White Demon, Red Scribe
A D Gray-Man and Assassin's Creed Revelations Crossover

Allen woke up the next morning feeling better than he would've expected. The reason would probably be the lack of ache in his abdomen. Carefully stretching on his bed to the point where he let out a pleased squeal, he turned around only to nearly spit out his own heart, finding Emil sitting by his bed on an oval pillow with his arms crossed over his chest and a displeased frown on his face.

"I am never, ever keeping an eye on you during the night again." Emil grumbled, rubbing his tired eyes.

Allen arched an eyebrow at him in confusion. Kanda's student only shook his head and patted Allen's affectionately, which only made the white-haired man more befuddled.

"Never mind," he murmured as the displeasure vanished from his face. He stood up. "I'm going to sleep now. Your redhead friend should be writing that letter somewhere. Go look for him if you want."

Emil left with a final look back at the other man, not really wanting to ponder upon what nightmares he was dreaming about. Judging by the confused look Allen gave him, he guessed he already forgot.

Allen shrugged and washed up, going through his morning routine of more stretching and dressing himself, then went looking for Lavi.

He didn't really need to go far. The bookman was in the library, and Allen couldn't help but chuckle at the way he slept. The agitation from yesterday was long gone and he knew he'd overdone it a little bit, too.

He gently shook the other awake, asking him about the letter and his pendant.

After having given Emil the medicine the night before, Lavi had gone to do some light reading - or what he considered light reading anyway - in the library until he'd been too tired to keep his single eye open any longer. Now he was slumped back against one of the shelves with books scattered about and splayed on his back in an undignified manner.

His loose, longer red hair hung in his face and hid his eyes like that of an Old English Sheepdog, so that he couldn't possibly see past them, and he snored softly with the occasional incomprehensible mutter.

He was awake – okay, well... sort of awake – immediately when Allen shook him, sitting up and groggily blurting out, "Phillip Augustus and the Battle of Bovines!"

He stopped and might have looked confused for a moment, though it was somewhat hard to tell with his hair hanging in his face. He shook his head and all his hair along with it before finally pushing it out of his face, blinking in question at Allen.

"Oh... 'morning, 'sprout," he greeted, pausing to yawn widely. It took a moment, but his mind finally caught up with him to recall the question Allen posed him. " 'still gotta finish that letter this morning, but I'm working on it," he promised. "I'm going to have to make some arrangements before I can send it off, but it should only take a couple days at most."

He rotated and massaged one shoulder, trying to work some of the stiffness out of it. He really needed to get better sleeping habits, starting with where he actually slept.

"Feeling any better today, now that you've slept?" He was watching Allen carefully and trying to discern if his answer would be an honest one or merely a placation, of which the latter was probably more likely, if he knew Allen at all.

Allen shrugged nonchalantly. "Yeah, a lot better, actually. You, on the other hand, look like a mess. Have you really slept all night here? You know, you could just get some pillows and sleep in my room." He offered, not really expecting a positive answer since libraries were practically Lavi´s regular sleeping places.

"Nah, it's fine, really," Lavi assured. "This isn't even the worst set-up, really. I've had much worse, and besides, those buddies of yours might be willing to work with me but they still really don't trust me, so it probably a bad idea anyway." He didn't want to step on any toes, after all, and he also had a certain aloofness he had to maintain.

"Did Emil give you my pendant?" Allen asked, trying to hide the worry that there was a chance the redhead has lost it. Even though Lavi was not that kind of person, Allen just couldn´t help himself but to worry about it. After all, that was a present from Kanda and the only way of making sure that whatever they sent each other was really from the other. They always traded them - when Kanda was sending something he would send the thing with his pendant and Allen would send his own in return. The pendants were specially made for them and there was no way someone could duplicate them since the two halves made up a whole.

"Yeah yeah yeah, don't worry, I didn't lose it. Give me a little more credit!" Lavi jibed, seeing the worry crease Allen's brow and flit through his eyes for a moment. "I haven't lost anything except for sleep since I was fourteen. Don't worry, it's perfectly safe."

