Wednesday, November 30th, XXXX
500 hours (5:00 A.M)
It is the early hours of the morning, when the sun is still rising into the sky, the early workers are waking to begin their day.
The moisture in the air had floated down to the earth and stuck to the grass pedals and rested upon the surfaces of cars and houses.
It turned colder from the day before and nearing December the permanent winter weather was starting to settle in over the city. The morning dew on the grass froze over and turned into a thin layer of ice, giving the illusion that the grass had turned white. This ice covered every place the air could touch and would soon melt when the sun shone its strong powerful rays across the sky.
It was a peaceful morning that made you want to just sleep in, relax, and enjoy staying inside, but some did not have the luxury of that option.
"Time to get up," came the rude awakening. Kanda was standing in the door way of the room Allen had been locked in for the night, clad in his signature black outfit and a fresh new band-aid on his cheek.
It was diagonally across the hall from Kanda's bedroom, which was behind the kitchen.
Allen didn't get up from the king sized bed he was laying in. The house had a draft running through it that made Allen think it could actually possibly be colder inside than it was outside, and he did not plan to leave the comfort and warmth of the bed.
"I said, get up," Kanda repeated himself from the doorway.
He walked further into the bedroom and stood next to the bed. He looked over Allen who was facing the other direction; face completely buried into the covers.
He sighed and walked over to the large window of the room and parted the long silky black shades. The dim light rolled into the room and ran over the bed.
Allen didn't seem affected by it so Kanda roughly pulled the covers back from his face.
"Oi," called his deep voice. He moved out of the way of the stream of light so it could hit Allen in the face. When it did he squinted and tried to pull the covers back over him but Kanda prevented him from doing so.
"I said, get your ass up," Kanda yelled, pulling the covers back to Allen's stomach.
"It's too fuckin' cold," Allen mumbled and rolled to the other side of the bed.
"If you don't get up by the time I'm back you really will be cold," threatened Kanda, and he stalked out of the room leaving the door wide open to let even more cold air in.
Allen groaned in annoyance and pulled the covers back over him. Why the hell was he getting up so early? It had to be around five in the morning because the sun's light was barely shining through the window. He wasn't planning on actually getting up and just got more comfortable in his new position on the bed. Kanda's threat didn't scare him; he was actually more concerned about eating than that man. That's when he remembered last night and the information he had given Kanda.
"They're after me, aren't they?"
Allen laid there in bed still. Thinking about that conversation made him sleepier somehow, and right now that was the last thing he wanted on his mind. He was starting to drift back into sleep and closed his eyes; the warmth of the covers was starting to lull him to sleep, when something disturbing enveloped him.
He was all of a sudden freezing and he couldn't breathe. The sting of what felt like liquid ice was thrown onto his head and entered his nose and mouth, making it impossible to take in air. Allen bolted up while throwing the covers of his body, gasping and choking, his hair now dripping wet.
Another wave of the chilling feeling hit him, this time it was his chest and stomach area.
"Ah!" Allen let out a high-pitched sound somewhere between a gasp and a loud whimper. The feeling was unbearable, and he was still confused as to what had just happened.
That is, until he spotted Kanda.
He was standing over Allen. He mustn't have heard him come in the room because the floor was carpeted and the padding of Kanda's feet was muffled.
Kanda was smirking evilly, in his hand he held a red bucket that was posed in his right hand as though he had just emptied its contents seconds earlier. He was holding it above Allen's head, and then Allen made the connection.
"Y-you bastard!"Allen shouted through chattering teeth. He was hugging himself while glaring at Kanda, who had just dumped a bucket full of water brimming with ice onto Allen. His soaking hair stuck to the sides of his face and forehead and his white shirt had become transparent somewhat, and the color of Allen's skin mixed with the color of the white shirt.
"There, are you cold now?" Kanda asked mockingly. He lowered the bucket to his side and was still grinning madly. Then suddenly it just disappeared and Kanda said "It's time to get up," and walked to the door where he stopped when he heard Allen lapse into a sneezing frenzy.
He turned back around to face the room and addressed Allen, "I'd change your clothes if I were you, or you'll get sick."
"Damn it, if you hadn't thrown fucking water on me then I wouldn't have to, and I don't have any clothes!" Allen raged as he moved to get out of the no longer warm and comfortable bed. It was also soaked with ice cold water.
Kanda just shrugged at Allen's statement. "Then I guess all you can do is take the shirt off, you'll get colder slower without a wet shirt on."
"I fucking hate you," Allen gritted his teeth together to stop them from clattering.
"I never said you had to like me," Kanda sighed and walked out of the room.
Allen went into another round of sneezing, covering his nose with his hands. His body was shivering violently, so he took off his shirt as best as he could. His quivering hands made such a simple task quite difficult.
He threw the completely soaked shirt onto the bed and walked to the entrance of the bedroom and peered out from the side of it.
Kanda was in the kitchen again, cooking something in a pot that was simmering on the stove. Allen couldn't smell what it was for his nose was too plugged to breathe through.
He wasn't going to stand just being in a house that was most likely below freezing wearing practically nothing. He walked over to the closet in his room and slid open the doors to see if there was anything in it. He found a single black house robe. It was obviously much bigger than him, but it was better than nothing so he slipped it on. It was surprisingly warm, and Allen buried his face into it to dry his hair. This was when he noticed an uncomfortable sensation in his left hand where the bullet wound was.
