Alternate chapter title: "Every Story Has a Perverted Moment" ...and honestly, I had to get that out right at the beginning so I wouldn't be tempted to do something that would completely destroy the plot. It's a small funny thing, but I do admit that I have been known to be a CrossAllen fan.. but it's meant for humor in here, nothing more. A failure at humor, but at least you wont be stuck with something else that's way out there and stupid, right? So forgive that little line... it probably wont happen again... ^^' No kill, please?
And I'm admitting it now... I'm a review whore 0.0; And guys, 11 reviews in THREE HOURS?? 8D -bursts from joy- REECCORDD!!! -faints- ...but if I didn't reply to you, blame the little fainting incident, don't worry about my health, and just keep 'em comin'~!
Because of the fast response, I'm not even going to wait a week (like was the original plan) before posting this!! 8DD
..but once I get through the other two already-written chapters, you're all going to be stuck on the same updating schedule as dA... which is no schedule, and means writers block, spur-of-the-moment raving and, of course, my list of excuses that are becoming more famous than Cornellia Funke (not really 8D )
Sooo... also, look forward to some card game allusions. The main one being 'War'. I'm putting an explanation on how to play at the bottom, so if you don't know how to play War, go down there! 8D
Disclaimer: I own D. Gray-Man and Spark is now being fed constantly by Dominic. (Dominic Deegan: Oracle for Hire fans know that translates into, "If I owned it the universe would collapse" )
Allen was nursing a new bruise on his face while Kanda once again looked murderous, it was quite understandable, as Allen had ducked behind him to use as a human shield when Greg had tried (unsuccessfully, making Allen pretty happy) to punch him. Still, Allen had been hit very hard by Kurtus a bit later, and twice more by a combo of the two. The result of a flying chair thrown askew by a certain white haired teen had hit another, not yet involved man, in the head. The result had been a full-out bar brawl.
Which was the main reason why the exorcists were out here now, back in the carriage, searching for another place to rest for the night. Allen was once again cuffed to the lanturn stick, tugging at it absentmindedly at random intervals. Kanda sat across from him, glaring hard and rarely blinking as Lenalee tried to humor him, perhaps calming him down some so that he didn't twitch so very much. Lavi and Komui sat beside Allen, both occasionally glancing over at the silent boy who did nothing much more than look out the window in a daze.
"Allen, why are you travelling with Cross, anyway?" Lavi asked, trying to arouse their catch from his silent stupor. Allen blinked slowly and turned his head.
"He found me, and if he hadn't I probably would've died. I had innocence, so he trained me. That's about all there is to it," Allen said in a smooth monotone, as though he had given this or some similar explanation to many people over the past years. Come to realize it, Lavi didn't even know how long Allen had been with Cross.
Well, it was quite natural to not know much about someone whom you had just met hours before, but it wasn't so normal when that person in particular you had happened to be trying to find for almost a month... and the person they were travelling with, several long years.
Being a Bookman, his sensors were perked and he realized he wasn't going to get any sleep if he didn't find an answer to the question right then and there. "How long have you been with him?"
"Five years this December," Allen answered, still in the monotonous voice. Lavi choked, Lenalee gaped, Kanda blinked and Komui almost fell out of the carriage. Allen just went back to staring out the window, as though mocking their reactions to learning...
Learning...
Learning he had just been living with the man who had quite possibly tried every end of the spectrum, and might've easily created some new ends, for almost five years as the equivalent of a servant!
And there were a lot of types of servants in this day and age.
"F-five years?" Lavi choked out, hoping he had heard wrong, but just being a Bookman made that unlikely. Everyone else having similar reactions to him just made it more unlikely his ears had failed so suddenly. Allen turned around and frowned deeply with a heated glare that would forever be etched in their nightmares.
"Yes."
No one spoke to him for a long time.
It wasn't much of a long trip. Short and sweet, supposedly, but it seemed so long to the occupants in the carriage. Lavi was straining to keep his eyes open, mostly out of worry about the younger boy whom they had recently abducted from an alley way. Kanda dozed quietly and Lenalee switched places with Lavi for the final leg of the trek, allowing the two siblings to sleep on each other's shoulder.
Leaving Lavi practically alone in a carriage with the apprentice of one of the most fearsome generals in the history of the Black Order. Sure, Kanda would probably wake up the moment anything happened, and Lenalee and Komui were right there, ready to be jostled awake at any sudden movement, but nevertheless, Lavi was still the only one awake other than the white haired boy, who was still staring out the window.
