Title: Full Moon

Warnings (Whole Fic): Angst, Language, Pseudo Character Death, Sex

Disclaimer: This applies to the whole story – I do not own D Gray-man and will never presume that I do.

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Phase I: Waxing Gibbous

Prompt Used: Hey Pretty

Summary: It ended, let me tell you the beginning. Let me tell you how we died.

Tyki Mikk died on a full moon night.

We met in a strange way, him and I. When I finally realized who he really was, there was too little time to react and say "how could you", "who are you", the myriad of questions I wanted to ask. Lavi and Krory reacted the same way I did, but none of them were as shocked as I was to see that the man who killed me that night and the man whom we stripped the other time were one and the same. We couldn't even get in a "what the fuck" (oh, but no cursing, there was a lady present after all) before he disappeared in some, some puff of smoke, a wanna-be magician, leaving us the key to the mysteries.

Of course, after that, we all know what happened. Kanda was an idiot, Krory made us all feel terrible with his sacrifice, Lavi got his mind raped, and well, Tyki apparently tried to kill me. It's not a joke, I felt his hand on my heart again, he even squeezed, preparing to rip it out.

When we talked afterwards, he said he wanted me to die while I was still the way he liked.

I'm under no illusions, it's seriously fucked up, both of us. He had this obsession with ripping my heart out. I had an obsession with taking the Noah out of him. And of course, when he wasn't concentrating on pulling my heart out, he was concentrating on stroking it and feeling the veins and arteries leading in and out of it, and he would be ever so gentle (as gentle as he could be, I suppose) and me, I couldn't move much. What? You think I like it? I couldn't move because just one inch, and my heart would be pretty much gone, just like that, as if the hole patched with my Innocence wasn't fragile enough already. I always kept Crown Clown activated though, so Tyki was forced to keep one eye on the sword even as he played with my heart.

But he never did do it, because, like I told you.

Tyki Mikk died on a full moon night.

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It wasn't easy. He approached me first.

After the disaster at Jordan, where we lost a major part of our Third Exorcist fighting power (it was sick, Tokusa's hands and legs flew everywhere, we were stained with the smell of copper for days), we made a run for it. It was apparently a disaster everywhere else as well, Lenalee reporting in breathless, supported by General Nine, she in turn supporting Timothy, Lavi struggling to protect our fledging exorcist and Bookman, and worse of all, no contact from Kanda, bastard not even able to tell us what his condition was.

We pretty much escaped with our tails between our legs. There was trouble at the America branch of Headquarters, Komui, Reever and Johnny had to mass evacuate everyone back to London through the Ark. Then the usual, the flurry of finding and accounting for everyone, and the tense silence when nobody could find Kanda or the Third Exorcists that went along with him. It was terrible. Even Link seemed more grim than usual, and trust me, he doesn't usually have much of an expression.

Then, three days later, the days that had passed filled with uncomfortable silence in the rest of the unusually large Headquarters while shouting went on in Komui's office about what to do with the mass appearance of Noah (no, the Exorcists have to be protected, we can't afford to lose them – no, this is the time to attack, the Earl has shown his hand), the 14th started to talk to me in dreams.

It was not all important, how it started, nor do I want to tell you everything he told me. It was frustrating, all I know was that I was running out of time, and very soon, reluctant though he might be, he would have to take over. But then he told me something perplexing too, he said to talk to Tyki Mikk, said that though it displeased him to feel it, he could feel Tyki Mikk was troubled over something, and like it or not, he'll find me before too long.

How right the 14th was.

On the day that Link was reporting to Lveille (how the hell Tyki knew that, I'll never know) Tyki had somehow grabbed hold of a golem and, casual as though he were talking about the weather, said "hello", ever-dutiful Timcanpy stiffening up and relaying his message, no doubt also recording it for posterity's sake. I also did not know how he got to know I was thankfully alone at that time. Had someone else been there with me, Lavi or Lenalee, instant pandemonium.

"Tyki. What on earth do you want?"

"So cold, boy," and he somehow even managed to sound amused over the golem. "Although I do suppose you have the right, since I did kill your friend the other day." He hummed in thought for a while.

"I'll say this one more time. What do you want?" I was getting fed up with this talk, roundabout, with the infuriating voice getting a reluctant attention from me.

