Title: Wiser Now
Author: fotoshop-cutout // Shiro
Fandom: D. Gray-Man
Characters/Pairings: Lavi/Allen, Bookman, Lenalee
Rating: PG-15
Word Count: 1,185
Disclaimer: All characters depicted in sexual situations in this post/fanfiction/fanart (including material in the comments) are fictional and are intended to be and considered to be by the author of said material of the legal age of consent in the United States state of California, regardless of what age these characters may be in the material they are derived from. Also, the song is 'The Lemon Tree' by Peter, Paul and Mary.
Summary: Lavi learns what it's like to be wrong.
Notes/Warnings: un-betaed; the twelfth in a series of 104 themes. "Dead Wrong" is today's theme. CHARACTER DEATH! Also, at the end many will think: a Noah can't be killed like this. My answer to you is: it's possible that the transformation wasn't "complete" so perhaps the Noah genes hadn't kicked in the regeneration portion yet. Hopefully that makes sense. Also: many thanks to stoneygeek for catching a typo/problem in the last chapter! I edited it, so it should be all good now. Thanks for the reviews Aion Laven Walker and stoneygeek!
[ When I was just a lad of ten
My father said to me
'Come here and take a lesson
From the lovely lemon tree.' ]
Deke was born in poverty in Ireland. His mess of red hair was common there, and so he was no different from any other young beggar on the streets. The only difference came about when he turned four years old. An older street kid damaged his right eye while taking his coin from him. And so he was in a sad state for weeks. Luckily some women took care of him. Little did he know that change would come again only after another month.
He was back on the streets within a week, begging for anything that could possibly be helpful for him and the other young kids without homes. A young man watched him from afar, and Deke became worried. He changed location a few times, but gave up when the man followed him there and continued watching. Maybe the man would help, after all. Deke wasn't one to assume things about people.
At the end of the day, before all the shops closed, the man entered a general store and purchased something. A few minutes later he walked over to Deke, who watched him warily but did not retreat. The man knelt down next to him, and then reached out, hand holding a black item. Deke could see he was offering it, and so reached out and took it. He unfolded it, seeing a patch of black fabric with two straps. Confused, he moved to shove it in his pocket. The man's hand stopped, taking the item back in his own hands. He sorted it out quickly then pushed the swatch against Deke's damaged eye.
Deke moved to get away, but the man simply looped the straps over his head in a gentle gesture. Deke blinked, the man blinked back. They went their separate ways. The next day the man was watching again, Deke got more coins: people seemed like they could bear looking at him now that the hideous eye was covered. At the end of the day the man approached him again. This time Deke was hoping he would say something. When the man patted his head, then turned on his heel, Deke knew he didn't want him to go.
"Sir, excuse me. Sir? Sir!" But the man ignored him and continued to walk out of Deke's life. Deke frowned, then called out one last time. "Hey Gramps!" The man whipped around, glaring daggers at Deke, but Deke could only smile.
That marked the beginning of his apprenticeship with the Bookman. Every day, Deke was grateful to the man for giving him this life. In return, the Bookman taught him lessons in many things. These lessons included the fact that he should be detached from everything around him. This wasn't much trouble for him, but later, with his 49th persona he would have problems with that entire way of thinking, living.
[ 'Don't put your faith in love, my boy'
My father said to me,
'I'll fear you'll find that love is like the lovely lemon tree'
Lemon tree, very pretty
And the lemon flower is sweet,
But the fruit of the poor lemon
Is impossible to eat. ]
Later on in his life Deke would come to the realization that the Bookman was just trying to protect him from hurt down the line. But at the time, Deke couldn't think that of him. It all started when they arrived at their destination. The Black Order headquarters: he was now the exorcist named Lavi. A couple of months afterwards marked the arrival of one Allen Walker. He was supposedly the 'Destroyer of Time', someone important to document in history.
Somewhere along the line the separation between Deke and Lavi blurred to the point that he could not distinguish one from the other. They were him after all. And when Allen said his name—'Lavi, can't you hear my voice?'—it broke him. He was Lavi now. Lavi was Deke as much as he could be. It wasn't long afterwards that he realized he was in love.
[ One day beneath the lemon tree,
My love and I did lay,
A girl so sweet that when she smiled
The stars rose in the sky.
We passed that summer lost in love
Beneath the lemon tree;
The music of her laughter
Hid my father's words from me. ]
They had time apart, but that only seemed to strengthen their bond. It was one summer's day when he and Allen were outside, pursuing a possible Innocence fragment that he decided to mention it. They had been holding hands for a while now, but he suspected Allen thought it was just companionship. He didn't mind.
"You know my name isn't Lavi, right?" This may have startled Allen a bit, because the white haired boy looked at him curiously.
"Really? I suppose I should have known—you're destined to be the Bookman." Allen seemed to think for a moment. "What is it, then?"
"Deke." Why he had answered this way, he wasn't sure. After all, hadn't he decided that he was both Deke and Lavi? Did it matter what he was called? Besides, Gramps would have a fit if he heard that Allen knew his birth name. He looked over at Allen. Allen just tilted his head and smiled.
"Well then, Deke: I love you." Without hesitation the younger boy leaned in a placed a sweet kiss on his lips. He accepted the kiss, falling deeper in love with every minute he spent with Allen. He thought Gramps was wrong: dead wrong.
[ Lemon tree, very pretty
And the lemon flower is sweet,
But the fruit of the poor lemon
Is impossible to eat. ]
Allen was slowly, but surely making the transition into being the Fourteenth, Deke was left with shambles of who his lover was. As Deke grieved, the Bookman looked on. The Bookman didn't try to comfort the boy, just protect him from further harm. But when he found Deke curled up around Allen one night, he gave a sad smile to the pair. He knew it was nearing the end of Deke's inexperience with the world, and so it would be the end of his apprenticeship.
When Allen finally made the full transformation, Deke allowed tears to escape his eyes. He even took off his eye patch, his headband, everything that made him Lavi. He dropped his Innocence to the floor; it didn't matter who was watching him now. The other exorcists wondered what he was doing as they watched him approach the boy they once knew as Allen.
"You don't remember me, do you?" Allen's body only grinned in response. Bookman watched his apprentice carefully. Deke nodded, admitting Allen's defeat to the Fourteenth. Lenalee moved forward, wanting to protect him, but Deke held his hand up. She stopped. His attention returned to the boy in front of him. "Will you let me kill you?"
It took forever for the response to get through. There seemed to be a shaky moment when the aura around the white haired boy changed. A single nod, a tear escaped a silver eye. Deke became strong in that moment. Where he got the knife, no one knew. Bookman thought perhaps Deke had been preparing for this day. With the knife, Deke stepped forward and plunged it through the boy's heart. He held it there as their lips met for the last time. Then, as the aura changed once more, Deke ripped the knife from his lover's body with a twist.
Bookman and his apprentice left soon after Allen's death. Deke was back to who he was before his time at the Black Order, for that Bookman was glad. However, he seemed wiser since he lived through the ordeal. When Bookman asked him what he had learned from this he replied very simply.
"I was dead wrong, Gramps."
Tomorrow's Theme: "Running Away"