Alrighty! I know I took a while, sorry about that. I got to page, said "F--- it.", and deleted it and re-wrote the damn thing. And this is what I got. I hope it's no longer too confusing, thought it probably still is. Ah, well. All will be better soon, I promise. And, and! Thank you so much for the reviews and favourites! 34 reviews! Wow! Wow! I love you guys! Anyways. Let us commence forthwith with Chapter 9 of 'Niveous Sky'!

Disclaimer: D. Gray-Man is the property of Katsura Hoshino. This series is a parody and nothing more, so please support the -H & R Block- ing release. Got it? Damn well better.


9. To Tell or Not to Tell, it's Not Up to You

Sickening stenches roused the redhead to re-awaken, the constant throbbing of his temples causing him to sit up, noticing several things wrong. The first thing was that he was in a room he had yet to recognize. The second thing was that the shadows were missing. The third thing was that Miranda laid sprawled out on the floor beside him, heaving and gasping and looking like she was going to die from exhaustion, and the fourth thing was that Kanda Yuu laid still as Allen was desperately pounding at his chest.

'What… happened?' he thought, trying to tilt his head enough so that the room was actually right to look at. There were black piles of something disgusting (the worms' guts, he took it) and blood, human blood, splattered across some of the walls, along with Mugen sticking out of one of the walls. There was a cracking noise, and he turned his throbbing head to see Miranda's clock falling apart slowly. Was she dying? Why would she be dying? Was she part of the fight? He shook his head constantly, a faint ringing noise in his ears irritating him beyond all get out, and tried to get his thoughts together and analyze what happened.

Blood, guts, and gore.

Add a few severally drained, physically and mentally, Exorcists.

Answer: Yuu-chan kicked several of those worm's asses, Allen helped, Miranda helped, too, and now because of the injuries Miranda was exhausted. But that didn't explain what in the seven hells was going on with Yuu.

He watched, pained, as Allen was yelling over the unmoving body. He tried to focus in a little more, noticing black sludge marks on the Japanese exorcist's face, the same ones on his hands. Now he was wicked confused. He wobbled up, feeling a sharp pain to one of his knees. What…? Oh, yes, he was shot. But there was no blood there. He glanced at Miranda, whose strength was decaying with each passing second. She didn't have much strength left. He frowned. What would cause her to be so physically exhausted? If he remembered correctly, she re-built the boat and helped with the injuries for several days when they were sailing to Japan. She should have been fine! He wobbled over to Allen, who was staring blankly, unmoving, and stared at the sight he was looking at. A bone stuck out from Kanda's left arm, his leg contorted in a way that should not have been possible. It was sickening to see. He covered his mouth as the stench reeked where he was standing, almost as equally fowl to that of a dead body pulled out of an ocean and then put into a sewage plant for several weeks before hanging it out in the desert to let it dry. He could not help but gag, turning away, then looked back at Allen, his face paler somehow. The British exorcist had yet to look back at him.

"He's… not breathing," he muttered, hands lifeless at his side.

At first, Lavi thought he was joking. The Great Asshole, Kanda Yuu, dead? That had to be the joke of the century. But then he realized the seriousness of Allen's tone, the sight that laid before him, and the smell that lingered around him. He looked at Miranda, whose clock should have been able to revert those injuries, but another part of the clock cracked, one of the hands of it falling of and turning to dust as it hit the floor. She was too tired. He stared down at Kanda, feeling another throb at his head and knee, and forced himself to kneel beside Allen. His hands reached to the broken exorcist's neck to feel for a pulse.

Something did pulse, yes, but it was only one. He paused, holding his fingers there for another ten seconds, and there was another beat. One every ten seconds… That shouldn't have even been possible. Another cracking sound from behind him. Another throb to his knee, and now his shoulder.

"Yuu?" Lavi's tone of concern was a little bit lower than that of Allen's. The man did not move, but he heard something within him move, like a shifting of one of the bones. He blinked slowly, feeling a huge wave of tiredness hit him like a freight train, and took in a shaky breath. "Earth to Yuu-chan!" Another sound of something shifting. He watched as Allen's eyes grew wide, then looked back and saw the bone that was sticking out of Kanda's arm was gone. It snapped back into place.

Lavi thought he was going to be sick.

When a louder crack occurred, Lavi felt something warm at his knee as he watched blood soak his pants. Miranda was just about to deactivate it. Allen showed that he had no intention of moving at all. He cursed softly to himself. He was going to have to save the day, and like this. Wobbling, he stood up and walked towards Miranda, picking the exhausted woman up, grabbed Mugen while he was at it, and hobbled back over to Allen and Kanda. He grabbed Kanda and put him over his shoulder. The weight of the two people made him want to cry in protest and beg Allen to take one of them, but he couldn't find his voice when he saw the expression on the boy's face.

