We were in a sticky situation.

There was a Level Two Akuma that had turned my friends into a dog, a glorified candelabrum and a clock respectively, and it was holding them hostage- just so she could live out her twisted fantasy of seeing Beauty and the Beast happen on her ballroom floor.

I had had better days.

"I'm not dancing," Kanda hissed across the table. His chair squeaked as he leaned forward, and I winced as his weight challenged the integrity of the chair. By my guess, it was going to last maybe another five minutes. Kanda as a man weighed a good a hundred and seventy pounds. Kanda as a dog beast weighed upwards of two hundred and fifty.

"Look, we can talk while we dance. It won't be that bad," I said, trying to get up.

More skin flakes fell off, and I almost gagged. Oh lord. Oh God, save me. I was fervently praying for Him to quell my gag reflex because I swore I would throw up the minute I saw another piece of skin fall off this dress. More than likely, I'd vomit on Kanda, and I'd have more problems than just friends-turned-domestic-objects and a demon watching a passion play.

"No, you don't understand. I can't dance," he growled as he got up, the chair giving a relieved sigh. For all I knew, that chair really had sighed, considering the number of people who'd disappeared around here and been transformed into household furniture.

"Of course you can. You've got fancy swordsman footwork," I grumbled as I walked to the middle of the floor.

I glanced back to the Akuma that was watching us, her beady eyes following us around. I held out my hand, and Kanda stared at it like I was trying to hand him a dead fish. He muttered under his breath as he finally took me by the hand with a scaly, padded paw. It was dry and warm, his grip careful because of the wicked sharp claws on the end. His fur tickled my fingers, and I tried my hardest not to shudder from the strangeness. He looked incredibly uncomfortable, and not just because of the horrible 'outfit'. For a second, I felt something like pity, but we didn't have time to make up and compromise.

"Just follow my lead," I said, staring up at the chandelier where our Innocence was sequestered, Christmas ornaments on a gruesome tree. It surprised me that the chandelier wasn't made out of the bones and skulls of her victims. Then again, she probably didn't have that much imagination to begin with.

"I thought I was supposed to be the lead," Kanda complained, and I stared at him, dead in the eye with a flat look.

I raised an eyebrow, trying to keep the mood light, because if I didn't I might just run out of the ballroom screaming my head off and screw the Innocence I'd been given. Then again, I'd heard that people who abandoned their Innocence tended to turn into disastrous monsters of mass destruction, so death via thorns might be a softer way to die.

Speaking of which, I looked up again at the chandelier. Lavi and Bookman had assured us that they'd get our Innocence to us with due haste, but unfortunately 'due haste' meant 'right this freaking second' to me. My patience was a little stretched at the moment.

"It isn't that hard, you just... no no, step backwards. Good. Now to the side. Now to the front. One, two, three, one, two, three..."

It was awkward going, but after the first few rounds he could do a rough polka step. He wasn't exactly going to impress a young noblewoman with his clubfeet, but for our purposes we were just going to have to suck it up and pretend. Hopefully, the demon back there wasn't too picky. I looked up at him, but he was too busy looking over my head, probably out the windows and trying to forget his situation.

"I still think you're bad luck. You must have done some terrible things in your past life. Your karma stinks," he grumbled sourly, and I frowned at him.

"How many times do I have to tell you that I'm not bad luck?" I jabbed back, and he suddenly sneezed, blowing my hair back.

I made a face as dog snot suddenly landed on my face, and I scrunched my eyes shut. He didn't even say anything.

"I take that back. My luck is horrible," I said as I tentatively wiped at my face with a hand. I'd been covered in pieces of human, dog mucus, and plant matter. What else could I have dumped on me today?

"Yes, yes! Dance, continue!" the Akuma crooned, suddenly slithering around the ballroom.

I straightened my back as if I had a Catholic nun-teacher behind me inspecting my skirt length and poise, and I tried to continue dancing as I saw her dart in and out of my peripheral vision. I quickly wiped off the rest of the dog snot.

"What did she say?" Kanda said under his breath.

I sighed. "Uh... basically, keep dancing. What's taking them so long?"

"The idiot rabbit is probably romancing a spoon."

