Alas, here is the update. TWS is being beta'd at the moment, so here is another peace offering. And such. ^^

Firefox was a $%^& and crashed and I lost a number of reviews do to its lameness. Please don't let the lack of an answer on my part discourage you from writing me again, I'll try to answer faster in case it happens again. :D

Disclaimer: I continue not to own D. Gray-man. If I did… Tsunaida te ni Kiss wo would have been sung by a guy. Who doesn't crack.

WARNINGS: MEN TOUCHING EACH OTHER SEXUALLY. Personal jokes about Tyki's older brother. Lavi's antics. Etc. Etc.

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Chapter Five: Hopes and Reservations

"Um… do you have garlic and lemon juice?"

"If this is garlic, yes."

"Lemme smell," Lavi reached out from his place at the table, and Tyki placed the lump of white root in his palm, the papery outside of which crinkled in the boy's hand. It was rather ridiculous, this affair, but there was no way for him to get around it, not after a number of less than savory dinners, lunches, and breakfasts. Lavi didn't seem to know if he knew how to cook, but he was willing to do what he could, even if that was only spice matching. He seemed to have a better idea of what went together than Tyki did – the potatoes smelled delicious. "Yes, that's garlic. How can you not know what garlic smells like?"

The Noah smiled at the Exorcist and retrieved the proffered seasoning from his extended palm, shaking his head. "I specialize in taking things out of people. Not what goes in."

The words mollified the redhead – he had gone on too many rants about flavor and nutrition to go on another one – and he slumped against the back of his chair with a pointedly lax turn to his lips. His shirt was unbuttoned to the point that it showed his collar bones, his sleeved rolled to his elbows, but it was the way he leaned on one arm, his right leg stretched out casually beside him that made him look like a lounging cat in the kitchen. His pants were much too large, belonging to Tyki, but he wore them so the loose fabric gathered around his ankles, almost as if he knew the bruises that the fabric covered.

Lavi unleashed a loud, almost comical sigh. "For the sake of your innocence," the redhead mumbled, "I'll pretend I can't make a sexual joke off of that, and tell you to take the skin off of three cloves."

Tyki laughed good naturedly at that, glad to have the reference to a sexual reference than the actual reference itself. "This whole thing is a clove?"

"No!" Lavi's lazy expression turned frightened. "One of the little parts is a clove. If you stuck three heads of garlic in your chicken… we'd sweat garlic, piss garlic, breathe garlic—"

"Alright, I got it at no." Tyki ripped three small cloves from the head of garlic and began to peel them, frowning all the while.

From there it was an adventure in chopping and seasoning and marinating, none of which Tyki would have done well without Lavi's guidance. He didn't like guidance, not really, but by the time he was finished, the meal looked and smelled pleasant enough that he didn't particularly mind that he had made it while taking orders from a blind, forgetful Exorcist. He only cared that the chicken was moist and tart, and the rosemary flavored potatoes were cooked just enough to be soft, and the corn oddly sweet and yet salty, balancing the chicken and the potatoes in place of wine. It was an early dinner, but a large one, and he was not surprised that Lavi looked the part of an overfed tomcat when he was finished, lazing against the tabletop.

Another bath would be in order tomorrow, but Tyki didn't think it mattered at the moment. Instead he half supported the crippled boy into the room that they had nearly come to share and let him settle against the maroon duvet, at once curled on his left side, too comfortable and full to do aught else. There was no use of the pillow or war with the blankets, just Lavi's form slowly relaxing against the bed, a crooked little smile on his lips.

"All I ever do is sleep." He complained into the blanket, and drew the feather filled fabric against the side of his face.

Tyki smiled and touched the boy's hair, which was much softer and cleaner than he had thought it should be, before smoothing his palm down Lavi's cheek. "You should brush your teeth and then do just that. In the end, you'll be stronger for it." That, at least, wasn't a lie. The more rest Lavi got, and the less traveling, the better off his ankle would be. Not that Tyki should have cared.

"Stay?" The request wasn't entirely unsurprising, all things considered, but Tyki found himself taken aback by it nonetheless.

The bed sank a bit under his weight and Lavi moved at once to touch him, which the Noah did not mind at all. It was good to have those thin, boney fingers twined in his, and lovely to feel how the redhead shuddered at the simplest touch of lips on his cheeks. It was delicate and slow, soft and unreasonable, but Lavi could draw him into a kiss with little more than a needy tilt of his head or a well emphasized gasp. And it was getting worse. With every passing day the redhead grew more desperate for something, and Tyki felt himself responding to that silent (or verbal) call, each time a little more willingly than before. The Noah didn't know what would happen if he gave in, or what would happen if he didn't, but his mind was slowly, day by day, being made up for him.

