Here's the second chapter that I didn't realize wasn't crossposted here yet...
Lenalee poured a cup of coffee with an absent minded glaze over her eyes. This was the fifth cup she nearly overfilled. While the science section was more than happy to have more of her coffee, their preference was to drink it – not wear it.
She assured the ones she attended to that there was nothing wrong. It was just a fatigue she could nap off or something of the sort. Her dreamy expression led some of them to think otherwise.
"Oooh, I heard you were serving something good," came an excited voice from behind her. "Think there'd be enough for me to get some?"
Turning around, she bumped straight into Tyki. He chuckled deeply as she cradled the nearly empty pot on instinct. Her shock melted into a warm smile. "Welcome home," she said.
"I'm back," he replied mirroring that warmth.
As she let him ruffle her hair, she took the mug Allen got for him from beneath her cart. He pushed up his glasses and thanked her for the cup as she handed it over. "Same time as usual?" he asked when their faces were close.
Lenalee nodded and coyly waved as his back moved out of sight. She always enjoyed their weekly meetings to figure out what he remembered. She sighed with that same expression before.
Reever raised an eyebrow as he approached the container of cream. He poured the liquid in carefully angled so that the tension wouldn't make the coffee pour all over his white coat. "If the chief's door was open, you should know that there would be a dead finder in our office space."
Lenalee tilted her head and looked around. "Is he angry or something?" She knew Central was a hassle to deal with but as far as she knew, it was not any worse an issue as it usually was.
"You and John flirt like you two are the only ones in the room. You do this every time he comes back from a mission now too." Russell centered his stack of papers without glancing up. "Now I'm a father, but even I feel a little embarrassed when you two lose track of where you are."
"We do not!" She exclaimed. Lenalee covered her cheeks and shook her head.
Peeking his head out when he saw heard Lenalee's voice, Komui brightened up. "How is my dear sister doing today?"
"Nothing is happening!" She could feel her hands warming up from the heat of her face as she rushed out.
Komui turned to Johnny, bewildered. "Was it something I did?" The scientist shrugged as the others looked away and tried to look busy. No one wanted to add "accomplice to murder" to their résumé.
"I'm sure it is nothing more important than your papers," Bridgette said. She looked behind her at the flustered girl as she carried a stack of papers in. Raising her brow, she set the papers on Lenalee's cart and wheeled it to Komui's office letting them know that it would be there for the exorcist to retrieve.
In one of the recreation rooms, Lenalee slid into the bench across from Tyki. Her hands fell down her face until she had drug her body down to the point where her head touched the table and she just let herself slouch with an exasperated exhale.
"It's been eight minutes since I saw you." Tyki languidly raised the mug to his lips and watched her with half lidded eyes. He blew the steam in a sad attempt to keep his glasses from fogging.
It was a comical sight with his mask pulled down to his chin instead of just taking it off. But Lenalee had plenty more times to laugh about it than now. "If you had an older brother you'd understand," she complained.
"Tell me about it," he said rolling his eyes.
Lenalee sat up and grabbed his free hand. The unexpected move made him jostle his cup enough for some of the dark droplets to hit the wood. "You remember more!?"
His shoulders relaxed when he could tell he didn't burn Lenalee at all.
"Yeah, but we can talk about that later." A smile formed as he saw the pout on her lips. As she pulled back, Tyki reached for Lenalee's hands and had them meet halfway across the table with his fingers wrapped around hers.
"Well…" She tucked some of her hair behind her ear. "How was your mission? You went with Kanda to retrieve some innocence didn't you?"
He made a noise of affirmation and talked slowly, "There wasn't any innocence on our mission. It was just some issues with some of the town's old machinery this time." The exorcist nodded and leaned forward. She wanted to know if things between them had changed since the cafeteria incident.
"Is Kanda at least treating you like the other finders?"
Tyki pursed his lips and thought. He laughed after a moment, "I guess I sort of exist now? He still seems pretty angry."