I spun him around to look over his shoulder at the chandelier, and I could see Bookman picking his way through the gleaming crystal with all the nimbleness of a... well, a clock. Lavi was nowhere to be seen, and I half wondered if Kanda might be right. He did say he could talk to the other objects. Maybe a piece of silverware caught his little, gleaming eye.

"It's funny. A long, long time ago, I used to dance with my mama like this. One two three, one two three, one two three..."

I didn't know what was worse: dancing for the Akuma or hearing about its life's story.

Wait... d'oh.

Mental head slap, what was I thinking?

I'd been on one trip with Allen, nearly seven months ago. With that handy eye, I'd thought I wouldn't have to worry as much as I typically did. After all, he caught Akuma faster than I ever could dream, and he was just fifteen. I basically thought I could ride out the mission without too much hassle. It wasn't that I was lazy or anything, but I honestly was sick and tired of having to be on my guard literally twenty-four hours a day. I'd almost mastered the art of sleeping with an eye open.

That had all changed when Allen came too close to me during one of our excursions into the German forests and encountered a Level Two. The world he saw was like the maelstrom of hell, tortured souls bound to a body of dark, nebulous mass forced to fuel a war machine. I'd almost thrown up, and that was the first time anyone had explained what the Akuma truly were. We Exorcists like to forget they were once humans- it makes it easier to fight them.

This was once someone's mother or someone's child. I couldn't forget that. Otherwise, I'd forget what exactly I was fighting for.

"I'm getting sick of her French," Kanda muttered.

I lightly slapped his arm."Shush! I'm trying to listen."

"What? To an Akuma-"

"Let me use my mom logic for once, okay? This was a kid," I grumbled under my breath.

Lord, I was getting tired. This dress was heavy, keeping up with Kanda's clumsy steps was difficult, and I was having issues trying to translate and dance at the same time. Where in the blue blazes were Lavi and Bookman with our weapons?!

"- and one day I fell out of a tree."

It was quiet for a minute as Kanda and I halted, taking a breather. I could feel her eyes on me, and we began dancing again at a frantic pace, which seemed to appease her.

"She fell out of a tree," I muttered to Kanda, and he groaned.

"I don't care."

No, of course he wouldn't. He'd probably pass a box full of waterlogged kittens with dry eyes.

"...and Mama called me back down here. It hurts here. But making people die makes it a little better. And now I have you two. You can be my beauty and beast for forever. You can take the pain away, from losing Maman," the Akuma said silkily, staring out the window.

I frowned at our feet as we continued our dance, and I chewed it over for a moment. All in all, she was a child trapped in a death machine. And she was looking for someone to take away the pain.

I'd heard stories from Lavi of Akuma who fought their natures for the chance to regain a bit of their humanity. An Akuma named Eliade and a few others had wanted nothing more than to continue the lives that they'd been given over again. It was sort of horrible, honestly. I stared at the forlorn Akuma over Kanda's shoulder.

"I have a friend of mine who has a saying about your kind," I mentioned quietly.

The Akuma turned her head ever so slightly for a moment to listen. My French was rustic, but it got the point across.

"Akuma are too tragic for this world," I stated.

"OI! Kanda, Maggie, catch!" Lavi shouted, and a flash of silver caught my eye from above.

I grinned as our Innocence seemed to fall from heaven- until I realized I had a sword and two bladed discs falling towards me. My grin immediately turned to an open-mouthed frown of panic. Crap, crap, crap, crap, what do I do, what do I do?

Luckily for me, Kanda thinks a lot faster than I do, because he shoved me off like last week's garbage and snatched Mugen out of the air, headed towards the Akuma, while I tried to avoid being chopped into tiny pieces by my own Innocence. I yelped as they landed in front and behind me, embedding themselves in the floor just an inch from my feet on either side.

"Be more careful!" I shouted indignantly. "You could've killed me!"

"Sorry!" Lavi shouted from the chandelier.

I looked towards the fray of metal, fur, and demon, I realized that there really wasn't anywhere I could get a blade in edgewise. As far as they were concerned, I was chopped liver. I threw my hands up in the air in exasperation and grabbed my Innocence. You know what, that was perfectly fine by me! I'll sit next to the other spectators while they duke it out.

