White Demon, Red Scribe, Black Nightmare
A D Gray-Man and Assassin's Creed Revelations Crossover
Lavi wasn't the happiest person alive to be waking up, coming out of the blissful drift of unconsciousness and into the throbbing of the inflamed nerves in his lower torso. At least he could say he was alive though, which was better than the possible alternative. It was still unpleasant.
At the very least, it seemed he had a proper bed beneath him, warm and as comfortable as he could hope for, pain of his wounds not withstanding.
There were a few voices nearby, sounding slightly hushed, but not very far below normal speaking volume. He groaned faintly and cracked his eye open, giving himself a moment for his vision to focus properly.
He noticed Kanda sleeping on the cot next to him, curled on his side with one arm under the pillow and the other buried in his hair that was all but a messy bird nest.
"You did good," he heard a deep voice say and if it wasn't for the pain that lanced across his body, Lavi would have though himself still dreaming. It was Cross, but it might as well been his clone because the soft tone just couldn't have been real.
"I shouldn't have done that," Allen answered in a strangled tone, "he was already dead, there was no need for me to do that."
The man was sitting on the edge of the whitehead's cot and Lavi was quite surprised that he didn't see nor smell any alcohol or cigars. Was he still dreaming? Kanda squirmed a bit, his hand tightening in his hair, but relaxed right afterwards. Lavi saw Cross look over at the man and then back at Allen again.
"He got what he deserved," Cross said with a heavy sigh and pinched the bridge of his nose. He looked as if he wanted to say something but decided against it. A sigh again and then he reached to ruffle Allen's white hair. "Neah would have been proud."
A sob echoed in the room, followed by the beansprout's sad, quivering "thanks!"
Lavi faintly smiled to himself while he remained unnoticed, having to resist voicing some kind of joke or playful jab, instead deciding to let Allen and Cross have their moment for a little while longer before finally speaking up.
" 'guess this means we really did manage to finish it after all," he chuckled. "An' without any of us kicking the bucket."
"Lavi!" Allen gasped, sitting up. "You're alright!"
"Of course he's alright," Cross interjected snappily, the softness of his voice long gone without a trace. He grumbled something under his breath and stalked out of the room before Allen could stop him.
"How are you feeling?" the whitehead asked.
"Like shit, I hope," Kanda grunted, turning onto his back. "If not I can fix it."
"Still as harsh as ever, Yuu," Lavi chuckled, this directed at Kanda. "If it helps ya sleep better, yeah, I feel like shit. Still alive an' kickin' though. Takes more than that to kill this rabbit." He smiled over at Allen, looking tired and still a bit pale, but coherent nonetheless. "How about you?"
"Never been better!" he smiled, but it didn't really reach his puffy red eyes.
"Brat!" Cross yelled from somewhere downstairs. "Someone came to see you!"
Allen frowned and looked at the two other men as if they could offer him an answer.
"I don't like him," the veteran growled and then there was the distinct sound of Cross loading his pistol.
"There's really no need for that kind of violence..." Lavi heard, getting the impression of someone holding up their hands in placation. It didn't take him long to place the voice to an identity. "I'm merely here to collect payment on services rendered. Something you should be quite familiar with, hm?"
"Sounds like your sketchy informant is back, Allen," Lavi informed redundantly.
"Oh, hell no!" Kanda was scrambling off the bed once he connected all the dots but the barrel of Cross' pistol stopped him in the middle of it, forcing him back into bed.
"Stay put," Cross warned silently, squinting at the black haired assassin.
Allen sighed, rolling his eyes. "Be careful with that."
"Don't tell me what to do!" the redhead spat back like a small child and aimed the gun at Demir who strolled into the room with an air of smugness as always. "Who the fuck is this? Aren't these two enough? Are you collecting men or something?" Cross lamented, tapping his foot against the floor.
"Sadly I believe you are mistaken," Demir said, briefly glancing over at Allen with a slight gleam to his eyes as if to emphasis the 'sadly' part. "You see, I was promised a demonstration, of the magical glowy orb... - I believe you call it an Apple or something? - in exchange for the identity of the Templar hunter. I have yet to receive my payment as promised."
Cross squinted at the man, slowly tilting his head as he looked at Allen. "Have you been trading information to shady guys for the apple, my darling godchild?"
"Well, I can explain," Allen started, playing the innocent victim with sad puppy eyes, "we... were kind of desperate, and Demir here was kind enough to tell us..."
