One Step Forward Two Steps Back

by o0Reebus0o

The Japanese snorted. “We had sex, so what? That doesn’t make us some kind of soul mates. I wonder, do you even possess something like this? A soul?”

I don't own anything this is purely fiction. AU.

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"What are you doing?" A friendly and slightly curious sounding voice spoke into the almost darkness of the room that was just brightened by the light of the moon that shone through the only window.

There was a short silence before a second voice, one that sounded a lot less friendly in comparison, answered to it. "I thought that would be obvious."

"What? That you are an asshole?" The redhead asked, crossing his arms in front of his chest, whilst drawing an eyebrow. "Yeah, I guess that's true."

The black haired man snorted once and simply continued with his task to rummage around in his closet, not bothering to give the other man a single glance. "What are you doing in my room anyway? I don't remember having given you permission to enter."

Lavi shrugged, offering Kanda a small mischievous smirk that the raven didn't see since his attention was still caught otherwise. "What are you doing?" The redhead repeated his first question, genuinely ignoring the other's complaint.

The Japanese gave off a low growl as his hands moved anything else but idly through one of the bottom drawers of the dark furniture. "I am searching for something."

Now the redhead's green eye lit up and he craned his neck in an inquisitive manner. "What for?"

That was when Kanda's hands stopped their movement for the first time during their conversation, and he finally turned his head to stare up at Lavi from his crouched position, darting a pointed question at him. "Why are you here?"

Lavi shrugged again, cocked his head to the side and smiled. "I wanted to ask how your mission has gone of course."

The black haired man honored the other's words with a scowl. "You know that already. You heard Moyashi and the girl pestering me in the hallway about it."

The redhead sighed good-humoredly and shifted his weight from one foot to the other. "You were snapping at them to leave you in peace, how is that supposed to tell me anything about the outcome of your mission? Oh, right, you were snapping which means that you yourself are fine," he mused, his one visible eye shimmering with glee. "Did you manage to retrieve the innocence though?"

Now Kanda straightened himself up and stood, having forgotten for the moment that he actually had been searching for something in his closet, and the look he was directing at the redhead was almost darker than his hair which was restrained in a high ponytail. "Don't insult me, you idiot, and if you want to know about my mission so badly, wait until I handed in my damn report. Komui won't bother to read it anyway."

"Because he knows how bad your handwriting is," Lavi pointed out grinning slightly.

"No, because he's a lazy fuck, the same as you are whenever it's not about books or prying into other people's private business," Kanda commented coldly.

The redhead warped his face in an excessively offended way. "I'm going to become a bookman. Books are my job, so is recording all events, staying informed about everything that's going on around me. I see why some might experience this as something offending at times..." He gave the Japanese a wink. "But it's never a wrong thing to care about your friends."

At these words something changed in Kanda's features, and if anyhow possible, his gaze got even more hostile, and there was a glimmer of… maybe disgust visible in his eyes for a moment. "Don't lie," he spat. "I don't care that you're walking around being dishonorable towards everyone, but don't open your damn mouth and give me your shit. Not here, not in my own room."

Lavi froze and then blinked. "Please, Yu," he drawled emitting a small laugh whilst putting a hand to his neck. "I thought we were over that. You are becoming paranoid. Wait, you've always been, but it's getting worse. Can't you see-"

"Shut up," Kanda hissed and moved swiftly to place his body directly in front of the other young man. "I told you not to give me your shit, not in my own room." He spoke slowly and measurably, making sure to deliver his message without fail, and clearly so.

The redhead appeared to be taken aback for a moment and let his hand fall down again whilst he licked over his dry lip, before his face suddenly lost all traces of disarray, and he moved again to take a few steps away from the Japanese to lean against the wall behind him. He sighed, laughed once more and closed his eye, and when he opened it again, a certain change seemed to have taken place in the deep green depth.

"I won't be able to get you off that trip, will I?"

The raven haired man just stared ahead, a cold calmness having taken over his whole posture. "If you don't want me to say anything, just leave. As I mentioned earlier, I didn't invite you in in the first place."

"No," Lavi responded, the slightest hint of bitterness lingering subliminally in his voice. "You never invite anyone in."

Kanda's gaze got harder again as his head jerked a bit to the side to be able to take the other's face in completely. "If you know me so well, then why do you keep coming?" He asked in a challenging tone, his dark grey eyes almost trying to bore themselves into the other's body.

The redhead was silent for a longer moment, and it was as if an especially sinister shadow was covering his face. He shook it off with an almost cocky flick of his tongue.

"Say, what pisses Yu off more… is it that you are forced to talk to someone who managed to look behind your mask at least once, or is it that you slept with someone you think isn't real?"

The Japanese's face turned completely stony. "Right now, it's you calling me by my first name, and I don't think you are fake, I know you are."