However, the fight very suddenly came to me when a stray plant root shot towards me, and I just barely managed to slice at it with a flick of my hand. Another root wrapped around my ankle, and I found myself being dragged across the tile floor, vines wrapping around my arms and legs.

"Hey hey hey hey hey help, help, help!" I pleaded as I tried to bury my discs back into the ground, with no avail.

I was hauled up from the ground, and I thought my life flashed before my eyes when I saw a sword headed straight for me. I squeaked as I brought both Innocence up to block, though not of my own accord, and our blades sparked.

"Maggie? Get out of the way!" Kanda snarled at me as he skidded backwards, awkwardly holding his sword in his hand-paws.

"I would if I could!" I shouted back at him as I was manhandled into being a meat shield.

"Surely you wouldn't strike your very own beauty, would you?" the Akuma sneered, and I rolled my eyes.

I was oddly calm right now, but I was sure that would change in approximately fifteen seconds or so.

"Ahahahaha, let's not tempt him," I recommended nervously, struggling against the vine cords using me like a marionette.

Spores fell around me, and I sneezed raucously, suddenly feeling dizzy. I turned the discs into bracelets as Kanda lunged forward.

He wasn't seriously going to slice through me- Or, uh, maybe he was- Oh Lord, don't let him be serious about this please-

I sucked in a giant breath as the blade passed within inches of my rib cage, cutting towards the Akuma.

"Careful!" I squeaked nearly two octaves higher than my typical speaking voice.

Kanda, being Kanda, didn't seem to pay heed, because he continued to hack and slash his way around me, nearly relieving me of an appendage several times. However, his slashes were slowly becoming sloppier, and it didn't take a genius to realize it had to be the spores. I myself was beginning to see double, and that was horrible enough.

Two Kandas? How about... no.

Finally, my bracelets were covered by the vines, and I sighed through my nose. I really, really prayed this worked the way I was hoping it would.

My bracelets expanded back into discs again, cutting through the vines on my arms, and I suddenly fell flat on my face, unable to keep balance. Kanda's blade passed probably within a hair of the top of my head, and I could even see his surprised expression as he accidentally stepped on top of my back. I squirmed as he shoved his sword into the Akuma and slammed his foot into my spine. I made a small noise as I flailed, trying to untangle myself, but I was thrown across the floor again into a bookcase. An avalanche of books suddenly cascaded down on top of me.

Okay, well, that makes human, dog mucus, dead plant matter, and decaying books that have been dumped on me today. I was going to break a world record at this rate.

"Maggie! Watch it!" a voice shouted through my stunned hearing, stars swimming in my vision as I blearily hacked at the vines wrapped around my ankles.

Wha-?

A vine wavered an inch from my face ( which was quickly becoming a local oddity- everything dangerous within the area was stopping an inch from my skin, it seemed ), a candlestick valiantly tugging it back. I shrieked as I hacked at it, but not before it could go into a death spasm and fling Lavi across the floor. I shook off the last of the tendrils around my ankles, and I raced to my downed comrade.

I stared at him and gasped, kneeling down next to him. He was snapped in half, probably cleaved with a thorn. I sincerely hoped that was just my double vision, but that didn't seem the case because I picked up two of his snapped ends.

"Oh... Oh no. Lavi, you're-"

"Half the man I want to be?" he joked heartily, and I felt the urge to both slap him and cry. Gently, I set him back down.

"You said that... that if you were ever damaged in this form..." I couldn't finish the rest of the sentence.

If we killed the Akuma and the spell suddenly ended-

Forget the sentence, I can't finish the thought.

"Hey, hey, don't worry about it. Just concentrate on the Akuma. Oh, by the way, behind you," Lavi said, looking over my shoulder, and I frowned, turning around just in time to block another surprise vine.

I was really beginning to hate these things…

"Does it hurt?" I asked hesitantly, half an eye on the Akuma trying to turn my partner into a throw rug.

"Nah, I have no nerves. I'm as comfortable as a guy cut in half can be," Lavi chuckled darkly.

I took a shuddering breath, shaking my head. I rubbed my face and looked over to the death battle going on not twenty feet away.

