Plans and Searches
((Whew. That was a long weekend. Sorry this is later than I had said. This week has been a hassle because of graduation preparations. I've been thinking of doing a plot twist where Jem actually has Innocence and that's why he hasn't died from the drug – because the Innocence is keeping him alive. What do you all think? Oh and I believe this is a good chapter to start with the Lavi/Tyki pairing I had said I would do.))
After the meal, the group headed back to their respective bedrooms though Will and Jem had stayed outside of theirs for a little longer to 'discuss some plans' – in other words they were going to kiss goodnight, this little bit of information made Lenalee smile to herself. It was definitely a different feeling to know about a relationship between two people who were keeping it secret.
The morning after there felt like a lift had been taken off of everyone. All of them seemed to be in a better mood since they had taken the time to hang out with each other and get to know everyone better. This, of course, was strange for Kanda to feel – though it wasn't unwelcome.
Everyone woke up on their own accord but with their internal alarm clocks it was pretty early for all of them, even Allen. Without confirmation, the Exorcist's automatically made their way to the kitchen after getting ready and waited patiently for the Shadowhunter's to arrive.
"Alright everyone," Will announced as he and Jem entered the room. "Today is the day we begin looking for that piece of Innocence. There is a warlock that can help us in finding it if it proves to be too difficult but until that decision comes, I suggest we search by ourselves. All we need to know is what to look for and we'll be fine."
Lavi stood from his chair to speak. "What Innocence usually brings is strange occurances. An example would be a whole town repeating a single day for many months."
Jem sighed dejectedly. "Unfortunately, strange occurances happen every day here. They're usually caused by warlock's or vampire's or other Downworlder's. Though with the type of occurance you're talking about, it seems that it is different from our own. I'll make rounds around the town asking anyone if they've experienced something strange of that sort, though of course using a different analogy."
"I'll go with you," Will quickly spoke before someone else could offer. When strange looks were cast his way by everyone except Jem and Lenalee, he explained with; "It'll be safer."
The group just shrugged their shoulders, accepting the explanation easily. "Alright guys," Lenalee began, getting everyone's attention. "So then Jem and Will will make their way around here and ask people about anything they've seen. Meanwhile, we can go to some other parts of London and do the same."
"Be careful. London is a dangerous place; maybe you can have Charlotte go with you since she knows her way around," Jem suggested, not wanting anyone to get hurt if they weren't ready for almost anything.
"Why not Jessamine?" Allen questioned.
"To tell you the truth, Jessamine wouldn't be of any help to you. In addition, she would have never agreed to it in the first place."
"That'd be a good idea, Jem. To have Charlotte come with us," Lenalee put in. "And I'd like to propose that Lavi go with you and Will in case you guys come across an Akuma."
Will was about to object but Jem beat him with his own opinion. "Of course. Your group will have someone with knowledge on how to kill Downworlder's and our group will have someone with knowledge on how to destroy Akuma."
Lenalee nodded, a small smile on her face. She had noticed Will's close objection to the idea of another person going with them, but she wanted them to be safe. If that meant putting someone with them, keeping Jem and Will from getting distracted by each other, then so be it.
"Everyone should start getting ready then," Jem stated, heading toward the door. "I shall go speak with Charlotte to see if she is willing to help you out."
His dark haired friend followed him out of the room. Once the door closed, Lavi turned to Lenalee with a questioning look. "Is there something going on that I should know about?"
Lenalee sighed. Lavi... Always vigilant. She took hold of his arm as she heard Allen and Kanda start to fight again and dragged him away from the two so they wouldn't hear. "I can't be the one to tell you, they have to do that themselves. Just keep your eyes out while you're with them. Make sure to keep extra focused since I'm pretty sure they won't be focused on anything but each other."
Lavi's eyes widened as he understood. Lenalee techinically hadn't told him, just given him clues and he deduced what was going on through that. "They're...?"
"Yes. Don't tell them you found out though. They have to tell people in their own time. Not have it thrown on them."
The red-head nodded in acknowledgement. "I'll do my best," and Lenalee could tell he was being serious by how quickly he changed his expression to one of a Bookman.
