Chapter Title: Family

Chapter Description: As a strange welcoming into the family, Tyki and Road come to see Allen during his first night as a Noah. Even as he's having trouble adjusting, the Earl brings some news that makes Allen quite unhappy.

A/N: So, I decided to continue this! Yay! I guess if I'm continuing it then I need to give you some info, eh? I'm setting this after the Timothy arc, except Wisely and the other Noahs have been found and whatnot. By the way, Tyki and Road are both going to be big characters, along with Lavi, Bookman, Lenalee and possibly Krory and Komui. I'm not sure about who else yet, but there will be lots of mentions of other characters as well. I'm hoping I can find a way to bring Cross into the story as well, somehow. Anyway, relax, read and please review! I'd like to give mad props to everyone who has reviewed so far, you all have made my day. Oh, and there's just a bit of Lulubell bashing in this chapter. Sorry. I hate her.

Disclaimer: I do not own -Man, because if I did then Bak Chan would be appreciated far more for the fantastic person who he is.

--

"Place all your bets and watch me lose the life that I got but never used."

-'Out Through the Curtain' by The Hush Sound

--

It was hard to sleep that night. The lack of familiarity with his surroundings was unnerving and the fear from sleeping in the same place as so many that had wanted to kill him before was unsettling. Though there were no hard feelings from anyone, it made him anxious to sleep under the same roof. Each Noah had their own special and personalized room in the ark; Allen's was not yet ready, though the Earl, his new master, assured him that it would be exactly to his liking.

So, until the time that the room was properly prepared, he was to sleep in a comfortable but plain room. Apparently it had belonged to a former reincarnation of the Lustful Noah long ago, but had stood empty for some time. The walls were painted white and were devoid of any sort of decoration or ornamentation. There was a bed, a desk and an empty dresser. Since Allen had brought nothing with him, not even Timcanpy, there was nothing to fill the dresser with.

It would be easy to conjecture, however, that his lack of shut eye stemmed from the fact that at dinner that evening he had betrayed each and every one of his friends, telling the Earl the structure of the Order, where its weak points were and the personalities and weaknesses of each exorcist, but it wasn't true. And the tears that fell from Allen's eyes did not come from the fact that he was a traitor to everything that he had formerly believed in, they came from all of the pain that his head was in from his transformation.

"Having some trouble adjusting, lad?" The smell of smoke spread through the room, and Allen turned to see Tyki sitting on the desk on the opposite side of the room from the bed that Allen was lying in.

It wasn't surprising to Allen that he wouldn't have much privacy here. Being a former exorcist there would be a certain aura of suspicion surrounding him at least for the first few days that he was staying there. It was perfectly obvious to him that he would not be allowed to be anywhere alone for quite some time, but it still surprised him a bit that it was Tyki that the Earl sent to check in on him. "How did you get in here?"

"My special skills." Allen sighed; he had momentarily forgotten about Tyki's ability to selectively choose what he wanted to touch. It would be absolutely no problem for him to get into Allen's room without any warning at all. That was not a reassuring fact in Allen's mind. "But that's irrelevant, lad. I'm bored. Let's play some cards." Allen just stared; that was just about the last thing that he expected him to say, in fact. "It's been a long time since I've had anyone to play with. Humor me for a bit."

Allen turned his head from Tyki to the ceiling. "I'm trying to sleep." Was his excuse, though it was a weak one. Anyone who looked at the boy could see that he was too troubled to sleep that night.

Anyone, in this instance, included Tyki. Even on the grey face of a Noah a person could see remnants of tears, stress and betrayal. Tyki would know; he had those same feelings multiple times after becoming a Noah. But nevertheless, there was a part of Tyki who respected Allen; at least he wasn't trying to take the easy way out of this and keep contact with the exorcists. For Allen there would be no double life; he would live the rest of his days as a Noah if he continued this way. A commendable thought, in some respects.

"Well, quit trying then and play some cards." Finishing the cigarette that he was smoking, Tyki put it out by grinding the butt into the wooden table. As he spoke, he took his pack of cigarettes from his pocket and put one in his mouth. "No one here can play a decent game except for the Earl, and he's a bit too busy to waste his time with aces and spades. Road's too childish, Skin was too stupid, Jasdero has too little of an attention span, Wisely can read my mind and know when I'm cheating and Lulubell is too snobbish. That leaves you and me. Do you have a deck, or should I go get one?"