"Oh really," the tall redhead turned to Demir, "is that true?"
"That would be correct," Demir confirmed, smiling lazily. "Your protégé and his colleagues were quite in over their head for a time, and information has a price."
Allen cleared his throat, staring at the man with a smile on his face that clearly said "say more, I´m going to kill you."
"You don´t say," Cross hummed, moving his pistol towards his charge.
"Listen," the whitehead said, raising his hands in defense, "I had only little choice and people were dying. I did what I have to!"
"I would certainly say his claims of desperation to be true, when he was even willing to present himself as a woman of the brothels," Demir said, chuckling. "Quite an attractive little flower even amongst true women, too."
Allen tried to stop the man from finishing the sentence but with no success. He could have sworn the temperature of the room dropped with every word Demir let out of his mouth, and the look Cross was giving the man was more than promising a long painful death.
"What he meant was-" the whitehead tried to amend but his godfather immediately silenced him with a raised finger. His eyes didn´t move from Demir.
"I am going to talk to you later," Cross said and Allen knew that he would be on the receiving end of many, many debts very soon and shut his mouth. He broke one of the two promises he gave to him and that was a thing his mentor didn't take lightly.
"You did what?!" Kanda hissed across the room, making Allen slowly cover his head with the blanket.
Lavi couldn't help but sweatdrop. This whole situation was going downhill fast, and the fact that Kanda was apparently left out of the loop genuinely surprised him.
"Y'never told 'im about that?" Lavi asked in a whisper, trying to make it a point to stay off of Cross' radar in the meantime.
"It didn't... quite come up until now," Allen whispered back harshly, giving Lavi the this-is-not-the-time look.
To everyone's surprise, Cross did take out the Apple and held it out in front of him with a cruel smile. "You want this, right?" he asked, making the Apple glow ever so slightly.
"I very much would," Demir said, though with a shiftiness of knowing he was treading thin ice. "And then I will be on my way, never to bother you again."
Faking a cough to catch Cross's attention didn't work, so Allen spoke up, "I'm sure we all regret certain things, and we all know that some things are, indeed, inevitable, so why not solve this in p- Cross, there is no need for this!" he cried when soft golden lines started to dance around the room, freezing Demir mid-way in reaching for it.
"Why don't you try it out then?" the older assassin offered, totally ignoring his protesting protegé.
Demir tried to move but found that he couldn't, a bit of his usual composure slipping from his face. "Truly, there is no need for this...?" he began, his body moving of its own - or rather, of Cross's volition, away and towards the wall.
"Oh, I am sure there is," the assassin purred, making the man stand there, ready for execution.
"Indeed," Kanda echoed from his cot, with a dark scowl. "I warned him to stay away after I found him sneaking around his room at night."
"Kanda!" Allen shouted angrily, "you're not helping!"
"I don't really want to, either."
"Sneaking into my godchild's room at night, are you?" Cross repeated, resting the gun's barrel against the back of Demir's head. "Any last words?"
Demir was silent for a long time, biting his lip with calculation in his eyes, and then finally resignation. "What words do the dead need?" he finally answered, tone tremulous but still somewhat defiant.
"Good answer," Cross grinned and just as he was about to pull the trigger, Tiedoll marched in, interrupting.
"Now I believe we do not need redecorating, Marian," he scolded, taking the Apple away from him, "you'll traumatize the children."
Allen thanked all the gods he didn't really believe in for Kanda's father. "Yes! Exactly!" He felt the Apple's power to ebb away slowly which he used the distraction to spring from the bed and throw himself at the tall redhead to snatch his gun away. Cross caught him easily around the middle and held him under his arm, effectively preventing him from either reaching the gun or running away.
"We're going to talk, little brat!"
Demir heaved an audible sigh, momentarily closing his eyes, before his composure was back in place, albeit thinly.
"Well, I suppose I got my demonstration, didn't I?" he mused, taking a few steps to the doorway of the room, ready to make a hasty retreat. "Consider our deal finished and behind us." And just like that, he turned and vanished out of the den once more.
"Why do you have to ruin everything?" Kanda grumbled under his breath as he laid back down, glaring daggers at Tiedoll.
"I'm pretty sure that's all just a matter of perspective, Yuu," Lavi told the Japanese man. "But man, that Cross... scary as ever."
The veteran glanced behind him momentarily, raising his brow.
