A/N: I have NEVER updated this quickly. In my life. :D
Please give thanks to MissterCackles for being my beta and making sure reading this chapter wouldn't give you an eyesore! Love her. ^^
If it's not too much to ask, reviews are embraced with joyful sobs.

Also- a note. 'Irmão' means 'brother' in Portuguese. It's pretty obvious, but just in case...

Credits: Hoshino-san owns. Though she should learn to share. ;w;


Exotica

oo2: Ambience

As Lavi swung his hammer down and down again on the targets, his mind drifted, and the monitoring golem that was tabbing his progress hummed softly in disapproval at his diminishing accuracy. Growling at the patronizing buzz, the redhead wiped his brow with the back of his hand, and twirled Nyoibo deftly in his skilled arms. Hearing the quickly spinning hammer slice through air, birds in the vicinity of Lavi's training grounds squawked in alarm, flapping their wings to flee.

"Gouka Kaijin: Hiban!" Stamping the fire seal with his enlarged hammerhead, the exorcist swung toward the sky, a writhing serpent of inferno launching itself at some unknown enemy. Shading his emerald eye with gloved palm, Lavi squinted toward the high skies, and then glanced to the monitoring golem for a status. The numbers blipped out of the black machinery's mechanic voice: "Synchro-rate: decreased 3%."

The Bookman apprentice groaned under his breath, deactivating Nyoibo in thoughtful silence. He hefted the rapidly shrinking hammer in his hands, and once it reached its minimum size, slipped it into the strap on his leg. It was that damn Noah, he knew that. Raking a hand through his shock of crimson hair, not for the first time, he allowed his mind to wander back to the glowing eyes of Tyki Mikk, staring hungrily at him as he spoke of Lavi's deepest dredges of guilty desire. Looking back on it now as a practical Bookman, he laughed bitterly at himself and his hormonal cravings. He would have to watch himself from here on, but feeling a pang of fear in his stomach, he couldn't shake off the Pleasure's promise to take him the next time they met.

Tyki clearly had plans to break Lavi while holding him at the merciless point of pleasure, either as a Bookman, exorcist or simply as a boy, he didn't know, but the scene could not be permitted to play.

Heading back to the towering castle, Lavi shrugged off the remainder of his worries. If anything was likely, Tyki would probably forget about their deal and leave him alone…

At that moment, there was a shout of unbridled excitement, and a yelp of surprise in answer. Looking toward the Gate, Lavi could see Krory, launching himself at Miranda, who had just returned from her mission that morning. "Miranda, Miranda," the Transylvanian exorcist burbled in that childish way of his. "How are you? Did the mission go well?"

The woman blushed as Krory adoringly put an arm around her shoulder. As she responded in a mirthful voice, Lavi lifted a hand in greeting to the Finder who had also arrived with Miranda, smiling at the white-robed woman. The Finder shook her head knowingly, and after glancing at the curious pair, returned to her previous task of convincing the unreasonable gatekeeper to let her in.

It was painfully obvious that Krory and Miranda were more than just two friends with a lot in common, though nobody had ever mentioned it before, for fear of flustering the couple into incurable mortification. They clearly made one another happy though, and it pleased the rest of the Order well enough.

Lavi crossed his arms behind his head, the smile still staying strong on his visage. He had never been jealous, he realized, and the thought of lacking pleasure hadn't even come into his thoughts before Tyki had brought it to his attention. Momentarily, the grin on his lips faltered, tainted by a dark scowl of disgust. It figured that the murderous Noah would try to throw his mind into disarray…

Seeking distraction, the redhead wandered into the vast castle, searching for friends. Cupping hands around his mouth, he shouted throughout the building from floor to floor. "Yuu! Allen! Lenalee!" He continued this task for minutes, until he finally coaxed a disgruntled Kanda from what appeared to be one of his hair grooming sessions. Indeed, his fists were clenched around the wooden handle of a brush, which Lavi assumed was acting as his own neck in the samurai exorcist's imagination.

"Yuu!" He cried in glee, running to the slightly older boy.

"I'm here already, Baka-Usagi."

