Brain Damaged
Part Thirty-Seven

To say that Kanda Yuu was feeling a little self conscious was the understatement of the century. He didn't quite know why, but he did believe Neah's words when he said he'd used Timcanpy as a way to protect him from himself. Probably because it was beneficial to the Noah. Whatever Neah wanted to accomplish, he was needed for it, clearly. So, watching Link leave with Timcanpy had left him feeling uncomfortable. That and he found himself absently looking over at his shoulder—where Tim had usually been sitting. He was painfully used to the little shit.

"Kanda, are you paying attention?"

He snapped to attention, looking up at Komui—who was still poking and prodding at him. It was easy to just let the damn man do whatever and pay attention when he was done, but that wasn't what the Chinese man was expecting of him…apparently. "Yes."

"Because I asked you a question."

"Then, no."

Komui sighed and forcibly leaned his head back again, shining a light directly into one of his eyes—and it felt like directly into his brain. Like Komui was shoving the goddamned sun into his pupil. Despite the extreme desire to, Kanda didn't close his eye to the assault. "I asked you if the light hurt."

"So…you're trying to hurt me."

"Kanda."

"Yes. It does. It's drilling right into my brain, now get the fuck off of me," he grunted and pushed him back. "Look, I had my brain pulled out of my ear; naturally, I'm going to be fucked up for a while. So can I just take Mugen so we can leave now?"

"Do you think you can activate your Innocence?" The Chinese man asked, perplexed by the sudden urgency in the young exorcist. Kanda was usually one to sit there, listen to the results of his examination and then casually see his way out. This was more forceful and almost appeared like he was trying to escape any further inspection.

"No shit." Dark eyes stared down Komui; secretly hoping that he really could invoke it. His Innocence had been rejecting him—he assumed—because of his emotional turmoil, the turmoil with Allen…which had been settled. But…there was now the turmoil of a completely different kind he had to fret about.

The raging, crashing, destructive emotions that kept freaking out deep in his mind whenever he even heard the word "Innocence". It was the dull reminder that Neah told him—without any restraint—that he was the supposed accommodator to the Heart. That…is not something to take without a little stress lumped in for free. Especially because, to his joy, he knew nothing about the person he was before. All he knew was that there was a person. That he had died already and was in a new body. Oh and that there was something he was desperately looking for.

If his Innocence rejected him still…then he had no idea what to fuckin do.

"Well, give it a shot, Kanda. I've adjusted Mugen to the best of our abilities. All that's left is the accommodator.

Accommodator.

"Tch. Just give me the damn thing," he grunted and held his arm out—waiting for Komui to unhand the sword he'd lifted from the shelf it had been stored on. Truthfully, part of him just wanted Mugen back. He'd lived by that sword for nearly ten years and that thing was practically an extension of his own body. Feeling the weight of it in his hand brought a certain relief to him that he didn't know he was waiting for.

He hopped off the hospital bed that he'd been forced on, holding the sword by its hilt. One hand pulled the sheath from the blade and he reveled in the sound of metal as it slid from its case. With a fluid motion, he ran the pads of his fingers along the blade. It shimmered to life and he whispered the words, hoping it would follow his command. "Innocence Activate."

It almost made him feel like a sword fetishist, but he was practically tingling with delight just holding it again. The metal took on a soft bluish glow and it wasn't sending uncomfortable waves of agony through his whole being. In fact, it felt lighter and he felt sharper with it than ever as he casually swung it—his wrist twisting so that it moved in a full circle. This perfect coexistence with the Innocence sword felt good; but at the same time, he knew it wasn't right. Mugen—the Innocence—didn't appear to be done tampering with him. He could feel it all the way down into his bones and he deactivated the invocation before it became obvious that there was a difference—whether it was bad or good.

"Can I leave now? It seems to be just fine," he asked, slight urgency laced into his tone.

"I'm still very concerned about you, Kanda. You can go, but I want to see you when you return."

"Seriously…" The swordsman sheathed the weapon and pushed it through a loop near his belt, so that it would rest at his side.

"Kanda, you said it yourself. You had quite an experience. I'm just trying to make sure that you're—"

"It didn't seem to effect my lifespan enough for me to drop dead tomorrow, Komui. So shut up and let me go."

Komui sent a glance Allen's way and then turned his eyes back to Kanda, "I take it he knows then?"

"Well no shit. There's not much he doesn't know after I fu—"

"You can go now," the man jumped in, cutting Kanda off before he could finish saying anything that he really did not want to hear. It appeared that the Japanese teen was very shrewd, more than he gave him credit for. "Just…come back when you return. I believe Lavi and Lenalee are waiting on both of you anyway." He played it off casually, adjusting his glasses and trying desperate to ignore the single fact that Kanda's eyes flecked gold for that moment when his Innocence was fully activated.

