The town, when they arrived, was tiny, quaint, and stuck smack dab in the middle of nowhere. Verdant hills surrounded them on all sides, encasing them in a sea of lush grass and wildflowers. A tiny, picturesque river burbled cheerfully around the very edges of the town, and nimble fish leapt over the gleaming rocks like dollops of quicksilver. There was a peaceful silence about the air, a lazy sort of feeling that the atmosphere exuded, that made you want to flop under one of the trees and take a long nap.
And the people were just about the same; they were the traditional, kindly sort, who had never known disaster and likely never would. They wore traditional clothes and sang traditional songs, danced olden steps around a campfire with glee. Their women were either beautiful and demure or homely but tough, and their men alternated between farm boy innocence and jolly, self-confident wisdom.
Photographers would come to this place and declare it perfect in every way; they would rush to take pictures of the golden fields of wheat, and the dusty farmers who worked there. The would exclaim over the adorable children, who had dirt smeared perpetually on their joyous faces and a kind word for anyone who came near. And then the photographers would pack their bags and leave as swiftly as they possibly could, because there was never such a boring town in existence as this one.
Allen, Kanda, and Lavi all stared in horror at the little place, where the people were examining them with curious but welcoming eyes. They took in the dirt roads, and the cattle roaming around, the stores and the market, and the way that everyone greeted each other. Because they all knew each other, of course they did; there were no secrets in this town.
"Not even a bar." Allen whispered in horror, feeling something like hysterical panic building in his gut.
Kanda would've made fun of him, except he was feeling much the same. He looked around at the sleepy little village, barely advanced enough to be out of the Dark Ages, and said, "No fucking way."
Lavi didn't say anything at all, but the way he was staring morosely out at the tacky fountain in the center of the square said everything.
"Have you ever considered the fact that Komui actually hates us?" Allen wondered out loud. "A lot of his decisions seem to be very painful for everybody except him."
The other two actually grunted in agreement with that statement, which just went to show how dire the situation was if those two were agreeing about anything. Allen was just about to turn his wheelchair right back around and get on the next train, damn the consequences, when they were waved at by one of the women in traditional clothing.
"Did that lady just wave at us?" Kanda growled in the back of his throat, which was...oddly civil, considering who was speaking. In Allen's experience, the samurai was more likely to stab first and ask questions later.
"Mr. Exorcists!" The woman called as she started heading their way. "Oh Mr. Exorcists!"
The three of them did a simultaneous body flinch, which was a new and unusual experience that Allen was not looking forwards to repeating. Being in a simultaneous anything with Kanda sounded like a disaster waiting to happen.
"Is-Is this location not supposed to be a secret?" Lavi said, putting his head into his hands.
The woman reached them, beaming as though they were the best presents she'd ever been given. She was a very slim, beautiful blonde woman wearing a long, powder blue dress and a pair of smart, black boots. There were laugh lines around her mouth and her eyes, and her smile showed off a row of straight, very white teeth.
And there was something about the way she walked that immediately set Allen on edge, though he couldn't for the life of him figure out why.
"Hello you three, my name is Mirium, and I'll be your liaison to the Black Order! I'm sure we'll get along just fine. We'll have you settled in as soon as possible!" The woman chirped. Kanda's face made him look as though he were dying inside.
Then, without any warning, the woman pulled a camera from nowhere and snapped a picture of their faces.
"Oooh, Komui was right." The woman said, looking down at the camera with delight. "That is a bit funny."
"What the hell?" Kanda growled, and he curled his thumb under the hilt of his sword, drawing it ever so slightly from the sheath at his waist. There was a vein popping in his temple, and he looked about ready to cut the woman in two in broad daylight. Allen shifted nervously, because by now the townspeople were openly staring and whispering amongst themselves. If Kanda decided to get violent, there was no way to do damage control, not with all these witnesses.
"Oh, I'm sorry." The woman said, and suddenly her grin devolved into a downright evil smirk. "I didn't make a proper introduction, did I? My name is Mirium Lee."
There was a brief stunned silence, the kind that happens when several people have realized just how badly they've been played. Allen kind of wanted to start clapping, because this woman had just pulled a con that Master would've been proud of.
