Disclaimer: Alles gehört mir nicht!
Lavi and Kanda walked out from the room, locking away the forbidden, never to be spoken of again.
They were lucky to had only stepped a single footstep, or else they would have been bombarded by a quick, speeding female acquainted with Dark Boots, who had slowed down, eventually leading to a complete stop.
"Lavi? Kanda? What were you doing in Allen's room?" The girl spoke with a bit of accusation, especially knowing the privacy rule.
"Komui sent us there to find Alred." Lavi said. Lenalee's violet eyes flashed with confusion.
"Alred?" She repeated after him. "Didn't he say some people called him Red, but Mana called him Allen?" Lavi explained through a question. Lenalee simply nodded in an understanding way.
"For now, maybe we should just call him Red. It seems he's rather upset about Mana." The pigtailed girl spoke.
The redheaded exorcist's mouth gaped open, "You told him what happened!?"
"No! That would be a terrible idea! I, well, I tried to tell a small lie. I told him that Mana had dropped him off to have us take care of him for a while, but...He didn't believe me. He believes he was abandoned. Again." Lenalee's head dropped in disappointment in herself. Kanda simply listened to the two's conversation.
Lavi's head dropped in sync with Lenalee's. "Let's go find him." He suggested. "Oh! I already have, Miranda's taking care of him right now." Lenalee finished.
Lavi's heart skipped a beat. The two couldn't be a good match. A weak-hearted, timid woman with a rough-mannered, betrayed child.
Lenalee wore a matching look with Lavi's, a disgruntled expression mixed with even more regret for leaving the poor woman with the rude child. Due to their differences, had to keep reminding herself that the redheaded boy was, in fact, Allen.
The smallest, most selfish part of her wanted to take advantage of the situation by asking the child about his life, since they were always kept in the dark when it came to Allen's past. He had been there for over a year, and even after so much, he still felt like a stranger to her.
"We should probably go," Lavi said squeakily. Lenalee nodded, while Kanda "Che'd."
The group walked down the halls, the two male exorcist's following behind the shorter female one.
"They were somewhere around here.." Lenalee spoke her mind, her eyes advertise to the different halls.
Red stayed frozen for a moment, not a wave of shock, but some sort of..Familiarized feeling. It almost scared him. Almost.
Same name he had been given by Mana Walker, same arm? Something was going on here, and he didn't like it.
He decided to go for a simple question. "What's he' like?" He said, now highly interested. For the two to have not have met, they sure did have a lot in common.
"A-Ah, well, l-lets see...He has white hair, a scar over his left eye, a-and he's very polite." The woman finished. The thoughts the child had before had completely dropped.
He didn't know how to react.
How were you supposed to react if you showed up at an unknown place after being abandoned twice, and was told that there is a teenager that has the exact deformed limb as you, the same given name, yet is the exact definition of your opposite?
The thoughts were interrupted.
"He's over here!" He heard a female's voice call out, though, it wasn't Miranda's.
Appearing around a corner came a pigtailed exorcist, a grumpy samurai, and a talkative redhead.
"L-Lenelee, you're back!" Miranda said gleefully, causing Lenalee to smile at her.
"Red, we were so worried about you! Why did you run off?" Lavi scolded.
The child stayed silent.
All waited for a never arriving answer from Red.
The silence had been interrupted by the sound of a loudly growling stomach. The child flushed red, putting a hand atop of his belly.
Miranda covered her mouth, terribly attempting to keep the giggling from escaping from her mouth. Lavi fully laughed loudly, Kanda rolled his eyes, and Lenalee couldn't help herself.
"Bloody hell! Stop laughin' at me!" Red was clearly embarrassed.
Lenalee laughed, "We're sorry. Come with me, we can go to the cafeteria. They're just about to serve lunch." She finished.
"Ooh! I want to come too! I'm starving!" Lavi said with a cartoonish grin.
