A/N: This fic is VERY old, but I decided to share it with you guys anyway ^^
Baby Bird
One-Shot
"Allen, c'mon."
The boy wouldn't move.
"Allen, we gotta go."
The white-haired boy finally looked across at Lavi from where he was standing, some feet away. The chrome eyes flicked back to the tree. He was looking at something. Lavi sighed.
"Just... give me a moment, Lavi," Allen said, then began climbing the tree.
Lavi just stared. "The hell are ya doin', sprout?"
Allen got whatever he was looking at, carefully put his fingers around the object, and jumped down, cradling whatever it was against his chest. Lavi took a closer look... and could only stare. In Allen's palm, the wingspan barely the length of the boy's hand, was a tiny baby bird. It was still, stiff, and the legs were bent in an irregular way. Its beak was hung open, and its eyes were wide open. The bird was obviously dead.
"Yer not thinkin'a keepin' it, are ya?" Lavi asked, giving Allen a strange look. Keeping a dead baby bird? That was demented...
The boy shook his head and walked over to where there was a small patch of dirt under the tree. Setting the bird aside, he began digging up the dirt.
"We dun have time fer this," Lavi said, standing behind him. He then frowned. "Allen, it's how nature works. Ya can't let it get to you."
Allen kept digging.
"A mother bird has a lot of eggs for a reason. Chances are always good that a lot of 'em will get killed off. This bird might've not been on th'lucky end of life an' would've ended up as a runt or somethin' anyway."
Allen was still shoving up dirt. His white gloves were getting increasingly filthy.
"It's prolly even better this way."
Allen nodded, but continued to work. "It'll only take a moment..."
And Lavi watched, watched as Allen finally sat back after digging up a decently-sized hole and then gently picking up the baby bird, watching as the white-haired boy paused for a moment before lowering the bird into the hole, watching as the young exorcist began to cover it up. He neatly put the dirt around the baby bird, then over it, and then smoothed out the top with his glove before rubbing his hands together to get rid of some of the dirt clinging to the white fabric.
"... Ya really do care 'bout ev'ry little thing, dontcha, Allen?" Lavi finally asked, watching as the other exorcist finally turned to look at him. With that smile. That sad, forced smile, and the redhead didn't need Allen to respond in affirmative. "Not ev'ry death is yer fault, ya know... I know I sound like Yuu when I say this, but... ya gotta let go sometime."
The smile wasn't deterred. Allen just smiled and shook his head. "I can't."
And Lavi felt something stirring in his chest, something he thought he'd discarded a long time ago.