White Demon, Red Scribe, Black Nightmare
A D Gray-Man and Assassin's Creed Revelations Crossover
Lavi slept like a log. And yet he still probably could have gone for a few more hours of sleep. Not for lack of rest and refreshment, but just for the sheer sake of enjoyment cozying away in his bed where he was warm and comfortable. It wasn't as if he had to worry about his old mentor smacking him awake now after all, but in the end, he forced himself to get up, stretching skyward.
He went about his morning routine of cleaning himself up and cooking something for Allen to enjoy again before heading to the den.
Hopefully Kanda would be a little less volatile today, but he doubted as much.
Then again, miracles do sometimes seem to happen, and when he arrived, it was to find Kanda already downstairs and awake, and... unusually placid.
Should I be happy, or worried? Eh, he'd save worrying until there was a blade to his throat, and no sooner. Otherwise it was just unnecessary stress.
He passed on by without really regarding the man a proper look and headed up towards the bedroom to deliver breakfast, looking forward to seeing Allen's face brighten, only to find it unoccupied and looking suspiciously bare.
Odd.
He glanced around downstairs, but saw no hide nor hair of Allen around. Maybe he'd just needed the bathroom or something.
He headed towards Kanda.
" 'morning, Yuu. Seen the 'sprout around by any chance?"
Kanda looked up from the tea he was drinking with a calm, relaxed face, and pronounced a very satisfied, "No," with a slight shrug of his shoulders and hint of a tone of such false innocence that it would make one's ears bleed.
What a terrible liar. Was Kanda even really trying, or was he deliberately trying to let his demeanor do all his gloating for him?
Lavi smiled at him with false cheer.
"Of course you know."
"I really don't." He shook his head, drinking the last bit of tea from his cup. "I have no idea." He then looked around, as if searching for something. "Oh right, and since he's not here, you have no reason to stay."
A very bad actor.
He smiled, just as someone from the other side of the hall shouted his name. Kanda nodded at the assassin and stood up, taking his sword and tying it to his belt.
"Good luck," he said, brushing past Lavi. He didn't need to finish the sentence for Lavi to understand what he meant.
What a cheeky bastard. And coming from him of all people, that was saying a lot.
Of course, Kanda's victory wasn't nearly as assured as the man probably thought. He had been around long enough to know who would talk given the right reasons. Who the biggest loose end in the other man's probably self-thought genius plan was.
Of course, even without the help, the house wasn't hard to spot once a person found the right area, given the assassins blatantly stationed outside of the building. Really, could they be any more conspicuous? They were just lucky it was him sneaking by, and not the hunter, especially given that their attention was quite easily diverted by a strategically tossed noise bomb.
So much for his brilliant security team.
Lavi quickly tapped his fist on the window in semi-quiet, rapid succession while he was still watching for the return of the guards.
"Hey, Allen, breakfast!"
"Ah, Lavi! Good to see you! I thought you were busy today!" he said as he pushed the window open. "I'm afraid you'll have to wait a bit for me to open the door. Kanda took the keys and I'm not sure where the spares are. Unless you want to climb though the window," he added, glancing on either side of the empty street.
"Not busy enough to not bring you breakfast," Lavi smiled, handing it off to him. "And do you want me to come in? Cuz if not, I should probably scoot out of here before the watchdogs come back. Yuu doesn't know I even know of this place."
Allen laughed and shook his head. "No, it's alright. Kanda won't be coming back 'til night and the others are also pretty busy today. Want to climb though the window?"
"Do I get a choice?" Lavi laughed quietly, casting a quick glance around before climbing through and hopping down. He waited until Allen had the window shut and covered again to speak once more. "So I take it this 'run off until the sun goes down' business is normal for him?"
Allen sighed unhappily after he made himself comfortable in his bed again.
"That is actually what I wanted to talk about. About the thing you mentioned yesterday - with his way of leading. We talked yesterday, or we tried at least. He was too... distracted because of what happened to one of his men yesterday."