Lavi nodded repeatedly in a gesture of mock. "Oh yeah, of course you do know that. After all, everyone who would want to be friends with you and listen to your constant bitching would have to be nuts. I can't be real. I really start to doubt it myself."

Kanda didn't even move a single muscle. His body seemed so much under tense control that it almost looked a bit painful, but the Japanese managed to pull it off without even losing the smallest amount of his natural grace. "Your game is getting old. Go search for some of your friends and practice your skills on them. I'm done wasting my time with your bullshit." With that he turned on his heel to find his way back to the cupboard. He had made it quite clear that for him the redhead was dismissed.

Lavi wasn't quite ready to go along with Kanda's ideas though. "They would find it easier to be your friends too, if you refrained from treating them like garbage."

Kanda snorted but stopped in his movements. He didn't turn back around though. "Like you care… at least I respect them enough to not lead them on."

That elicited a nasty laugh from the redhead. "Please, you don't respect anyone, not even yourself. That's why you continue to keep going with this… self-damaging behavior."

"My injuries are minor," Kanda informed him nonchalantly.

"That's not what I meant," Lavi shot back a little faster than possible, if you hadn't been able to guess the other's response beforehand.

The redhead's statement seemed to fill the whole room, and it stood between them thickly and heavily, like the silence that stretched on.

Slowly Kanda turned his head, but not enough to actually be able to look at the other man. "Get out of my room."

Lavi's first impulse was to search out Mugen with his eye. It was leaning against the bedpost, but not on Kanda's side of the room. Far enough for the moment. "Oh, did I hit a sore spot there, Yu?" He taunted. "Don't you like to be self-reflecting from time to time? It can give you so many new ideas though, an-"

"Don't fucking tell me crap about being self-reflective!" Kanda barked and finally swirled around. "You have no idea what that actually means, or you wouldn't be able to look at yourself in a mirror because the reflection would appear nothing but repulsive to you."

The redhead's eye widened slightly, then he started to chuckle. "Hell, I'm not that ugly. Of course not everyone can be blessed with a face like yours, but if I'm allowed to say, I'm not that unpleasant to look at myself, so I really don't thin-"

"Stop playing dumb," the Japanese snarled and made a step again into the other man's direction. "Not even you are that stupid. In fact, you're a lot smarter than you like us to believe, and I don't fucking care about that, but I don't want to have you around anymore, either. Do your damn job, do what you have to, but stay as far away from me as possible."

Dark grey eyes were staring into a jade one that was filled with the slightest notion of insecurity, until that emotion was washed away completely, getting replaced by stubborn resistance, and maybe even a hint of unfamiliar danger. And then it was Lavi who had suddenly moved and crossed the space between them, and Kanda was left blinking in surprise as he hadn't anticipated such a reaction. "But what if I don't want to stay away?"

The Japanese was quick to adjust to the new situation, crossing his arms to form at least some kind of barrier between them. "I fucking don't care what you want in the slightest. Your wants are so insignificant to me that they do not even exist."

"Is that so?" Lavi asked firmly whilst leaning his face even closer, so close that their noses were almost touching. "But the last time when my wants were in unison with your wants you didn't mind, did you?"

The Japanese snorted. "We had sex, so what? That doesn't make us some kind of soul mates. I wonder, do you even possess something like this? A soul?"

The green eyed man smirked cruelly. "I don't need a soul to fuck Yu."

Kanda's eyes narrowed instantly. "But you need some other part that you won't keep having for much longer, if you don't find your brains again and fast. I am not joking around."

"That's too bad." The green eyed man pondered whilst putting a finger to the corner of Kanda's mouth slightly pushing at his upper lip. "You look so pretty when you smi- AHH!"

The redhead had jumped away from the other, now staring at him in disbelief, before his gaze wandered down to his hands. One was clutching a part of the other fiercely. "You bit me!" Again Lavi's gaze came up for a moment before he stared back at his finger. "You fucking bit me, Yu!"

"I told you I wasn't joking, and now that you finally got the-" Kanda's words were interrupted as Lavi's fist suddenly shot forward and connected with his ribcage. Left side. Second and third rib. Damn! The Japanese went to his knees with a hiss, the palm of his hand pressing against the hurting place, whilst his other was supporting him on the ground. He could hear the other starting to chuckle with satisfaction.

"I saw it when you got up from your crouching position. You moved differently than normal, you only ever move that way when you are trying to be careful without letting others know."

The Japanese growled his hand still pressed against his chest. "Freaking stalker."

"Ah, can you really be mad at me because of this?" Lavi asked whilst squatting down in front of Kanda. "Sometimes there's so little entertainment. What else is left for a poor bookman's apprentice but observing the more interesting people around him?"

The Japanese tried to move, sitting himself up a bit further. "I am not interesting." The fingers of Kanda's right hand were digging into the ground as he was trying hard to keep himself from shaking.