He wasn't so concerned about the color or that it was strikingly similar to a Noah's eye color. There was the fact that he effortlessly activated an Innocence that attested that he couldn't possibly be a Noah. It was, however, extremely peculiar and it worried him. He could never distrust Kanda like that …he watched the man risk death to protect him. Komui was simply concerned. Those kids were all his younger siblings to him, not just Lenalee. He couldn't just ignore if something was actually happening.

"Fine, whatever. I'm sick of being in this place. Come on, beansprout. Let's go," Kanda grunted and turned like liquid, grabbing Allen by the arm and moving out of the room with him. The discomfort disappeared the moment he heard the office door slide closed. The scientist being that close had made his blood pump harder than he wanted it to. There were some people that he could fool. There were others that were too observant. The way Komui was staring his eyes down had sent that chill up his spine. He couldn't tell when his own eyes decided to bleed gold, so he had no idea how exactly to hide that.

"BaKanda? Are you sure you're okay?"

"I'm fine, moron."

"You're not acting like you're fine," Allen lengthened his stride to match Kanda's until they were walking synced next to each other.

"I'm just sick of this place."

"Before, you didn't even want to leave."

"Before, I wasn't in my right mind."

"You never have been in your right mind."

"Go suck a dick, beansprout."

"I'm going to have to ask that you provide the required material," Allen shot back and Kanda stopped without warning. The exasperated, yet flushed, expression he had would have made a beautiful photo, Allen thought. "Everything okay?" He asked again, his innocent smile plastered on to his face.

"…Shut the hell up and get a move on," he fought back the desire to drag him off into a room and actually make him do it. He wasn't that bad. He wasn't the horny teenager he accused Allen of being. Unlike the little brat, he had some semblance of self restraint.

He snapped out of his sudden frozen pose and brushed passed Allen, making his way for the lounge, reaching his hand out to take the door handle. Unfortunately, he didn't have enough time to react to the door swishing open with the force Lavi usually put behind his hammer's swing. Colliding with it, he let out a slew of swears—getting a sudden déjà vu from the last time he failed a door. "God…fucking…." He clamped his hand over his face and cursed the stars that came to his vision.

"Huh, what was tha—? Oh, I didn't know you were there, Yuu. What are you doing behind the door?"

Kanda fought to keep himself from slipping Mugen from its sheath and taking it for a field trip into Lavi's insides. He didn't need to spill the bookman junior's life liquid all over the hall floor. "Call me that again and you will die," he glared heatedly, trying to will the impact out of his head—thankful his healing ability made it possible to just shake off concussions.

"Calm down, Yuu. That didn't hurt, did it?"

A twitch made itself present over Kanda's eye. It was a tick that he couldn't get rid of when his blood pressure sky rocketed from annoyance. "Tch."

"Are you feeling better, Kanda?" Another voice came from within the lounge. From within the room appeared Lenalee, with a gentle smile. The smile she usually reserved for Kanda and Kanda alone. It was sibling affection that the swordsman didn't know how to deal with sometimes.

"Yes." He grunted, quietly adding, "for god's sake."

"Sorry, he's a little grouchy because of Komui," Allen apologized softly to Lenalee, who chuckled at how polite Allen was.

"So you guys are better now?"

"Haha, yeah. I think so," he started, a little smile etching into his face. That, he couldn't help. Call it a silly love struck thing he had going, but thinking about Kanda made him happy. He wanted to enjoy that for as long as possible. Having someone that close to him…made everything worth it. Not that he would ever tell Kanda, but he wanted to protect what they had. No matter what.

"I'll admit, I was so happy when Lavi told me you two reconciled." she slid closer to Allen. With a pseudo-innocent smile, she leaned in toward his ear and whispered to him, "so is what Lavi said true?"

"What did Lavi say, Lenalee?" He did not like where this was going. Not at all. It was never a good thing when a statement had anything Lavi said in it. In fact, that was a reason to flee from the question entirely. Out of courtesy, he chuckled nervously and waited for clarification.

"Is Kanda really…" She started and the whispers faded until Kanda couldn't even hear what she was asking. All he was certain of was that Allen's face flushed hot and he looked like he caught a fever from her words alone. The hell did she say to him.

"L….Lenalee…That's…That's. I can't…that's….Yes," he squeaked and turned away from her, not daring to look at her—knowing her reaction was probably a borderline squeal.

"Hey, what did she just ask you, beansprout?" He really didn't want to know the details. He really didn't. But he wanted to know why Allen looked like he was going to pass out from the blood rushing to his face.