Helping Lavi to sit up properly, Allen huffed in exasperation. "Really, how can you even get any rest like this? Anyway, Emil did tell you how to write the letter, right? I would do it myself but since we have a professional here..." He trailed off, chuckling.

Lavi nodded again. "Emil told me but I'm not really writing a letter to Kanda himself so much as another Bookman. I can include a letter explicitly to him though too, if you want to write one, but I'll be able to get a lot more information on other happenings besides just him this way, including things he might not be aware of."

Allen nodded acknowledgement. "Come on, let's go grab some breakfast."

Lavi threw a chummy arm over Allen's shoulder as he suggested breakfast, using the fingers of his other hand to try and tame his hair into some semblance of order.

"Breakfast sounds great to me, so long as you aren't planning on making me pay your bill again. I only got so much coin to live off of, ya know!"

"Don't worry. We dine here today. Not a fan of heavy breakfasts. Fruits and bread will do it for me, but I'm sure we can find something to suit your tastes as well," Allen chattered, leading Lavi to the main room.

"Hey, I'm not too picky of an eater myself so fruit and bread is just fine for me," Lavi assured. His travels didn't really let him be too picky since he could go from eating in luxury on one mission and barely eating at all on others, depending on the circumstances.

The arm around him made Allen feel strangely at peace. Maybe it was that he missed human touch or the touch of another man - which immediately led to thoughts about Kanda. Squeezing Lavi's hand, he stopped, looking at the ground.

"I'm sorry I flipped out yesterday. I shouldn't have done that." He looked up to the redhead's eye, not letting go of his hand and leaning his head against his arm enjoying the warmth. What he didn't notice was Emil suddenly coming to a stop behind them and glaring daggers at the bookman, most especially the arm around the white-haired man.

Lavi was aware of eyes on him, but then he was starting to get used to that recently. It seemed like everyone was adamant to keep eyes on him lately.

"It's fine. I mean, don't get me wrong, you can be a real pain when you want to be," he laughed. "-but the situation you're in is kind of tense and I understand that what happened yesterday isn't something easy to deal with. Deaths never are, especially when you're not expecting them, and it's going to take time to work through it properly. Turbulent emotions are just another part of the grieving process."

"Yeah," Allen sighed, "-but what you did was very dangerous. You don't go grabbing an assassin and dragging him into an alleyway." He frowned. "Sometimes reflexes take over whether you want them to or not and you may end up dead very fast. I´m not joking, Lavi. You were very close to death yesterday. Please, don't scare me like that again," he pleaded. Allen finally catching a glimpse of the glaring Emil lurking behind them. "Oh, Emil! Didn't you say you wanted to sleep?" Allen wondered, tilting his head.

The assassin grimaced, still glaring at Lavi's arm.

"I changed my mind..." he grumbled.

Allen shrugged and tugged Lavi along to the hall, completely oblivious to Emil's rage. Lavi exchanged a look between Emil and Allen as the attention turned to the following watch-dog now, easily picking up on the glare he was receiving, but he didn't say anything and pretended not to notice.

"Well to be fair, you were acting a bit reckless yourself. Besides, that's hardly the worst danger I've ever been in, you know. Kind of comes with the territory of chasing down wars and everything else the Bookmen deal with recording. But I digress. I'll try not to startle you again, unless it's absolutely necessary." He wasn't making any sure promises he wouldn't, but he would be careful not to resort to that unless he didn't see another way of getting the stubborn man to listen to him, which was why he had even done so the other day to begin with when Allen had set out on a war path.

Allen frowned in worry at Lavi.

Yes, he knew Lavi's choice career wasn't one of the safest, but he always liked to think that bookmen spent their lives with their heads buried in books far away from the chaos of the world, just like most scholars. A very idealistic vision and a very naïve one, but it still helped him to sleep at night, pretending that his friend is not in constant danger. Even though he had to admit that Lavi might be in higher danger now being with him than anywhere else, going by the looks his fellow assassins gave him. Why, though, he had no idea. It wasn't as if he hadn't proved himself to them. Wasn't his own trust and the display of friendship enough for them?

"I know," he said finally, leaning his head against the redhead's arm again to seek some comfort.

