The rain pattered softly on the top of the umbrella, drowning out the sounds of Nan'Uei and Kanda's footsteps. For a long while, it was in fact the only sound, the otherwise silence between them undisturbed as Kanda allowed the other to lead the way.
Eventually, though, Kanda saw fit to break through the silence.
"How long has it been raining?"
Nan'Uei looked at him, surprised. "Excuse me?"
A furrowed brow was the only sign of irritation Kanda showed outwardly, though the following answer of "How long has it been raining," was quipped out with an enunciation on each syllable as though he were talking to a fool. Which he probably figured he was.
"The rain? Oh, uh, I dunno- er,"
Kanda watched as Nan'Uei sputtered, before the man shook his head as if to clear his thoughts and tried again.
"I mean, it's been raining for three months and... Almost two weeks."
A delicately plucked (and oh, how Kanda hated Linalee for that) eyebrow raised.
Nan'Uei looked almost abashed. "I know because, uh... It sort of coincides with something else that happened. Sort of."
Kanda patiently waited for him to continue. Nan'Uei obliged.
"My brother... died. Well, not really my brother, but my brother-in-law. Well, almost. They were about to be married, but... Anyway, it started raining the next night after he... After it happened. And then it just... never stopped." He finished, looking towards the cloudy sky from under the umbrella.
Kanda processed this information, considering it for a moment, and decided to continue the conversation.
He figured the polite thing to do would be to ask.
"How did it happen?"
Nan'Uei looked at him, as if surprised that the conversation was actually still going on, and Kanda decided he truly was an idiot, and was entirely unsurprised by the revelation.
"He was kicked in the head by an ox."
Kanda just stared. He had heard of many dumb ways to die, but that, by far, had to be the stupidest. "I see."
Silence reigned once more for a while, and Kanda tried to think of a subtle way to pry more information out of the man. He was, however, unsuccessful in this endeavor, as Nan'Uei turned to him and stated "Well, this is my house."
Kanda looked at him, but said nothing. Nan'Uei blushed a little, and turned away quickly. "Thank you for walking with me, Yuuko. I'll be back to visit my sister tomorrow, so... Maybe I'll see you then." He said, pointedly not looking at Kanda.
"Yes. Perhaps you will."
Nan'Uei went into his house, and Kanda walked away.
He then found the nearest payphone, plugged in the Golem he had in his sleeve, and called Marie and Krory.
"Hey. I need you guys to give me money. So it looks like I've been working."
Meanwhile, Lavi and Allen were still wandering around with Lo Mein, who seemed to have somehow gotten them lost. They had met Ranfan, who had greeted them very politely and continued shaving her legs, and had so far yet to meet the last girl.
"So, um, this is the privy. You know what it's used for, right? Of course you do, how could you not? Everyone knows what a latrine is for. Besides, I think I've shown you this one before. Um..."
Allen sighed. They had gotten absolutely no information out of her, and had been wandering around in circles for the last ten minutes.
"And this is the kitchen, where we make the food. Do you guys know how to cook? We used to have a lot more people here, and some of them cooked, but now it's down to just us so everyone pretty much cooks for themselves. Although we sometimes do have someone cook enough for everyone, and I'm not allowed to cook at all, so instead they have me do the laundry 'cuz it's a lot harder to screw up and even when I do nothing breaks or like, puts anyone in danger, but I have accidentally turned all the whites pink and all the blacks grey, and I'm not sure how I did that but nobody really cares I guess because they didn't say anything, you know? Oh my god, I just remembered! I got so caught up with showing you guys around I totally forgot I have work to do! Oh, I gotta go, will you guys be alright? You can find your way around, right?"
Lavi and Allen stared at the blatant panic that had suddenly arisen in Lo Mein's eyes, and calmly reassured her, "We'll be just fine, really! You go ahead. We'll find our way back on our own, okay?"
Lo Mein bounced hurriedly for a moment, before running off with a shout of "Okay, bye! Good luck and just find me if you need anything, k?" and disappearing.
Allen and Lavi just looked at each other for a moment before heading back to the room Lo Mein had earlier pointed out to be theirs.
Once inside, they said nothing for a moment. However, Lavi seemed to have noticed something off about the younger boy, as he turned to ask "So, what's wrong?"
Allen looked at Lavi, surprised, and looked away again quickly. "Nothing, really."
"Come on now, don't be like that. I can tell you're thinking about something, so why don't you just tell me outright? Otherwise I'll have to squeeze the information out of you."
Allen blinked. "Squeeze?"
"Like a juicer."
"I could totally do it."
Allen just laughed then, "You know what, Lavi? Knowing you, I'm sure you could."
He smiled at him, and for another moment nothing was said. Eventually, though, Allen sighed and admitted "It's just that... I was thinking about what Lo Mein said earlier."
Lavi raised an eyebrow. "You're gonna have to be more specific than that, you know."
"Er, right. Well, the part where she talked about why she came here, and how she was useless at everything she does so she ended up here, and... "
"And?"
"It reminded me... Of Miranda, actually. She got fired from over a hundred jobs before she became an Exorcist, you know? So if it wasn't for the Time Record, and everything that happened..."
"I see what you mean. But, to be perfectly honest..."
Allen looked at him expectantly.
"I don't think she would have been good at this, either."
Allen blinked, then laughed, in spite of himself. "That's a terrible thing to say, you know."
"Doesn't stop it from being true."
And for a while, everything was okay. Even if they were dressed like girls, even if they were expected to do terrible things tomorrow, or even tonight, even if Kanda ran off somewhere and hadn't come back yet; Lavi was with Allen, and that was good enough.
Because when they were together, Allen couldn't help but feel like everything would be okay.
AN: Yeah, I know-it's been friggin' forever since the last update, yeah? And this is what I give you? Well, it took a long time to re-write after my computer crashed, it wasn't even close to having been done all at once, so if it feels choppy... That's because it is. So there.
More to come...Eventually...