AN: I don't own DGM
This is my first time writing for this fandom, so hopefully I do it justice. Self-beta'd, hopefully I got most of the errors.
When the summons from Komui came, the entire Order cringed away from the two Exorcists regarding one another from outside of his office. Allen Walker and Yu Kanda were eyeing one another from three feet apart, and no one could really tell what was going through either Exorcist's mind. Allen was inwardly amused by the collective tension he could feel emanating from the rest of the Order, and Kanda was simply sighing; glad for a reason to get out of the Order. If people were to actually pay attention to their arguments, they'd realize that it wasn't out of spite or hate that they argued, more like a bantering of friendship. They weren't really trying to kill one another, no, they were using the fighting like others would use a card game- friendly competition. Lavi was the exception to the friendliness, at least he was when he started prodding at either of their prides.
Within an hour, the two had left the Order and the remaining inhabitants all had heaved a collective sigh of relief, and worry for whatever place they had been sent. Lavi had ended up running to his room, laughing uncontrollably, when he had overheard someone saying that only one of the pair would likely be coming back because the other would have killed them. If only they really knew the truth about those two, they'd be a lot less worried and a lot more confused, I think. The junior Bookman chortled to himself, slamming his door shut. For the longest time afterwards, everyone who passed by Lavi's dorm had to pause to stare at the door- it wasn't normal for the Exorcist to be laughing like a total madman, or while locked in his room.
Meanwhile Allen and Kanda, once out of sight of the Order, had relaxed slightly. It got tiresome, the entire Order tensing up whenever the two of them were in the same room. The dining hall was the most stressing, since almost everyone was in the same place with little room left for them to flee if tables started flying. Kanda could understand wanting to run away from them when they did push each other too far and snapped. But as for the rest, it was like everyone expected blood to fly if he so much as walked passed Allen in the hallway. Allen, for his part, had relaxed considerably more than his ever-frowning companion. A glance at the swordsman showed that he was, indeed, still frowning, but the stress lines between his eyebrows were gone and; Allen was a little surprised to notice, Kanda didn't have his eyes narrowed into the glare that was basically assumed to be glued to his face.
"What are you staring at?" Allen was startled out of his thoughts by the low voice of the Exorcist walking slightly in front of him. Kanda had half-turned his head to favor his silver-haired companion with a bemused expression. You had to really know the man to be able to pick out the differing expressions of the swordsman, he had never really been expressive with anything other than anger.
"Nothing that you'd care about." Allen shot back, jerking his head to stare straight ahead, scowling with irritation at himself for getting caught. He heard a soft snort and a shifting of cloth from beside him, and glowered harder. "Why ask, anyway?" He muttered back, refusing to look at Kanda. An irritated huff was his answer, and he almost sighed in relief. He had figured that Kanda wouldn't want to keep prodding; he never was the sort to care.
They walked in silence, meeting up with their Finder just before taking the now routine manner of boarding trains- which meant jumping onto a moving train from either a bridge or a building. Allen stretched slightly, once inside and out of the roar of wind generated by a train moving God only knew how fast. The two Exorcists stood in silence while their Finder spoke with the startled worker, before they were all escorted to the usual seat in first class.
There, Allen and Kanda both read through their briefing folders in silence, Allen having given up on starting a conversation with Kanda after the Ghost of Martel incident a while ago. He still got annoyed just thinking about how Kanda had acted the entire time, even if he had barely known the man then. He rolled his eyes, more to himself than anything, as he sorted through the unnecessary information to find the parts that were important. Like what rumor had sent the Finders there, and what truth now rang strong enough to summon the Exorcists out there.
"This seems like it should be fairly easy. I don't see why they sent both of us. Just you would be enough to deal with this." Kanda growled out, crossing his legs and tossing his folder to the seat next to him. Allen's eyebrow twitched at the implied slight- that Kanda was too good of an Exorcist to be on this mission, and instead glowered out the window. He could see the reflection of their Finder, who was slowly edging away. That put an even darker glower on his face. He wanted this mission done with already.
"Maybe you should do it yourself then." He growled back, not even looking at the black-haired man to see his reaction. Allen never thought of himself as someone with a short temper, but interacting with Kanda Yu always seemed to bring out the worst in him. He wasn't even this waspish around Lavi and that was one person who could make anyone angry with the slightest effort.
