The second he woke up, Lavi made a beeline for the kitchen area. He didn't often drink a serving of blood before going to sleep and when he didn't, he woke up deeply parched. Like a human might be if they had to be without any kind of water for ten hours.
His vampiric speed got him down the several floors to the kitchen in a few blinks of the eye. The vampire opened up the fridge and took out a glass jug filled with a heavy, viscous liquid. As Lavi was pouring himself a glass of chilled blood, his nose pricked up the faint scent of another being heading that way.
Multitasking was the easiest thing in the world for this vampire, so Lavi continued to let his nose investigate the smell while he tipped his head back and chugged back a full glass of the red stuff. Lavi was incredibly good at splitting his senses to take in as much different information as possible. He had to be, what with his training as a human . . . but he wasn't human anymore.
And that was a long time ago.
The redhead's ears twitched slightly as he picked up the sounds of footsteps moving quietly around on the floor directly above him. The floorboards could be creaky sometimes but even still, if he'd been human he wouldn't have heard it, but as a vampire, it was clearly audible.
Since there were only two other creatures in the house unless one of the things that live in the forest broke in, Lavi decided to wait for whoever it was to come to the kitchen, if that was indeed what they were doing.
Meanwhile, he poured himself another glass of blood before putting the jug back into the fridge. He sipped more leisurely at the glass this time, already having had his fix.
As he was waiting, thoughts of the mansion's other occupants brought Lavi's mind back to Allen and Yu. "That was certainly one explosive meeting." He mumbled to himself, quietly enough that he shouldn't be heard if it was Allen.
If it was Kanda, well that was another story. The demon's senses were even better than his. Even among demons, Yu was powerful and he certainly didn't get that way by accident. Anyways, if it was Kanda, maybe it would be best if he heard Lavi muttering about his disastrous first meeting with Allen.
For all the teasing and joking he sometimes did, Lavi was normally reluctant to truly push his master. Kanda wasn't evil, but he was just about as close to it as one could get without crossing over that line. Lavi's position as his servant was only secure insofar as Kanda continued to not be completely evil and that he also didn't want to go to the probably futile effort of finding someone to replace Lavi.
Not many people would serve a demon without being kidnapped and held at the mansion against their will and not having a single servant that wouldn't run for the hills if they could was a large annoyance that Yu was way too intelligent to overlook.
Having said that, Lavi knew not to push too hard. He had gotten very good at knowing where that line was and staying several paces away from it. Being a demon and being himself made Kanda a lot of nasty things, including arrogant and impatient. Not that all of those traits were unwarranted, but it was still terrible and surprisingly violent when those two finally met.
Probably unlike Yu, Lavi had put a good amount of thought into what kind of personality his creation would have. The tricky part was that there was nothing the vampire could do to impact that. The procedure to create Lavi was already a new personal experience for Lavi and it was one that had the potential to go very wrong if a single misstep was made.
It wouldn't have been advisable to split his focus too much by additionally trying to craft more of his creation's personality, even if it had been within his capabilities to do so. Which, again, it hadn't been.
That knowledge did give Lavi a certain amount of discomfort.
Even as a human, he had never liked the idea of there being some things that science and magic could not recreate. Things like a creature's personality or a human's soul, that none of his books or experience could touch. He didn't like that, not at all.
The steps were coming towards the kitchen door now. This close, Lavi could tell that it was the youngest of his housemates that was approaching. The footsteps were less firm than Kanda's and while the demon's steps were normally quick and elegant, they were also overall much louder than the young boy's. In comparison, Allen's footfalls were more unrefined, but had less weight and purpose behind them.
Within the time it took to think that, the white haired boy had entered the small room, stopping just beyond the doorway. From the look in them as his blue eyes landed on Lavi, the vampire could tell that Allen wasn't surprised to see him there. If anything, Allen seemed to have sought him out at this time.