And then he realized that there was no possible way this woman was related to Komui and Lenalee, considering the two siblings were Chinese, and this woman was quite obviously European. French, judging by the slight accent in her voice. Who did she think she was trying to fool?
"Listen miss," Allen said, in his most polite tone. "I have to ask, but how can you possibly be related to Komui if he is Chinese, and you are quite obviously not?"
Mirium glanced at him, a clever little smile curling the corners of her mouth. "Oh, Komui warned me about you, Allen Walker. You certainly don't fail to meet expectations." While he was still puzzling over that statement, wondering what Komui could've possibly said about him, the woman continued. "I've forgotten the proper word for it, but my aunt married Komui's uncle. So we are perhaps not related by blood, but simply by family relation."
"Oh." Allen said, mollified.
"You were Crow." Lavi said suddenly, and both Kanda and Allen glanced over at him sharply, staring at the teen. Lavi had a laser-focused gaze on Mirium, his green eye narrowed as thoughts flew through that incredible brain of his. "I didn't recognize it before, but…"
"Clever little boy, aren't you." Mirium practically purred, and that's when Allen realized where he'd seen that walk before-Link. Link walked like that, with the subtle grace of a killer, and the confidence that he was able to defend himself no matter what the threat. "Yes, Komui decided he needed eyes in Levierre's inner circle and asked me to join. I agreed, of course."
There was more of a story to this, Allen was certain; after all, Mirium did not seem like the kind of person who would get involved in the war for a favor. She was too obviously intelligent for that, and in just this meeting she was already showing signs of decent self-preservation instincts. Allen knew the type; usually only the foolish or the self-sacrificing joined the Order, and this woman's personality was neither.
Kanda was now giving Mirium a wary, mistrustful look, and his thumb had not moved from it's position on his sword. "I don't trust Crow. Any of them."
"I don't really care." Mirium shrugged. "But you're going to have to try, if you actually want to go to where you're living."
"What?" Allen asked, speaking for all three of them.
"You didn't think that Komui would actually send you to live in this boring hicktown, right?" The woman said, amusement glittering in her eyes. "There's a leak in the Order, boys. You got off the train here, because this is where our mole thinks you'll be living. We've actually still got a bit of a journey left, by carriage."
The three of them glanced at each other.
Kanda flicked his thumb a little, and the sword hopped just a bit in his grip. I can always kill her.
Allen frowned a little, shrugging his bad shoulder in helplessness, when Lavi startled them both by interrupting with a very subtle, but understandable hand signal. Wait.
Then he shifted in his wheelchair, and gave Mirium a polite, but slightly strained smile. For the barest second, Allen watched as Lavi emerged from the cocoon of misery he'd been entrenched in for the past few days. His eyes glimmered with sharp, laser focus, and his fingers barely brushed his cheek, an instinctively aggressive posture. "Listen, Miss Lee." He said, saccharine and venomous all at once. "I hate to tell you this, but we're going to need a bit more to go on than your word." He tilted his head sideways. "After all, my friend here?" He gestured towards Kanda, "Has a very big sword."
Mirium stared at the redhead for a second, her big blue eyes wide with surprise. It seemed like maybe she'd just been expecting them to go along with it, and not argue with her. But then she threw back her head and laughed, a full-bellied laugh that carried, that made the startled townspeople stare and shift uneasily. "Lavi Bookman." She breathed, smiling at their wheelchair bound friend. "Let me tell you a little secret."
Then she leaned over, and whispered something into the Bookman Junior's ear.
(To this day, Allen doesn't know what she said. All he knows is that Lavi turned a odd, sour-milk white, and went along with her without asking anymore questions.)
It turned out that Mirium actually was telling the truth, regarding their housing situation, anyway. And it also turned out that the three exorcists decided to hate Komui a little less than they were originally planning on, simply because the scientist had really pulled through for them, in regards to location.
They had left the sleepy little village in a horse-drawn carriage (seating arrangements had been a bit awkward, because Allen was silently refusing to sit next to Lavi, and Kanda looked as though he wanted to murder the two of them rather than sit next to them. Eventually they had decided to put Allen next to Miriam in the front, and forced Kanda and Lavi to sit together in the back). The townsfolk watched with curious, polite interest as they left, and once again the three exorcists were very thankful that they wouldn't have to stay in this sleepy little town. There was no wariness here, no drive for more; the people had not investigated the exorcists despite their odd apparel, and likely in a week or so the gossip would fade. That sort of complacency was mind boggling and quite frankly a little insane.