This time Lavi moaned at him – whimpered at little more than the press of lips to his cheek. An answering shiver rippled down Tyki's spine and he did it again, closer to the boy's mouth.

"Please…" Lavi caught the back of Tyki's neck in his palm and leaned in close enough to plant a soft kiss on the Noah's lips. "Will you…" He didn't finish, instead his left hand touched Tyki's chest, just over his heart, and pressed gently.

The Noah shook off his uncertainty and pressed down his guilt, fought away the feeling that this – no matter how he looked at it – was wrong, and just kissed the Exorcist. The sensation of lips on his and a curious tongue pressing passed his teeth was enough to make it easier. The redhead was good at kissing at least, perhaps he retained the muscle memory, and the soft caresses lead Tyki on, guided him down to the boy's neck and, over time, his exposed collar bones. The skin there was pleasantly thin against Tyki's teeth, though which part of him saw fit to bite into it he didn't know. He only knew that Lavi groaned at it and clutched at his hair.

Perhaps it was a gift from Noah that Tyki could instinctively find the places on a person's body that were most sensitive, most eager. Choosing to ignore them usually made for a night of frustration for his partners – and Lavi was frustrated enough. He touched them. Tyki dragged his fingernails over the boy's stomach and smiled at Lavi's unrestrained shiver, the obliging arch of his back. Tyki moved his mouth as low as Lavi's shirt would allow and then up again, delighted in the taste of the younger man's skin, the faded flavor of wood smoke and garlic on his tongue.

"Tyki," Lavi tugged at the collar of the larger man's shirt. His face, or at least what Tyki could make of it, was gaining color with every touch. "If you're teasin' me, I'll find a way to get back at you."

The Noah brushed the redhead's fingers aside before he arranged himself more comfortably on the mattress, a knee between the Exorcists's, right hand holding him over the smaller man's body. He grinned. "I don't think you will, actually. I am quite literally untouchable."

The redhead scowled fiercely and jabbed a well placed knuckle into Tyki's ribcage. "I won't help you cook." His lips turned up in a smile that might have been coy and he lifted his right hand, touching the bandage on his face. He tugged it loose and then off, but his eyes, now pink and red in the whites but otherwise healthy looking, remained closed, fluttered tightly shut.

Tyki didn't reprimand him for it. Instead he felt himself smiling softly when those eyes came open again and turned blindly toward his face. "I've lived with my cooking for about half of my life, Lavi. What makes you think garlic and lemon juice is worth a little teasing?"

"Hmm…" Lavi's eyebrow furrowed and his head cocked to the side, but it was his hands that lit a little spark of desire in Tyki's stomach. They fluttered down to either side of his face, half fisted, as if the boy were suddenly shy. Lavi bit his lip. "I could always…" His eyes flicked but didn't focus on anything, but the illusion was there, green and red and glittering in the dim light. "I could always…" He began to blink repeatedly, turning his head from side to side.

"Lavi?"

The boy smiled so wide, it was a miracle his face didn't crack. "Light," he hardly whispered, the absolute joy on his features so radiant, Tyki almost felt guilty for wanting to have a part in it. "I can see light. I can… there's… Tyki!" The Exorcist threw his arms around the larger man's neck and dragged him into a deep, almost toothy kiss, grinning too widely into it. Lavi couldn't hold it long, too excited, and pulled away abruptly, still keeping the older man close. "I can see light!"

"We should look at your—"

"Celebrate with me!" Lavi cut him off with another hurried, wet kiss. "You and me, naked in celebration!"

"Lavi…"

"Well, I'm gonna do it, up to you if you join me."

The Noah knew it would be right to be an adult and logical and tell the boy no, they needed to look at his eyes and test them first, but what did it really matter? With a sly smile on his lips and his left hand on the smooth skin of Lavi's chest, he pushed the redhead back against the maroon bedding and nuzzled into his throat with a soft sigh. They could do this, part of this, and it was better now than if Lavi remembered with the return of even partial sight. It was a chance. "Alright, alright…" Tyki breathed in a gradual breath and held it, all too aware of the hands wrapped around his shoulders. "But we need to be clear about some things—"

"You can have whatever you like; I don't remember tryin' t'save myself. Heh."

