White Demon, Red Scribe, Black Nightmare
A D Gray-Man and Assassin's Creed Revelations Crossover
Lavi hadn't thought he'd miss his bed quite as much as he did at the moment. He still ached somewhat from the day before and sleeping on the floor probably hadn't helped.
"I must be getting old," he groaned, before laughing to himself slightly. "Maybe I'm starting to turn into the old Panda, in more than just title."
Sighing, he stretched out some of the aches before standing. Washing up, at least somewhat, was the first order of business. He frowned slightly as the dried scratch on his cheek stung and started bleeding lightly again, but it couldn't be helped. He'd kept telling himself that he'd remember to take care of it the night before, but somehow it had slipped his mind. It was his own fault if it was tender.
Doing a satisfactory enough job, he decided to see how Allen was fairing. Hopefully Kanda might be in somewhat of a better mood now too. He came to stop at the door, and still recalled what Teidol had said, stopping just outside to knock rather than simply go in. He stopped before he could tap on it as he heard voices bickering inside heatedly.
"You are being ridiculous!" came Allen's muffled, rather pissed off voice from behind the door. "Do you think I'm just going to sit here and do nothing? NOW when we know who he is?"
There was an exasperated sigh - undoubtedly Kanda's. "Damn you're annoying. Of course you're going to keep your ass in here." A pause. "Put your foot on the ground and I'm going to strap you down against the bed," Kanda warned with a low growl.
"Oh, you'd like that, wouldn't you?" Allen mocked sarcastically, but by the sound of it, he didn't dare to get up.
"Yes, I would," came a snappy reply. There was a shuffling of clothes and clinging of belt buckles. "You sulking now?" Kanda asked nonchalantly. A sigh. "Five days of rest and you're free to do whatever you want afterwards."
"Three," Allen huffed angrily.
"Four, and that's my last offer, you little asshole. Otherwise I'm gonna tie you down and lock you up. I'm not joking," Kanda warned.
"Fine, four. And try not to kill him. He's my friend."
Lavi couldn't help but smirk listening to Allen and Kanda arguing like a badly matched couple. Which, as far as Lavi could tell, they were. But whatever, his business or otherwise - and it really wasn't - it was amusing.
"Whatever," Kanda grumbled, sharply opening the door. When he turned around, he paused for a second and grinned. "Well, look who's here!"
Lavi hung back a moment as the door swung open before offering up a nod and a smile, his eye flicking between them in uncertainly.
" 'morning to ya! I'm not... interrupting something, am I?"
"Not really," Allen quickly intervened from behind. Kanda looked as if he wanted to turn around and protest but decided against it.
"You saved me the trouble of finding you. Now hand it over," the black-haired man said, sticking out his hand with his palm facing upwards. Allen sighed and rubbed his forehead, laying back down with a low grumble under his breath.
Lavi blinked dumbly for a moment before he suddenly seemed to recall what Kanda was asking for and fished the Apple out of his bag, figuring that was what Kanda meant. He had been so tired he'd almost forgotten he had it.
What else could he mean, anyway?
"This, right?"
Kanda's eye twitched. He snatched the Apple from Lavi's hand and spun around, almost hitting the redhead with his hair as he did so.
"Here," he threw it at Allen who caught it with ease. "You do that fucked up stunt again, I'm gonna throw it into Marmara and nobody is ever going to find it. Ever."
He strolled back to the door where Lavi still stood. "The fuck are you looking at? Turn around and walk away."
"Kanda!" Allen yelled from the bed, scolding the man.
"Tch." The black-clad men looked torn between staying and walking out but in the end he decided for the latter, throwing Lavi a last look of disdain.
"Sorry," Allen apologized when the man's steps faded downstairs.
Lavi merely shrugged after Kanda pushed past him, the redhead watching him leave, curiously. Seemed he'd have to wait to find out more about the man. Lavi wasn't sure if he was in a bad mood or if he was just in a normal state.
He could worry about that later, though.