He poked his head out of the robe to check on it and rolled back the overly large sleeve dangling over his hand only to see the bandages had also been completely soaked through. The blood mixed with the water and spread throughout the white bandages wrapped around his hand.
Damn it, Allen cursed in his mind, and began unwrapping the bandages. I swear, if this gets infected-
"What the hell are you doing? Get out here," Kanda called from the kitchen.
Allen looked to the doorway to see Kanda looking at him from the kitchen. Once again he had the first aid kit out on the bar table and was waiting to change Allen's bandages.
Allen just sighed irritably and left his hand to fall to his side with the bandages only half unraveled.
Stopping in front of Kanda he showed him his hand and Kanda began unraveling the rest of the bandages himself.
"Who said you go into my closet and get my clothes?" Kanda asked in an emotionless tone.
"Well if your house wasn't the temperature of Antarctica, then maybe I would have thought twice about putting on your damn clothes," Allen replied back in an equally flat tone.
"Hmph."
Kanda was done cleaning and changing the bandages in five minutes, and went to stir whatever he was cooking in the pot.
"What's that?" Allen asked, sitting on a bar stool and crossing his arms. He was going to try to get some answers as to why they were awake so early in the morning.
"It's last night's dinner," Kanda answered while turning off the stove. "It's going to be today's lunch and breakfast." Kanda walked over to a cupboard and pulled out a plastic blue container.
"You mean breakfast and lunch?" Allen teased.
Kanda slammed the container down on the island with unneeded force that made Allen flinch. "Look, don't try to piss me off so early in the damn morning."
Allen shrugged. "Your fault. Why are we up anyways if it's so damn early?"
Kanda started spooning food into the blue container as he answered Allen in a very calm tone. "I'm resigning today."
Wait, what? Allen had his full attention on Kanda now, the grogginess from lack of sleep evaporating like water.
"…What?" Was all he had managed to verbally say.
"Isn't that just obvious?" Kanda said. He put a lid on the blue container and set it aside. He turned to address Allen now. "We're changing location."
"What about me?" Allen asked, stepping from off the stool and becoming serious about the sudden situation.
"You're coming with us to the station and the new location." Kanda said.
"Us?" Allen asked confused, arching an eyebrow.
"Lavi and I."
A small flash of panic ran across Allen's face. Kanda didn't miss it, but he didn't know what to make of it and just let it slide for the time being, because it seemed as though Allen was trying to change the flow of conversation.
"I thought you were going to keep me away from the police station?" Allen questioned, settling back into his previous collected demeanor.
"That was before last night…" Kanda trailed off. "Well I can't exactly leave you here by yourself," he went on to say, and turned back to the pot on the stove to take it to the sink and wash it. This was when Allen decided to finally ask about his beloved items.
"My ring," he started, and Kanda stopped walking. Halfway to the sink, he turned around to look back at Allen. "When do you expect to give it back to me?" It sounded almost as if it wasn't a question, but a flat-out demand for an answer.
Kanda stared at him for a few seconds, then turned back around and walked to the sink to set the pot in it. "When you can be trusted."
Allen had actually expected that answer. "Which is when?" He said in the same flat-out tone.
"Most likely never," Kanda said so simply it just irked Allen to his core. He tried his hardest not to find some sharp item in the kitchen and stab the Asian man where he now stood. That would be counter-productive as Allen very quite well needed him at the moment. He decided to ask about everything else.
"And what about the things you took from me last night?"
Kanda filled the pot with water to the brim then let it to soak in the sink. He reached into his pocket and took something out of it. He walked over to Allen and placed it in his hand saying "here."
Allen looked at it, it was his lighter, and because there was no gas in it Allen rendered it useless, but kept it all the same.
"What about the other thing you took?" Allen asked as Kanda started to walk away.
"What is this other thing?" Kanda asked while holding up the small black plastic box.
"I can't tell you," Allen said reluctantly because he knew Kanda wouldn't give it to him from an answer like that.
"Then you can't have it," Kanda said while walking away again.
"Fuck you," Allen hissed though gritted teeth.
"Kids shouldn't curse," Kanda said from down the hall. He turned into his bedroom for a while, leaving Allen to soak in his anger from being called a kid. Trying to calm himself to no avail he let out an aggravated yell at which the same time Kanda reappeared at his doorway.
"I'm not a kid! I'm-"
"Are you really," Kanda cut him off with his dead- serious tone. It took Allen off guard, and all previous anger was forgotten. Kanda continued walking back down the hallway to the kitchen holding a pile of something in his hands that Allen paid no mind to. He was too busy focusing on what Kanda had just said, but couldn't wrap his head around it.
"Huh?"
It was apparent to Kanda that Allen didn't seem to have understood what he said and tried to reword it another way.
"Are you really as old as you say to be." He was in front of Allen again now, and all of a sudden that hardcore act seemed to melt away from him and all that was left was a person who looked as though the whole world was just placed in front of him and he had been told to fight it by himself. His eyes of a stormy gray and the sky's blue became innocent and wide like a child's, yet were still scarred with the pains of life that reached all the way down to his heart, and it made it ache. It was an almost unbearable sight, but Kanda stood his ground in front of him, because he realized Allen was completely defenseless now.
