Swinging her foot up, Alex used her sneakered toes to push down on the handle and open the door. The occupants of the room looked her way as she entered, oblivious to their stares and humming a soft tune. The large stack of papers swayed in her hands. Lenalee rolled her eyes from behind her own stack of papers, although hers didn't quite reach the ceiling as Alex's did, and smiled in apology at her brother.
"Ahh, meet my little sister Lenalee and one of our best exorcists, Alex."
Alex, unable to hear them due to the tiny plastic headphone that blared music in her ears, carefully made her way to Komui's desk. A paper flew off the top of the stack and she glared it down.
"The hell you will!" She jerked down, the stack swaying wildly as she tried to catch the feather light paper.
Lenalee sighed softly and set her stack of papers on her brother's desk, nodding to the older male and redheaded teen who sat on the small couch in front of Komui's desk. Alex let out a long stream of curses as she tried to catch the paper. Komui watched her gleefully, hoping she'd miss the paper as punishment for bringing him the large stack.
"Alex." Lenalee leaned around her brother.
Said girl stomped on the paper as it brushed against the floor. "DOESN'T COUNT!" She shouted. "I still made it in one damn load."
Lenalee shook her head. "ALEX!"
The tiny brunette blinked and poked her head out from behind the large stack of papers. "Ehh?"
And then gasped, eyes narrowing at the three-four foot distance between her and Komui's desk. She stepped with the one foot that didn't hold down the paper, sliding the paper along as she moved. She reminded the other people in the room of a wounded soldier.
"Got it." She smiled triumphantly, setting the stack of papers down onto the desk.
"What about that one?" Lenalee nodded towards the lone fallen paper.
Alex growled. "It gets to stay on the floor, all cold and lonesome. That's what it gets for being a loser and falling!"
"I didn't know inanimate objects could be losers." Komui chuckled.
"Well," Alex smiled cheerfully, "We learn something new every day."
The small brunette pulled an ear bud out and turned, facing the two on the couch with a warm welcoming smile. The redhead sent her a cheeky smile in return, making her heart flutter wildly like a monarch butterfly flapping it's pretty calico colored wings. His deep auburn locks spilled onto his face-hardly contained by an ebony sash-barely hide the small black pirate's eye patch that covered his right eye. He took her breath away.
Komui nodded slightly, barely a second passing as Alex made that assessment, "Alex, meet Lavi and Bookman."
She nodded, allowing her eyes to wander. Something to her left snagged her attention, begging for it like a pulsing neon sign in a ghost town at night. Her sky blue orbs searched for the object seeking her attention. She choked back a gasp.
The little girl stared back up at her questioningly, tiny transparent chubby hands grasping the air in front of her. Her little blonde curls floated around her, almost as if she were under water. Her little chubby face twisted into that of a horrified expression. Little terrorized gray eyes locked with Alex's.
"Help me!" The words were filled with a strange liquid.
Alex staggered back, a hand moving to shield her from the tiny ghost of the dead little girl. Something dark and nasty pulsed around her, filling the air with a musty disgusting smell. Alex gagged, tasting the scent, and began to cough. She waved her hand in front of her, trying to clear the air so she could breathe. Normally, upon seeing a ghost, you couldn't feel or smell or taste anything. Only see and hear.
Something was different. Something was wrong.
A vibrant sense of wrongness vibrated in the back of Alex's skull. She tensed, trying to figure out what the feeling meant.
"Alex?" Lenalee's voice sounded far away.
"Crap, she sees something. Don't touch her, Lenalee." Komui warned.
Then it hit her. Alex choked out a gasp and staggered back. "No!"
The little girl began to cry, small little crystalline beads of water slowly falling from her cheeks only to be caught and suspended midair. Alex began to shake her head.
"No, no, no, no!" She moaned.
Alex moved forward, hand reaching towards the little girl. A sharp voice struck her like a moving freight train. The girl staggered back, the ghost cowering.
"Do not touch her."
"But it wasn't her time!" Alex argued with the old fashioned voice, ready to hit her master.
"I don't care. You may not touch her. Step back."
"But I can help!"
"No. You can't." The voice moved closer. The little girl began to cry harder and dashed forward.
"Please! Please help me!" She begged in a broken voice, dropping to the floor in front of Alex. The brunette's shoulders shook, fists slowly clenching and unclenching.