"Horrible joke." Tyki grunted, and pulled back enough to see that Lavi seemed capable of locating his silhouette when he moved. "You wanted this, so if a time comes when you regret it, you can't blame me. Also, I want you to ask before you touch me – just this once. Even if you are exceedingly good at knowing where parts of me are, I do not want to be surprised and accidentally hurt you." Tyki pushed Lavi's shirt still higher, grazing his fingertips over the hollow of the boy's chest, which was deeper than it looked. They both shivered. "You aren't that strong yet," he added in a softer whisper.

Lavi nodded, his arms still twined around Tyki's shoulders. "Then we're not having violent sex are we? Not until I'm stronger?"

Tyki hummed while he thought about it, bobbing his head to the right. "We'll see. But no, not this time."

"Oh well." Lavi lamented with a shrug.

"Indeed." Tyki agreed with a nod. He moved down again, until he could press his lips to Lavi's and slip his left hand between them, down the smaller man's chest, across his hips, and against his upper right thigh. It surprised him a little how Lavi responded at once, pulling him closer, deepening their kiss, their contact, until Tyki let his fingers slip through the Exorcist's pant leg without even thinking about it. The touch, and the ensuing shiver that went through both of them, broke the kiss and brought Lavi's right hand to the Noah's chest, fingers splayed as if to feel that much more.

Without too much thought, Tyki obliged.

The redhead tugged at the material of Tyki's shirt, for once ignoring his senses and blindly groping for the buttons. He hissed when one eluded him. "Let me feel—"

Tyki nodded despite the fact that Lavi couldn't see and helped him one handed, a bit taken aback by the desperate quality to the Exorcist's movements. "Because you can't see?" He asked stupidly, as the redhead's hands went sliding up and down his skin, memorizing it, it seemed, by the care the apprentice Bookman took.

"Because I want you." Lavi's voice had a lilt to it, as if he thought Tyki was ridiculous for not realizing it. His hands spread against the Noah's flesh and curved up over his shoulders under the fabric of Tyki's shirt, then smoothed down his back. The redhead's expression changed to one of utmost amusement. "I must look like a skinny toothpick to you, huh? You're broader than me."

"And about seven years older. You aren't that skinny, just a bit under nourished." Tyki observed honestly, and moved to divest the Exorcist of his shirt, mostly for the sake of seeing his wounds, but out of his own desire as well. It was strange to him, how much he was fine with this, how much of it was perfectly logical to him. It would have been more so if he had killed recently, but the thought of it was cut off at Lavi's right hand slipping stealthily down the front of his pants, knowing exactly what it was doing.

The redhead smiled and the Noah had to wonder if he had gasped or moaned at it, too distracted by the internal workings of his own mind. "Sorry, did you not want me to touch this?" Lavi cocked an eyebrow and fisted his left hand in Tyki's shirt, dragging his face closer. "Or am I a blushing virgin and don't know it?" He curled his fingers gently around the Noah's length and gave a slow, tender stroke, grinning. It was a decidedly mischievous expression that came over the Exorcist's face, with a hint of something more, like tenderness and hope wrapped up into one strange mask that hid his fear. He was breathing heavily already.

Tyki shook himself and kissed the boy beneath him. It didn't matter if he wanted to please Lavi, or that this wasn't the point in a relationship in which he usually let someone else touch him there. It mattered that Lavi was smiling and almost shirtless, the pale skin of his chest almost papery in the insufficient light, weak like no Exorcist had the right to be. It made him think human thoughts and want human things, seeing how human Lavi was in the shadows. "You won't be able to reach for long." Tyki breathed against Lavi's lips and sank sideways down his throat in a line of half-gentle kisses, each one harder than the last.

Lavi leaned his head back to expose the full length of his throat. "Why not?"

The Noah nibbled at Lavi's right collar bone, ignoring the question and the hand on his manhood. He left a line of open mouthed kisses in his wake on his way down, until he pressed his left hand to the clothed crotch of the redhead's pants, and cupped his palm around the heat there. The fingers on his own length fell away, unable to reach without straining, and he moved closer to the edge of the bed. He stopped to lick the skin over Lavi's belt.

"Oh." Lavi whispered belatedly. "Ok, then."

Tyki smiled against the boy's navel and stroked with his hand down and up again, then down once more, feeling Lavi shiver. "If I hurt you somehow, do tell me."

Lavi chuckled, buried his right hand in Tyki's hair. "What if I like it?" He said the words so off-handedly, so happily, that Tyki found himself unable to worry at them. The redhead was so sure that what would happen would be good, that there could be no ill no matter how little he enjoyed it.

