Thanks to the two people who reviewed. Ah, but I was really sad cuz no one gave me any ideas! :'( So, if y'all got somethin ya wanna see, then lemme know! And I'm still looking to change the name too *sigh*
Disclaimer: I don't own DGM.
Lenalee opened the door to find Kanda holding a little boy dressed in an overly massive shirt who looked remarkably like Lavi. But before she could start to swoon, she went over the facts:
Lavi didn't have any family. Or, if he did, he'd renounced it long ago so there was no way someone related to him could be here.
This was the Black Order; there was a very real possibility that Lavi had been caught up in one of her brother's old experiments (she'd learnt that Kanda and Lavi had been asked to clear out some old research department stuff so it was very likely).
She smiled. "That's Lavi?"
Kanda nodded. He held out the child as if he were something poisonous. Lenalee made to take him but the boy started to wail and clutched Kanda's sleeves as tightly as he could. "Papa!"
"I'm telling you, I'm not your dad!" Kanda snapped. "Just go to her! She'll take better care of you than I ever will!"
"But papa!"
Lenalee hung back, watching as Kanda tried to put down the unhappy child. Papa? She smiled to herself.
"Just go! It's only for a while! And it's not like I'm going anywhere!"
"B-but…!"
"I promise I'll be right here, okay? How's that?"
So, trying his best and failing to hold back huge tears, the little Lavi was placed on the ground and pushed towards Lenalee.
"Hi." Lenalee smiled as she squatted down on her knees to get level with the boy. "And what can I do for you?" The boy refused to let go of Kanda's pant leg. How cute! She thought.
"Can you take care of him?" Kanda asked.
She tried to get the boy to let go of Kanda and come to her but Lavi refused. She kept trying for a while but to no effect. Kanda swore under his breath. "All right, it can't be helped. Where do I get him clothes?" He looked embarrassed.
She rolled her eyes. "How about a baby shop?"
He gave her a blank look. "Is there one around here?"
"Sure there is. In town. Just ask around and you'll get there."
"Is that all? Clothes are all I need to get, right? I don't need…other stuff…like nappies, right?" he looked very uncomfortable.
She chuckled. "No, I'm sure he'd already big enough to use the toilet by himself. Aren't you?" She put a hand up and gently squeezed the boy's cheek. He backed away and clutched Kanda's pant leg with both hands.
"Tch, you're such a wuss," Kanda reprimanded. "All right, we're going. And walk on your own, idiot." He tried to shake the boy off but Lavi wouldn't budge. He groaned and turned and walked away with his usual stiff gait, wary of the little creature clinging to his leg as if it were a lifeline.
Lenalee chuckled. What a rare sight.
Halfway to his room, Kanda had to pick the boy up again. "Tch, you're so troublesome." He chastised, though he tried not to sound too harsh; this little Lavi really was a wuss. I'll never have kids. He vowed.
"Papa not like Lavi?" the little boy asked, moisture in his eye.
"I never said that. And don't call me papa."
He cheered up. "So papa does like Lavi?"
Kanda frowned at him. "I have to look after you; it's not a question of like or dislike." The kid suddenly smiled. "What's so amusing?"
"Papa look after Lavi!" Lavi answered happily, his little arms twining around Kanda's neck and holding on tight. Strands of red hair tickled Kanda's cheek as the boy buried his head in the man's shoulder.
It was strange. With each passing minute, he couldn't believe that this kid was his best friend. It was absurd. Lavi wasn't soft like this, he didn't have this air of innocence, and for a long time now he hadn't looked this happy…behind his bright smiles, Kanda knew of the pain that lurked from the past.
But this was the Black Order; things happened here which were beyond the ordinary and his closest friend getting turned into a little runt was entirely plausible. He was holding his friend and he would be looking after him for another two weeks in this state.
And he resolved then and there that he would provide Lavi with the best care he could, so that the redhead would be joyful for a change…because being cheerful…truly cheerful, instead of pretending to be so, was what suited Lavi best.
When they reached Kanda's room, the man put the child down and went to get his coat. He was slipping the garment on when he glanced back at Lavi and froze. There was a curious expression on the boy's face and one chubby hand was reaching out to the Lotus Hourglass.
Kanda strode over and slapped the hand away. "Never touch that!" he growled.
Lavi's features screwed up and he started to bawl. "Shit…" Kanda muttered. He heaved a sigh and dropped down to one knee and rested a hand on one tiny shoulder. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have shouted. Lavi, come on, men don't cry."
"B-But…!" Lavi couldn't even get any words out past the huge sobs.