"I…I don't know," Allen let out in a low whisper, lowering his head away from Kanda's steady gaze to the sight of his own feet. Kanda, however, was not satisfied with that answer. In fact, it just raised more questions.
"What? How can you not-"
"Look I just don't know okay?!" Allen's head snapped back up as he shouted at Kanda before he could even finish his question. His eyes were now filled with fury, but they were not dry as a trail of salty water spilled out of his left eye to trail down his cheek. Kanda had to take a step back as Allen continued yelling. He was surprisingly loud.
"I don't know what year I was born or even the day, I have to just go by what other people have told me and how long I can remember being alive…" his voice cracked and he remained silent after he finished his sentence. Even with Allen being like this Kanda still needed answers. The more he knew the better, no matter how he got his information.
"How the hell did you come up with the number seventeen," Kanda asked in a semi-soft voice. He didn't want for Allen to yell anymore, it was annoying, for lack of a better word. "There's no way you can be that old," he added while looking over Allen's frail-looking stature.
Allen wiped his face with the sleeve of his outsized robe. "Apparently there is. According to master anyways," Allen whispered the last part so softly that Kanda couldn't even hear it.
"Who?" Kanda asked for clarification.
"No one," Allen said quickly. "Anyways," he started again before Kanda had a chance for more questions. He seemed to have calmed down now, but it could have just been a cover-up. "I change my age with the year. Around the end of each one I just estimate that my birthday must have gone by, so I change my age." Allen then took his fingers on his right hand and started counting something. When he finished he said "I just turned seventeen."
"How long have you been doing that?" Kanda asked.
"Doing what?" Allen replied confused.
"Counting your age like that."
"For about…twelve years perhaps? Ever since I can remember being alive, really."
Kanda looked at him with a strange expression. This was the first time he had ever met someone who didn't know how old they were.
"Damn it," he said, scratching the back of his head in aggravation. Allen just looked at him.
"What?" he said.
"You're so damn frustrating, that's what!" Kanda snapped. He put his hand back down and looked at Allen who, after a few seconds, began to develop a small smile that turned into a giggle and then into a laugh. It had surprised Kanda. He never knew that Allen could laugh like that. So child-like and carefree, but it still annoyed him.
"What's so damn funny," he asked.
"You are!" Allen exclaimed in the middle of a laugh. "Getting angry over nothing."
"Piss off," Kanda said while looking away. Being laughed at like this made him feel like an idiot.
At least he's not crying anymore, he thought while thinking back to Allen's face. It disturbed him and he never wanted to see that expression again. It was so very…saddening.
…What? Kanda couldn't understand why he was thinking in such a way. It was a confusing turn of emotion that he couldn't make head or tail of. Deciding to just ignore it all together he threw what he had been holding in his hands at Allen's head. It hid his face from view and made him stop laughing.
"What, hey!" he said after realizing a bunch of clothes had been thrown at him. "What's that for?" He began to pull them off his head.
In the pile of clothes was a pair of black skinny jeans, a thick red and black plaid jacket, a plain long-sleeved red shirt and long black knee-high socks. They were amazingly small for someone of Kanda's size, and Allen found himself wondering why someone like him would have clothes like this and looked at him questioningly.
Kanda picked up on his look and dismissed it with the turn of his head. "Just get ready, you have fifteen minutes."
"Yes sir," Allen said in mock obedience and walk off to the room he had slept in and closed the door behind him.
Wednesday, November 30th, XXXX
5027 hours (5:27 A.M)
Allen had gotten ready in the designated time given to him, and met Kanda at the front door where he received a brand new pair of black boots and the blue container with his food in it. As he sat down to put his boots on and tie the laces he saw a hand appear in front of him, fingers wrapped around something small and black. The hand opened, revealing the black box that Kanda had taken from him yesterday. Allen picked up his head and looked in surprise to Kanda who was returning the look with a blank one. Allen reached out a hesitant hand to take the box and was relieved when Kanda didn't retreat his hand and allowed him to take it.
Immediately Allen did something to the box, something Kanda couldn't see because he had covered it with both hands, it made a single beeping sound, a red light flashed, and then Allen pocketed the object.
Standing up from tying his shoes and food in hand he looked at Kanda and waited for him to open the door.
"What, did you do?" Kanda asked, curiosity taking over him.
"You'll see," was Allen's only answer.
Kanda raised an eyebrow at this, but let it go. If he was going to see later then he was going to see later. He turned to the door and unlocked it from the inside with his key and ushered them both out the door, locking it from the outside behind them. They made their way to the black lotus, got inside, and Kanda drove off like the mad man he was.
Wednesday, November 30th, XXXX
600 hours (6:00 A.M)
Kanda swerved into the Police Station parking lot and into his reserved parking space. Allen never felt so better the entire ride there as this moment when he knew it was finally over. The night before he thought Kanda had only driven like that because they were trying to get away from the shooters, but now he knew that was how he normally drove. Honestly he would have thrown up right there if he had anything in his stomach to throw up.
Kanda wasn't affected at all. Instead, he pulled his keys out of the ignition and turned to address Allen.
"When you're here you'll be under a different persona," he started.
"A what?" Allen said, no knowing what the word meant. Kanda just ignored him and went on.
"This is your story: You're the son of my neighbor and I've been asked to babysit you for the day. Got it?"
Allen looked indignantly at him. "Baby sit? I'm not a-"
"Got it?"Kanda said with finality. He didn't want to start another fight and waste time.
