Welp, this has been a while coming. Blame finals and Christmas, I sure am! Anyways, enjoy! You guys! I think I succeeded in making this one of my longer chaps, too! A boooonnnnuuuuusssss...
One of the demon's dark eyebrows rose in condescending surprise. "You've heard of me already then, have you?" The demon inquired.
The blue eyed boy felt a fissure of anger shoot through him, surprising him enough to drop his gardening book. He didn't know why he was angry - well, he knew well enough.
He was being talked down to.
What surprised him was his reaction to it. He'd had emotions, he'd had worries, since he'd woken up, but he'd felt nothing like this. In the back of his mind, he may have been aware that it was a bit of an overreaction.
In the moment, however, that didn't seem to matter. What seemed to matter more was those brows raised in assured condescension, those darkly judgmental blue eyes, the closed-off body language. It was all that seemed to matter.
"Says the one who brought me here in the first place. Seems you've been looking for me." Allen tried to match the other man's unpleasant facial expression and while he was sure that he failed in it, he thought he still managed to rile the guy up.
Indeed, there was a slight angered shifting in the man's expression and the appearance of him grinding his teeth, momentarily. "Presumptuous." Was all the taller man said, maybe not knowing what else to say. Probably just trying to hold onto his temper.
Not that it stopped Allen. "Not much to presume," Allen pressed. "Lavi told me I was brought here for you. To be your "lover". I didn't come here looking for you and I wasn't the one that started this conversation, that was you." Allen shot at him.
Yu Kanda actually snarled at him and Allen had to consciously try not to shrink back instinctively. "So he's been talking, huh?"
There were two parts of that response that ticked Allen off all the more. The first part was that the demon seemed to completely ignore the entire last half of what Allen had said, like he hadn't even heard him or thought the point so silly as to not even deign to reply. Allen found that either conclusion angered him an equal amount.
The second thing that made Allen want to grind his own teeth and which immediately took precedence in Allen's own mind, was that the demon seemed to be angry at Lavi now. For simply telling Allen about why he had been brought there!
There was an underlying feeling behind Allen's sentence, too. A threat. Of a future punishment, perhaps. Allen didn't like this man, he really didn't. He lashed out.
"Of course he's been talking! He made me! He personally invited me back into the world! He was the only person I could talk to, so of course he talked to me! Where were you?" The boy barked out, his tone as accusing as he could possibly get it.
Another snarl from the taller man. "I had better things to do than wait on you to wake and hold your hand once you did! Why shouldn't I have my servant do all unnecessary work for me? His time is much better spent doing all of the unimportant tasks that don't warrant my attention."
The demon loomed over Allen threateningly, their faces now only six inches apart. His eyes and body language absolutely dared Allen to push the issue further and if he were anyone else, the boy might not have taken him up on that dare. As he was, however . . .
"How dare you! You wanted me here! Lavi and I went through all of this because you demanded it! Beneath your notice! Unimportant? Menial? Who the hell do you think you are to-" Allen's hysterical rant was cut off by the demon's own half-mad rambling.
"I am your master! You are a pathetic creature that is lucky that I appeared as soon as I did!"
"You are not my master! Allen shot back furiously, his eyes alight. "I am no one's slave and if I was I would be Lavi's, not yours! You wanted me here, so if there's anyone who should be serving anyone else, it's you that should be serving me."
"You insignificant little corpse!" Kanda howled out, the words more than the tone acting like blades sinking into Allen's reconstructed heart.
Kanda took this moment of inaction on Allen's part, his stunned little silence, to lean even closer until their noses were nearly touching. "Your body and brain would be eaten through by maggots by now if it wasn't for me! I invite you to remember that." The demon added.
The boy's wide blue eyes stared into the cold and blue eyes stared into the cold and barren blue of the other. The eyes staring down his own seemed not to notice the very dominant shock and hurt swirling in the younger man's eyes. More likely, he didn't care.
It was probably the intended effect of his words and so the demon had gotten what he'd wanted. He'd shown Allen his place.
Allen didn't move from his position staring desperately into the terribly cold eyes inches in front of him He felt something desolate rise up in him.
