"What?" Kanda questioned aggressively as the tired, young boy before him quit speaking.
"Don't make me say it again," Allen murmured rubbing his eyes.
"C'mon Beansprout... why would they do that, how the hell would that even work?" Kanda questioned intently, pushing away the urge to embrace the small, shaking, frame that was rousing his protective instinct.
"Yeah, you're one to talk, you practically went through the same thing but with your whole body." Allen spoke pointedly, leaning against the wall behind his bed.
"Yeah, but... You were in this rundown heap of a place... and they were experimenting with human fortification. That's pretty fucked up, Beansprout. I mean..." Kanda grimaced before he finished the sentence "to electrocute you to do it." Using something as unreliable as lightening on a person. It seemed so barbaric to Kanda. Burning a cross into a kid's hand so that it would attract the energy and then strapping him down so that his thrashing didn't snap his bones. It was revolting to think about. Kanda didn't understand why anyone would do that to a beansprout. Even if you strengthen him he's still just a brat. Plus, to only do it to one arm... it didn't make sense.
"It wasn't the same as with you Kanda. I wasn't there to be shipped off to war; I was there to prepare the people that were going to be shipped off to war. I was like a lab rat. They used me to find out how they could make 'Akuma Soldiers'."
"... Demon soldiers?"
"Well that's what they called them... the NOAH weren't the most stable bunch." Allen spoke with remaining tears still stinging at his eyes.
"What... did they need soldiers for?" It was a hesitant question as he didn't want to know the answer.
"I think, that they're for later... I don't know. I mean if you don't I wouldn't, don't you think?" Allen sniffled one last time and his strong gaze returned, considerably easing Kanda. "You're the 'secret weapon of the Black Order' or whatever name they give to pricks of your stature." The only reason he could joke about this and not simply break down after hearing all of the unbelievable information was because he had been through something remarkably similar to Kanda.
"I'm not their weapon anymore. That's why I got out of there."
"Well duh, Bakanda, you're not some grenade on legs. I at least understand that much." Allen spoke with a simmering stare. He didn't like the idea of people standing around an incapable Kanda, speaking about the best methods to turn him into the ultimate being, whatever measures necessary. Screw whatever problems it might solve. No one deserved that.
"What about... you said that they gave you that tattoo." He looked to Allen who nodded his confirmation "Well, you said that that meant that you were always theirs. But you're not, you're here, not with them."
Allen let a small smile slip. "I know, I just meant that that was what it could entail. But Lavi helped me get out."
"Right... Why was Lavi in there anyway?" Kanda asked, still dubious to this particular fact.
Allen grunted and straightened against the wall. "Believe it or not... they took him when he was a kid because of his mind and tried to make it supreme. They pretty much put his brains on steroids and now he can remember... everything." Allen shook his head grimacing and stopped his tears before they could reach his eyes. "He... he told me that I was dealt a bad card... but his was definitely worse. Everything they did to him is... just sitting in his mind, waiting for something to set it off. It has to be terrifying," Allen whispered hoarsely and pressed his palms to his eyes, which were already red from salty tears and liberal rubbing.
Kanda's hand hung in the dead air between him and Allen. He didn't want to just leave Allen be, but he knew that the boy wouldn't appreciate physical comfort. Kanda was being expected to sit, listen, and talk. That was all.
"He has too much cheer anyway, he needs something to water it down," Kanda uttered drably, his hand returning to his side.
Allen looked down and he spoke evenly "He has a lot of fake cheer, you know. I didn't realize it at first but most of the time his eyes are just empty." He looked up to Kanda and thought of how gainsaying Kanda's expressions were with Lavi's. Lavi was always smiling plastically with dead eyes and Kanda had a grimace perpetually stained onto his mug with eyes that swam in his emotions. "What about you, were you always such a jerk, or did being fully enhanced make you this vain?"
"I don't know," Kanda spoke, ignoring the insult. "My parents sold me when I was an infant and that's when I was taken in by the order."
"If you were taken as baby, how come you can speak Japanese?" Allen asked almost casually, picking at a loose thread from his shorts.
"They have bases all over, I lived in the Asia branch until I was seven. I was transferred to America after they were somewhat satisfied with my 'condition'. Then a few years after that I managed to ditch the bastards."
"Wouldn't they come looking for you?" Allen figured that if they deemed Kanda an ultimate human, then they would want to keep him under wraps.
"They were probably afraid. All of them are cowards; that's why they made me in the-"
"You're not an object. You're Kanda Yuu, not some thing they made on a whim." Allen spoke sternly glaring daggers into dark eyes.
Kanda puffed a laugh out of his nose and went on with a faint smirk. "I got it Beansprout." He continued from where he was interrupted. "That's why they enhanced me in the first place, because they were afraid of their enemies. And when I wasn't on their turf, I was their worst enemy."
Allen deadpanned. "Way to pat yourself on the back there, are you my worst nightmare too?" he muttered caustically.
"I doubt it, since yours are probably pretty fucked up."
Allen pursed his lips before sighing "They really aren't bad compared to the real thing. It's kind of like when you're falling in your dreams, except I never hit the ground." Allen spoke with an oddly tranquil tone. "It's bad, but it wouldn't be if it weren't so drawn out."
"Hn. I understand." Kanda stopped to take a look at Allen's arm. Apparently, he hadn't only been hit by lightening 'more than once', but more like twenty times. Each strike broke down the muscles and tissue so completely that, after healing, he basically gained the power of an average man with every blow. It was incredible that Kanda's wrist hadn't broken earlier when he pissed Allen off. "How strong are you... or how strong is your arm?" he asked, wanting to know how cautious he should be.
