What the Darkness Knows

Chapter 2

When consciousness next came calling Allen was snuggled up against something very warm, soft yet firm, and there was an annoying tickle in the back of his throat. He let out an imperceptible cough and tried to burrow further into the covers and the warmth around him. He felt a shifting, then a hand laid heavily on his head and start carding through his hair. There was a slight chuckling and then an earthquake as Allen shot up in to a sitting position blinking owlishly. His heart was beating frantically until he looked beneath him and saw Lavi coughing harshly.

"Sorry," Lavi coughed out.

Allen brought his hand up to his head and scratched it. When had he gotten in the bed with Lavi? Then he remembered the coughing fit that Lavi had that scared him so badly. Lavi was left a sweaty shaking mess trying to tell him that he was fine. Pfftt. The nurse had explained what had happened to Lavi and the sickness that he had now. He wouldn't be able to leave the infirmary for up to two weeks until his lungs started to heal. Allen had been so tired and worried that he couldn't think of leaving Lavi by himself. It still didn't sound like a bad idea. So, Allen just huffed and lay back down beside Lavi. He was awfully tired still and could sleep some more.

"Mr. Walker, I think it's time you got up and got your own bed." The same kindly nurse that had been aiding Lavi stood there with her hands on her hips looking down at Allen. "Or at least went to get yourself and Lavi some food from Jerry."

"But I'm so tired, please let me sleep." Even though Allen was hungry and his body chose that moment to remind him he didn't want to get up. He tried to put his arms around Lavi again, but was stopped by Lavi himself. Allen looked up at Lavi with a full pout on his face.

"Allen, please, you need to eat. You have to take care of yourself. I can be your pillow after you bring me some soup." Lavi said all this through the mask that was still attached to his face.

"Okay." Allen sluggishly got up from the bed and put his boots back on.

"I don't want to see you back in here for at least an hour young man." Nurse said wagging her finger in Allen's face.

After Allen disappeared down the corridor the nurse turned to Lavi. "Don't you encourage him! You need your rest, too." Lavi only looked down and picked at the blanket. "Once your fever goes down a little more we're going to get you up on your feet. You haven't walked in nearly a week and need the exercise." Lavi only slunk down more into to covers and closed his eye. He was still so tired.

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Allen was heading back to the infirmary after a very satisfying meal. He didn't realize just how hungry he had been until he walked in the cafeteria. The smells pulled him toward where the flamboyant chef was waiting. He chatted with Jerry for a little while letting him know that Lavi was finally awake and he wasn't sure what he could stomach right now. So Jerry just made a simple chicken noodle soup for him.

Allen was almost to the infirmary when he heard a loud bang and something clatter to the floor. Running the last few steps he came around the corner and threw open the door. Of course it was Lavi. From the looks of things Lavi was asleep and an arm had been thrown out that knocked everything on the side table to the floor. Sighing, Allen came over to the table and moved it out a bit farther. He placed the soup on it and look a good look at his friend. Lavi's hair was sweat soaked and some of it clung to his face. Beads of perspiration stretched across his flushed cheeks and forehead. Even in sleep his breathing was difficult and he still coughed and shivered. The bright rosiness on his cheeks showed the dark smudge under his one unobscured eye. Though there were bruises and cuts on his body from the fight, the mars to his face from the sickness made him look even worse for wear.

Allen picked up the bowl and rag that was on the floor and went to get more water. When he came back Lavi was tossing in the bed, muttering to himself, and sweat was dripping down his face. Allen wet the rag a little and dragged it across Lavi's face, mopping up as much of the sweat as he could see. The shivering got worse the closer Allen brought the wet rag to Lavi's neck. Allen returned the rag to the water again and turned back to Lavi. Lavi, who was now watching him through a barely open eye. Allen smiled at him.

"How are you feeling?"

Lavi curled a little on his side and groaned through chattering teeth, "C…co..ld."

Placing the damp rag on the table beside the bed, Allen picked up the warm bowl of soup and turned back to Lavi.

"Hope you're hungry! I brought the soup you asked for."

Lavi closed his eye and mumbled, "I'm not really hungry, Allen."

Allen frowned, "You need to eat something, Lavi. It's been days." Allen placed the bowl back down and returned to the bedside. He climbed in the bed again and moved to help Lavi sit up. Once he had his arms around him Allen could feel the quaking of Lavi's muscles. Lavi groaned again and tried to put up a feeble fight so he could lay back down, but Allen wasn't having any of it. Once Lavi was upright, Allen propped him up against his side. Realizing that there was a heat source so readily available, Lavi put his arms around Allen and buried his face in his neck.

