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A/N: So Femslash February entries aside, it's been a while and I'm sorry for that. There are various reasons for this but I won't get into excuses. As you may notice, I've changed my username. FYI I will definitely finish *this* story here, but whether this *site* will continue to be a home for any further stories I write (including the promised sequel to LiDB) is up in the air.
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Lavi's expression was as serious as it ever gets as he listened to Marie, nodding thoughtfully at times and even looking vaguely determined, it seemed to Lenalee, as she watched from a distance.
"You think he's really alright though?" she murmured worriedly to Imelda out of the corner of her mouth.
Kanda's head, then his shoulders and upper body, appeared at the railing of the ferry.
"Lavi? Yeah, don't worry. I mean you're right that he's been a little… off… this morning, but I think he'll be just fine. Really." Imelda smiled, encouraging.
Lenalee looked again to Lavi, who had been pulled into a rather serious-looking side conversation by Marie earlier. Had to be at least five minutes of that already.
More warnings, I guess. Wonder why he's still so worried…?
It felt like Allen and Kanda had boarded ages ago.
"Wait— 'he'll be,' you said. Sooo… you don't think he's 'fine' right now?"
Imelda smiled enigmatically as she turned to observe the subject of their conversation. "Right now, I expect he's all wrapped up in Marie's cautions about further akuma possibly arriving."
Is she evading my question?
"Well will you look at that," Imelda tilted her head toward the boat, eyebrows arching as well. "Kanda's staring at Marie so hard, he could spontaneously combust!"
Lenalee wasn't quite reassured, yet still couldn't help smirking slightly at Kanda's constipated glare. It almost seemed as if he thought the only reason the boat hadn't left was because Marie hadn't joined them yet.
"It's like he thinks Marie is the reason the boat hasn't left yet."
"Oh my God Imelda, you just totally read my mind."
"Really?" she laughed. "It hasn't happened so much these past few days because I'm on a mission full of people I've just met, but I usually get that a lot."
"Oh… I can see that." Lenalee had a wild thought just then. "Hey what about Lavi?"
"What about Lavi what?"
"I guess I should say— I've noticed he's been kind of… down… lately— I mean in general and not just this morning. I don't know what it could be about, except that I have a feeling it's more complicated than the kind of thing Bookman would lecture him about."
"I suppose so. What makes you feel he's upset?"
"I don't know. Maybe because he's smiling less genuinely than usual, for one. Or the train ride when he was kind of quiet and sullen— well at least," she amended, speaking quickly; "as far as Lavi usually is, he tends to be pretty hyper, so 'sullen' in comparison —he was like that until we found out what Allen had gotten up to with Timcanpy. And even then it was me who got angry and Lavi just went along with it. Then with that bartender he was all… wistful. He doesn't wear sad smiles like that very often, but when he does… well I know it's not good."
She felt lame describing things like that, but still, it was okay. Imelda would still get it. She wasn't your usual Finder. Lenalee was still shocked she never knew one of the Finders was actually an Exorcist once. And they'd forced exorcism on her too. Imelda would understand it's not just his sadness that's bothering her, but its persistence.
"You're worried about him?"
"Well yeah…"
Lenalee glanced over at Lavi again now and discovered that he clearly wasn't focusing on Marie anymore, absently nodding his head from time to time while staring vacantly toward Imelda and her. They were standing side by side after all. (Raphy, his little bird, and Timcanpy were in the middle.)
Really now, how can Imelda miss the way he keeps looking at her like that?
Just then, Lenalee accidentally made eye contact with him. His eyes widened then, and he snapped back to regarding Marie.
Lavi…? Hold on, since when does he care if people catch him looking?
"Oops," Imelda chuckled, sounding oddly fond.
"Hey Imelda, why do you think Lav—" She didn't finish her sentence, as she realized just who had the other girl's attention. "Huh?"
"I guess you didn't see that? Tim and B'rain were racing and from what I could tell, Raphael was their judge. Tim's throwing a fit over losing now, it seems. Poor Raphy tried to calm him down with a placating gesture— like this." She put two hands up to mime 'stop.' "Tim just bit the tips of his fingers!"
Imelda laughed some more as a very angry, bright red innocence bird berated the golden golem for harassing its accommodator, warbling angrily.
"Wow. I missed a lot there. I guess. But… Brain? Bird of Rain, right?"
"Oh, that's a nickname for his innocence that I came up with before we all went to bed the other night. B'rain likes it, and Raphael's a smart guy so it suits him fine too. I thought you were with us then, but now I remember— you were having a drink with Lavi and the bartender at the time. I guess he forgot to tell you…"
Lenalee sighed unreservedly, and she could see the surprise and dismay on Imelda's face. "He really loves that bird and he has a great memory. He didn't forget. He probably thought it was too embarrassing. Telling me, I mean. Not that the name is embarrassing."