Alex shook her head, slowly. "I can help her."
"No you can't. Just let her go. Children die every day."
"To hell with that!" Alex screamed, eyes blinking back into focus. The room around her reappeared, although the little girl still knelt before her, and Alex whirled to meet her master's old beady eyes. The woman glared at her, pointy chin jutted up into the air like an arrogant aristocrat. Her long gray hair had been rolled back into the perfect bun, devoid of any straggling strand or problem. Madeline just glared at Alex, refusing to let her lips form the words she truly wanted to say.
Alex looked back to the little girl, after imagining several painful and creative deaths for the old woman.
"Yes, I understand children die every day." The infuriated brunette began, slowly snarling the words past her clenched teeth. "But she was not supposed to die. She deserves to be helped."
Madeline slowly shook her head. "Murder victims are never killed at their time."
"But she's not a damn murder victim!" Alex waved her hands like a lunatic, pointing to the little girl. "Don't you feel it? I've seen a fucking murder victim and she is not one! They don't feel like this!"
Madeline continued to shake her head, lips pressing into a thin line.
"Alexandria May Eve, I command you to back down." Madeline's face twisted into one of pure fury as she let out the room rattling snarl. Alex's head dipped down until her side bangs hid her squeezed-shut eyes from the rest of the world, nails digging into her palms until they drew blood. Madeline nodded towards the little girl, giving the spirit a cold look. "And you need to go into the light before you cause anymore problems."
Alex shook. She wanted to punch something. She wanted to smash the elderly woman's face into a pulp, unrecognizable by anyone who witnessed the action. Her brilliant mind quickly assessed the amount of people in the room, how to kill them each silently so they wouldn't bring other's to a doomed demise, and how to get rid of all the bodies and evidence even pointing to a crime.
The little girl moved up to Alex, wrapping her tiny arms around the quivering girl's leg. Lenalee gasped, the tiny girl becoming visible to all the other occupants in the room.
"I know you tried to help me, Miss. Thank you."
Alex's muscles tensed; her shaking growing even more pronounced.
The little girl squeezed her leg, trying to ignore the flaming burning sensation that began to turn her dead skin a sizzling black. She whimpered as the large amount of pain washed over her, electricity sparkling in the air around them. Alex's lips curled back. The little girl let out one last little gasp before slowly disintegrating into a little cloud of dust.
"YOU OLD WRINLKED SPAWN OF SATAN!" Alex screamed out in a snarl towards Madeline before practically tearing the door off its hinges as she ripped past.
Lenalee's brown eyes narrowed into a glare. The room shook. Once. Twice.
"Stop punching the walls, Alex." Madeline called calmly.
The shaking stopped. Lavi stared at the door wide-eyed. Madeline nodded towards Bookman. "It's been a long time."
The older male's lips curled into a smirk. "Yes, it obviously has. I thought you had stopped taking newcomers under your wing?"
Madeline let out a soft huff and shook her head. "She's…different. She's not one of us."
"Then why?"
She shook her head, effectively hushing the older male. Lavi stood, sparing Bookman a small glance, and jerked his head towards the door. "Where do you think she went?"
Lenalee sighed softly and pushed off the desk she had been leaning on, starting towards the door. "Most likely the training room where she can tear up whatever her little heart desires."
Alex punched out, ignoring the small jerking sensation that flamed up around her fist when her fist met the large heavy punching bag. Said item went flying, twirling and whirling crazily on it's descent back to the origin of energy. Alex lashed out again.
Lavi and Lenalee stood off to the side, watching the tiny girl as she beat the shit out of the punching bag. The thick iron chain that held the heavy bag began to groan, electricity sparkling in the air around the two. Lavi frowned and looked to Lenalee.
"Why is it so…" He trailed off, unable to find the right words to describe the feeling in the air.
Lenalee nodded towards Alex. "She has an affinity for electricity."
The redhead nodded, allowing his lone orb to travel the length of her body. She was short, hardly reaching his shoulders, and petite. It was clear that her body was virtually fatless and that she worked out regularly. Muscles in her legs and arms seemed to pulse beneath her skin as she pounded punch after punch against the heavy lead bag. She was also very curvy, still small due to her petite body type, but curvy enough to cause his mouth to water. Her long brown curls had been pulled back into a high swinging ponytail; her long side bangs curling around her right ear.