"It's fine. It doesn't bother me," he reassured, waving it off. "Anyway, speaking of pulling stunts, how are you feeling? Wounds bothering you at all?" he questioned, stepping forward properly now and giving Allen a critical look-over. "I can get you something for it if you need anything for pain or inflammation."
Allen smiled unhappily. "I'm fine," he said weakly, but he really didn't look like it. He was pale as a sheet - his skin looked as if it suddenly became transparent - and there were dark circles under his eyes. He seemed more tired than usual and his hands were slightly trembling. "I'm still a little uneasy around my stomach, though," he added sheepishly.
"No, you're not fine," Lavi stated, taking note of all these signs. He reached a hand out and placed his wrist against Allen's forehead, trying to figure out if he was too cool or too warm. "You might have anemia... possibly internal bleeding from whatever that device did to you. Describe to me what you mean by 'uneasy', like, sick? Anxious? I need specifics."
Allen sighed once more, half shrugging.
"It's just the sickening taste of blood and churning. It's like I haven't eaten anything in days - which I didn't. Really, it's fine. It's not like I haven't gone through this before," he admitted, smiling like a guilty child. "That's why Kanda is so pissed off." He really felt miserable, but it's not like he's going to moan about it. "You don't need to worry yourself. It's bad enough Kanda is bitchy about it."
Lavi pinched the bridge of his nose and muttered something incomprehensible under his breath, sounding exasperated, before looking back up.
"Whatever you may say, he's right to be concerned. That isn't 'nothing to be worried about', that's a very serious problem, Allen. Not something you can just act like everything will be fine if you ignore it long enough." He shook his head like he couldn't believe what he was hearing. "Now you're going to let me check you over and figure out the extent of the damage, otherwise that pissy buddy of yours won't be the only one tying you to the bed," he thumbed over his shoulder in the direction Kanda had gone. The tone he used left no room for argument.
Allen shook his head, his eyes hardening. "I'm gonna tell Kanda you're molesting me." He saw Lavi freeze and arch an eyebrow at him. He laughed. "No checking. Kanda was pretty thorough with that last night. You need to trust me on this. The only thing I'm gonna ask of you is get me some proper food. Meat, preferentially." Another sweet nothing-is-wrong smile that covered his distressed thoughts. No need to worry more people with his condition.
Lavi pursed his lips and straightened up, falling silent as he turned his head to look elsewhere with his hands on his hips.
Suddenly now that Kanda's here, you don't trust me to help you even though I can?
The biting quip was just waiting on his tongue, but he didn't say it, nipping the inside of his cheek instead. Maybe it was his own fault, anyway. He hadn't really spared much thought towards acknowledging it, but he had known since seeing Allen again all these years later that something between them was broken, and he really had no one else to blame but himself with how he'd left.
And in a really shitty way, too.
Kanda was there for the man in a lot of ways Lavi couldn't be, even if the guy was a bit of a jerk about it, so it only stood to reason Allen trusted him more.
Logically, he knew it was perfectly reasonable, but it still stung.
"Have it your way," Lavi said finally, shrugging and forcing himself to sound like he really didn't care if the younger male wanted to be stubborn about it. "But you're the one that's going to have to live with the consequences of refusing treatment."
"I'm already living with them," Allen murmured to himself silently, staring at his hands. He tucked the Apple into the corner under his pillow and chuckled. "Kanda is bringing a medic later, if it makes you feel better. Anyway, how are you? I'm not the only one getting out with wounds. Apollo kicked you around pretty harshly too."
"Yeah but unlike someone with an insatiable reckless streak, I didn't gut much more than scratches and maybe a bruise or two," he returned, trying to at least assume the role of being playful once again. He quickly added for good measure, "Besides, you know how my old man is. Getting kicked around was half of my apprenticeship."
"Yeah," Allen chuckled, but it quickly turned into coughs. He raised his hand to stop Lavi from fussing over him. "It's alright. I'm fine." He tried to hide the blood on his hand, but failed miserably. His face twisted into an unhappy grimace. "Anyway, want to eat something?" he asked, quickly changing the topic before Lavi could comment. His stomach grumbled like a hungry beast. "I'm afraid you're going to have to fetch some food for us." He grinned, scratching the back of his head.