Like he had been for the past half hour, staring off into space and the stars and the sky as though it was like nothing he had ever seen before. More questions rose in Lavi's archive-like mind, and he decided to voice them, as much out of curiosity as the need to stay awake.
"What do you see out there, anyway, Allen?" Lavi asked. Allen turned his head to face. Lavi realized something as he did. Allen was just as tired as the rest of them, maybe even more tired. There were bags under his eyes that were exaggerated by the late hour and the odd glow of the lanturn. Lavi had the impression he was going to keel over at any moment into and perhaps fall into a comatose. He quickly changed his question.
"When was the last time you got some rest?" He asked, perhaps a little louder than necessary, as Kanda stirred lightly in his sleep before relaxing again and the quiet snores once again resumed along with the steady rise and fall of his chest. Allen sighed quietly.
"I dun know," He mumbled. "'While, I was working when you found me," He said. "I cant help you guys, I 'unno where Master is. 'Im wont say neither," His words were slurred by lack of sleep. Being tired apparently loosened his tongue in more than one way. "Worked too hard an' didn' rest much... needed ta... used to it, s'pose..."
Lavi realized the way he was pronouncing some letters were similar to the dialect from a not-so wealthy british village. Probably England, as far as he could make out. It wasn't the blank, almost unaccented speech he had used before. Allen must have been extremely tired.
"Too much..." He said in his hushed, slurred voice, "Hurry up..." Lavi sighed. Empathy. Of all the emotions Bookman were allowed to have, why empathy to be 'the one'?
"Allen," He said. The white haired boy snapped partly out of his daze to try and look at him with unfocused eyes. "Get some sleep, alright? You look like the living dead."
Allen smirked for some odd reason. "Living dead? Haha... guessa maybe," He muttered. His head fell over onto the glass of the carriage window and he didn't move for a while. A long while.
000
"Lavi, did you drug him while we were asleep?" Lenalee asked, waking up to find Allen still completely out of it. Lavi shook his head innocently. He had expected Allen to sleep for a while, but he had slept through the entire remainder of the trip in the carriage and even though Kanda carrying him up the stairs and dropping him onto the hard hotel matress.
"No, really, I just told him to go to sleep, cause he looked more tired than any of us!" Lavi said hurriedly. "He didn't wake up!" He cried, trying to emphasise that it wasn't his fault. Komui sighed.
"Let's just let him be tired. If there's one thing I pity about Cross's apprentice, it's going to be how hard he'll be working..." He muttered. No one apparently heard him, and the three continued to banter amongst themselves. Komui had no problems with that, but he did wish someone would take notice of him.
"How do we wake him up then?" Lenalee cried, perhaps a bit louder than necessary.
"I don't know!" Lavi cried back, equally unnecessary with volume.
"Maybe we throw him into water..." Kanda suggested quietly. Lenalee and Lavi turned at the words of the appropriate volume, quite sure they had heard something wrong.
"Dont you mean, 'throw water on him'?" Lavi asked, his volume down to match Kanda's hush. The japanese shook his head.
"Throw him into water," He repeated again, a smirk plastering itself on his face. Lavi and Lenalee shuddered.
"But... he'd drown..."
"Exactly."
Lenalee and Lavi turned to face each other, almost surprised into laughing because of the looks of horror etched onto each other's faces. But that was almost. They stared at each other with horrified looks on their faces as Kanda cackled in the background. They had realized Allen had been able to really get under his skin the previous day, but...
"...I suggest we get some breakfast..." Komui muttered, deciding the youngers had had enough time to banter and argue over killing the boy, which certainly wasn't about to happen as long as he was the only link to Cross that they had.
Lenalee and Lavi just were grateful that Kanda had agreed to postpone the murder until after noodles.
000
Allen honestly hadn't slept in a very long time. However long it was exactly, he wasn't sure, but it had been at least two days. He had been too busy to do anything, except destroy Akuma and pay money. Food and looking normal and sleep had suddenly taken the back seat. He had no money and no time for anything but his purpose... and quelling one of his most horrible nightmares, but that was a personal interest.
His eyelids were incredibly heavy when he realized they were closed. He couldn't quite recall when he had finally gotten the chance to sleep, but it had felt like too short a time. But there was a rule, apparently. If you are human, look like a human, possess a human body, or do anything else that gets you stuck in a human-like form, unless you're in a coma or so heavily drugged you might never wake up, you cannot sleep past thirteen hours. It just doesn't work like we want it to.