"Yeah yeah," Allen sighed, resigning himself from attacking the subject.
Kanda opened his car door and Allen followed in opening his and they continued their conversation outside and headed toward the backdoor entrance.
"You'll be staying in my office while I talk to the new chief."
Allen rolled his eyes as he knew what Kanda really meant by that statement. "Locked up again?"
Kanda seemed to like ignoring Allen since he didn't answer his question and continued on saying what he was. "Lavi will be here soon."
"Here??" Allen said while looking around and behind him.
Kanda looked at him strangely. He had noticed this constant behavior with Allen every time Lavi was mentioned. He always seems on guard and alert, as though he was scared of him, but couldn't figure out why. Then he remembered the time when they first 'met'. Allen had hit Lavi on the head with a brick. He was probably just scared that Lavi would try to get revenge and whatnot and probably always watched his back when the redhead was around. He didn't know, however, that Lavi was a very forgiving person. Kanda knew this from the years they had been partners, and that Lavi would understand it as a simple mistake. He hadn't even been mad at the warehouse.
"He'll be here at the station in a short while, to talk with the Chief and I," Kanda explained so Allen would stop looking around so frantically.
"Oh," Allen said while turning his head back around to face front.
They made it to the back doors and swung them open, Kanda stepping inside before Allen. This was when something round and golden, shining in the new sunlight, flew in to the first floor of the parking lot. It made its way over to where Allen and Kanda were and slipped in the crack of the door just before it closed. It hid inside the hood of Allen's jacket soundlessly, unseen and unknown to the owner and everyone around.
***
"Don't try to leave, you won't be able to," was the first thing Kanda said when he opened the door to his office and had Allen stepped inside.
There was no one at the station at this time of the morning besides the Chief and not too many others, which was why Kanda had them come now to minimize the amount of people that saw Allen.
"Yeah ok I got it," Allen answered back not fully listening to Kanda's words and instead looking around the office to see how plainly decorated it was. There wasn't a single photograph to be found visible all throughout the room, just like at Kanda's house. As he continued to take in the look of the room Kanda continued talking.
"And don't touch anything," he said warningly while noticing Allen eyeing his desk littered with scattered papers.
"Alright fine! Can you just go now so we can leave sooner?" Allen said impatiently.
"It'll be a while, that's why you have food. The blinds will be closed. No one can see you and they don't know you're here so don't open the door for anyone. My partner and I have a key so we can open it ourselves." Kanda slowly informed Allen of everything, including the bathroom that was obviously behind the only door there besides the one to leave the office, the room was basically soundproof, and that he'd know if Allen went through any of his things.
"Alright!" Allen almost yelled. "I'm not a child you don't have to tell me not to 'open the door' and 'stranger danger' and crap!"
Kanda, obviously not fazed by Allen whatsoever, simply shrugged his shoulders and said, "You might not have known."
"Why, you-!" Allen was about to start yelling again when Kanda shut the door in his face, leaving Allen in the office alone with basically nothing to do, and he decided then that it was going to be a very long day.
Slumping down on the couch he rested his back heavily on it and felt uncomfortable with the feeling on his upper back. It was as though a round metal ball had been placed in between him and the couch. Then it started to move, squirming around until Allen bolted back up off the couch and let the thing free. It escaped from the hood of his jacket and was now free to fly around the room, and around Allen, happy to see its master again.
This flying, thing, is actually a mechanical golem, with metal wings and a metal body, golden and custom-made by an unknown person. It follows only one master, and when that master dies or goes missing it goes to follow another or find the successor of that person. It has been with Allen even since he can remember being with his master, and at the time was also its master. Of course, it is obvious what has happened for Allen to be called the golem's master now.
"Timcanpy!" Allen exclaimed, ecstatic to be reunited with his mechanical golem once more. They hadn't seen each other since Allen had been taken a few weeks back.
He held his arms out and Timcanpy flew into them to be embraced in a hug, cradled at Allen's small chest.
"I missed you," he said while letting Tim go and leaving him to rest on top of Allen's snowy white head.
Then something came to mind, something important that had been disturbing Allen for a while now, and was the main reason he called Timcanpy.
Reaching his hand up and taking Tim off his head he held the golem in front of him and addressed him as though he were a person.
"Hey Tim, I need you to show me something." Once he had Tim's recognition and understanding he continued. "I need to make sure I'm not having mistaken identities here." He let Tim go and he fluttered in front of Allen as he gave his order. "Run by all the people's faces that I came in contact with the year of my escape from Noah's Mafia."
***
A knock on the door and a simple 'come in.'
Kanda was at the new Chief's office and quietly stepped inside, closing the door softly behind him. The Chief looked up from her papers to see who had come to see her.
"Ah, Detective Kanda, so nice to see you," she said while resting her pen down in front of her and gave a small welcoming smile. Her light brown hair wrapped in a neat bun to the bottom left of her head and glasses positioned low on her nose and neatly ironed black suit and pencil skirt made up her tidy appearance, and despite all this the distinguished dark bags under her eyes revealed the disheveled way she felt inside.
Kanda understood only all too well. After all, it was her father who was Chief before her. She was second-in-command at the time, and was the woman who Lavi had spoken with via radio the night they had been called out, the same night her father died. She had been out as well and left her father alone at the police station. Of course, following his death was the high mounds of paperwork and other things left behind and now she was made to deal with it only days after her father's passing. He felt a pang of guilt hit him somewhat, for he was leaving, making even more work for her to deal with.
