Chapter Five
Road yawned widely and blinked as the world around her came slowly into focus. She looked blankly at the clock next to her bed. She had really slept late. It was 10:00. It was unlike her to not be up by 8:00. Of course, Allen was almost always up earlier. He woke up around 7:00 regardless of whether he had anything to do, and he did his morning exercise. She wasn't sure what his routine was, but he was pretty fit, so whatever he did, it worked. Next, she looked at the calendar. It was December 25th. She had never really cared about Christmas in the past. It had always been inconsequential. Her parents never did anything for Christmas, and when she went to the Earl, he denounced Christmas as Christian drivel.
Vaguely wondering what Allen did for Christmas, she swung her feet over the side of the bed and sat there for a moment, not really thinking about anything in particular, just allowing random thoughts to wash through her mind like a river cutting through a valley. After a few minutes of silent contemplation, she stood and put on a sweatshirt and walked downstairs. On her way down, though, she tripped, and flew down the stairs, crashing at the bottom. Allen looked up in alarm, having been sitting in the kitchen, and raced over to Road, helping her stand up.
"Are you alright? What happened?" he asked her with a worried stare. She noticed as she stood that there were several other people watching silently from behind the wall. If memory served her correctly, they were Miranda Lotto, whom Road had met before, Lavi Bookman, and Arystar Krory.
"I-I'm fine. M-Merry Christmas, Allen, um, and everyone else…"
As she acknowledged the people behind the wall, their heads disappeared, and she began to hear whispering. Sighing, she shook her head loose and sat down on the step until her head stopped hurting. She then looked at Allen until he invited her over to the table. Road heard as the other four rushed to the table to appear as though they hadn't been watching, and they all stared at her suspiciously as she sat down. Her hair was still long and rather messy, as she still hadn't gotten a haircut. Lavi seemed the most suspicious of all of them, and he seemed also openly hostile toward her, refusing to look her in the eye.
"So, Road… Your hair is a mess, and you look like you're one of those kids on the cereal boxes…" Lavi said, still not looking at her. Was he… making fun of her? It didn't really bother her that much, though. Was he looking to make her angry? To get her to hit him or something? If he was, it wasn't working. Before Road could say anything, though, Allen spoke.
"Lavi!" Allen protested. Lavi looked at him blankly.
"What?! It's true. She's as skinny as a rail. Have you not been feeding her or something, Allen?" he asked with a cold laugh.
"Actually, Lavi… She looks much better than she did when I first saw her. I came to Allen's house about a week ago, and she was a real mess. She seems to be doing well," Miranda said with a polite smile, although Road at least could tell that it was fake. Arystar didn't say anything, but Road could see the suspicion in his eyes. She had always been pretty good at reading people, and Arystar was wearing his distrust all over his face.
"S-so, would it be… Count Krory, then?" Road asked timidly. Arystar looked at her in surprise. He didn't expect her to know anything about him, especially not that his father had been of noble blood. Technically, of course, that meant that so was Arystar. He had given all of his money to the Black Order, though, and he didn't regret his decision at all. They had helped him to move on after his beloved was killed, admittedly by his own hand.
"That was my father's name. Please just call me Arystar, Miss Kamelot…" he said indifferently. Then he looked at her again and asked, "Why do you care, anyhow?" Road looked at him, and then glanced away.
"I-I was just trying to make conversation. I don't blame you for hating me, though, Arystar," she said politely, bowing and looking away. She was a little bit hurt by what he had said, but not enough to leave the table. That would be extremely rude.
Road thought silently for a minute. She was wondering vaguely if even she hated herself. And if she hated herself, how could anyone else do anything but hate her?
