I'm shocked that this story is actually getting reads! It's probably because it's D. Gray man. Anyways I apologize if the characters (besides Oliver) seem a little out of character. Allen and Lavi especially as they are a bit harder for me to write. Still, I hope you enjoy this chapter. Also, I apologize with how long it's taken me to update this! It took a lot longer than I had originally planned!
"Alright then, of we go." Allen said, as he took Oliver's hand, leading him towards the train. There were a few other people besides the party of four on the train, but besides that the place was quite deserted. "We're lucky that we got here before everyone needed to head to work." Lavi said, intertwining his fingers and placing them behind his head as he walked.
"This town may be small, but it has everything these people need. They don't need to use the train station to go to work, they can just walk." Allen said, finally letting go of Oliver's hand, although Oliver found himself missing the warmth from the other teen. "Oh seriously? Sounds convenient to me." Lavi said, glancing back at Allen. "That's the point." Kanda said as though it were obvious, although to most it was.
"As soon as we get back to HQ I'm going to eat and go to sleep." Allen said with a slight yawn as if to emphasize his point. They soon stepped onto the train and headed into a train car that wasn't all that special. Allen and Oliver sat on one side, while Lavi and Kanda sat on the other the only one seemingly upset with the seating arrangements being Kanda who muttered something about rather sitting by himself.
"Oh yeah your things." Allen said turning his attention towards Oliver who was already half sleep. "Komui told me that there would be people to pick it up later, and that you should have it sometime by tomorrow evening." Lavi said looking as though he had a plan up his sleeve that wouldn't end well. "Thank you guys." Oliver said as he rubbed his eyes leaning his head against the window and drifting to sleep within a few short seconds.
Lavi opened his mouth to say something although Kanda put his hand over Lavi's mouth and Allen glared at him silently telling him to be quiet. "I was just going to ask for a marker jeez." Lavi said, pretending to have his feelings hurt. "You don't need to do that everytime someone falls asleep around you." Kanda said, sounding annoyed like he always did.
"Yes I do. It's tradition." Lavi stated matter of factly, beginning to search through his pockets for a marker. "Tradition my ass, it's annoying." Kanda said folding his arms over his chest. Lavi simply ignored him and pulled a black marker out of his pocket. He had actually intended to draw on Allen while he slept, but Oliver would work for him too.
"Allen, hold his bangs back." Lavi said as he moved forward so that Oliver was within his drawing range. A smile grew on his face when he saw that Oliver had freckles and he began to connect them, wondering what their final shape would be. "It didn't make anything..." Allen said sounding a bit disappointed. "If you use your imagination then it does."Lavi said, sending a small glare towards Allen's direction.
"And what would that be?" Allen asked, folding his arms over his chest. "I'll leave that up to your imagination." Lavi said as he then began to continue to draw, moving up to Oliver's eyelids. He lightly drew on his eyelids so that it looked as though his eyes were actually opened, when they were in fact still closed.
"Allen you read his report right? What's up with all these bruises and scratches?" Lavi asked as he continued drawing, actually seeming a bit concentrated on his 'masterpiece'. "The report says that it's most likely bullies, but I'm sure that the beansprout really knows what's going on." Kanda said almost as a matter of factly. Kanda knew that Allen most likely hadn't read the report, as the half pint could hardly read at all since he didn't think it would be necessary.
"Well, after looking around a bit I'm more than positive that it wasn't bullies. No one seemed like they would even get close enough to him to hurt him. If anything he was ignored by most everyone around him except for his aunt. I'm guessing that he's on the more clumsy side." Allen said, to which Kanda rolled his eyes.
"Makes sense." Lavi said, sounding content with Allen's answer. The three carried on in a comfortable silence that was interrupted by Allen gasping. "It's snowing!" He said as he glanced over the window, letting go of Oliver's bangs that he forgot he'd been holding. "Shhh. Don't wake him up before I'm finished." Lavi said, both him and Kanda paying no mind to the snow.
"His face is going to look like a big black blob at the rate you're going." Allen stated with a slight chuckle at the end. "No it's not, this is going to be a work of art. Just keep holding his bangs up until I'm done." Lavi said as he continued to draw on the smaller boy's face. "You never take this long when you draw on my face." Allen said as he held up Oliver's bangs, pretending to sound jealous. "Well, there's not much that I can do with that." Lavi said, pointing at Allen's face to emphasize his meaning.
"That was uncalled for." Allen said, before looking out towards the window and back at the snow. He couldn't remember the last time that he got the chance to see snow. Recently he had been so busy with exorcising akuma and collecting shards of innocence, that he hadn't gotten the chance to stop and admire the scenery. "Close your mouth moyashi, you look stupid." Kanda commenting after getting annoyed by seeing Allen stare with his mouth open.
"Now now Kanda, my name isn't moyashi. It's Allen, A-L-L-E-N." He said spelling it out for him, obviously sounding quite annoyed. "Tch. Whatever." Kanda said, breathing out in an attempt to control his anger. "That's not the way to act. Come on, let's play catch with the conversation ball." Allen said, knowing that he was definetely getting on the last of Kanda's nerves. He knew that they couldn't fight in the train, but he also knew that they weren't far from HQ, in fact they should be arriving at their stop in just a few short minutes.