"Maggie, look at me," Lavi ordered, and I reluctantly met his eye - or what would have been his eye.

He gave me a lopsided smile, and I almost couldn't take it. He'd become my only friend. That kind of happens when your life is taken up by a ton of kids and not enough time between work, cleaning, and staying in the black.

"Everything will be okay. Now go and give that overgrown weed a piece of your mind before it gets a piece of you instead," Lavi said, laying a single candle holder on my finger. I opened my mouth, not sure what to say.

I hesitated for a moment, but I could see Bookman hopping over as fast as he could, so I knew the redhead would been in good ha- uh, pegs. I moved him to a pile of books where he'd be comfortable.

"Don't go anywhere," I said seriously.

"Not like I could if I wanted to," he sighed.

I dashed back into the fight, bouncing on the balls of my feet as I tried to find an opening. Gosh, this was like playing Double Dutch with razor wire.

Kanda was suddenly flung towards the windows, and I shouted in surprise as he smacked into them with a sick thud. The wan light of day bathed him as he lay on the ground, and the Akuma slithered towards him like a gruesome, carnivorous flower, its expression one of glee and disaster. The flower on its head, which had been closed, was open and spilling spores.

"If you won't be my beast, I'll just have to get another one," she crooned as I ran for what seemed like eternity.

I slid under one clawed hand, my arms raised over my head as she swung down, taking the hit through my arms. I felt the breath go out of me as the uniform held, allowing only what would be one massive bruise on my forearms. Both my arms fell from the impact, leaving me open to another attack, and I fell back against Kanda, kicking at her body with both legs.

Rabbit kicks out.

She stumbled for a moment, and I rolled forwards on to my knees, slashing with both hands now.

Mongoose strikes.

She backed off, avoiding the slash, and I did something drastic. Kanda was out for the count, Lavi was probably done for (don't think about, don't think about, please don't think about it), and Bookman was a clock. I honestly didn't have a high opinion of our odds, so we really had nothing to lose.

So I hugged her.

She froze, stiffening in my grasp. I stroked the back of her neck and crooned, "It's okay, it'll be okay. Look, I'm right here. Just relax, okay? It'll be fine, Maman's here..."

For a moment, she seemed ready to rip me apart, but then she relaxed, leaning her face against my neck and embracing me. I shook as I looked over her shoulder at Lavi and Bookman. They were having a conversation, it looked like, and I started to cry, tears dribbling out my nose and down my face.

"Maman is here, and you won't have to worry about ever being alone. We can play Beauty and the Beast all you want..."

Lavi looked at me with a smile, and he raised a single arm in a salute. No, please don't do that. Do not act like you are saying good bye, you worthless little -.

"Do it," Kanda ordered quietly, and I could swear I heard pain in his voice for all of a split second.

The Akuma seemed to snap out of the reverie I'd put her in, and she had just started to thrash when I split her open from behind, discs digging into her wooden body. Splinters rained over my hands and into my skin as I ripped her in half, thorns clinging to my uniform as she screeched in my ear. She fell with a thud at my feet in two pieces, her face wooden and slack. I gasped for air as I sat on the ground, reeling.

I was going to have the headache of the century. Her scream was still ringing around in my skull.

"Tch. You hesitated," Kanda said behind me, and I rubbed my face in my hands and squeezed my eyes shut, not willing to look up.

"You wouldn't?" I groaned, rubbing my forehead.

"No."

What else did I expect him to say?

"Good job, Maggie!" a familiar voice said, and my eyes shot open.

I looked up in surprise, finding Lavi kneeling in front of me, and I slowly smiled.

That is, until I realized he was completely, stark naked. It took several seconds for my brain to register he was wearing only what his mother had given him, and I felt my joyous laugh get stuck in the back of my throat as I gradually started to die on the inside.

To make matters worse, Bookman was in the same state, and that is not a vision I would wish on anybody.

If these two weren't wearing anything... I dared not turn around to look at Kanda.

Behind Bookman, men were popping back into existence from where they'd fallen as objects, all of them naked, and I felt like I was in my worst nightmare. I honestly wanted the Akuma back.

"What's the matter, Mag?" Lavi asked, watching my face contort into horrified realization.

