Disclaimer: I don't own D. Gray-Man
AN: Just an oneshot about Tyki and his feelings about his hobo friends. Set after Noah's Ark arc, so spoilers there. I actually had this written since June but wasn't able to put it up due to some major computer problems, so I apologize, and hope it is worth the wait.
Absence and Fondness
The steam whistle blew, signaling the changing of shifts at the shipyard. Momo and Clark dropped down from the rigging they had just finished tarring and ran off the ship and down the wharf to find Eaze, who was running errands for the carpenters. It didn't take them long for them to locate each other as they were all headed to the same place: the mess hall. Eaze playfully scolded Momo and Clark for going to eat with their hands still black with tar, making them hang their heads in mock shame. They went to wash their hands clean, but only after securing a promise from Eaze to get them a good place at the tables. They went their separate ways, the two men laughing at some half remembered joke and the boy whistling along to some catchy new dance hall tune, all three confident in their current good fortune.
Tyki watched his friends from above, hidden behind a nearby cannery's smokestacks. Road was perched next him, gazing coolly at him as she leaned against her conjured door in a blatantly nonchalant way that belied her impatience. He ignored her and chose instead to focus on his friends. They looked happy and content with their lives, almost carefree to the inexperienced observer. Tyki however, having traveling alongside the trio for years, could see past the facade. He saw the pinched look around Clark's eyes that indicated money problems, and the slight wobble in Momo's gait caused by his trick knee being overworked. He noticed the tightness of Eaze's clothes and how worn out the leather of his shoes was. The kid would need some new ones before winter hit, and most likely a coat, too. They couldn't risk him catching cold, not with his asthma.
"Just get it over with, Tyki," Road murmured, snapping him from his worried, almost caring thoughts and reminding him of the purpose of this trip: to say goodbye to his human friends. Well, not to literally say goodbye, not to their faces, but to make peace with the fact that he would never, ever be able to be with them ever again. After his Noah awakened he quickly realized that he could never go back. He just couldn't. He was Joido, the Third Disciple, the Pleasure of Noah. There was absolutely no reason whatsoever for him to be hanging around with a couple of lowly human migrant workers.
He watched as Momo and Clark frantically scrubbed at their hands under a water spigot as Eaze yelled at them to hurry up from the doorway of the mess hall. They were just humans, he reminded himself, nothing but worthless pieces of akuma fodder, no different than every other member of the thousands-strong species. It didn't matter that they spent years together, following the train tracks to wherever they would lead. All the poker games they played together, whether for fun or for profit, didn't matter. Eaze's dreams of someday being a doctor in a big city didn't matter. Clark's lovesick yearning for his long distance girlfriend, Grace Ann, didn't matter. Momo's almost obsessive love of football didn't matter. Absolutely nothing about any of them mattered.
Tyki rose from his crouch, wincing from the pain that shot through his scars whenever he made a sudden movement. Those lovely wounds, courtesy of that damned exorcist Allen Walker, only further reminded him of what he had to do. He took one last look, catching a glimpse of the three as they walked, side by side, into the mess hall. His chest ached and he didn't quite know why. It was probably just his scars, nothing more, or at least that was what he would keep telling himself. He turned away and faced Road's door.
"Let's go," he said, face devoid of expression. Road smiled affectionately, a look of sisterly pride fixing itself on her face in such a way that hinted at her true age. She opened her door and held it for him with an exaggerated bow. He ignored her and stepped through, plunging into the relative darkness of the new Ark. She slammed the door behind them, the sound echoing through the Ark as the last rays of the sun were abruptly cut off. He didn't look back.