Warnings: Yaoi, possible OOC, probable cursing, possible violence…maybe
Disclaimer: I do not own D. Gray-Man…if I did, Leverrier would be killed…slowly…and painfully… :D
This chapter is in italics because Allen is remembering what happened to him and his foster father, and he is explaining to Kanda and Lavi what happened.
The small brunette boy walked down the sidewalk next to the tall man in the black top hat. The man seemed to be looking around quite often, seemingly suspicious of something; however, the young boy didn't seem to notice.
"Mana, where are we going?" the boy asked quietly.
"Hush, Allen," he replied gently. "We need to see my brother." He held up a hand to stop the endless flow of questions he knew to be coming, and Allen quieted and concentrated on walking.
As the two turned the corner, the older man sensed something was about to take a turn for the worst. He looked behind him and glanced in all directions before quickly ushering Allen across the rarely used street. Unfortunately, Mana's senses were correct: things were about to take a turn for the worst.
As soon as the pair reached the other side of the road and started to walk past a secluded side street, all hell broke loose. A group of people with almost gray skin and little cross tattoos on their foreheads stepped out of the alley. One man grabbed Allen's arms and held him in place. Another two men grabbed Mana as he fought to get to the young boy.
"Let him go!" he pleaded. "He knows nothing!"
"Guilt by association," replied a man with a strangely decorated top hat and a white coat with tails.
"M-Mana," the boy started with a shaking voice: he didn't know what was going on, but if Mana was scared, it must be serious.
Two of the group laughed. "M-M-Mana," they mocked. One had blond hair, and one had black, but they appeared to be twins. They appeared to be about twelve—the same age as Allen, although you couldn't tell it: the brown haired child always did look a lot younger than he really was.
"We already took care of your dear brother," stated the leader coldly, "now we just have to tie up a few…loose ends."
"Just let the boy go, Adam; he's too young to be involved in this," Mana tried to plead.
"Nonsense! He's not to young," Adam laughed. "Why, the twins here are the same age as he is. And Road and Waizurii are both even younger than him." He gestured to the little girl sucking a lollipop and a boy of about ten who was looking extremely bored with the situation.
"Please," Mana begged the man.
"Oh, shut up, you old man!" shouted a guy with weird looking hair and triangle earrings.
The rest of the group decided they had had enough talking and took it upon themselves to drag Allen and a still-struggling Mana into the dark alley.
The men holding Mana let him go and shoved him to the ground. Most of the group started to attack him. They didn't use weapons, only their fists and feet, but blood was soon spilt. Allen was screaming at them to stop; no matter how scared he was of these people, he wasn't going to do nothing as his father in all but blood was being beaten to death. The guy holding him, however, had other ideas. He hit him on the side of the head and told him to shut up, but he didn't.
The rest of the group seemed to have come to a conclusion, though. They held up the beaten and bloody Mana, told him to pay close attention, and turned him to face Allen.
"Allen," the beaten man called, "always remember to keep walking, no matter what. Never give up."
"Shut up," growled one of the men holding him.
The man holding Allen tightened his grip before nodding to another guy who looked like he was Portuguese. "Joido," he called. (1)
The man—Joido—stepped forward with a knife in his hand, and Mana's eyes widened.
"Don't hurt him," he called weakly: he could barely speak above a whisper now.
Joido laughed evilly. He stalked toward Allen, grabbed the boy's brown hair, and jerked his head back. He chuckled when he saw the pure terror in the young boy's eyes. Joido started to carve a pentacle—The Noah family's symbol—into the boys face above his eyebrow. He brought the knife down across Allen's eyelid as the boy screamed in pain. Dimly, Allen heard Mana protesting in the background. He jerked his head to the right and the knife cut into his cheek sideways. The Noah growled and pulled the knife down in a straight line, ending next to his mouth. The boy's tears, for he was crying by now, ran into his cut and stung his face. The Noah brought the knife up and made another cut just under his eye. The Noah holding him suddenly let go of his arms and he fell to the ground.
The Noah family kicked him around a little before they all left the alleyway.
"Mana?" he called worriedly. He got no response. He started to crawl toward his foster father. "Mana?" he called again anxiously.
When he reached his father, he knew it was too late. Mana was dead, and he wasn't coming back. He was all alone again, just like he was before he met Mana. He pulled the older man's head into his lap and wiped the blood from his face as best as he could. Soon, however, tears and blood started to fall onto Mana's face from his own, and Allen decided to give up the attempt.
Then he hunched over Mana's body and cried. There was nothing else he could do, and he couldn't just leave his father there alone in the alleyway, even if he was dead. The boy sat there with his dead father for a long time before he finally passed out from the pain and shock of what had happened. He wouldn't even be found until the next morning by one of the worst kinds of people: Marian Cross.
Lavi and Kanda wore equally shocked looks on their faces.
"Because of the stress and trauma, my hair turned white shortly after," Allen explained. "Then Master Cross took me in." Allen shuddered just thinking of that man and his debts.
Kanda scooted his uncomfortable hospital chair toward Allen's bed, and Lavi left the room quietly, knowing that he should give the two some time alone.
"I wanted to apologize for what I said a few weeks ago," Kanda told Allen sadly.
Allen's head shot up. "W-What?" he asked, thoroughly confused.
"What I said was hurtful, and completely untrue. I shouldn't have said it, and I can understand why you're mad at me," Kanda told him. "I didn't even know why I said it until I talked to Tiedoll. What he said made a lot of sense. I didn't really know how to treat you, so I treated you like I would anyone else, but…well, the rest can wait until you're better."
"I'm not mad at you!" Allen told him, shocked.
"Then why were you avoiding me?" Kanda asked him incredulously.
"I thought you hated me! I didn't want to force you to be around me if you didn't want to be."
"I don't hate you," said a relieved Kanda. Allen was definitely in a better mood now; the look on his face was like pure bliss. Kanda was in a visibly better mood too, which didn't happen often. Things were finally looking up for the two of them.
(1) So, Joido is technically Tyki Mikk, but in a new volume that came out, all the Noah are shown and some have different names, so I'm using those because it's a lot less confusing than some having their regular names and some having their Noah names or whatever. Oh! And The Millennium Earl's real name is Adam.
Sorry this is out so late in the day; my family wouldn't let me get on the computer this weekend, even though I begged continuously. :)