Imelda touched her hand to Lenalee's upper arm. Apology? Reassurance? Maybe both. "Well he does think very highly of you. He talks about you a lot."
Lenalee tilted her head to the side, obvious question on her face: What does he say?
"That you're beautiful, and really great with people. I think he meant that as a comparison to himself, but he's not nearly as awkward as he thinks he is. He says some really funny stuff sometimes, though—"
That fond look again. People hit it off so well with her. Even Kanda! I'm kinda jealous.
"He's a really great guy," Imelda finished. "I guess he just needs people to remind him of that once in a while."
Lenalee may not have had Imelda's skill for reading people, but she knew that the girl was being very diplomatic, just then. That statement was her way of reminding Lenalee that Raphy needed his girlfriend's praise. Yet Imelda conveyed that message without the slightest hint of an accusation she'd neglected him. At all.
Now, guilt began to set in as her doubts surfaced: Does he feel inadequate?
Still?
"Look, it's Allen," Imelda tipped her head toward the boat for a merciful change of subject. They watched Kanda start to leave, but then stop rather jerkily before returning to Allen's side. "Now he's even standing next to Kanda. I knew they'd be alright."
"Those two have come so far in just half a year," Lenalee mused, smiling.
"Oh?"
"They still fight a little sometimes, but they used to get into all-out brawls like all the time. They scrapped like cats and dogs with their claws and fangs out. On that mission where I met Raphy, they were insufferable!"
"So they fought with fists— or maybe with Innocence even?"
Lenalee laughed with genuine mirth for the first time in a long while. "Both."
"Ouch. But they're obviously much better now."
"Yeah," Lenalee agreed, watching Imelda nod vaguely as she watched the strangely blank expression on Allen's face just now.
Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed that 'B'rain,' as the bird Innocence was now apparently being called, had just finished fussing over Raphy's chewed up fingers. If she knew Timcanpy, he was probably looking very smug right about now, but he wasn't in her field of vision.
Although they shouldn't have been able to hear anyway, Lenalee leaned over to whisper confidentially in Imelda's ear; "Except they still bicker like an old married couple."
Imelda found that comment especially amusing, Lenalee observed. She seemed about to speak but instead laughed— breathily yet with definite surprise, covering her mouth as she did so. Lenalee wasn't ignorant to the fact that men were sometimes attracted to each other instead of women, but the thought of these two being like that truly was quite funny when she thought about it.
As if he had been listening, Allen waved rather nervously at the two of them just then. It took only one glance between them for Imelda and Lenalee to both burst out in giggles at this point.
oOoOo
Marie's feeling of unease settled somewhat when he finally found Allen and Kanda below deck. No one in the Sète team seemed bothered by it, but he really couldn't shake the feeling that their entire group was being watched. He might get distracted from it for short stretches at a time, but that feeling from right before they fought off that wave of akuma the other day kept returning intermittently. The previous Exorcists, Finders, and Imelda hadn't noticed anything out of the ordinary, however. Neither had Allen Walker sensed any akuma that hadn't already shown themselves, and Marie himself couldn't hear anything more suspicious than voices of odd tones, or unusual sounds in unlikely places. He thought perhaps Kanda was aware, considering how on-edge he'd been lately, but evidently not even he was on to it.
So what was this feeling? Was he imagining things?
He was about to accept that as the most likely scenario until he heard Kanda and Allen's description of the 'cursed woman' and the little boy she was travelling with. Kanda seemed bothered by the woman somehow. Allen thought it was the little boy who seemed strange— a boy he'd actually met before. He wondered if he should perhaps try napping during the day in order to stay up and listen to their surroundings at night— so he might catch something different. Or maybe he should just go to bed a little later?
After chatting in the lower deck for a minute as stragglers finally began to enter the room around them, the three returned to the surface to bid their final farewells to their colleagues remaining in Sète. The boat was just beginning to depart now. Lavi and Raphael flanked the girls, and a now-peaceable Timcanpy was on his way to reunite with Allen (with Raphael's bird fluffing its feathers at him indignantly from behind— or so it seemed— in the background).
Depending how things go, he figured, we may not see them again until we all get back to HQ…
"Oi. You owe me for the uniform, bean sprout."
"What? So what about mine then, jerk? You struck first!"
One thing Marie always enjoyed about his current company was how their words could be so antagonistic, and yet their respective tones of voice, and the energy radiating from each of them betrayed a certain mutual joy while in each other's presence. Allen's had a certain spirited spark to it, and Kanda's was adversarial and instigating— continually fuelling the resulting flame. This was quite rare for a guy who generally chose to mind his own business and not interact with others. Their horsing around amused the quiet Austrian Exorcist to no end, but it also made him very happy for them both. Somehow, they understood each other in their own unique way.