"You're lucky that we're on a train." Kanda said, as otherwise he would've already grabbed his sword and attacked the short stack with it. "Are you saying that you wish to fight?" Allen asked, sending a glare Kanda's way, more than up to the challenge. Just then one of Oliver's eyes opened and he moved up to rub the still closed one.
Allen held back a small gasp as he looked into Oliver's blue eye as the other one was still closed. He looked into his ocean blue eye that seemed to hold so much to more to them the the eyes of other people that he had seen. The flecks of gold and purple added to their beauty, and it looked as though an entire ocean was trapped inside of it. The emotion that his eye held sent twangs of emotion into Allen, causing him to want the younger to reveal whatever it was that was troubling him. They appeared to pained, broken, confused, yet at the same time they looked to be holding a dark secret that was most definetely one of sources of his pain. As soon as Oliver seemed to realize what was going on he jumped back towards his seat, causing Allen to release his hand from his bangs just as Oliver opened his other eye. His hair once more hid his eyes from view, and Allen wished to look at them once more, as they were incredibly beautiful.
"W-what are you guys doing?" Oliver asked as he began playing with his hands, shrinking away from Lavi who was still rather close from drawing on him. Lavi smiled as he sneakily put his pen back in his pocket, in such a way that Oliver didn't notice. "You'll find out later." He said holding up a peace sign as he sat back in his own seat sighing a contented sigh. Kanda once more rolled his eyes before resting his chin on his palm. "He drew on your face with a marker." Kanda said, causing Lavi to whine.
"Why'd you go and tell him!? He was suppose to find out himself!" Lavi said whining as though a small child would. "Because your pranks are nothing but annoying." Kanda said, glancing out the window, glad to see that they were arriving towards the station and would be able to get to headquarters soon.
"When we get to HQ I can show you around if you'd like." Allen offered, successfully changing the topic before Oliver could either scold Lavi or look at what he had done. Oliver timidly nodded his head after a few short moments. A few seconds later and the train came to a slow stop, a loud groan coming from its tires as it did so. "It's about time." Kanda grumbled to himself as he stood up, Lavi standing up at the same time as him.
Time Skip
As the group of four walked up towards the door Lenalee opened it saying that Komui was busy with something else. "Where's the so called heart!?" She asked eagerly as the door opened and the four were allowed inside. Oliver managed to stay behind Allen's larger frame and out of sight of the seemigly over cheerful girl. "He's right there." Kanda said jabbing a thumb towards Oliver's direcion before walking off ahead of the group and towards the cafeteria to get something to eat.
"It's nice to meet you, my name's Lenalee." She said as she introduced herself, extending a hand towards Oliver now she had spotted him. After a few moments of hesitation, Oliver shook Lenalee's hand before pulling his hand back towards himself. "I apologize for Kanda's behaviour by the way, he doesn't have anything against you he's like that with everyone." She said with a slight laugh as they entered the building, the large door closing behind him.
"Is it true that you have the heart of innocence?" She asked, her eagerness getting to the best of her. This was the first time any of them had heard about someone actually having the heart of innocence. Sure there had been that time when they thought that she and Allen had the heart, although it was soon proved that it wasn't the case. However, now they truly believed that they had found a heart, especially with all the strange things happenening in the town.
Things like the sudden changes in weather, an almost unnormal amount of akuma appearing near the town before seemingly vanishing within a day, as well as the fact that almost no one ever leaves the town unless they didn't belong in the first place. "I-I don't know... I'm s-still confused about a lot of things." Oliver muttered as he avoided looking at Lenalee, his attention grabbed by the ground once more.
"But what if it turns out that he doesn't have the heart? Then what do we do?" Lenalee asked, turning her attention towards Allen and Lavi, worry evident in her eyes. "We've already discussed that. He's the most likely one to have the heart in that town, nothing stands out about anyone else. That and the fact that when I ran into him he was being chased by an akuma." Lavi said to which Lenalee breathed a small sigh of relief.
"By the way, you should tell Kanda to get checked out by someone. It was a level four after all, he could be hiding an injury for all we know." Lavi added with a slight nod of his head, as though he were agreeing to himself. Oliver bit his lip when Lavi mentioned Kanda possibly having an injury. If he was injured then Oliver knew that it would be his fault because from the sound of things the so called 'akuma' was after him in the first place.
"I'm more than sure that he'll be okay." Allen said as he rubbed Oliver's back reassuringly, knowing that the younger male was probably worried. Oliver simply nodded his head, acknowledging that he had heard Allen. "Now before I give you a tour, may we go to the cafeteria and get something to eat? I'm starving." Allen said, and as if on cue his stomach growled loudly, earning a laugh from Lavi and a chuckled from Lenalee.
"Alright, let's go. We have time anyways." Lenalee said as she began walking, the three boys following behind her.