Chuckling, Allen pulled the covers up more to drape them over Lavi's shoulders, "You know, once you've eaten something, I can stay here with you and help keep you warm."

Speaking into Allen's neck, Lavi said, "O.. ookay." Allen smoothed the damp locks of hair from Lavi's face before turning back to the table and grabbing the soup again.

"Do you think you can manage to eat on your own, or do you need help?"

Lavi opened his eye and glared at Allen for a moment before reaching out for the spoon. He didn't notice the shaking until he tried to bring the spoon to his lips. The broth had shaken out of the spoon before it left its spot above the bowl. Lavi let out a frustrated grunt and started to throw the spoon back in the bowl, but a hand caught his before he could. Lavi looked away in shame, not being able to meet Allen's eyes.

"Hey, Lavi, it's okay. Look at me." Lavi only buried his face in Allen's neck again, so Allen leaned back a little and reached for his chin. Lavi still had his eye clenched shut once his face was exposed. He heard a sigh come from Allen and a clink as the spoon was placed back into the bowl of soup.

"Open your eye Lavi, please."

Slowly, Lavi did open that eye, and what Allen saw there made his gut clench. It was pure misery.

"You've never been this sick before, have you?" At that Lavi shook his head and a tear rolled down his cheek. "It's okay to need help sometimes, Lavi. Let me help you. It's no trouble for me, you're my best friend. If you want I'll stay with you until you're completely recovered, missions be damned."

Tears were falling a little harder and Lavi nodded his head. The helplessness he felt at the riverside was returning and a choked sob wrenched itself from his throat. He felt his chest tighten again as air became harder to pull in. Please, not again. Unbeknownst to Lavi, his shaking became more pronounced and his breathing began to hitch.

"Lavi?" Allen questioned looking down at him, but Lavi was lost to his memories.

He'd missed the train and decided that he would just go on foot back to the order. The trip would do him good. Help him clear his head of all the things that are expected of him as a Bookman and an Exorcist. Or so he thought as he ran toward a clearing ahead. He'd heard the explosion and now he saw the gaping hole in the train tracks. He was already tired from walking the past two days and having to deal with this wasn't helping him at all.

Now that the Akuma had surrounded him, he could activate his fire stamp. The flames climbed high in the dusk of the sky and consumed the Akuma in front of him. There were still more closing in and he used his hammer to bludgeon them. He fell to his knees after the ones he could see were gone, breathing heavily in relief. He heard a voice. Looking up he saw Allen running toward him. He must have been on the train! Smiling to himself he thought that it figured that Allen would show up after he'd done all the work, but then he heard what Allen said. Behind me, there's more? Damnit!

Lavi sprung to his feet and turned around. He didn't see anything. He knew though that Allen could see things that he couldn't, so they had to be there. He felt the ground tremble beneath him and panicked slightly. He was extremely close to the edge of the cliff. Too close for comfort. Lavi looked to Allen again as he attempted to extend the handle of his hammer, but the ground crumbled away leaving no purchase for his hammer to save him. The last view he had before he felt the pain in his head and everything went dark was the dozen or so Akuma floating up the Cliffside and the NOTHING between him and the river far below.

He was startled awake by the frigid water and felt arms around him. He had no breath in him and try as he might, he couldn't help his body's involuntary need to breathe. He felt the water enter his lungs and everything seemed to freeze in place. His felt his heart stutter, his frantic mind screaming at himself for being so stupid, that he just killed himself. He felt his body convulse and his fingers clench in the fabric of the person's clothing that held him. His eye looking up at the surface, saw the explosions from what he assumed were the Akuma that attacked him. Then there was a shock of white hair as Lavi's failing mind supplied Allen. I'm sorry Allen, he thought as everything started to fade away.

Lavi's consciousness was somehow following what was happening with his body. He saw Allen pull him to the bank of the river, saw the panic in Allen's face and eyes at not knowing what to do. Lavi wanted to comfort him, but it was futile. There was a small hope that started to glimmer in Allen's eyes at seeing that there was still a pulse. This startled Lavi too, he thought he was dead. Lavi started to feel that hope too, he didn't want to be dead. Allen struggled with Lavi's body as he saw the water pour from his mouth. He saw Allen start to lose that hope as nothing he was doing was causing Lavi to breathe again. Lavi's heart was crushed when he saw Allen start to sob and beat on his chest. Allen's innocence started to glow.

