Disclaimer: I don't own D. Gray-man. Oh, the horror. Bwahaha I think I'm funny.
Also, a day early! Cause I thought skipping kendo was a good idea and tomorrow I have work.
Edited 27/03/2017 - fixed Komui's name!
…
…
"So, long story short," Komui says, grinning from ear to ear. Allen instinctively distrusts that smile, because he's seen it just before Komui announced the Great New Business Model that's going to Really Get Us Out of Debt, Guys, I Promise, and then proceeded to fire most of the kitchen staff and poison almost all the drinkable water in the building. "We specialise in studying abnormal cases where patients believe demons are real, and attack them."
Allen stares at him, eyes narrowed. He wonders vaguely how many people that smile has fooled.
"So you don't take anyone else?" Allen says. "I thought this was a criminal research facility."
Komui's face doesn't falter. "We make sure to give our patients the best care possible," he says. "While maintaining a safe, happy work environment for our employees."
This is a lie. Allen has lived in this "safe, happy work environment" as an employee for almost a month, and how Komui can ever say that with a straight face is beyond his understanding. There is nothing safe or happy about the work environment fostered in the basement, unless he counts that one time that someone had accidentally released laughing gas into the ventilation system, which he doesn't.
"Why does it sound like you're giving me a pitch?" he says, trying – and failing – to keep the suspicion out of his voice. Allen's head has cleared up some, but there's still a throbbing ache centring just underneath the skin of his temples, and he can't think as clearly as he'd like for this conversation. Neah's gone silent, which is both a relief and a worry, because Allen can count the number of times that Neah's gone silent after a traumatic experience, that amounts to Mana's death and nothing else. "I can't actually leave, you know that, right? You don't have to sell this place to me."
"I want you to feel safe here, Allen," Komui says, and he sounds so earnest, too. "I know that it's a bit of a shock, being demoted from intern to patient" – Allen thinks it might actually be a promotion, considering that he's going to be getting unlimited coffee and minimal exposure to radioactive substances, but he doesn't actually say that – "But this is your home! I'm sure Cross dropped you off here because he wanted what was best for you."
Allen side-eyes him and considers a number of things to say, none of which are very flattering towards Cross, before ultimately deciding that it's just not worth the hassle. "Yes," he says instead, gritting his teeth against the instinctive desire to badmouth his Master. "That's exactly what prompted him to leave me here. He was…worried about me. Yes."
"Now, are you going to attack anyone else, or can I escort you back to your new room?"
Allen's drugged, not stupid. "Of course I won't attack anyone else. I'm really sorry that happened – I don't know what I was thinking."
"It's okay," Komui says immediately. "You weren't in your right mind. The drug's we've got you on now can cause some…unintended side-effects for some people, so irrational anger and – um, biting people isn't incredibly abnormal."
Allen swills his tongue experimentally around his mouth, running it over his teeth with a frown. He doesn't taste any blood, but then again, his tongue feels fuzzy enough to have an ecosystem of fleas living between the strands of fur. "Did I really bite someone?" he says. "I should apologise."
"Don't worry, it was only Johnny," Komui says. Allen immediately worries, because Johnny isn't really in a position to survive a strong breeze, let alone broken skin. "Oh, and Kanda, but he's fine."
Allen is more than a little horrified about this, but tries not to let any of it show on his face.
"He's fine," Komui says. "Well, mostly. It's not going to scar, at least."
"Uh huh," Allen says. "…are you going to let me go back to my room, or…?"
"Oh, no," Komui says. "I'm afraid we're going to make to make sure you won't – um, bite anyone again. The detox will only take a few hours; it's incredibly fast-acting."
"Detox," Allen says faintly. He mentally catalogues what he knows about the infirmary, and then sadly concludes that he won't be escaping anytime soon – at least, not without a lot of outside help. "Will that be – painful?"
"Oh, no!" Komui says. Even if Allen wasn't a naturally suspicious person, the look on Komui's face would make him more than a little bit wary. "Not at all painful. I promise."
…
…
Allen is in so much pain.
"Everything hurts," he moans pitifully to the unsmiling nurses who are watching over him with unsettling intensity. "Please kill me. I'm dying anyway, it'd be a mercy-killing, I promise."
