Hello, My Dears~ So here's Chapter 2, although I have no idea how long it's been since the last chapter was published~ I hope it's okay and all, I tried to make it a bit longer than the last chapter, and hopefully all of the chapters will be of this length or more, so... Enjoy~!

This Secret Of Ours: The Rewrite
Chapter 2 - Reality

...

A secret better kept hidden

Tucked away from the light of day

Tell someone? Surely forbidden

And so a secret it must stay.

...

A lie told until days have ended

And there's a heart without a beat

Because that trust would never be mended

If they saw the bitter in the sweet

...

~XoX~

Allen didn't quite know what would kill her first in this situation. Both almost seemed as bad as the other.

The blush that spread across her cheeks like a wildfire and burned with just as much heat, or the indignity and humiliation of having her enemy kiss her?

She changed her mind. The latter was most definitely the worst out of the two. All she needed was her mind to clear a little, and she could easily see that the second option was the worst. There was nothing wrong with a little blood turning her face red. It had happened before in more… decent situations.

There was a lot wrong with being kissed by a Noah, though.

She stared with wide eyes, straight into the molten gold in orbs that were lit up in pleasured amusement, feeling the soft press of lips pushing against hers, her heart thudding almost painfully in both horror and another feeling she couldn't quite put her finger on. She stayed frozen–as still as a statue–for a few moments, stunned beyond comprehension, before suddenly snapping back her senses and trying to move away from the Noah, whose grip had loosened. She tore her left arm free, and in the same instance Tyki disconnected his lips and jumped back, far enough to evade her arm as she activated it and swung at him, hoping to catch him off guard.

She should've known that catching him off guard wouldn't work, but she liked to take her chances. Like gambling…

But this is a lot more deadly than gambling…

She stood, making a visible effort to ignore the splintering pain that wove through her–now very likely to be bruised–ribs, glaring violently with numerous threats all invading her already spinning mind at once and playing themselves out on her mental screen, most of them involving the blood and death of the pervert before her. She didn't usually think things like this, sadistic thing like this, but something about this bastard just brought out the worst in her.

Strangely–actually, maybe not that strangely–Tyki reminded her of Kanda. Only a little. She tended to think violent things when Kanda was around as well–they're both arrogant, stuck up bastards, who only seem to think about themselves.

Despite that she stood frozen, words caught in her throat and thoughts jumbled beyond the point of comprehension, only one thing even slightly understandable. Treason; that was treason. But, no, they wouldn't dub that as treason… Even if they had a way of finding out, it wasn't her fault, so they couldn't blame it all on her. And nobody would even know, as long as… She patted her pocket, feeling for the hard ball that rested in there, still placed right where she'd left it. Yep, Timcampy couldn't have possibly gotten any information. He was asleep.

Odd to think that a golem could sleep… But it could also bite and hate people very much or love them like it loved Allen, so maybe not that weird after all.

"You…" she reached up, lightly brushing her gloved fingertips over her pale lips before her mouth twisted into a deep frown. "You… What's wrong with you?!" Her shoulders shook in barely contained anger, and her brow was furrowed so deeply it caused creases to appear between her eyebrows and on her forehead. Just that one touch, that one brush of lips, and she felt like she'd had a layer of her pride stripped away from her and burned before her eyes so she had to watch it wither and curl like paper as the flames licked at it, testing whether it was worth consuming or not before devouring it in a bright flurry of burning orange.

"There's nothing wrong with me," Tyki jeered, standing across from Allen at a good distance. "It's you who has been blinded this whole time by your own lies." His eyes narrowed mockingly, the grey lips that had been on hers mere moments ago twisting into a casual smirk, eyes blazing. "I told you to think, Allen Walker. So think."

Allen began her angered advance, before rethinking her advance and pausing, brow furrowing and eyes narrowing as they stared down at the scuffed ground in a deep state of processing. What did he mean, think? There was nothing to think about. Only that burning hate she possessed…

But why was that hate in her hands, filling them like a cupful of sticky blood, leaving corrupted stains long after the blood had swirled down the drain? Was it really her choice, or was she being pulled away from the sink by commanding hands before she could scrub the stains away, leaving her to deal with that heavy, metallic smell for as long as her hands went unwashed?