Everything became a world wind of feeling after that. He could feel everything, the rocks he was laid on, the agonizing feeling of air, beautiful air filling his lungs, and then being horribly sick as the water emptied from his stomach and lungs. He felt arms around him again pulling him to their chest.

Lavi let out an undignified yelp as he came back to where he currently was. He was shaking and panting and sweating, and someone was petting him. Petting him? He opened his eye and found that he was crushed to someone's chest and he was crying again. Great, so much for not having a heart. Maybe he could just explain it away on being sick. That sounded good. These were wracking sobs though that escaped from his body. He saw the gray vest and the red ribbon and knew it was Allen that held him. It seemed that Allen was always there when he had a crisis of emotion. Somehow Lavi had come to rely heavily on his friend and really couldn't be bothered to be concerned about it in the slightest, he was actually thankful.

"A.. Al..len." Lavi rasped out. He couldn't get control of his emotions. The ones he wasn't supposed to have. He was so very thankful that Bookman was out on one of his own missions still, he hoped anyway.

"Shhh, it's okay, Lavi, I'm right here." The bowl of soup was forgotten on the table as Allen completely cradled Lavi's body. He was sat in the younger boy's lap leaning against his chest while a hand rubbed his back and the other was protectively wrapped around the back of his head. He felt like a small child in all ways right now and scared himself by reveling in it. Why was he coming apart at the seams right now? It's not as if he hadn't been close to death in the past. He guessed that it was the first time that he couldn't have done anything to save himself though. If Allen hadn't been there he would have been well and truly, dead. So, Lavi just clutched Allen's shirt and let himself cry.

"Did you just remember what happened? Allen asked him some minutes later.

Lavi only nodded into Allen's chest as his sobs started to recede. He was getting so very sleepy, something that Allen seemed to pick up on.

"Come on, don't think I've forgotten about you needing to eat." Lavi groaned as a few more tears coursed down his cheek. Allen brushed them away and said, "You don't have to eat it all, just some of it. Your body needs nourishment."

And so, Lavi let Allen feed him until he started to feel full and slightly uncomfortable. Allen seemed happy with what he ate, so he let the uncomfortable feeling dissipate as he melted back into Allen's embrace. It wasn't so bad relying on Allen for emotional support. He just couldn't tell Panda about it, because that would go over so well. Lavi settled against Allen, who was covering them both up with the blanket.

As time went by Lavi's strength gradually returned to him and his episodes with the oxygen mask became fewer. Allen became a rock for Lavi to rely on, never making him feel less for being weak, after all, he was just sick, right?

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Two weeks before the train incident

A girl sat on a log outside of her cottage. She was roasting a boar on her pit waiting for it to finish, it was almost done. She was going to have a visitor tonight, she could feel him. She turned to the smaller fire where her cauldron bubbled with the stew she was making to stir it. She always preferred cooking outside anyway and when a bedraggled teenager came blundering through the bushes all she could do was smile. His appearance was interesting. Snow white hair and a scar that covered half his face. She could feel his innocence as though it spoke to her directly.

"Good evening young man, are you lost?" she asked politely.

"Uh, hi… I'm sorry to intrude, but, yeh, I am a little turned around." He said sheepishly as he scratched his head. At this time his stomach let out quite the roar from being ignored all day.

The woman chuckled and asked, "Are you hungry? I can't eat all of this by myself and it's nearly finished."

Allen warred with himself over the invitation. But when he felt the ripple in his muscles the next time his stomach spoke he decided to stay. She wasn't an Akuma after all so it was relatively safe.

"Only if you don't mind. I really don't want to intrude."

"It's no trouble at all, I knew you were coming."

"Y..you knew…?"

Allen looked at her carefully now. She wore a gemmed circlet atop her head and her long reddish hair in a thick braid down her back. On her body was a fitted top with a shawl and a long skirt over her brown boots. Reminiscent of a gypsy he thought. He supposed she might look like someone who would know if he was coming. So he smiled and sat down next to her on the log.

"How did you know?"

She only pointed to the gem on her head that started to glow. He felt his innocence react to it. He looked at her again in shock this time. His own innocence glowed, but didn't activate. He gasped, "Are you an exorcist too?"

"I suppose I could be if I wanted to. I've allowed the souls trapped inside the Akuma to break from their prisons and find peace before."

