Beloved
A -man story
ch. 6 Traveling

The weather was surprisingly warm and pleasant. The past few weeks had been filled with cold, powerful and annoying storms, so it came as a relief even to Yuu to finally enjoy a bit of the sun's warmth. Granted, it didn't look like it would last for the whole day, if the dark clouds in the distance were anything to go by. As such, it came with little surprise to Tiedoll to find his little apprentice outside, basking in the sun while carefully tying his now shoulder-length hair.

"Good morning, Yuu" Said child instantly turned his gaze to greet the elder with a nod. "Did you eat already?" Another silent nod "The, gather your things, we're going" The boy seemed a bit disappointed at the prospect of having to move, but nonetheless got up and went back into the inn to take his belongings. As soon as he came out, the two started walking towards the train station.

It was a bit unnerving, Tiedoll thought, seeing Yuu so quiet, but he had a vague suspicion it had something to do with their destination. He had become like that since last night, when he first mentioned it; at first, shocked, then he seemed to calm back down, flash a grim expression and then…this. Completely silent and uncharacteristically calm.

They arrived in the station just as the train did. They wasted no time to get on and receive a compartment just for them, somewhere in first class. The conductor offered to bring them drinks and food, but Tiedoll kindly refused, saying they already ate and, besides, it was only a one-hour ride.

As they started moving, Froi found himself eying his apprentice. He had grown a bit taller, eyes as dark as ever and hair neatly tied at the base of his neck. He already had stronger muscles than some full-grown men and skills to match. Unfortunately, along with his physical growth, came his mental, which Tiedoll found surprisingly amusing. The kid's vocabulary could easily be split in two: the basics and insults/swears. Honestly, never had he met someone with such colorful words. He'd also become more cocky, though, he was magnificently strong, so let's say he could back up his attitude.

It had been almost a year since Yuu had taken his offer and had become his apprentice. In the beginning, he almost thought he would change his mind and kill them all, what with the incident with the finders, but he had thankfully found out what was happening in time and put a stop to it. In the process, also gaining some more respect from the younger. Thought, he suspected he won't have a very good relationship with other finders from then on. Not that he had a good relationship with other people, but still.

Thinking back, he was a bit upset at himself for not noticing in the beginning. When they arrived at the inn, Yuu had instantly fallen back asleep, both exhausted and still under the influence of the level two. Tiedoll had left him in his own room to sleep, while he took it upon himself to, first, have the finders guard the door, and second, call the supervisor. He wasn't stupid. He knew he couldn't call central who, obviously, didn't care what would happen to the boy; however, if he called headquarters, Nero could "insist" they make him an exorcist since there weren't all that many, and "every man counts" At first, Fox listened quietly to all the explanation Froi had to offer, after which he gave in and said he could go ahead and get him as an apprentice, reassuring him he would talk with the higher-ups.

When he went back up to inspect his new charge, he found both finders eying the door with outmost fear and suspicion. Of course, he burst out laughing at their hilarious expressions, which resulted in a full-out argument between the three that unfortunately woke up the small exorcist-to-be. That was the second everyone found out just how scary a ten-year-old's glare could be.

For the next few days, the finders seemed to have something going on, but Tiedoll ignored them, choosing instead to concentrate on Yuu and making him open up a bit. He dragged him shopping, saying he couldn't buy by himself since he didn't know his size, he then went with him to all kinds of restaurants after finding out he never actually ever eat real food, just some pasta (if he was lucky) with an unnatural amount of pills. It was nice to see the usually grumpy child enjoy his life a bit.

The first hint that something was wrong came when Yuu refused in any way to leave Tiedoll's side for more than five minutes or be outside of hearing range. He also seemed uncomfortable in the presence of just Edgar or Alexander, avoiding them like the plague. Not to mention he seemed to develop a habit of being on guard all the time and almost always play with his innocence's tilt, as if waiting for something to jump at him.

Froi, however, became seriously suspicious when the finders insisted they follow them for another few days. He intentionally announced he was leaving for a few more minutes than usual to look around, while telling Yuu, who became as stiff as a rock, to not move. As soon as about seven minutes passed, time in which the two elder men were just complaining about random things, Yuu seemed to finally relax a bit. And the second that happened, Edgar had a cotton dripped in sleeping drug at his mouth, while Alexander snatched his innocence away. Before he passed out, the only thing he heard was "Central will be happy…"

When Yuu woke up, he was surprised to find none other than Tiedoll at his side. His instinct was yelling that he was involved, but his logic said differently. And his logic was right. When the boy looked around, he found they were in a forest, the general's innocence activated and one humongous doll was pinning the two finders on the ground. That was also the first time he ever saw the man with such dark eyes that it sent chills down the boy's spine.

In the end, Froi found out they had tried a few times before to kidnap Yuu, but because he started sticking close to him, they didn't have as many opportunities. Apparently, Central had contacted them and told them to catch the "abomination" and drag it back to them.

The train suddenly came to a stop and Tiedoll realized they arrived to their destination. "Come on Yuu, we still have a bit of a walk to do. And we don't want to be late, right?" He cheerfully said as they got out. He had a pleasant surprise to hear the boy actually talk, though, not loudly, when he heard a murmured "Whatever" and "Who cares" "stupid" "idiot dump" or something along the lines.

For twenty minutes, the general took it upon himself to make the other talk again, and he's efforts were answered, not very pleasantly, but alas, this was still a good result. "What the hell do you want!? Can you please shut the fuck up already!?" "Aww, don't be like that Yuu!" "Don't patronize me you old geezer!" "Now, now, there's no reason to yell" "Oh for fuck's sake!" And so on and so on, until "Ah! Here we are!" moment in which the other instantly shut up.

Another twenty minutes later which included a lot of stairs, Yuu was introduced to the Black Order Organization.

A/N: Yay! A new chappy~ woo~ . . . *aham* right, so, Kanda's at the HQ now :D I think I'll write one more chapter or maybe two and that'll be it! Because I told myself where I want to finish, but I don't know…we'll see when we get there, right? :) Please review if you feel so inclined~ Thank you for reading!