Kanda gaped in dismay at the hourglass, his eyebrows knitting together in worry. He didn't even do anything this time.

But it fell anyway.

A lone petal teetered, torn between deciding to join its fallen siblings or to stay on just a little longer to keep him company. "Don't leave," Kanda whispered as he crawled out of the bed, the quilts rustling around his thinning body. The hourglass was set on the table, far away from the edge to avoid accidents. He listened carefully. He thought he could hear the petals resting at the bottom of the hourglass laughing, encouraging the last petal to jump, to be with them. It scared him.

He surveyed the room, noticing the blatant differences between his real room and the one he was occupying. Where was he? He placed his fingertips on his head, pressing against his temples. Yes, he ran away from the Black Order. He was in a town, still somewhere in England.

I have to eat, he decided. While dressing, he noticed the sharpness of his lean hips and the trail of ribs protruding along his chest. It bothered him. Now that he wasn't in the Black Order anymore, he could eat. He hated blood. He didn't enjoy seeing it. It made him want to retch, so he rarely ate when he fought Akuma. His stomach protested against these thoughts.

The cafeteria was a small place. Kanda sat by the fireplace, watching as the fire flickered back and forth merrily, almost as if it were alive. "Would you like to order something, sir?" a waitress asked. She grinned widely. Her eyelashes moved at a rapid pace. Kanda blinked. Was there something wrong with her eyes? His stomach throbbed, demanding to be filled now so just ignore the weird girl and get breakfast.

"I'd like some coffee, and a bowl of oatmeal." He didn't feel like he was ready to eat soba yet. It really wasn't good for the stomach to eat something so unhealthy when you weren't that healthy to begin with. There was also a little fact that they probably didn't serve any Japanese food around here.

"Anything else you'd like?" the waitress asked sweetly, her eyelashes fluttering again.

"No thank you," Kanda replied, slightly irritated. He shifted in his seat, willing the girl to hurry up with his order. The girl sighed, turning away as her shoulders hunched together. Kanda looked away, wondering what that was all about.

A stack of newspapers lied in the middle of table, waiting to be read by human eyes. Kanda leaned forward, picking up one, halfheartedly thumbing through the pages. A picture caught his attention:

Missing: Yuu Kanda

His pale face was pasted underneath, thin with high, sharp cheekbones and bruise-like shadows underneath his dark eyes, framed by dark bluish locks of hair, neat but uneven from dodging blades in battle. When were his eyes so empty?

His hands shook slightly. They were looking for him. They were going to take him back, and Death would come for him all that sooner. He didn't bother looking at the prize they offered for his "safe return". The last thing he wanted to know how much he was worth in their eyes.

Food was set in front of him. He quickly snapped the newspapers closed, taking the page from that newspaper and crumpling it in his fist. He dug into the oatmeal so fast he nearly choked, downing it along with the tongue-burning coffee. If his picture was already in the papers, he had to move – fast.

"I'm in a hurry, when's the next train?" Kanda demanded to the innkeeper. Startled, the poor man nearly spilled his hot tea all over himself. Staring at Kanda's half-emaciated face, the man's forehead began dripping with cold sweat.

"In… in about twenty minutes," the innkeeper squeaked. Kanda thought for a moment. It took about fifteen minutes to walk from the train station to here, so if he paid now, that would take about three minutes, leaving two minutes for him to wait for the train, maybe more if he ran all the way.

He buckled up the straps of his tall boots, running out the doorway as he hastily left the exact change on the counter. His body moved more agreeably with the warmth of food down in his stomach. He hadn't felt this good in awhile, not with all the missions left and right, demanding his attention and the sharp clarity of his mind.

Kanda frowned as he tried to speed up. If he hadn't eaten, maybe he could've been pushed to go faster. He tried to shove away the thoughts to the side, along with the comfortable warmth he could feel his mind slipping into, and tried to focus on the cutting edge of the winter bite.

Faster, faster, his mind chanted. He had to catch their train. There was no rush really. At the pace he was going, he should reach the station before that train did, but a thought kept nagging him. What if the Black Order was already on their way? Another related thought brought a chill down his spine. What if they were already here?

Please, no, he thought. He didn't want to deal with them. It would be too troublesome. He would never get another day of peace again, not with the constant worried and disappointed stares. What if everyone decided he couldn't be trusted, that he was too unstable and had to be chained to the bed until he was completely rendered harmless. No, Kanda Yuu was sane. And he refused to be caught.

Other than the chattering of townsmen, Kanda could hear nothing in the distance. That was a good thing. He slowed his steps as he reached the tall platform, disappearing through the mingling crowd. He tucked his long black hair underneath his overcoat, hoping that it would make him less recognizable. Maybe he was being paranoid, but it never hurt to be careful. If he was lucky, maybe the Black Order's incentive wasn't enough for anyone to come looking for him willingly.

He had time to pay for the train fare, a notion that hadn't occurred to him until after his sprint, and he was glad he decided to run the way to the station. Entering the train, he settled in his seat, wishing that the train would just hurry up and move.

000

"Allen? Allen." Linali waved her hand in front of the general's face. Honestly! The one day where she had some kind of information on Kanda, Allen decided he wanted to act depressed and all "leave me alone". She was about to shout in his ear for some kind of reaction until he finally looked at her.

"Sorry, I was just thinking…" His voice held a kind of wistful dazedness. "What just happened?"

"Nothing, but if you don't want to hear the news I have then I'll just take my leave now."

Allen sighed. "Alright, let's hear it then…"

Linali smiled. "The bad or good news first?"

"Bad of course."

"We still don't know where Kanda is."

Allen snorted. "As if we didn't already know that."

"The good news is," she paused for more dramatic effect, "there's been a spotting of him in a little town off the east of here." Before Allen could smile or say anything, Linali decided to dash his hopes. "Unfortunately, knowing what a fickle Kanda is, I'm sure he's somewhere far, far away by now."

"What kind of good news was that then?" Allen grumbled. It didn't make sense to Allen why he was getting so worked up on Kanda's case. The Japanese boy had never been particularly kind to him. The two years that Allen had lived at the Black Order and the fact Kanda had still called him Moyashi, the brawls that they managed to get into (which had lessened ever since he had become a general, and much to his embarrassment, he was doing the picking now) before Kanda left was proof of that.

Maybe it was the fact Allen considered them friends, even though he personally believed that Kanda wouldn't even know the meaning of the word even if it was staring him in the face. "How much do you miss him?" Allen glanced at the girl in surprise.

"I don't know. A lot, I guess," Allen replied. He sighed, stretching his hands across the table as he slumped. "It just makes me kind of anxious."

"Because he's your friend?"

Allen hesitated. "Because he's my friend," he nodded. Kanda was thinner than average – for the missions. He was cutting himself on the missions. Allen could see Kanda would be the type to hurt himself if he failed a mission too. As much as it made him unhappy to even mull over such a thought, Kanda probably would be better off never returning to the Black Order. And… and… and shouldn't friends do what was best for other friends?

But it couldn't be wrong if Allen wanted to see if Kanda was alright, right?