Allen was getting excited, "Really? I can see them, that's what this curse is." Allen pointed to his eye. "Once the Akuma has been defeated I can see them literally break their chains and float away! That peace and happiness they feel is amazing."

"I wish I could see that myself, but I can only feel the joy they have being separated from those machines. My innocence allows the soul its own chance to break free of its bonds without any confrontation. So long as my aim is true. It also allows me to communicate with other innocence around me."

"Wait, you mean, like actually talk to it?" Allen asked stunned.

She chuckled, "Something like that."

"What does mine say?" he asked becoming excited again.

"In due time. Let's eat first."

Allen only slightly frowned, he was very hungry after all. "Okay. Hey, what's your name, mine's Allen?"

The woman smiled, "Jasmine, it's a pleasure, Allen."

"That's a lovely name!" Allen did love the smell of the little white flowers.

Jasmine went inside her cottage and brought out a small table and some dinnerware. She started scooping the stew into a couple of bowls and shearing away the flesh of the cooked animal. She cut off quite a bit more for Allen than herself. Knowing that it still wouldn't be enough to sate him, she began eating. Throughout the meal she let her innocence study him. She felt the fear, hurt, frustration, determination, and love the boy felt. It was quite the medley of emotions bottled up inside. She could also feel that he was destined for great and terrible things. He was too young to have such hateful things waiting for him. Coming to a decision, she smiled and looked up at Allen. He was too busy mauling the cooked carcass and draining the cauldron to notice her scrutiny. She started to laugh and stood up to walk over to him. She placed her hand on his shoulder, startling him.

"How long ago was your last meal? You act as though you haven't eaten in days!"

Allen had pulled a leg loose and was gnawing on the bone, he stopped and looked at her, having the presence of mind to finally be embarrassed, "Uh, heh, about a day I think." He said as he scratched his head again. "Thank you so much, for the company and the food, it's been great."

"Now, I believe you wanted to know what your innocence had to say, didn't you?"

Allen gasped again and sat down in front of Jasmine with rapt attention. He nodded vigorously.

Jasmine walked up to Allen and placed her hand on his left after removing his glove. She could get a more accurate read on what the innocence was feeling with direct touch. Her own innocence began to glow.

"Sadness, your innocence feels sorrow for your past, your losses, and not being able to do anything or comfort you in your times of need." A tear rolls down her cheek as she touches his hair, his eye. The innocence shows her Mana's death, the Earl's deception, and Cross's abuse. "It tries to compensate by aiding your intuition." Jasmine knows that Allen can see and feel the same things that the innocence is showing her as tears are running down his cheeks. She kneels in front of him and smiles through her own tears, "Happiness that you have finally found a family worthy of your goodness of soul." Flashes of Lavi, Kanda, Krory, Komui, Havlaska, and at Lenalee she gasps as her innocence glows brighter and her heart swells. And she knows, she knows that she will have to go to the Black Order soon.

Jasmine drops her other knee and leans in to envelope Allen in a bone crushing hug. They are both sobbing at the revelation of the innocence. She so rarely has an opportunity to use her own innocence in such a way. So few exorcists make their way near her cottage. Fewer still that she can sense. She pulls a few strands of Allen's beautiful silvery hair. She has an idea and the innocence agreed with her. Allen deserves some happiness in his life before his destiny begins weaving too much. Jasmine pulls back from him and kisses his cheeks and forehead.

She smiles to Allen and said, "That was quite exhausting. I have a spare room if you would like to stay for the night."

Allen is still caught in the spell of her innocence. It was incredible. She can communicate with INNOCENCE! His innocence wanted to protect him and comfort him. If he'd ever felt angry at having been given this arm, all those feelings vanished. Even though innocence had its own agenda, its consciousness cared about him and his wellbeing. He could trust his intuition. He looked at his hand where his own innocence resided and it still glowed. He felt a love for this thing in his hand that he'd never felt before, and it seemed to glow brighter in response to that love. Allen still had tears in his eyes when he looked back up to Jasmine.

"That would be great." He whispered to her.

Jasmine helped him to his feet and they began clearing away the dishes and putting out the remnants of the fires. Allen felt a lightness in his heart that he'd never known before. A belonging that no person could provide. For the remainder of the night until he fell asleep he marveled at his innocence. Once again being in awe of the abilities of all the different pieces of the God Crystal that were scattered around the world.

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