"Uh, well I don't know how to say..." Allen turned his arm around while he spoke, as if looking for a product description.
'This limb can produce up to 5,000 pounds of pressure'
(results may vary)
"I guess I could show you."
"Show me how?"
"I don't know... I could crush something in the storage room?" He said it like he was asking Kanda permission.
"Fine, just try not to get hit by a table again, If you forget about this I'm not telling you a second time."
"Aww, you mean the super human won't protect me?" He cooed mockingly.
"You can protect yourself with that damn thing," he brushed his hand over Allen's arm as they stood to walk out of the door.
...
"Would you quit looking at me like that Bakanda?" Allen demandingly questioned as Kanda's dumbfounded stare was held for too long.
Kanda blinked "Sorry. You don't see a beansprout squash a hubcap very often." His hands settled in his pockets as they continued down the hall, away from the storage room. "Plus, the hand that crushed it was the one that I almost flattened." He could remember the noise of his flesh hitting the wall.
"Well it can give off pressure better than it can take it." He said, flexing his fingers. "You're not exactly weak either."
"Duh, we went over that already." Now that he thought about it, his and Allen's 'mutations' were basically the same deal. It's just that Allen's was more extreme and only on one part of his body, while Kanda's was muted and all over. Kanda was also more of an all around 'soldier' then Allen, who was really just freakishly powerful. They tried everything with Kanda from drugs to acupuncture to shock therapy as well, all to make him 'perfect'. They always told him that he was chosen by a higher being for this role; that he would rise from the earth and towards the sun. But they only managed to beat him further into the mud.
"By the way... what did telling each other this stuff really do?" Allen asked dumbly.
"... So far it's just given us more insults."
"You can never have too many of those."
"Not that I needed anymore for a Beansprout like you."
"Yeah, you just use them over and over because you're too obtuse to think of any more."
"I'm not fat, Beansprout."
"No, obtuse like stupid. Thanks for furthering my point." He picked up his pace at the end of his jeer, walking away from Kanda.
"Hey, where the hell are you going?" He questioned, mad that Allen had actually walked away from him. Allen was the one to say that he wasn't allowed to walk away, so this was pretty idiotic.
"Food," was the curt response. 'Well that figures.' Kanda should have known that if the moyashi wasn't being completely stubborn about being stuck to his hip then it had to do with his stomach.
...
Well you boys look good." The bright words spilled from smiling lips as Allen and Kanda drew up to the short counter.
"Tch," Kanda uttered.
Both Jerry and Allen ignored the noise and the youngest asked lightly, "Do we?"
"Yes... I can't put my finger on it... but you're both flowing with something good. Like you were washed and waxed, inside and out." He determined his revelation with shining eyes.
Kanda and Allen exchanged a look of 'it wasn't because of you' and Allen proceeded to tell Jerry his order - Kanda's was already on the shelf.
During the ten minutes where the pair's food gradually disappeared, Allen had thought of copious amounts of new questions and remarks. He had a feeling Kanda had as well.
"Mind if I go first?" He asked as he saw Kanda shift, probably in order to intimidate Allen into answering with his posture - not that he wouldn't answer anyway.
"Whatever."
"What are the things you see, and why do you see them?"
"They're flowers and I don't know why." He said dryly. "What's the deal with your dad?"
Allen sighed. "He was a traveling performer... and a relative to one of the NOAH. He actually helped me and Lavi get out."
"He was related to those NOAH bastards?" Kanda asked with distaste.
"Mm, I only saw his brother once though. He was weird... I couldn't tell if he was the most stable or if he was the biggest psychopath in there."
"So that's where you get it from?" Kanda questioned with a smirk that Allen wanted to scrape off of his face.
"I don't know, but you got your brain from the ground that they tried to 'raise' you from, right?"
"No, I got it from the scientists who worked on me. I assume yours got fried by lightning."
Allen cringed. "Shut up."
"Oh, what? You can roast me as much as you want, but I make one 'brain fried by lightning' joke and I'm a jerk."
"But you are a jerk, and you know I'm not good with that."
"Yeah whatever... you think you would have gotten over that by now." He settled his head on his hand and looked to Allen dully.
"Well I didn't. It's not like I haven't tried... well you know that," he said a bit embarrassed at remembering his last venture out into a thunderstorm.
"I wouldn't call that trying Beansprout," he said mockingly.
"Yeah, yeah."
...
"Good afternoon."
"Oh, good afternoon sir, how can I help you?"
"Oh how polite," he said airily. "Well, I was walking by the other day, and I couldn't help but notice one of the children you have here. He seemed like the sweetest thing, and when I heard that this was an orphanage... well I couldn't help but come to speak with him," the man said cheerily.
"Oh, well could you tell me who he is... ah- I mean to say, what he looks like and what he was doing at the time" Moore questioned, unable to contain her excitement.
"Ah, yes," the man said, rummaging through a bag that was slung across his torso. "Here's the little lamb." He took out a crumpled piece of parchment and Moore unfolded it to see a watercolor painting of two children talking, one with long black hair and one with short white hair. "Yes, the sweet boy on the left"
Moore widened her eyes and stared at the man who was smiling to her blissfully. "...Kanda?"
Dun, dun, dun. And all that.
Thanks to Just Another Fanfiction Nerd and FullmetalFan16 for reviewing.
Thanks for reading!... Seriously, if you're still reading this... bless you.