Maybe he should have expected that, Lavi thought to himself. The boy was still so new and he definitely didn't have the same antisocial tendencies that both Kanda and Lavi had. With him on the outs with Kanda at the moment, he probably knew that it was best to avoid the demon for a good while and so of course Allen would seek Lavi out for company.
As well as that, Lavi supposed he might also want answers to all sorts of questions he thought of, as he had been doing every night he'd been around him. The boy was so new, after all. So new.
Humans were so young compared to their kinds and even compared to other humans, Allen was but an infant. Lavi didn't fight a kind smile appearing on his face as he thought of it. The young man was just as inquisitive and curious as an infant would be, too.
With Kanda not being much of a team player or even much for talking, maybe Lavi felt just a little bit pleased with someone who would ask him questions, seeking answers. Someone who would look up to the knowledge he held.
The vampire had been somewhat forced to live a very solitary life once he'd become a . . . well . . . a vampire. He was finding he'd forgotten what it felt like to have a real discussion with someone.
"Good night. Morning?" Allen asked this timidly but he sounded a little more at home now.
Good, Lavi briefly thought. It would be a shame if he always felt on edge in his home. Especially since he's certainly not going anywhere. "You can call it either." Lavi assured. "Have you been up to much today, Allen?"
"I talked to Kanda. Only a little." Allen quietly stated after some minute hesitation.
Lavi fought his body tensing for all of a second before giving into it. "Whoa! Are you okay? How did it go?" Lavi wasn't the lightest sleeper in the world, but he would have probably woken up if they were yelling or fighting that loudly.
And Allen was here. So their second meeting couldn't have been too bad, right? Right. Allen had seemed to mull over his answer while Lavi was thinking and smiled a bit wider upon coming to his answer.
"Better than last time." The boy settled on. "We talked for a little bit, not much."
Well, that wasn't vague at all. Probably his fault, Lavi decided. Lavi knew he gave informative, detailed explanations to things roughly half the time and was vague or evasive about certain questions the other half.
That wasn't good, the blood had barely dried on the operating table and he was already teaching the boy bad habits.
Damn, with him and Yu as his only points of reference for normalcy, the little guy was doomed.
Lavi was just about to open his mouth to say something, probably changing the subject, Allen spoke again. Surprisingly, he chose to give more information about his latest interaction with Kanda. Maybe he and Yu hadn't managed to ruin him yet.
"We actually talked more when we were in the woods. He left me almost as soon as we got back." Allen said this very hesitantly, a wary look on his face. Lavi understood why when Allen's words and the implications behind them sunk in.
"What?" Lavi cried out, his green eyes widening comically. "You two were in the woods! Why What were you doing?"
Concern flooded the vampire's system, part of his mind surprised by how strong it was even while the rest of it was completely focused on the unsettling information that had just been thrown at him.
Had Yu been trying to kill him and dispose of the body at the same time or maybe get him killed by something else? He'd been unhappy with Allen after the fight they had, even insinuating to Lavi that the boy had been made wrong or some such, but he couldn't have been thinking of trying to get rid of the boy so soon, could he?
The demon took out living inconveniences like they were trash, but he'd never been quite so rash as that even with his notable temper. Besides, Allen was still here. If the demon truly wanted the boy out of his hair permanently, it could have happened quickly and easily while the vampire slept, unaware.
The fact that Allen was still among them had to mean that Kanda had changed his mind about killing him, then. Or alternatively, Kanda could have been his usual judgemental and demanding self and he'd wanted Allen to understand things about their home and his position in it quicker than he was?
"Eh heh . . . You see, the thing about that is - -" Allen laughed nervously, ruffling his hair. "I sort of snuck off into the forest around the house by myself." Snap! The cup Lavi's hand was wrapped around broke under the vampire's crushing grip and he dropped the remaining shrapnel on the table.
"You did what?" Lavi could feel a darkness settling over his features, an aspect of himself that he was intimately familiar with but Allen clearly wasn't.