The redhead was busy skidding a little closer to him whilst seeming to consider the other's statement. "Hmm, I think I have to object to that," he said, his eye not leaving the Japanese's face for even a moment as he bit on his lower lip in wonderment. "Right now, for example, why is it that you always look the most enthralling when you are in pain? Do you enjoy suffering so much?"

Kanda's features darkened in anger. "I wouldn't need to suffer, if some stupid asshole hadn-"

The black haired man's words were swallowed by a pair of lips that crashed down onto his in a bruising kiss that held no traces of gentleness, only raw force. It was directed by a need, a sudden urge that had overcome the redhead and was too strange yet, for the Japanese to completely understand the other man's motives. What he did understand though, was that he was not amused in the slightest about this turn of events.

As he made to push the other away, however, Kanda found more than a little resistance there, and a pressure pain increased on his already aching ribs as Lavi purposefully slammed his hand into Kanda's chest once again. The black haired man gasped before he clenched his teeth, and the redhead managed to overpower him long enough to make him lose his balance, using his whole bodyweight to make Kanda fall backwards and press him into the ground.

"You're dead," the Japanese informed Lavi coldly.

"Am I really?" The redhead asked, speaking in a low tone whilst smiling softly, three fingers tracing along the black haired man's jaw line.

Kanda jerked his head away violently. "Get off!"

"No," the redhead reciprocated playfully.

The Japanese was almost shivering with suppressed fury and it cost him all his willpower to hold his voice in a steady tone. "Get off right now."

Lavi rolled his eye. "Ah Yu, you're just no fun, man." But he finally shifted and Kanda's stiff muscles relaxed slightly when he was confronted with the prospect of being Lavi-free again soon, but as unexpected as ever possible, the redhead's mood appeared to topple completely within an instant, and instead of absenting himself he suddenly attacked.

"What the fuck is wrong with you?" Kanda yelled outraged, two fingers pressed against his bloody lower lip.

"See," Lavi answered, holding up the finger of his right hand that was now adorned with Kanda's angry teeth marks, from his sitting position in a save distance he had brought between them in wise foresight after committing his dark deed. "Your blood for mine, it's just fair, isn't it?

For a moment Kanda just stared at Lavi in total disbelief.

"You're making a fuss over that damn finger? I should have fucking bit it off!"

The redhead swayed his head from one side to the other, looking entirely unabashed. "Well, remind me not to put any parts of mine into your mouth anytime soon again." He grinned naughtily. "Though, it's a good method to shut you up, right? And a perfect opportunity for you to put that sharp tongue of yours to better use than insulting innocent people unwarrantedly."

Kanda sent him a look of pure disgust that had Lavi laugh out aloud. "All I need is an opportunity to chip off your noisy head."

Lavi leant back on his elbows and sighed amusedly. "You don't really want me to be gone; you haven't even looked for Mugen yet."

"I don't need to look for it when I know exactly where it is." The indication in Kanda's words wouldn't have been able to be misunderstood by anyone, and Lavi understood more than others did. So, when the Japanese almost flew over his bed despite his injury and grabbed his sword around the hilt, he was met with an unpleasant surprise as he turned towards the unwanted guest.

Kanda's eyes widened and he froze in place. "You promised not to touch that!"

There was a short silence as the redhead took his time to observe the object in his hands before he finally managed to avert his attention away from it to give the Japanese a lazy smile. "No, I didn't, Lavi did."

"Stop fucking around!" Kanda was clutching his katana so hard his knuckles went white.

The redhead didn't stop smiling, but it was a strange smile that lacked all cheerfulness and sincerity. It was a foreign smile as the Japanese would have noticed if he had looked the other in the face. "Oh, but you were the one that started it, weren't you? So, what now Kanda?"

"Put it back," the Japanese spoke through his teeth whilst his eyes stayed trained on the glassy object in the other's hands. He looked like a black panther ready for the jump as soon as its cub was out of harm's way, and it could mangle its prey undisturbed.

Lavi showed himself anything but impressed by those words. "You know that someday I'm going to find out about it anyway, so why don't you just tell me now?"

It was the difference in the redhead's voice that made Kanda's gaze finally move up to his face. The raven haired man's mouth opened, then closed again as his eyes showed a glimmer of something akin to recognition before they filled with an expression of anger yet again.

"Why don't you just go and die somewhere?"

"Oh, that's so cruel of you, Kanda. Really nasty, and here I had thought this," he tapped against the glass container with his nail, "would make you behave a little tamer."

"Stop doing that," the Japanese warned maliciously.

"What?" The redhead asked drawing his eyebrow in an innocent gesture. "That you mean?" Again he knocked against the glass, this time with his knuckles. The sound was unnaturally loud in the dim room. What was even louder though, was Kanda's outburst.