"Sir, I'm sorry for your loss," he said in a whispered tone and bowing his head low, feeling so obligated for his actions as of now.
"Oh no, it's all right," she said while waving a hand in front of her. "Come now, pick your head up, there's no need for that."
With her permission he did as he was told, and with another motion of her hand told him to have a seat. As he arrived closer at her desk he could see her name tag positioned at the edge of it. In engraved silver letters on black marble, it read her last name with her position in capital letters, CHIEF SCARLES. That tag used to be her father's.
Sitting down, he got straight to the reason for why he was there. "Sir, I have something to speak with you about."
With a knowing smile she answered, "To come here so early in the morning? It must be really important."
"It is, I would like to turn in my resignation papers."
Kanda studied her face and watched as her smile faltered and fell. A sigh of exhaustion and slight confusion lined her face as she looked down to the papers she was just previously working on, and pushed them aside from her vision.
"You're…resigning?" she asked for confirmation of what she had just heard.
"Yes sir. I'm needed in other places and can't stay here."
Realization hit her and her final attempt to try to make him stay was politely shot down.
"You're the best on the force, are you really sure about this?"
"I'm sorry sir, but it's not actually my choice where I go and where I'm needed. As you know, I work for even higher-ups," Kanda explained in the best way possible.
"Of course," she said, shaking her own childishness from her system. She didn't want to be left alone and with even more work to do at the station. With the officers disappearing faster than she can count them resignation letters weren't exactly the first thing she'd want to see in the morning. "You're going to be missed," Scarles added, remembering all the acquaintances the remaining officers had made with Kanda, welcome or not.
"Also, it's not just me, but Lavi Bookman, too." Kanda wanted to finish this conversation quickly, but not rudely. There was still a long day ahead of them.
"Ah, the rookie," still a loss but not as big as a detective there was not much grieving over Lavi. Losing him was more like getting rid of problems instead of making them. "For what reason?" she asked now slightly intrigued with the answer she might or might not get.
"He'll be coming with me. He is needed as well," Kanda answered as vague as possible.
"Where is it exactly that you two are going?" she urged for more information.
"It's a secret, a secret!" Lavi called from the back of the office. Neither Kanda nor Scarles was surprised by his sudden appearance as this was all too common in their daily lives with him, so they didn't bother wondering how he got there without them noticing.
"We cannot give much information. Please process this as soon as possible," Kanda said while standing up from his chair. "We'll be leaving today."
Kanda's last sentence was surprising to her. "So soon?"
"We're needed there as soon as we can get there, I apologize for such a late notice. I didn't expect for certain, events, to happen. It would have just been easier with your father here to sort it out. He would have known what to do because he understood our situation."
"I understand, Kanda. What about your paychecks? They won't be processed until the end of the week," Scarles said, changing the subject from the deceased.
"I'll give you an address in which to send them to later. By the end of this week we most likely won't even be in the same continent," Kanda said with finality, ending the conversation.
"I see. Well, it was nice having you on the force," Scarles said while standing up and walking around her desk to where Kanda and Lavi both stood. "And Lavi, nice having you train with us." She shook their hands while Kanda replied "Us two, sir."
She backed away from them to look at them before smiling one last time and saying "Hope to hear from you soon."
"Of course," Kanda said and bowed before turning to leave, Lavi already having the door open. Closing it behind them, Kanda saw one last glimpse of Chief Scarles from still standing in the middle of her office before the door closed completely.
"That went a lot smoother than expected. I like this new Chief," Lavi said in an airy tone to lighten the mood.
"Don't get any ideas in your head," Kanda warned Lavi, knowing his nature with women. "We're leaving as soon as possible, which means today."
"Did you bring the kid with you?" Lavi said ignoring Kanda and pretending he said everything in his mind instead of out loud.
"Yeah, he's in my office. But anyways, we have more important things to-"
"Let's go check on him!" Lavi shouted, already racing towards Kanda's office, key in hand.
"What?!" Kanda said, yelling after him. "He's only been in there for fifteen minutes!"
"He could be hungry!" Lavi said, continuing to make excuses to go see Allen.
"He has food!" Kanda yelled, shooting down Lavi's excuse. "Lavi!"
Kanda finally caught up to Lavi and grabbed his arm, making him jerk to a stop.
"Come oooon. Let's just go see!" Lavi whined while hopping up and down like an energetic rabbit. Kanda could almost see the ears coming out of his head.
"NO. We have work to-" but Lavi slipped his arm out of Kanda's hand and once again was dashing down the hallway. "Lavi!" Kanda shouted once more. He made it to the room with Kanda right on his tail. Deftly plunging the key into the lock he swung the door open, revealing the room to the world.
The scene shocked Kanda and amazed Lavi.
There was Allen sitting on the couch staring at, something, floating in midair, projecting a picture from its mouth, but the projection was shut off not more than a second after the door was opened. Allen looked over to the door with the snap of his head, eyes wide, mouth open, yet unable to speak. They all just stared at each other in silence for a moment or two until Kanda finally spoke.