"Can you put me down now?" Allen piped in innocently, hoping that the conversation Cross wanted to have won't happen. His prayers were not heard.
"We'll be right back," Cross grunted, walking out of the room with Allen still under his arm.
Kanda looked at Lavi with a silent question as Tiedoll started re-wrapping his leg.
"It is going to take a while," the old man said, scratching the back of his head when the sound of slamming door echoed from down the hallway.
The shouting started a while later. Cross' yelling about how Allen broke the only two rules he made was followed by Allen's aggressive apologizing and then the sounds of something breaking, after which Tiedoll made a hasty excuse and ran to calm them down before they would manage to kill each other.
Cross returned Allen to the room a moment later, dumping him unceremoniously on the bed without a comment before storming off, into the nearest tavern no doubt.
"So," Kanda started, propping himself on his elbows so he could see the whitehead, "cross-dressing," he grumbled, making Allen groan and hide under his covers again.
Lavi couldn't help but laugh, a little too amused that this was apparently news to Kanda.
"Oh yeah, y'should see it Yuu. He makes for a pretty cute-lookin' girl~" he teased, even knowing it might be unwise considering Kanda's possessiveness and Allen's likeliness to get flustered about it.
The scabbard of Kanda's sword hit Lavi across his gut almost immediately after he finished the sentence, making him curl into himself with a pained cry.
"I hear one more word," the swordsman growled, holding his sheathed sword pointed at the redhead in what would have been a threatening manner had his arm not trembled so much. He held his injured leg gingerly, trying to ignore his father's attempts to calm him down.
Allen yelled in outrage from the bed, joining Tiedoll's scolding once he saw the pathetic state the bookman was in.
"Yuu, that hurt!" Lavi gasped, reeling, and with far too much breathless dramatization for any person slipping back toward unconsciousness - then again, this was Lavi they were talking about - continued, "It's all goin' dark... Allen, buddy, I think this is the end for me..."
"Lavi? Lavi! Kanda why would you do that!" The whitehead sprang out of his bed to tend to the bookman.
Kanda's scowl deepened and he took another swing. "He's faking and you know it! Get away from him!"
"How can you say it after what you've done to him! He's in pain!" Allen yelled back, trying to catch the scabbard before it hit its mark.
"And here I always thought I'd die with a smile on my face. Tell my books... I love them..." Lavi rasped with an overplayed whimper just before conking out.
"Lavi!" Allen cried, trying to shake the bookman back to life, "Kanda what have you done?!"
And so luckily Lavi managed to survive the (second) assault on his persons via Kanda's sword, with no short amount of vigorous shaking to raise him from the dead.
With Apollo slain, everyone was breathing easier, the atmosphere in the den lighter than ever.
Allen was weary but doing better, looking as if a great weight had finally been pulled from his shoulders and his stress was melting away little by little.
Kanda was still grumpy, but a little less so, no longer constantly ready to rattle the very foundation of the building with his angry shouting. It was a little bit of an improvement anyway.
That wasn't to say he didn't try raking Lavi over the coals about why he'd kept them all in the dark about his grand master plan to get the drop on Apollo though.
The Templar had said before that Lavi had informed them of the plan he had shared with them, but that wasn't wholly true. He'd only told Apollo enough to win his confidence, and that the Apple was part of their trap. He had never actually told Apollo of the replica, so the man had never expected it to be a fake, much less a bomb. Leaving the others out-of-the-know was to ensure their reactions were as pure as could be when he `betrayed` them, and his stunt with the chicken blood and pretending to mortally wound Allen had been to assure Apollo would accept the fake Apple from him without second thought to whose side he was on. Apollo had already proven himself clever. If anything was even slightly off, he might have suspected, and Lavi had known he wouldn't get a second chance to fool the Templar into thinking he'd traded sides.
He'd known all along that his plan meant Kanda might try and kill him, but the Japanese assassin was someone who wouldn't even hesitate to kill a kid if he thought they'd betrayed him, so he couldn't have chanced the man holding back and leading to Apollo seeing through the guise that way either. It was to his benefit in that regard that Kanda's distrust was so easy to inspire.
Allen was a lot more pissed about that than Kanda, and made that fact very well-known with the cruzing he delivered. As for Kanda, it was hard to discern if he was annoyed the redhead had fooled them all so easily or impressed with the pure audacity of his risky plan. Maybe a little of both.