Kanda was feeling sorry for himself. What a stupid situation to be stuck in! But, he had to at least try to take care of the runt. "You want to go outside? We'll get you some clothes and then…" he wracked his brains to come up with something that a kid might enjoy doing, "we'll…we'll get ice cream!" Hey, it was the first thing that came to mind.
Slowly, the sobs abated and one green eye looked up at him. "R-really?"
"Sure. Come on." But before he stood up, he took off Lavi's bandanna (which had now slid down to circle the boy's neck) and eye patch. What he saw underneath was something he'd never seen before. Lavi was usually very particular about his eye patch. Kanda had called at Lavi's room early in the morning once and Lavi had still been sleeping with the eye patch on. Kanda had never seen what was underneath.
It was grotesque. The skin was marred by a thick scar and the actual eye was sunken a little, and though it wasn't open wide, all he could see of the eyeball was redness. He stared at it for a while, trying not to let his disgust show. It was horrible. No wonder Lavi covered it up.
Obviously, the weird formula which had caused Lavi to become a three-year-old didn't remove major wounds attained in the past.
"Pa…pa…?" Lavi muttered, looking at him with uncertainty on his little face.
Kanda shook his head to clear the useless thoughts. He untied the bandanna and then wrapped it around Lavi's head so that it covered the ruined eye and tied it up again. He wondered what to do about the shirt; the spring afternoons were cold these days so he couldn't let a child go out with a garment that was falling off one shoulder.
He got an idea. Since Lavi wore a size a little bigger than Kanda's, the Japanese man's old shirts would fit just a little better. He had one shirt stashed away in the back of his closet which he'd had for years.
He'd not had a good look at it for a long while so he was surprised at how small it was. He then took it over to the puzzled Lavi and asked him to put it on. Lavi tried to remove the overly large shirt but succeeded only in tangling himself up in it. Kanda rolled his eyes and removed the garment. He unfolded the smaller shirt and he slipped it over the boy's head and pulled it down.
"There. Better, right?" he asked, looking at his handiwork. Not much, much better but at least it wasn't trailing on the ground or falling off the shoulders anymore.
Lavi looked down at himself and then gazed back up at Kanda and smiled. "Yes papa!"
"Great, we can go now."
Though he realised the kid might still end up catching a cold. But he couldn't think of anything else. They would just have to hurry up and find that clothes shop.
They'd barely been walking for a minute when Lavi said, "Papa, pick up!"
Kanda huffed and, bending down, he hefted the little boy up. Lavi wrapped his tiny arms around the man's neck again and settled against Kanda's shoulder once more. He stayed that way for so long Kanda began to get suspicious.
"Oi, Lavi?" But he got no response. "Hey, rabbit, why're you so quiet?" He still didn't get a response so he tilted forward to force Lavi's head back. He was sleeping. Kanda sighed. Damn brat.
He finally found the shop, after asking around for a good half an hour. Once inside, he stared around. He'd never been to a shop like this. There were shelves of general child goods, racks of clothes, displays showing toys of all sorts.
Kanda went to the lady behind the till at the back of the shop. She looked up and smiled. "Good afternoon, sir. How may I help you?"
Kanda looked uncomfortable. "Um…I need some clothes for this kid?" Because he was so uncertain, his statement ended up sounding like a question. He hated being unsure of himself, even if this was just a ridiculous trivial matter.
"Of course, sir." The woman stood and came around the counter and went to a rack of clothes. "How old is he?"
"Um…three, I think." Kanda replied, feeling awkward. He wondered if he should wake Lavi up. It would be better that way. So he tilted the little boy back, cradling him in his arms and gently shook him. "Lavi, get up."
One green eye opened lazily and then blinked a few times. "P-papa…"
Kanda eased him up so that he was leaning against his shoulder again. "We're getting you some clothes. You should try them out."
The woman picked out some outfits and held them out. "How about these?"
There were black pants, with dull white shirts and black waistcoat vests. One of them even had a beret hat. It was that one which Kanda let the woman help the boy into, along with a pair of shoes, after he paid for the items. He said a hurried "thanks" to the woman at the till and exited. One of Lavi's hands was clutching the material of Kanda's coat as he walked and the other held the bag of clothes, because he was so very eager to hang onto it even though the bottom was dragging on the ground.
They'd been walking a while before Lavi spotted a child eating an ice cream. He tugged at Kanda's coat. "Papa, ice cream!"
Kanda groaned. He'd forgotten about that. His shoulders slumped. "All right." A promise was a promise.