"Where are your clothes?!" I shrieked, covering my eyes finally.

"The clothes we had are in the forest somewhere. We couldn't carry them with us. They were much too heavy," Bookman grumbled closer to me, and I suppressed the urge to scream.

I got up, started walking with my eyes closed and my arms in front of me. I had to get out of here. I had to get somewhere that didn't have naked men, disgusting floors, dead people, demons, dresses with corsets-

I reached the doors, or what I thought were the doors, and I threw them open and opened my eyes.

Surely I was safe now, right? The only thing that could be out there should be -

A hall full of confused, naked men.

My eye twitched and I slapped my hand back over my face. It was just my day. Any other woman would be ecstatic. I was about to have a heart attack.

"What's the matter, Maggie, am I not good enough for you or something!"

"Shut up before I shut you up, Lavi!"


I languidly stretched out in my bathtub. It took nearly three different tubs full of water to make myself feel like I'd cleaned off the bits of corpse from that dress. Finally, I could relax for a moment, just take my time and pamper myself a little bit before the next hell-on-earth collided with me due to my occupation.

I had desperately searched for as much clothes as possible while at the mansion. There was no way I'd be able to handle having that many nude men around me without eventually succumbing to a propriety-induced death, probably from falling down a hole because I was walking around with my eyes closed. God had saved me, because Kanda had luckily been able to keep the pants he'd originally been stuffed into. Charles, who was very glad to no longer be a broomstick, had managed to find his and the other Exorcists' uniforms, something I will forever be grateful for.

I was still trying to scrub the image of Bookman out of my mind, but there are just some things that cannot be unseen.

Now, I was just relaxing here in Boston while the boys went and chowed down on the entire kitchen downstairs. I would leave them to harassing the cook, seeing as I needed nothing more than to be completely, utterly clean.

I sighed to myself, my arms hanging off the sides of the claw-footed tub, enjoying the steaming water. I'd turned it up as far as it would go, and it was slowly draining the hurt from my muscles. I had done my usual catalog of wounds, and I now had a half-healed toe, several broken ribs (I was beginning to think every single one would be broken by the time I was done training), a jammed knuckle, and more bruises than I could count. All in all, it was a better diagnosis than my last mission.

I heard someone open the door to my bedroom, and I figured it must be one of the boys, having forgotten something from his bag. Due to my obsessive need for order and neatness, any luggage that came into my room would magically become the picture of organization. I think they left them there on purpose.

I cracked my back, wincing at my ribs and curling up around them as they screamed agony. Finally I stood up, and I heard a knock on the door.

"Occupied," I called out. "What is it?"

If I had a nickel for every time Lavi asked me where his shoes, belt, holster, or bandanna was, I would never have to worry about money again. For a Bookman, he seemed to forget where he put his belongings quite a bit. He was lucky I had a mother's memory. I practically knew where everyone else's things were by some strange preternatural intuition.

The door opened, and I shrieked, pulling the shower curtain around me.

"What is the matter with you?! You don't just walk in on someone in the bath!" I whined loudly, not daring to face the intruder.

"We have a mission," Kanda stated, and I pressed my lips together in irritation.

Did no one teach him manners? I was naked, for crying out loud! I'd had enough with nakedness to last me a life time! I was just going to wear clothes and never take them off.

"Can this wait? I'm a little indecent," I asked shrilly, irritated and embarrassed.

"Tch. If I waited for you to get dressed, I'd be gray and withered when you were finished," he retorted, slapping something on the counter.

With that, the door closed, and I peeked just to make sure that he was gone. Sure enough, the door was shut fast. I dragged out a towel and pulled it around me, staring at the thing he'd left on the counter.

Sure enough, it was a mission dossier. I flipped through it as I started to towel dry my hair back into its poof-ball form.

Mission Directive: A large peace summit is being held by the Bergeron family in Montreal that requires Exorcist supervision. The political constituents are known supporters of the Vatican and therefore targets for Akuma assassins. They must be protected. The summit is in three weeks.

I skimmed over the rest of the dossier, glad that I was getting to use a little bit more of my French abilities. All those summers spent in France were being put to good use.

Until I read who the mission executors were supposed to be.


"Don't make me go with him!"