He led Lavi to the main hall, choosing a place hear the corner, not too close to the other dining men and women.

"So, the letter..." Allen started, taking a bite of his bread. "I'm going to write my part later today and give it to you, but do tell me when you actually send it..." He trailed off, mentally counting the days it would take to deliver and get a reply. "I see that Emil has started to work on his part already." Allen jerked his head to the left, trying to hide his smile.

Emil sat in the other corner, a plate of fruits and cheese in front of him and a little wooden desk on his knees. He was furiously scribing on the paper, occasionally taking a very unfriendly peek at them.

Lavi nodded his head as he retrieved breakfast and took a seat.

"Well I know that I won't be able to send it until tomorrow at the earliest... but I'll definitely tell you when it's ready. Just know that, realistically, it's going to take at least a couple of weeks, but likely longer. I don't expect that a reply will come for maybe a month or so, and it could still be longer than even that." He paused to take a bite of food, before speaking again. "In the meantime though, we can do some of our own ground-work here, and busy ourselves with trying to find information and prepare for whatever's coming. I have a few ideas of how we can do that, but first I need to know what you've already done in counter-measures and digging so I don't suggest the repetitive."

Allen hummed, already munching on his second loaf of bread.
Of course, the plan... now how can he make Lavi be clueless of his actual plan? The longer the better...

"The plaaaan..." Allen snapped out of his musing, swallowing the last bit of his breakfast. "Oh yeah, well, first of all, I will need to get some information. We can split and ask around the city for some rumors. It never hurts to make sure there aren't any new ones. You know, new faces in the city and so." Yes, splitting up would work even later. There were always new rumors in the city... maybe he could lure Lavi away like that.

But first, the hunter.

"I am one-hundred percent sure it will be an Italian guy. A mercenary of some kind… maybe even an assassin. We should be looking for an outsider since everyone knows everyone here. If there's a new face amongst assassins, we will know. Do you know what a standard Italian assassin's outfit looks like?"

"Well I did spend two years there, and I was around you a lot, so of course I know what they typically look like," Lavi assured with a little laugh. "However... if our enemy is any kind of smart, I don't suspect they'll be dressed to stand out, and I don't think they would have been able to keep out of the attention of all the assassins up to this point otherwise. If they had to pass through any points in the city where there would be a record of them entering as well, they could also be going by an alias to avoid detection. Speaking from a purely hypothetical standpoint, it's what I would do if I were them, but I guess that's assuming they're actually that clever."

Perhaps as clever was pushing it, but he didn't think they would send someone too careless or sloppy to think of those. They seemed like they would be standard procedure to attempt assassinating someone as skilled and well-known as Allen was.

"Oh," he started again after a moment, chewing thoughtfully. "-and if you're going to try keeping me in the dark about things, you should practice being more inconspicuous about it. Not that there's anything I can do about anything you decide to withhold, but you're not the best liar... outside of gambling, anyway."

Allen stared at him for a second, assessing whether he knew about that or not; but how would he, anyway? It was a secret only Allen and Kanda knew – and the people who were hunting him – but, of course, they weren't keen on telling other people about it.

He smiled. Lavi was smart. Too smart for his own good, but Allen will eventually go on with his own plan, making sure Lavi won't be in harm's way. Not him. Not anyone. Not if he can help it.

So he smiled. That soothing smile that always worked, even though Lavi might see through it. The redhead will eventually understand.

"We can start looking tonight. Never better to get rumors than at night. You finish that masterpiece of yours and I'm going to write my part." That wasn't a complete lie. "I'm going to leave it in the library on your table."

Allen looked around, searching for someone from the group of people Kanda trusted. "So, anything else you want to do today? I guess you already have your own plan forged, so do enlighten me, please." He grinned.

Lavi merely nodded and rested his chin on palm, knowing better than to press more than that. He could be long-winded sometimes once he got rolling, but sometimes there was a lot more mutual understanding in silence.

Always with that smile of his... that worrisome, disarming smile that Allen used so much. Even after all this time, that hadn't changed. Lavi returned it with a small smirk of his own.