"Fuck! This isn't one of your stupid games! Put it back and do it right now! I'm warning you, don't make me come over there, I mean it." At the end of Kanda's sentence, his voice had slightly calmed down again which didn't buffer the intensity of his gaze. It reflected a blunt promise of murder.

Lavi sighed whilst a smile was tugging on his lips. "Cool down. I'll put it back… eventually, but first you need to do three little things for me."

Kanda growled. "The fuck I will! I'm not your damn pupp- Watch it!"

"Oops." The redhead chuckled, balancing the glass object in his hands. "It almost fell down, didn't it? That would be bad, right? The pretty flower… it has already lost some petals… You're looking kind of pale Kanda, are you alright?"

The Japanese's chest was moving up and down a little faster than usually, and his right hand was grasping Mugen twice as tightly as before. "Put it back."

"Three things," Lavi retorted unforgiving, with no hint left of that smile that had brightened his features only seconds ago.

"Fine," Kanda spat after a long tense moment in which their eyes had locked in a silent duel. Lavi had won, and the Japanese was unable for the moment to find a way out of his predicament.

"Good." Lavi's eye lit up. "First of all, put Mugen onto the bed, will ya? It is disturbing to talk to you when I have to fear that your wrist will break any minute. I'm just concerned for you, it already looks really painful, you know?"

"Che." Kanda made sure to sound the most sickened before he finally obliged and placed the katana onto his bed covers. Not too far out of his reach though.

"See, really good, that wasn't too hard now, was it?" Lavi commented and appeared to be willing to say something more when the Japanese interrupted him rudely.

"What's the second thing?"

It didn't take long for the redhead to answer to that question. "Call me Lavi."

"What?" Kanda snapped in bewilderment.

The redhead was giving him a patronizing look. "You thought I didn't notice, eh? You haven't called me Lavi, not once since I entered your room and even a while before that… is that your way of convincing yourself that I am not real?" He questioned mockingly.

The raven haired man had some obvious problems holding himself in check, seeing that he was taking deep breaths through his nose, and his hands that now had nothing to occupy themselves with any longer, were balling two fists. The redhead waited patiently for the other to talk again, busying himself with running his thumb over the glass in a round motion.

"Lavi it is," Kanda hissed through gritted teeth again.

"Great," the bookman's apprentice commented cheerfully. "And now the third thing… hmm, let me think about it some more…"

"Lavi," the Japanese growled, crossing his arms over his chest. "Spit it out already."

"Your hair," the redhead shot out as if he had just waited for the other man to interrupt him, and Kanda was left staring at him again with a look that spoke volumes of confusion and annoyance. A lot more confusion than annoyance at the moment though, and Lavi was grinning as if he had anticipated that as well.

"Down with it," he therefore declared, and Kanda's eyes widened before they narrowed completely. His mouth opened and closed again. His gaze shifted to the hourglass, then back to Lavi's face. "If I do it you put it back."

"If you do it I put it back." The redhead nodded in confirmation, unable to keep himself from grinning victoriously.

"And you'll leave it where it is, you're not touching it ever again."

Lavi rolled his eye. "Oh please, stop playing the drama queen, alright? It's not as if-"

"Never again. "

The green eyed man smirked. "If it makes Yu happy."

Kanda's gaze got even darker if that was anyhow possible. "And you stop calling me Yu."

The red head immediately pulled a face. "Naw, now it's going too far, what else should I call you if not Yu? Kanda?"

"You were doing it just a little while earlier," the Japanese commented coldly as ever.

Lavi cocked his head to the side, making a curious expression. "Doing what?"

"Call me Kanda," Kanda spat, seemingly annoyed by the other's demeanor.

"Oh, I did do that, did I now?" The redhead asked, sounding almost a bit wistfully before a wide grin was showing itself on his face again. "Ah, you noticed, how sweet is that?"

"Hell, Lavi, just put it back already." The Japanese's voice sounded strained, and his right hand was wandering upwards to pinch the tip of his nose.

The redhead shook his head. "No, no, no, that wasn't the deal. C'mon, you go first."

Kanda released the air loudly before his shoulders slumped down and he finally reached up in a gesture of impatience to unkindly pull the tie out of his hair. "There, satisfied now? It's all down, your turn."

Lavi's mouth had opened halfway during Kanda's efforts, but any words had yet to leave it as he simply continued to stand and stare until the Japanese's unfriendly growl and tapping of his foot seemed to haul him back into reality. He grinned. "I never said you needed to be so harsh. It's not your hair's fault, Yu."

"What isn't?" Kanda asked flippantly. "That you are an idiot? No, you're right, that's the fault of the people responsible for your messed up genes and now…" Kanda stretched out a hand to point at the place on the small table where the hourglass usually stood.