The thought almost made Tyki pause. Instead he pressed his open mouth to the pleasant bulge in Lavi's borrowed pants and breathed, his fingers pressed to the boy's hips. It didn't surprise him when the bones under his hands lifted in encouragement, but the sound of disappointment Lavi made did, quiet and airy. The fabric of the Exorcist's clothing was a hindrance. With fingers that were surprisingly steady, he pulled the button open on the redhead's pants and then unzipped them, never letting his mouth leave the place it had come to rest at the base of Lavi's arousal. He had to pull away to let it free of the material, but he did not take the time to study that given part – he covered it with his right palm and stroked while his eyes focused on Lavi's face.

His name came to his ears like a desperately whispered prayer. It made him want nothing more than to hear it again, louder, like a plea. Just the thought of Lavi begging – Tyki shivered, breath heavy in his throat.

"Tyki—"

He cut the boy off with a slow, breathy kiss on the top of his erection, which made the muscle twitch expectantly against his lips. Tyki smiled and leaned his head into Lavi's fist the same as he opened his mouth and sank downward, taking as much of the throbbing length into his mouth as he was able. He was slightly surprised when the Exorcist didn't roll his hips and instead cursed softly, fingers pulling painfully at the Noah's hair. Lavi had a measure of self control it seemed. Tyki wanted at once to break it.

With a breath through his nose, Tyki slid his mouth upward, sucking softly, and paused to paint hard, quick lines across the head with his tongue. He moved down again, concentrating on timing how long it took him to reach the base and start up, on doing a slightly different pattern with every pass. He did not increase rhythm, nor did he pause for more than a quick breath on occasion, and Lavi's length strained under his touch, hot and hard against his tongue. The younger man made a series of short, high sounds that ended in a low moan, but his hips stayed on the mattress, held in place by a will that Tyki had to be astounded at.

"Fuck you're good at that," Lavi growled; right hand jerking Tyki to continue. His eyes, though focused on nothing in particular, were directed in the older man's direction, the left contracted a bit to the light. "It'd be better if you weren't teasin' me though…"

The Noah fought to suppress a chuckle as he pulled away completely, much to Lavi's obvious disappointment. "If I intended to tease you, you wouldn't be touching me. Maybe we should try that sometime, hm?"

"No. We shouldn't." Lavi jerked on the Noah's hair as if to guide his mouth back again. "You should go back to doin' what you were doin' before I said anything."

Tyki smiled crookedly despite the fact that Lavi couldn't see it. "I'm not sure if we're prepared for that just yet, Lavi." He admitted, pushing himself up the bed until he could lay his mouth on the redhead's frowning lips. He imagined that he could almost taste the disappointment on them when they refused to open for his tongue, bitter and harsh and a bit salty. It made him want to laugh but instead he hummed imploringly and curled his fingers around Lavi's erection.

The redhead's lips parted and his right hand brushed up the inside of Tyki's thighs, pressing at the heat there. The Noah let him. With the layer of his pants between Lavi's hand and his skin, it was a strangely mixed sensation of warmth and roughness, fabric and intimacy. Tyki matched the touch with his own fingers, and slipped his tongue forward the same as he brushed a thumb over the top of the younger man's arousal.

Lavi let out a low, needy groan and tilted his head to the side, breaking the kiss. "Can I—"

"Yes," Tyki answered at once. The hand that fumbled into his pants moved like it knew what it was doing, turning and squeezing with a rhythm that made the Noah echo Lavi's sigh. He doubted now that the boy was the virgin he had seemed to be, and doubly doubted that the apprentice Bookman had ever been half as interested in woman as he had pretended to be. Whatever the case, however, the redhead remembered how to move his right hand in a very pleasing manner, sliding his fingers low at the end of a stroke and teasing across the crest at the top.

"I still feel tired…" Lavi breathed even as he rocked his hips in encouragement. His left hand moved to hide itself in Tyki's tangled hair and he smiled, his fingers buried to the third knuckle. "Even doing… this… I still feel tired."

The Portuguese man didn't know how to properly answer that complaint, so he leaned down and pulled the redhead's right earring into his mouth just far enough to tug at the lobe it was connected to. The shiver that took the body beneath him was echoed in his own spine, fast and too hot to be painful. A startled sound eased through his lips, low and breathy, hitching somewhere along the way.

