A short Lavi interlude, just so we knew how he is feeling before Allen wakes up. Next chapter will be Allen POV. BTW, I hate you all. I should be writing for my FMA story, but the damn mermaids won't leave me alone. I blame all of you. And Cross, I blame him too. *pouts* My other fandoms are going to lynch me...

~0x0~

'It's Allen.'

'But it can't be.'

'But it is.'

Lavi continued to argue with himself, as he had for the past hour.

He was sitting in a stiff backed chair in a teensy inn in a slightly less teensy town in Spain with three other men who were varying degrees of upset.

Bookman looked calm and cool on the outside, but Lavi knew the man as well as anyone, and the red head could tell that his mentor's mind was whirring faster than anyone could follow, trying to figure out what exactly was laying in one of the two small beds in this equally small room. Bak paced at the foot of the bed, obviously thinking hard about something, no longer even bothering to pretend that he was paying attention to his surroundings.

The one that he was really surprised at was Kanda. He'd been too shocked before to really think about it, but the swordsman's actions were downright bizarre. It wasn't so unusual for the Japanese man to help out an injured person, Lavi supposed, even if it was just delivering that person to the proper medical facilities. But it was pretty strange that Kanda had helped this person. Lavi would have expected the dark haired man to kill the boy himself, but not only had he helped him, he was the only one in the room that seemed to be completely calm. Where he should have been raging, demanding to behead anyone that even came close to looking like the merman, now that he'd turned the kid over to the proper people, he didn't even seem to care. Kanda just leaned against the wall and looked out the window.

Lavi wondered how Kanda refrained from freaking out, because frankly, he'd love to be able to say the same.

Finally, after about 10 more minutes of agitated silence, Bak started to speak, though Lavi wasn't quite sure if he was addressing the room or if he was talking to himself.

"Magic. This has to be a trick of their magic. There's no way that it's a coincidence." the blonde half spoke, half mumbled.

"We can't assume that. If the merman didn't have enough power to get away by himself for two weeks, then it doesn't seem likely that he could give himself legs." Bookman said, sounding quite tired.

Bak whirled on the shorter man opening his mouth, probably to shout angrily, but then he seemed to stop himself and took a deep breath.

"We still don't know the extent of their abilities. The evidence available points to it being an act of the merfolk's strange powers." Bak said slowly, drawing out his words.

"True. But why would they come to land? The merman demonstrated the ability to work magic on humans. He could have used an illusion to give an innocent bystander his visage for some plot. Perhaps he intended us to kill this boy so we would be lured into a false sense of security and stop looking for him." Bookman stood and walked to the side of the bed, observing it's inhabitant as he spoke.

"Isn't that over thinking things?" Bak countered.

"That actually seems to be the most likely answer." A deep voice from the other side of the room stated. They all turned to look at Kanda.

"What makes you think that?" asked the blonde.

"His aura isn't even remotely similar to the merman's. If there was any relation, I'd be able to tell." Kanda spoke while continuing to look out the window.

Bak cocked his head. "His aura?"

Bookman nodded, seeming to understand exactly what the dark haired man was talking about. "So you noticed it too."

Kanda just nodded.

Lavi took a deep breath. He couldn't read auras, or sense chi, or whatever it was that they were talking about, but...

"There's only one way to tell for sure." the red head muttered.

He stood, walking over to where his mentor stood.

'But do I really want to know?' Lavi asked himself. 'If it winds up being Allen, they'll kill him, and there won't be anything that I can do about it. And if it isn't Allen...then it isn't Allen.'

For some reason, the second option seemed almost as bad as the first.

Hesitantly, Lavi reached out a hand, letting it hover above a pale wrist that rested limply on the sheets.

'What will I do if it isn't him? More importantly, what will I do if it is?'

Slowly, he extended a single finger and let it come to rest on the mysterious boy's wrist.

Lavi felt warm skin, perhaps a bit on the clammy side, still just a bit damp, probably from being near the ocean too long. But it was what he didn't feel that caused the crestfallen look that passed over his face.

There was no spark, no ensuing wonderful coolness. No magic.

No Allen.

"This..." Lavi swallowed around the strange lump in his throat and tried again. "Kanda's right. This isn't the merman."

"How can you tell?" Bak looked at him incredulously.

"I..." quickly, Lavi whipped up a little lie, knowing that it wouldn't take much truth bending to convince the others. "When he blew up his tank, I had to hold him down. When I touched him, I felt this painful jolt. He later told me that it was his magic reacting to me." Which wasn't entirely false, just taken out of context. "If this was really the merman, I'd feel that pain again," And deep within him, Lavi truly wished that he was feeling that little jolt, because it would be followed by cool bliss and the knowledge that Allen was by his side again. "But I don't feel anything." Lavi drew his hand back, hoping that he didn't look too dejected.