Lavi looked as though he wanted to argue, but in the end, he just gave in and nodded his agreement, unusually compliant given the circumstances.
"Yeah, I'll get us something to eat," he said distractedly, turning to leave and do just that. At the very least, he wasn't completely useless, and Allen wasn't entirely stubborn enough about how 'fine' he was to insist on getting his own food on top of it. The red-haired bookman was thinking to himself what else he could do to help, even though Allen didn't seem to want to accept as much, perhaps in a way Allen didn't know he was helping. He couldn't refuse that, then, right?
If he got something with lots of fresh garlic in it... that would be good, given it's anti-bacterial properties on the immune system. He remembered Chives were good for treating anemia if eaten, which Allen was definitely suffering from. Hyssop might be good to include in case Allen might have respiratory trouble. And if he brewed a Yarrow tea, that would help any internal bleeding the stubborn man might have, and also using Perennial Foxglove in the brew would help protect and strengthen his heart if it was having a hard time.
He smirked to himself in his own silent sort of victory. Maybe Allen was determined not to let him help, but that didn't mean he'd deterred the redhead from actually doing so.
He went about getting food and boiling water for tea, along with the herbs he'd compiled a list of in his head, and brought them back to Allen's room after a short time.
"I have returneth with sustenance!" he announced both merrily and dramatically.
Allen dozed off for a while and he didn't even know how long it took, but he was glad when Lavi's voice woke him up again because his stomach really hurt - whether it was from the lack of food or an after effect of using the Apple, he didn't know.
"Wow!" He gasped, seeing what the bookman brought. His eyes sparkled and his mouth instantly started to water. "This looks incredible!" He dug into the food just as soon as it was within his reach, sniffing the tea curiously as he stuffed his face. "Aw man! You need to do this more often!" Allen moaned. It really took so little to make him happy. "Haven't eaten anything like this in a long time! Remind me to refresh my foods with garlic more often!"
Just like a child.
"Wonderful, just wonderful," Allen sighed in satisfaction as he laid down and yawned. "I feel so much better now. Thank you so much, Lavi." He smiled, covering himself with his blanket.
Lavi was beaming.
Part of it was just because of knowing that, whether Allen knew it or not, he had still managed to find a way around that stubbornness to help. It wasn't every day he could brag that he, technically, out-cheated the master of cheating, and for a good cause to boot.
The other was purely for the attention of what he'd whipped up and outpouring of praise, which really made for the cherry on top. He really did like having his ego stroked, when he could actually get it. Maybe it was just because his old mentor was such a harsh teacher and nigh impossible to impress. In that way, he was mutually very easy to please, so it was a win/win for both of them.
At least he could still make Allen smile for him, when it came to food.
"Glad you like it! And I'm surprised you need reminding to stock up on garlic. It's good stuff," in more ways than just taste.
"So what is your plan now? You still gonna stay with us?"
"I'm not sure. I think I'll still be in town a while. It depends on if it sounds like there's anything else big happening that needs my attention, but so far it seems pretty quiet. Seems like things might get a lot more interesting around here though, given a little more time, huh, 'sprout?"
With something like the Apple in the Assassin's possession, something worth recording was bound to happen eventually. It really was more of a 'when', rather than an 'if', scenario.
"Cut the stupid nickname, would you?" Allen grumbled half-heartedly, snuggling deeper into the blanket. "We really don't need to get anymore excitement here," Allen began, looking Lavi in the eye. "You should take rest too. Have a break from all this stuff. I hope that once we deal with that bastard, everything's going to get back to normal. As normal as it can get with the Templars still lurking around the city."
He sat up then, wincing slightly but trying to cover it up.
"My suggestion from before still stands. Nobody would blame you if you left. I know you are not weak," he added hastily, looking rather nervous and a little bit out of breath, "-and I know things got a little bit better now that we know who he is. But if he somehow manages to get to you... I-I don't know what I would do." He buried his face into his palms. "It got out of control yesterday. I felt so powerless. Suddenly, I feel like things are going to get much worse."
