Kanda didn't know what had awakened him, one moment he was sleeping in his bed and the next he was still lying in his bed but with his eyes open. Deep blue stared up at the dark ceiling.

Did he hear something, is that what woke him up?

A loss had awakened him, though he didn't know what. Or maybe, Kanda thought wryly to himself. It was simply Lavi's howling outside that did the deed. He didn't know how long it had been going on, but given that Kanda knew himself to not be the lightest of sleepers, it had probably been going on for some minutes.

The mansion itself was eerily silent in a way that it seldom was when two other beings were inside of it. Kanda's excellent demonic hearing allowed Kanda to hear even small things that others were doing when they roamed about the home, it only getting truly close to quiet when all besides him were asleep.

Although Kanda could still hear Lavi's breathing in his sleep (when he was within a few floors distance) - or worse- his snoring when the redheaded menace chose to do that, the vampire was nocturnal and so Kanda had been used to being the only one awake or outright alone most of his days.

That is, before Allen. The boy definitively proved himself to be diurnal even with the occasional sleep problems that he admitted to having to Kanda. Even when he wasn't following Kanda throughout his day, the demon could still hear him skittering around the house. Until this moment, he hadn't realized how used to it he had grown.

The mansion was quiet, but the exterior of the property certainly wasn't, and even as the noises were happening some distance away, both Kanda's hearing and Lavi's vocal volume made the activities sound like they were happening right against the wall of the building. Kanda went to his window and glared down at the forest in the direction where Lavi presumably was and pushed down the feeling of panic that had been struggling to assert itself over his person since he awoke to an empty home.

Still, the panic started to gain headway as it whispered a specific question...where was Allen?

Almost not wanting to, Kanda pushed open the window, its wobbling creaking sounding out into the night. The demon's booted foot thumped onto the window sill and a second later, he'd heaved himself out of the window, wings stretching out to catch him mid-fall and swoop his body back up into the air. He sped through the night with speed only a demon could have and he was flying low over the surrounding forest in a matter of seconds.

Dark blue and keen eyes slashed through the openings in the trees, scanning the forest for one or two forms, especially a particularly small one. Of course, Lavi, being a redhead, was the easier to spot and therefore the being that Kanda saw.

And, of course, he was howling up a storm. Allen was nowhere to be found.

Kanda tucked in his wings and went for a dive, pulling himself back up at the last moment and thumping gracefully onto his feet. Lavi jolted a little bit, looking at the demon like he was ready for a fight before realizing it was Kanda and relaxing. Evidently; he had been too wrapped up in whatever he was doing to be very aware of his surroundings.

"Yu!" Lavi cried out in greeting, sounding surprised and stressed and...relieved.

Kanda elected not to react to the familiar and unwelcome use of his first name, now was not the time. "Usagi, what the hell is going on?" He growled out, shooting a murderous glare at a stray Jikininki that was watching them fearfully from the treeline, sending the dirty little corpse-eater skittering.

A look came over Lavi's acid green eyes and Kanda didn't understand what it was until the vampire opened his mouth. "It's Allen, he's run away." And for just a second, the world stopped.

"What?" Kanda demanded, not sure what he was feeling besides angry. With who, he didn't know, but the person in front of him was always an easy option. "What did you just say?"

Lavi let out a small sigh, but it came out as a sound of defeat. He gave Kanda a sad look. "Just what I said, Yu, he's gone. I-I saw him leave. I chased him out, but I couldn't find him. He's probably gotten a good distance away by now, especially if he's found a place to hide."

Kanda stood there listening to the information, the reality of the situation slowly dawning upon him and when it did, he had one single realization.

He had to find the beansprout.

Kanda once again took off into the air without a word and got himself to just above the treetops before shooting across the rest of the forest, moving closer to the outer edge. He searched for something, anything, that would point to where the boy was; a glimpse of silver hair, the sound of his heavy breathing, the smell of human that clung to him as if he still was one. Nothing.

It seemed like Allen had made it out of the forest and smells traveled much harder outside. Kanda could smell him from as much of a distance as in a closed environment and it only got worse when the first drops of rain fell and then turned into a downpour. Kanda detested how rain messed with his senses and this was the worst possible time for it! The rain had an obnoxious way of bringing up new smells while stifling other ones and it made tracking down a target near impossible.

Kanda landed on the outside edge of the forest, glaring vehemently at the world. Somewhere behind him, still a short distance away, Kanda distantly heard what was probably Lavi running through the forest to meet him where he was standing. The demon didn't bother turning his attention towards the sound, waiting for Lavi to make it to him.

What was he going to do now? Part of him wanted to go out and search every inch of all of the surrounding areas in search of the boy until he found him, but it was kept at bay by the other part of him that said doing so would be a fool's errand. While it was true, Allen was working with a human's speed and endurance so even if he was running, he couldn't have gone that far, it was never going to be quite so simple as that.

While it might seem logical that Allen would have headed for the nearest town after leaving, there was no guarantee that that was what he had done. As long as he was not heading towards the mansion or staying in the forest, the silver-haired boy could have realistically headed in any direction. If he did that, any other towns that can be reached by heading in other directions were days away by foot to humans and so Allen would need to find a place to curl up and rest.