"Why are you even here, Road!? Allen was nice enough to take you in, but now that you're healthy again, you should go back and live with your own kind! What would make you think you're even welcome here?!" Lavi burst out angrily, slamming his hands down on the table, causing Road to recoil in shock, and fall off her chair. She hit the back of her head on the floor and groaned as she sat up and got to her hands and knees, and almost immediately hit her head on the edge of the table, causing white stars to burst in her sight. Her field of vision went all white and fuzzy, and it felt like her entire head was swimming. Finally, the dizziness subsided, and she stood up, though, and muttered something about not being hungry. She then bowed politely to everyone and walked up the stairs to her room. Maybe it was time for her to leave. She was healthy again… At least she was healthy enough to travel to Tyki Mikk's home. It would be a long journey, but she could make it. She didn't have any personal possessions to take with her, so she stripped the sheets off of her bed and began tying them together. It seemed a little bit clichéd to climb out the window like that, but she needed to leave without anyone seeing her go. It would be for the best.
Meanwhile downstairs, Allen was yelling at Lavi. He knew that Lavi was hotheaded sometimes, but he never expected him to burst out like that.
"Why did you say that to her!? I told you before you came that Road was going to be here! I asked you if you could be polite to her, and you said yes!! Whar's wrong with you!?" Allen yelled, his arms flying over his head with an urgency and tenseness rarely seen in the white haired exorcist.
"What's wrong with me? What's wrong with you!? You're the one who decided to start babysitting a Noah!"
"FORMER Noah!! Besides, the Church already made their decision, and she has to stay! She doesn't have a choice! And beyond that, I like having her here!! She's not the evil, nihilistic psychopath that she used to be anymore, and she's really smart, and polite and pleasant!" Allen yelled, his voice rising ever higher. At hearing this, Lavi smirked and stepped back with a dark chuckle.
"I think I get it, now. You like her, don't you?" he asked calmly, his face a perfect picture of smug satisfaction.
"So what if I do!? Are you going to tell Cross on me!? What about the Church!? Perhaps they need to know, too!"
In the other room, Arystar and Miranda shifted uncomfortably in their chairs. Allen didn't mean for them to hear, but it was kind of hard for them not to when his and Lavi's voices were carrying throughout the entire house.
"I'm sorry, Allen. I got carried away. I just… Her comrades killed Bookman. I can't forgive them for that."
"And I'm sure they would say that they couldn't forgive us for the Noahs that we killed, Lavi! It was war. People die! Wars always have casualties. They always have victims, and both sides are going to lose in the end, because violence isn't the answer! Hatred isn't the answer either. It doesn't solve anything, and it doesn't make people's suffering go away. If anything hatred makes people's suffering worse. Now excuse me. I need to talk to Road."
As Allen got up to Road's room, he heard a thump, and he tried to open her door. He knew that he should probably knock, but he didn't know if he had the time, and knocking would alert her to his presence, so, he took a paperclip out of his pocket and picked the lock, bursting in and seeing Road climbing out the window just as he was walking in. He ran over to her as quickly as he could, and tried to pull her in, but Road pulled away from him in an attempt to escape.
"I'm sorry, Allen. I can't burden you anymore. I'm sure that your friends will never accept me. And you'll never be able to act normally around them if I'm here. I have to leave. I have somewhere to go now. Tyki invited me to stay with him. I feel certain that if I go to his house, he'll let me in, even though I said no before."
"Road! First of all, I don't care about what my friends think of you! Their opinion of you isn't important. Second, you aren't a burden to me! And third, if you leave, the church will hunt you down! They'll find out that you left eventually and they'll look for you. And if they find you, they'll execute you! I can't allow that to happen!"
"Allen! Let… Go!!" Road said, pulling her hand out of Allen's grasp, but losing her grip on the makeshift rope at the same time. Allen gasped as she plummeted to the hard cobblestone street below, and he heard her hit the ground below with a loud crunch. He watched as her left leg landed first and it cracked and buckled under her, and she fell back, hitting her head and being knocked unconscious.
Allen took a short, sharp breath in and ran back to the door and down the stairs, shoving Lavi aside so hard that he fell over. Allen then ran outside and looked at Road as she lay unconscious on the sidewalk, blood splattered on the stones from hitting her head so hard. He looked up angrily at Lavi, who ran out a second later, and grabbed him, shoving him against the wall of his house, punching him in the face.
"Why did you have to do that to her!? She already felt guilty enough without you yelling at her!" he screamed, even as Miranda and Arystar pulled him off of Lavi. Miranda then ran inside and called the hospital to come pick up Road. She then walked outside and removed her coat, putting it on top of Road and looking sadly at Allen.
