. She wondered why he, of all people, was all she could think about.

And it wasn't just today—she had been thinking about him for at least a week now, and it was long enough to drive the Noah insane—absolutely, positively insane. He was just another Exorcist…so why couldn't she get him out of her head?!

With a peeved grumble, Road rolled over onto her back on her carpet floor and looked at the ceiling with her piercing yellow eyes. As much as she'd wish it to do so, the ceiling would sound no response, no matter how intense the glare.

Across town…or rather, away from the business district, a small, homey apartment stood in a little cul-de-sac out and away from the downtown area. The red-brown brick exterior was overshadowed by several tall trees that bent their branches over the complex, as though they were protecting it from the summer heat with their shade.

Allen Walker was flopped on his bed, also looking up at his ceiling. Road was nowhere in his thoughts, at least, not yet. All he was thinking about was…nothing, really. The Exorcist's mind was completely and totally blank.

He brushed a strand of snow-white hair away from his closed, chilly blue-gray eyes and let out a contented breath of air. He opened one eye to see the friendly golden golem flutter about his room as it basked in the sunlight.

"You enjoying the nice weather too, Tim?" He asked the little golem with a chuckle. Some people, if not most, would not understand why he would talk to it. It was a strange sort of thing to do, talking with something that looked like a golden golf ball with wings.

Timcampy fluttered up and down happily as though in response to Allen's question. The light from the sun bounced off the golem's metallic exterior with each rise and fall. Up…and down. Up…and down.

"Yeah…it's nice out. Maybe I'll go for a walk…you wanna come along, Tim?" In one fluid motion, Allen slid himself to a sitting position on his bed and began to put on his shoes. The black boots slid on with a slight difficulty, and Allen let out a short breath of air in mild agitation as he fussed with them.

Finally, after winning the short battle with his boots, he stood up and stretched. He let his arms swing back to his side before he smiled at Timcampy and motioned the little golem onto his shoulder.

"Come on, Tim! It's too nice a day to waste inside." He smiled brightly and Tim quickly flew to his shoulder as Allen walked outside.

Upon contact with the sunlight, Allen stretched his arms up again, which caused Timcampy to move to the top of his head. Allen gave the golem a funny look as it returned to his shoulder before he continued walking down the street and out of the cul-de-sac. He had no plans to arrive anywhere, but soon found himself wandering towards downtown.

Road, too, had gone for a walk. She hadn't found anything in the house that could amuse her, so she had decided that she should try to amuse herself. After all, if she couldn't find a way to keep herself busy, there was a great potential for catastrophic results. And she had decided that, today, catastrophe would only make her mood worse.

So, out she went, into the clear summer afternoon and around the downtown business district.

"Road-tama! Do you know where you're going, Relo?" The parasol asked as it hovered close behind her.

"Oi, do I need to know where I'm going, Relo?" The Noah pursed her lips as she stared back at the umbrella. She didn't have any idea where she was going, truthfully, but she didn't care.

"B-but, Road-tama! You could get lost!" Was the pumpkin-topped parasol's response as its expression changed in succession with each thought.

"Oiii…shut up, Relo. It's nice out. I'll get lost if I want to. It's not like it's a labyrinth or anything." She countered nonchalantly as she continued walking with her hands now behind her head.

People often gave her strange looks when she walked outside in this form. It was certainly not every day that one would see a gray-skinned girl with spikey blue hair and yellow eyes walking around downtown. Or maybe it was the holy marks on her forehead…or maybe it was the talking parasol?

Or maybe it was because she was about to run into something…or rather, someone.

"Rooooad-tama! Look out, Relo!" The parasol's warning was very much too late. Road had been so focused on ignoring the parasol that she hadn't seen the person in front of her. With a gentle thud, she landed on her bum on the cracked sidewalk.

"Oiii, watch where you're going you…" She was cut off when she looked up to see the face of Allen Walker.

He seemed to be oblivious as to who had walked into. He extended his right hand down to her with a sheepish grin.

"Sorry about that, miss. I should've been paying more attention to where I was…" His eyes widened as he looked at the Noah on the ground. His hand flew back to his face in surprise, and he nearly fell over himself.

"What the hell?! Road?!" He regained his balance and stood there wide-eyed. Road narrowed her eyes to a glare as she stood up. She wasn't all that intimidating, simply because she was smaller than Allen. She looked up at the Exorcist with a pout.

"What's that supposed to mean?!" Road nearly shouted as she crossed her arms sternly over her chest and continued to pout at Allen with her narrowed yellow eyes.

"Er…sorry." It was only half of an apology on his part. He knew, though, that Road wouldn't apologize, so he did his best to make his half-hearted one as sincere sounding as possible.

"Hmph. You should be." Road replied indignantly. She seemed to have ignored the fact that Allen was only half-way sorry. She took a deep breath and glanced from Allen to the sidewalk, and back, as though she expected him to say something.

"Yes, well…er…" Allen needed to think of a way out of this—and fast. He rubbed the back of his head nervously as he also glanced around.

"Hmm?" The Noah replied somewhat sarcastically.

"I…I have something I need to do. I'll…er…see you when I see you, I guess." He avoided saying her name, lest she become clingy and follow him home. He gave a half-hearted smile to match his half-hearted apology and quickly turned on his heel and walked off, with Timcampy on his shoulder once more.

Road just stood there on the street with her arms crossed. Relo, who had felt somewhat forgotten in the entire ordeal, bounced up beside her and began its incessant chatter once more. Road either didn't hear the parasol's mindless jabbering, or she had chosen to ignore it. Her cheeks were brushed with a light shade of red, and she felt like she had stepped into a mental haze. She quickly turned on her heel and, with Relo in tow, walked back to her house at a fairly fast rate.

She opened the front door, and didn't care that she had forgotten to lock it. No one had come in, and no one would ever really try (it was a house full of Noahs, after all). Road rushed up to her room and closed the wooden door with more force than was probably needed, and was grateful that she had slammed Relo on the other side of it.

As soon as the door was closed, Road opened another—the door that led to her own personal dimension. The ornate, heart-shaped gateway appeared near her French-style, white windows and slowly opened to reveal its purple, ever-changing energy inside.

Road stepped in and shut the doors and promptly sat on the floor of her dimension. She looked around at the porcelain dolls and their emotionless faces, gift-box-weapons, candle-weapons, and various other party favors that had taken a turn for the macabre. She needed to think…and here was the only place she could get some real peace.