Kanda didn't often come to wander around in town; whenever he did come he had a tendency to get whatever he needed and head back to HQ as soon as possible. He didn't like to dither. But even so, since the war had ended, he'd found that he had a lot of spare time on his hands and Lavi hadn't hesitated to drag him off to places like cafes and ice cream parlours, to "enjoy" himself. That was the only reason why Kanda knew where such places were.
"Is papa not gonna eat?" Lavi asked as Kanda handed him a cone topped with three scoops of different flavoured ice cream. It was what Lavi usually got every time he dragged Kanda to this damned place. He liked his sweet foods. But it looked ridiculously large in the child's hands.
"No. And don't call me papa."
The cone was being held in dangerous angle. Kanda was sure the ice cream was going to drop (which would probably result in Lavi bawling) so he sat the boy down at a bench that they'd been walking past and, taking the bag from the redhead's small hand, he urged him to hold the cone properly and finish eating quickly.
Kanda was sitting rigidly, glaring at anyone who went by (especially the women) who looked at him and the child beside him with expressions that said "aw, that's so sweet!" when he was interrupted by his silent fuming by the boy speaking up.
"Papa?"
Kanda cast the child a sidelong glance. There was ice cream thickly spread all over his hands and mouth. The man could feel his mouth curling up in disgust. "What is it?"
"Lavi need wee-wee."
Kanda balked. "S-say what?!"
"Wee-wee."
"I know what you said, dammit! All right…um…then go do your business behind that bush over there." He pointed across from the pavement, fully expecting the brat to heed his words and take care of his own problems.
Lavi looked at him, his expression one of incomprehension. "Eh…?"
Kanda groaned and, pulling a tissue out of his pocket, he threw it at the little boy. "First, clean up your face and hands and then go relieve yourself over there."
The boy still didn't understand.
Kanda refrained from smacking a palm against his forehead only by a huge effort of will. Heaving a huge sigh – probably his thousandth one that day – he stood up. "All right, just hold it awhile until we get back home."
"But…!"
"No buts!" He glared. The boy quailed and looked down, eye tearing up. "Clean yourself up."
Lavi picked up the tissue and started to clean his hands and his face. He tore the tissue and ended up spreading the mess over a wider area. Kanda wanted to smack his forehead again but bent down before the child and, taking the tissue from him, he wiped off the mess and threw the dirty wad aside. "Come on, then, we're going back." He hoisted himself to his feet and the boy jumped off the bench too, taking a fistful of Kanda's coat as he began walking.
They'd barely been going for a minute when Kanda felt a pull at his coat. He looked down. "What?"
"Need wee-wee badly." Lavi mumbled, his one green eye huge and pleading.
"Ugh…I told you to hold it."
"B-But…Lavi can't!"
"Goddamn…" Kanda looked around.
There was a field further down the road which had plenty of trees at the border. That was the best place he could think of.
When he had managed to get the kid in a suitable spot, he started cursing. Lavi couldn't open the fastener for his pants so Kanda had to help him. I am never going to have kids. He vowed with conviction. Ever! What a pain!
The pants needed to be changed because Lavi wet them. Kanda made a note never to let the kid pee with his pants anywhere near his legs, because he couldn't quite control the direction of his…shower.
Finally done, Kanda all but dragged the child back to HQ. He was thoroughly pissed off. Lavi's bawling at the harsh treatment had died down to pathetic hiccupping sobs by the time Kanda stopped at his room. Kanda didn't pay him any mind and went to sit on his bed, figuring it wouldn't hurt to calm himself down by meditating some.
But instead of clearing his mind, he found himself dwelling on the little sniffles he could hear from the corner of his room. He couldn't concentrate with those sounds raining on his ears. He didn't like noise in general but these sounds especially didn't sit well…He sighed and opened his eyes. "Lavi."
"Hmm?" Lavi mumbled after a sob. Kanda lifted a hand up and motioned the boy over. He got up from the floor and warily approached. Kanda patted the space beside him. "Sit down."
Lavi did so. The sobs died down. Kanda tried to meditate once more. He'd almost reached that state of tranquillity when Lavi spoke.
"Papa is…mad at Lavi…?"
Sighing in irritation, the dark-haired man opened his eyes again and stared at the little boy. "No, I'm not."
"Really?" The green eye glittered hopefully.
Kanda reached a hand out and patted the head of red hair. "Yeah."
Lavi smiled and sat a little closer.
Haha, the wee-wee scene is probably my favourite one so far...but then again, there is that action-y kinda scene later and cuz I'm a morbid person by nature, that's probably my favourite :D but, anyway, that's a looooooong way off yet so no worries, yo!
I hope you people enjoy reading this crap :)
haha, but I bet I turned away LK yaoi fans when I said "there's no yaoi in this" in the summary. Tch, too bad.