He took a breath started explaining.
"Kanda may seem ruthless and strict the way he speaks but that is just his way of showing he cares. Why do you think he's never around during the day? He is out with his men, doing everything he can to fix everything that went wrong during his absence. He never leaves anyone behind, even though he says things like ´once the mission begins, everyone is on their own´."
That particular thing made him think about their first mission in Italy. He paused for a while, reminiscing.
"He did not take the leadership willingly but he tries his best. His men respect him for that and I hope you'll see it one day too."
"I really couldn't care less," Lavi shrugged apathetically, taking a seat and propping his chin on palm. "In the end, it doesn't affect me whether or not he's harsh or how he chooses to do things. It's just a waste of time for me to let his abrasiveness bother me."
His way of saying that he'd already let go of any ill feelings he might have had toward the guy.
"However, intent isn't the same as the actual affect that it has, and I get the feeling that he doesn't really know how to separate and recognize the two. It's good that he tries to make up for it with real action," especially since words were often cheap and easily spun with nothing backing them. "All the same, if the only attention he ever gives outside the battlefield is punishments and hard words, then he's going to sow just as much resentment as he does respect, and that's going to cause problems no matter how many times he yells at them to shape up. Loyalty can be just as damning as betrayal if it keeps people from bringing up issues that need to be addressed, regardless of how difficult that is, whether it be out of what they think of as respect, or out of fear of retaliation. You get what I'm saying?"
"I do," Allen nodded, squeezing his hands in his lap. "I really do. I just... don't want you two to fight." A smile then appeared on his face. "He said you're a pretty good fighter," he teased, trying to ease the situation. "He seemed satisfied with you in the end. Not that he said it out loud." He grinned, shifting his attention to the food Lavi brought. "So what is it today?" he asked, sniffing the pot.
Lavi smiled.
"You don't need to worry about me. I know what I can or can't handle, and Yuu still falls under the category of 'can'. All things considered, I think I'm figuring out his ticks and triggers pretty well already." Even if it had taken hitting more than a few nerves in the process of trying to learn how to act around him, and also how much he could get away with. "And it's Sopa de Ajo. It's a Spanish soup dish with garlic, eggs, bread, and paprika, plus some other stuff but everything else usually changes depending on the region of the country."
"Sounds yummy!" Allen chirped, digging straight in. "So, any plans for today?"
"Not much, really," Lavi mused. "Might ask around a bit for some rumors, see if that turns up anything Kanda and the others haven't already found, and work on some of my records and studies." He stood for a moment and peeled back the very corner of one of the curtains to peer outside. "I still got time though. Going to have to wait until the guys outside are a little more lax to sneak back out without being spotted." He returned to his seat.
It wasn't too bad though. Just like Allen said, Kanda didn't return too quickly, so they had some time to chat, and around noon, he was able to slip back out while some of the assassins stationed outside snuck off to grab some lunch, and those that remained were too distracted by thoughts of the food that was going to be brought back to notice him slip right by as their backs were turned to one of the windows.
Allen spent the rest of the day writing down reports the assassins brought, sorting them out and piling them up by his bed. He was done with his work earlier than he expected, seeing that the night was still young and decided to re-read some of the reports from the day before to pass the time.
An hour or so later, when he barely even registered what he was actually reading, the soft sound of lock snapping open caught his attention. A second later, Kanda emerged though the door, quickly shutting it behind him. He laid the sword on the table, massaging his neck.
"Hello," Allen greeted, putting the papers away. "Busy day?"
Kanda sighed and sat on the bed. "Kind of." He seemed more tired than usually.
"Complications?"
"Not really, just too much walking." He rubbed his eyes with the back of his hand and scanned the room, his eyes freezing on the bowl that sat on the edge of the table. "What's that?" he asked, forcing himself to sound as nonchalant as possible although he couldn't get rid of the bad feeling that made his gut feel like a nest of bees.
