And another chapter, because I just wanted to get a decent number of words out. Note: in days past, most people got shoved in either with their travelling party or with other guests into beds, so blanket-stealing was a much more serious and common offense. Also, Daisya has a weird, weird perspective on life. But both you guys and Kanda have figured that out by now.

It was so cold, it was almost painful.

He had wrapped himself in his coat, but exorcists were used to travelling light. No room for too many extra clothes when you could be walking the whole way with your partner on your back.

And, of course, every time he tried to grab more of the blanket he ran the risk of waking Kanda up a second time. He was pretty sure that he'd be even more cranky than usual if he got woken up after their adventure an hour or so ago.

Even so, Daisya couldn't feel most of his legs, from about the knee down. The fire had long since died, and running around in the freezing air had just made him colder. He wasn't made for cold climates — he was used to it being so hot you could barely breathe. Basically, it sucked. Couldn't fall asleep, couldn't stand staying still, couldn't move. Kanda seemed to have the internal body temperature of a lizard, and Daisya suspected that any attempt to leach some warmth from him would result in a black eye at the very least.

Damn, it really was cold.

He made his breathing quieter for a moment, and tried to gauge if Kanda was still asleep.

His breathing was still regular, at any rate.

Oh, well. If you couldn't sleep you could always go get something to eat, or just find a lantern to keep lit and do something less boring than just lying there and trying not to move too much.

Gingerly, Daisya slipped out of the bed, stepping down silently on the wooden beams of the floor. Which, by the way, were freezing cold. It's pretty difficult to get it off the mind when you can even feel the chill between your ribs.

What a weakling he was. It wasn't even winter yet. He supposed he'd have to start packing a few more clothes.

He padded towards his bag, eyes well accustomed to the dark. Just a few more steps without knocking into anything.

He covered the distance, and crouched down. Behind him, he heard a rustling sound, and froze.

"What are you doing?" Kanda whispered, still managing to make the words sound like a groan of annoyance, "Don't tell me there's another akuma."

Daisya shrugged, and rummaged through the pack.

"Couldn't sleep. Too cold. Sorry I woke you up."

Late at night, he didn't feel like arguing.

"I was already awake. Your breathing was off. Just put on your coat."

"Did that."

Daisya heard a sigh, footsteps on the floor, going towards the door. What could Kanda possibly need to do at this hour?

He risked a look, and saw Kanda grabbing his coat off the hook on the door. He looked a bit worse for wear, with dark circles under his eyes and hair falling into his face.

Daisya caught the coat as he threw it at him. Geez, it was heavy. How could Kanda stand to wear it?

"Just take it," Kanda muttered tiredly, "'n go back to sleep. And don't steal the covers this time."

Daisya straightened the coat, but didn't put it on.

"Sorry. Aren't you cold?"

"No," said Kanda shortly, "I'm used to winter. Just go back to sleep. You're useless when you're tired."

Kanda looked at him for a moment, unreadable, then turned away. After he'd crawled back under the covers, and closed his eyes, Daisya decided not to question the charity.

He pulled Kanda's coat over his own. It was heavy, and warm, and smelled like old, freshly-cleaned clothes.

Once he'd hauled himself back to the bed, with the suspiciously off-white sheets of a backwater inn, and the pillows stuffed with what felt like old rags, Daisya curled up. He'd have to ask for a jacket like this the next time he was at headquarters.

Slowly, as he began to feel his feet again, he drifted off into sleep.

Kanda woke up, and found that both he and Daisya had attempted to steal the same section of the blanket. They had both succeeded.

For a moment, he considered going back to sleep. An hour's head start wouldn't do much, would it?

It was cold outside, after all.

And Daisya was nice and quiet when he was asleep.

He turned over, staring blankly at the growing patch of light on the ground.

At length, Kanda forced himself out of bed and went through the motions. Get hair out of face, comb it as well as possible with the fingers, tie it before Daisya gets the chance to wake up. Wash face, take off extra clothing, straighten shirt, put on boots, attempt to wake up Daisya with as little effort as possible. Shout when Dasiya doesn't respond to open curtains or quiet talking. Grab backpack and drop it on his head when that doesn't work.