Miranda spoke up, "I-I'd like to come along, if you wouldn't m-mind."
Red wore a disgruntled expression. "I'll 'ave to pass. I'll eat' ya broke." He mumbled.
"Don't worry about it, it's all free." Lenalee said cheekily.
"I got' see tha' with me own eyes." He said.
"Che, whatever. Hurry up and make up your mind, beansprout. The line won't be any shorter when we get there." Kanda spoke up, thin brows furrowed down in an annoyed manner.
"Beansprout? What did ya' just call me, you dum' transvestite?" The child retorted.
"Do you want me to dye that stupid red hair of yours white?" Kanda threatened.
"Fuck no! I don' wanna be any more like that stupid' Allen!" Red spoke angrily. He wasn't going to be any more like the exorcist than he already was.
Kanda quickly shut his mouth. How did he find out about Allen!? Lenalee and Lavi were completely frozen from shock.
Miranda, at this point, was incredibly confused. Why had they reacted so harshly at the mention of Allen's name? Had something happened to him?
"What's going on? Why do you' all freeze' like tha'?" The child grew annoyed.
"N-Nothing! Let's just get going!" Lavi interrupted the silence that had yet to come. He wrapped an arm around Red's waist and lifted him over his shoulder. "You're too slow at making decisions! You're coming along anyways." The redheaded exorcist said while speed walking to the cafeteria.
"I know how to walk', dammit!"
Multiple eyes had fallen on the exorcists, the room grew completely silent. Stares were handed to the child being set down on his feet by the Bookman Jr.
Hundreds of eyes, gleaming with multiple emotions. Curiosity, a dash of annoyance, and disgust. Red recognized each emotion almost instantaneously.
The child's face grew hot. He hadn't been used to so many stares being exchanged before. It'd be different if he was in costume, performing a show with Mana, but he wasn't.
"And you never will again.." A small voice in his head spoke harshly.
Dammit. He felt the corners of his eyes growing wet. He had actually grown fond of the clown. The last thing he had expected was to be abandoned by him.
But all good things weren't meant to last.
The child's breath had stopped, he exchanged stares with the strangers.
"Hey, beansprout. Are you okay?" Lavi asked, noticing the slight tremble Red's shoulders had.
"...I-I'm fine. Let's just go." The child gave him the cold shoulder. Red wasn't ready to deal with the loss of Mana just yet. But it wasn't like he could run away, like he had done before.
He could only keep walking. The last quote Mana had spoken to him before disappearing from his life forever.
He felt as though his chest was crumbling from the thought of Mana, but he couldn't distract himself.
To his own horror, a warm, salty tear had trailed down his face. No! He swore not to cry over something not worth his god damned time!
Each way he turned, he was still openly exposed as weak. He wanted to hide away in a corner where no one could see him.
His breath had quickened. He roughly wiped the tear from his cheek using the mitt he had been given by Mana. Just from a simple thought about the clown had caused him to lose all composure.
"Damn it!" He cursed, ducking his head and walking out of the room. He knew the exorcists would just find him again, so he didn't see a point in running any more.
"Oi! Beansprout! Where are you going?" Kanda called out, only to be ignored. "Che. Stupid brat..." He insulted.
"I'm going after him." Lenalee spoke up.
"Me too." Lavi joined in.
The two exorcists left the room, the stares had fallen on Kanda and Miranda. Kanda gave a menacing glare, which sprouted fear into each owner of the eyes, all going back to their meals.
Lunch would have to wait for the redhead and the pigtailed exorcist.
"I think he went this way," Lenalee said. Lavi nodded, following behind her.
"Oi! Red?" Lavi called after him, only to be met with silence. Lenalee hushed him, before listening closely.
She heard a sniffle. Then two.
"Red?" Lenalee said.
"Go away..." Red said, sensing that they knew he was there.
Lenalee and Lavi followed the voice. They found the child in a dark corner.