Lavi snickered, shook his head, and then finally, finally returned the hourglass, with the lotus flower inside, to its rightful resting place.

Kanda's posture relaxed until he seemed to remember that the person responsible for his torments was still in the same room with him, and his gaze darkened as he took two steps forward before he suddenly seemed to change his mind yet again, and approached his bed instead, not to pick up Mugen, but to simply sit down.

The redhead had watched the display in front of him with an attentive expression, not letting down his guard, but now that the Japanese seemed to refrain from resuming to violence - at least for now - he allowed himself to lean against the wall. He waited for Kanda to tell him to leave again but when silence continued, his head turned to send the lotus a last thoughtful glance.

"Why won't you tell me?" Lavi asked, sounding rather casually, as if Kanda's answer would be all the same to him in the end.

The Japanese stretched out his left leg and glanced at the ceiling, one finger testing out the state of his split lip. "Why won't you?"

Lavi chuckled quietly. "Touché."

There was a longer period of silence in which the Japanese closed his eyes and let himself slide backwards until his back was resting on his covers.

"I will find out sometime."

"When you do I won't care." Kanda's voice was calm and sounded rather disinterested.

The redhead was staring incredulously at the other young man. "Does that mean… you don't care if I actually know or not, you are just doing it to be difficult? Wow, that's so… Yu." Lavi's face showed something similar to honest adulation before he shifted against the wall, his tongue peeking out in reflectiveness. Suddenly he started to grin and gestured at Kanda with one hand. "Or maybe you are afraid that my knowing about your little secret will make you become less interesting? Don't worry, as long as you don't get ugly due to mutilation or a disfiguring illness, I won't abandon you that soon - provided someone much prettier doesn't come along, of course."

The black haired man shrugged not even bothering to open his eyes, whilst the fingers of his right hand were unconsciously sliding along Mugen's sheath. "I don't care who you fuck as long as you don't make me witness it, and you should be looking for someone else as I already told you the last time was the last."

Lavi's mouth opened and widely so. "Uh, but you said that the times before as well, so why does it suddenly matter?"

Kanda pushed himself up on his elbows to be able to give the redhead a piercing look from under his bangs. "Because the last time, I meant it."

The green eyed man waved him off. "How can you be sure about what you meant? That was forty-seven days ago. You could have been teasing, or just trying to be an ass, or it simply is an inherent part of your idea of a proper foreplay."

"You counted?" The Japanese's features showed nothing but consternation.

The redhead gave the other man a defiant look. "I counted, so what? I'm a bookman's apprentice, alright? I remember things - I count things. I like figures and numbers. Well, not all… some of these history books the Old Panda hassled me with, were way over the top. There's just so much a man can take before he loses his mind, ya know?"

"You're just not right in the head," Kanda stated before he made himself ready to lie down again.

Lavi's left boot rubbed over the floor. "So, about the sex…"

The Japanese's upper body shot up again. "NO!"

"But it's unfair!" The redhead complained. "You cannot decide something like that on your own."

Kanda snorted coarsely. "I sure as hell don't need to consult you."

"What? Who else if not me? Naturally, concerning that topic there are two people involved at the least!" Lavi held up two fingers for emphasis.

The Japanese rudely wiped away a thin strand of hair that had got stuck in the corner of his mouth. "Your intellect amazes me every time anew, but in case you haven't noticed, I don't give a shit! That this whole thing somehow happened was a mistake from the beginning, and now I declare it to be over, that's it."

Lavi gave off a long drawn out sigh. "I see," he stated whilst tugging on his bandana to adjust it to the right place, and then simply remained quiet.

"You see what?" Kanda finally snapped, obviously feeling provoked for opposition.

The redhead shrugged, seemingly busy to observe his violated finger with a new found fascination. "You're in one of these moods..."

"It's not a damn mood," the Japanese insisted darkly. "It's what I have decided, and you won't be able to change anything about it, so don't even fucking try and just accept that!"

Lavi held up both hands in surrender before he crossed them in front of his chest again. "Alright, if you say so… I heard there were a lot of casualties this time."

Kanda froze, seemingly needing a few moments to come to terms with the sudden change of content of their conversation. "It's a war," he then answered, his face having become all stony. "There are always casualties in a war."

The bookman's apprentice nodded in agreement. "The finders said there was an ambush, though there weren't expected that many Akuma at the location…. must've been quite a slaughter that took place in that village."

"It's a war," Kanda simply repeated the words, his face still showing not much of a reaction.

"So, when you arrived, most people were already dead, right?"

The Japanese slightly narrowed his eyes and watched the redhead, appearing to try and figure out what it was the other was aiming for with his sudden questioning. "Yes, they were dead. It was a happy corpse walk, if there was as much left of them. Does that satisfy your curiosity for now?" Kanda shot Lavi a nasty look and then stood again. "If you already talked to the finders and everything, why did you even bother to ask about the damn mission?"