"That's just his face," Lavi cut in. The pointed top of his hammer was swiftly forced into the table near the noah's hand. "Now scoot over so I can sit." Lenalee was about to make room as the redhead held his hand up in pause. "T.J. can move," He reworded.
"T.J.?" Lenalee asked with clear apprehension to the name. "I thought your nickname for him was 'Jay.'"
As Lavi sat across from the dark haired girl, Tyki went ahead and pulled the mask up, ignoring what he had left to drink.
"It's just what I've been calling him since our first mission together," supplied Lavi, "I make sure not to call him that around anyone though so no worries."
Lenalee frowned and Tyki waved her off. She knew that Lavi was a would be a wild card when it came to him finding out but this was more dangerous than she wanted it to be – even if it was only a letter difference. "Lavi calls everyone strange things." With a once over of the room, Tyki continued, "As long as he doesn't call me by that name it shouldn't be an issue."
Crossing her leg, Lenalee glared at the noah. She would pester him a thousand times if it meant they were safer. "Does Kanda know?"
"Not likely," Lavi drawled. "He's the same as usual. As of now, it's us, the general, and Crow."
"Don't forget my boy," Tyki emphasized with a jab to the redhead's side. Tyki wouldn't dream of leaving out Allen, especially since they were such close friends now.
"Yes, yes, I'm not forgetting Al," Lavi said, rubbing his side.
Lenalee smiled and reached for the abandoned mug and stuck her tongue out at him before drinking the contents. Tyki raised a brow and smirked as her lips touched the side. "So what do you think?" His voice was low and teasing.
Lavi's mouth widened as he cut a glance to the one across the table. She gulped, demure and clearly avoiding eye contact. "Think about what?" She laughed lightly. "Oh about people knowing…"
The bookman's apprentice coughed, "That is the only thing we were discussing — unless you'd like me to leave..." Lenalee objected to the latter half of the statement and slid the mug across to the noah before feigning an unbothered demeanor. He eyed her skeptically as she thought back to Russell's words.
Discussing more, Tyki eventually left to find Timothy or Allen once the conversation drifted to Lavi talking about the encyclopedias that Bookman had forced him to read and report back to him on to make sure he was absorbing the information at an acceptable rate. He couldn't even pretend to be interested in the information.
Hours later, Lenalee found her brother hiding outside the building when she had gone for a walk. She had half the heart to drag him back to his paperwork but she could tell that the solution for the cloud of gloom that hung over him could be better solved by letting him do what he wanted for the time being. She made sure no one was watching before joining him in his small alcove so he could keep hiding. Mimicking the way he held his knees to his chest, Lenalee poked his shoulder to gauge his mood.
He frowned and kept his gaze trained on the ground. "What was it like when you were brought to the Order?" Komui asked quietly. "How did it make you feel?"
"I—" She bit her lip and thought back. In those days she didn't know more than a handful of people that were staffed there. Kanda was one of her first friends in those dark halls. "It was lonely. But when you came it got easier. I didn't feel like I was by myself all the time."
Komui blew his bangs to the side and creased his brow. It was hard to tell if his focus was on the few blades of grass that had sprung up from the plain dirt or the line where the shadows ended and the sunlight began.
He wasn't looking at either. Komui didn't know where he was looking to be honest, but he wanted to find answers.
"There's a new accommodator," Komui's tone of voice was grim. Lenalee rung her hands and watched the clouds cover the light of the ground. "He's only eleven years old – which I hate to think about how he won't even be the youngest."
Lenalee couldn't find words to express her anger, she just sighed and shook her head. "They're getting younger and younger," was all she could think to say.
"That's not the only issue Lenalee." Komui closed his eyes and leaned against the wall. The cold stone sent a chill down his spine. "I spoke with him on the phone and he said he's willing to become one but that he wants us to agree to some conditions first."
Giggling, Lenalee couldn't help but smile despite the depressing reality. "He'll probably get along with Timothy then." Komui mouth turned upwards fractionally and nodded.