"Yu . . ." An achingly familiar voice came from the entrance of the library, sounding both shocked and surprised. Allen and Kanda both turned toward the door in the next second, finding the infamous Lavi standing in the doorway.
The look on the vampire's face was one Allen hadn't yet seen on him, horrified shock and disappointment. The look said it all, really. He had heard everything or at least he had heard enough.
This was what jolted Allen out of his fixed stupor. Something itchy feeling welled up in his eyes and something wet slid down his cheeks. A part of Allen wanted to touch at whatever was on his face, but he couldn't be distracted from the situation.
Allen found his face crumble just a second before he broke into a run and tore out of the room, leaving the vampire and demon behind. As if his body were moving on its own, Allen's legs carried his up through the gothic building, level after level, until he got to his room. "His" room.
The strange thing was, Allen remotely thought as he yanked the door open and closed behind him, it did feel like his. Despite the fact that he had yet to successfully sleep in the room at all, it felt like a safe place; the only safe place. It was his own.
Allen found himself regretting what he had thought earlier that morning; he didn't think he wanted to feel things anymore. If feeling things made him feel like this, then it might just be best to be numb and uncaring.
. . . Was he really a corpse? He knew he had been killed by a vampire attack, Lavi had told him that. He knew he'd been dead, but he was back. He was back.
He wasn't still a corpse, was he? Just a corpse...?
The vampire could not help but stare at his master in horror. He'd seen the way the demon had tore into his new lover, saying whatever he could think of to truly hurt the boy. He seemed to have succeeded.
Lavi was by no means an empathetic individual, except with regarding people close to him, like family. Which he had no more of.
Lavi had been raised with things that didn't concern him. Things that didn't affect him were none of his business.
He didn't get involved with drunken brawls, he never got involved in monster hunting in the towns that he had lived and even as a vampire, he didn't attack without a reason for doing so. He did need a reason, but when he had one, he reacted quickly and with extreme violence. So no, he wasn't known for being particularly empathetic.
Before now, there had only been two people he really loved and considered true family. She was one of them. Sometimes Lavi thought he was born a sociopath, but then moments happened when he realized his heart wasn't as unused as his death would suggest. His unwarranted concern for the newly-named Allen was one of those.
He wondered what it was that allowed it to happen. Was it how close Allen was in age to being a child. Some of the only beings that he had true issues hurting were children. Or maybe it was how polite the boy seemed to be; so confused. In reality, it was likely that Allen had already been classified in his mind, more or less, as his responsibility; his charge.
He wasn't a potential victim to Lavi's mind. Although that apparently didn't hold true for Yu.
Lavi brought his gaze away from the doorway that Allen had disappeared through and towards his demon master. The demon had been staring at him levelly ever since Allen had run off, not bothering enough to actually watch the boy leave.
"What was that, Yu?" Lavi asked his master, even further surprised to hear the shock in his voice. It was very audible.
"What was what, Rabbit?" Yu returned, his dark gaze unwavering and guiltless.
"That." Lavi pressed, upset by what he'd just witnessed. "Why did you go at him like that? What were you trying to prove? What did getting angry at him solve?"
"I was showing him his place." Yu Kanda replied, sounding as though he legitimately thought it as simple as that. He probably did.
"And you did that by what? Calling him a living corpse? That solved your problem, did it?"
"Are you insinuating it's my fault that he couldn't handle the truth? It's not my fault if he's weak." Dark eyes narrowed at the va,pire. "It's yours." Lavi had to stop himself from stiffening at the blame now shot at him. Allen was what was important at the moment. Speaking of which . . .
"I don't think it was weakness that made him leave. Lavi said softly and, although he was now sure he would be made to regret it later, followed Allen's path out of the room before Yu had a chance to reply.
Lavi hadn't stepped out of the doorway before he caught Allen's distinct scent heading in a distinct direction and he followed it methodically.
This place may have been Yu's "castle", but Lavi had lived here for almost as long as he had and he was the one who cleaned around here. So he could probably do perfectly choreographed circuits through the building with a thick blindfold on and cloves of garlic stuck up his nose.