Lost. Broken. Distraught.

All of which Lavi never thought he would see on Allen's face so long as he lived.

Which felt like that wasn't going to be much longer.

He pulled out his hammer with his right hand and activated it, and it grew in size to accommodate him. He looked at Allen as he grabbed onto the handle. "Are you coming or not, because there is no way I am gonna carry you, too."

It looked like he wasn't going to move, but he did and stretched his arm and grabbed the handle of the hammer. Lavi frowned, then cleared his throat before finding the words to say. "Time Shifting Hammer, Extend!"

The handle grew long enough as he shot out from the roof of the house and back into clean air, fresh air, snow-smelling air. It was a lot colder than he remembered it being and looked for the sun. There was none-- It was hidden by the grey clouds that warned of another snowstorm. He nearly lost his grip as Miranda's body nearly slipped off of his shoulders. He had to be careful. He touched down onto the roof and laid Kanda and Miranda down before grabbing his hammer again. He needed to fly this time.

"Neh, Allen-chan, make yourself useful and hold up Kanda for me, 'kay?" he said in as little words as he could come up with. His throat felt dry, arid, and cracked. He could hear it in his voice. Allen nodded slowly as he picked up Kanda. Lavi couldn't even fake a grin as he de-extended the hammer and got on it like a horse, Miranda in front of him so that she wouldn't fall, and they fell right back in front of the inn where they had slept in the previous night. When he and Allen, both carrying what looked to be dead bodies, the place went into uproar. The headache Lavi thought couldn't get any worse did as chatter and yells and whoops came from the patrons.

"My God! They look as if they were fighting the likes of zombies!"

"A dead man! A dead man! We're going to be next!"

"The Lost Scarecrow's Ghost must have done them in!"

"If so, then wouldn't they now be working for it?! Are they trying to get us?!"

The last comment sent the chatter soaring higher and higher as panic swept the room.

The person, who was there yesterday, behind the desk stared at them with eyes of curiosity and fear, tried to talk to them, but the yells of the place grew louder. Lavi couldn't take it anymore. He put Miranda down onto the floor carefully, and, when the yelling reached it's highest volume, got up onto the table and yelled, "Will you all just shut the fuck up?!"

The silence hung over the place as if there was going to be an air raid and there was no where to run. Allen's eyes were shocked wide, as were most of the patrons (and the person behind the desk as well). The apprentice Bookman seethed quietly for a moment, taking in a long, shaky breath as his knee started to act up again. He was afraid he was going to fall off at any second.

"Just, stay quiet, and listen." He tried to keep composed and cool, but the wooziness was not doing him any good. "We came here to figure out the mysteries of that inn. We haven't even been there yet. We tried to request the town's protector, Hagar, for help, and we got no where, just as it looks."

A silence. Then whispers.

"We are going to figure out what is going on there. But for right now, two of my fellow companions--" he waved at Kanda and Miranda "--and myself are in some serious need of a doctor. We are not working for the 'ghost' that lives in 'The Lost Scarecrow'. Just, please, we need medical attention…"

More whispers. The man from behind the desk coughed in annoyance. Lavi took that cue and jumped down from off of the desk, which did not do him any favors as his knee screamed in objection. "Strangers, I myself am a doctor," the man from behind the desk said. "Let me take you upstairs and away from all of this noise."

The phrase 'away from all of this noise' made Lavi beyond happy as he picked Miranda up and limped up the stairs, followed by Allen, who was carrying Kanda. They reached the farthest room at the end which had medical supplies and even several hospital-looking beds. 'This inn must also be a hospital…' he confirmed.

The man sighed, then turned to Allen. "You don't look hurt at all, stranger."

"I…" his voice trailed off. He knew that. There was a reason behind that, and he didn't like that reason one bit. "… am not. You're right."

The man gave him a look of relief. "Good. Why don't you stand outside while I take care of these three? I assure you, I will do everything I can to help them."

"Thank you…" Allen muttered as he walked out of the room and closed the door behind him. Now what? Timcanpy came out from the room they had taken and spun around his head several times, stopped, landed on his shoulder and allowed its wings to droop in sadness. The boy took several more steps forward before finally letting the feeling of something unpleasant sink in.

"Damn…" he mumbled.