"The problem is that the boy wants to ensure his friends' safety – which shouldn't be a problem since they want to come with him to the Order – but he also wants us to find someone…"
"Someone…?"
He sighed, bunching the beret in his knuckles. "Tyki Mikk."
"Tyki," Lenalee squeaked. Komui looked at her slightly alarmed by her outburst. With a cough, she continued as if there was nothing wrong with the noise she had made. "So what does this mean for him? I mean we haven't known anything about that noah's whereabouts for months."
"As of right now," Komui explained, "we are the only two at headquarters who know about this. If central finds out that the boy, Eeze, has connections to a noah then I can only imagine the worse for him. Bridgette was there but all she knows is that there is a new accommodator since she was not on the call with us." Lenalee bit her lip and frowned.
Keeping him a secret was hard enough but she didn't know if this was reason enough to expose the truth. The boy they were talking of was almost certainly the one that Tyki said Timothy reminded him of.
"What do you think will happen if we do get a hold of Tyki as per his request?" Lenalee hoped her questions were subtle enough.
"He'll be killed or interrogated of course."
She drew blood from her lower lip and narrowed her eyes. "What about we let Eeze go and we just keep the innocence?"
Komui shook his head. "That's not an option." As much as he would have liked it to be one. "The church already knows."
With a sweet smile, she leaned on her brother's shoulder. "On another note," Lenalee said smoothly trying to change the subject, "what do you think of J.J.?"
Opening his mouth, Komui tried to form words before closing it at looking at her. His brow was furrowed as if to ask what relevance he had to anything they were discussing. He scratched his chin and watched her as she held stock still. "He's a competent finder despite his memory issues… Why do you ask?"
"Oh no reason." Lenalee stood and stepped out into the sunlight. Her hands were clasped behind her back as she stretched and looked at him. "I just want to know your, um… personal feelings towards him."
"He's nice," Komui said. "I'm glad you two are friends even though I think he's too close to you half the time. You seem happier lately. But curiously, I've tried looking for his files and I can't find it. I wanted to let his family know he's doing alright." Lenalee's eyes widened and she quickly hugged him with a peck on the cheek.
"I'm sure they were just misplaced in the move." As she walked away, Lenalee turned back for a moment. "I know what to do about Eeze. Just keep him safe while I figure out the minor details!"
In the meantime, Tyki watched Lavi and Kanda train with impassive eyes, half closed, almost like the intense fighting was boring him. Johnny was on the edge of his seat, biting his nails with a few of the other finders who had come to watch doing the same not much farther away.
He could remember the familiarity in how they dodged and blocked each other but at the same time, it was all new. The feeling of being removed from the battle is what bothered him.
He couldn't explain it. He wanted to be in the middle of the action but that's not what finders were supposed to do. That bothered Tyki to no end.
Lenalee would dodge most questions that he had and wait to see what he remembered before explaining anything to him. Her reasoning made sense considering from all he gathered, he as "Tyki" and not "J.J." was a dangerous person.
A major chunk of his memories were still lost. All the ones that came to him were fragmented and hazy at most. He could remember that he had a family but there were enough inconsistencies that he even questioned if he remembered that right. On one hand, he knew he had a brother and that there were others like them like the little girl that he could remember playing with. On the other hand, Tyki remembered a little boy with scruffy hair and two men that he could vaguely remember traveling with. He didn't care which was true but wanted to believe that it wasn't just his brain deluding itself from how much he tried to piece things together over the last several months.
Lenalee and he had tried practicing different hobbies to see what he remembered. Tyki was grateful for that. She started with things that she knew were familiar, cards and fighting being one of them. Then she moved to subjects that were more hit or miss. Like dancing all the way to a graveyard picnic.
She had him volunteer in the cafeteria until Jerry realized that Tyki didn't even know the basics of cooking with heat. He could organize books and papers with ease but it didn't prove fruitful to alleviate any of the amnesia. If anything, it bored him to death when Lenalee wasn't there to talk to him.