The two exorcists sat side by side by him.
"What happened?" Lavi asked the child sympathetically.
"N-Nothing..Just leave." The child ordered. His face was covered by the mitt that was clutched tightly in a weary, unused left hand hidden behind his legs. His knees were held against his chest with his right arm.
"We won't leave until you tell us." The dark boots owner said softly.
Red stubbornly shook his head. "I..I don' wanna..." He spoke in a muffled voice.
'So Allen was just as stubborn as a child as he is now...' The two older exorcists thought in unison.
"Please, Allen? You can tell us anything." Lenalee offered, slowly wrapping her arm around the boy's frail, trembling shoulders. He had noticeably stiffened at the mention of the name and the contact. A short, sharp gasp escaped from his lips out of surprise.
He was pondering on whether or not to speak.
"I..I just want to go back to the circus...With Mana...I wanna' perform anotha' stupid show in tha' stupid costume..I..I..I just want to see Mana!" The child sobbed loudly.
Lavi and Lenalee exchanged a painful glance at each other.
Lenalee wrapped her other arm around him, enveloping him in a hug. Lavi had placed a hand atop of the child's head.
He prayed for some sort of miracle that the clown would show up in front of the child, taking him away from all the weight he held on his shoulders.
He'd do anything to be able to tell the child that it gets better and it be the truth.
But he couldn't lie to the future Noah.
The hand he had placed over the red hair had begun to tremble.
As a bookman, he couldn't afford to lose his composure this easily.
But everything seemed to hurt so much and so suddenly, that he couldn't react fast enough to keep the single tear that slipped from his only eye.
Lenalee already had tears trailing down her cheeks by the child's words. He was so young, yet he already had to deal with so much. Knowing him as Allen Walker, she knew it would just grow, grow, and grow.
One day, he would break, just as Rouvelier had wanted him to.
"What did' I do wrong? What have I don' to make Mana leav'? Am I a bad person?" The child asked self-pitiying. The hearts of the two exorcists shattered at the words their young friend was thinking about loud.
"Not at all...It's just that..People come and go, but it doesn't mean that they've forgotten about you. Mana will be back for you. I promise you that." Lenalee painfully lied.
But she would sugar coat each lie and spoon feed it to the child if it meant that he would be in any less pain.
Widened silver eyes looked at the female exorcist with a spark of hope.
"H-He will?" He spoke tearfully.
"Of course. He wouldn't just leave you that easily."
Lavi inwardly flinched at the painful lies that flowed from Lenalee's voice. Of course he would try to spare Red of any pain, but he could never lie to him.
Red's eyes softened, wearing a rare, unseen, genuine smile they had hardly ever seen Allen with. A soft, bittersweet warmth filled their insides.
"In that case...My name is Allen...Allen Walker." Allen managed to speak the name without the harsh British accent.
The puzzle pieces had began to fall together.
Allen's smile faded for a moment.
"Allen...Walker." He repeated.
The name that the timid, older female exorcist had spoken of.
He glanced once at Lenalee, and once at Lavi.
"Who is Allen Walker?"
Author notes:
Cliff hanger! ∑(ﾟДﾟ)
I'm sorry for my later update, I had a bit of writers block when it came to this chapter. Thanks for answering the poll! Many people wanted angst, or hurt/comfort, so I sort of did both.
In the next upcoming chapters, I'm hoping to add a bit more humor, rather than all the depression the story has. (⌒-⌒; )
But who needs humor when we can torture Allen?
•
•
(Just kidding.)
Oh! Even though I've been doing it a lot, I'd like to continue doing polls in order to make a satisfactory story for you all! This next poll shall be..
Should the Noah be involved? What characters should get involved? How will they get involved? You decide!
Don't forget, next chapter is when all reviews will be answered! If you have any questions, you can message me or write it in the review, and I will answer! (If I don't, you have permission to kick me in the face.)
Hope you enjoyed!