Lavi nodded, understanding his fears. Apollo was a skilled person, but even so, they really could have gotten off a lot worse the day before. That was partially in thanks to Kanda, but both he and Allen were skilled as well, and Apollo had been playing dirty in the worst of ways.
"Things got out of hand because Apollo tricked you into thinking he'd killed Kanda. If it wasn't for that one moment where he blindsided you with that false claim, you probably would have managed to kill him, and without ever resorting to using the Apple on top of that. Since Kanda's here and you know he's alive now for sure, not only did he lose that trump card, but we gained one over him, since now he has three highly skilled people to worry about. Injuries aside, we won more than we lost out of that fight," he reasoned. "Not to mention, he's lost his spy here. At the moment, we have the advantage. I don't think he'll be making any bold moves too soon with how the tables have turned. He'll need time to regroup and reorganize his strategy, especially with all of the assassins actively on the hunt and knowing his identity now."
He smiled and ruffled Allen's hair affectionately.
"What I'm saying is, don't stress too much over it. Worry about healing, and then we can all worry about dealing with Apollo after you're back to full strength. And as for me, I know how to take care of myself. I won't be offed that easily. Count on it."
Allen sighed, hugging himself protectively. "Yeah, you're right. You're absolutely right. I´m sorry. I am just... overthinking it." He rubbed his forehead.
A knock on the door interrupted them. Tiedoll walked into the room with his arms full of apples.
"Hello!" he greeted, dumping the big, round, green apples on the table. "I brought some goodies!"
And so, they spent a good hour talking about easy topics and gossips Tiedoll picked up across the city, peeling the fruits and handing them to the white-haired assassin.
Since he hadn't made himself something to eat, having been focused on making Allen's breakfast and sneaking in the medicinal herbs, Lavi was more than happy for the fruit Teidol appeared with, mainly just snacking here and there. It never ceased to amaze him that, even now, Allen could scarf down a whole breakfast and still have room for more.
The company was pleasant. Teidol was a decent, intellectual person to hold conversation with, something that the redhead had quickly picked up on after the man had first arrived. Between all three of them, Allen was the least talkative, probably on account that he wasn't feeling good, but he didn't mind.
What he was noticing was that Kanda still hadn't returned after storming off. He couldn't help but wonder if this was a regular occurrence, that he went off and disappeared for a good many hours, even after having only just arrived, or if there was more to it than that. Something else going on that he wasn't aware of.
"That temperamental friend of yours sure ran off again in a hurry," he noted idly, sitting cross-legged on the floor, leaning his shoulders against the bed and tilting his head back at Allen. " 'he always disappear like this?" The part he didn't speak aloud being even when you're in the kind of condition you're in?
Kanda didn't exactly strike him as the type to be very patient in matters of taking the time out of his day to see to someone else's needs, but even so, when he and Allen hadn't seen each other in so long? And after the kind of trouble they'd both escaped from the day before?
"Oh," Allen mumbled, smiling awkwardly. "Well, I pissed him off a little bit in the morning, so he kinda stormed off to calm himself down, but I guess the main reason was that he was going to get our medic. I remember him saying that he brought someone from Italy," he explained between bites.
Tiedoll hummed thoughtfully, setting his knife down and crossing his arms on his chest. He glanced out of the window, staring at the sun as if calculating how long would it take until his temperamental son came back.
"He sure is taking his time..."
Allen waved his hand in dismissal. "I'm sure he has many things to take care of. He hasn't been here for a while."
"You're right," Tiedoll agreed, shrugging. "Anyway, I have something to deal with too." He stood up, scratching his head. "You get well soon, my boy." He turned around to leave but stopped when he heard the door slam somewhere on the first floor. "Oh, I believe he is back."
A few seconds after that, hurried strides echoed from the hallway along with several arguing voices and then Kanda appeared in the doorway, a scowl present on his face as usual.
"Out!" He growled. "All of you."
Lavi blinked as Kanda stormed in, once again, as if he owned the place.