Regardless, things quieted down. The assassins were free to break peace with and raid the Byzantines whenever they felt like it again, not to mention not have to look over their shoulders quite so much. Teidol went on to mutter something about possibly being able to retire at last like he'd planned. Cross pretty much did what Cross was infamously known for doing; whoring, drinking, and dumping debts left and right on Allen for the white-haired man to clean up after him.
As for Allen and Kanda, they finally had time to spend together doing things other than planning for the worst to come.
For his part, Lavi interacted as much as the situation required, but otherwise he tried to remain at a safe distance, especially where Allen was concerned. He was silently dreading another appearance from his mentor come to scold him after Cross had told him the geezer was very unhappy with him, but the old man never showed. Then again, Cross had never actually said how long ago he'd seen Bookman.
In the late part of night, most candles snuffed out to pitch the rooms of the den into darkness, his single eye flickered open and he was out of bed, silently walking the dark halls. It was one of those hours that no one else was awake, and if they were, they were probably out somewhere else. Some time solidly between twilight and the dawn.
It had been just around two weeks since they finally rid themselves of the threat of Apollo. Lavi's wounds were healing, and the inflammation had gone down significantly, but it still ached whenever he moved around. Likely it would still take another week or two before it sealed up completely.
He stopped when he finally came to Kanda's room, lightly pushing the door open. He could only barely make out the silhouetted forms of both men curled up in a tangle of limbs and blankets, soundly asleep and dead to the world. Rest they certainly earned after all that had happened.
For a while he simply stood against the door frame, listening to them snore softly and silently thanking the universe at large that things had turned out the way they had in the end, rather than in further tragedy. Either one of them he would consider his friends by now were such sentiments allowed to him, but he tried to keep even the word from his mind. Even having survived everything they had, these were people he would likely never see again, happy ending or no. Certainly he wouldn't be fool enough to tempt the wrath of the Clan with seeing Allen ever again, having already risked far too much having done so once already.
He resisted the urge to sigh, for fear it might wake even one of them, and tiptoed forward carefully, finding the Apple tucked somewhere behind one of the pillows. A murmur made him freeze, but it was nothing more than dreamy nonsense spoken from the depths of sleep. He didn't delay retreating from the room afterwards, mindful not to make a sound.
He retrieved his things that he had with him at the den - his belt-bags, spear, and boots - and tip-toed from the den without alerting a soul. The Apple he kept safely hidden in the large bag on his belt.
The streets outside were dark and lifeless, save for an owl infrequently chattering from somewhere unseen. The lack of sound and movement was almost disquieting, a peaceful juxtaposition to the hidden chaos that had plagued them all for months.
He found the place where he had been staying before long, unlocking the small house and stepping inside, less mindful now of making noise. He took only a short while to relax for one last time, breathing in the stale air that had gathered during his absence the last couple of weeks, then mustered up the will to get started.
He folded away the clothes he had gained from various countries, cleared the shelf of books belonging to him, tucked away ink wells and decorative knick-knacks, and everything else that hadn't originally been bought along with the single-roomed house. He paused in his cleaning, slightly short of breath as the wound to his gut panged from his movements, taking a short break until the pain ebbed away. He hated having to pace himself because of his injuries, but it couldn't be helped.
When he was finally finished, the sun was already rising, bringing the morning and people into the streets with the new day. No time like the present to disappear, and for the identity known as 'Lavi' to cease his existence.
He grasped the strap of his bag, pulling it towards his shoulder, but his arm protested with a sharp jolt that caused him to hiss. The limb was still bothering him somewhat from when he and Allen had fought, spear-to-broadsword. For a moment he toyed with the idea that it was Allen himself, indirectly protesting his leaving.
He smiled at his own foolishness of the thought, sighing aloud, and switched arms, hauling the bag onto his back and eyeing the empty space in sad resignation. The only thing left now was one of two keys to the place, the other still somewhere in Allen's possession.
He slipped a piece of folded paper out of his pocket, a note, and went to set it down where it would be easy to find next to the key, but hesitated. It was a familiar scene to him, something he had done once before, and part of him silently voiced that he knew better than this.
There were to be no traces.
None.
Bookmen didn't leave evidence of where they'd been, not even this much. As far as the world at large was concerned, Bookman was a single entity with no attachments to the events he observed. A faceless figure who could be anyone, at any time, while also being no one.
