Yikes I'm on a roll.

More torture of a graphic nature and a sudden realisation that he probably shouldn't have jumped to conclusions…yeah, I'm talking to you Kanda.

Finally, the truth gets out.

I don't own D Gray Man, but the little bitch Fran, yeah, she's mine.

Chapter 10- BaKanda

"So I hear you're good at playing poker. Or rather, you're good at cheating at poker. You must have a good slight of hand to get away with that during a game. But check out what I can do." The Noah flicked a wrist and a small knife appeared out of nowhere. "Pretty good isn't it? I can do it the other way too." The knife vanished. "Now then. The question is- is your eye for cheating faster than my eye for throwing? Can you cheat my knives Allen Walker?"

Allen continued to watch her carefully. With a blurred movement of her hand, the knife vanished.

"Oops, not fast enough there were you?" The knife was embedded in his left shoulder. He'd not even had chance to activate his innocence. "Let's try again." She watched him with a sadistic smile as he wrenched the knife out, gritting his teeth against the pain. He had just pulled the blade clear when another struck the same spot, making him scream in agony. But even as he pulled the second blade free it was replaced by a third.

"I just don't think you're very good at this" the Noah commented, swirling a fourth blade, point down, on her finger. "You need to stop pulling them out."

Allen growled at her, but even as he went to grasp the hilt, the fourth knife had flown and pinned him against the wall. Now he couldn't move either of his arms, and no matter how hard he tried he could not get his left arm to activate.

He screamed again as longer knives struck his legs. He was now well and truly pinned.

Francesca smiled again, skipping closer. "Now then, let's see what's in that head of yours. And since you lost my little game, I'm not going to go easy on you." She stepped closer, pressing yet another knife against his neck. "Don't try and struggle, these knives are very sharp."

"Hmm…what's this then? You're a sad little boy aren't you? You have trust in everything. Well, we know that, that's what got you here in the first place. But what hurts you the most?"

She leant closer, savouring the metallic scent of blood. She wiggled one of the now numerous knives impaling the boy, making him scream again. Such a wonderful sound…

"What's that Walker? Useless? Yes, you are, aren't you? You came to the rescue and you're in worse shape than they are. Some rescuer. Not even a useful exorcist either, are you? Can't defeat anything over a level 2? Tut tut, what sort of apostle of God are you supposed to be? And the one person you wanted to prove yourself to…he thinks you are useless. Harsh."

She laughed, twisting the knife, raising a high pitched scream from the boy's parched throat. "What are you Walker?"

"Useless…"

"Jesus, what was that?" Lavi jerked against the ropes, a distant scream making him jump.

"Sounds like you're not the only one with a few broken bones." Lenalee flinched as the scream echoed again.

Kanda didn't move. At least if the Noah was busy torturing someone else then she wasn't searching for Allen.

Kanda's scowl deepened as h thought back over what the Noah had said. Had Allen's rejection really hurt him that badly? He hadn't thought it was possible to hurt as much as he did. He looked over the other two exorcists, who were obviously trying to ignore the faint screams. Were they aware just how much the Moyashi had played with all their feelings? He considered asking them, anything to drown out the horrific sounds assailing their ears.

Then, just as soon as the thought crossed his mind, the terrible noise wavered to another pitch, higher and more insistent, before cutting off abruptly.

Lenalee sighed in relief. "Thank goodness."

"You're glad someone's stopped screaming?" Lavi asked her.

"Well it means they've passed out and won't feel the pain any more."

"Or they're dead" supplied Kanda unhelpfully.

Francesca slipped in through the door, a small triumphant smile playing on her lips. These exorcists are just too much fun to leave alone…

She crossed the room, settling herself on Kanda's lap as she had done the day before. He tried to tilt away. She was coated in blood, her hair sticking in the congealing mess across her cheeks. Leaning close to his ear she whispered softly "BaKanda."

Kanda froze, staring at her in horror. "What did you say?"

"BaKanda. It's what he calls you isn't it? That Moyashi of yours." She was still speaking too quietly for the others to hear.

"What have you done?" he asked, his voice subdued with suppressed anger.

She laughed again. "You would have saved yourself so much trouble if you'd just spoken to each other." She raised her voice as she spoke. "You are all idiots." She informed them seriously, bending forward to drape something around Kanda's neck. "I'll leave you to talk. Wouldn't want you to leave it too late again, would you?"

Besides, she had another plaything to entertain her…

After she was gone, Lavi spoke up. "Yuu-chan, what did she say to you? I've never seen you look so angry."

Kanda shook his head, his whole body trembling. As they watched, something slid from his neck and puddled between his feet.

Even in the gloom it was clear what it was. The ribbon lay innocently on the cold floor.

Lavi choked back the bile that rose to his throat.

"Which mean's they've passed out…"

"Or they're dead"

Lenalee wasn't as successful as Lavi, and turned her head, away from the grotesque mockery of the bright red thing, and vomiting violently over the floor. "Oh God." She muttered again and again and again. Once she had control over her nausea, she looked at Kanda. "What did she mean, talk? What's going on Kanda?"

Kanda made a small bitter sound that might have been a sob. "I fell in love with the most amazing person I could have ever met. I opened myself to him like I had to no other, gave him everything I had, and her threw it back in my face. He rejected me, and turned to my best friend." The last two words were thrown venomously at Lavi.

Lenalee looked like she finally understood something. Lavi, however, remained clueless.

"Me…and Allen?" He burst out laughing. "You're both crazy!"

"Don't try and deny it Lavi, I saw you both. That morning that it had started to rain. You had your arms around him."

Kanda remembered that morning all too well. It was when Allen had run away from him and into Lavi's arms, and the morning he in turn had run away from everything.

Lavi stopped laughing. "You're actually serious about this?"

"She's right. I saw you both too. Outside, earlier that same morning, before the rain. Embracing each other…" he looked even more spiteful than before.

"That Noah's right. We are all idiots! If we'd just talked about this earlier…" Lavi shook his head slowly.

"That morning," he looked first at Kanda, "I dragged him outside. It was because of the damn ribbon that you brought to me. Somehow everything made sense…he'd been acting weird in the shower, he kept banging his head against the wall, looking like he just wanted to break down. I don't know how I realised, but I did. So I made him tell me everything. And I was the one holding him as he cried because he believed you thought badly of him, and how much he regretted running away. I told him to go and find you."

Lavi turned to Lenalee, who flinched from the forcefulness of the emerald gaze. "It was later that morning that you saw us. I found him outside in the rain, utterly depressed because Mr. Chuckles here had done a vanishing act before Allen found him to apologise. He thought he'd screwed everything up for good. And I brought him inside before he caught a cold from sitting in the rain. I was hugging him because that's what family does when someone needs comforting."

Kanda slumped. The Noah was right. None of this would have happened if he hadn't acted so rashly, demanding a mission to get him away from Allen and the order before giving the boy a chance to speak to him.

"BaKanda indeed."

A/N

Just a baby chapter, though the next one is coming shortly. I couldn't face any more torture just before I go to bed. And my brain aches. I need food...

Yeah, I know, she's like a Road with knives. Sorry.

Much Lovage

Aerika-san