In response Allen shut his eyes and tried to block out the sound of a match being struck and the smell of smoke coming from the newly lit cigarette. Tyki's habits reminded him of his master, no, his former master's habits. Either way, it still disgusted him. But the pictures that ran through his head were almost as disgusting, in a different sort of way. The only images that he could envision were those of Lenalee Lee. Smiling, laughing, fighting and the disturbing scenes of her crying. The one thing that he could not shake was the image of the two of them, their lips touching and the way that his heart had pounded as they had done that.

When he saw the boy's eyes fly open, Tyki continued to talk. "You know, that time that we played together really stuck with me. When I was killing you (the time that I didn't actually succeed, I mean) I really regretted the fact that I was taking one of the best cheaters that I had ever met. You really-"

"Those people who were with you on the train," Allen said suddenly, sitting up in his bed. "They were human, right?" Laughing, Tyki nodded. "Was that before you became a Noah?"

None of the other Noahs, with the exception of Road, had ever bothered to ask about his double life. The Earl knew, of course, but that was to be expected. The Earl knew everything about his pawns at all times; without that knowledge he would not be able to run the sort of operation that he did. Nevertheless, it was vaguely touching that Allen was asking about that, even if it was for the kid's on selfish purposes. "Yes, they were human and no, it wasn't before I became a Noah." He paused. "They were just friends of mine."

For a moment Allen stared at Tyki; he didn't know what to think. He wouldn't have thought that his killer would have been a good friend with the creatures that he was supposed to be killing. "Who were they?" The words popped out of his mouth before he could control himself; Allen was curious. There must have been something pretty special about these people to capture the attention of Tyki Mikk.

Momentarily Tyki looked a bit surprised at the question, but then after taking a drag on his cigarette he chuckled a bit to himself. "Just a couple of coal miners. Nothing too special about any of them. The two-knucklehead guys are sort of funny at times though. Eeze, the kid, he's something special. It'd be nice to get him into a school or something." He paused to put his cigarette in between his lips. Allen noticed that he wasn't wearing his vagabond clothes or a tuxedo. Instead he was in the sort of casual clothes that Allen would have never imagined a Noah to have. "He's unusually smart. Kept the three of us in line."

"It sounds like you all were close, even though they were humans. That's sort of out of character for a Noah." There was a bitter edge to his voice that Allen didn't mean to have. It wasn't that he didn't want to be a Noah, or did he? He didn't know; he was unsure of his feelings. What he did know, however was that there was no turning back now. For the rest of his life he would be loyal to the Millennium Earl, and that was something that he didn't want to change. This was his home now, and he would eventually forget about the humans that he left behind.

For the first time of the evening, Tyki's face turned from cordial to irritated. "You sell us all short, Walker. We're not all sheep. That's only Lulu." He chuckled a bit at his own joke, but the noise was different from when he was laughing earlier. There was an edge to the noise that made the hair at the back of Allen's neck prickle. "I have my own mind, and yes, I'm loyal to the Lord Millennium, but it doesn't mean that I don't have my own opinions." There was silence as smoke, once again, seeped out of Tyki's mouth. "Some humans have their purpose. Those three idiots were some of those humans."

"You seem to have a weak spot for those guys." Allen said quietly, not making eye contact any longer.

Trying desperately not to lose his temper, Tyki spoke calmly. "It's the same with you and your exorcist friends. They were to me what your Order friends are to you. As impossible as it may seem, a person can learn to like another person and because of that they don't want to see their names slandered and-"

"Tyki, I think it's time that you left Allen alone." From a crack in the door, a voice came. "You don't want to frighten him on his first night here, now do you?"

Sighing, Tyki stuck another cigarette butt on the desk. "Don't worry Road, I think he's already been traumatized enough by our family. A bit more by me won't hurt him any." There was now a small charred mark in the place where Tyki was angrily grinding the former cigarette. Anger oozed from him as he spoke. "Now why are you here, Road?"

Laughter came from the girl as the door opened revealing her entire body. Slowly, she walked into the room and sat down next to Allen. "Same reason you are here Tyki, I'm worried about Allen." The girl put an arm around Allen's shoulders; she was warmer than he was.