To leave even a trace of his existence was to defy that. He had chosen to become a Bookman, knowing the full implications of what it would mean. He couldn't just go back on it now. He had chosen his path in life, and he was dedicated to that.
Sighing under his breath, he crumpled the note into a wad in his palm, shoving it back into his bag, and turned for the door. Closing it up behind him, he immediately winced again at his injuries, forcing himself to breathe steadily until the sting passed.
Already the streets were busy, and before long they would be completely packed full of people. Soon enough, the city would be short one more body, the redhead turning his sights for the docks. With luck, he would find a ship ready to leave port before the afternoon, willing to take a traveler for an exchange of coin, long before anyone noticed him, or rather, a lack of his presence.
Allen woke up when the morning rays of sun peaked through the shutters. He stretched lazily, burrowing his face deeper into the pillow and shuffling closer to Kanda who was still in the realm of dreams. There was no hurry. None. At. All.
He begun to love the lazy morning where he and Kanda would slowly wake up, have breakfast and then do whatever they wanted because it was finally over. They had deserved their rest - even if it was for a short time, because surely, other problems would arise sooner or later. Allen preferred the later, but he still didn't bring himself to care. Not yet. Not when everything was peaceful (as peaceful as an assassin's life can get anyway) and he got to enjoy a lazy morning with an occasional tumble in the sheets whenever he pleased. Kanda never objected.
He surely would not object now, Allen thought as he moved on top of the man, still too lazy to open his eyes properly and greet the morning. He blindly kissed his way from Kanda's jaw to his mouth, smiling to himself as he felt the man stir beneath him. Not even the morning breath could dissuade him now.
Kanda sighed contently, not fully awake but awake enough to sense what his bedpartner was trying to do. He slowly dragged his fingers across Allen's back as he wiggeld on the bed and returned the kiss, still blindly, though, since he was, too, too lazy to open his eyes just yet.
"Morning," Allen whispered as he stretched like a cat. He smiled broadly as he felt Kanda react to his body and giggled when the man moved his hands to his sides, because, yes. Yes, this was exactly what he wanted and what he deserved for going through all the troubble of watching over the Apple and- the Apple...
He groped around with his hand, searching for the Apple that was supposed to be under the pillow.
Allen froze.
Kanda paused in his lazy advances when he felt his lover's body suddenly grow rigid and opened one eye to look at him.
"What's wrong?" he asked, seeing the whitehead staring into distance with clear horror and panic written all over his face. That sobered him up instantily, banishing all sleepiness out of his mind. He repeated his question, grabbing Allen's shoulder which seemed to work as he finally moved his eyes to look at him.
"The Apple," he said with a strained voice before bolting out of the bed, hastily dressing himself.
Kanda stared at him, completely flabbergasted before he looked under the pillow and found nothing. No Apple. Before he could react, Allen was already racing down the stairs.
The swordsman cursed under his breath and got out of the bed.
He was not there.
He was not in the den and he was not in his house. Nobody saw him, nobody heard him, but Allen knew exactly where he was headed to. Or at least, he hoped so.
He ran across the city, narrowly dodging the few people that roamed the morning streets, muttering hasty apologies as he passed.
The harbor. That's where Lavi was.
Allen ran and ran, as fast as he could, first through the streets and then across the roofs.
He is going to leave, a voice in his mind whispered, just like he did before. No, he was not going to let him go like that. Not this time.
He tripped on nothing and screamed in frustration as he barely caught himself before falling down but he kept running and jumping, racing to the harbor before the ship set sail. He could see the sea already, but he didn't allow himself to relax just yet.
Allen looked around the harbor frantically, searching for the flaming red hair. Was he in the right place? Had Lavi left with the caravan instead? Suddenly he saw it. The familiar mop of red hair, slowly exiting the alley on his left. He jumped down from the chimney and then on the ground, right behind the bookman.
Lavi stiffened then, pausing mid-step and swiveling slightly to look behind him. Clearly he hadn't anticipated getting caught, or at least not so soon, but he tried not to look too guilty, playing it off.
"Oh, hey Alle-!" His words trailed into a yelp as he was yanked away from the main street, hopping one leg for a moment to keep his balance, and from face-planting onto the floor of the alley as Allen just about threw him into it. Clearly, Allen wasn't buying it. "Y-y'seem angry..." he managed to squeak unhelpfully.