What was she thinking? It was her choice! There was nothing she couldn't hate about the Noah! Especially Tyki Mikk. They were homicidal, murderous sadists, who would stop at nothing to get their way and destroy the Innocence on this Earth and bring humanity to a standstill. She was an Exorcist. It was her job to stop exactly that from happening! She was going to be one of humanity's saviours. There was always the chance that the prophecy that dubbed her the 'Destroyer of Time' could interfere, but she was sure that she could save what was around her with her parasitic left arm and her comrades by her side. Saving humanity… would involve killing Tyki Mikk. It was as simple as that.

But still, that small feeling twinged in her gut, only gentle but still enough to the point where Allen believed that another dose of the feeling would bring her crashing to the ground, but she could overcome it like she overcame any other emotion that had stood in her way and stared her in the eyes with its deadly gaze. She knew the importance of emotions, but she also knew the importance of not letting them get in your road.

But… maybe, if she dared to say so and ruin every view she'd had up until now, it wasn't her who decided that she had to hate the Noah. It made sense, she supposed–rather grudgingly at that.

Well, unless she considered Road. Maybe she could keep Road out of the whole equation. The little girl had done enough. Nailed her left arm into a wall in her dream world; made her watch as an Akuma's soul as it died all over again and called to Allen for help; stabbed her cursed eye with a candle, and then just had to sweeten the whole situation by rather grotesquely licking the blood off of that candle.

There wasn't much to love about all of that.

Road's cute, childish looks weren't something Allen was fooled by. She could see it, deep in her gold eyes, that she was a lot older than she seemed. Because, deep in those bright, sadistic eyes, there was something else. A darkness, a wisdom, gained with age. The Millennium Earl had that same look deep in the windows to the soul.

But, despite all of that, despite the reasons she had listed to fuel her anger and revulsion… Allen wasn't sure what she would feel if Road was gone, if the Millennium Earl was gone, if Tyki was gone. There would be nothing in it for her. Her arm would have her deemed a monster, just like the old days. A demon, even though that was the very thing she lived to fight. How could she fight herself?

But, she realised and knew with certainty, that she did fight herself. Almost every single day she lived, she questioned everything she knew until she ended up playing a game with herself, sorting the reality from the lies. She didn't know why, but something about imagining all of that, the world without anything for her to fight against other than herself… it filled her with an emptiness so severe it reminded her of when Mana had pushed her out of the way of that carriage, and…

And nothing. Nothing. That was the past. She had to forget about it. She could gain nothing from holding that pain to her like a lifeline. It had nothing to do with the present. She had to push away those feeling, the one that made a ball form in her hollow-feeling stomach and pitch it downwards, that made her heart ache with every throb it took to force blood through her body, to keep her alive. She couldn't hold onto that.

Because in the present, they were fighting a war. A long, dangerous and bloody one, one that made Allen cringe at the very thought of all of those lives lost to the Akuma and the Noah. The Akuma were nothing like humans other than their trapped, wailing souls. Souls that screamed to be set free, called to her even when the Akuma itself screamed it wanted to kill her, making a melody of screeching, metallic hatred that grated on her ears and made her wince away, but then filled her with the resolve to kill the Akuma–not kill, set free.

But the Noah… It was the Noah she didn't understand. It was the Noah she often found herself questioning in her little game of Reality and Lies. How was it that…

How could such a monster look so very human?

~XoX~

Tyki wasn't sure what it was.

Her determination? Her intriguing white hair? The irises that drowned in mercury? The red line that slashed over her left eye, the eye that could see Akuma? The smooth, marble skin? The fact that she seemed ethereal, made completely of white just like a statue, an angel?

There was something about her. Something he was drawn to. He hadn't felt like this before. He, the Noah of Pleasure, was drawn to the indulgences in life, the sensualities that he could have just for a night before moving on. He worked for himself, and nobody else. Everything he did had a benefit for him, be it the pleasure of death or sex. So what was this? The feeling that if he got her he should never let go? He wanted her, more than he'd ever wanted any of those other women. And no wonder. They were all so drab and same, with their pretty dresses and tight corsets and sparkling eyes and make-up, all giggly and flirty, only really trying to get him into bed.

Which, in all honesty, Tyki didn't mind at all. After all; wasn't he trying to do the same thing?

