Kanda's eyes seemed to focus slightly when his name was whispered into the cool morning air. He had been looking at Allen before, but it felt like he was seeing him now instead of seeing just another body.
The boy didn't know what to do and he was sure he couldn't say a word if he tried. Large black wings that had not been there when last they met now protruded proudly from the demon's back. Allen didn't know why, but some instinctual part of him wanted to step back from them.
Maybe it was due to the fight that the demon had just engaged in, but the wings arced up above the demon in what could only be considered a warning. A display of dominance. A death threat.
Allen couldn't say how long they were simply looking at each other. Kanda's somehow darkened blue eyes stared deeply into Allen's own lighter hue blue eyes. Kanda's face was completely devoid of emotion and except for the muscles in his arms absently but firmly being used to hold the other winged creature down, his body language was neither relaxed nor taut with stress.
Instead of the piercing look Allen had been treated to in the library, Kanda didn't appear to be trying to peer into him this time. The demon's eyes were instead looking at him, skimming his surface for some kind of information or reaction. He couldn't even begin to guess what.
So yes, he wasn't sure how long the world he was in stood still, just that it felt like forever and that ultimately, it was Kanda who acted. WIth a somehow resigned sounding huff and one could almost hear his brain changing tracks. Briefly turning his attention back to the creature underneath him, the demon gave a last warning snarl and then leapt off of it.
The demon landed in a crouch just a few feet from Allen, then quickly got up and closed the distance between them while Allen could do nothing but watch. The creature stayed on the ground, its head turned away from them as if it didn't dare to even look at Allen now. The boy found himself staring at the winged creature at that revelation so he jerked when Kanda reached out and grabbed him by the upper arm.
Kanda then proceeded to drag Allen back the way they came without wasting a second more. Kanda also didn't spare another glance for the creature he had thrown to the ground.
Allen found himself struggling to keep up with the long-legged demon dragging him away, tripping several times as he risked looking over his shoulder. The mysterious creature didn't move.
When he could no longer see the other creature back through the creeping foliage, he had no choice but to face forward like Kanda. Nothing interesting to be seen there, it was the path he'd walked earlier and as he started to somewhat recover momentarily from the shock of the attack, his brain automatically went looking for things to entertain it.
Perhaps then more than ever, Allen realized that the brain he possessed was an ever-curious one, constantly working, constantly looking. Never content to simply sit still and do nothing. He briefly wondered whose brain it was before, but rapidly shook the idea out of his head before it could gain purchase.
He didn't want to think about that. It was his brain now.
Wasn't that good enough?
A thought occurred to him then as he was looking for something else to think about to occupy himself. Grasping it with both hands, he didn't stop to think before speaking. "You are awake, Kanda?" He found himself asking.
The elder man didn't pause in his walking, but after a few tense seconds, he did turn slightly towards Allen so that the boy could see his face. Or rather, so that he could see the single eyebrow that Kanda raised in his own form of question.
Allen took a moment to think, but then decided to scrap whatever he was thinking. "WHy are you awake?" Because it was apparent to him now that he had fully expected Kanda to be asleep, like Lavi was.
The fact that he wasn't asleep made Allen wonder. Not just about his host's sleep schedule, but about demons in general. He knew absolutely nothing about them, after all, even though his host was one. Perhaps he should have spent his time in the library reading upon demons instead of plants. Hm . . .
"Are you asking why I don't sleep during the day like the Rabbit?" The demon gruffly asked.
"Rabbit. Lavi?" Allen asked, to which Kanda nodded. "Well, yes. He . . . told me that he mostly sleeps all day and then stays up during the night and early morning. That's because the sun hurts him, right?"
Kanda nodded without looking at him. "He can survive in some sunlight, but direct sunlight or sustained exposure would definitely kill him. A quick but very painful way to go." He stated.
Allen looked up at him with wide eyes. That sounded really bad and it was a lot more information than Lavi had given him. Probably, it was something that was harder for the vampire to talk about. Something else . . .
This wasn't the longest conversation they'd had with each other yet, thanks to their corrosive first meeting, but Kanda was actually speaking civilly here. The demon was still clearly stiff and uncaring, but he wasn't actively antagonizing or insulting him! Which was weird. Good, but strange.
He . . . felt like he was seeing a new part of the other man's personality.
A new part that showed there was more to him than just cruelty and open antagonism. When Lavi was giving him information or actually teaching him something that he knew was straight out of a book, he delivered it the same way that Allen thought an excitable teacher would; heavily rewording and paring down the information.
