That Which Has Changed
Neah sat back on the piano seat, the last melodic note resounding in the white room satisfyingly. He smiled, looking up at the screen opened up for him. That exorcist, Kanda, he's good at getting Allen out of his gloomy mood. Neah couldn't help but smirk at his nephew, who's engrossed in arguing with Kanda. Then he turned to a corner of his room, frowning, "How long are you going to stay there? Crowned Clown." The white form is of a cape, fluttering around from non-existent wind. The mask had nothing underneath, but its voice still floated quietly to Neah's ears, "You should know. If I return to him now, he will have to join the Order. Both you and I wouldn't like that." Neah turned to screen again, eyes softening, "True. I guess we are in agreement on that." He hesitated, then sighed, "Should we shake hands on that? If you have hands, that is." The Innocence seemed surprised, "A Noah like you would go so far? Why?" He still looked at the screen, face a picture of yearning, "I wonder why... Allen is only supposed to be a host for my memories, yet... Right now, I only see him as my nephew. Mana's precious son." They sat in silence, each lost in their own thoughts. Really, what had changed? Neah wondered.
Kanda slammed yet another door of a a restaurant that rejected them, or rather, Kanda rejected. "Seriously! What's with you and soba?! Can't you eat anything else?!" Allen is near starving, and Kanda is rejecting restaurants left, right and center. "Yes! Though a glutton like you would never understand what it's like to have a favourite food!" He snapped back irritably. "What?! How rude! For your information, I do have a favourite food, but you are plainly going overboard! Who eats soba for breakfast, lunch and dinner for every single week of the day?!" Allen is starting to shout, disregarding manners whatsoever. Kanda doesn't deserve courtesy. "You are looking at one such person." The boy threw his hands up in the air, like 'you see?'. "How do I know you have a favourite food? I swear that you don't even chew your food properly!" Allen glared, "I do too!" "What's your favourite food then?" Kanda smirked at him mockingly. "Mitarashi dango!" His smirk turned into a frown of mild disgust, "It's sweet." "You got a problem with that, BaKanda?" "Shut up, Moyashi!" "It's Allen!" Really, you two boys... He started it! Neah can be heard sighing.
Kanda was only half-way through his soba when Allen started on dessert. He paused, "Kanda, if you eat something that isn't soba, will something happen to you?" Kanda gave him a weird look, not liking where this conversation is heading, "I will kill the person who fed me that." Allen cut a bit off his chocolate tart, smiling, "Then all's good." He said cheerfully. The older male leaned back, taking in the almost black substance presented to him on Allen's spoon, "Now, Kanda, open wide..." As he opened his mouth to protest, Allen took the chance to quickly put the bit of tart between his lips and watched amusedly as Kanda turned green. Before the exorcist could explode, Allen tactfully moved on to another topic, "Kanda, what will you do now? Don't you have a mission to fulfill?" The long-haired male immediately turned serious, averting the demolition of this restaurant from his potential rage at being fed something that is not soba(not to mention sweet), "I'll catch up to the rest of Cross' group. It has been confirmed that Cross is heading to Japan before his ship sank. There's little chance of him surviving, General or not, but we can't let go of the chance that he's in Japan, so we have to head that way." A small part of Allen hoped that his master is dead, but he knew it was not to be so, "Master wouldn't die merely because his ship sank in the middle of an ocean, Kanda." He still looked doubtful, "What do you plan to do? You can't fight anymore." Kanda's words stung, but he'd never been one for words, had he? Before the boy could answer, his left eyes, which he had forgotten is a separate existence from his Innocence, activated. "Moyashi?" No time for words, Allen lunged for Kanda across the table, pushing him down as the windows of the restaurant shattered and bullets rained down.
"There are eight akumas, three level twos and five level ones. One of the level two is behind the building." Kanda stared in shock at the boy who recited the information with cold precision. His eyes... "I can't fight you know..." His voice is bitter, but it's a lot more polite than the way he talked to Kanda before. This made Kanda leap out of the building, destroying the level ones in a single blow from his Mugen. The level twos went down just nearly as easily. "Amazing, Kanda. When I still had my Innocence, I can only just defeat a level two." The boy is acting bitter again, "Tch. Moyashi." Allen immediately reciprocated, "It's Allen, BaKanda!"
"Huh? Take me with you?" Kanda nodded, not caring to repeat himself. Allen and Bak looked surprised by this. Allen is no longer an exorcist but Kanda just suggested that he should go and find General Cross with them. Frankly, Allen didn't like the idea of finding his master, under any and all circumstances. "You may not have your Innocence, but you still have the curse in your eye. That's enough reason for me to take you with me." His eye... At the time, when he saw their souls, crying, screaming for help, his heart ripped apart. He can't help. He can't free them.
But he can see them. Shouldn't that be worth something?
Kanda felt every passing second make the moyashi all the more aggravating. The past few hours had been a flurry of transport systems, from carriage to walking, from walking to the train. They are now thankfully on the train, in their own compartment, but ever since a long while the moyashi had been doing nothing but stare into space and fingering what was left of his left arm, which is just the shoulder. Kanda understood how that could be an inconvenience(okay, understatement) to have just one arm. He had seen the boy stumble from the loss of balance from the absence of the weight of his Innocence, but that doesn't make it any easier to bear.
"Would you stop that?" Allen turned to Kanda, surprised by the sudden words, "What?" He means the fact that you can't seem to stop touching your stub. Allen let his hand fall into his lap, "Sorry." He just doesn't understand! Why isn't his arm there? Sure, he knows how this came to be but... The boy couldn't stop being surprised by the fact that his arm is not there. It's almost like what happened with Mana... It's just another thing he took for granted. What he thought, what he knew will always be there. But he's wrong. He couldn't be more wrong.