"Perhaps. Then I won't need to worry about the mess an amateur makes." Kanda scoffed back, closing his eyes and resting his head against the seatback. He made a soft sound of amusement when he heard the compartment door open and close almost silently. That Finder had lasted a lot longer than Kanda had thought the man would. It seemed as though their warring dispositions were becoming almost legendary with anyone and everyone associated with the Order. That was almost enough to wring a smile from the swordsman.
"Yeah, because you're so freakin' great." Kanda's dark cobalt eyes napped open and he leveled a look at Allen, one that would have had anyone else backing up as fast as they could. Allen's silver-gray eyes stared back just as angrily. "Face it, King of the Stuck Up. The world doesn't revolve around you and what you want." Allen inwardly cowered at the pure anger that rose to life in Kanda's eyes, the frown becoming much more deadly in intensity.
"And, pray tell me, what do you; the great Allen Walker, know about what I want?" Kanda's voice was soft, almost friendly. And so much more terrifying than if he had started yelling as was the usual. "You think you know everything? Well, here's something new for you. You don't know fucking everything. I don't want anything to do with the goddamn Order and their stupid mission!" Kanda turned away, arms crossing tightly over his chest, an annoyed snarl bubbling from his throat and out through clenched teeth. "Shut up." He added helpfully, glaring violently as Allen opened his mouth again. "It's not something I'm ever going to tell anyone." Allen closed his mouth and turned away, eyes downcast. He had pushed the other man too far, and further away. He hadn't been trying to, but he appeared to have found a nerve. Allen sighed, running a hand through his hair, thinking ruefully that maybe he could never really be friends with Kanda. Something just rubbed the wrong way. A quick glance showed Kanda staring out the window with the expression of someone lost in thoughts, so far from being where his body was. Allen blinked, eyebrows drawing together as he noticed the almost sad twist to the other's lips that were pressed into a thin line. Ah, Allen… you should have just shut up before.
Allen didn't try starting a conversation with Kanda for the entire rest of the train ride. Kanda felt a slight sense of worry, usually Allen would bounce back a few hours later, but this time he seemed to had lapsed into an awkwardly abnormal silence. The few times their eyes met, Allen would look away immediately, a murmured 'sorry' before he would turn his head and close his eyes. The younger had finally dozed off after a while, and Kanda was almost relieved. He wasn't sure why he was so bothered with the other's silence, usually this is what he internally wished would happen. But this just felt wrong. Maybe he had been harsher than he'd needed to be earlier, but the memories that Allen had unintentionally brought up were the worst of Kanda's entire life- and the entire reason for his life. He wanted to forget, he wanted to remember, he just wished all the pain would fade away into nothingness. But the lotus flowers still taunted him in his sleep, spurred him to keep hunting for that one; he had vowed he'd never die until he found him. He had a lot he wanted to say, but knew he'd never get the words out; but he had to try. Kanda jerked his thoughts from his memories with a silent snarl, angrily dragging a hand across his eyes. His skin came away cold and damp, and he thanked whatever luck he had that Allen was sound asleep now. He never wanted anyone to see him cry, it was weakness pure and simple. He hadn't cried in years… and to think that he should almost do so now, at the prodding of Allen Walker? It made no sense, Allen had nothing to do with the past and he knew nothing of it. Kanda drew in a long, shaky breath before closing his eyes and concentrated on nothing but the slow in and out of his breathing. He needed to clear his mind, or he really would be unfit for this stupid mission. He didn't catch the wide eyes regarding him from the other bench with shock and a slight sense of pity. Allen stared at the ceiling, wondering what on earth could be capable of making Kanda shed tears.
Neither Exorcist said a word when they disembarked the train, other than to ask the Finder to lead on. They both just wanted to go home, but knew that the path home would take longer than the three days it had taken them to get out there. They would take a different way home, since the recovery of any Innocence they found would lead to a fight with the Akuma, and Allen had the unfortunate habit of attracting the Millennium Earl to every place he went- and that was not something they wanted to clue in to where they lived. So, they followed behind the Finder in silence, minds turned to the battle they would inevitably fight and what to do in various situations.