"What, the hell is that?" He was staring at the floating golem in his office, but directing his question to Allen. Everywhere it flew Kanda followed it with his eyes until it landed on Allen who still seemed to remain frozen on the spot. That is, until Lavi started yelling with excitement and pranced into the office.
"Whoa, that's so cool! What is it??" Lave seemed utterly amazed. Kanda seemed utterly pissed.
Oh, so they hadn't seen… Allen was worrying whether or not they had seen the projected picture Timcanpy was showing him. Judging from their attitudes, they hadn't. He sighed with relief to himself and stood up from the couch with Tim in his hands.
"This is Timcanpy. He's a mechanical golem."
"Where the hell did you get something like this?" Kanda demanded, stepping closer to get a better look of this so-called golem.
"My guardian left it with me after he," Allen seemed to pause and hesitate about saying what came next in his words. "After he died."
"Guardian?"Come to think of it, Kanda had never asked Allen about his parents and things related.
Allen let Tim float away from him and into the air as he explained. "To make a sad life story short, I was an orphan and got adopted. My guardian died of natural causes. He was a heavy smoker and drinker."
"Those aren't natural causes," Kanda sneered at Lavi who began to play some morphed game of tag trying to catch Tim.
"To him, it was."
Kanda looked over to Allen and studied him form quickly. The sagging eyes and depressing form were his more distinguished features. "Guess it carried on over to you then," he remarked.
"Huh?" Allen had been looking at Tim, but not really looking at him. He had been distracted by scenes playing through his mind of his guardian.
"The addictions," Kanda said, looking at where Allen had just been. Lavi almost caught Tim, but at the last second he flew upwards and Lavi tripped over his own feet and fell to the ground. Kanda just shook his head in disapproval. "Anyways," he continued, looking back to Allen, "Is this what that black box was for?"
"Actually, it's a small transmitter device," said Allen while Tim landed on his head, tail wrapping around Allen's neck. "Once activated, Tim will follow that signal and find out where it's coming from, hopefully to me. It's a nice thing to have around when in trouble."
"How the hell does something like this work?" Kanda stepped even closer to Allen and stuck his hand out to Tim who turned to it and examined it. Confirming it as not a threat he leaned his body against Kanda's hand gently and flapped its mechanical wings in approval. Kanda just continued to stare at it.
This thing is so strange.
"It's very complicated. A lot of small parts and days of soldering," Allen explained.
"Did you build it??" Lavi asked, jumping into the flow of conversation after picking himself up off the floor.
"No," answered Allen, who began to stroke Tim's wing after Kanda had stepped away, "But I had to put it back together before." Now Allen set a different expression on his face. "What are you doing here? I thought this was going to take a while. Seems to me that went by fairly quickly." He looked between the two of them, noticing Kanda's glare at Lavi.
"We were supposed to be doing something, but-"
"We just wanted to see you Allen!" Lavi exclaimed jovially while rubbing Allen's head. Tim seemed to disagree with this action and started beating its wings at Lavi's face who in return playfully shooed it away.
"Stop that!" Allen, clearly irritated, had no patience to be patted on the head like some child, and slapped Lavi's hand away, at the same time backing away from him, the back of his legs hitting the edge of the couch. Tim rested on his head, almost as if to guard Allen.
Kanda couldn't have cared less, for he had no time to deal with Lavi's childishness and tried to get them out of the office to continue working. Grabbing Lavi by the upper arm he said "We have work to do, let's go." He began to drag Lavi out of the office, and then turned around to address Allen. "And keep that, thing, in here."
"Yeah, yeah," Allen sighed, plopping down on the couch once more, Tim resting in his lap now. The office door closed and clicked locked for the second time that day.
What the fuck… Was the only thing Kanda could think after the events that had just occurred. Along with the many questions that were left unanswered, a million more were just added to the pile. Ones like Who was Allen's guardian? Did he have anything to do with the mafia? Did he really die the way Allen said he did? And What was that flying thing capable of? Before Kanda could ponder any further into this Lavi spoke to him.
"Hey, Yuu."
"What?!" Kanda snapped at him, tired of his actions as of late, but Lavi was surprisingly serious.
"About what we talked about last night, where exactly are we going?"
Kanda paused in thought for a moment before answering, "I don't know. Everything I told you last night was everything he told me."
Thinking back to last night Kanda had stayed up for hours packing and sorting things out while at the same time explaining the situation to Lavi over the phone. Now that he thought about it, there really was no reason to be packing if they don't even know where they're going or if they're going anywhere, but INTERPOL agents must be ready to leave at a moment's notice, like Kanda always was.
"Sooo, that means we'll be staying here for a few more days?" Lavi asked hopefully.
"No," Kanda said firmly, and Lavi pouted. "He'll tell us where we have to go today, and we'll be leaving as soon as he does."
Wednesday, November 30th, XXXX
1845 hours (6:45 P.M)
"I'm just going to run this by them one more time," Lavi said while reading over a piece of paper he was currently holding in his hand and walking down a hallway with Kanda next to him. They had spent the day sorting everything out so they could leave. Everything from their current cases they had been assigned to turning in their firearms and their police Lincolns along with a few extra secret things that needed attending to. Finally, after twelve hours, their day was coming to an end.
"All right," Kanda said. "Is that the last thing we have to do?"
Lavi scanned his brain and came to a conclusion. "I think so, I'll check one more time, and then we can go?"
