~ O ~

Alma was lying on the floor. Just where had Kanda gone?
Kanda never left him alone for this long, if he had to, he would have asked one of their friends to look after him.
He wasn't acting like himself anymore, he was hiding something. But what?

Kanda opened the door to his house and stepped inside, closing the door behind him.
He closed his eyes and sighed.

"Where have you been"

Kanda took off his shoes and walked to the bedroom where Alma was.
Noticing Alma was lying on the floor, not sitting in his bed.

"Moo.. Kanda, I'm almost peeing my pants, sitting here waiting for you" Alma said while his face was painted red with embarrassment.

"Oh god, I'm so sorry" Kanda said giving a shocked face when he realized that he had been gone for hours. Even Allen said he waited two hours for him to wake up. But this was no time for him to think about Allen.

He rushed to Alma and lifted the boy carrying him to the bathroom.
Kanda admitted it, he was ashamed for leaving Alma alone home for hours. He had even forgotten all about Alma while he was following Allen in to the forest. If he hadn't forgotten about Alma, he wouldn't have stepped in to the fucking gate and…

Kanda stood there still…
If he hadn't gone through the gate, he wouldn't have known that Allen was the cursed child.

"Moo… Kanda, stop spacing out already, you're not acting like yourself anymore" Alma pouted and gave Kanda a sad look.

Kanda carried him to his bed and patted Alma on his head.
Alma again looked angry. "Where were you, you said you were only going out for a walk"

"I'm sorry" Kanda said.

What could Kanda say? That he just found out who the cursed one was? That he was in another dimension?

It would have been the best to explain to Alma where he had been and what he had seen. But Alma would have gotten too excited and probably would tell to his friends everything that Kanda had said.
That's how Alma worked, if he got excited, he would tell anybody about it.

And if that happened, that would be bad for Allen.
The villagers would probably leave him tied in a tree outside the village, waiting till he starved to death.

Kanda slapped himself on the cheek, why was he worrying about Allen? He barely knew him.
But he did feel bad for him.

Alma sighed. "Kanda, why did you slap yourself just now?"

Kanda just gave him a smile "I just needed time to think, about how I get enough money"

Alma didn't answer, it's true Kanda worked his ass off to get enough money to by medicines.
Maybe he was just tired, and that's why he didn't come home, probably sleeping somewhere under a tree.

If he had been home, I (Alma) would have attacked him while he tried to rest.
But at least he could have told one of his friends to come over to look after me?

"So, what do you want to eat" Kanda said giving him a sad look, like he was angry at himself for forgetting Alma.

"Porridge" Alma answered giving him a small smile back.

Kanda walked to the kitchen, he put water in a pot, waiting for the water to boil.
He started humming, closing his eyes and giving off a warm smile.

That's the Kanda Alma knew. Alma smiled, humming the same melody as Kanda did.
(If you're wondering, you can see the kitchen from the bedroom, there's no door. And in the kitchen there's the front door, so you can see it too.)

"Oh it started raining, that's good that I came home on time" Kanda said, looking out the window.

Kanda came with two plates with warm porridge in his hands to Alma. Giving one of the plates to Alma.

"It's warm, so don't burn yourself" Kanda warned. Alma chuckled.

Kanda looked at Alma "Why did you just chuckle?"

"House wife Kanda" Alma started laughing almost spilling the porridge on his legs.

Kanda trying to keep his temper, just laughed awkwardly.

"Come on Alma, you can't just laugh while you're trying to eat" Kanda pointed out and took Almas spoon and ended up feeding Alma.
Alma just giggled and felt happy.

Their moment of happiness was shattered when they heard knocking on their door.
Kanda stood up placing the plate on the table that was near Almas bed. Slowly walking towards the door.

Kanda opened the door and noticed Lenalee dead tired standing in front of the door, trying to get a hold of her breath.

"Have … you ….seen… Allen today at all?" Lenalee said still trying to get ahold of her breath.
You could see Komui running towards Lenalee, like he didn't want to leave her alone with Allen.

Should Kanda tell Komui that he've seen him? Or anything at all?
Kanda scratched his neck wondering what he would say.

Finally Kanda said "Yea, I think I saw him today while I was taking a walk"

Lenalees eyes brightened up "Oh, when was that" she said.

"After I had eaten my breakfast" Kanda said, killing Lenalees hopes of finding Allen.
"Oh" she said. "Thanks anyway" and ran to the next house asking the same questions.

Komui bowed and stepped closer to Kanda whispering to Kandas ear that he had seen a scar on Allens face, when Allen slept last night in their house, but that he could swear that he had seen the scar somewhere before, but couldn't lay his finger on it.

Kanda bit his lips "Oh really, he had a scar, so it wasn't an ordinary scar?" Kanda said. Komui shook his head and then ran after his dear sister.

Kanda closed the door and walked in to the bedroom and took the plates and returned to the kitchen to wash them.

"Who's Allen" Alma noted.
Did 'Allen' have something to do with Kanda acting weird?

Gulp. "Oh he's just, some kid we ran into a couple of days ago, he stayed overnight at Komuis last night, seems like he disappeared" Kanda answered. Alma just narrowed his eyes, something was off.

Lenalee ran from house to house, asking every villagers if they had seen a boy with black hair, an eye patch and bandages covering his left part of face, wearing gloves. Everyone just shook their heads .
Nobody had seen him, well some of them had seen him in a hurry in the morning, but they hadn't seen him after that.

Lenalee was soaking wet, she had ran for hours in the rain searching for him.
Komui who had been following her for hours, stopped and stood in front of her, wrapping his hands around her, giving her a hug. Lenalee cried out, why didn't he come back? Had he walked out from the village and been attacked by the akumas?

Komui tried to calm her down and they walked together home.
Komui warmed a cup of tea and warmed a bath for Lenalee. When Lenalee sat in the tub drinking her tea. Komui sat down at the table in the kitchen, holding his hands, holding them in front of his mouth. He was wondering.

He didn't regret for offering a place for Allen to stay.
But he was acting so weird, sometimes giving the face of… jealousy?
Was Allen somewhat jealous for not having a family? No. Komui shook his head.

Jealousy wouldn't have described the face Allen gave… the feeling he was giving was like pure hate.
Komui admitted it, Allen seemed so happy when he had his small talk with Lenalee.
But sometimes he gave the face of hate. He was wearing masks.

Did he hate the family feeling because he was left alone?

Lenalee came out of the bathroom, covering her body with a towel.
Komui gave her a smile, when she noticed her brother watching her, she hurried in to her room.
"Couldn't he feel a bit ashamed for looking at her when she got out " Lenalee thought.

That night, a man with gray skin walked in the village.
Not being afraid of being noticed because the villagers that were hiding in their homes.
The man walked humming a song through the village, holding a knife.

The man stopped by a couple of doors, cutting his hand and pressing a handprint of blood on the doors.
The villagers could hear footsteps stopping in front of their doors, hearing someone press their hand against their door, and the footsteps continued walking.

Watching outside the window, seeing a white haired man dancing through the night.

Something is going to happen soon ~ ~ ~