The redhead showed him an expression of pure innocence. "As you already said, I was just curious. I take it though; you won't be crying your eyes out the whole night, even though you had to march through all these people's blood."

"Che," Kanda huffed, and then walked around his bed, whilst slowly shrugging out of his coat. "As if you would." He hung the now unnecessary piece of clothing over the only chair in the room.

"Must've been a lot of blood," Lavi mused, ignoring Kanda's last comment completely. "The finders that came back here before you were, really freaked out, ya know? One is still in the mental infirmary..."

Kanda's head jerked to the side as he threw Lavi an annoyed look. "What's the purpose of this?"

"Purpose?" The redhead asked, drawing an eyebrow at him. "We're just talking."

Kanda's face showed serious signs of displeasure. "Fine, then I'll end this talk now. I just returned from a mission. I'm stiff and I'm tired and I don't want to deal with your crap."

Lavi flicked his tongue. "Wow, you really must be stressed out, or you wouldn't admit to being stiff and tired that easily."

"If I am stressed, then just because you are causing the stress by pestering me with your stupid nonsense," Kanda remarked snidely. "So now, get out!"

The redhead pushed himself off the wall, but instead of walking towards the door, he strode in the direction of the other man. "Why are you that aggressive? We've hardly talked to each other in over a month, haven't even met during these last two and a half weeks."

The Japanese watched Lavi's approach skeptically. "And what a peaceful time that would have been, if it wasn't for the Moyashi and his ever depressive howling whenever he's not trying to act the noble martyr."

Lavi shook his head as he slowly walked around the other man. "You're not being quite fair on him. He's grown a lot, especially during this last year."

Kanda snorted implacably. "Like there was a choice. You grow or you break, that's how it is."

The redhead, who now had reached his position he had aimed for behind Kanda's back, placed his chin on said person's shoulder, genuinely ignoring the immediate stiffening of the Japanese's body, and got even bolder by letting one arm sneak around Kanda's waist. "Why was your face covered in blood? And your hair?" The redhead asked with a neutral tone, his voice neither affected by gentleness nor inappropriate curiosity.

The black haired man, who had already made himself ready to dislodge the other from his body, was startled enough by the unexpected question that he remained in their momentary arrangement while another period of silence filled out at least the next sixty seconds.

"It fell through the ceiling."

"What did?" Lavi asked still with that neutral voice that seemed to be plain and inconspicuous enough not to make the other lash out at him right away.

"The corpse, what else?" Kanda retorted impatiently with an attitude that expressed annoyance by the other's lack of instant understanding.

The redhead's chin lifted up a little, and his head turned slightly in the Japanese's direction. "You mean a corpse fell on you?" His voice did sound anything but neutral any longer.

Kanda growled and pushed away Lavi's arm, before he stepped away whilst halfway turning to be able to give the redhead an angry stare. "That's what I just said, didn't I?"

The young bookman's apprentice was showing first signs of the forming of a small grin. "Why didn't you get out of the way?"

Lavi's question had Kanda go into a frenzy rant. "I would have if it wasn't for that damn mouldy barrack and the fucking floor with all these rotten planks an – oh, just shut the fuck up! These goddamn finders! Next time I'm gonna cut out their fucking tongues so that they can't walk around spreading rumors anymore! They were staring like I had a freaking axe stuck right in my skull! And the stupid inn woman was screaming like a harpy before she fainted, and a few random idiots had already called a doctor who still wanted payment, though there was nothing there for him to vet in the first place!"

"So after I'd kicked out his greedy ass and washed up, I'd thought the hassle would finally be over, but now look what a nice surprise I get when I arrive back here! I return to my room to forget any of this farce ever happened just to get searched out by the biggest nuisance of this whole order, just to hear that the news of an 'in blood covered Kanda' have already reached his nosy ears, and like the idiot that he is, he is, of course, not able to just keep the shit to himself and spare me his unhealthy obsession of needing to know every freaking sort of tiny detail, no matter if it does concern him or not!"

The redhead was smiling a little strained by then, rubbing his neck whilst somehow pondering on his next words. "So… what kind of corpse was it?"

"What kind?" Kanda snarled. "The kind that was slit open so that its intestines were falling out! The kind of corpse whose head was only attached by a mere string of tendon! One that did hardly possess any discernable features anymore, and was bleeding all over me like a damn stinking pig kind of corpse!"

Lavi winced slightly. "Oh, okay, maybe that wasn't the best question to ask."

Kanda just gave him a meaningful look.

The redhead sighed quietly and let his hand fall down, just to make an odd gesture in the black haired man's direction. "But you have to admit that you are feeling better now."

"Better?" Kanda scoffed darkly. "In what way am I supposed to feel better?"