"Yeah, we're done. Everything's been turned in, checked, and approved. We'll leave after you're done," Kanda answered.
"Finally!," Lavi exclaimed, relieved with the workload finally over with. "We've been doing this all day."
"I'm just going to pick up a few things from my office in the meantime. Meet me there when you're done."
"All right, sounds like a plan!" Lavi said, and then they both went their separate ways.
Kanda made it to his office and unlocked the door, stepping inside and closing it behind him. He scanned the room for signs of Allen, eyes immediately moving towards the couch where he found him laying. Sleeping.
Allen had used his jacket as a makeshift blanket and spread it over the top part of his body, his arms rested just in front of his face and snuggled between them was the golden metal ball called Timcanpy, with its wings seeming to have disappeared into the sides of its body. Allen's white hair spread and laid across half his face, the other half exposed leaving the red scar in perfect sight. The expression he wore though was still visible, and it was the most peaceful look Kanda had ever seen on Allen's face the entire time they had been together, and it seemed to be affecting him as he felt his muscles physically relax, not knowing they were tense in the first place.
"This kid," he said softly, actually trying to not wake him.
This was when Tim made a type of static sound and came to life, wings appearing out of nowhere. He stirred out of Allen's arms to flex his wings nice and wide before putting his attention on the new arrival. He scanned him with invisible eyes, approved him, and went on to his business of sitting on top of Allen, staring fixatedly at Kanda as he went around the office picking items up and putting them in a medium-sized brown box he had brought in the room with him. He opened a black cabinet drawer and proceeded to empty it of selected manila folders and place them gently into the box. Shutting the drawer and the clink noise it made letting it be known that it was shut was what made Allen stir and wake.
He shuffled and squinted his eyes as he sat up, making his jacket fall on the couch next to him. Tim had already flown off his back and decided to land on the edge of Kanda's desk. He yawned, covering his mouth half-way with his wounded hand before he spotted Kanda. His back was turned as he was shuffling through some papers he had taken off of a bookshelf behind his desk.
"Oh," was all Allen said, but Kanda didn't turn around as he continued on what he was doing.
"Falling asleep in the middle of the day?" Kanda asked amusedly as he replaced more than half the papers in his hand back to the bookshelf. The rest were placed in the brown box which rested on his desk.
"Thanks to you," Allen responded, still half asleep and not completely aware of whom he was talking to. It seemed he was speaking a lot softer rather than how he harshly did to Kanda. "I didn't get enough sleep last night, and it's so boring in here." He randomly began to stare off to corners of the room, once again noting how bland they were even before Kanda had taken the things off of them.
"We'll be leaving soon," Kanda informed him and he began to go through the drawers of his desk. He finally spotted the empty plastic ware that held Allen's food. He then realized that after twelve hours Allen must be hungry, but he wasn't going to say anything.
"Already? What time is it-" Allen spotted the 12-hour clock and realized that time hadn't gone forward just fifteen minutes, but twelve hours and fifteen minutes. "Oh…"
They let the silence settle between them, Kanda at his desk sorting through things, and Allen petting Tim between the wings on his head. Finally Kanda's attitude begged the question, and it had to be asked and answered.
"Why are you so calm?" Allen seemed back to his normal state, and was now becoming suspicious if not worried as to the answer of this question.
Kanda stopped what he was doing and looked up to Allen who was staring right back.
"Calm?" Kanda faked being at ease as he continued sorting. "Why wouldn't I be?"
"…" Allen continued staring at him, not believing at all that Kanda had no idea what he was talking about.
Kanda finished going through the drawers and put everything that he was keeping into the brown box. He stopped there and sighed, resting his hands on the sides of the box.
"I'm used to being targeted," he said and looked up to Allen who had let Tim go from his hands and was now flying freely around the room.
"But this is Noah's Mafia!" Allen shouted, standing up abruptly. "Every mafia group in the world works for them. You can't even touch Russia!"
Then everything went quiet, as Allen noticed too late his mistake. His eyes grew wide as he stared blankly at Kanda, who was doing the same. Allen began stuttering words, trying to make a complete sentence, but Kanda spoke first.
"…Where, was that?"
"Uh, nothing!" Allen tried lamely to cover up the fact that he had just let slip the location of Noah's Mafias' headquarters.
"You can't even touch Russia!" Came a staticted voice from the air, and both Kanda and Allen looked at Timcanpy who had grown a mouth in the front of his body. Apparently he was the source of the noise, mimicking Allen's voice and words exactly.
"Timcanpy!" Allen whined in defeat as he looked at his golem as though he had just betrayed their trust.
"Russia, huh," Kanda said deep in thought.
"No! That's not what he said-"Allen tried desperately to cover up the golem's mistake.
"Correct, that's what you said," and Kanda smirked at him.
"Tch, damn it," Allen hissed lowly. He had been trying so hard to keep the location a secret, but one slip of the tongue and emotion and everything was blown.
"Alright fine," he gave up and began to explain, "You see-" but was cut off when the office door was opened and Lavi pranced into the room.
"Yo!" He greeted them both cheerfully, not sensing the atmosphere at all.
"Oh, Lavi," Kanda began as though nothing had just happened. "Done already?"
"Yup!" Lavi smiled. "Turns out, everything was okay!"
"Alright then, we can leave," he said and then turned back to Allen. "I have a nice understanding of where we'll be headed." Allen just scowled deeply at him.