He made it to the room and closed the door before feeling a sob well up and manage to come out of his mouth, sounding more strangled than he thought it would. He let everyone down, especially Kanda. He screwed up, again, and now two of his friends, maybe even three, could die because he was stupid. He wished that someone, like Lenalee, were here to tell him otherwise, but he knew there was no denying it. He was an idiot. He was…

Timcanpy frowned and bit his ear almost clean off (if it had actually tried, which it didn't) in annoyance. Allen yelped, looking at the golden-coloured golem with teary-eyes and looked at it as if it grew three heads. "Wha-What was that for?!"

It's wings gave it the look of 'it should be obvious', and it flew off and around the room in circles before crash-landing onto the bed that laid before it. Allen blinked. Tim was annoyed that he was feeling sorry for himself. Well, what else should he have been doing? They had no leads… Did they? Lavi might have found something, and same with Miranda, but they were currently being treated… And Miranda…

He bit his lower lip as he made several conclusions in his head. For one, Hagar was an enemy to them. For two, those worm things weren't Akuma-- they were scientific experiments, which meant Hagar must have had a degree in the sciences. And for three, there have been little sightings of Akuma anywhere while he had been awake. Did they only come out in the night? And if so, where did they stay? The Lost Scarecrow? But that was where the theory for the accommodator was lurking. So wouldn't all of the Akuma get killed if they stayed there?

His head swam with many confusing, but distracting, thoughts as he felt himself slowly grow hungry. He wanted something sweet, like dango, but in all honesty, he didn't want to eat, no matter how much his stomach protested. More than anything, he was exhausted, and wanted to sleep. But first he needed to plan for tomorrow, although that depended on everybody else's status. If one of them died-- and hopefully, none of them did -- then there would be only three exorcists wandering blindly into a building they know little to nothing about. His frown deepened. Why? Why was this mission exceedingly difficult? It should have been fairly easy…

Something tapped on the windows. All of the windows. His gaze shifted towards them and noticed it started to hail. Hail, of all things. With such a snow-coloured sky, he would have expected it to actually snow some more. He wished it would snow more. He really, truly wished. But for someone such as himself, did his wish deserve to be granted after all the failures he had committed?

His head started to hurt with all of the thinking processes. He laid down on one of the beds, sighing heavily, as the tapping of the hail to the windows became somewhat of a melody in his head, like that of the Ark… One thought lead to another, until there were no thoughts at all, and he rolled over tiredly to get some shut-eye, hoping and praying that all of his friends would come out all right.

'…Kan…da…' his thoughts echoed before finally falling asleep.


It was dark when he found his eyes snapping open. He could have sworn something was up, because there was someone knocking at the door, almost frantically. He stood up, rushed and in a daze, and opened the door to see the man from behind the desk standing there, eyes wide. "Stranger," he breathed, "something is not right. Follow me."

Allen followed the man, still half-asleep, into the room where his friends were. Lavi was staring at him stupidly. 'Of course he'd be all right,' Allen thought, but the man immediately made him forget that. They approached the bed where Miranda was. Her eyes were wide, body unmoving. "I-I tried everything for her, and yet she… Her injuries were so severe I… There…" the man's words failed him as Allen reached out and touched her face. It was too cold. His eyes widened. "…She's breathing, barely, but the blood loss… and everything… and… there seems to be shock, too, but I don't know from what… She's mostly paralyzed…"

Lavi, who was looking over Allen's shoulder (though he didn't know it), cursed softly. "Are you saying, old man, that she's gonna die?"

"To tell you the truth, I don't know," the man admitted.

"Hn."

Allen looked at Lavi for a long moment. "…How come you seem fine?"

"Yeah, I don't know that, either," the man frowned. "I tried to pull the bullets out from his body, but they suddenly melted and healed him completely." The frown deepened. "But I will tell you something right now-- His body temperature is unreasonably high-- a near 105 degrees Fahrenheit, to be precise. He shouldn't be moving around like that."

"Oh, pish-posh!" Lavi grinned. He looked at Allen and grinned some more. "I bet you want me to tell you what I found, right? C'mon, let's get back to the room and let him deal with Mir-Mir-chan and Yuu-chan."

"Kanda!" he yelled in exclamation. "H-How is Kanda?!"

The man from behind the desk sighed. "His bones are rapidly regenerating themselves. It's nothing I've ever seen before… But I will take the best of care of them for you two. Please… save our village."

The two nodded as they proceeded out of the room and back into the room of where they were residing in. Lavi closed the door behind them and sighed. "Alright, listen close, I think I'm only gonna be able to say this once before needing to take a nap and try to get better. Me and Mir-Mir-chan--"

"Incorrect grammar."