"I'm not angry," Allen growled, advancing onto the bookman until their noses almost touched. "I'm livid," he said, stabbing his finger into Lavi's chest to emphasize his statement. "Where's the Apple?!"
He held his hands up in a placating manner, wearing a thin, sheepish smile. "And here I thought you came all this way just for me," he couldn't help but joke, but the look Allen gave him clearly said how much time he had left to answer before he blew his top completely. "It's dangerous, 'sprout. You of all people should know that. It'd be best for everyone here if it disappeared."
Allen took a deep, calming breath - Lavi could tell it was not working - and spoke up through clenched teeth.
"It is not for you to take! It was given to me and I shall keep it until I die! I will not let you take it. You cannot take it with you, Neah-" he closed his mouth with an audible click, his fist tightening on Lavi's shirt.
Lavi sobered, noticing the shift in Allen's demeanor at his cut short words. "What of this Neah person?" He had heard plenty, but most of it in regards to what had happened to the person because of Apollo, not who he actually was to Allen.
"He was," Allen hesitated, his eyes darting to the ground, "he was the keeper of the Apple before me. He was like an older brother to me." he added quietly, his rage almost gone. "Apollo had somehow managed to make him appear as a traitor and brotherhood had hunted him ever since. He gave the Apple to me shortly before that bastard caught him and tortured him to death." He paused, looking up at Lavi again. " I never got the chance to say goodbye." His frown disappeared and the anger subsided, leaving only regret and sadness behind. "Nobody ever gives me the chance."
Lavi could hear the clear accusation in his tone. He thought of what he should say.
If he said how he felt and spilled what had happened when they were younger, how he had wanted to tell Allen they were leaving and chickened out, he would be going against his bookman ties that said he wasn't allowed to care.
And if he stayed true to his bookman rules and remained aloof, disregarding everything he felt and all he and Allen had been through, he would hurt Allen.
As it was, he was silent for a long while, weighing each one in his mind, and the one he was sure Allen didn't want to hear from him won out, gaze sliding elsewhere.
"Its nothing personal."
"Don't," Allen sighed, almost pleading. There was weariness in his voice, too, one that Lavi knew very well. "Don't leave like back then again. Not when everything is..." what? Fine? It was for Allen and Kanda. But not for Lavi, surely. "Just stop this hypocrisy! I've had enough of this foul mask." He took another breath and straightened his back. "And give me that damn orb!" Allen finished sulkily, stretching his hand out with his palm up.
Lavi didn't allow his expression to waver, impassive and cold, without even dawning a fake smile. After a moment of hesitation, he reached back and took the Apple out of one of the bags at his belt, setting it in Allen's palm. Even so, he didn't change expression.
"I know that you want to believe that its a mask-" Was it? He could never tell anymore. His whole life was nothing but dawning one mask after another, but maybe he'd grown a little more attached to the one known by 'Lavi'. He couldn't stand that look that Allen was giving him, the desperation to find that part of him that they both knew existed, and that the bookman knew shouldn't. "-but you'll only continue to hurt yourself thinking that. No matter how hard you search, you're not going to find answers, and any that you do, you won't like. All I can tell you is you're wasting your time. Whatever appealing side you thought I had was a lie; a persona I falsified to make my job easier. I don't feel anything, not for anything or anyone, not even you. Trivial attachments like friends or lovers mean nothing to a bookman."
"You know, the more times I hear it, the less believable it becomes," the whitehead said, his frown slowly returning. "Why are you being so goddamn stubborn?! Even Kanda has less issues than you!" The anger was back, too, and it was evident that Allen was running out of words to say. "Was I really just a meaningless toy to you?" he asked bitterly, shaking his head. "I thought... that since it is unlikely that we cross paths again... never mind." Allen took a step back, his face resigned.
Painful silence followed, and Lavi had to fight hard not to wince. A toy...? He could never think of Allen as just a-
He closed his eye, breathing forced steady. No. He would never think of Allen as something that meaningless, but to say it...
He turned away, towards the end of the alleyway where he'd tried to exit earlier just before Allen jumped down. Somehow he felt Allen do the same, only to go the opposite way, radiating hurt and sorrow from his very being, and it was suddenly a little too much for Lavi, his tongue slipping.
"If its any consolation… I'm glad you met someone like Yuu that can give you everything you deserve, better 'an someone like me ever could," Lavi rasped silently before beginning to walk.