"Maggie, I can't change any of that. I'm just an-"

"Yeah, yeah, observer, I get it. But please don't leave me alone with him! Please, please, please, can't you do anything?"

I was practically kneeling at Lavi's feet, begging for my life.

Who was I kidding? I was begging for my life. Kanda was going to make me run until my heart climbed out of my mouth in disgust and went on strike.

"Maggie, you're going to be fine. Look, he's not as bad as you think he is," Lavi laughed nervously, sitting on his bed with several books open behind him.

I'd interrupted his reading session. To him, light reading was skimming four books at the same time. I could barely stomach one. Now I just had to add that to the stupidly long list of Lavi's abilities. I was getting more and more outclassed every day.

I stared at him open mouthed.

"He was going to leave you to die! And you're the closest thing he's got to a 'friend'."

"Uh... well, he is very mission focused-"

"What if his 'mission focus' means leaving me behind?" I worried.

"I promise you, he is not going to let you die," he said, leaning back on his bed and staring at me with a single green eye. "Has he let you die once at all on this trip?"

I was about to protest until I realized that there was no way for me to argue. Obviously, I was very alive at the moment, and the faint pink line where Mugen had nearly set free all of my internal organs was testament to one of Kanda's (few) sacrifices. I let out a whoosh of breath, looking away at the carpet. I was literally kneeling on the floor in front of him, hands clasped in my lap. They had been up at my chest a few moments ago, but after realizing I had no ammo, I'd let them drop.

"See what I mean?" he said, skimming over his books.

I ran a hand through my hair, and I got up with a creak. Ugh, my bones felt like they'd been turned to centuries-old wood. Even with that bath, I was still very sore.

"Yeah. I guess," I grumbled to myself, knowing I was being childish. I rubbed my neck, annoyed that I had suddenly become so sniveling, but I couldn't lie. I was not too proud to beg at someone's feet.

"You feeling okay?" he asked after a pregnant pause, scanning me with his good eye.

He had this annoying habit of picking all my wounds out and then using them against me, whether in a spar (which wasn't fair) or when I'm supposed to be resting instead of cleaning (which was rude).

"Huh? Yeah, I'm fine. Just a little sore. I don't take being thrown around very well."

Most people don't. I happen to be most people. I don't think the Exorcists have grasped this yet.

Lavi sat up with a bounce, and he patted the bed. I looked around nervously, wondering what he wanted me to do.

He rolled an eye. "Just... trust me for once. Come on, I don't bite!"

I stared at him with suspicion.

"...Hard," he conceded with a mischievous glint in his eye, and I slapped my palm to my face.

I should have seen that one coming.

I reluctantly came over and sat down next to him, gingerly putting weight on the bed like it would collapse underneath me.

He started to rub all the knots out of my back, and I practically fell over in bliss.

How many useful abilities did he have? This just wasn't fair. No one should be this gifted. Maybe he had a toe that was absolutely horrific? Or he had a lifelong fear of poodles? Perhaps he had a debilitating weakness towards the color blue?

"What are you really afraid of?" he asked me.

I groaned, partly because I was in heaven and partly because I'd been had. I knew this wasn't a free lunch. There is no such thing as a free lunch. And something this good didn't come about for nothing. I sighed, the breath whooshing out of me.

"Exactly what I said. He scares me," I halfway confessed. And, of course, the analytical genius that is Lavi, Bookman Jr. tore my little half-baked excuse to itty-bitty pieces.

"You spent an entire week with the guy while he had his leg turned to mincemeat in the middle of a blizzard without any sort of communication device, and you didn't look worse for wear. If anything, you looked better rested than you had been for weeks."

Oh, maybe because someone wasn't beating me black and blue every day consecutively for a few weeks while traveling? That might have something to do with it.

"And you managed to get the guy to take a bath. Not that Yuu is an unclean person, but it takes an awful lot of willpower to do something like that, especially when he had teeth longer than your pinkie nail. I don't think it's necessarily Kanda that's got you worried," he reasoned as he teased my muscles apart.

I was halfway asleep, hardly listening. As long as he kept rubbing, I would be good.

"Okay, Mr. Shrink, what is the matter with me, then?" I asked blearily.