The redhead frowned. "Me and freakin' Mir-Mir-chan found out that Hagar guy is an associate with the Millennium Earl. I have a feeling that the house he's living is a nice little place for the Akuma to stay in, don't you think?" Allen nodded. "So what my theory is is that I think The Lost Scarecrow is not where the Akuma are. The Innocence has to be in there. I can't think of any other reasoning behind it. And what if this person is like Crow-chan? What if they have only been killing Akuma?"

Allen pondered over these facts. For a hypothesis, it was pretty damn good. "So what do we do?"

"I say we take the rest of today off, let at least me and Yuu-chan-- God only knows he'll be fine in five minutes --recover a bit, and you plan for tomorrow. Mir-Mir-chan is having problems with her Innocence, I think, 'cause it shouldn't have done something like that. She should have had more stamina, at the very least… Hunh." He adjusted his bandana a little bit and sighed. "We really can't afford her to get involved, that is if she even is responsive tomorrow… But that's just my personal opinion. Other than that, I don't know." He yawned loudly. "G'night, Allen-chan, and make sure Yuu-chan doesn't kill you." He crashed onto one of the beds and fell asleep almost immediately. Allen blinked.

'How does he even do that?' he thought.

"OH! Wait!" Lavi sat up. "What in the hell happened at that house when I was out? 'Cause I have no idea what went on."

The British exorcist hesitated. He knew that Lavi was out earlier; he just hoped that he didn't have to explain what happened. He took in another shaky breath before exhaling in a sigh. "Well… Kanda, Miranda and I were fighting those strange worms. And Miranda, she seemed too tired to be fighting as is, so she tried not to get in the main action." He swallowed hard. "I got careless. I let my guard down and, in doing so, Kanda…" He frowned. "We had destroyed three of those worms already, and I launched myself at the last worm."

"I forgot the actual last one was not, because there were two there. Then the shadows attacked me in tenfold, and I found myself being digested by one of the worms. Crown Clown was not in my reach anymore, and I found that I could not breathe in that thing. I heard Kanda yell something, but I… I was already out of it. When I woke up, I found that Kanda was pulling me out of some ooze. He looked rather bad, his forehead was bleeding, even. I noticed it was still dark and was about to ask him if he had killed them all, but then…" The frown deepened. "…It got Kanda off-guard and threw him across the room. I was in shock and tried to locate Crown Clown, but while doing so the worm… ran him over, very, very slowly."

"I found it then-- it wasn't easy to find in the darkness --and saw what was going on. I threw Crown Clown at it, in desperation, and managed to split it in two separate pieces. But that didn't even stop it. It…" He looked sicker than Lavi at that moment, "It grew another pair of eyes, the second pile, and started to attack me while the other ate Kanda. I was about to get eaten when Miranda stopped the attack again and again and I managed to finally kill that one before she completely exhausted herself. I put her off to one side before trying to help Kanda." He shuddered. "It started to smell like dead bodies then, but I didn't stop trying to help him. I killed that one with slight difficulty and tried to find Kanda. He was under one of the piles of the remaining junk… and wasn't breathing… and…"

Lavi's eyes grew partially wide. "Allen-chan? Are you okay?"

The British boy blinked, tears rolling down his cheeks. It was the thought of seeing Kanda lying there, broken and bloody, and not breathing. "I was…" he seemed to struggle to find the adjective he was looking for, and even when he did it came out in a whisper. "…scared… I couldn't… I… Kanda…"

Lavi got up and hugged the boy, feeling as if it were the only thing he could do right then. Allen didn't move or even breathe. He just let those tears that were rolling down his cheeks fall. He was so worried earlier, and now, for the doctor to tell him that he was healing perfectly strange, it was a great relief. He thought Kanda would be dead and he though he'd never hear him call him by his name ever, ever again. Or even Moyashi. He didn't care anymore. If it were enough to keep Kanda alive, he would allow him to call him Moyashi. "I never… want to see him like that ever again," he mumbled into Lavi's shoulder. "Never. I would rather die."

Lavi laughed. "Gods, Moyashi-chan, it sounds like you are in love and can't be separated from him or else you want to kill yourself. Relax, Yuu-chan will be fine-- Allen?"

Allen was looking up at him, eyes shocked wide. He misheard Lavi and thought he said that he loved Kanda and that was why he was stressing about it. "H-How did you find out about how I felt?!" he yelled, panicked.

"Hunh?" Lavi was immediately confused, then tried to put the puzzle pieces together. "Uh… Allen, you're speakin' crazy. What are you on about?"