He wasn't sure what he hoped to gain by saying it - maybe just to voice that his refusal to admit he cared was in no way tied to thinking less of Allen's worth, and what Lavi saw as his own lack thereof - or if he hoped to gain anything at all by it. It was simply the splash that made it over the dam of everything he gaurdedly withheld, despite his efforts to keep it all contained for the sake of his Clan role.
He wasn't even sure Allen heard him, words spoken so softly it strained his own ears to hear it, so what did it matter?
His path was chosen a long time ago, and Allen was only a detour he knew better than to wish he'd found sooner. And in his absence, Allen had already found Kanda to fill the void he had left in his first disappearance.
He had no doubts at all that he had loved Allen, but sometimes loving was letting go. Whatever had passed between them was over and gone, and as far as he saw it, that was for the best. It hurt, but it would hurt even more to keep pretending they might have had a chance at something deeper.
"You are an idiot," came an aggravated answer and he felt a hand tug at his own, turning him around only to peer into Allen's half-relieved, half-amused face. "This is turning out to be just like one of those horribly romantic stories you once read to me," he said, not letting Lavi talk himself out of it this time. "Thank you, for not betraying me, you bastard." Allen then quickly planted a chaste kiss and then bowing his head, a soft smile playing on his lips. "Thank you for coming to see me one last time, Bookman."
The redhead blinked surprise as he was tugged back, not having the time or forethought to wipe away the slight tears that had started forming once his back was turned, and stiffened with a dumbstruck look when Allen captured his lips briefly.
He was at a loss of words for several moments, before huffing soft laughter and letting his head fall to rest on top of Allen's, buried against his white locks of hair.
"Who're you calling an idiot, 'sprout? I'm probably one o' the smartest guys you'll ever meet!" he teased hoarsely, smiling despite himself and pulling Allen close to him, holding him tightly and committing his scent to memory.
He was silent like that awhile, not quite ready to let go. Just a little while more, just this once...
"I knew, back then..." he murmured admittance against Allen's hair. "I knew we'd have to leave an' that I wasn't supposed to see you again, an' I wanted to tell you, but I... could never work up the nerve. I was crazy about you, an' that's why I could never work up the courage to take things further back then. I never wanted you t'feel like just a toy or a used, throw-away whore when I was gone..." He paused, his voice becoming sullenly guilt-ridden. " 'guess it doesn't matter though. In the end I couldn't even really spare you that much heartache."
He felt Allen's arms wrap around his back. "Utter, utter idiot Lavi," he could practically feel the shorter man's smile widen, "I am just glad you came to see me, dummy. I was worried something happened to you."
When Allen stepped back again, his face shone with a brilliant, happy smile. "Thank you for everything - I do not regret a single moment spent with you. Be safe, Lavi. If anything happens, you'll know where to find us!"
Lavi smiled back, slipping a finger underneath Allen's chin and tilting it upwards to sneak a last, needy, passionate kiss that clearly managed to catch the shorter man by surprise. He took a good few moments to savor the warmth of shared lips and tongue before straightening up again, tousling Allen's hair affectionately.
"Of course."
He froze at the sound of a roughly clearing throat that most certainly didn't come from Allen and looked past the white haired man at Kanda, quickly retracting his hand and taking a few nervous steps back.
"Oh, h-hey Yuu! Fancy... seein' you here..." He chuckled tensely and thumbed over his shoulder, even as he increased his pace for good measure, in case he needed the head start. "I was... just leavin'... never to be seen again... he's all yours now!"
"It was you!" Kanda said, his voice betraying surprise and slight aggravation. How could he have not connected the dots earlier?! "You ran out on him back then! It was you!"
Allen knew exactly where this was going and blocked the swordsman's path just as he took the first step forward, unmistakably to hunt Lavi down.
"You better run," the whitehead said as he surged to hold Kanda's hand so he couldn't draw his sword, "and you run fast!"
"Already ahead of the both of ya!" Lavi laughed over his shoulder, spinning around and springing away into the crowd.
They both stared after him, their little fight forgotten.
"You think we´re going to see him ever again?" Allen asked, squinting to see the red-hair board the ship.
"I hope not," Kanda sighed next to him and relaxed, putting a hand on his shoulder as if in reassurance. "I'm sure we're at least going to hear from him," he offered with a small shrug.
They both waved when the ship finally moved, although Kanda a little bit reluctantly, and when the ship sailed too far for them to see it, they returned to the den to finish what they couldn't earlier.