Lavi let out a laugh that might have been drunk, his teeth flashing in a smile. "Shit," his fingers moved with expert care, his sightless eyes twinkled as he tilted his head and they caught the light. "Stop touchin' my ear, I can't think about where I'd like this with you—Tyki!" Even as he protested he rolled his head to the side, the better to expose the ear he verbally sought to defend. He arched a bit, lifting his chest into the older man's, bending his left leg against the bed to help him in the effort. He pulled down with the hand he still had in the Noah's hair. If he meant to send the mixed messages, if he meant to tighten his hand on Tyki's arousal and give it a long, pleasant stroke, the Noah above him couldn't say, but the redhead did not react adversely when both were rewarded with the press of teeth to the very flesh he had requested the avoidance of.

"Well, are you at least awake now?" Tyki whispered against the wet skin by his lips, and grinned too wide for a moment. It felt good to. It felt good to have Lavi pulling on him, pushing him, a bit like a struggle, though a different kind than he had ever imagined them sharing.

"Yes," Lavi moaned the word and pulled his hair with a lazy sort of tug. "I'm gonna find one of your ridiculously horny zones and drive you nuts with it. Cheater."

Tyki laughed – he couldn't help it. The boy let go of him completely only to take him in an embrace that was far stronger and more certain than he would have given the redhead credit for. With purposeful movements and deft fingers, the Exorcist proceeded to touch and caress every line and dip and turn of Tyki he could find, laying his mouth on some, pressing against the sensitive flesh with fingers in others. It wasn't the innocent, slow, shy sort of creeping exploration he would have expected from a member of the priesthood. It was daring and irrational, without pattern or reason, and the press of teeth on his shoulder only made him pause for thought, rather than growl out his enjoyment.

"You are the strangest person I have ever met, Lavi." The Noah remarked, renewing his movements with slightly more vigor. His hand was slick on the younger man's erection, just enough that when he tightened his fingers, the redhead didn't go from reacting with want to groaning unpleasantly. "Tell me, why is it that you even want this so badly? You say you like me but… is this just… sex? Or are you hoping to seduce me?"

"I have seduced you." Lavi grinned a little and trailed his left hand down the center of Tyki's chest. He brought it to the fabric of Tyki's pants again before he returned to his fingers to their work, stroking with more speed now. His breath was short, but it wasn't obvious in his way of moving any more than it was in his well timed words. "I guess it's a way out, for one… I mean… who am I gonna think about doin' it with if not you? And you said I'm that age right?" He pushed his hips in a snapping rhythm, meeting every rough press of the older man's hand against him. "And even if this is just mutual masturbation…" He fought to swallow, "I'm ok with that. I like you. Never said I loved ya."

Tyki nodded, then remembered the boy couldn't see and made an affirmative sound. Friends. He had those, he understood what sort of connection that entitled, and he could see the two of them like that for the moment. It was true that he hadn't bedded any of the others, but it worked in his head differently when the one he was thinking about was Lavi.

He decided to give up thinking about that however, and focus on making the redhead forget how to speak.

The redhead made a strangled sort of questioning sound and tightened his fingers. He seemed to like the added twisting motion of Tyki's hand, but that hadn't been what he responded to. He tilted his head to the side, breathing deeply.

"Why do you have so many scars?"

It was the last question Tyki would have expected from a blind man, and it was about the last thing on his mind. The words struck him like a blow, stilled his hand, and willed him to draw away, to do up his shirt and walk out of the room – the house – as fast as he could. His breathing stopped. He turned his golden eyes down at Lavi's face, at the pure sympathy there, and was nearly overcome by the urge to crush the Exorcist's heart in his hand, to watch him bleed, feel him break and tremble. But he couldn't do that – wouldn't do that – couldn't—

Tyki threw himself backward, fumbling with his pants as he went. He thought at once of how he had received those scars, how they weren't really his, and struggled to respond with a semblance of sanity. He didn't want to scream. He didn't want to be angry at this person who wore the face of an enemy. "I… just – stay. I—"

"Tyki?" Lavi reached out for him as if he couldn't tell where the Noah had gone, as if whatever had made him daring and curious had slipped out of his grasp with Tyki. "I didn't mean…"

The Noah's back thumped into the door and he immediately thought to phase through it, yet didn't. In front of him, the Exorcist struggled with his too-large pants until he was a semblance of decency, growling to himself all the while, and sat up. The redhead leaned heavily on his right arm. He was tired.

"It's ok…" Lavi's voice broke in his throat, but he didn't try to hide it. "I don't care that you have them. I just want to know why." He fiddled with the blankets in his right hand so that the fabric swished between his fingers. Tyki could hear it when he swallowed. "It wasn't… it wasn't me was it?"