Point being, he barely made it to the second floor before he realized where the scent of his creation was leading him and, of course, it was to his creation's room. Of course. Just before Lavi managed to barge into his creation's new room without thinking, the vampire stopped himself and remembered to knock.
"Allen. Allen, I'm coming in, alright?" Please don't take my head off." Lavi half-heartedly joked before easing the door open and closed it behind him, thus entering the dark room. Why was the room so-Lavi smacked his hand into his face. For a genius, he could really be an idiot.
When preparing this room, he forgot to leave some candles so that Allen could light up the room if he so chose. Lavi didn't know much about it yet, that would come later, but he was working on the assumption that Allen had human-level eyesight.
That would mean that the room would get so dark late in the night and early in the morning that Allen wouldn't be able to see his own hand even just a few inches away from his face. He would have to go and get those as soon as he was done helping Allen.
"Allen?" Lavi asked softly, worriedly, as he made his way over to the large bed with a small lump under the covers. Judging by the size and shape of the lump, it looked like Allen was curled up in a ball under there. That . . . didn't bode well for the little talk Lavi wanted.
"Allen?" Lavi tried again, sitting down on the bed sheets right next to the lump. No response. Not even a shifting. "Al?" Lavi tried, the strange nickname right off his tongue. A twitch. Strange that got a reaction, Lavi thought, but mentally shrugged his shoulders.
Hey, Al. You need to come out now, okay?" Lavi asked, lightly placing his hand on what he had thought might be Allen's back, but actually felt like his shoulder.
There was a lengthy pause and then Allen's Allen's muffled voice replied, "But I haven't been here very long, at all."
Lavi scoffed underneath his breath. Kid was funny and maybe a little cute, too. "Hate to have to tell ya', little buddy, but you can't wallow; it's not good for you. 'Get back up on the horse' and all that."
The covered body rolled over and blue-gray eyes peeked out from under the covers, looking at Lavi with just a little bit of annoyance. "I don't know what that means." He murmured.
Just as I thought, then. He must have originally come from out in the boonies. Born of a much lower class, obviously. "It means that when you fail or when something goes wrong, you need to pick yourself up and try again. Preferably soon afterwards."
"Doesn't sound like fun." Allen muttered, though understanding lit up in his eyes at Lavi's explanation.
"Kid, I love ya', but you're not making this easy on me." Lavi said flippantly, raising his hand to the young man's now available head and tousling his hair.
The boy really was too cute. Why Yu was such a hard ass that he didn't immediately grab onto his new romantic interest with both hands was really anybody's guess. "Sorry." The boy muttered back.
"Look, Al . . . I don't know what to say about Yu. He's my master and I do what he tells me. It doesn't mean that I agree with everything he says and does." Lavi gently pulled down the edge of the blanket, revealing more of Allen's face. "I certainly don't agree with what he said before. About you."
"So you don't think I'm a corpse?" Allen asked, peering up at the vampire. His gray eyes searched Lavi's green for the truth.
Lavi gave a small sigh but then his mouth stretched into a wide, genuine grin. "You were a corpse, there's no avoiding that. You were dead and now you're alive, so that makes you a corpse once. What you are now, that's up to you, but you're not a corpse.
Corpses don't think, they don't feel. If nothing else was accomplished by your fight with Yu, then it was proven that you do feel. You feel, Allen, and I think once you get some learning into you, you'll be pretty smart, too. So wait for that, okay? You're not a walking corpse, Al. I've seen those and you are not it. Yu knows that, too. He just has anger issues."
"What do you mean you've seen-" Allen started, but Lavi waved him off.
"Not important right now, you'll learn about that later. For now, if you're feeling better, how about you take a walk with me to my chambers so we can get you a candle or two?"
Lavi extended a hand and waited for Allen to take it. When the boy hesitated, Lavi added in a sing-song voice, "And I can tell you more about how you came to be here on the way!" A smaller hand was placed hesitantly in his own and Lavi pulled the small form out of the bed and out of the room.
The sound of two excited voices chattering away echoed out into the cold, empty mansion.
A demon heading to his own quarters listened to it, unwillingly. Contemplatively.