"Allen, I'm sorry this happened, but maybe it was meant to be this way. I'm not so sure that it's wise or healthy to become too attached to a Noah, former or otherwise," Miranda said, taking Allen into a warm embrace. Allen pushed her off of him, though, looking at her in disbelief.
"I can't believe that you of all people would say something like that!" Allen yelled, just as the medics came rushing up in their cart. They picked Road up off the sidewalk, and Allen pushed Miranda lightly aside and walked with them, getting into the back of the cart and riding off to the hospital.
Road slowly felt sunlight filtering through her eyelids as she came back to consciousness. At first, she felt nothing. It was like she was floating in a void; no pain, no fear, no regrets… just silence, and peace. It felt nice, but then she remembered that she had been talking to Allen just seconds before she fell. Then, there had been a shooting pain in her leg, and then… nothing. It was like everything had left her when she hit the ground. She knew that didn't make sense, but that was what seemed to have happened.
Moments later, she felt a white hot agony searing through her entire head, and her eyes shot open and she flew up in her bed, breathing heavily from the pain. This only made it hurt worse, though, and she was quickly pushed back onto her pillow by Allen, who had been sitting there, watching her. He looked awful. He had dark circles under his eyes and his hair, which was usually neatly combed was terribly askew. He almost looked funny, but Road wasn't really in the mood to laugh. She looked at Allen with somber eyes… eyes that Allen hadn't seen since he first ran into Road again almost two weeks earlier. Had it really been that long? Fourteen days since he found her sitting in that alley, nearly dead? It seemed much shorter, despite all that had happened in that time period. Eight days, they had been in the hospital, and all eight days, Allen was there, and awake, waiting for Road to wake up. The doctors had said after two days that they would call him if anything changed, but Allen wasn't willing to leave.
School had started that day, and Allen wasn't there to see who his new teachers were, and who he knew from his classes. He didn't have any close friends in the school, considering he had gone to public school for the first time just a year ago… maybe a little bit more.
"Allen? Why are you here?" Road asked quietly, rubbing the back of her head. When she pulled her hand back, it had blood on it. Allen smiled apologetically.
"Yeah, I should have told you right when you woke up. You aren't supposed to touch your bandages. You had quite an injury to your head, and it still bleeds quite a bit."
"Oh. I didn't expect you to be here. Aren't you angry at me for trying to run?" Road asked timidly, blushing slightly as she remembered Allen grabbing her hand like he did. It was as if he considered her worth saving. Did he?
"No. Why would I be angry? What Lavi said was really insensitive. I can understand his feelings, though. The Noah killed his mentor, Bookman in the final battle. I suspect he still holds a grudge against you for that."
"I-I see. Then he really does hate me… Just like the others," Road said miserably, only confirming what she was feeling all along.
"I don't think they hate you, Road. They just… Aren't used to not being your enemy."
"Allen… You don't need to lie. I understand that they hate me, and I don't blame them. I sometimes feel like I even hate myself. It's like I just want to curl up in a ball and die," Road said quietly, half hoping that Allen wouldn't hear her. He did, though, and he pulled her up from her pillow into a hug.
"But if you died, then what would I do? Go back to living alone in a house that's too big for one person but too small for two? You know, just because I'm the one who picked you up doesn't mean that I haven't enjoyed my time with you. I'd really like it if you'd continue to live with me. I'm not quite sure what I'd do if you left."
"Allen! What are you saying!?" Road asked with a gasp, her eyes wide.
"I-I think that I really do love you, Road…"
"Allen!? You really shouldn't joke about things like that!" Road said urgently, blushing heavily. Allen shook his head, walking over to Road and taking her hands in his, cupping them gently.
"I'm not joking. I don't understand it myself, but something has happened in the two weeks since I ran into you, and now I think…" Allen said. But his words were lost in his mouth as Road kissed him. It was the second time that he had kissed her… but the first time that it had felt this good. He never thought that he could possibly be so happy that Road was alive. Back when he was in the Black Order, he felt sure that he would hate Road forever, but it was strange how destiny showed itself to those who paid attention.