The truth. Tyki realized that nothing short of the truth would work this time, no lies or manipulations of what he knew. It didn't bring back the mood and it didn't make him want to revive it, it made him shift against the door until he sank down to the floor, his shirt hanging from his frame. If it was a phantom ache in his chest or something else, he couldn't say. He drew his arms around his ribcage and shuddered, unwilling to remember or speak. Yet he knew, even as he fought it, he would have to tell the Exorcist exactly what he wanted to know, cast the warmth of the moment aside for that stupid boy.

He didn't want to.

"It wasn't you." The Noah hardly breathed. He watched relief spread across Lavi's features and closed his eyes, not wanting to see. "But one of your… I'm sorry. I should just tell you…" He shook his head and chuckled mirthlessly. "It's just that you asked so easily, and the story isn't a pleasant one, Lavi. When the old wounds don't bother me, I try not to think about them." With hands that still shook from abandoned passion, Tyki set about buttoning his shirt before he stood again, and frowned at the younger man. There were hollows under Lavi's eyes and his right hand twitched in the effort to hold him up. It was good they had stopped.

"I'm sorry."

"You don't have to apologize."

This time, when the redhead reached out, Tyki moved to take his hand and settle onto the bed beside him. "Yes, I do." Lavi mumbled. "It wasn't me, but it could have been. I'm sorry. You don't have to tell me." His right hand came off of the mattress and moved to Tyki's closed shirt, tracing the scars beneath, lingering over the places where they remained most painful. It was disconcerting that the boy could find so much with just his fingertips, but the Portuguese man didn't stop him at once, too soothed by the quality of his voice. "I can't see you, but I think you're beautiful, for lack of a better, masculine, serious word. Some scars won't change that. You're still Tyki."

It was too ironic for Tyki to tell him otherwise. Instead, he pulled the Exorcist against him and, in a sudden, childish moment, leaned himself sideways against the bedspread. The redhead laughed at him softly, but didn't let the moment take away from the honesty, not even when he came up with his fingers still buried in Tyki's shirt.

"I'll tell you the story, if you want me to. But only if you promise to rest directly afterward."

"How can I rest when you just… ruined the mood and left me hanging?"

"By closing your eyes and breathing deeply," Tyki responded without thought. It wasn't that simple, nothing was that simple, but he could pretended with the boy's red hair spread out across the maroon bedding and his pale fingers picking at the buttons of the Noah's shirt. When Lavi didn't respond, Tyki allowed him to reopen the shirt that covered the two very large marks on his skin and touch them with curious fingertips. This time he knew the little sting of pain was real, but he did not hiss like he wanted. Instead, he watched the blind boy's fingers slide down the whitish mark on the left side of his chest and shivered at a matching set tickling up his back.

Lavi's eyes closed. "It went through you? Stabbed? Like…" His left hand, the one in front, moved along the horizontal scar as if he could read what had happened there. "Like a really big blade. But… you should be dead, if that's true. And the edges… even though you act like they don't usually effect you, the edges have that new feeling, like they're still healing, even though they're old. Tyki," his hands both drew away only to pull the larger man into an embrace, the apprentice Bookman's face to the skin of the Noah's right shoulder, "I'm sorry. You don't have to tell me, but… will you be ok?"

Even if it wasn't true, with the Exorcist's voice so very soft and worried, Tyki would have lied for his sake. "Yes, Lavi." He pushed a hand through the boy's hair and sighed, he was growing far too used to having it there to touch when he wanted. "I already am."

-- -- --

Lavi dozed for a bit, glad that Tyki dozed with him. He understood a little better now what had happened before he had forgotten everything, but he did not allow the things he had learned to haunt him. They were done fighting. They were done playing at war. Maybe it was presumptuous of him to think that God would allow them to quit and live normal lives, but he didn't care too much about that. Until lightning rent the sky over the house and one of them died, he would pretend that God was just fine with everything he wanted.

When the knock came at the front door, he didn't think anything of it. Tyki went as stiff as a board, kissed him, and told him to wait quietly, which wasn't something the redhead was going to argue at the moment. Instead, he tangled himself in the topmost blanket – maroon – and let his eyes fall shut, not that he could see much with them anyway. Distantly he could hear voices he didn't recognize, though they sounded familiar, a man and a girl, another man and Tyki. He made out laughter and something like a disapproving tone before footsteps came his way, bringing two voices with them.

"Blind you say? Completely blind?"

"I did have my fingers more or less tangled in his optic nerves, Sheryl."

"But amnesia, too? Are you sure he's not faking one of them?" The man's voice was just outside the door, so Lavi rolled toward it, frowning. Though the stranger sounded a lot like Tyki, it wasn't him. Maybe a relative.

