Lavi had found Allen missing when he returned with the food in hand. They had gone looking for another inn. Hopefully something cheaper, as luxury was something both Allen and Lavi had long ago accepted as forgotten.
Allen had said something about wandering a little ways, mostly around the shops in the area. He hadn't had a problem with separating. Both had the ability to protect or defend themselves if needed.
Lavi decided to stop where he was before assuming the worse.
'Okay, if I were Allen, where would I go.' He sighed. The exorcist was frustrated. "I don't even have an idea of where to look. I'll wait for now I guess. He cant have gone far." Lavi muttered quietly under his breath.
He wasn't so much frustrated as he was paranoid. Luck would have it an akuma would show or something else to complicate things.
The bell rang outside a shop door near Lavi.
He didn't think much of it, just another customer leaving. He let himself steal a small side-glance anyways. It was Allen, no mistake. He stopped his call when the red head saw his companion wasn't alone.
Moving closer to the wall out of the way, Lavi pulled his hood up to hide his face the best he could. His left hand's grip held the small bag of groceries, while the right settled at his waist, casually positioned and ready to grab his hammer.
The stranger Lavi had never seen until now, didn't exactly seem out of the ordinary. The man pulled Allen a little ways opposite Lavi. He was spotted, but inconspicuous still. The man said something, but it was too quiet to hear.
As discreetly as one can without staring, Lavi looked the man over. He wore a black top hat, black coat and white fingered-gloves. A cigarette's ashes fell, extinguished in the snow, now forgotten between the middle and pointer finger. He was pale for any person.
Leaning in closer, the boy cringed as said stranger now rested his arm around Allen's shoulders, speaking one last thing.
He strained to hear, but for the most part, the exorcist excepted that it was futile. Of all his traits, Lavi lacked super-human hearing.
"Let me know when you settle matters." This was not spoken in private, but intentionally meant to be heard.
'He knows I'm here,' Lavi gripped his hammer now, but still waited. The stranger left, walking around a near street corner, and disappeared. More concerned about the other, Lavi moved quickly to Allen's side. His face held little to no emotion. Though he clearly was shaken. Whatever the man had said had had its effect.
"Allen." The boy responded to his name.
"Huh?" His eyes conveyed the confusion he felt. Lavi laughed nervously, trying for Allen's sake to act like nothing out of the ordinary. For now. Getting back to the inn was his first idea.
"It's cold, isn't it? Here, take my scarf until we get back to the room," he said, forcing his smile (if small) to keep. The younger nodded, enough a response given the situation.
Unwrapping it from his own neck, Lavi wrapped Allen with it. With a soft nudge, a prompt to walk forward, the eldest led his friend the way, the encounter still present in his thoughts and a million unanswered questions.
He sat up, the beds headboard his support. With patience, a dazed state became a little more clear; aware and alert.
"Are you feeling any better?" The red head, once sitting in the chair (hoping to give their friend a little space) was across the small room in seconds and sitting by Allen's side. It was too much like before.
"Can you tell me who that was speaking with you?" He didn't want to push too much, but Lavi hadn't wasted his years of training with Bookman. He didn't trust the unknown stranger.
"Tyki" was his whispered reply. Lavi hadn't been sure if he heard right.
"Tyki? Like the Noah?" A nod again. Without losing head, taking a deep breath and letting it go, Lavi pushed on.
"Tyki. He said the Earl is waiting, but I'm still-" What whisper existed became extinct. Quiet. Taking Allen's hands, Lavi held tightly. Allen looked away, allowing himself to become numb to raising feelings.
"You can tell me. It's helped before." Another nod. A little louder this time:
"He said I'm not ready. I still have to settle matters." His face asked for him, but he said the words anyways.
"What 'matters?"
"Which way I go. He said I can't go back to the Order. I can't go now, but I'll join them. It's inevitable." Lavi didn't care anymore.
"What are you saying? Why would you join them? The Noah's! Just because Tyki said so?" Allen looked back, this time meeting Lavi's enraged eyes.
"No. Not because Tyki said so. Because I'm losing, Lavi. You know it and they know it. I'm not sick." Lavi released his hands, leaving the bed and in frustration, stood from the bed.
"I know what's happening Allen. I don't care. You know why I don't care? Because I still believe."
"I'm becoming them. What is it going to take to make you understand that!" Allen no longer resembled a comatose child. He abandoned his place on the bed and found his footing. Now face to face with Lavi.
"I'm running out of time. And I can't stop this, whatever we're calling it, because I'm not one of you. I'm not the Allen who came to the Black Order, Cross Marian's apprentice, the same little naive child." His breathing rapid, and mind reeling, Allen dropped to the bed again, holding his face; hiding.
He lowered his voice a bit. "You're right. You're not the same person who came to the Order. You're not the same, naive, closed up, Allen we all knew. Not even the same Allen who turned his Dad into an Akuma." Kneeling on both knees, Lavi was eye level with Allen. His attention was had.
Allen had been many things: hurt, happy, sad, frustrated, but never as wounded as he was now.
"What are you saying."
"I'm saying that you are Allen Walker. You make me smile. You make Lenalee smile. You made me who I am, because I met you. I've changed too. We all have. But most of all," Lavi took hold of Allen's face, giving him no choice but to look at him.
"You made me love you. And if that isn't enough reason to believe in you, Allen Walker; not a Noah, you, than I don't know what is." Allen stared, the only thing his brain could process.
"You love me?" Lavi pulled Allen to his feet.
"Are you blind? I haven't exactly been subtle," the red head laughed, not his usual contagious laughter, but something of amazement.
He didn't stop and think. Unlike many things, Allen just acted; no strategy, no plan. Arms around Lavi's back, his face now free, he embraced the touch of Lavi's lips against his. Their foreheads met, nose brushed against nose; this did not deter Lavi from deepening the gesture. Separating, foreheads still together, a call from the hall could be heard:
"For the love of god, if you have to yell, do it outside!"
Both laughing, Lavi pushed Allen back onto the bed, following after, lying beside his partner.
"Are you ok now?" He asked, more serious.
Allen smiled again, but it was different, because it wasn't a pretense. It was one only Lavi had seen. "Yeah. Thanks to you. Thank you, for believing in me." This smile was reserved for one, and only one person.
"When you have a dream, you believe it will come true. And you are my dream."