Wow, so I haven't messed with this story in a couple months now, and all of a sudden I have the extreme urge to get down to it! I really like it, but I wish I had more time to work on it.
Anyway, if anyone has any ideas or suggestions for this story before I end it, let me know and I'll try to get it in there.
On with the chapter!
***
Allen stood up from his place at the table. He glanced around the room at those gathered, nervous. Komui was handing the important part of this meeting over to him. Because he was the Destroyer of Time, and he had stopped the war from getting out of hand. He was the one that had brought them all together.
Kanda was smirking at him again from down the table, because he wasn't saying anything. This finally bolstered Allen's chicken conscience and he straightened up, his eyes changing from nervous to determined. "You're here to make amends," he began, his gaze flickering over the remainder of the Noah, "for what you did to hurt us during the war. You have come to us asking for us to forgive you . . . even, in one of your cases, to give you the same punishment you gave to us. But we aren't here today with you to hurt you. Like you, we do want to put the past behind us. The Earl practically brainwashed you. And when he died, he abandoned you.
"The stigmata on your foreheads and your powers were all of his doing; without his involvement, you would never have realized anything was different. You were really human all along. This is the information we've gotten since the final battle. Is it the truth?"
Tyki nodded slowly. "Where did you obtain this information?"
Allen raised an eyebrow. "You didn't know? Road gave it to us."
"Only for you, Allen," the little Lolita girl said serenely.
Lenalee positively glowered.
To get off of that topic, Allen swiftly turned to Cyril. "You first. Do you agree that you sinned, even without your knowledge, and that you want to change that?"
Out of all the Noah, Cyril was the one that seemed most attached to the Earl. Allen himself hardly knew him, and had never come face to face with him in battle. He was almost a complete stranger. But Cyril nodded firmly, his eyes locked almost fervently onto Allen's. "Yes."
"Thank you. Tyki?"
"Yes."
In the end, they all agreed. Allen was slightly surprised; surely one of them would think that they weren't committing a sin? But the Noah that were present had an honest, pure look in their completely normal eyes. There was no way Allen couldn't have believed them.
"Can I ask a question?" he asked.
Tyki nodded. "Whatever you like."
"What are you going to do with yourselves? Now that this is all over. Obviously the people you used to live with were killed by the Earl."
Road piped up with that one. She wasn't looking so playful anymore. Instead, she looked . . . almost creepily serious. "You're right, we have nowhere to go. So we were hoping that you would get used to us. So we could live with you."
"That might be very awkward," Komui politely stated.
"Yes. But we're hoping to fix that. If we decided to live anywhere . . . it would be here. We don't have a place to go."
"I propose we wonder about that later and get started with eating," Lavi announced with a grin. "I'm starving, and it looks like Jerry outdid himself!"
"Allen," Lenalee whispered as he returned to his seat. "You will walk with me, right?"
Allen's eyes trailed over to the window. It was still pouring outside, but it wasn't storming. "Yeah, I will," he reluctantly agreed. And then, quite spontaneously, he nudged Lenalee's booted leg. She grinned and nudged back before wrapping her slender limb around his.
"I'm so glad, Allen. So glad that you wanted to be with me. Thank you so much."
"Lenalee."
"Hmm?"
He grinned—no, smirked. "You're welcome, but I think we should talk about this later. Everyone is staring at us."
"Oh!" She blushed a beet red, all the way up to her pigtails. "Oops . . ."
***
"Hey, Allen . . ." Lavi said as he helped the red head back to his room. Dinner had been quite pleasant, to the general surprise of the Exorcists. The Noah had showed that they truly did believe in wanting to change. They'd had fun.
"What is it?"
"Fill me in on you and Lenalee. Apparently I missed something, because the two of you were flirting like lovebirds and Komui wasn't even reacting." The one-eyed Exorcist grinned almost devilishly.
"Oh, that. Komui actually said . . . well, that he didn't care if we were together. And earlier, Lenalee said that she wanted to stop hiding behind her brother. And then she kissed me."
"Oh my God, and Komui doesn't even care?" Lavi looked infuriated. "Why doesn't anyone tell me these things? It's bad enough you forget about me and leave me in the room half the time!"
"Eh . . . sorry about that."
Lavi sighed and shook his head dramatically. "I really need a woman. I'm so jealous, Allen."
Allen laughed at him. Since the war, when they didn't have to worry about anything, Lavi had been complaining about this. He thought he was joking at first, but when Lavi kept it up, it became obvious; Lavi was alone.
"Your leg will heal enough for you to walk on your own soon," Allen said. "Then maybe we can go into London for a day. Who knows, you may find someone there." He pushed open Lavi's door. At this point, Lavi could make it on his own; he hopped inside and sat down in a chair.
"Not likely," the former Exorcist laughed. "Thanks for the help, Allen."
"It was no problem. I . . . have to go take a walk with Lenalee."
"In the rain?"
"She wanted to."
"She's already got you wrapped around her finger!"
"No!" Allen hastily protested. "I agreed because I wanted to. Anyway, Lavi, I'll see you later. Do you want me to lock the door?"
"Nah. It's pretty obvious the Noah aren't going to be hurting any of us anymore."
"Yeah. I'm glad I'm not the only one who saw that." Allen smiled one of his genuine, brilliant grins at his best friend before leaving.