"Don't…don't worry about it…Haha. Oh god… Really."

He folded his arms and looked away with a grunt. It was probably better that he didn't know what the context of that was. Allen knew that Kanda wasn't into spilling his personal business, so he had to trust the beansprout not to make it uncomfortable or awkward for him. Though…Lenalee had looked at him rather strangely.

"Hey, everyone ready to go?" Lavi grinned.

"Tch."

"Yup…" Allen chuckled, letting it die until it sounded like a half hearted nervous gesture.

Lavi grinned and darted between Lenalee and Allen, snatching Kanda's arm completely unexpectedly. He pulled the Japanese man along with him, taking the man by near complete surprise. Kanda didn't even have time to ball his fist up and cram it down Lavi's throat; he was being hauled nearly backwards down the hall—away from Allen and Lenalee. He could only foster a look of surprise for the sudden change in orientation.

Blinking, his brain knew it was Allen he was staring back to; but his eyes saw Neah. Allen's soft silver eyes didn't even break the illusion. He tried hard not to make any indication that he wasn't seeing Allen, but his mind just wasn't working with him like he wanted it to. Seeing the Noah fully was different than seeing him in Allen's body. This was a different kind of sight.

Golden eyes seemed to paralyze him and he stopped moving his feet, stopping them both in their tracks. He was oblivious to Lavi's curious gaze and oblivious to Lavi's voice. Something deep in him teetered on the edge of pain and discomfort, but he pushed it out as hard as he could when his vision filled with the glaring green of Lavi's bandana.

"Hey, are you okay?"

Without a word, Kanda recovered enough to grab Lavi by the arm and pull him hard enough to bodily swing and flip him over his shoulder, expertly throwing him—back flat—into the floor. "Perfectly fine," he sneered down at the redhead.

"Touché, Yuu. You got me there." At least you think you did. Now what's wrong with you?

"Let's just go. Before I put my foot in your ass."

"So kinky~" Lavi jumped up, as if the trouncing had done absolutely nothing to him at all. "I claim Yuu for this date!"

Allen and Kanda both turned their gazes on Lavi and with almost a seemly single shared breath they exhaled: "What?"

To Be Continued…

A/N: Projected 3-5 more chapters after this. That's the plan. Knowing me, I may fuck up and change my mind. But that's the intent. Then the sequel Cacophony will begin. And I will explode all of your minds with how convoluted I made this thing that was originally supposed to be only ten chapters long LOL.

WakeToSanity: Unfortunately, Link won't get as much time as I wanted to give him, but his interactions with Kanda were never really noted at all. So that was kind of inevitable. But there will be something. I'm glad you seem to enjoy my writing so much. I look at it like "(╯°□°）╯︵ ┻━┻ Stop fucking up these words, David" and you're like "ILOVEIT". So I may be being too hard on myself again.
Marufu-chan: Many thanks dear!
Sayo-chan64: Tim is possessive, the little nutter! But he did have a reason to do it. Haha!
Kilala-hunters: You're a new reviewer, I believe. I'm glad you've enjoyed what you read so far!
LePetitErik: Haha, I hope it'll be interesting. If not, I shall be flogged (╯°□°）╯︵ ┻━┻
Fridayyy13th: Because Hoshino is too pussy to kill a seriously main character. Which is why Kanda is still with us and Link is not.
Lazy Gaga: I'll explode in the process of writing the sequel and everyone will have to wait until I pick my own pieces up and put myself back together. XD I'ma try to make it that huge.
AkixYuseiGRL: Let's hope Tim has some filters in his little golem recording studio.
JewelRinoa: Lavi is always doing that lol! He'll get his one day!
EXO718: And this explains why Kanda is pissier than ever at this point in the timeline. Not only did Tim take his golem, but Link took his beansprout!
Styrie: LOL. I think Kanda would be less mad at Canada than Yuu. Lavi's lucky he's alive.
BunnySenpai: Timcanpy is the best ever. I love the damned thing and so does Kanda, he just doesn't want to admit it. : I'm glad you are enjoying!
Collateral-Damage666: I wanna see, I wanna see.
Kayce Hurd: Oh, I think Allen hopes more than anyone that Tim knows what not to show. Awwwwwwkward.
ChiKazex: I shall write until it's complete! Thank you!

Moyashi: From what I gathered, Hoshino doesn't intend to reveal anything else about Kanda and Alma, so I think we're safe on the original name. It's a hazy timeline too, so it makes it easy to play with. I love drama fuckfests. And you shall too. For I shall shattered your heard with love, angst, violence and fluff. YOU SHALL SEE.