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"Sooooooo...Will you tell us what happened at NOAH?" Lavi asked hopefully, so suddenly changing the subject.
Allen avoided his eyes, and began shaking slightly. Kanda looked at his frightened moyashi, then lightly placed his hands on the poor boy's shoulders from behind.
Lenalee clapped her hands together suddenly, gaining everyone's attention. "How about we all go out to dinner later? Allen can tell Kanda whatever it is you need to know, then they can see if they wanna tell Lavi! Is that all right, Allen?" Lenalee looked at him with a mixture of worry and sincerity.
Allen nodded, his shaking subsided slightly. It was okay if he talked to Kanda. He trusted Kanda. Kanda would help, he always did. He didn't have to keep it all locked up, it was going to be okay.
Lavi sighed, resigning to this. He knew he could never force this out, he knew he had no delicacy. And if he tried to force this out then Yuu would kill him, literally, he could tell by the look he was being given.
Bak nodded and put on a fake smile, trying hard for Lenalee's sake to cheer up everyone, or at least change the subject. "So, what's the best place to eat around here?"
That perked Allen up, he immediatly smiled and replied. "Oh! My favorite is the Plena Palatum*! It's this fancy place and they serve stuff from all over, and it's sooooooo good!" He squirmed a bit, day dreaming about food.
"Then that's where we'll go! Lavi, do you know the way?" Lenalee looked at Lavi, and when he nodded, she continued. "Good! We'll make a reservation for 7:30, we'll meet you there." She stood up, grabbed Bak's hand, and pushed Lavi out the door, saying a quick goodbye to Allen.
As they walked back to Lavi's van, Lavi questioned her. "Why did we have to go?"
"It's best if we got you out of there before you were hurt, I bet Kanda would kill you if you spoke one more word. So I decided it was time to go, now how 'bout you take us on a tour of London until 5?"
Lavi bowed with mock graciousness. "Of course, into the carriage you two!" He swung the back seat door open and waved them in.
Back in the house, Kanda was making coffee so Allen didn't fall asleep when he was telling his story. He figured it might be a little long, or at least rambly. Allen had an old quilt over him, and he was still snuggled into Kanda's chair. He had his feet pulled up onto the seat, the quilt only covering his legs.
Kanda walked over, gave the smaller man his coffee, and settled into the couch and waited. Allen sipped his coffee and thought with his eyes half lidded. Kanda looked at the clock on the wall, 3pm.
"I'll start from the beginning, so you can know it all. This'll take a while." His voice was toneless.
"Okay, I wanna know all about you moyashi." Kanda teased, trying to get the snow haired man to lighten up.
Allen ignored the comment and continued. "When I was born, I had the disfigured arm, ya'know? So my parents abandoned me on the stoop of this really old orphanage. The lady there took me in, but she was hounded by debt collectors. The collectors were mean to the kids, and I was knocked down the tall stone staircase a lot.
"Anyway one day, when I was about 4, I woke up to the sound of a motor outside. Me and a few other kids were the only ones awake, so we went outside to see what it was. There was a crane and a wrecking ball, in midswing as we came outside. So instinctively we ran to the sidewalk as the building came down. The collectors had hired a demolition service to get us all off the land, which was used as a collateral.
"Eighteen kids, and the lady died. It was in a bad part of town though, so the police didn't care. Well, me and the kids became street urchins. We lived in the alleys and abandoned buildings near the outskirts of town, but some of the homeless people around there would beat us up. We'd steal to get food and money. They were like my family, the kids I mean.
"Well one day, when I was...I think I was 6 1/2, we heard this whole chatter about a circus coming to town. They were called NOAH. Everyone was real excited, I was too. It was a circus! They never came around anywhere near there. They set up the tents about a half mile from where I was living.
"The tickets were cheap, like 1 pound, so we all got one. It was amazing for us, we had never seen anything like it! There were magicians, beast tamers, acrobats, clowns, psychic twins, and for kids who've never seen it, it was magical. So after we saw the show, we snuck into the back of the tents to see the performers.
"Well, the ringmaster caught us back there. His stage name was the Millenium Earl, but everyone just called him the Earl. Everyone else got away, but I was the youngest and shortest, so I couldn't run as fast. He caught me and started beating me, but this clown showed up and stopped him. Mana begged him not to hurt me anymore, and the Earl agreed.
"But there were conditions. I had to stay with the circus as a servant boy. I was Mana's responsibility. And I had to kill my pet dog that I had picked up off the streets, because they didn't want anymore mouths to feed. I was scared, so I did it. I cried a lot, but I thought this was the end of my sad life. It wasn't, it was more like the beginning of torture.
"Over the course of 3 years, I was constantly in pain. I was burnt by Road the acrobat. I was beaten by Tyki the lion tamer. I was shot by the psychic twins, Jasdero and David. And I was cut up by the Earl. Mana wasn't there by choice, but I never learned the circumstances.
"When I was nine, Mana took me away from the circus. He told me that I shouldn't endure this, and I should go to a real school, not an awful home-school taught by a half-educated man named Lero. We made it three towns over, and stopped at a hotel.
"In the middle of the night, Mana woke me up. There was smoke filling the room and fire licked the walls. Most of the ceiling had collapsed. He shoved me through a small crevice in between a few boards, and it led me out of the building through the back. Mana couldn't make it. I peered around the building, because there was a commotion in front. The circus people were standing there laughing like maniacs, Road was flicking her lighter cap up and down and looked damn proud to have commited arson.
"I escaped, just barely. I ran for a while, and hitched a ride on a cargo boat heading to New York, I worked as a cleaner. When I got off, I hitch hiked down to New Orleans, and worked in some resturants for a while, appearing as a clown in the parade. On the way down, in D.C. I got the tattoo, and my hair changed naturally to silver from stress. I made my way to California, and enrolled myself in high school. Then I graduated, but I was still terrified of NOAH, they did world wide tours, and knew I was still alive."
He stopped speaking and finished his coffee, then looked at Kanda.
"We'll just tell Lavi that they are abusive arsonists, and murderers. He doeesn't need to know what you went through." Kanda's tone was light, and careful.
It was five-thirty now, they didn't need to start getting ready for another hour. So Kanda pulled Allen into his arms and turned on the television. Allen curled into Kanda, crying. He clutched the raven haired man's shirt and shivered. Finally, he was able to tell someone. Finally, he was able to relax. Once Allen had his tears out, they relaxed in the embrace and watched BBC for a half hour.
When they needed to, they got up and searched for dressier clothes. Once they were dressed, they inspected each other. They looked each other over, and almost drooled. Allen was wearing a black suit, a white dress shirt, and a red tie. Kanda was wearing a black suit, a white shirt, and a navy blue tie. Although the clothes were simple, they still looked drop-dead gorgeous. They were each so handsome, and sexy, and beautiful, and perfect, and...and...and...Yeah, without saying anything, they each knew what was going to happen in their bedroom that night.
*-Full Palate
((Yayz! Finally Allen told his story! Did you like it? Did you think it was angsty? Did you think it was cool? Well how are you gonna tell me if you don't REVIEW! Yup! You need to review! BTW, sorry for the wait on this one!))