"Mmph!"

Daisya sat up violently, and the bag fell on to the floor.

"What was that for?"

Kanda rolled his eyes.

"Waking you up. Get ready. And I need my jacket."

"Yeah, yeah," Daisya groaned, staggering tiredly to his feet, "This thing's pretty heavy, you know. Makes it hard to get up. 'S it made of steel wool, or something?"

"So you'd rather freeze?" Kanda asked dryly.

"Oh, of course not. It's a good coat. Warm. Smells nice."

"Just give me the coat."

Daisya handed it over semi-reluctantly before taking out the safety pin in the bandages around his neck.

"You know," he said, unwinding the strips of cloth, "These things are getting pretty annoying."

"You don't have to wear them."

"Yeah, I do. Still hurts."

"Aren't you taking enough medicine to knock it out?"

As if on cue, Daisya pulled a little too tightly, and winced.

"Nah. They wear off pretty quickly. And you can see what I look like without them."

The strips fell, coiled like snakes.

True enough, now that Daisya had unwound the bandages around his head, the sight was not beautiful. His skin was mottled and red with scarring and inflammation, and his hair stuck out in patches from his scalp.

"You're not bald anymore, though."

"That just makes it look stupid. Whatever. I didn't look great before, so it's not much of a loss."

Kanda recrossed his arms

"Quit whining about it."

"Hah, says you."

"Yeah, says me. Lenalee can tell you, being cute isn't much fun," Kanda muttered darkly.

He knew he was beautiful, or was going to be. Even worse, other people knew it too. Daisya was lucky. No one noticed him.

"I've seen worse," he added, not quite sure why he was saying it.

Not to say that, in a certain light, it would only be a white lie to say that Daisya's eyes lit up. It wouldn't even be a lie to say they burned.

"Oh?"

Kanda was unwelcomely jerked back to the present by Daisya looking at him, his face torn between confusion and dreadful mocking.

"You're feeling nice today."

"Am not. It's a stupid thing to care about."

Daisya resumed wrapping the strip of cloth around his head, looping it around his jaw to tie off.

"In Kanda-ese, that's the same thing as saying I'm fine as is. You said it, not me," he added as Kanda made a face.

Kanda rolled his eyes again.

"Come on. We should find the Innocence before we run into any more akuma."

He turned to leave, grabbing his pack from where it leaned against the wall.

"Hey, Kanda."

Kanda froze, and turned back around in genuine confusion.

"What?"

His voice was a bit sharp. He noticed it, now.

"Thanks."

"Oh."

Kanda was at a loss. Daisya didn't seem to be following his script this week.

"That it?"

Daisya shrugged.

"I guess so."

Kanda turned around again.

"Wait–"

"What?"

There was an edge in Kanda's voice as he turned around.

"You still hate me?"

Daisya's voice seemed to be deliberately light, but it hit Kanda like a mace.

—Had Daisya really bothered to remember that?

Kanda took a leaf out of his companion's book, and shrugged.

"No, not really."

He waved his hand forward, a signal of impatience.

"Come on."

…

Daisya was trying to see how far he could roll his eyes back into his head. They were walking back along the track, over turnstiles and thistles. Things were back to normal.

"You know," Daisya started, bringing his eyes back into focus, "There don't seem to be too many exorcists."

"There aren't," Kanda replied shortly.

"What a surprise. 'S there any way of making more?"

Daisya's tone of voice was too soft for the comment to be anything but deliberate.

"…no."

Kanda quickened his pace by fraction.

"That's a pity. So what do they do when they run out?"

"What does it matter?"

Daisya couldn't help but grin. Kanda was getting pretty easy to push around.

"Oh, just wondering. You got a bit cut up when I mentioned that I didn't mind shuffling off this mortal coil."

"What book did you get that from?" Kanda asked dryly, avoiding the question.