Half of him didn't want his memory to return. He was happy with Lenalee. The other half knew that as a 'noah' he would have to leave eventually. Tyki would look in the mirrors and wonder how he could be one. They all had gray skin and golden eyes while he had darker, but certainly not gray skin and brown eyes. Was he color blind and memory impaired?
"Afternoon Jay," he heard as a pair of arms wrapped around his torso, easily taking him away from his thoughts. Lenalee rested her head on his shoulder and glimpsed over the training grounds. He smiled, enjoying the skinship that they shared.
"That's awfully forward of you," Tyki chimed.
As she whispered to him about the new exorcist she took note of the smile growing on his face. It was the same excited look when he remembered a bit of his past that made him happy. They agreed to meet Eeze when he arrived at headquarters.
Their delight by onlookers was not quite taken as the chaste interaction that the two saw it as. They snuck glances at the way Lenalee's arms roamed his chest, her body pressed against his back, and felt like the need to distance themselves from the intimate interaction. Tyki adjusting his head to leave his uncovered mouth less than a breath from hers didn't help their case either.
Komui walked in, calling for his sister a mere moment after Tyki had kissed Lenalee on her forehead and left. She and all in the vicinity breathed in relief as Komui and Tyki said hello while they passed each other completely oblivious to the level of tension in the vicinity. The former barely gave the later a second glance but there was a clear look of suspicion as he passed the noah that had them all stiff in apprehension.
"I should probably get back to work," Johnny blurted. He made sure not to make eye contact for fear that his supervisor would be able to read the embarrassment on his face and connect it to why he was so jittery earlier.
The moment Komui fixed her with a faintly cheerful face, Lenalee was close enough to see the serious look in his eyes. As they left the area, they made pleasantries until he was sure that they were out of range of any prying ears before he grabbed her arm.
"You'll figure out the minor details?" He whispered furiously, "John James doesn't exist and that was confirmed by looking over the details of the mission I sent you on months ago. I wrote down the names of all the finders you went with and you brought someone else back to the order!" Lenalee shrunk back and looked away, knowing that he had unraveled the whole lie. "Lenalee, don't pretend this isn't serious."
"I'm not pretending, Komui!" Eye's closed, she shouted. "It was a stupid choice but even you can see he isn't a bad person." Her tone lost its edge and cracked. "Can't you?"
He flinched at the sharp response. Lenalee's shoulders were shaking as she tried not to cry.
Frowning and turning away, Komui let go of her arm. "I thought you would say something to defend him..." He had to adjust his glasses to relieve the tension in his features. There was no way she would back down with the fire in her eyes and the twitch of her brow. He spoke defeatedly, "As long as you keep him out of trouble, I'll draw up some records when I can. I'm not going to lose you." There was a spark of hope that flickered in her eyes as Lenalee grabbed his hands and told him she knew how things could be fixed before running off to find Tyki.
Komui stood there, momentarily shocked. He planned on telling her that the noah needed to go that this was non-negotiable but even with all his forethought he couldn't refuse his sister.
Tyki was in his room, shuffling a deck of cards as he looked over the ceiling. Lenalee didn't bother knocking as she threw the door open. "We're going on the mission to get Eeze and his friends," Lenalee said, closing the door and locking it as she moved to sit on the other bed in the small room.
"The other two are out." His roommates were never there in the middle of the day not that he needed to tell her that. "Did something else happen?" He asked.
Lenalee sighed before telling him about the confrontation that she and Komui had. Tyki listened quietly. He stood up part way through to sit next to her and offer comfort. As she finished telling him the details, the two discussed what they would do.
It was these moments he loved the most. Even though she had been crying over the fight, Tyki was able to bring a smile to her face.
Lenalee confided in him as much as he did in her. And he knew it was stupid how much he wanted to get closer to her in these moments. He knew from everything he was told, that the stakes were high. But Tyki would rather be the biggest fool in the world than pass up a moment to make her make her smile.
Thank you for reading!
