A/N: I'm glad to see I didn't totally fail and get sentenced to jumping off that cliff. XD Tyki is in charge of this chapter, by the way, and I tried to keep him as IC as possible for the situation. I plan on switching off each chapter so both spirals fit together. So yeah. We'll see if I can avoid the cliff one more time. X3 I wasn't really sure how to start this chapter, but I think it makes more sense than what I first wrote in my notebook.

I don't own D. Gray-Man. If I did, these hiatuses would GO AWAY. -sob-

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Five Stages of Loss:

I – Denial

II – Anger

III – Bargaining

IV – Depression

V – Acceptance

.x.x.x.

"Oh, so Tyki! I've been meaning to ask you. How's Lavi?"

Tyki hadn't been to see his rabbit for a few days. The last time had been when they'd reenacted the dream. An perfect performance, or so Lavi had told him with a sly smirk. He was actually missing Lavi very much at that moment, and hearing his name made Tyki look up eagerly, nearly forgetting that no one was supposed to know they'd been meeting. He and Road were sitting together, alone in the ark, and before she had said that things had been rather tranquil.

Until then, mind you.

"Excuse me?" Tyki murmured, electric sparks shooting without warning through his veins. "Excuse me…?"

"Lavi," Road repeated, "How's that yummy little Exorcist you've been sleeping with?"

And defensively, before he even knew she really did just say that, those electric sparks ignited, and he erupted out of total terror. The blood was bubbling in his ears, the rage trembling out of his throat, almost as hard as his limbs were suddenly shaking with that inconvenient, involuntary terror.

Why was he afraid?

Oh, it made him so furious – and this wasn't any kind of fury that was a regular fury – that his pretty little dream of playing house wasn't as much a secret as he'd sketched it out to be.

"What…what…. Who…who told you who it was?!" He had mentioned once or twice that he'd been seeing someone, but never told her any specific names.

Was it house he was playing at? Was he really only rehearsing a childish game with Lavi? Or was there another objective to it? But there was no time for pondering that. He had to try to see how well he could, or even if, he could make Road think he wasn't there because he liked Lavi's company. Adored it. Found safety, numb sanctuary in it…

Instincts were already trying to find a way to make an excuse or create a quick façade of disinterest. That's what he would do if it were anything else.

Don't say that you love that little twerp, don't say that you care at all, don't say that yes, you would in fact mind a tad bit if you found his corpse mangled and bloody and so dead it was already decomposing away all the beauty—

Thinking of that picture was like a bullet slamming into his skull. He scratched it away and replaced it as fast he could.

…Just don't say you're angry. Being angry makes it clear you would care.

You do care.

You will care.

Because I am angry right now.

But he couldn't quite shape disinterest into either of his personalities. So, in limbo and without a plan, he blindly couldn't stop himself.

"Road, answer me! Who told you? Who, who told you, Road…?!" He panted, appalled that this terror was making him yell so brutally at his niece. She was the one who always comforted him when he had no chance to escape to Lavi, the one who didn't leave when his scars were painful again.

Because of all of that, he could be positive she wouldn't turn on him, but he was made so defensively angry. He didn't like this feeling; it wasn't anything he'd ever felt before. There had never been a reason to feel it, because he'd not had anything to protect until then.

Her eyes were wide like she was surprised, but mostly she just seemed confused as to how her uncle was even capable of becoming such a sudden mess. "Wow, nobody told me. I figured it out. And if you really don't want me to, I won't tell anyone else, just so long as I don't have to… It's not like I can realistically expect you to keep it in your pants. And since you did say there was a guy you'd been with, I didn't think it would matter if I investigated a little. Come on, I'm a school girl. A hopeless romantic of a school girl. I got curious. But Tyki, does it really have to be an Exorcist? Really…?"

There was an explosive panic inside him. He already fucking knew there was a problem with Lavi being an Exorcist. Wasn't the Black Order seal on his coat as obvious as a blinking neon sign above a bar? Tyki had seen that coat, with that damn seal many times by then, discarded in a corner while they got down to passionate business. "Yes, thank you, Road, for pointing that out to me." He growled, annoyed and with acidic sarcasm eating through his whole body. "I hadn't noticed."