Something drastically changed here. Something was different. On seeing Allen's hate-filled and confused eyes glaring at him something in his chest twinged slightly, so slightly he wasn't sure whether it had actually happened or not. He dismissed it. It wasn't important or worth his time. The only thing now that would be worth his time would be to destroy Allen Walker while she was distracted, plunge his arm through her chest and tear out her heart while it was still beating. Who cared about the damn blood that would get on his glove and ruin it? He could imagine it with a vivid intensity, the deathly still body of Allen, the adrenaline and kill-rush coursing through his veins, blood leaking from her mouth and chest alike, red and sticky…

There was that twinge again…

Something was wrong. Something tipped the scale in the wrong way. It was unbalanced. As much as the idea of spilling her blood and letting it splatter his shoes with its death pattern appealed to him, it also repulsed him. As though killing Allen Walker was something he should refrain from doing, when all he wanted was to do just that.

He was trying to get her to realise the truth. He had told her, again and again, to scrutinise what she was saying, pick it apart seam by seam and inspect each for breaks. Why? What was the point? Trying to get an Exorcist to see what they should be seeing in the first place was about as much use as getting the Millennium Earl to bring back your loved one.

Just to clarify things, when you get the Millennium Earl to bring back your loved one, you both end up dead. Tyki always found that rather funny and ironic.

So why was he trying?

Maybe it was a fight between his Noah and his human self. He knew that he suppressed the full power of his Noah. He didn't need it all anyway, and letting himself go crazy like that was dangerous. If he let his Noah take over, well… He could become an insane puppet, driven by madness and anger. That wasn't his thing. Tyki liked having control. It was what made him 'Tyki Mikk'. He would leave the anger to Skinn Bolic, the 'Wrath' of Noah. He wasn't Wrath. He was Pleasure.

And to him, having a 'Light' side and a 'Dark' side made life a lot more fun. He had to be careful. He couldn't lose his Light side. He would rather stay with his friends; Momo, Cole, and Eeez. He would often go out of his way to help them out because they were rather dear to him. He enjoyed leading a double life. One life as plain old Tyki, the vagabond miner; and the other as Lord Tyki Mikk, the noble and Noah.

But now was the time for playing his part as Noah.

"Have you understood anything I've told you, Allen Walker?" He smiled vehemently, gold eyes burning as he gazed at the Exorcist, eyes drawn to the flashing silver crest on the left side of her coat, inscribed with markings, showing her to be an Exorcist. Just another plaything for the Order to toy with, not really caring what happened to that plaything as long as they got some sort of benefit from it. Oh, how badly he wanted to tear that crest off, destroy the uniform and erase any sign that she was an Exorcist. She was more than just a pawn; she was more than just something for the Order to play wi-

Quit thinking like that. She's an Exorcist.

Tyki immediately snapped out of that. It only took one brief reminder that she should mean nothing. But still, questions plagued his mind, even when he tried to force them away and get back to the task at hand.

But if she meant nothing, why did I kiss her?

It was true. Tyki didn't often kiss women, albeit occasionally on the hand or cheek. But not like that. Not on the lips. Especially not Exorcists.

Who are you, Allen Walker? What is it that makes you different?

Tyki stared at her intently, gold eyes flickering before dimming down slightly, thinking while never taking his attention off of her, both of them snared in the other's gaze, staring the other down with all they had. Though Tyki would admit, Allen was probably winning with that hate-fuelled fire that blazed in her mercury orbs. If looks could kill… If looks could kill, Allen Walker would have committed murder again and again. That hate in her eyes was directed towards him and nobody else, but there was too much hate for it to be true. He hadn't done enough to gain that much hate, not yet.

Tell me.

And still, he stared at her, at her snow-white locks of hair, her boyish features and small face, the burning silver pools she had for irises, the creamy coloured skin, the thick red strip the marred the left side of her face, but made it so much more interesting and fascinating.

What are you?

That was the main question. Something like her… couldn't be human. Could it? Humans were fragile; she wasn't fragile. Humans were ugly and useless; she was far from that. Humans ruined this world; she always said her sole mission was to bring it from the ruins it was in and back into a thriving, prospering existence.

Just… not in the way that Tyki, the Millennium Earl, the whole of the Noah Clan, would prefer.

You're not human.

Looking at her, standing firm and tall, eyes ablaze with fortitude, her white hair falling over her forehead and brushing her cheekbones at its short length, the glaring red blood that streaked her lips and chin, the gleam of the buttons and crest of her uniform, the stark difference between her pale skin and the black she was cloaked in, the green glow of her Innocence surrounding her in a softly glowing light, haloing her.

An angel?