As for Kanda, maybe not the words but the way they were said gave off the impression of being straight out of a book. Now that he wasn't smirking darkly and cutting him sharply with his tongue, Allen saw him as being strangely analytical. Answering technical questions seemed more important to him than being surly, leaving the stilted civility that Allen had first noticed.
"And . . . and you don't have that problem?" Allen found himself asking. He didn't really want to end up pushing too hard on this new peace they've found, but-
"No, I don't." Sharp blue eyes turned back to him. "You don't know much about demons?"
What was he going to say-What was he going to- "I don't know much about a lot of things right now."
Kanda kept looking at him for a moment, then he huffed and turned his eyes back to the path before them. "Demons aren't vampires. We aren't afraid of sunlight and nothing that will kill a vampire will hurt a demon."
Allen didn't smile at that, but it was a close thing. The mansion appeared about a yard in front of them very suddenly to Allen, as if the building had leapt out at them. The trees on the edge of the forest merely parted their branches and there it was.
Kanda, who was already walking ahead of him, calmly opened the door and entered through it. He left the door hanging wide open behind him and Allen closed it lightly behind himself.
Allen was sure he was the only one who felt awkward in those few seconds where they both stood in the foyer silently, looking at each other. Then Kanda turned swiftly on his heel and took off towards the set of stairs that would take him the next floor up.
The demon paused briefly just as he got to the stairs and looked over his shoulder at Allen. "Don't get into any more trouble. I won't save you from your own stupidity again, if you do." With that said, he turned away and took to the stairs. Allen wondered if he should say something, anything, but ended up completely silently watching the other man climb and then disappear into the second floor.
Kanda said he wasn't going to save Allen again if something happened. Did he mean not to get into any more trouble today or that he wasn't allowed to get in trouble ever again? It was impossible to tell with Kanda and nothing about his voice gave more away.
He stopped staring in the direction Kanda had wandered off, it wasn't him doing any good. Instead, he headed off to the kitchen, hoping to find something to eat. Lavi did say he had some food he could eat and that he could go to the kitchen to have some whenever he wanted while Lavi was sleeping.
Allen wasn't exactly sure what kind of food was there or where in the kitchen it was, but he did know where the kitchen itself was, at least. Allen wandered through a few doorways and their subsequent rooms, last of which being a dining room, he found a heavy wooden door that he recognized.
This door was different from all of the others in the mansion. One could argue that all of the doors in the mansion were sturdy, as they were all well-made, but this one was heavy. As well as having more heft and bulk to it, this door had no design on it and was made from a simpler shaded and slightly chipped (around the edges) wood.
The other doors like the entrance and their bedroom doors were made to look good, with more richly colored woods and intricate, decorative designs carved into them. One could definitely tell that this was the entrance door to a very servant-only area, the kitchen.
The kitchen when he entered was mostly wooden counters and cabinets, with a large pantry door, and a refrigerator. Lavi explained that device to him earlier, saying that some of their food was stored in the large wooden structure and that ice was routinely delivered and put in there to keep the food cold and fresh.
However, Lavi had said that it was food for Lavi and Kanda, Allen's food was somewhere else. So as curious as Allen was to take a closer look at this refrigerator thing, he decided to investigate it another time and went in search of "his" food.
Checking a cabinet that was beneath a counter, Allen found a small square package wrapped in brown paper. Cautiously lifting it out and opening it, Allen was greeted by a square block of something soft and white. It looked vaguely like food. Tugging a very small piece off of one of the corners, the boy popped it into his mouth and tasted it.
Cheese. It was cheese.
He wandered out of the kitchen with his cheese and sat down at the big dining room table to finish it. Allen busied himself with staring at this imperfection in the stonework that was above the fireplace there. It seemed like the fireplace hadn't been used in a while, but then . . . the dining room itself didn't seem particularly often used, just clean.
The wall above the fireplace was made of gray stones, all misshapen hunks of rock, which were piled into a wall together while the spaces in between them filled with concrete. The imperfection was that the concrete around two of the stones off to the side was spotty, very spotty. The filling of concrete around those two stones barely filled and had several patches with no concrete whatsoever.
Cheese finished, Allen wiped his hands on his clothes and, not knowing what to do with it, left the brown paper on the table. Allen let out a light sigh and looked around the room for merely a moment. Then he decided to go to the library and headed for the door.
It was about time he learned about demons and the library would definitely have something.