"Say, boy, if I were to tell you to meet me at Depp's, will you?" He said with almost offhand interest. I had to frown at this proposition.

"Just cut this and tell me what you want, Tyki." I'm not sure if it was because I was trying to be stern, or what, but Tyki laughed instead and seriously annoyed me.

"So high-strung, boy," he apparently refused to refer to people by their names. "I'll tell you when you manage to meet me at Depp's. Anytime."

I sighed. Loathe as I was to admit it, I needed to keep talking to him, curious in spite of myself. "You do know I cannot get away that easily?"

"That's why I said anytime, boy," he said, still sounding dreadfully amused. "If it's the middle of the night, so be it. I'll see you, boy." And with a click, Timcanpy came back, anxiously fluttering, I had to pat him to reassure him that well…

Well, things weren't great, we still didn't quite know what the hell was going on, and Tyki was rather rude to insist on having the last word, and why on earth would he want to meet me, but.

And before I could even venture anymore down that line, Link came back into the room, heaviness around him as he obviously pondered on whatever it was that Lveille told him.

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But let me tell you, it certainly was never easy to get away from Link.

We could meet only in the dead of night, when Link was asleep (I knew for sure, because I slipped some odourless, flavourless sleeping pills into his meal, guaranteed success even for a highly trained Crow, but we couldn't do it all the time or it'll make him resistant, or something). For some reason Tyki chose Depp's, a high-end hat shop, popular with the gentlemen of that time still trying to cling on to their social status. Mana never could shop at Depp's, his top hat was an old one, and as the 14th so helpfully reminded me, it was actually his, which meant that Mana was carrying around a piece of the 14th all the time. The 14th didn't quite know how to deal with my troubled mind at that time so he just left it alone, and with me still getting used to a foreign presence in my mind that could actually sometimes speak as he so wished, I set off to see Tyki.

It being the middle of the night, it was rather unnerving to hear only my own footfalls and nothing else, Timcanpy flying before me trying to spot the man before I could. Depp's was in the center of town, and as we came close we could see the silhouettes of various top hats in the dark window, and the man himself leaning against the shopfront, his top hat gleaming in the little amount of light we got from the flickering street lamps.

As soon as he saw us, he straightened up. I could never get used to that long mane of hair he had, tied up at his nape, somehow accentuated with the hat on his head. That ever so polite, silky voice.

"Hello, boy."

When he smiled and tipped his head, the 14th in me recoiled a little and hissed. I did not quite know where or how the response in me came about, but this was what I found myself saying.

"Hello, Mr. Beauty Mark."

And so before I could even register what I myself said, Tyki Mikk blinked and laughed, a truly amused laugh as nothing I've heard from him before.

So what do you know, he's human after all. Maybe.

"We need to talk, boy," he said, still sniggering a little, and I'd like to say I was all coolly unfazed that day, arms crossed and (I tried my hardest to perfect this) an eyebrow raised.

"In this place?" The 14th seemed to echo my sentiments, that born and bred gentleman. Tyki (again) looked amused and just nodded in the direction of a dark alley. I could feel the 14th raising an eyebrow effortlessly.

"There are places open at this time of night, boy," he said with a slight curl of the lips, making me wonder till this day if he was still amused or whether at that time he was mocking.

Now, Mana had always said (apparently to the 14th too, who could never shut up now that he knew how to communicate in dreams and in vague thoughts and emotions) not to go to dubious places with dubious people but, eh, I've gotten my arms nearly bitten off, got killed, got myself turned into a zombie, and not to mention all those things when I was with Cross, so, this couldn't be that bad.

The 14th was oh so kind to remind me of a certain individual named Murphy. Shrugging it off, and still cursing my inherent curiosity to find out what this was all about, I followed Tyki down that dark alley, into who knew where.

Notes:

My story for Poker Pair Week. This was cooked up over a weekend. I hope you like this chapter and will continue to enjoy this story! Oh, the combination of prompts somehow produced a plot, so this is a whole story, unlike my entry for Allen/Lavi week (:

Prompts are more often than not wildly twisted out of context so don't be alarmed if you can't find it in the chapter.

Reviews are much loved, thanks for reading this far!