Lavi merely shrugged, glancing out of the window for a moment. "Well, by the amount of things that came to your mind concerning the issue… I'd say you wanted to vent a bit for a real long while now."

"Nonsense," the Japanese objected immediately in a huff.

The redhead rolled his eye before he gave the other an amused little smile. "Right. After all, it's not a big thing to almost get buried by a goner, walking around with its blood on you for roughly an hour."

"It's not," Kanda argued back whilst moving again. "If people are overly sensitive and cannot deal with that sort of thing they shouldn't become Exorcists."

Lavi's voice held no traces of amusement any longer as he spoke, his one green eye staying focused on the Japanese's profile. "Was it really ever a choice, though?"

Kanda's posture appeared to having become fully frozen until he finally turned his head, the right side of his face partially hidden behind long black strands of hair. He opened his mouth but then obviously thought differently, and closed it again, shaking his head once, as if to inform the other he wouldn't start to walk down that pathway with him. Then the Japanese silently strode back to his bed to sit on the edge, drawing one leg up as he made to unfasten his boot.

"Let me help you with that," Lavi offered, having gotten rid of all signs of consternation their previous discussion might have left on him, in whichever way, to dive right into a completely new conversation.

"I don't need your help," Kanda growled.

"Ah, c'mon, it's just fair that I do it, after all, I made your injury worse by hitting you." The redhead took the first steps into the direction of the bed as well. "I know doing this must hurt, even though you won't say it."

The black haired man just glared at him nastily. "I bit you, you hit me. Fine."

"But I hit you twice, and don't forget I bit you as well," Lavi reasoned whilst still coming closer.

"So I just bite you again, twice, that should make us even." Kanda remarked snidely.

"Ah, no, thanks." The bookman's apprentice laughed. "Gonna need the rest of my fingers to do writing and stuff, ya know?"

"You're right-handed," the Japanese pointed out, sounding rather unimpressed. "You have five fingers on your left hand as well."

The redhead blinked and stopped moving for a moment. "Say, what's it with you and the finger-biting all of a sudden?" His face contorted into a grin. "Don't tell me you got turned on by it or something?"

Kanda snorted whilst fumbling with the laces of his first boot again, clenching his jaw when he had to bend forward some more. "Yeah, it was a truly arousing experience. The delicate taste of your blood in my mouth could only be excelled by that of the stinking corpse. Now you're going to tell me I shouldn't have looked up, right?" He remarked, sounding bitter.

Lavi sat down on the bed as well, a short distance away from the Japanese, and gave the other a look of sympathy before he patted on his own lap. "C'mon, just let me do it, it's not a big deal, and you said you were tired yourself. I bet you didn't even sleep because you were too busy being annoyed with all the people around you."

For a moment the black haired man made the impression as if he intensely wanted to argue that. Then he wordlessly lifted up his leg, and Lavi already showing a small smile of satisfaction, gasped as Kanda's foot came down onto his lap rather hard.

"Now, that, Yu, was pretty mean."

Kanda shrugged. "It's what you wanted. Now stop complaining and start working." To emphasize that statement he wriggled with his boot and Lavi hastily grabbed it with both hands to hold it still.

"Did I ever inform you that you wouldn't make a good employer?" The redhead said whilst getting started loosening up the laces on Kanda's boot. "You're just too forceful. People are a bit like instruments, like… harps, ya know? And if you pluck their strings too hard all the time, they're going to rip, but if you are slightly more considerate, you can get quite beautiful tunes out of them, and when you also play them in the right order you can make great music."

The Japanese snorted whilst leaning back on both of his elbows. "You're talking about yourself?" He asked tauntingly. "You think you are a harp?"

Lavi made a thoughtful face. "Well, what do you think what kind of instrument I could resemble then?"

Kanda gave him a long hard look. "I think, if anything you are the instrument player," he spat ultimately before lying down, completely closing his eyes.

The conversation appeared to have come to an abrupt end then, but the redhead was apparently determined not to let the silence continue for too long. "Do you know that in the moonlight your hair, if it's like this, looks like a carpet of ink?"

"Do you know that in the moonlight your voice sounds as annoying as ever," the Japanese replied monotonously.

"How comical," Lavi commented before giving Kanda's leg a light shove whilst at the same time pulling off the first boot, and put it on the floor. "Next."

"It wasn't meant to be funny." Kanda obliged, placing the bootless leg behind the redhead's back so that the other foot that was still caught in its tight prison could now reside in Lavi's lap instead.

"Thanks for clarifying that. I wouldn't have noticed otherwise." The redhead's hands were moving again to carry on with their work, even though he didn't seem to be in a great hurry to get it done the fastest way possible. "I have to say, however, your words wound me deeply."

"Hardly believe that," the black haired man mumbled, shifting a bit to bring his head into a more comfortable position.

"And do you know that your face looks really pale? Even more than usually, I mean. It's almost as if you're absorbing the light of the moon into your skin."