Man, he was good. I felt like someone had turned me into a limp noodle. All that stress was just draining away into those magic fingers.

He suddenly put a hand on top of my head and ruffled my hair, leaning over my shoulder. I saw him grin out of the corner of his eye, and I knew he was enjoying leading me on and messing with me like this.

"I think you're afraid of being alone. Kanda's not the most talkative, and for the most part you'll be left to yourself with no one to talk to and no one to distract you. You're kind of a social animal, Magnolia."

"Ugh, don't call me that."

"Ha! Like that'll stop me."

He suddenly stood up off the bed, snatching up one of the books he'd been reading before I'd intruded, and I flopped backwards on to the bed. My muscles, for once, felt like they were taking a vacation. Typically they worked overtime and they complained about it, too.

"I don't think it's about being alone," I sighed, staring at the ceiling.

The cracks in the ceiling made designs, and I remembered the nights when my brood of siblings and I would stare at the ceiling of our tenement, making up stories about the things we'd see, like cloud watching. I spread my arms out, how I normally would lay with all five of them laying on my arms. Ava would usually be practically perched on my head, and Lily would kick me all night. The twins would somehow work their way south in the night and cling to my leg, and then Violet would mutter until the words wormed their way into my dreams.

"Is that so?" Lavi muttered, preoccupied with his book, probably.

"Yeah. I think I'm afraid of not having someone to take care of."

Now that made him stop. His poor book had an intimate rendezvous with the floor, given the thump I'd heard. He did have a weakness! A weakness to being wrong.

Except... that wasn't often. Drat.

"Not having something to take care of…?" he asked me, staring at me with an incredulous look.

I propped myself up on my elbows and shrugged, playing with the frayed edges of the blanket.

"I've spent most of my life taking care of five tornadoes, trying to keep them fed, cleaned, and out of trouble and harm's way. It probably took fifteen years off my lifespan, but it was worth it. When each of them was accommodated with a fragment, I still had to take care of them. I mean, seriously, the twins can't fry an egg without causing a major fire hazard, and Lily would argue with her own shadow, if that were possible. Even Allen needs his hair combed every now and again by somebody. But now that they're gone, and with you out of the picture—"

"Are you trying to tell me that you need to take care of me?"

"No! No, no, no, I didn't have to take care of you—"

Kind of. He had a bad habit of leaving his laundry out, and then he never put his tooth brush back in the holder, and he left red hair in my hairbrush, and don't get me started on the mass of dishes and books…

"—but you were… helpful to my psyche," I explained, sighing to myself and sitting up all the way.

"And come on, let's face it. There isn't a soul on earth who could take care of Kanda. You can smell the crazy on him. He wears it like cologne," I quipped, leaning my head against my knee.

My other leg practically hit the other wall. He'd said something rather provocative to the other receptionist, and the first one had been… less than happy to be snubbed.

And then Lavi found himself sleeping in what amounts to being a cardboard box with wood panels glued on. My room was bigger than this, and I was modest with my cash.

"Speaking of taking care of you, next time let me talk to the receptionist. If there's anything I've learned about hotel jumping, it's that you kiss the behind of your receptionist until your lips grow numb."

Lavi and I stared at each other for a little bit, and then he suddenly laughed. It was true, though! He could laugh all he wanted, but he was going to end up sleeping in a coffin if he kept treating receptionists the way he did. At least, he was halfway there. He'd just kissed the behind of the wrong receptionist.

"Now that I think about it, you've pretty much hit the nail on the head," Lavi said, wiping a tear from his good eye. He shook his head, staring at the book he must've picked up off the ground.

Well, at least he was taking my advice.

He weighed the book along with his words, and I cocked my head to the side. I could see the little hamster working himself to death inside of his hollow head, but the hamster wasn't about to tell me what he was thinking. He wasn't just talking about my people advice.

"Thanks, Mag," he suddenly said, looking at me with a smile. "For taking care of me, too."

Whoa, whoa, whoa, back up a minute. He was saving my life more than I was taking care of his. And, come to think of it, I hadn't ever thanked him for saving my skin. I sort of took it for granted, but now that I think about it, he really didn't have to. Considering his actual occupation, he could leave me to rot and no one could say otherwise.