It wasn't long before they reached the town in question, the sheer business of it had Kanda glowering again. Or maybe it was just all the stares they were getting, being dressed in black and silver. It was probably that, Allen's silver-white hair, and the fact that Kanda was openly carrying a sword strapped to his hip. Once or twice, Allen heard an excited gasp of 'exorcists!' and would cringe, the worst place to get attacked was in a crowded area. No room to maneuver, so many innocent people would die… so many blind spots for Akuma to exploit. He felt his features settling into a tense, determined look. This would end as quickly as he could manage, and he would protect as many as he could- even if that meant another standoff with Kanda; who would back down in the end. He wasn't as cold as he wanted everyone to think. Allen had seen under that armor to the man beneath, and he found that he rather liked what he had seen there. Not that he would ever admit that to anyone, and generally denied it to himself. One did not simply like Kanda Yuu.
It wasn't a day later that they were found, locked into the battle for their lives with Akuma on every side; Finders scurrying for cover where they could get it and trying not to get killed or get in the way. Allen had lost track of how many of the machine-monsters he had destroyed, and lost count of the number of times he had been slammed into walls, the ground, and clear through walls. Kanda wasn't fairing much better, his hair tie had been torn out at some point and his arm was bleeding badly enough to leave little trails of blood on the stone around him, the sleeve of his coat torn clean off. He was fighting with a set expression, lips curled back into a snarl as he sidestepped the newest assault. Allen envied the grace with which the other fought, each movement precise- Kanda almost looked as though he were dancing amid the hail of bullets and flying chunks of stone. Allen wrenched his thoughts back to their enemies, he could draw up similarities later, after the Akuma were dead and everyone else alive with the Innocence found. A quick glance showed the Finders protecting it still inside the barrier, and the others well hidden; not like the Akuma would be looking for them when they had two Exorcists in their sights. Allen grinned, this would end soon enough, he mused as he punched through another of the floating cannon-adorned creatures to leave a small explosion behind.
"Finally…." Allen sighed, as the last of the Akuma ended its pitiful second life in a blast of sound and dust before fading away to a silence that sounded louder than the gunfire had. Allen slowly slid down the half-destroyed wall behind him, coming to a weary rest on the rubble-strewn ground. Kanda dropped to the ground near him, Mugen resting on the ground between them, receding from gleaming Innocence to cold metal as it went back to sleep; all work done.
"It's all over." Kanda agreed, voice weary as he inspected his wounded arm, a soft sound of distaste slipping form him as he glared at the gash running down his upper arm; it was caked with dirt and rock dust from the fight.
"How bad are you hurt?" Allen asked, struggling to sit up. He leaned over the other, trying to get a good look at his arm, only to be gently elbowed back.
"It'll heal by tonight." Kanda retorted, sourly using his good hand to sweep his hair from his eyes. Allen chuckled at that, shaking his head when Kanda turned to stare at him. "What's so funny, moyashi?" Kanda growled, not sounding remotely angry.
"You are." Allen replied, shaking his head (at the stupid name that Kanda used in lieu of his real one) and falling back against the cold stone. "We're alive." He added, almost an afterthought.
"We are." Kanda agreed, tilting his head to eye the stars sparkling from beyond the light cloud cover, the calls of the team of Finders soft behind them. The two Exorcists drifted, halfway asleep, while the Finders searched for them; locating them fairly fast. Kanda staggered to his feet after slapping away the hands that reached down to help him, prodding Allen awake with his foot. "Oi. Time to get up and find a place to sleep. Then we can go home." Home. Kanda mused to himself. When did that place become 'home' to me?
Their small group staggered its way into town, ignored the odd looks residents were giving them, and into the place they had been staying. Once inside, the Finder whom had come with them from the Order half dragged Allen to the room he was sharing with Kanda, said other silently looping Allen's other arm over his shoulder and taking most of his companion's weight himself- the boy had passed out at some point on the walk back. Kanda wasn't feeling too great himself, he had trouble walking in a straight line and his vision would wobble every now and then, proof that the fight had been more than either had been prepared for. It was a wonder that they had managed to survive at all, let alone with as few serious wounds as they had- though they were covered in scrapes, scratches, and bruises. So went the life of an Exorcist.