Kanda's eyes snapped open again. "Stop watching me," he ordered.

Lavi chuckled quietly. "But you're the only thing actually worth watching in this room right now."

"Then get out as I've told you to do at least three times already!" The Japanese made an attempt to pull away his leg, but Lavi held onto his boot almost possessively.

"Keep calm," the redhead said smiling. "I'm gonna close my eyes, well, eye. See?"

Kanda gave the other man an unconvinced look, but Lavi could hardly be aware of it, as he had – staying true to his word - closed his eye. The Japanese continued to observe him a little longer, but when Lavi's hands simply started working again, with his eyelid still remaining in the newly reached position, the Japanese seemed to relax again and closed his eyes also.

"Oh, hey, looks as if my task has come to an end," Lavi stated a bit surprised as he managed to pull off the boot without much difficulties. "What about some kind of praising? I did a good job here, didn't I?" The redhead asked impishly, opening his eye again, turning his head to look at Kanda in expectation whilst getting rid of the second boot, letting it fall to the ground.

Kanda didn't move, and also didn't answer immediately, so the bookman's apprentice apparently took that as his cue to slightly shift, and simply settled down between the Japanese's legs.

That elicited Kanda's attention right away. "What do you think you're doing?" He snarled, dark eyes glaring up at the grinning occupier of his body.

Lavi gave the other a suggestive little smirk whilst his right hand was wandering to the angry man's inner thigh. "What does it feel like to you?"

Kanda wiped Lavi's hand away rudely and tried to sit up. "It feels like someone is keen for a beating! What the fuck about it's over didn't you understand?"

The bandana-wearer simply laughed and pushed against the Japanese's shoulders to force him back down again. "Great, beat me up if you like, could make things between us become a lot spicier, don't you think?"

"I'm not damn joking," the black haired man snarled whilst his muscles were tensing up as his dark eyes flashed dangerously.

"Yeah, you said so earlier this evening already," the redhead whispered close to Kanda's jaw before he let his tongue dart out to lick over the inviting pale flesh.

The Japanese's reaction followed immediately as he prepared to strike a blow that was blocked in the last moment by a fast reacting Lavi, who still slightly held the upper hand due to his beneficial position, but Kanda was quick to adjust and drew up one knee to ram it into the redhead's vulnerable side. Lavi wheezed in pain and twisted, though not releasing Kanda's right wrist that he still held in a secure lock and was therefore immobilizing his whole arm. It wasn't the Japanese's right arm though, he was momentarily stretched out in an attempt to reach the one thing that would make this struggle his irrevocable victory.

Kanda's plan was shamefully destroyed, however, with the redhead's next words. "No cheating in a real men's fight, Yu!" And then Lavi's foot was pushing against Mugen's sheath, and Kanda's katana was catapulted off the bed and clattered loudly onto the floor.

That provoked a wrathful uproar from the Japanese. "You stupid punk! Don't push Mugen around like that!"

"Hell, don't overreact that damn much!" Lavi shot back as he was - in the very last moment - avoiding another one of Kanda's kicks. "It's not as if it would break – OUCH! Don't fucking punch so hard!"

"I thought you wanted a beating," the black haired man hissed angrily between almost clenched teeth, as he continued his struggle for freedom against an opponent that seemed to be adamant in his intent to pin the Japanese down in place. "Spicier, remember?"

A green eye narrowed slightly. "Well, in that case…"

Kanda's lower lip started bleeding again as he bit down on it fiercely to prevent himself from crying out as Lavi's elbow came down heavily on his already maltreated ribs, and whilst the Japanese was noticeably fighting with the aftermath of the pain, the redhead had enough time to snatch and secure the black haired man's other wrist as well.

"What the…" Kanda was panting heavily, the first drop of sweat glistering on his forehead. "What the - goddamn! What is your fucking problem?"

The bookman's apprentice just slowly shook his head as he was hovering over the other man like an irremovable shadow. "Simply admit that we both knew where this would lead to in the end. After your first failed attempt you could have thrown me out a dozen times already, but you didn't. You want me here," Lavi said, and then added with even more conviction. "You do."

"Why should I want that?" The black haired man hissed insubordinately, apparently not willing to back down and just give up the fight.

Lavi was looking straight into the other's face, his eye showing a strange and seldom sincerity. "For now, because I can make you forget about the blood," he explained in a low significant tone that carried not only meaning, but also the promise of creating a whole new atmosphere.

The smallest of flickers was wandering through Kanda's dark grey eyes, and he lay totally still as the only sound filling the room was that of both men's irregular breathing for a long while.

"This is the last time," came the colorless words, accompanied by a face that held no readable trace of emotion.

Lavi's one visible jade eye simply glinted at Kanda as his lips formed the smallest of smiles. "Alright."