Title: Romance Novels
Synopsis: Sure, Lavi was in a sort of unrequited love situation, but it was anything but pathetic. He'd never be like those people who sat there pining away for the unattainable like some stereotypical romance novel. Lavi/Allen one sided.
Rating: K+
A/N: Thank God for winter break, for the first time in a month I've had time to write. Oh, ad the song quote just sort of inspired the fic; it doesn't have that much to do with anything though…
Disclaimer: I don't own -Man because if I did there would be a lot more Lavi and a lot less Kanda.
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"We'll agree to disagree. Woe is me. Woe is thee."
-'Beat the Horse' Pomplamoose
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The kid was a tease. Everything about him was tantalizing, and yet, untouchable. As much as Lavi didn't want it to be true, Allen was younger than him. Allen was also something that was even worse than that; Allen didn't really like Lavi the same way that Lavi liked him.
Ah yes, the age-old tale of unrequited love. The yearning of one for another and the cliché pain that came along with it. Searching his vast memory and surplus of knowledge Lavi could find millions of examples of the same scenario. To some, it was inspiring. To others, it was simply plot device. But there was another sect of people; those who found it far too much to bear and let the sadness overtake them. All of these were just fodder for the trashy novels that bored women read on their time off; the disgusting tropes becoming the artistic expression of authors.
Lavi didn't consider himself to be in any of these categories. There was no way that they'd force him into some damsel-in-distress stereotype. Nope, not him. Nor would he be the sullen Prince Charming character either. Neither one suited him. Instead he was just happy to be teased; happy to have the attention of the person who he loved, at least. That was better than many.
A sharp slap to the back of his head awakened Lavi from his daydreams. "What the hell?" He yelled as he rubbed the back of his head. From behind him Bookman stood there with a grim expression on his face. "What's your problem, panda?"
"I'll hit you again, you know." Laughing, Lavi put his hands up in a sign of defeat.
"Don't worry Gramps, I wouldn't do anything else." With a humph, Bookman sat down next to Lavi. They were in a quiet library; a section of the Order that many didn't frequent. It was a good place for the two of them to speak on private matters that had to do with the Bookmen Clan. Though, today Lavi was just a bit distracted.
The fact was, on the way to the library Lavi had run into Allen, and they had chatted for a minute. With everything being so busy, it seemed like the two of them had barely spent any time together since the Ark, quite a few months ago. Seeing him now was sort of a special treat; something that Lavi didn't take lightly. Even though their conversation couldn't have lasted more than three minutes, it was the sort of thing that he just felt like mulling over for an hour or two before returning to the real world; talking about the terribly depressing matters of the Bookmen was not exactly the thing that he felt like doing at the time.
Bookman stared at him, and Lavi realized that it was pretty obvious that his head was in the clouds. He smiled. "Sorry old man, just thinking."
"No Junior, if you were doing that then you wouldn't be doing whatever you're doing right now." Bookman pulled out a few papers from a nearby shelf. They knew that the last place anyone would look for the documents that they had on Cross Marian's death would be in the incredibly small fashion section of the library. And they doubted that anyone who was interested in learning a cross-stitch would care very much about the death of a general.
After staring at the papers for a few moments, Bookman handed them to Lavi. He tried to focus as he looked at Bookman's new research and discoveries, but the smiling face of Allen kept popping into his head. Apparently Bookman's teachings had finally backfired on the old man. Just as Lavi could remember every word on that document had he been focusing, he could also remember everything about Allen.
This morning his white hair was a little frazzled. There were a few singular hairs sticking out of place; it had taken quite a bit of self-control on Lavi's part not to reach over and pat them down. His smile was a bit lopsided this morning from when he was injured from his last mission; apparently he had taken a pretty nasty hit to the face, and he wasn't quite recovered yet. The corners of his mouth were approximately two millimeters apart from one another, and a bit lower than usual-
"Are you done yet, Junior? We should be burning these as quickly as possible." Bookman's hand reached over to grab the documents from Lavi's, but Lavi turned away.
"Sorry Gramps, just another minute." Bookman raised his eyebrows, but Lavi ignored it and tried to focus on the papers in front of him. 'On the case concerning the death of M. Cross we have found new evidence in-' He seemed sort of upset, maybe something had happened the night before? It was pretty early, there was no way that he could have gotten into an argument in the morning. '-message left seemed as if it were suicide-' If he had a chance he'd ask Lenalee later; since Allen cared so damn much about the girl, maybe she'd know. '-the finders were interviewed and said that they-' There was a bit of blood coming from his lips this morning. It was from the air; he wasn't used to the dryness of it and his lips were chapped. Not that Lavi minded really-
The papers were grabbed out of his hands forcibly. Looking up, Lavi saw Bookman's death glare. "What is it?" He asked, confused. Sure, he was taking a bit longer than usual to read the damned papers, but he was reading them, nonetheless. What was there to complain about?
"You don't think that I can't see some stereotypical unrequited love when I see it?" The man said, and the color drained from Lavi's face. "It's not like you hide it well, Junior." Struggling to find something to say in response- some way to tell Bookman that he was being absolutely crazy, he spoke again. "You're just as bad as those romance novels that society women buy because their husbands aren't pleasing them enough. It's disgusting. You're supposed to have no attachments to anything, Junior. Don't start that now."
Bookman walked away, taking the papers with him. Sighing, Lavi slumped down on the table in front of him. "I think we need to disagree on this one, Gramps." Lavi whispered. "I'm much worse than those sappy novels."
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Fin