Okay so maybe technically he did own the place - did he? - but even so, would it kill him to ask instead of command? But whatever. It wasn't like it was the first time he'd have dealt with such a kind of person.
The bookman didn't immediately hop to leave, despite being aware that the guy probably didn't like him all that much. Maybe Teidol had said differently, but the redhead was sure there were limits to that. As far as he could tell, Kanda's version of 'liking' someone was "I'm not going to kill you today". Not so much how most people 'liked' others.
"Where's the fire-...um...?" he trailed off, tilting his head in thought a moment. What should he call him, exactly? Because he was getting two different names now, between Allen and Teidol. He still had no idea which was the given name and the surname. "Is it Yuu Kanda or Kanda Yuu?"
Allen covered his mouth in shock, wonder, and something dangerously close to amusement.
Kanda's face took a murderous look as he slowly turned towards the redhead, but before he could say anything or draw his sword, a short, fair-haired man in white clothes stumbled into the room.
"Oh, Allen!" he called, his voice colored with an accent that was definitely not from anywhere in Europe. The assassin's face instantly lit up and he waved back, although he still kept an eye on Kanda.
"Hello Bak! How have you been?" he asked, laughing when the short man put his hands on his hips and sighed.
"Certainly better than you!" Bak shook his head. He strode into the room, bowing his head shortly in greeting to Tiedol and brushing past Kanda with a total disregard of his murderous twitching. Right after him, another man stepped in - much older and much grayer. He, too, paused to bow to the old assassin but his bow was deeper and longer. He silently murmured something to the man, moving aside so he can leave.
"Get out, rabbit. Before I make a rug out of you," Kanda threatened, "and don't you dare call me by my first name ever again."
"Kanda..." Allen sighed from the bed, gesturing for him to come over.
The gray haired man suddenly intervened, holding his hands together in front of his chest as in reverence, trying to interrupt Kanda's raging.
"I have to ask you to leave, sir," he said to Lavi with the same thick accent as the younger man. His voice carefully professional and had a slight undertone of boredom - as if he'd had to deal with this situation many times. "Kanda-donno, please, calm down. We don't need any more patients."
Kanda 'tsk'ed and after he threw a last disdainful scowl at the redhead he sat on Allen's bed, almost appearing to sulk.
Lavi was of course eyeing Kanda and couldn't miss the dangerous tension that radiated off the raven-haired male, not sure exactly what had spurred it up until Kanda spoke. Before that moment, he'd thought that maybe it was his joke and lack of movement on the other's command, but hearing what it was in actuality raised far more questions in his mind.
He stood as the other two entered, not wanting to be in their way, but was curious as to who they were. Certainly no one that Lavi had seen, but if he were to guess, he would probably have to say the aforementioned 'doctors'. Hearing them talk of 'patients' only confirmed his suspicions. He recognized the accents as probably being Chinese, probably from one of either the central or eastern provinces.
"Well you never really told me which was which," he pointed out towards Kanda innocently, nodding acknowledgment to what the grey-haired man said and moving to the doorway so he wouldn't be in the way of their work, though he was reluctant to go much further. "Kinda hard to avoid using it when you never said which one that is, an' I'm not a mind-reader. So is it 'Kanda' I'm not supposed to use?" He only paused for a second, trying to gauge a reaction, but wasn't immediately rewarded with one, so process of elimination told him that it was probably the other. "Or is it 'Yuu' you don't want me sayin'?"
Just as the name left Lavi's mouth, Kanda's face twisted even more - if it was even physically possible.
Allen was, however, quick enough to stop Kanda from making a move by placing a hand on his shoulder.
"Can you guess, Lavi?" Allen asked with fake innocence.
"Out!" Kanda growled again, but thankfully didn't move from the spot. When Lavi closed the door, the white-haired visibly relaxed. "Try not to kill him," he said exasperatedly.
"I'll try not to kill him slowly," Kanda shot back, standing up to lean against the wall.
"Now that everyone is calmed down," Bak started, pointedly looking at the raven-haired, "we can have a proper look at you."