After speaking to Lavi, Lenalee turned back to Allen and Kanda to get their fight to stop. Lavi left the room to go get ready for their expedition. He sighed as he went over the information he had just received from Lenalee. Jem and Will were... seeing each other. He should have guessed, he had noticed the looks the two gave each other. Of course Lavi was fine with two males seeing each other, what he found odd was that they were Parabatai. In one of the books he had found in the library, he had read that it was illegal for Parabatai to hold any sort of romantic relationship with each other.
Lavi was brought out of his thoughts when he ran face first into another person as he rounded a corner. He looked up from the ground and was surprised to see a beautiful face in front of him. Lavi had run straight into abeautiful girl with long blonde hair and brown eyes. "Uh, hello," he greeted awkwardly.
She scowled at him and walked around him without a word. The red-head frowned but shrugged as he continued onward to his room. Who was that? I haven't seen her before. Maybe that was Jessamine. I can see why Jem had said she wouldn't have been much help if that had been her.
After getting all his things ready for the trip around the town, Lavi made his way back to the kitchen, not sure where else he could go. He was surprised to see Lenalee, Allen and Kanda all there and ready to go. "Have Will and Jem come back?"
"Not yet. It seems that they couldn't find Charlotte," Lenalee replied, shifting where she stood.
The door to the room was pushed open, revealing Will, Jem and Charlotte. "Sorry we took so long, everyone. Charlotte had been out when we went to look for her," Jem explained their prolonged absence.
"It's fine," Lavi smiled at them. "Is everyone ready then? Do you know what's going on?" He questioned toward Charlotte.
"I do. I am to leave with Lenalee, Allen and Kanda to search the larger part of London while you, Jem and Will search more around here." It was a fair trade. She wasn't going to make Jem do any more work than what was needed. No need to put strain on the poor boy.
He nodded, walking toward Will and Jem, trading spots with Charlotte. Jem spoke out before anyone could begin to leave. "If we do not find anything within five hours we should meet back here, take a break, then head back out for another five hours. How does that sound? We could also make the time increments longer if you so desire."
"Five hours sounds good to me," Charlotte replied, looking back to the group she was going out with to get any sort of acknowledgements. She received nods from Lenalee and Allen and a grunt from Kanda which meant that they all agreed.
"Then it's settled. Five hours from now we will meet back here. We will see you all in five hours then," Jem turned and made his way out of the room, followed by Will and Lavi.
Each group made their way to their destined search places. Lenalee, Allen, Kanda and Charlotte had Cyril take them by carriage a little further away so as to get their search started in a good spot. Meanwhile; Jem, Will and Lavi started their own search around the Institutes grounds.
Four hours passed and team 'Big Hammer' as Lavi liked to call their group had finished with their search around the Institute and a few places in town. They began to move their search to the further places in town. Jem and Lavi questioned civilians while Will searched through people's belongings without their knowledge.
Their search brought them to an alleyway where there were many homeless people. Jem and Will easily made their way along it, having seen this many times before, but with Lavi it was difficult for him to keep focused as he looked down to all the people starving on the cold street. I am a Bookman. I am not supposed to feel emotions like this. While going through his thoughts, Lavi failed to notice a person coming through the wall – though this was seen by Will and Jem.
"Lavi!" Jem called out, getting his attention as he pulled his sword out from its place.
The red-head looked up from the people on the street to come face-to-face with someone he had hoped he would never see again. "Tyki Mikk..."
"Ahh... Little Exorcist. What a surprise to see you here," Tyki started to walk toward Lavi to which the red-head began to walk back.
"Hey, Lavi," he heard Will call out to him. "Who is this?"
"This... is Tyki Mikk," he called back, not really caring that Tyki could hear them talking back and forth. "He is part of the Noah Clan, Jem."
Will looked confused at what Lavi said but Jem's eyes widened as he remembered what he had been told about the Noah Clan. "Lavi, what do we do?"
"You leave him to me. You guys can't fight him, you aren't trained for it. Just continue to search; I'll be fine."
Jem shook his head as he began to come forward. "We aren't leaving you." He whispered a name to his sword, making it glow its bright blue colour.
"Jem! No! You don't know what he's capable of!"
As Jem came forward, Tyki turned and brought his hand out. Jem coughed as he looked down and saw Tyki's hand in his body. "Now... Should I take your heart out first, or your lungs?"
Smirking, Jem coughed again. Tyki turned his head to the side, confused slightly. "Paying attention to one opponent at a time... You're not too bright."