Since there wouldn't be a building in sight, it would be easy to see the boy from the sky if Kanda went in the right direction. He would just have to scout every single direction to about the distance Allen could have traveled to verify whether the boy had gone that way or not. That was all, of course, assuming that Allen hadn't gone towards the nearest town, either thinking that it was too risky or simply not knowing it was there.

If Allen had managed to get into or close enough to the town, then even his unique hair color wouldn't help spot him from a crowd. If he'd managed to find an inn to sleep at, that made finding him for the moment all but impossible.

And yet...Kanda couldn't help hoping that Allen had found a place with a bed to spend the night in. Not only would spending the night out with the elements be far harsher on the undead boy, but being out alone at night away from the town and reeking of human would be incredibly dangerous. There were so many monsters that preyed on humans and specifically lurked near human settlements. Humans as a group seemed to recognize earnestly that to be caught outside after sundown was a death sentence.

Allen might not live through the night if he was forced to spend it outside and Kanda had to grit his teeth at the thought. The beansprout would be fine, he told himself! He had to be.

Because…

...Kanda couldn't help him now.

…

…

…

…

For the next few hours after both monsters returned to the mansion, Kanda refused to talk to Lavi about what happened. He went straight up to his quarters without a word and the vampire let him, watching after his master with a sad and lost expression.

Kanda stayed alone in his darkened room, refusing to look at the window as he made and discarded plans to find Allen. He couldn't, for the life of him, think of a good way to root the boy out. What would have been ideal was if Allen hadn't gotten this far from him at all, since increased distance means increased difficulty. Possibly the only option that held real promise was to scout the town for Allen come the day, but there could be no promise that it would work.

He couldn't go flying over the town like normal, he'd need to put on at least the appearance of being human and walk through the town himself. Perhaps send Lavi out to it at sundown to do his part. And if Allen saw them, he very well might hide, which increased in Kanda's mind the importance of subtly in this approach and brought up a question for him. Why did Allen run?

Why did he leave me?

Realistically, there was only one person who had a clear answer to that question and he wasn't here. However, there was someone who might have an idea and that was the redhead downstairs. Immediately, Kanda's feet began carrying him through the mansion in search of the redheaded vampire. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the other man turned out to be in the kitchen. Not that he was doing anything there.

Lavi was found standing in the middle of the kitchen, leaning over a countertop with his palms pressed flat against the surface, also staring blankly at it. His intelligent eyes were dulled as he stayed lost in whatever he was thinking about. It was so bad that Kanda was reduced to repeating the rabbit's name twice before he snapped out of it.

"Yeah, Yu?" Lavi asked, tone unusually restrained.

"Why did the beansprout leave?" Kanda asked. He'd never made a show of having manners and he certainly wasn't going to start right now.

Lavi's eyes drifted to the ground, avoiding his sight for a few long moments and Kanda uncharacteristically waited patiently. Lavi did soon look back up at him and when he did, his eyes glowed with sadness and light frustration in the dim room.

"He...found out at least some of the truth behind his creation," Lavi stated, simply.

Kanda scoffed and crossed his arms. "He already knew that he was brought back to life from an undead corpse." He stated, bluntly.

"Not that." Lavi amended. "Some of the other things. I think his more human sensibilities got the best of him. He made it clear that the knowledge of other humans dying in the pursuit of creating him was too much for him." Here, Lavi paused before continuing quietly. "He's not like us, Yu."

This time, it was Kanda who turned away; glancing off to the side to stare at the wall. He knew that! He didn't need the rabbit to tell him that. He knew Allen wasn't like them...he was small and weak, and altogether too human to ever be something like them. Being like them was never his intended purpose. But...Kanda could admit to having given little thought to Allen's feelings up until this point.

If Allen had been feeling overwhelmed by things even before now when it all came to a head, would he have noticed Allen's discomfort? Probably not and, he could admit, he would not have cared if he did know until recently.

"If you believe he's so different, then why did you tell him about his conception?" Kanda demanded, eager for someone to blame.

"I didn't!" Lavi defended. "He found out on his own!"

"Then why didn't you hide the information better?!" Kanda continued.

"I didn't think I needed to! I'm sorry, Yu, that was a misstep on my part, but we'll find him!" Lavi said.

"Why didn't you stop him from leaving?" Kanda pressed.

"You think I don't care?" Lavi barked back, staring straight at Kanda as the demon looked at him. And, no, now that Kanda was looking right into the vampire's eyes as he asked that question, Kanda couldn't bring himself to believe that. If nothing else was true, then that certainly was. They both cared.

"Al...was really upset." Lavi continued, voice quiet again. "I keep thinking about what I could have done better, but I honestly don't know, Yu." And here the vampire just sounded lost and his head dropped towards the floor. "We need time to come up with a plan, though."

Kanda would deny it to his dying days, but in that moment he reached out a hand and squeezed it tightly around Lavi's arm. No one else would see the silent show of comfort.

Lavi sucked in a breath before looking back up and this time his eyes shone with a surprising amount of determination that made Kanda's eyes widen. His grip went slack around the other's arm.

"We'll find him," Lavi promised, radiating that same drive that he had when the two had first met all that time ago. "We'll find him and bring him back and help him through it." Lavi gave a wry smile before adding, "Even if we're not very good at it."

Somewhere in a small cabin not terribly far away, grey eyes drifted closed in sleep.