"So...this isn't the merman?" The heir of the Chang family asked.

The three men in the room who had said as much nodded in unison.

Finally, Bak looked at the boy, now sleeping soundly in the bed with a bit of skepticism. "Then...why the uncanny resemblance?"

Lavi shrugged. "Maybe coincidence. Maybe a sea creature trying to play a trick on us."

"We must act carefully." Bookman said, sending a strange glance toward his apprentice that made Lavi look away quickly. "If it turns out that this is some sort of strange coincidence, or that he has been involved unwillingly in all of this, we should do what we can to help and release him. If he has willingly helped the merfolk, then we must try and get any information we can out of him."

"We should take him with us to the European Branch," Lavi added, hoping that this Allen-who-was-not-Allen might have some answers for them. "We can keep him unconscious until we get there and explain the situation to the others. We will be better equipped to question him and give him a hand, should he require our help, if we take him there."

"Resorting to kidnapping, eh?" Kanda asked, finally looking away from the window.

"Maybe, but better safe than sorry. Plus, I have stay on schedule with my return to the Asia Branch. We shouldn't waste too much time on this." Bak said, as if he hadn't been freaking about the boy's appearance just a few minutes before.

The men all nodded in agreement and with that, they all went about with preparations. Kanda just left, apparently no longer interested. Bak left for the docks, wanting to secure passage for one more. Bookman left to gather herbs to blend that would keep the kid under until they got to HQ.

Lavi was left to quietly watch over the kid. As he monitored the steady rise and fall of his chest, the red head couldn't help but wonder what fate had in store for this poor boy.

~0x0~

To My Reviewers:

My ultimate answer- *giggle* You shall find out in the next chapter.

ivory-fanged-goddess- Kanda is a little dense, but we love him anyway.

fire-ball-kyo-DLM- I am so happy you like it!

Galagza- Lol, Derpy Hooves. SO true. Maybe fate does hate clowns...they sure as hell creep me out.

VineCaper- Glad you liked it. And Kanda doesn't hate him...yet. But their personalities are bound to clash later on. That's just how they work.

Tintaglia In Flight- Background music does help the mood, you are right. And I think everyone is looking forward to the steamy scenes.

Felnore- It doesn't make you a sadist. I will be cutting his hair soon too, so he will look even more like the guy we know and love.

Conrii- I was pretty happy about the scar coming into play too.

Miso Ramen-sama- Fabulous Max...I like it. ^_^ And we all know that he is rarely ever pleased with something, so it made sense.

P. junchai- Kanda is kinda cute. *giggle* They won't hurt him...probably.

TotalAmuto- HAHAHA, I KNOW RIGHT?

scrletfyre- I am glad I have you hooked. ^_~

moshimellow- Kanda is a dummy, isn't he? Then again, so is everybody else, but who cares? He's hot, that's all that matters.

Kayday- NOM NOM NOM. (lol)

Jasper-Jazz- I CAN'T WAIT FOR HIM TO WAKE UP EITHER.

Ichigo1010- Wow! First let me thank you for such a long and lovely review! I am happy that Kanda is back too, I missed him. Initially, I had it planned that Kanda would take care of Allen all by himself for an while, but I think this makes more sense. No Disney shit. *nomz cake* I feel a little bad for Allen, but not too much, because he is a BAMF (Thank you for introducing me to that word, Galagza). Kanda is a bit of an idiot, but that's okay. And I looked up that story you mentioned, though I haven't had time to read it yet. It's on my list. And he gets the tattoo's eventually in the manga (Haven't watched the anime, because it ends wrong, so I dunno about that.) And yes, the Noah will be making an appearance...there will be mention of one sooner than you might think, in a way that is totally sneaky, but makes perfect sense. *looks at next chapter and smiles* The aura did indeed have something to do with his magic, very good guess. And now that his 'precious something' has been taken away, nobody can sense it anymore. ^_^ I put some Kanda-ignoring-the-world-action in this chapter, just for you.

sweetkakes35- If you ever figure out what was off, let me know. I love constructive criticism. Also, I don't have an ending planned. In fact, I only have a vague idea for the next chapter. My stories tend to write themselves without any of my input.

LizluvsSpongebob- I didn't want to make Kanda into a Cullen, because he is WAY too awesome to sparkle.