"Oh that? Lavi stopped by, bringing me some food," Allen replied distractedly as he leaned over and started undoing the buttons on Kanda's jacket. "Hey!" he yelped when the man stood up without a warning, grabbing his sword. "What's wrong?"
"That damn rabbit!"
"Kanda?"
But it was already too late. Allen stared at the door through which the assassin stormed out, finding himself completely alone again. "Ah well," he sighed, falling backwards onto his pillow, deciding to take a nap until Kanda came back again.
Just what was that about?
After slipping away from the house where Kanda had tried to stash Allen away, Lavi went about working on writing his own reports in his log book, back in his own place, up until he was caught up with current happenings.
Still having some while before night would fall, he went about asking for rumors or possible sightings of anyone they needed to worry about, mainly Apollo, and taking note of various things throughout town that seemed relevant, then heading back to the Galata den to peek through the Assassin's record logs and compare the information written in it to the things he'd heard and seen throughout the day, trying to make sure they were up to date or if anything important might have been missed.
It was while he was standing there in the library, flipping through the pages and checking the validity of the records that he heard a door slam loudly and a few shouted words that were impossible to miss who it belonged to, even if he wasn't really paying attention to what was being said exactly.
The redhead glanced up from his book, and was met with Kanda's glare not long after, focused explicitly on him. If the bookman was at all concerned about Kanda's anger, he didn't show it, simply looking the part of silently questioning what the man wanted.
"How?" he simply asked, physically unable to frown more.
Lavi smiled innocently at him, deciding to play the same game as Kanda had tried with him earlier that morning.
"I don't know what you're talking about."
Kanda gritted his teeth, seething. "You know very well what I'm talking about you damn one-eyed rabbit! How did you find my house?!"
"Oh Yuu~" Lavi hummed, still smiling with infuriating cheer as he smacked his book shut between both hands. "You spent the entire day yesterday drilling me on advanced strategy, and you're still asking me 'how'?"
The assassin growled, only barely holding himself from murdering the man. He spun around and stormed out. A few seconds after that, Tiedoll entered the library, offering Lavi a kind of conspiratory smile.
"You look very satisfied with yourself today."
"I get my kicks where I can," Lavi shrugged, placing the book back into it's place on the shelf and nodding discreet appreciation towards the older man. "Anyway, excuse me for a moment."
Passing by in a light saunter in the direction Kanda had headed, he quickly added, "Oh, and, don't worry too much about stepping in for me." Having said that, he skipped after Kanda before he could get too far, grabbing the very end of his ponytail before he could disappear entirely, just long enough to give it a light tug. "Hey, Yuu! Since you're here anyway..."
Once he felt the tug on his hair Kanda drew his sword and spun around, missing Lavi's gut by a hair.
"You little fuck! Better run before I cut you into pieces!"
And with another swing upside he charged at the redhead, slashing at the man every time he had the chance.
Lavi held up his hands in a placating manner, but quickly whirled around when Kanda ignored it, the redhead bolting across the room, noting as he did so that the curious audience they had quickly lost interest in watching and quickly gained interest in scattering out of the way, further than may have been strictly necessary.
"Come on, Yuu! Quit trying to be so mean, it was just a little tug! It's not like I made you bald or anything!" If anything, that only seemed to set the man's temper higher and he barely dodged under a swing that had his sword thoroughly lodged in a door frame, enough that the Japanese male had trouble pulling it loose again.
Lavi ducked around him and sprinted to the doorway of another room, still watching in anticipation to see if he needed to keep running.
And oh, that was definitely the case.
Kanda heaved his blade out of the wood and snarled like a hound as he raced after the redhead, taking the corner with a hand on the doorframe to steer his forward momentum.
He swung for Lavi's head, but the man ducked.
He swung for his legs, and true to his damn nickname, the rabbit hopped right over it.
He aimed for the center where he couldn't dodge or leap and still that slippery bastard managed to avoid his swing. The unfortunate walls and door frames and a few pieces of furniture, however, didn't.