"Get back into bed, Walker."
…
…
"Oh, look," Kanda says. It's a fine line between deadpan and condescending, but he makes it work. "It returns."
"Don't make me hurt you," Allen says. He's not wobbling on his legs, and he definitely doesn't collapse onto the couch the moment he's close enough. That does not happen, no. "I will. I will hurt you."
"I'm feeling incredibly threatened," Kanda says, baring his teeth. "Look, it can even speak. I was almost certain you were going to regress into a vegetable. How…disappointing."
Allen's eyes blaze. He considers getting up, but – well, it'll be really embarrassing if something were to…happen. Like his knees giving out. His body doesn't really feel too great, actually. Like someone's stretched out his skin and scraped everything out from underneath.
"That's enough," Lenalee says, getting up from the other couch and coming over to smile at him. Allen appreciates Lenalee, he really does. "Kanda, go brood in a corner, that's all your good for."
"Lenalee," Kanda says.
"Shoo," Lenalee says, twisting around slightly and planting her arms on her hips. Everything about her is pure intimidation, from the twist of her mouth to the flick of her long, long hair. Allen is once again struck with hair-envy, which he hurriedly suppresses, lest some of it show on his exhausted face.
Kanda rolls his eyes and lets out a long-suffering sigh, then picks up his shinai – it's probably a good thing that Allen didn't, y'know, do something stupid. Like attack him.
Tomorrow. He'll do it tomorrow. When his legs aren't jelly and his stomach isn't an empty black void of nothingness.
Right on cue, it gives a loud grumble, effectively halting any other conversation they could have.
"Turn it down!" Lavi says, popping his head into the common room. "I'm trying to read in here!"
"Ha, ha," Allen says, nursing his poor stomach with one hand. "Is there anywhere I can get food?" a horrible, horrible thought occurs. "…how often are you guys fed?"
"We just ask," Lenalee says. "It's fine, don't worry about it. I'll go ask Jerry to make something for you, okay?"
"That sounds wonderful," Allen says, fervent. "Doubles of everything."
Lenalee rolls her eyes. "Yeah," I remember. "Lavi! Entertain him!"
"Entertain him?" Lavi says, storming out of his room and crossing his arms in a huff. "What am I, a clown?"
"I was a clown," Allen offers.
They both turn to stare at him. In the corner, Kanda lets out a derisive snort.
"You what?" Lavi says, eyes lighting up greedily. Allen briefly reconsiders all his major life choices, up to and including how running away from this literal asylum as soon as he was able. He'll remember this next time, oh yes, he will.
Not that there will be a next time. Allen has learned his lesson.
"A story for a story," he says. "I'll tell you about my time as a clown, and you two tell me why we're here."
Lavi gives him a sharp look, hidden behind a bland smile. "We're crazy," he says, waving vaguely at his face. "What, isn't it obvious? Here, let me go kill one of the minions –"
"No killing," Lenalee says. "We agreed after last time. No killing."
"Unless they're akuma," Lavi says.
See? See? SEE? I told you! I TOLD YOU! They know things, they're part of it all, they're working with the Millennium Earl –
Allen winces and tries to tune Neah out. "Who's the Millennium Earl?"
Lenalee stills. "Did my brother put you up to this?" she says, sounding careful.
"What? The Chief?" Allen squints up at her. His stomach gives another unhappy grumble at the lack of food in his immediate vicinity. "…no? Why?"
Lenalee doesn't look convinced. Lenalee looks very scary.
"Nothing," she says after a long pause. She turns on her boots and starts walking towards the main entrance to the labs. "I'll be back in a few minutes. I'm going to go get you some food."
Bewildered, Allen gives Lavi a pleading look. "What's going on?"
"How much do you know?" Lavi says. "It's probably better to start there, then – well."
"Who's the Millennium Earl?" Allen says, wincing as Neah's mind-voice grows louder. "Komui said something about specialising in people who believed in demons?"
"Criminals who believe in demons," Lavi says, sighing. He collapses backward onto the couch, knees pulling up so that he looks like a spikey pincushion. "That's the whole point of this…operation. They find us and they lock us up so that we can't hurt anyone else." Lavi gives a small laugh, glancing back to where Kanda is pretending Not To Listen. "Well, that doesn't really work most of the time, but hey. At least we're not in prison."