"I don't think your father appreciates you late-night escapades." He was no onto his third cigarette, and Allen was starting to fear that his room would become a chimney. An image of a room full of air filters came to Allen's mind as to what Tyki's room probably looked like. "And I wasn't worried about the idiot, I was bored." The nonchalance in his voice was forced, and both Allen and Road knew that he was lying. Neither one, however, would call him out on it. "He's good at cards and I'm good at cards. It's natural that I'd want to play a bit."

Road set her head on Allen's shoulder. "But you're using your scary voice right now. Has my Allen done anything to upset you?" There was a giggle in her voice as she turned her attention to Allen. "Have your old exorcist habits reared their ugly head?"

"No." His voice was cold, colder than he meant it to be.

As she began to snuggle up closer to Allen, Road continued to giggle. "You're not in a very good mood, are you Allen?" Choosing to ignore her, he tried to inch a bit away from her. "Tyki, try to cheer him up a little, will you?"

Sighing, Tyki took another drag on his cigarette. "Could you stop that?" Allen asked quietly, but with a deadly undertone to his whisper.

Surprised, Tyki looked up. "What?"

In that moment, it seemed like Allen Walker had finally cracked. "I said stop smoking you damn idiot, it's disgusting!" It was an unusual sort of outbreak, and the two other Noahs stared at the boy. In her surprise, Road even dropped her arms from around Allen and leaned back a little bit.

There was a knock at the door, and it opened to reveal the Earl. "Allen-pon," Tyki groaned at the nickname that the Earl had given to Allen. Apparently he was now the favorite, and though Tyki was glad to be rid of the idiotic nickname, he still felt bad for the kid for inheriting it. "It's late now, you should be sleeping. Road, Tyki-pon," Tyki groaned again, apparently he was not yet off the hook. "Leave my new apostle alone for the night. You all can play together in the morning, especially because I have a mission for the three of you!" The way that the Earl spoke was full of child-like excitement. When Allen was an exorcist he had thought that the Earl's speech patterns were frightening, but now he just found them endearing. "I've decided that we're going to take out the Asian Branch of the Black Order, and I'm leaving you three to do that."

Immediately, Road's face lit-up. "Are you serious?!" The Earl nodded and Road jumped up and gave him a hug. "That's wonderful! Thank you so much!" Tyki nodded at his master, but Allen sat there silent.

Images of the people at the Asian branch ran through his head. Bak Chan, Fou, Rou Fa… They would all become casualties if they were to attack. There would be no warning and there weren't any exorcists there to make a counter attack. The worst part was that without Allen and his powers to control the Ark, there was no way that reinforcements would be able to make it in time.

Tyki took a deliberate drag from his cigarette, not caring about Allen's outburst a few moments before. "That's quite an honor, Lord Millennium. We'll do our best. Right, lad?" Numbly, Allen nodded, not quite sure what to do.

He knew that he would have to fight these people, that his former friends were now the people he would be expected to kill, but Allen had thought that it would have taken a longer time. That possibly the memories of the people who he had once known would fade with time and it would hurt less to destroy the people themselves. Apparently, his wish to have a little time to himself for thought would not happen.

"Ah good!" The Earl said. "Now get some rest, you three. I want tomorrow to go smoothly and with no mistakes!" His attention turned to Allen. "No one is to make it out of there alive." With those words, the Earl left the room, humming softly to himself. Immediately all attention turned to Allen.

"You feeling alright, lad?" Tyki asked as he put out the cigarette. The actual caring in his voice made Allen want to be sick. If it weren't for the brotherly love that was being forced upon him by his Noah DNA, he would be trying to strangle the man. "You look sort of sick."

Road crawled closer to Allen, but didn't dare to touch him. "Don't worry Allen. We're your family now, and family looks out for one another. The Earl wouldn't have you do this unless it was for your own good." Gently, she lifted her arms and held Allen. "We all love you Allen, and all we ask is that you love us in return."

Not able to fight them anymore, a few tears fell down from Allen's face and onto Road's back.

--

Fin.

Coming in chapter three: While Allen adjusts to his life as a Noah, Lenalee has a hard time going on without Allen by her side. Even knowing that they're supposed to be enemies now, she can't bring herself to hate him or to tell the rest of the Order the truth about him being a Noah. So what will happen when the clan of Noah, including Allen, attacks the Asian Branch and a witness escapes? Wait for chapter three to find out!