"Uh… you're… welcome?" I hesitantly said, standing up.

He stepped over to me, knocking the book into the palm of his hand over and over as he thought about what he was going to say. I stood up, preparing to leave.

"I think I might actually miss you," Lavi joked, green eye all a-sparkle, and I crossed my arms and cocked my hip, standing almost nose-to-shoulder with him considering my hieght.

"Might. Might actually miss me?" I asked, acting offended.

He played like he was thinking about it, and I pretended to punch him. He feigned pain and horror and flopped on the bed, covering his face. I rolled my eyes at his theatrics. He and Violet would have a riot. Or start one.

"That's exactly why I said might."

"Oh, please."


"You have to change it," Kanda demanded.

Bookman, busy with straightening all the pins in his acupuncture kit (for a Bookman must always be neat and tidy… unless it was with manuscripts), did not even blink as the swordsman stormed into his private quarters. He and Lavi had elected to take separate rooms, as Lavi had made the receptionist angry by commenting on the beauty of the other receptionist right next to her. Perhaps elected was not the best word… Forced was more accurate.

"I have no control over the selection of partners," Bookman said, his voice flat. He was about to straighten his final pin under the lamplight—

Kanda leaned against the desk threateningly, and five pins shifted over. Bookman hid his irritation with a sigh.

"Change it," the samurai coldly ordered.

Bookman looked up at him without ever moving his head. Finally, he closed his eyes and shook his head. He moved the pins again, carefully straightening everything. He took care to ignore Kanda, despite the icy cold glare drilling holes into the old man's head.

Finally, Kanda walked over to the window where wan light was spilling through. It was evening, and Kanda had seen Mag headed towards Lavi's room. Those two were stuck together like burrs to a jacket. It was hard to tell who was the burr and who was the jacket, though, because burrs were annoying and both of them were irritating.

If he was to pick, though, Lavi would be the burr. At least Mag did the laundry.

"What are you afraid of?" Bookman asked in his droning voice.

Kanda didn't answer.

"You have never asked for a reassignment before. Even when paired with Allen, you did not ask for a different partner or for a solo mission. You merely took it. Yet now, with this single woman, you have decided to plead," Bookman reiterated.

"I do not plead," Kanda corrected.

"And yet, I have the feeling that you are begging," Bookman stated, rolling his acupuncture kit.

Kanda continued to stare out the window, refusing to budge.

"You fear failure," Bookman told him.

The young man was a rock. From the next room, they could hear the sounds of laughter. It seemed that Lavi and Magnolia were getting along quite well.

Bookman was going to have to talk to Lavi about that. He knew how the boy felt about the woman – no, the girl—and her family. They were already more attached to the Exorcists than they needed to be, and now he wanted to be part of a family. That was unacceptable. Bookmen did not have families.

Though, he could not deny that he did not enjoy the family's company. The chaos they brought was the good kind.

"This mission's directive is not just to guard the Vatican's nobles. Your mission's directive, your personal mission, is to succeed in keeping this woman alive. And you're afraid to fail," Bookman sighed, putting his acupuncture set into his valise.

Kanda had yet to move. Bookman stared at him, noting the tension in his neck and his back. As a medically talented man, he could already see some of the wear that a life of war had put on the young man. He'd been fighting since he'd been a boy. That sort of thing was going to show somehow.

"Who did you promise?" Bookman grunted, standing up.

"What?" Kanda asked, the first true response.

"You heard me," Bookman said calmly.

Kanda remained silent, and that was all the answer Bookman needed.

Bookman shuffled towards the door, his little feet scooting along the floor. Despite his spryness for being such a tough old bird, he still took about four minutes to get across two feet of floor.

"Ava."

Bookman stopped in front of the door, staring at the woodwork. There was a silence yet again, something Kanda seemed to carry with him in spades in some magic bag. Bookman nodded and walked out the door.


A/N: 'Allo! Back again~. It took me a long time to edit this (though my beta was very very timely), so I apologize for the overdue nature of this particular chapter.

I would like to ask the readers whether or not to continue with the discussion questions. After all, if you're not using them, what good are they to you or for me to write them? So if you would weigh in, that would be great.