Allen glances around and concedes that yes, radioactivity aside, this place is probably better than being in prison. He would know.
…of course, maybe considering that One Time in Florida where Everything Went to Shit wasn't exactly a fair representation of the prison system.
"At least there's that," he finally says, when it becomes obvious that Lavi is waiting for a response.
Lavi gives him a half-smile. "My grandpa brought me here direct when I started getting too much to handle," he says. "It was awful. I couldn't distinguish who was real and who wasn't."
"You still can't distinguish who's real and who isn't," Kanda calls.
Lavi's face ticks in annoyance, but he doesn't acknowledge the interruption. "I was freaking out in public places, trying to pry people's faces off with forks so I could see if they could bleed – all sorts of fun stuff that I most certainly wouldn't try now."
Kanda grins nastily. "Of course not."
"Shut up," Lavi snaps, then turns back to Allen. "That all started happening a few years ago, when I started…remembering things. Or maybe that's not the best word to use. When I started waking up with this – this incredibly strong realisation that there were monsters in the world, and I was supposed to destroy them."
There's something off about the way he's talking – something about the way he's tilting his head, the way he's looking dead into Allen's eyes and not blinking. He's not lying, Allen thinks, but he's not telling the entire truth.
Then again, Allen isn't telling them the entire truth – and he has no plans to do any such thing. He just wants answers. As soon as he gets those, he's finding a way to break out of this place.
"Monsters?" he prompts, when Lavi looks lost in his own thoughts.
"Things," Lavi says. "Akuma. That's what I call them. That's what Lenalee calls them, too, when we talk about it."
"Which is never," Kanda says.
"Are you going to contribute anything useful to this conversation?" Lavi says, turning around and leaning heavily on the back of the couch. "Or are you just going to be your usual broody self and try to stab me with a pen."
"They won't let me have pens," Kanda says, aggravation worming its way into his voice. "But I managed to get this back" – he hefts the shinai – "So are you really sure you want to tempt me?"
"Oh, Yuu," Lavi says with an exaggerated batt of his eyes. "Sweetheart, you should have just told me you wanted rough se – hey, hey!"
Kanda doesn't even bother with his shinai, just leaps forward from out of the corner and flips Lavi over the couch and onto the floor. Allen thinks about intervening, but he's not really sure he won't make a total fool of himself. Besides, he can see Lenalee coming back. She'll sort it out. He trusts her.
Lenalee completely breaks that trust by dropping his food.
Allen stares at the spilled tray with the kind of shocked horror he normally reserves for Cross after a particularly brutal night at the poker tables.
"Lenalee," he says, and yes, there is definitely a quiver in his voice. "Lenalee, how could you?"
Lenalee isn't listening to him. She's too busy separating the homicidal teenagers attempting to rip each other apart on the floor. She's barely succeeding thanks to the timely scooping up the tray – brushing off the plates of food and ignoring Allen's whimper of despair – and using it as a makeshift clipboard-slash-baseball bat, bearing down on the two boys like an angel of fury descending from the heavens to wreak carnage across the –
…
…
You will be the Destroyer of Time
…
…
Even so, I want to be a destroyer that can save others.
…
…
There's a girl – small, so small. She's human, how can she be human, how can –
"Let's play again sometime, Al-len!"
…
…
Sorry, Allen. I don't think you need to remember that yet.
Neah?
I'll keep a hold on these memories for just a little while longer, okay?
Neah – Neah, what are you –
Goodnight, Allen.
NEAH!
…
…
A/N: TA-DA! LOOK! IT'S THE ELUSIVE PLOT, COME OUT OF HIDING! …um, sort of.
Thanks so much to everyone who liked/favourited, and a special thanks to waterlit, Jazebeth and jy24 for reviewing! You guys really made my week :)
Sorry if it's a little choppy, I'm really tired and I wrote most of this today.
ALSO! A quick note on pairings – sorry to any shippers out there, but this is gonna be mostly gen. Worst I'm gonna do is Kanda/Alma if I make it far enough to introduce Alma (oops spoiler alert they're alive haha) and even that's going to be really subtle stuff.
Anyway, thanks for reading, and I'll see you next week!
Mneme