Tyki made a light scoffing sound and the door opened, which Lavi didn't condone worth sitting up at. He hadn't slept much, after all. "No, I don't. Lavi," the Noah's voice was different than it was when talking to the other man, like a caress, like something warm. "There are people who would like to meet you, if you're awake enough. My brother, his daughter, and our mutual benefactor." The warm quality didn't leave Tyki's voice regardless of how very unsure he sounded. Like there was more to it than he let on. There was a bit of light from the doorway, and what might have been two darker shapes of people, but he couldn't tell. It was all too muddled.

Lavi shrugged into the mattress. "Is Shirley your brother then?"

"Sheryl is, yes."

The redhead blinked his blind eyes in the direction of where he usually found Tyki's face and waved a little. "Nice to meet you, Shirley."

Tyki made a sound that might have been of amusement and the footsteps came closer, close enough that he turned his face in the direction he thought might have been the newcomers. When a hand touched his hair he could smell Tyki's cigarettes on it, as well as the slightest hint of garlic. He reached up and touched it with his fingers so he could drag it back to his chest. It was strange to be on display like he was, in front of a man who didn't believe him. He didn't know if Tyki's brother had a place in the war, but he didn't want to think about what might happen if he did.

"Are you tired, Lavi?" Tyki's voice was just where he thought it would be, but the shifting of the other man's feet struck him as odd.

He nodded a little. "I can meet everyone, but I don't think I'll be much for conversation. Will you…" He bit his lower lip and frowned. "I mean, it's rude but… will you stay with me? Until I'm used to them?"

There was the kind of silence that usually went with an exchanged glance that was broken by the sound of hard soled shoes on the floor. Someone else was coming. Before they came in, however, Tyki eased himself down on the bed and gathered Lavi into his arms, looping an arm low on the boy's waist. It gave Lavi sense of false security – the Noah wanted to defend him from the person who wasn't here yet, but his arm offered little to no defense. The redhead didn't care. The gesture made him want to smile.

"I won't leave you with anyone, Lavi. I promise."

The redhead closed his eyes and leaned his head into the Noah as the door opened. He was tired, and a bit frightened, a little worried that the man holding him hadn't explained everything well enough to the people that now occupied his house. Lavi gave up worrying, however, at the press of soothing lips to his forehead – a tiny anchor with which to secure his surety. The hard soled shoes stopped in front of him and he dragged his eyes open, not that it mattered. He felt Tyki stiffen but didn't follow suit, too distracted by the scent of something sweet and the sound of a curious, feminine hum in front of his face. It reminded him of something very distant, like the wounds on Tyki's chest or the strange, unpleasant pang of knowing he used to be able to see.

"Hello, Miss." He hardly whispered, trying to put on a smile. "I'm Lavi."

"Oh, I know." Her voice was younger than he expected, high and light, like something from a child's dream. He wanted to smile when he heard it, so he did, grinned until his eyes were almost shut with the expression.

He extended his right hand. "Nice to meet you, um…"

"Road Kamelot." Her fingers were very small against his palm. There was something more too it, to her demeanor, her strange way of treating him, and it gave Lavi the idea that maybe she had seen him before. For all he knew she hadn't liked him, or had fought alongside her uncle in order to defeat the redhead and his allies. He didn't particularly care.

Slowly, thinking she'd stop him, he turned her hand palm up and traced his fingers across the soft pad by her thumb, then across to her fingers, feeling their length. "Do you play the piano, Road? I think you'd be good at it." By the harsh intake of breath across the room Lavi felt he had said something wrong, but he didn't pay heed to that, either. If he said stupid things it only proved that he didn't remember.

The silence that settled between them was broken when the girl pulled her hand away and touched his wrist, leaning close to him. She might have been studying his face. "You don't remember me, do you?" There was no threat in her voice at all.

He shook his head. "I remember waking up here. And different languages." He turned his head toward the ground, wondering if her shoes fit with her voice, or if they were something more adult. Mary Janes would be fitting, with a pastel dress and candy. "I remember pain and fear and anger, falling, my heart beating like it'd come out of my chest if I didn't stop whatever I was doing. Everything else is just…" He shrugged as best he could, "I don't know. So no, I don't remember. I'm sorry."

Her fingers were like bones on the side of his face, hard and cold and thin. He didn't like them. They weren't like they had been in his palm. "Then you'll play with me?"

"Road." Tyki broke in, his arm tightened on Lavi's waist. His tone was dark and warning, like there was more to her idea of play than anything Lavi could guess at.