"How did you know about… about… my liking Kanda?!" he said. "You just said that--"

Lavi's eyes were wide. "Wha? No! I said that you sounded like you were-- wait-- What did you just sa--? Holy shit-- You love Yuu-chan?!"

The startling earth-shattering-ka-boom resounded inside the Bookman Junior's head. Allen Walker, the long-proclaimed enemy of the Earl and Kanda, was in love with the second person he hated most?! Thoughts ran rampant through his mind. Did Kanda know? Was Kanda in love with Allen or was it just one-sided? Allen blinked, confused. So he didn't figure it out earlier. But now he knew. He felt a bead of sweat roll down the side of his face, eyes slowly becoming wide.

He had just told his biggest secret to the worst person to tell secrets to.

An.

Apprentice.

Bookman.

"Wai-Wait! I was just joking! Hah hah! Got you!" he was desperate, trying to make it so that he was trying to get Lavi with a joke. It wasn't working as Lavi just rose and amused eyebrow. Allen felt himself panic and give up. "…Please, Lavi. Please, I'm begging you, please don't tell Kanda. Or Miranda. Or anyone. Keep this between us, okay? Please?"

The redhead seemed to think about it, shaking his head. "I just can't get my thoughts around it, Allen-chan. I mean… You loving Yuu-chan, that's just…" Several adjectives filled his head, among them weird and kinky, but he didn't say either of those. "…the last thing I would even imagine happening."

"I know," the British exorcist twiddled his thumbs. "That's how I was able to keep a secret for this long."

"Just how long have you liked him, Allen-chan?"

He bit his lip. He honestly had no clue. Was it before, in that earlier mission? Or had he been fooling himself this entire time and liked him the second he laid eyes on him? He blushed lightly. Maybe. "…For a while now… I just know I'll never have the nerve to tell him, and I…" He paused, looking at Lavi, who was staring at him with honest curiosity and, by the looks of it, a desire to help him in some fashion. "I know we're both guys, but, oh… I just… When he accidentally kissed me… I'm still not able to get it out of my head. I want…" His voice dropped to a whisper, which made it more difficult for the apprentice Bookman to hear. "…to kiss him again. More than anything."

Another long pause. Lavi sat back down onto the bed, sighing and thinking about the given information to him. "So… you really like Yuu-chan?"

A hesitant nod.

"And you say you wanna kiss him again."

Another hesitant nod.

Lavi thought a little bit more. He knew Allen would never grow the courage to face the Great Asshole Kanda Yuu and tell him how he felt. He just knew that for a fact. It was going to be difficult, but he was going to have to interfere. It was in his nature, and besides, he wanted to help Allen. He grinned widely at him. "Good luck, then, Allen-chan. I wish I could help more, but my head is really killing me right now and I can't think properly. I need to sleep… Can you let me do that for a while?"

"Okay." Allen nodded as Lavi curled back up under the blankets before falling asleep.

After a few minutes passed, he went downstairs and got several sweet things to eat before heading back upstairs, sighing. It was quiet outside, the hailing had stopped, and the street light showed the snow gleaming brightly. He paused, wanting it to snow. He wanted it to snow more that anything. He blinked, then rubbed his eyes. White flecks floated down.

His wish was granted.

Quietly, he opened the door and closed it behind him, heading down the stairs and out the front door. It crunched quietly beneath his boots as he walked far enough away into a place so quiet it was surreal. The crescent moon broke out from behind the clouds as the boy kicked at the ground and smiled half-heartedly to himself. He wondered how everyone back home was doing, if Miranda was going to be okay, if Lavi was going to recover quickly… He sighed, and then wondered what it would be like if Kanda actually returned the same affections he did. It would never happen. Never.

He picked up a fist-full of snow, then started to roll it across the ground until it was of decent size and stopped. He made another and put it on that one, then a final one and put it on top of that one. He found himself smiling stupidly at it, putting a smile on its face with just indenting it upon it. He found himself laughing.

And laughing loudly.

Somehow, all that stress that had built up was finally gone with the making of that snowman as he ran back to the inn, a silly grin on his face, even as he came back in and walked up the stairs, opening the door and sighing.

No matter what tomorrow brought, it was going to be fine.

He didn't care anymore.

The howling of the wind outside seemed to disagree as it seemed to echo softly and telling about the danger.

If only he had listened.


Wow, ominous ending right there. So! Did you like it? Hate it? Love it? Destroy it? Hit me with a review, por favor! It's very much appreciated. Next chapter is less confusing and maybe even a little bit of-- Oh, whoops, I'm not a liberty to say. See you in Chapter 10! --K.S.