It was just a fact of life. Life works like that, it uses facts, not rules. So you just cant ever sleep as long as you would like to. Constant background noise certainly doesn't help much, either.
He couldn't make out exactly what was being said, it had been several moments since he had awoken and been conscious of being awake and the sounds were suddenly much less than they had been when he woke. Or at least he guessed they must have been louder, otherwise, he wouldn't have woken up to such soft sounds.
The only soft sound he would wake up to included animals, people, and the sound of a wine bottle or vodka being uncorked.
And then there was the odd sound that was innocence, which sounded like some sort of wail, but that was another story altogether.
The odd, uneven clunking of shoes going away filled the layer of air near the floor, not being loud enough to fill the room, and he counted three pairs leaving. Three... but why would there be three people with him?
The faces of a beautiful dark haired girl, a friendly red haired boy and a moody but plenty teaseable dark haired samuri entered his mind. He groaned lightly, without really realizing he had made the sound, as he remembered the earlier day's events. He recognized the dull ache— which he had somehow ignored before— as a result of the handcuff that had kept his arm up and bruised it steadily as he pulled against it through the night.
He tugged lightly at it and realized they had removed it. His right arm was free, as was his left, as though that would have been an issue, though. Thinking back, he had always known he could easily break the handcuff should he want to. It had always been the looming threat of three exorcists and his fatuge that had held him back from playing that card.
A Ten of Spades, it was. The enemy not knowing his trump, so he would be free to use it whenever they were not alert. A true trump, though not entirely a powerful one, it was certainly a better than most. Not an ace, but still very good.
Slowly, Allen opened his eyes, adjusting the orbs to the now-bright light of the late morning. It was a beautiful day, he admitted, even though he hadn't even looked anywhere but the ceiling above him. It was white, very pale white.
And for some reason, it reminded him of a barret...
Three pairs of feet left the room, four brought me into the carriage.
He jolted up, realizing that they might have wanted him to let his guard down. His head spun around, white hair flying around his head like a halo as he scanned the room at impossible speed for whichever exorcist they left behind. Was it the girl? No, they seemed too protective of her to leave her with him. The red head? He might actually have a chance if it was him, the red head actually seemed to have some humanity. The japanese man—Kanda? It had to be him. It had to be him. He had sworn he would kill him the moment—
"Sorry, I had to get the kids out so they wouldn't hear," The dark haired man said, his white barret a stunning contrast to his frizzled black hair. It must have been quite a night he missed.
Allen narrowed his eyes. "Quite odd for someone of the upper levels to address exorcists as 'kids'," He hissed quietly. He was pissed. He had messed up.
The man gave a laugh. "Lenalee is my little sister," He replied, "The exorcists get to be family after you have one to adore first," Allen snorted. He highly doubted two siblings had both gotten into the Order. He supposed Lenalee had to be the girl, though, just by process of illimination. At least he knew two of his captor's names now, instead of them being simple faces.
"Right," Allen said, playing along, "So you two are brother and sister, great. Really great, I'm stuck in a family organization," The man shrugged.
"Not exactly like that," He said.
"Why would you send your sister to the apprentice of the biggest womanizer on Earth, anyway?" Allen asked.
"I had a reason," The man said, still using the calm voice. "But I didn't come to gloat about my little sister, as much as I'd love to," He sighed, as though greatly disappointed he couldn't talk forever about his sister. Then, he straightened up, business-like once again. "Allen, I have a proposition for you."
Allen twitched, biting the inside of his mouth as he glared, "I already refused your offer, sir, my apologies. The answer wont be changing."
The man nodded, as though he expected this, which he probably had. Allen prepared himself for another assault at his buried desires.
"I'm not asking if there's anything we can give you," The man said quietly, the typical tone for trying to strike a bargin, "But Allen... is there something you really want to do? Not a physical possession, but an experience?" Allen blinked. That certainly hadn't been something he had expected, but the whole time with the exorcists so far had stumped him slightly. He couldn't figure out their logic, keeping him whole. Keeping him with them and trying to convince him rather than simply forcing everything out of him.