"Don't go there!" Allen tried to warn him, but Tim wasn't helping him seem serious.
"Don't go there!" Tim mimicked him.
"Tim, stop mocking me!"
"Tim, stop mocking me!" Tim mocked as he started teasingly flying around Allen's head.
"Whoa that thing is so cool!" Lavi exclaimed as he began to reach out for Tim.
"Lavi pay attention! Let's go," Kanda yelled as he pushed Lavi through the office door, shoving the brown box in his hands at Lavi's chest.
Allen quickly scooped up his jacket from the couch and began to follow Kanda and Lavi.
"Tim, here," Allen gestured to Tim as he put back on his jacket for Tim to hide in it and grabbed the plastic ware from off the desk.
Kanda turned around to turn off the lights in his – in the office. It was actually no longer his. He stopped and took a second to look at it before turning off the lights and closing the door. He didn't bother to lock it - there was no point, and left the keys inside the bin hanging on the outside of his door. The label with his name on it was still there, bolted to the door. It was a strange feeling for him really. It happened every time he switched jobs like this. He always left most of the things behind because there was no point in taking them with him so the office still looked like someone was using it.
But every time, he couldn't help but feel like he was leaving a piece of himself behind as well.
He didn't know why, and it was so frustrating! He's been doing this for years and thought he had gotten used to it – moving on a seconds notice, bringing only what would be useful in the next location, leaving people and items behind – If he said it didn't affect him then he would be lying. This affects everyone. After all, they're only human.
He's only human.
"Kanda?"
Kanda snapped out of his thoughts. He hadn't moved from in front of his office door and was staring at his nameplate. At the sound of someone calling his name brought him back to his senses and he turned to find Lavi and Allen had stopped and were staring at him.
Regaining his composure quickly he walked over to them and they soon began all walking together.
It was the end of the workday, so as Kanda looked around he noticed their part of the police station was fairly empty. The people working here had a normal nine to five business day. Kanda being a detective was here whenever he was needed, which was all the time.
"So, where are we going right now?" Lavi asked Kanda as they made it to the doors leading to the parking lot.
"You're already packed up to leave, right?" Kanda asked to confirm Lavi had followed his instructions from last night.
"Yup, all ready to go!" Lavi answered.
They opened the back doors and walked out to the first level of the parking structure. With the entrance facing west it allowed the sun to easily penetrate through and hit them in the face, causing them to squint at the brightness of the setting sun. The frosting air bit at their faces and nipped at the surface of their jackets, but not quite penetrating them. As the sun began to disappear so did the warmth of midday.
"Then in an hour thirty meet us at the airport. We're getting last minute tickets to Europe, I'll call to see if there's any planes for nine."
Europe? Allen thought, confused.
"Roger, see ya!" Lavi said as he ran off to some other parking lane.
"Airport..." Allen thought out loud. "Wait, you were serious! And leaving today!?" He was actually genuinely surprised. He stopped walking as they stood in front of Kanda's car now.
"I don't joke," Kanda deadpanned as he unlocked the trunk with a click from his keys. He placed the brown box in there and closed the lid.
Allen rolled his eyes in exasperation. "Fine, don't listen to me. Just don't expect everyone to be alive by the time you've given up." He moved to his side of the car and waited for Kanda to unlock the doors.
"I don't give up" Kanda emphasized and unlocked the doors, slipping into his driver's seat as Allen did he same in the passenger's.
Kanda put the keys into the ignition and was about to start backing out of his parking space when he thought he heard Allen say something.
"Just, be more careful then," Allen really had said something. Mumbled actually, and Kanda just stared at him.
Then he began to laugh as he spoke "What? Are you somehow showing an emotion other than hate?"
"Look, all I'm saying is you can't trust some of the people around you. I haven't told you everything and as things stand now I can't, but I'd like for you to be alive because you provide very much needed protection for me," Allen tried to explain what he meant by him being careful and suggest a hidden message in the small speech he just gave, but Kanda didn't seem to have caught it.
It was a very small hint anyway, and Allen would have been stunned beyond belief if anybody had actually picked up on it.
"Alright then, I'll start with you," Kanda said as he turned off his engine and turned to face Allen. "How can I say for certain that the information you've given hasn't been full of lies?"
"..." Allen thought for a second and looked down at his lap and the plastic ware he was carrying, contemplating for a moment.
In this time Timcanpy slipped from the inside of his jacket and landed on top of the dashboard. "You're right, you can't," Allen said to Kanda's surprise. "But I expect for there to be some level of understanding between you and I and our current situation together, and the things I tell you are what you need to know to stay alive. How about we leave it at that?" Allen finished speaking and without Kanda missing a beat smirked and half laughed as he reignited his car's engine.
"Hmph, fine by me."
Okay, I know it's been just about two months since I updated, but hey look on the bright side this chapter is like super long, is it not?? I think I'm going to get some hate mail as to what I'm going to do to my lil' trio of Red White n' Blue. But I must! For the sake of the story!
So I'd like to take this time to introduce somebody. Her name is Jessi, also known as my co-conspirator, and she helps me write this story. She's kinda like a proofreader, but we still write this story together.
Give her lots of love! Her name on here is VampAnimeLover254 on here, so look that girl up!
But I've gone on long enough with this, so!
Anyways,
Read, Review, and stay strong.
-Xenophili