Lavi ducked around an object and Kanda chased him in a circle around it, before whirling the other way to catch him, but Lavi reversed direction just as skillfully and didn't fall for even one of his feints.
Fed up, Kanda finally leapt on top of the obstacle and tried to leap right on top of him, bringing his sword point down and only managing to put a hole in the floor, not the laughing, perpetual thorn in his side that dove forward, sprung to his feet, and ran off again.
Damn that fucking nerve-grating bunny bastard and his quick reflexes straight to the deepest pits of Hell!
He sprang after the man, even punched a hole through a wall with his sword and almost succeeded in stabbing him but such fantasy didn't come to pass.
When he went through another doorway, his eyes wandered in search of the man that had managed to elude him but saw nothing. Instead it was more sensing and hearing the guy behind him, creeping out from hiding behind the door, that did it and he spun around just as Lavi started to spring again.
The second of head-start Lavi gained through this complication was not, however, enough for Lavi to escape.
Kanda used the distance between them to get a nice run up and then jumped, stepping on the redhead's foot when he landed as he was trying to escape through another doorway, yet again thankful for the advantage his long legs provided him with.
Tiedoll awkwardly scratched his head where he stood at the end of the hallway wondering whether he should step in or not as he watched Lavi fell to the ground, Kanda following right after, throwing his first successful punch.
Lavi managed to wringle out from under Kanda but the second he got to his feet again, he was shoved against the wall and immobilized by the tip of Kanda's sword.
"Any last words?"
"Feel better?" Lavi asked, holding up his hands in defeat as he smiled nervously, having managed to dodge long enough to leave the other at least slightly out of breath. "Now that you've probably gauged up every wall?"
He felt the tip of Kanda's sword press a little more into the flesh of his neck and flattened himself back slightly further.
"You won't." He sounded entirely confident in those words, despite that any other person, especially those who seemed to know him best - the assassins that had already abandoned the entire building or hid well enough to make one believe so - would be terrified shitless and fully believe he would. "You and I both know the 'sprout would never forgive you for it if you did. Plus, I have skills a lot of your subordinates lack and that even you can't teach."
As Lavi talked, a vicious smile appeared on Kanda's face.
"Oh wouldn't I?" And maybe he would if it was not for Tiedoll carefully grabbing the blunt side of the blade and pushing it away.
"Now, now. Think about all the blood you'd have to clean up. Play nice, children."
Kanda's answer was a scoff but he still sheathed the sword.
Lavi only smiled victory.
"Such temper," he teased. "And over such a little thing, too. You really should do something about that. There might still be hope for you to get unstuck if you could simply learn to control it a little better."
What Kanda suspected Lavi probably didn't expect was the black-haired male whirling and punching him square in his face. And he was really not holding back this time.
Oh, did that hurt. But then, Kanda never seemed one to pull his punches, literally in this case, so he should have expected as much.
Lavi easily could have been angry. Maybe even retaliated and turned it into an all-out brawl if he'd wanted to. He wasn't going to give Kanda the satisfaction of letting it change anything in his demeanor though, massaging his face with one hand and smiling as he pushed himself back up using the wall.
"One more word and the next thing you're going to have in your face is my blade," Kanda growled, letting himself be pushed slightly back by his father.
"Lavi," Tiedoll sighed. "That was not necessary."
"No, actually, I think it was very necessary. It brings me back to a point," he said. If nothing else, he still had Kanda's attention squarely on him, which was where he needed it to be. If it came about by taunting the man into hitting him once or twice, then so be it. He still got what he wanted out of it. "Yuu's temper is a real problem, and it just might get more people killed before this entire thing with Apollo is through, and not the ones he wants to have die."
Kanda cocked an eyebrow at him, still not moving from the spot. Tiedoll sighed again and rubbed his forehead.
"If they die, it's not my fault. Their lives depend on their own skill and cooperation. What happened yesterday was a mistake and they know it, just as they know that the punishment I gave them was just. Do not stick your nose into things you don't understand, Gaijin*."