"Mine's more expensive, idiot."
"What, because you've got that long dress-thing you wear?"
"Dress? My uniform is designed to hide footwork and flow with my movements. At least I don't have short little boys' trousers like yours that flare out at the knees."
"The hell? 'Little boy' trousers?"
The two simultaneously grabbed each other's collars. Other passengers gasped at the seemingly volatile situation nearby. As was customary for them at these times however, the pair were quite oblivious. Feeling eyes falling on him as well, Marie calmly shrugged back at these strangers to intimate that things would be just fine. He knew well by now that it was pointless to intervene once their disputes reached this point. Better to let it run its course. Also, lately, things were a little different—
Just as quickly as their tiff had escalated, the boys suddenly let go of each others' clothing, choosing to glare meaningfully at each other instead. Kanda sneered silently at Allen's uniform and Allen— without any objection from Kanda— inspected the damage he'd done to the other's, picking his way through the fraying threads on the man's lowered arm with the fingers of his right hand. "You know what?"
Kanda's gaze skipped up from Allen's uniform to where their eyes could meet. "What?"
"I've uh… I've got a small sewing kit, you know," Allen mumbled, watching a flap that was already developing at the hole on his arm shift around with his hand gestures. Later on, we can stitch our clothes back into hopefully better shape. I'll let you use it, b-but I'm not gonna do yours, BaKanda."
Kanda crossed his arms over his chest. "Tch. Fine."
He was indeed like a little brother to Marie, yet had endured such unspeakable suffering he knew so little about. At times it even felt almost as though Kanda had lived much longer than he had. Yet despite deep emotional scarring of his own— or perhaps with its help —Allen was able to reach Kanda. He was a good influence that brought out his better qualities, while Kanda consistently brought Allen out of emotional isolation.
As if nothing had just happened, the two settled into leaning against the railing to watch the others, who had begun to wave more frantic goodbyes. Allen waved back animatedly as Kanda stood stiffly by his side. Marie stepped next to them, content to listen to everything happening around them.
That was when he picked up on the voices of Lenalee and Imelda, both now well out of earshot of the other two: "I was sooo sure they'd started up again, but then they just… stopped. I wish I could tell them how happy I am that they're getting along so well."
"I'm sure there'll be time for that later on."
"Yeah, but still… I mean look at them now, just being together like… like comrades."
Kanda sighed in boredom, leaning off the edge of the boat. Allen turned his head to watch their companion's eyes skimming over the sights of the port they were leaving.
Imelda laughed and answered: "I guess that was a lot to ask in the past, huh? But they're obviously—"
"Look how Allen's smiling, too. He looks so… happy. God it's like they're— Oh my God, wait a minute…"
"What?"
Marie's eyebrows rose with his interest at what observation Lenalee might come out with.
"The way they've been getting along lately; the way Allen could even speak right into Kanda's ear at the meeting— as if no one would notice that! —and then the way he's looking at Kanda almost affectionately right now… it's like something's happened between them. Like… as if…"
"Stop looking at me like that, Baka-Moyashi," Marie heard from close by.
"Like what, BaKanda?"
"Like an idiot."
"More like I'm looking at an idiot," Allen grumbled with noticeably false irritation.
He was listening to two conversations at once, but the silence from Imelda, Marie thought, was deafening. Could it be?
"Imelda, you don't think—"
"Oh yeah, they're an item alright," Lavi cut in, squeezing between the girls from behind and placing an arm around each of them at the shoulders. Marie sensed a sharp turn of Imelda's head to face him. "What? She's obviously already figured it out."
"Lavi… you're SERIOUS? Kanda and Allen are—"
"Yes. It seems so," a resigned Imelda finally chimed in before gently sliding Lavi's arm down a little and looking back over her shoulder at Raphael.
"And you knew, Lavi? Imelda?"
"Hey, I just found out after that night we were all drinking together," he explained.
"And I only read it off of Allen and this guy," Imelda cocked an accusatory thumb at Lavi, "last night, myself."
"Oh… oh my God… so it's TRUE, then?"
"Sure they're both guys, but they kinda belong together, don't you think?"
"Oh I don't care about that. No, I don't know why but I'm just so happy for them!"
Marie smiled to himself at Lenalee's realization that made it all make sense for him as well. Honestly, he felt some rather bothersome prickling sensations in his eyes.
"Wait, Lenalee's crying!" Allen shouted from nearby, startled and slightly panicked. "Why is she crying?"
"Tch. Probably that Baka-Usagi's fault," Kanda groused with typical distaste.
"He can get insensitive at times. But Imelda and Raphael are there to help."
Marie dutifully stifled his laughter.
(And his tears.)