"Forget. The old man used it once, I think. Did they ever try to make more exorcists? It's not like there's anything else they can do."

There were a few moments filled with the sound of footsteps, and Daisya answered his own question.

"Well, if they tried, I'm pretty sure that it didn't work so well. So do they just find accommodators and force them to become exorcists? Lenalee was saying that one of the new guys has a sick kid he needs to take care of back at home."

Daisya waited for a reply, and rolled his eyes. Kanda just couldn't be bothered to share any useful information.

"God, you're noisy today. I guess they do that, then. Lenalee seems a bit scared of things, so maybe that happened to her. Or maybe you, I guess."

He mulled it over, trying to distract himself from the aches in his ankles. He'd done more walking in the past few months than he had in most of his life, and it wasn't too pleasant.

"Yeah, probably," he concluded, "So: you don't like it when people act all reckless, because if they did that means that there's going to be another kid ending up like you. That right?"

By this point he was just talking to himself. Kanda's silence was perhaps a better outcome than his participation.

"Well, I guess you've got a point. That explains why you keep saving everyone even after you say you're not going to."

He frowned in thought, then brightened up.

"How about I just try and do something really hard. Then I'll be ancient and I'll still be trying to do it, even though I'm awesome. Then I'll be too proud to die, and I don't have to put up with you yelling at me. How about that?"

He waited another few seconds for the show of it, but this time Kanda decided to speak.

"Fine."

Kanda sounded tired.

"Okay! Now I just need to decide on something."

"Whatever."

Daisya held a hands out open in front of him, and seemed to consider them.

"I can probably do anything alone if I want to, so it'll have to be something with other people."

He put down two fingers, and then a third.

"Hmm. Marie and Lenalee are pretty nice. They're too simple. The old man's too old. Maybe Kiki, or someone."

For some reason, he found this funny.

"Hah," he chuckled, "How about I try to get a date? That'll be fun, won't it, Kanda?"

"Just hurry up. And be quiet," Kanda added softly.

"I know, I know. I'm pretty cool, so that won't be too much of a challenge."

He paused, one-by-one putting down all his fingers, and curling his hands into fists. In reality, most of the monologue was for Kanda's benefit rather than his own.

He'd already decided what to do, what to say, and why. It was fairly simple.

"I think…" Daisya started, trailing off for effect.

"What?" Kanda asked flatly. He was getting angry again.

"I'm going to get you to tell me about Alma."

Daisya saw Kanda's flinch. There was no way in hell Kanda was ever going to tell him about that.

All the better reason to choose it.

"I'm not going to die until I know what happened. Otherwise I'll get pissed, because I really don't like not knowing things. That sound good?"

He waited for his answer, and the silence dragged on agonizingly before he got it. Kanda had a bit of a gift for it, holding silence above his head and watching him squirm before giving him even his usual one-word answer.

But, in a way, it felt pretty good. Kanda didn't mean anything by it. He didn't expect anything. He just hated indiscriminately, and without any real conviction.

"Fine."

The snippet of sound came forth at last.

"But you're going to die long before you find out anything. It's a stupid choice."

Daisya laughed.

"So long as you stop pestering me about it, that's fine."

"You too," Kanda muttered.

"You've got yourself a deal."

Daisya grinned to himself, and started to hum. His voice still hadn't changed yet from its mid-alto range, but he was growing fast enough for it to be low.

Truth be told, he wasn't really in this for the surviving. Life wasn't worth living if you were just carrying on and on and on and on. He was just going to keep trying to live so long as there was fun to be had. The old man, Kanda, Lenalee, Marie — he had an arsenal of tricks to develop. And a thousand football games to play.

He just didn't want to see the day when Kanda finally carried out his own prediction. This was just a tool to keep everything going as it had been. If Kanda knew he was going to survive anyway, he'd let him do what he wanted. Let him keep living with a foot in his grave.

They both knew he was going to die. Daisya was just pretty sure that when he died, it wasn't going to be with Kanda there watching him.

And truth be told, he did want to find out about Alma.

He had a feeling that the story wouldn't be boring.