"Kanda," Tiedoll silenced him before he could say more.
With a scoff, the younger man turned around and walked away, leaving the two men in the hall.
"I don't know exactly what you wanted to achieve here, but I guess it didn't work," the old assassin spoke, unhappily shaking his head. "Do you think he leads his men by making them fear him?"
"However he's leading his men, he's not as effective a leader as he could be. If he would only stop to realize why that is, it would actually be a very easy fix. He paused to massage his jaw, which was still aching from Kanda's blow. "Fear and respect can exist side-by-side quite easily, whether he intends to inspire either one or not, just the same as he's a leader whether he wants the role or doesn't. I didn't say anything that didn't need to be said, but whether he's willing to listen and consider other methods than the ones he already tries, that's another matter entirely."
Tiedoll smiled, putting his hand on Lavi's shoulder in a friendly, almost father-like manner. "It seems to me like you only saw him while he's at his worst. Try joining a few missions and you'll see what I mean. Until then, try not to get killed please. Would be a shame..." He trailed off and headed to the main hall.
"Not so sure he wants to show me any other side of him," Lavi muttered.
Okay, so sure, he'd done more than a little of trying to piss the man off, entirely on purpose, but even when he was minding his own business or trying to be nice, the guy had a problem with him, for whatever reason. He still had the scratch on his face from yesterday's far-too-serious sparring match to speak of it, and even Allen had said something about it to him.
Kanda just seemed to have a special kind of loathing for him in general.
It didn't really matter, though. The man was allowed to have his opinions, even if they were negative, and trying to talk the man out of it would be a pointless endeavor.
Another week passed, much in the same fashion.
Allen stayed at Kanda's house, writing down and sorting reports the assassins brought him. Lavi snuck in to bring him some food every day, shared various news and rumours he gathered from the city, or told him a story and then left to do his own jobs. Kanda always came back late, occasionally having a fit, muttering about damn rabbits, and Allen always calmed him down by luring him into his bed where they spent a glorious rest of the night that left the white-haired male with a pleasantly aching back and Kanda with soothed nerves and good mood.
After said week, Allen even managed to talk his temperamental partner into letting him move back into the Galata Den and everything would have been perfect if it wasn't for the mess that Kanda and Lavi made of the place after their regular scuffles.
"You two idiots are UNBELIEVABLE!" Allen raged as he gestured around the place to the various slashes and dents on the walls. The last drop was the very evident decline of furniture. "I am gone for something over a week and you two manage to demolish the whole place to the point where I hardly recognize it anymore!"
Kanda and Lavi endured the scolding like two guilty children, shuffling on the spot in embarrasment. As if it wasn't enough, Allen made a point to do it in front of the rest of the assassins, who sat around the hall, trying to contain their giggles.
"If I see you two fight ever again, here or elsewhere, I am going to lock you up in a room and leave you there until you learn to cooperate and coexist like normal people do!"
"I give it an hour," Lavi piped, trying to look innocent as he deliberately let his gaze wander elsewhere and instead only coming across as more guilty. "-before he tries to claw his way out of that room like a ground squirrel in a fox den." He, however, would probably cope quite easily with being locked in a room with Kanda, so long as the guy didn't try to kill him. Which was a possibility but he was just going to pretend for the moment that it wasn't.
"Silence!" Allen raged, "I've had enough of this!" He then spun on his heel and marched off into Kanda's room, leaving the two men downstairs. As soon as he was out of sight, Kanda let out the breath he was holding and relaxed.
"Well that was smooth," he commented, dragging a hand over his face.
"Looks like someone's not getting any tonight," one of the assassins spoke up, making the entire hall burst out in laughter when Kanda groaned and collapsed on the nearby pillows.
A/N: *Gaijin is basically the Japanese word for "Foreigner", but in the spiteful context that Kanda uses it here, it's also the same as implying that Lavi is an unwelcomed outsider as an insult.