"Like I said, I have a few ideas. I figure that you and your buddies here have probably started looking for leads. Anyway, the more I think about it, the more your entire situation bothers me. I don't mean on a personal level, so much as..." he paused and rubbed his head, trying to find the right wording. "I dunno... doesn't the way that the Italian assassins are handling this headhunt for you seem a little odd?"

Allen sighed. Heavily and tiredly. It was odd for people who didn't know.

"Yeah..." He murmured sadly. The thing they were after was last seen in Italy after all. But nobody knew it. Nobody, except few chosen people who were willing to give up everything – even their own creed – to get their hands on it. At some unknown, long forgotten point, Allen even started wondering if the Assassins and the Templars were really that different. The line was blurred and the future of their brotherhood uncertain. And for something that small. For something Allen´s hunters believed he has... and as long as it helps him to redirect their attention solely to him, he would let them keep thinking that. "It is weird." He figured he might really be a bad liar.

Changing that particular topic would be a good idea, especially if the topic would lead to revealing the aces he had up his sleeves. Those needed to be played in the final round and Allen would be very glad if they stayed hidden until then.

"So anyway, what do you want to do next? Any clever ideas where we should start first?" He asked, loud enough to attract some attention of 'Kanda's squad', as he called them.

"I've been thinking..." Lavi began slowly, eyeing Allen carefully in a knowing sort of way. If he suspected Allen of knowing something he wasn't sharing, the redhead didn't come out and say it, but his eye said that he suspected the possibility. "The way that they've been handling going after you doesn't make a lot of sense going by normal standard, even if they do suspect you of being on the Templar's side. If that were the case, they'd be able to handle it more openly and come directly to your allies here and, we-ll... basically expose you, if it was just as simple as that. Of course, then if you were innocent, which I don't doubt, then it would be a simple matter of clearing up a misunderstanding, but they haven't done either of those. Now, maybe I'm just overthinking things, I can't really say, but it seems like there's more to this than that, some sort of hidden agenda that maybe they don't want others outside their little inner circle to know, and somehow you stand in the way of something that they want," he stated. "That's the conclusion I can figure, from what I have to work from so far."

Even if Allen had nothing to say, he held up a hand to stop him from interrupting.

"Anyway, whether my guess holds any merit or not, doesn't really matter. You remember what we said briefly the other day, about the Byzantines and making enemies you can't afford? It's not a guarantee, but it's a possibility that we can gain an edge with their...cooperation, in a way. Yesterday you told me that the Byzantines are only interested in defending their own territories here in Turkey, but that's exactly why they could be of help. You probably know the saying, 'the enemy of my enemy is a friend', right? We just have to convince them that the assassins from Italy that are after you and your buddies stationed here are enough of a threat to them to take an interest in catching as well. Basically, a temporary truce, of sorts. The Byzantines are probably desperate for allies with having to deal with the pressure of the Ottoman, and can't afford any more issues to deal with, so why don't we convince them that they'll have more problems to worry about unless they help you? The shady way those from Italy have been trying to deal with you, for whatever reason, makes for good leverage to make it convincing, even if there's nothing deeper going on."

Oh, how Allen's head spun while Lavi kept talking. That clever bastard. But at least he doesn't know about the rumors yet and Allen would make sure it will stay that way until the very last possible moment.

The whole time the redhead talked, Allen kept his eyes firmly on the ornate rug he was sitting on. The room was suddenly unbearably hot.

Lavi's plan about making the Byzantines cooperate was brilliant. It only had one tiny catch; the Byzantines were very... picky about their allies. But then again, Lavi was a pretty good talker, and a very good strategist. If he already had some plan of turning them against his hunters, he was sure the plan would be ninety-five percent successful.

When he finished, the white-haired man finally looked up. "I believe you already have a plan how to do that." Allen smiled weakly, still very uncomfortable after Lavi's first successful deduction. He stood up looking around the hall. "I need the names of the newcomers," he said loudly enough for everyone present in the room to hear. A simple order- …no, a request.

The nonchalantly looking assassins Allen marked as "Kanda's squad" left almost immediately, pausing only long enough to grace Allen with a bow of their heads. The man waited for everyone to leave, noticing only Emil still stubbornly sitting in the corner. Allen didn't really mind him.