"I think I remember poker. I don't know." He answered honestly, and leaned away from her touch and into Tyki's. If he couldn't make them both happy he would default himself to the one he knew, the one with the warm arms and cool fingers. The one he trusted. The others, this child, they didn't seem to know what had transpired between the redhead and the Portuguese man, or at least not at the moment.

Tyki's brother made a tisking noise, loud enough to make Road pull her hand away and walk closer to her father, moving at a strange, dancing gait. That left Lavi and Tyki on the bed together and one guest somewhere else in the house, if the redhead remembered right, but it didn't concern him at the moment. It was something else that hung in the air between the family members, something thick and heavy he didn't have a part in talking about. It made him feel a little sick to think about it.

"Really…" Lavi whispered, and tangled his fingers in the maroon blanket for the moment. "If you know checkers or something…"

A girl's laughter filled the room very softly, but Tyki didn't join her.

"It's quite alright, Lavi, I don't have the pieces."

Tyki didn't try to push him away when he leaned into him and didn't try to stop him from finding a hand to twine his fingers around. That was kind of nice, when he thought about it, even if it made his dependence on the Portuguese man rather obvious. But how was he supposed to act? Bitter and angry? He didn't know. He only knew that these people played games he apparently didn't know, disliked piano music, and didn't seem inclined to have conversations that didn't involve nonverbal communication. It was making him a little irritated.

"So, what does Shirley do?" He asked loudly, turning his face in the man's direction.

"Sheryl works in government." Tyki answered in a much softer tone.

"Oh, sounds important." Lavi tilted his face up toward Tyki's and frowned a little, more out of awkwardness than anything else. He reached out to touch the place the older man's chest was supposed to be and fisted his hand in the shirt he found there. It was rumpled from their early tasks, scented a bit with things they hadn't done. "I'm sorry, I'm tired. And I don't… feel like I should keep you from you family. You can go talk, if you want. I'll be ok." The words almost didn't quake with uncertainty, almost didn't sound like half-truths.

Tyki's hand was very gentle on his face, turning it toward the other two. "Will you sleep?"

"No. I don't want to have nightmares."

The girl made another little sound at that, almost like a laugh, almost like a gasp. Maybe she wanted to know what he dreamed about.

But Lavi couldn't think about that with Tyki's mouth on his and the other man in the room making that sound like he was either going to scream or cry. Lavi couldn't think about anything but the hand in his hair and the fire in his gut, the softness to the older man's touch, the intimacy, the sureness. He wanted melt into the kiss. He wanted to hold Tyki against him and apologize for being whatever he had been, for being a liar or a murderer or a soldier – for making it hard to introduce him when he didn't have memories to recall or eyes to make new ones with. But he couldn't. Lavi could no more melt than he could speak with Tyki so close, his fingers cramping in the Noah's shirt.

Breaking left him breathless and embarrassed. He knew he was blushing but couldn't think of a way to fix it – he couldn't flirt like he normally did, not with the others watching.

"No wonder you don't want to get married." Shirley – or whatever – mumbled breathlessly from his side of the room. He chuckled a little, low and different than Tyki did, sounding like distant thunder before rain. "Though that does not explain why you've never wanted to—"

"Sheryl." Tyki bit out the name like it was meant to hurt his brother, like they had been through this argument so many times he was tired of repeating it. The Noah's fingers were very gentle on Lavi's face, smoothing over his cheeks, then up into his hair, pulling him close. It was like being claimed, only not. It was something more than that, something that the kiss hadn't conveyed, and it made the redhead nervous. "Don't." It was said in a tone that Lavi did not recognize.

There was a nearly silent creaking by the door and the hairs on the back of Lavi's neck prickled. Tyki's grip tightened on his back.

"Does Little Tyki have someone he would like to introduce me to?" There was a smile in the voice but it wasn't the kind of smile Lavi liked or wanted to hear, it was the kind of smile that made his skin crawl and his spine go rigid, like something from a nightmare. Something flickered in the back of his mind, something painful and distant, and he reached for it, reached for a name or a face or an expression, anything that would explain to him his aversion to the man behind him. Finding nothing, only that spark of familiarity, he tilted his face to Tyki again and felt the older man force a casual sigh.

"I told you," the Portuguese man whispered, "not to call me that, Earl of Millennium."

-- --

CLIFFY OF DOOM!!!

Ok. Not really. But still. I'm an evil person, aren't I?

TBC? Reviews are love! Thanks for putting up with my slowness!