Their actual new home was an apartment in an industrialized suburb of Berlin. They were on the third floor of a little complex a block away from a library, and three blocks away from a saloon. If one were to go any farther south, the factories and smog would dissolve into farmland. Any further north, and one would find themselves in the hustle and bustle of the capital of Germany. In short, the location was easy to escape from, easy to defend, and was positioned with their interests in mind.
"Now remember," Mirium said, smiling a lovely, shark-toothed grin at the three of them. "If you need help, don't call Komui, call me first. I'll pass the message along. It'll be harder for people to pinpoint your position that way, okay?"
"Yes ma'am." Allen responded, since the other two had descended into moody, brooding silences.
"Excellent!" She crowed, clapping her hands together. "Then there shouldn't be any problems. Here are your house keys." She dropped the keychain into Allen's hands, patted Lavi (who jumped, startled) and Kanda (who snapped at her fingers like a rabid dog) on the head, and stepped back into the carriage. "I'll be seeing you boys soon!"
Allen waved at her retreating back, still a little bemused by the whole situation. Kanda let out a disgusted noise, but Lavi just faded back into the dull, silent stupor he'd been in moments before.
Then, the three of them turned to face their new home.
"This isn't so bad." Allen said thoughtfully as he stared up at the building, brushing his hair out of his face. He jumped a little as his suitcase was plonked onto the ground next to him, courtesy of one grumpy swordsman.
"You say that now." Kanda growled, resting one hand on the back of Allen's chair. He was far more twitchy than he'd been in the Black Order, possibly because he was in unfamiliar territory and was the only one of his companions capable of defending himself. This had brought out an odd, instinctive protectiveness in the swordsman, which very likely began during his time as a general. He hadn't let either of his two wheelchair bound charges out of his sight. "What floor did did that woman say we were on?"
Allen frowned slightly and opened his mouth to chide Kanda, because no matter how strange a person was, you couldn't call them 'that woman'. Then the question caught up with him, and he glanced very sharply at the five story building in front of them. He closed his eyes, already seeing the problem.
Lavi rolled to a halt next to the two of them, his face a study in dread, his bag clutched tightly in his lap. He'd slept the entire way to Berlin, which had done nothing to decrease the bags beneath his eyes, so deep they looked like bruises. Allen hoped that being outside of the Order and in a big city would help him. "We're on the fourth floor." The Bookman Jr. said.
All three of them stared at the wheelchairs. There was no question that Lavi would not be able to climb the stairs under his own power, and Allen was a shaky maybe. He could take two flights of stairs if he rested on the landings-but four?
Kanda sighed, expression exasperated but resigned to his fate as pack mule. He glanced at the only suitcase they'd taken (none of them actually had many personal items-fighting in a war had meant that basically everything was impermanent), obviously thinking very hard about what they were going to do. Then he looked at Allen, and ordered in an imperious voice, "Follow us with the suitcase as far as you can."
"Huh?" Allen asked, confused. Us?
"What?" Lavi echoed, looking equally bewildered. He looked significantly less bewildered when Kanda physically scooped him from his chair and threw him over his shoulder. In fact, the red-head let out a loud, ear-piercing squeak, dropping his bag to the ground in favor of beating his fists on Kanda's back. "Put me down!" He wailed, though he very quickly lost momentum as the strength drained out of him.
"Shut the fuck up." Kanda muttered, and then glared at Allen, who was watching the spectacle with wide, disbelieving eyes. He was also trying very, very hard not to laugh. "You stop fucking laughing,you little brat."
Allen raised his hands up in a gesture of surrender, not quite able to control the wide grin that was breaking across his face. "I haven't said anything."
Kanda shot him another suspicious look, but seemed unwilling to pursue, especially since Lavi was still slapping weakly against the swordsman's back. He was wheezing from exertion and seemed no stronger than a kitten, but he was doggedly doing it all the same. Allen had to admire his tenacity, if nothing else.