"I'm bored. Entertain me."

A hiss of metal on metal sounded, as Kanda unsheathed Mugen from its black scabbard. "Oh, I'll entertain you," the Japanese roared, the deactivated sword threatening precariously at Lavi's throat.

Used to this attack, the redhead easily ducked under the blade, reappearing beside Kanda. "Come on, lemme braid your hair just once, please? I'll take it right out after I'm done."

"Che, I saw what happened to Lenalee last time you did that to her," the samurai snarled condescendingly, flicking Mugen toward his colleague dangerously. "She had curls that wouldn't come out for hours."

A tentative smile crossed the Bookman apprentice's lips, having found some temporary asylum from the betraying thoughts of the Noah of Pleasure.

--xoxoxo--

A gloved hand rose and curled to knock on the vast oak door of the Kamelots' mansion, and almost instantaneously, a maid with a star scarred on her forehead answered the summons, ushering the man inside. She took his top hat and overcoat, gesturing to the rich parlor inside. "This way, Lord Mikk. I'm afraid you just missed Duke Millennium—he went off to find you, I believe."

Tyki sighed, making a noise of exasperation. "He overreacts… I'm two days late, what does he expect…? Thank you, Emma." Before he could take a step further though, a large object threw itself at him, and he blanched in alarm, lifting his brow as Road latched onto his shirtfront.

"Father, Tyki's here!" She announced in merriment, grinning up at her adopted uncle.

"Hey, Road," he greeted the Dream Noah amicably. He looked up as Cyril entered the parlor as well, leaning against the doorframe and staring at his younger brother in adoration. "Irmão," he added in his native language.

"Where were you, sweetling?" The elder cooed, an annoying grin on his thin lips.

"Eh," Tyki provided generically, a frown slipping onto his own face.

Cyril looked to his daughter for a translation, and she supplied with more detail, "He went off to do his Pleasure business."

Immediately, the Minister grew interested. "Oh really now, Tyki. Was she a keeper?"

"He," the younger Noah corrected, sweeping back his long mane. "And Cyril, you know I have no intention of marrying anyone, so drop it. They're all simple human pleasures, if I have to remind you again." When his brother made no motion to take the cue of leaving, Tyki snorted, and turned on his heel, making his way up to his own temporary bedroom, Road still attached to his dress shirt.

The Minister made a pouting noise at his sibling's rude departure, but let him leave, only calling after him in a motherly fashion, "Well, after you two have had your 'girl talk', won't you come down and try some of the cookies Tricia and I baked?"

Tyki responded by flicking up his middle finger behind him, earning a chuckle from his all-too-loving brother.

Once in his neglected bedroom, the man detached Road from his frame with some difficulty, then strode to his dresser, pulling out fresh clothing, and throwing them on the bed, which his niece had perched herself on. "You're going back to your human hobos, aren't you?" The Dream whined, her brow creasing in upset.

A dark eyelid twitched at this crude referral, but Tyki let it go. They were vagabonds, it was true enough. "I am. Why?"

"Tyki, you never stay long with us." Road lay down on her stomach, stockinged legs kicking the air in a mild tantrum. "Why can't you ever be part of our family?"

"Hey, hey now, I spend a lot more time here than Lulubell or Skinn."

"Yeah, but Lulu's always kind of been a loner, and Skinn just blows up at the twins anyways. You're our family family, Tyki!"

Her uncle sighed wearily, now searching for his suitcase. "Damned if one of the maids went to go get it polished again," he muttered under his breath. "Right, well Road, I'm sorry. I'll stay longer next time, okay?"

Unexpectedly though, instead of replying to his rather pitiful promise, the Dream asked in mock coyness, "What's going on, ne?"

He looked up at the girl, confusion in topaz irises.

"Oh, stupid Tyki," Road enthused, rolling gracefully off the bed so she could stand to walk toward her family. "I'm not as oblivious as you'd like to think. You're usually in a good mood after using someone for pleasure, but now you're as sour as anything. Did the Earl bother you again?"