He smiled and rested his head against the wall. The bag let out a loud scream as one last punch sent it flying into the wall opposite of them.
Alex let out a loud huff and fell to the floor, folding her legs beneath her and burying her head in her hands.
The two moved forward. Lavi stopped in front of her and then sat down, copping her movements. Instead of burying his head, however, the male simply rested his cheeks against his fists and watched the girl as she slowly caught her breath. Lenalee placed a palm on her friend's shoulder, squeezing it.
"You okay?"
"Bout as good as I'll ever be." The tiny girl grumbled.
Lenalee squeezed her shoulder again. "You did what you could."
Alex up with a jerking movement, crystal blue eyes flaming. "No, actually." She growled like a dog. "I didn't. I could've let her start over but the stupid old hag wouldn't let me."
"But I thought she was a murder victim?" Lavi quirked a brow. The girl before him sent a steely glare his way.
"No. She wasn't. She drowned in a pool. Completely accidental. But it was not her time. She shouldn't have died and I could've helped her." The words were dripped in poison and a mixture of determination. Lavi basked in the harmonious sound of her voice.
"But then why wouldn't Madeline let you help her?" He retorted to her venomous glare with a bored and seemingly uninterested tone. Unfortunately, Lavi was well aware of the tense attraction he felt for her and knew the only way to keep her at bay; to act like a complete ass. He downright refused to give up his dreams for a silly girl. He knew how ruthless the female species could be.
The girl studied him for a moment. Then let out a loud obnoxious snort. "Because she's an old, washed up, emotionless hag who needs to get laid."
Lavi cracked a small smile. Lenalee sighed softly and shook her head. "You shouldn't say that, Alex. She's done a lot to help you."
Alex scowled but said nothing, unable to deny the obvious.
Despite being an old prune, Madeline had taken in the small four year old orphan when she found Alex wandering the busy streets of Chicago. The woman had named her, fed her, and housed her for sixteen long hard years. Not to mention she taught Alex all her old tricks. Madeline was a Reaper, one who helped distraught souls pass the border between life and death. Alex was human, or so she thought until Madeline started cluing around that she may not be, and should've been disposed of by now due to Reaper Rules. Humans may not know how to control the dead.
Lenalee smirked, knowing she had struck a point, and Alex stood. The brunette sighed softly and looked around carefully before placing a hand on her stomach and looking down. "I'm hungry." Lenalee quirked a brow.
"Then eat something?"
Alex held her arms out like a zombie and began to fall forward. "Nom. Nom. Brains!"
Lenalee rolled her eyes as her best friend fall on top of her, Alex's mouth on her head. The tiny brunette bit down, causing Lenalee to squeal and squirm out from underneath her.
"Owe! What the hell was that for?" The black haired girl held a hand to her head.
Alex stood and clapped. "Very good. Now, this time I want you to scream out like a zombie is actually nomming on your brains. Got it? Take two!" She moved forward again. Lenalee laughed and dodged the slow moving zombiefied Alex. Lavi rolled his eyes and stood, jerking his chin towards the door.
"Let's feed the zombie."
Alex slid in between Lavi and Lenalee, setting her small tray of food down as she pulled up her chair. Lavi sent her a puzzled look but said nothing as he bit down into his sandwich, Johnny bustling around the exorcists like a moon trapped in Jupiter's pull. Alex bit down into her own sandwich, looking to Lenalee as a question formed.
"Lenny, do you think Madeline would get mad if I dyed her hair pink?"
The girl nodded, scooping up a spoonful of noodles. "She'd be furious."
"Hmm." Alex's nose twitched. Lavi smirked. "Why? You thinking of slipping some dye into her shampoo?"
The girl turned to look at him, sky orbs calculating. Lavi's eye gleamed with malicious intent, obviously satisfying the small girl's hunger. She leaned forward, lips twisting into a devilish smirk. "Maybe."
His smirk matched her own. He leaned forward and chuckled softly. "I'd love to help."
Johnny darted in between them, abruptly startling the two. Both blinked at the close proximity and scooted away. Her cheeks were sprinkled with pink and his fists were clenched. The redhead blinked several more times and tried to clear his head, still able to breathe in her delicious lemony scent.
Fuck, he thought, this might be harder then he'd originally planned.