No. She wasn't an angel. An angel wouldn't be here like she was. An angel wouldn't be cursed with that parasitic arm. An angel wouldn't bleed before him–God would never let an angel suffer like this, God would never give an angel parasitic type Innocence, God would never endanger an angel…

Would he?

Was it possible that he was so cruel? Finally, Tyki's mind seemed to make the decision on what the girl was.

A fallen angel.

That was satisfying enough. It was the answer he wanted. If she wasn't human and wasn't an angel… Then she must've been a fallen angel. Cursed back to this world for reasons he had yet to discover. He had a lot to discover. But for now, he needed to deal with this and get out of here. He couldn't waste any more time. He was still locked in the stare-down with those silver eyes, the colours of silver and gold clashing, dark and light facing one another off from only a few metres away.

Tyki reached up with a gloved hand, tugging down the brim of his top hat, shadowing his eyes to break the stare between them, still looking up at the girl. His eyes burned intensely, and he knew it was getting to the Exorcist when he saw her fidget slightly, before clenching and unclenching her hands. Her voice rang out, clear and filled with confidence, not enough to make her seem as though she had an ego but enough to show that she wasn't one to back down.

You would back down if you knew what was good for you, girl.

"Now then, girl..." Tyki smiled almost politely at the Exorcist before him, but the hint of danger that tugged at the edges of his mouth erased any sincerity from the grin he was sending her way. Like he could be sincere towards an Exorcist anyway, after having killed so many of her so-called comrades. They were going to die anyway, either from illness or accident or old age, Tyki was just cutting the cycle short more quickly than usual.

And a lot more painfully, too.

Tyki continued on with his purred words, baritone deep, rumbling through his chest like a growl. "I think you've stared enough. I understand you can't keep your eyes away, but it's rather indecent." At the Exorcist's recoil his grin only stretched wider, carving a path through his cheeks as she recovered from the small spell of shock from his conceited, arrogant words to instead glare blades at him, and Tyki knew that if she could really glare blades– well, ones that were at least Innocence weapons, otherwise they would pass through him without problem–he would have multiple buried hilt-deep in his chest. He flexed his gloved fingers out at his sides lazily, knuckles cracking with the movements of the joints and muscle. "I want to get this over and done with, and judging by the glare you're giving me-" Tyki's eyes flashed in amusement as the girl's glare only intensified, "-you want to get it over with, too."

He watched silently, standing straight letting his arms rest at his sides in a relaxed manner as Allen slid into a defensive stance.

You need to be put in your place, girl.

~XoX~

Allen was partially convinced that she was a total idiot. Why was she even still here? And why was she only questioning it now? After facing Tyki multiple times–though she'd never really gotten hurt too badly, actually–and that one time she'd faced Road in the Rewinding Town–she most definitely got hurt there–Allen was pretty sure that she'd have enough common sense to run from a Noah at first chance.

But no. Every single time she'd find herself facing them, arm activated and ready to fight. Like a fool, she would attack them and go on the offence at least once, and then end up hurt. She spoke as though she could defeat them when deep in her mind and heart she knew it was all fake, a façade, bravado she couldn't live up to. But one day she would.

Her silver eyes snapped with cold ice, her forehead straining with her endless glare. That glare felt so natural, yet so forced at the same time. It was mixed signals, and if there was something she hated more than anything, it was mixed signals.

Which was exactly what Tyki Mikk was giving her.

"I don't understand you," she muttered, tone spiked with anger and aggravation. And it was true. She didn't. It kept changing before she could get a good grip on the situation. First, he was trying to kill her, teasing as usual, and suddenly he was trying to get her to contemplate every word that left her mouth in regards to her feelings towards him–which she had assured herself was hatred and disgust, like she'd said a hundred times and would say a thousand more.

When the man before her blinked with a baffled look, she repeated herself with a clearer voice, anger growing and swelling in her chest, fighting for space. Her heart thudded angrily, and her eyebrows furrowed even more deeply than they already had, creasing the skin around her narrowed eyes. "I don't understand you."

He tried to get her to contemplate everything, laughed when she couldn't find anything that wasn't the same as it always was. There was nothing astray, no sharp corners… So why was he asking that of her? He told her that she was lying to herself like he knew her mind better than she did.

'Drop the mask and scrutinise what you're saying. That shield you've got going has become your reality.'

But he didn't know her mind. He didn't know her thoughts. He didn't know anything.