Allen got up from the chair and looked down at the suitcase next to him, frowning at its size. It wasn't enormous, thank goodness, but it was certainly...dense. It would be difficult to get up one flight of stairs with it, let alone four. But Kanda had asked him to, so he would have to try.
He collapsed his wheelchair and slung it over his shoulder (thank god for the science department), then took the handle for the suitcase and dragged it through the door of the apartment. He made it as far as the stairs before he had to stop for a short break, breath coming a little faster than it had before.
Those steps suddenly looked very daunting. Like climbing up the mountain to get to the Order again.
Allen took a steadying breath, and then began to ascend.
He got as far as the first floor before he collapsed in a shuddering, shaking pile on the floor, his hair splayed out around his head like a picture in a murder scene. "Bloody fucking fuck," He muttered under his breath, his childhood accent crawling through his words as his mind struggled to keep him functioning. "I fuckin' hate stairs."
The silence that followed that statement was far too….poignant, for lack of a better word. Allen heaved another sigh, and shook his hair out of his face, looking up in quiet resignation at Kanda's face. The swordsman was staring at him as though he'd never seen something so pathetic and confusing in his entire life. Which wasn't actually all that big of a change than usual, considering that's what Kanda always thought of him.
"You made it one flight." The taller man said finally.
Allen thought about that for a moment, trying to figure out the best way to respond. Then he decided not to respond to that at all, and instead lifted his shaking arm up in a pleading gesture. "Carry me, please. I can't do another floor."
Kanda's face twisted a little, face darkening into a deep scowl, making it clear how much he would not like to carry Allen up the stairs. That is to say, he looked like he would rather eat poison than get within reaching distance of the younger ex-exorcist. However there was also knowledge warring with that disgust, the knowledge that Allen would actually not be able to make it up any more flights without assistance.
"I fucking hate you." Kanda muttered, taking Allen's arm and bodily lifting him from the floor, as though he weighed no more than a kitten. There was a moment of vertigo as the younger boy was unceremoniously swung over one shoulder, but then he found himself face-to-face with Kanda's dark shirt.
The climb to the fourth floor was thankfully short, and when the two of them reached the top, they silently agreed never to talk about it, ever again. They had a reputation as bitter rivals to maintain, after all.
Really, that first introduction with their living space should have been an indication of what was to come.
The apartment was nice enough, for it's price; there was a living area attached to a kitchinette, which had all the basic equipment for cooking. The small table in the room was barely large enough for three people to eat on, but that was all they needed anyway. They were such a suspicious lot that they would likely never invite someone over for dinner. Finally there was a single bathroom, and two small bedrooms besides.
Although it wasn't very fancy, it was practically a mansion to the three ex-exorcists who had only ever had a single room to themselves.
"The couch is mine." Kanda muttered, throwing his pack onto the sofa and flopping after it, sprawling out across the dark brown fabric. He quickly rolled onto his side facing the cushions, a clear indication that he wanted to be left alone, immediately. Too much interaction with the rest of civilization, Allen mused with a sigh.
He absentmindedly opened his mouth to ask Lavi which room he wanted, when his words were cut off by a loud slam that echoed throughout the room, causing Kanda's shoulders to tense slightly. Allen turned, incredulous-Lavi hadn't actually just walked into a room and slammed the door, had he?-but no, the Bookman Junior was gone, and one of the bedrooms was very firmly shut. He had expected to discuss-if nothing else-what they were supposed to do about food for the next few days, especially since Kanda was unlikely to care about that sort of thing. But no-for some reason, whatever was eating at Lavi was more important than...well. Actually eating.
There was a loud silence, the elephant in the room so prominent that Allen didn't dare say a word, for fear of screaming. He took a deep breath, then another, and told himself, I'm the one who's angry at him. He...still hadn't forgiven Lavi. But it was getting harder and harder to maintain a distance, especially when his friend was so obviously suffering.
"Alright." Allen muttered to himself, breathing in a fortifying breath, and releasing it slowly. "We're okay. We're…"
He looked around, at the empty apartment, at the samurai 'sleeping' on the couch; at the closed door and the heavy, tense air that hung over them all. He breathed in the sense of misery and hopelessness, the stewing anger and the bitter pain, that seemed to permeate the walls.
Allen squeezed his eye shut, and covered his mouth with his hand.