"I - - well, I mean - - I -" The boy's pale features twisted in the beginnings of fear, with surprise being the most prominent emotion being displayed to the redhead at the moment.
"Absolutely what made you think that was a good idea?" The vampire demanded, well and truly angry at the young man's thoughtless recklessness.
Allen seemed to somewhat pull himself back together at the question. "Well . . . nothing made me think it was a bad idea." He offered, peering up nervously at the other man to see how he would react.
Lavi's initial internal response was for his ire to temporarily rise. How foolish was - -
But that line of thought stopped him and just as soon as it crossed his mind, he found his anger ebbing. How foolish was it really, though?
Allen didn't really know much of anything about other monsters after he had awakened, any memories he could have otherwise had from his previous life seemingly suppressed. Added to that, the boy had been alive for less than a hundred hours and during that time, he'd only inquired about monsters a handful of times. Mostly vampires and demons.
Not surprising since he lived with them.
Except for a short snippet of a comment about zombies, Lavi couldn't recall any mention he'd made about other monster species and how they related to Allen and his life in general.
Allen was probably running on absolutely no information on the vast majority of creatures that could pose a threat to him and, now that the redhead was on the track of thinking about it, likely had no concept for the danger he would be in just by leaving the mansion.
It seemed cruel to Lavi now to expect so much of the boy while he had been setting him up for failure.
Suddenly feeling weary and letting out a loud sigh, Lavi closed his eyes, something he felt he always did when he was capitulating to someone else. "Please don't do that again, Allen." He said simply. His tone of voice was still unmistakably serious but also lighter than before.
"Don't worry, I know that now." Allen's relieved and sheepish voice drew the vampire's eyelids back up. "I didn't realize how dangerous they were. I was actually attacked by something while I was out there and Kanda saved me." The boy's face matched his tone; light embarrassment.
"Yu saved you?" Lavi asked incredulously as he looked at the boy deeply in curiosity. At the same time, he tried not to get worked up again about the fact that Allen had been attacked by something.
"Yes." Allen immediately replied, nodding furiously. "He did it really easily, as well. The other creature was fast or at least I thought it was, but he was faster. Much faster."
"I'm sure he was." Lavi replied without thinking about it. "Demons are unlike any other creatures in the world. They are faster, stronger, and smarter than anything you'll ever deal with. Be happy you have one on your side." The vampire shut his mouth quickly when he realized that it might become too obvious that he was speaking from personal experience here.
Allen seemed thoughtful at his words, possibly taking them to heart. His blue eyes looked unfocused for a time, as if he were looking off somewhere far away. Then his eyes came back from wherever they were and the words that came out of his mouth made the vampire stiffen up again.
"Lavi, where did I come from?" Allen asked, his voice vulnerably soft and quiet.
". . ." Lavi's mouth was left gaping, he hadn't been prepared for this. What did he say? He didn't know all of where Allen came from, but he knew where some of him came from, having harvested some of the ingredients himself. Would it really be a good idea to tell the young man the gritty details of his inception? Would Yu want the boy to know? "I created you in my lab, of course. You know that."
"I know that. But where did my brain come from? My body? My eyes?" A screaming woman crossed Lavi's mind as those blue eyes pleaded with him to answer the boy's questions.
"I . . ." The vampire turned his eyes away briefly before he looked back and doubled down. "It's not important, Allen. Who you were doesn't matter around here, it's all about who you are now. You were created here and here you'll stay so the outside world doesn't matter. It's best if you focus on creating your new self and getting along with Yu. You were created for him, after all."
The vampire could only hope that would shut the young man down and it seemed to work. "Oh. I . . . Okay. I'll . . . try to do that." The white-haired head gave a small nod of goodbye to the vampire and the boy turned on his heel and exited the room without further comment.
The vampire breathed a sigh of relief when the boy was out of hearing range and leaned against the counter to support himself, glad to have dealt with the issue. But . . .
. . . he couldn't help but feel strangely, vaguely that he had made some sort of mistake.
Deep down inside of himself.