But he acted like he knew everything, especially when he grabbed her left wrist in that crushing grip, held her to the wall like a helpless animal and…

Kissed her.

The thought of it made Allen shudder, and she could confirm that it was a bad shudder. Another little tweak made its place in her gut–gut instinct, she couldn't help but scoff slightly at the thought–and tried to change her mind. But her mind was set. That was that. Until she died, she would hate the man before her. It was a promise, sealed with the bruises sure to be lining her ribs and the blood that still stained the corner of her mouth.

And now here he was again, saying that he should fight her. Right after something like that?! Mixed signals were definitely evident. Allen supposed there was nothing to it–he's making something up to throw me off.

How could it be more obvious? This was Tyki Mikk. He was self-absorbed, and the only reason he was saying things like this was to distract her from what she was supposed to be focusing on.

Honestly, it was working, seeing as Allen couldn't quite pull her mind away from the thoughts. They simply kept nagging at her mind, tugging so they could crawl their way from the back to the front until the words nearly danced before her eyes. With one final, mental shove she thrust the thoughts back to some dark corner in her mind where she kept all of the thoughts she didn't want to see again and balled her right hand into a fist as she took a single step forward, face falling flat and blank. "You said you wanted to get this over with. So, let us do just that."

Why on earth didn't she run?

The battle–could it even be called a battle?– didn't last long. At all. Tyki didn't hold back. At all. Allen wasn't winning. At all.

I never listen to myself, do I? I tell myself to run, but I don't run.

Allen would blame this one on her pride, just like every other battle she'd lost. There was quite a few of them. But, she supposed she had to lose if she wanted to get better.

"Now then, like I said, let's get this over with." Tyki, barely harmed or fazed in any way, darted towards her with a lightning-like speed, flashing from the other side of the alleyway to right in front of her with ease. Allen could only yelp slightly and try to duck out of the way of his hand, which she didn't quite manage.

And by didn't quite manage, she meant that she'd completely failed and his hand was now tightly wrapped around her throat.

Allen, with her back pressed against a wall and a hand cutting off her air, did what she always did. Fight. She couldn't help but kick, even if it was useless and she had been tired out, drops of perspiration slowly cascading from her forehead down her neck, plastering stands of white hair to her face. Her chest heaved more than it already had been with the new lack of air found from being choked rather than fighting hard, the flesh of her neck being squeezed and constricted by a strong hand…

Dammit… Why do I never back down?

But Allen had to have the final say.

"I hate… you," she gritted out, trying to force small pockets of air through her teeth and past the narrow passage where her windpipe was being crushed to fill her lungs and keep her speaking. "Y-You're a monster… You… all are…"

"It would be wise if you stayed quiet, girl," Tyki said simply, staring down at her from his height. Allen had always felt so small and frail compared to some of the taller people, because she was only a fifteen-year-old child, after all, and hadn't grown much at all. At least she could stay thin no matter how much she ate… That was an upside, right?

"Sorry… Mikk…" She smiled sarcastically, letting out a sharp exhale as her lips curled upwards at the corners and her eyes lit up with dark amusement, glimmering. "No can… do… I have to have the…last say, after… after all." She knew she was digging herself a hole–probably the hole her coffin was going to end up in–but still, her damn pride, something she should've let go of, was taunting and pressuring her into making a jab at the Noah.

Tyki only scoffed in return, matching her glare with his smouldering eyes, the gold almost matching a thick, warm honey. "You're going to get yourself in a lot of trouble like that, girl. One day. Mark my words. But for now…"

Allen's eyes widened fractionally as he pulled her forwards and off of the wall, and her spine tingled as he placed his mouth next to her ear, speaking in a low, drawling growl. "I think you should just sleep for a bit…"

Allen could only predict the harsh pain that was soon to be felt second before she was slammed back into the wall behind her, her back hitting first and exploding with pain, but before she could even react to the infliction the back of her head hit the wall with only a little bit less of the force her back did, and within that split-second she lost consciousness, only able to grasp it for long enough to feel her body fall but not long enough to witness it hit the ground.

15/10/2016 : 6:33 PM AEST UNFORTUNATELY, I lost the entire author's note here due to a formatting error, which I would not have noticed due to a review. So sorry.

UNFORTUNATELY, I lost the entire author's note here due to a formatting error, which I would not have noticed if I had not recieved a review questioning it. Thank you so much. So sorry.

CryDon'tSmile