It was futile to try and hide anything from her, Tyki knew. So he decided to simply tell her what was on his mind, gallingly parallel to Cyril's term of 'girl talk'. Besides, Road, being the sadistic little witch she was, would probably approve of his intentions anyhow; it just seemed poisonous enough for her tastes. "I am rather fed up with the Earl," he told his niece wearily, leaning against his dresser as he crossed his arms. "Why am I the only one he calls 'pet'? Not even Lulu gets called that…" A twist of annoyance flickered over his face at this point. "So I went and found an exorcist, and—" he dropped off, seeing Road's widened eyes and completely captured attention.

"Not Allen?"

Tyki had difficulty containing his snort of ridicule at her choice of priorities. "No, not the Walker boy. His red-haired friend. But I didn't get to do anything… he was adamant, but I'm taking him without a doubt, next time."

"Tyki-pon, why?" The girl cried in distress, slamming her fists down on her uncle's chest, winning a groan of pain from him. "You know the Earl's going to forbid you from falling in love with an exorcist."

The Portuguese huffed in depreciation, edging cautiously away from his violent kin. "You all know I'm the Noah of Pleasure. I can't be tied down, and if anything, I'm going to stay with the exorcist to break him, you know, instead of penning frustrations up."

Satisfied by this response, Road allowed a slow smirk to plague her adolescent lips. "Millennium must piss you off a lot sometimes, huh?"

Tyki shrugged, moving to throw his selected clothes into his suitcase. "Not so much—more the want to fuck up somebody's life."

His niece giggled darkly, helping him to pack by pulling out his messily arranged shirts and folding them neatly back into the case, ignoring his disgruntled expression. "He's a Bookman too, isn't he? That'll be especially fun. Well, as long as you leave my Allen alone, it's okay. But," fishing a toffee candy from her skirt pocket, the Dream embodiment frowned, an oddity occurring to her. "Why did you let Bookman say 'no'?"

The male Noah opened his mouth to give an answer, but had to close it after realizing that he had nothing to say.

A concerned gleam entered Road's eyes, and she shook her head slowly in warning. "Careful, Tyki…"

"Don't fret your pretty little head about it," the Pleasure assured her, patting her on the top of her soft, indigo hair. "Other than his being the easiest exorcist to mess up, he also lacks a heart as a Bookman, doesn't he?"

--xoxoxo--

Lavi had been confident in his ability to dissuade the Noah from taking him on the next mission, if remembered at all. His stupidity could be cleaned up by a clever enough plan of wit, and he was determined to stay true to his chosen path of Bookman. So when a science department assistant had called to him in the cafeteria, asking him to go see Komui for his next mission once he was done with lunch, the boy felt slightly more prepared for trouble.

After having finished his meal, Lavi stood up from the table he and his three friends occupied, but was halted from walking away, by a large body. "Oh, hello," he spoke in surprise to the white-robed chest of a Finder.

"Mister Exorcist Lavi?" The man asked hopefully. The Finder was a tall, blond fellow with a ridiculously clumsy but good nature, who Lavi had seen a few times before stumbling all across Headquarters in a cheery lope. "My name's Gozu and I'm supposed to be helping you with your next mission."

A short 'che' of disapproval sounded from behind the exorcist and Finder, and they turned around to see Kanda, pushing his unconsumed soba tray away from himself, as if the sight of Gozu had made him lose all appetite. "Don't tell me he's escorting you to find something as sacred as Innocence, Baka-Usagi."

"Er," the Bookman apprentice began, "I don't know, but I'd guess so, if he came to find me?" Looking to the giant of a man for a confirmation, he was given an eager nod.

Allen and Lenalee looked back and forth between Kanda and Lavi, curious about the source of the Japanese exorcist's obvious irritation. However, the most they could do for the mortified Finder was smile sheepishly in apology for their overtly-rude companion.

"I might warn you," Kanda scoffed wryly, "that he'll probably be of more burden than assistance, no matter what his strength suggests."

The redheaded Bookman smiled winningly at his ill-tempered friend, and assured him, "I can take care of it, Yuu-chan, but Gozu's capabilities can't be that bad…" He waved to his three colleagues in farewell, and patted his Finder on the shoulder consolingly as they progressed to the Science Department. "Don't worry about Yuu. He really loves all of us—he just does a good job of hiding his emotions."