Now that they were alone...

"Lavi," Allen started, looking his friend right in the eye. "Your deductions were right. It's not only the accused treason why they are after me." He knelt right in front of the bookman, putting his hands on his shoulders. "I only have one favor to ask of you: whatever you do, don't go looking for the truth. Some things are better left unknown."

He made sure the assassin in the corner heard it too. Catching his eye for a second Allen made sure Kanda's student will do what needs to be done. The rumors have to stay hidden from Lavi and everyone who would possibly intervene – Emil's job was to keep them that way.

Lavi wasn't all that surprised to hear that his educated guess had been somewhere close to the mark, though Allen wasn't willing to divulge any specifics. Even so, he felt he probably should have been honored Allen was willing to say that much honestly. Still, he also couldn't help but feel that part of the admission was exactly because he was getting closer to whatever was going on, and Allen was scared he would find out what it was, for whatever reason. This wasn't just an admission; it was a warning.

He recalled what Allen had said the evening before about what a fine prey he would make to Allen's hunters, and couldn't help but suspect that Allen was still worried he would end up as the next casualty.

He supposed that wasn't entirely unreasonable. Information was a powerful weapon sometimes, and people did die over knowing too much, but Lavi had become a Bookman for the very reason of knowing everything he could ever learn, even the things that no one else knew. Whatever secret Allen was sitting on, it sounded like it might have been something huge, and he was itching to know, ever the curious soul.

Of course he was also conflicted, which was a rarity, mainly for the fact that he had a certain respect for the man. He laughed a little, sounding somewhat reluctant.

"As much as it pains me to say this, I will try not to stick my nose too far where it doesn't belong, even though that's sort of my job." It wasn't as though he didn't harbor his own secrets, ones that even Allen wasn't privy to. It only stood to reason that he extended the same boundaries to his one true friend in the world. It was only fair.

"I guess that's good enough for now," Allen said. That is the best Lavi could do to assure him, but he knew the bookman would sooner or later snoop around. He knew Lavi wouldn't be able to help himself later. But he had enough time to make sure he won't find out until then. "What's the plan then?"

"Well, later on, I think we should discuss how we're going to go about the whole thing with the Byzantines and figure out a way to make it work most effectively. Not just discussing it between you and I, mind you, but the others in your group, so that everyone's on the same page. I'll let you decide who you trust to take part in that meeting, since it's really your own problem," he nodded decisively. "Until then, I still have one last district to explore that I haven't had the chance to see yet. We can poke around for some information and rumors in town, and there's a blacksmith in that district marked as an ally to the Assassins. It might be a good idea to pay them a visit, ask if they've seen or heard anything, and perhaps see if they have any new items of interest... or just get any armor and weapons you have checked for damage that might need repairing, just in case. We might also ask around some of the taverns in town for information. Assuming your enemy is still in town, they're going to need a place to stay, and that seems as good a place as any to start looking."

He had other information to ask about besides that as well, regarding his arrangements for the letter he would have to send, but he omitted this part for now.

"Sounds like a plan. So, the blacksmith's first? I guess tomorrow is a good start at gathering Kanda's squad, so we can have a scouting day today first. We can finish with the taverns. I guess it will be the most logical thing to do since we also need some time to rest." Allen nodded, jerking his head towards the exit. "Lead the way, my friend. I'm looking forward to following you for a change." He smirked, standing up.

Lavi chuckled as he stood, taking a last piece of fruit with him. He could always just eat it on the way, anyways.

"You just want me to lead so we don't get lost," he teased. "You were a lousy navigator when we were kids and I don't imagine that's changed much with age." He really had no way of knowing this for certain, but it hardly mattered. He could still use it as fuel for poking fun.

Allen laughed heartily, shaking his head. "Yeah, you got me there. Which district is it anyway?" He asked as he waved his arm in a wide arch, signaling to Lavi to lead the way.

"It's the South Constantine district," Lavi replied, toting along his weapon propped casually over his shoulder. "So it's a little bit of a distance, and we're going to have to ferry across the water."