Authors Note:
Wait, what is this? An update? Pffft No. Especially not after my other computer got a virus and I had too move my the files to my new Mac. Why would you think that?
FML, dude.
Italics = flashbacks and thoughts.
Title: Symbols of Embrace
Chapter: 2 - The Second Step
Rating: T
"Please! please... open. We need you to open!" He stifled a cry out of pure desperation, he lifted his body one more time and let a flimsy blow hit the hard wood, He cried out in pain, but this time he heard something. A crack.
The door finally broke open, swinging in to the side and brought Allen along with it. 'Crap' Lavi thought as he grabbed at the collar of Allen's uniform and turned on his heels. He shut his eyes and braced for the floor. Lavi let out a whistle of relief and looked at the boy now laying on him.
"Surprised that worked out." He got up, picked up the boy and shut the door with his leg.
He heaved Allen onto the bed and gently placed Allen's white locks on the lumpy pillows. Lavi seated himself next to the teenager and rotated his ankle.
"Fuc-ow!" He hissed in pain. He looked around for something that could wrap his injury and found a hand towel near the bathroom.
The mattress creaked under his weight as Lavi sat down again. His weak hands barely ripped the fabric in two and wrapped his ankle in two taut layers. He then turned his attention to Allen, who was now breathing quite heavily next to him. Lavi pulled out his emergency first aid from one the a pocket in his uniform. He fumbled with some packaging and pulled out a sterile needle along with thread, gauze and and a tiny bottle of rubbing alcohol.
Lavi walked into the tiny bathroom and turned the facet on. It screeched out of thirst, when nothing came out. He hit the sink.
"Really? Great!" Lavi sighed and hobbled outside and wiped his hands in the snow. It was the only other way to get his hands clean and well, get them colder. He parked himself on the bed and grabbed at the alcohol.
"Alright, this gonna hurt. Stay with me," Lavi reassured Allen. He had no idea why he was talking to someone unconscious, I mean he knew that he wouldn't be able to hear him, but maybe he just felt a need to comfort him. Lavi weaved his shaking hand through his hair before he dipped the container on the gauze. He next tugged off the younger ones pants and went to pat the wound but then stopped. He just sat there, staring at the gash. The blood was just too vivid against his present insipid skin.
He just sat there, frowning. If only he realized the Akuma's attack earlier. Then maybe his friend wouldn't be like this. So damaged, so broken. Then maybe...
He rubbed the wound harder than maybe he should have, causing a small amount blood to escape.
...all of this wouldn't have happened, they wouldn't be in this situation. It was all my fault. If only I -
No, he a is Bookman. What happened, happened. There was no stopping it, all he could do was watch and interfere only if it was absolutely necessary. He wasn't supposed feel anything. He wasn't supposed to be anyone's friend. Not even his own.
… I warned him sooner.
Lavi hid is eyes with his hair and frowned deeper. He didn't want to see it, not at all. Then he dug the needle into the boy's skin. The silver tool barely stitching up the injury with a trembling hand.
It was just too damn cold and Lavi always despised the cold. It was unforgiving and never brought the life that a fire could offer or the fun a summer's day could bring. It always covered up the lovely existence underneath it's wintry blanket.
.
"Bookman!" The little boy shouted in excitement, his eyes shining with curiosity.
"What?" The older man grumbled behind him, irritation in his voice.
"What kind of flower is this?" The boy asked, leaning over a blooming a carmine colored flower, "You know don't you? You know everything!"
The wrinkled man bent down next to his apprentice and cracked a small smile, "That is the 'NALIN FLORIAN' or the 'Dancing Dragon' to the locals. It blooms here only every five years just for a few days."
"It's so ... pretty." the boy beamed back at the small plant. He decided that it's color was now his favorite.
"Guess we got lucky, it's the only one left," the elder got up, and slung his bag over his shoulder once more, "Come on, lets go," he added and patted the child on the back.
"'Kay!" the redhead jumped up and waved back at the flower," Bye~!"
The younger one looked up at the Bookman and said, "Do you think I can ever come back and see it again?" A fresh bandage was plastered to his round face, just covering the right eye.
His smile returned to the furrowed frown he was always carrying.
"Only if you remember with that Bookman brain of yours, then maybe." He just looked at the path in front of him, trying not to look at the boy, "So you've gotta work hard."
The boy's face brightened, "I will!"
.
Lavi tied off the last section of thread and cut it off with his teeth.
.
"_," The Bookman called out his apprentice,"Do you remember this place?"
The boy looked up at him confounded and when realization hit him, a wide smile bloomed.
"Is it blossoming yet?" he asked. The redhead was nearly twelve now and couldn't wait to see his favorite flower after five years.
"Why don't you find out yourself," He motioned out to encourage the kid to go look for it, but when there was a pause, the Bookman looked over at the younger one in pure confusion.
"No, it's the dead of winter," The child looked down to the frost bitten ground in disappointment, "Why would it be blooming, let alone alive?"
"That's why the villagers called it the 'Dancing Dragon', since it occasionally blooms in winter, seeming to melt the snow around it." The only color in this dead, forsaken city.
"R-really?" He looked up, wearing surprise on his face as long a white eyepatch. The older man all just nodded.
The younger boy ran through the brush, looking in every direction, trying to remember the placement of each tree or plant. Even with a photographic memory, the silver silence interfered with that memory because the last time he was here everything was so alive and flourishing. Dashes of red in between the sickly white, a determined eye of twisted turquoise was searching until...
He found it there, laying in the snow. It's hardened stem was bitten by tiny flakes, the red penciled over in total coal. The beauty shriveled in the icy winter light.
An aching whisper echoed,"...liars..."
.
Lavi wrapped the bandages around Allen's thigh, careful not to pull them too tight. When he realized the body the bed was shivering, he found out he was also. Then he lifted Allen's legs painstaking slow so he didn't cause strain on the gash and pulled them underneath the cover. Then he pulled the rest of the blanket over Allen's body.
"Hope you get warm, Moyashi. Heck, hope I get warm..."
Author's Note:
Carmine: is the general term for a particularly deep red; red color or pigment; the chromatic color resembling the hue of blood;a vivid red color, sometimes with a purplish tinge.
Gosh, sorry I took so long. I'll probably end up making all the chapters short like this. At least your getting a chapter right? I just don't have the patience to write a long chapter...
I'm also playing around with the layout until I like it. Sorry if it bugs you, try to ignore it.
Also pertaining to what Bookman called Lavi when he was younger. I used "_," since we don't know any other aliases names that Lavi had besides 'Deak' so I'll let you use your imagination.
I also made up that flower, cause I suck.
See you at Chapter Three! Thanks for reading!
- SM