"A really good job," Gozu sighed quietly, in awe at the prospect of a caring Kanda.

--xoxoxo--

The mission, to Lavi's immense relief, was located in southern England. As long as it wasn't in Nice, France, it was far enough away from his encounter with the Pleasure Noah, and hopefully, from the Pleasure himself. The objective was a shard of Innocence, located in an old castle—simple enough. The only drawback to this seemingly ideal mission was that it was too close to have to use the Ark for, so Lavi and Gozu would be travelling by local transportation, and spending the night at a Black Order supporter's inn.

Currently, the redhead was idly looking out the fogged-up window of a horse carriage, his scarf wrapped tightly around his neck to protect against he rainy cold. Gozu was acting as coach-driver outside, and Lavi felt a guilty pang that he was warmer inside the vehicle, but the Finder had insisted that 'All exorcists should conserve their health!'

"Sir Lavi," the man called to him, straining to be heard over the onslaught of rain, "we're almost to the town, so please be ready!"

The redhead gave back a sound of agreement, peering toward the end of the road, where a series of yellow lights gleamed silently, guiding as a beacon through the clouds' weeping to the sleeping village. As the carriage bumped haltingly over the poorly cobblestoned hillside leading into town, the exorcist could hear Gozu give a shout of shock. Instinctively, he latched his hands onto Nyoibo, and looked through the window that the Finder's back was to. "What is it? Akuma?"

"No, a man! Poor guy, walkin' in the rain all this time."

"A man—" Lavi's eye dilated suddenly, and a sick nausea clenched his stomach. It couldn't be Tyki, could it? The carriage came to an unwelcome stop, and Gozu's deep voice boomed kindly.

"Where are you headed, sir?"

"Gozu! That dumbass," the redhead growled to himself furiously. "Gozu! He could be an Akuma, don't let him in!" He hissed through the window, fingers glowing green around his hammer.

"Oh—" the Finder gasped in shame at his own blatant stupidity. "Sir, Sir, I'm sorry!"

Rolling his eyes in vexation, Lavi pushed a hand against the carriage door to exit and be ready to attack, should the man outside truly be a demon, but hearing the traveler respond to Gozu in an eerie voice, the redhead suddenly couldn't bring himself to open the door. Shuddering, the greatest he could muster was to announce in a quavering speech, "Oi, Akuma. If it's an exorcist you want, I'm right here."

The men outside of the vehicle, hearing this, exchanged a confused banter, and realizing that there was no way an Akuma would hear the challenge of an exorcist and do nothing, Gozu turned backward to the carriage. "Sir Lavi, he's not an Ak—"

"I know that!" The redhead's heart thudded in panic, and he desperately explained, "He could be a Noah, or are you really so useless you don't realize that?" A jolt of shameful regret shot down his nerves as he could practically feel Gozu blanch, but his trepidation overshadowed his conscience.

"So—sorry, Lavi." Giving a hasty apology to the traveler as well, the Finder cracked the whips of the horses, and the carriage was rolling away again.

The Bookman apprentice couldn't describe this irrational fear. It wasn't of the Noah exactly, but of his words that night in Nice. Cold fingers hesitated over the steamed condensation that veiled the outside to his eye, and shivering, Lavi pulled his hand away before he could wipe off the fogged glass. He didn't want to see that traveler, be he man, Akuma or Noah.

But his terrified imaginings were turned into a vicious reality, as a charming voice articulated in front of him, "What's wrong, Lavi? Whatever happened to the brave, reckless little Bookman I thought you were?"

Body shaking involuntarily, the exorcist raised his gaze to face the vagabond he had met on the train, a year and a half ago. Locked in the smug eyes of Tyki Mikk, Lavi felt his heart almost give out from the incredible rate at which it was pounding, and as the blood's travelling throughout his body practically deafened him, he knew that confronted head-on with the seductive Noah, his detailed plans of denying his body to the enemy had just become much more difficult than he'd anticipated.