Tyki's eyes widened as he remembered that there were two others there, his hand came out of Jem's body, making the silver-haired boy fall to the ground.
Lavi had gotten his hammer out of his pocket and as soon as Tyki dropped Jem, Lavi swung at him, knowing for sure that he had made contact as a body was thrown away from the hammer and into a wall. The loud noise brought all the people laying on the ground out of their sleep – or confused – states. They all stood as fast as they could and ran out of the alleyway.
"Jem," Will ran up to his Parabatai and took him in his arms. "Are you alright?"
"I'm fine, William. We need to help Lavi."
Will shook his head. "You're in no shape to do anything, James," he picked him up from the floor. "Lavi, are you sure you can handle him on your own?" He called out.
Lavi gave him a look that said 'probably not, but I can't let you guys get hurt'. "Just get Jem out of here. I'll hold him off."
The dark-haired boy hesitated. He wanted to help but he needed to get Jem to safety. "I'll come back once I get Jem to safety," he promised. Will forced Jem to walk away and back toward the Institute.
As they walked off, Lavi returned his attention to the fight at hand. Tyki had yet to come out from where he was in the wall and it was making Lavi uncomfortable. He checked around him a few times and kept his ears open for any sounds.
He was taken by surprise as a hand came around and closed over his mouth, cutting off any words or screams he might have had while an arm held his own down tight. "Listen here, Exorcist. I didn't come here to fight you, I haven't even come for that damned Innocence. Today is my day off and I'd like to keep it that way."
The shorter boy attempted to get out of the hold that Tyki had on him but the Noah held on. "Did you not notice that I was not in my complete Noah form? I may have been in my normal Noah form but that was only for the moment. I was about to change into my human form when I saw you." Tyki took his hand off Lavi's mouth after feeling him mumbling something. "What was that?"
"I said; then why'd you come after me if today was your day off?"
"I had only wanted to say hello. Then you told your friend about me and he came after me. I didn't want to be hurt so I retaliated. I wasn't actually going to kill him, at least not today."
Lavi continued to struggle in the hold. "Let me go!" He demanded, one of his hands stretching and trying to reach his Innocence again.
"If I let you go, would you try to kill me?"
"I certainly wouldn't just let you leave without something to say about it."
Green eyes suddenly were looking into brown eyes. They were the eyes of Tyki's human form and Lavi realized that the man had changed partially into his human form while he had been holding onto him. He still looked like the Noah Tyki, though instead of the umber skin and yellow eyes, he had the lighter skin and brown eyes.
While he was looking at the partially transformed Tyki, he could feel his eyes traveling down to the man's lips for reasons that Lavi didn't know. His eyes quickly changed their course and came back up to look Tyki in the eyes once more.
"You like what you see?" Tyki chuckled and for the first time since being turned around, Lavi noticed how close he was to the Noah.
His arms were still being held down so he couldn't move them and his legs felt too weak to do anything. He just stood there, staring into Tyki's eyes and didn't notice until it was too late that the older man had started leaning forward, Tyki's own eyes unashamedly looking to Lavi's lips. Quickly, Tyki's lips were pressed to his own and Lavi couldn't help a gasp that escaped him.
Lavi's eyes were wide as the kiss continued and got even wider as he realized that he didn't want the kiss to stop. They eventually closed and he pressed back into the kiss and felt the hands holding his arms still release him slightly, though not entirely.
After a few more moments, Tyki pulled away, his eyes traveling from Lavi's lips to his eyes. Lavi let his own eyes fall to Tyki's lips where he saw an evident smirk. "Did an Exorcist just kiss a Noah back?"
"Did a Noah just kiss an Exorcist in the first place?" Lavi retorted, clearly confused by what was going on.
Neither got an answer as Lavi heard footsteps coming back from where Will had disappeared earlier with Jem. He turned his head to look back to the spot and felt the weight that had been on him disappear quickly which made him look back. He was partially surprised and partially grateful to find Tyki gone.
"Where'd the guy go?" Will asked as he came up and stopped next to Lavi to look around.
"I'm not sure. I had been fighting him then as soon as we heard your footsteps he disappeared." Hah. Fighting, yeah sure. More like kissing. What the hell were you thinking?
"We should get going before he returns then. It's almost time that we meet back at the Institute anyway," Will nodded his head in the direction of the Institute and started to make his way back with Lavi behind him.