Kanda grasped his hand, grip firm, but not without warmth. Allen felt the callouses, result of hours and hours of training. He looked at the older male, surprised. Kanda was looking away, out the window, but, "I won't let go." He said in his ill-tempered tone, making Allen smile. The boy shifted his hand, letting their fingers interlock, palm to palm.
Over the course of this few days where he was recovering, Allen had bouts of ups and downs in his mood, and every time, every time, Kanda managed to drag him out of his depressed mood. Allen noticed, of course, but he didn't comment. He was afraid that if he did, Kanda would stop doing that and one day just leave the boy lost in his hurt and sense of abandonment. But right now, Allen's fine. Better than fine. Thank you, Kanda. You know he can't hear you. Say it out loud. Allen didn't answer. Allen wouldn't take Kanda for granted. Not Kanda.
A small thump startled Kanda out of his drifting thoughts. He turned to the moyashi, only to find the younger boy asleep against his shoulder. He stiffened for a second, then relaxed ever so slightly. The other boy is really light, he realised. Moyashi is moyashi, of course he's light. He let the boy lean on his shoulder. He's tempted to lean back into Allen's warmth, then mentally slapped himself. "Tch. Moyashi." He muttered. "The person you love is not who you expect him to be." Kanda studied the boy, noting his slender fingers, his snow white hair, his delicate features. Seriously, who's the she-male here? He let himself brush his thumb along the boy's knuckles before Kanda looked out the window again. "You have a complicated love-life ahead of you." Damn fortune teller, Kanda cursed her for the words that refused to leave him alone. What is this feeling? More importantly, why is he feeling like this around Allen? What had changed? "I haven't forgiven you for feeding me that piece of chocolate tart yet." He murmured to the sleeping boy, but the anger is absent from his tone.
"Lenalee! Have you found him ye-" Lavi's shout was furiously hushed by the green-haired girl, who was peeking into a compartment with an aura reminiscent that of a mother hen(oh my! Kanda, you're such a big boy now! *sob*). Lavi looked in too, his single green eye widening for a second. Kanda sat with the white-haired boy who Lavi met on a certain train before, Allen Walker probably, holding hands, both were fast asleep. Lavi knew, that in this moment, this is the only chance he will ever get in his lifetime. He reached into his pocket and produced a marker pen, ready to draw on Kanda's face. Lenalee slapped his hand away from the sleeping couple.
"Kanda's face when he is awake and when he is sleeping is so different." Lavi observed, and Lenalee nodded, "Hmm, I understand what you mean. He looks so peaceful when he's sleeping, doesn't he? You actually realise that he's got a pretty face." The two boys slept soundly, more relaxed than Lavi has ever seen him. It's not like Lavi's never seen Kanda sleep before, but his sleep is always so light that even the slightest foreign noise would wake him. This time, though, it's different. Which is why Lavi's hand is itching to doodle on his face.
"Who is the boy, by the way? He's lost his left arm, how unfortunate." Lavi jolted. Because of the long sleeved shirt Allen wore, he didn't notice at first, but now that Lenalee pointed it out... But that may not be a bad thing. Fifteen's too young to fight in a war. Lots of things changed since he last checked on things, didn't it? The question is what had changed? A boy who could crack even Kanda's nutshell... Well, there's still a bit that hadn't cracked yet, but he's sure the boy's working on that. This is the boy who didn't hesitate to cheat so blatantly in poker, after all, he's sure to have a few tricks up his sleeve. He can't wait for this to play out. As a bookman, that is.
"By the way, I've never asked, but why did you save Allen?" Neah looked at Crowned Clown, eyes alight with curiosity. The Innocence was silent for a moment, "Allen may just be one loved by God. Protecting him was not my work, yet I felt compelled to save him." Neah chuckled, "You and I both. Crowned Clown, God's Clown, do you believe in God?" "... Allen does not believe in God." The Noah turned away from Crowned Clown, starting another piece on his piano, playing a lullaby for his nephew, who's sleeping, "That's not what I asked. What I asked is if God's Clown, you, Innocence, do you believe in God?" For a moment, the Innocence is silent again, it was almost like Neah can see the gears turning in its head, "I have forsaken God the moment I stole Allen from his Death's embrace." Still playing his lullaby, Neah said, "You still haven't answered my question." "No God I acknowledge will let a boy go through what Allen experienced." Neah smiled for real, We all are under Allen's spell, whether he realises it or not. Mana, is this what you saw in this boy? I can see it. For the first time. To the Innocence, Neah sighed, "You and I are like white and black. But Allen's different. He's both white and black. He's a shining silver. Maybe that's what we are all drawn to?" The Innocence seemed to smile for the first time, "You're wrong. As you said, we are like white and black. Allen's not silver. He's all the colour in between." They both looked at the screen that showed Allen and Kanda sleeping, the redhead and girl watching, smiling. "The path in between white and black is a harsh path to follow." Neah flashed the Innocence a grin, and Crowned Clown seemed startled by it, "Which is why we have to help him, right? Keep him on the right path." I will protect your son, Mana. If I keep watching through his eyes, maybe, I'll get to see the world we both hoped to see one day. Allen deserves a world like that too.
Hey, GummyRabbit here. This chapter is shorter than the last one(I know, sorry...). I have to write my speech for class, so yeah...(They should make speech illegal. I hate speech, I should make a speech about how speech should be illegal, but that would defeat the purpose) Anyways, that's enough of my boring life, hope you enjoyed it. I feel like I need feedback to make my work better, so please review!