She rolled her eyes, which only shoved needles into his distressed skin more. "Good god, Tyki. I said I wouldn't tell. Why are you being this pissy?"

"Pissy?" The Pleasure quipped, chuckling with that same sarcasm, "And, love, you expect me not to be?"

"You were acting so smiley all of a sudden, and it wasn't that cocky, smug smile you get when you win at a game of poker. So eventually," she smirked here, "I followed you to see who could possibly be that good."

Gritting his teeth, Tyki tried to stop the defensive edge from poisoning his voice again. At least she had had somewhat good intentions. "…When?" He asked finally, now just very tired. "When did you do that?"

"Hm? Oh, a few days ago. But your 'little bunny' was describing quite the dream he'd had. From what I can tell, it was a hell of a lot better than the one I gave him that day on the ark. Ha, if I'd known you'd be with him now I might have tried harder to give a good first impression…"

"Shit, Road! How long were you there?"

"I left a little after that because I was definitely getting a feeling you two were going to…um, tango, if you get my drift."

"Fuck." He filled in, pushing back his hair in a tired sigh.

"Tyki?" She questioned carefully, more cautious than she'd been in her blunt reveal, and that worried him.

"What?" It was an exhausted grunt, full well knowing that the unfamiliar, out of place anger was going to flare up again, probably. Get it over with.

"Do… Do you really trust him?"

Protective toward Lavi, Tyki's eyes scrunched, watching her wearily. "He's a good kid, Road. Better than you are, you damn nosey gossip." And when he does misbehave it's sexy. "He's a good kid…" I sound like a housewife, you know.

But I really wouldn't mind being a housewife, as long as I still got to be on top… He wouldn't mind taking care of Lavi. The boy needed it sometimes, really. Every time Tyki looked at him he found himself noticing how much the Bookman could get a look in his eyes like a lost little boy who was separated from his mother one day at the supermarket and never found her again.

Tyki wondered what he looked like to Lavi. He hoped it was something higher than only a gambling vagabond who roleplayed his way through life.

"Well, I'm a good kid too. But it depends who you ask."

"And if you asked me, I'd say that I know better than to believe that." Now that they were on the subject, he wanted even more now to be touching all parts, in and out of the imagined scooping out Lavi's beautiful veins like ice cream. Like strawberry ice cream…

If only it could be a buffet that was never ending.

There were so many goddamn if onlys.

And it pissed him off.

With an impatient sigh, Tyki studied his niece. "Look, Road. Remember how when I taught you how to play cards, I told you only to bet it all when you were absolutely sure things were worth it?" Before going on, the Portuguese waited for her to give a curt nod. "…Good. Because on that day you saw us, something critical felt like it changed. And I'm sure now."

She seemed to understand. Although it made her look a bit sad for some reason, the edges of her lips twisted up into a traced, flickering smile. "So when you say 'bet it all', what exactly do you mean? You're…you're serious enough to love the Exor—" Road corrected herself as Tyki began to tense back up at the word, "To love Lavi…?"

"…Maybe."

My little bunny is all in, too.

Tyki was all in because he did think it was worth it, and Lavi was in because of a mix of the temptation and that he did feel some of the same things as well.

However, since Tyki knew how to play poker well, he knew that no matter how good the odds looked in one moment, it didn't mean they would still let them win.

"Aha." Road giggled. "Well then, when you see him tonight, tell your honey I said hello."

"…Sure."

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Kisses in the dim dusk as they came together.

"Hey, Bunny."

"Hello, Tyki…"

"Planning on having any more entertaining dreams soon?"

"Nah, not tonight anyway. Unless you object, I don't plan on sleeping tonight."

"Ha."

"…Just make me forget all the reasons why I shouldn't be here, and if you can it'll all be alright."

"I'll do my best." Even though he knew damn well he couldn't get rid of them all.

That was when they started losing, but they were still too hungry to capture the odd, fleeting, lovely feeling of 'happy' to check exactly how fast the odds were shifting.

But, Tyki justified, he would so much rather kiss this boy than be angry forever.

And they moved right on along to the next stage.

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A/N: It will be back to Lavi for the third part! Thanks for reading~. 8D