He knew they could do it, and they knew they could do it. It was all a matter of his cards. It was all because they hadn't seen his Anti-Akuma weapon. That was all that was holding them back, his training and his trumps. It was endlessly nerve-wracking, knowing that at any moment, something could go wrong and every trump he held would be opened like a book for them. Not just the Ten of Spades, but the King, Queen, Jack, and Ace as well.
If the enemy knew you had a Royal Straight Flush and they didn't... well, there wasn't exactly much you could do to stop them from taking a shot at you to try to steal your cards. Or just kill you for having them in the last gambol. The one with the biggest stakes and the largest prize.
He had to go for it. Go for something insanely huge, large, something completely impossible to stop the fist in the air and save all the cards. The problem was, it wasn't a lie. The hugest, most impossible experience he could wish for was something that he really truly wanted. The simple card game sooned turned into war.
Jack of Clubs
"I want to kill the Earl, if you absolutely must know," He said, slipping into the monotone he used so often.
"How do you mean?"
Allen blinked. "How else would I mean. I want to kill the fat marshmellow," He snapped. The man covered his mouth to stifle laughs as Allen used the nickname he had given to the Earl years earlier. It was better than 'Santa', in any case. He didn't want to shame Saint Nicholas.
When the laughter stopped finally, the man tried to clarify again. "No, I mean, is there any particular way you would like him to die?" Allen allowed his mouth to drop down. Was this man saying he thought the Order could kill the Earl so easily? The look on his face must have spoken for him, because the man shook his head quickly and hurried to clarify himself again.
"By this, I mean, do you yourself want to kill him or would you be satisfied with having a large part in his killing?" The man asked. "We cant promise you yourself will be the one to actually kill him, but what if you were so fundamental in his downfall, all he thought of was how you killed him?"
Jack of Clubs vs Jack of Diamonds
Allen could feel it in the back of his mind. The horror he had. The terrible fear of the Earl and the power the Earl had over him. What would happen to him if he lost the control the Earl had? Would Cross still be there?
The offer was so tempting, even if he didn't finish the battle. If in the short run, he lost, but the long run, he ended up winning...
How dare he even imagine that? How dare he act like that? It was impossible, absolutely obscene. But Komui kept talking, kept feeding the malice he held.
"Cross Marian has the ability to face the Earl. It may sound insane, but Cross is truly the strongest general, and he has the ability to end this war. We need him, and if you help us find him, it will surely lead to the Earl's downfall. He'll be dead, thinking of the person who found the one who could kill him."
He imagined it. His mind pulled up images without his brain's permission. The Earl's golden eyes, burning with hatred as he glared heatedly at the man in front of him, even though the man wasn't Allen. The eyes held the absolute hate that was held for Allen and only for Allen. The sweet knowledge that Allen had been the one to kill him, even if indirectly, righting everything wrong with himself in one fell swoop.
"Allen, we need you to lead us to Cross. We need you to help us. Cross has something that can utterly destroy the Earl, forever. He will never come back again and you will be able to do anything you like without having to worry about the Order anymore. We will never disturb you again if you will help us this one time."
How did this man know Allen was even going to still exist when this war ended, if it did? For all he knew, Allen might simply be destroyed at the end, or maybe before then, considering he would be with exorcists the whole while. That one word was enough to put him in danger. Exorcists were a danger, a wolf in sheep's clothing to him.
But the fleece was always so fine....
"And... Allen, if you agree, the Order will also try our hardest to cover half of Cross's debts if we are able to. We don't want you collapsing, no matter what you may think of us."
...Half?
Jack of Diamonds vs Jack of Clubs vs Queen of Diamonds
Queen beats Jack
"What's your name?" He asked, standing up. A cold feeling washed over him as he changed his personality in an instant. He held out his gloved right hand to the man in the barret.
The man blinked in suprise before also standing up and shaking his hand. "My name is Komui Lee, I'm head of departments at the Black Order."
The boy smiled, giving Komui the firmest handshake he had, hoping the signal would be transmitted. He was going through this for two, very fine-lined reasons.
"My name is Allen Walker, pleasure to do business with you, Mr Lee."
How to play War (the abridged version):
2 players, but can be more. Played with Joker. Pass the cards around until the deck is gone, each turn all players place one card face down on the tabel. After everyone's placed a card, flip them all over and the person with the highest level card wins and takes all played cards into their pile. The person with the most cards in their pile at the end of the game wins. Tied rounds have a second round between the winners. weak to strong 1-10, Jack, Queen, King, Ace, Joker (Joker beats all)