First impressions are not always what they seem
The religious do more than just pray
You know?
As expected, the afternoon mass was moved away due to unforeseen circumstances. Everyone left the church in a disappointed mood, but departed with awestruck expressions as they laid eyes on the Vatican for the first time. Only the ones responsible for the cancelation of the mass stayed back, grim faces on all but one.
Allen smiled politely as he broke the proverbial ice with introductions. Lavi didn't much care about the newcomers as he stepped closer to Allen in protective mode. Ever since they came along, Allen was on the edge. Lavi observed as Allen talked to them with his wings curling up in mild agitation as they opened and closed at will, the broken wing showing its injury very obviously. Lavi's own black appendages also haven't lost its sharpness as he continued to stand bravely at Allen's side.
"I don't like this; demons in the church? What a damn thing to do, Allen," the gunner grunted, suspicion in his eye as he looked over Lavi. The Demon Lord maintained eye contact with General Cross Marian, not in the least bit intimidated by the man's fighter build and gun. This man had long, vibrant red hair that flowed down to his shoulders and wore a white mask to cover the right side of his face. It made the man looked more mysterious, but Lavi just thought this human was acting pompous.
Allen's wings stopped their flitting and droop low like a burst balloon, "Ah, I expected this.." His smile melted slowly from his face like butter on a sunny day.
Lavi stepped forward with a barely concealed growl, "Who are you to say that? It's none of your business!"
General Cross wanted to use his gun to shoot the insolent demon, but was held back by another General that carried the name of Kevin Yeeger. The old man with long hair and white moustache bowed his head in placate sign as he explained, "We control all the churches on earth in place of God. Whatever rules we imply, the church complies. We're the ones who lead the churches to true faith and justice. We're the Vatican,"
"They're also demon hunters," Allen whispered from behind Lavi, "they hunt down demons that cause trouble around the churches. See those weapons they have there?" Allen pointed to the Vatican's choice of arms that were strangely making strange sounds, "Since they don't have angelic powers, they use weapons instead. They're blessed with the water from Fountain of Youth and christened with my Father's powers. They can sense a demon from faraway and will make a humming sound whenever one is near. Their weapons are deliberately created especially for the slaying of demons,"
Father Bak motioned towards the meeting room with a small smile, "maybe it's best to discuss things in there, huh?"
Before Allen followed the others in, he took Lavi by the arm and warned his best friend vehemently, "I need you to stay away for a while. Don't go provoking them, Lavi!"
Without waiting for Lavi's confirmation, Allen went over to Father Bak's side and readied himself for a meeting of a lifetime.
"I hate the Vatican," Lavi groaned as he plopped right down onto the grass in between a reading Miranda and a writing Krory. The Black Order was gathered around one of the many large ponds beside the castle, the shade of the trees giving them contentment from the glaring sunlight. They were already given the news of the Vatican some hours ago when Lavi had come to them in a crestfallen mood, so now they were keeping to themselves as they waited for the meeting to end.
"How long this meeting will be, I wonder," Komui murmured, looking up to where the closed balcony connecting to the meeting room was. They were waiting with baited breath for some time now, surely there would be some kind of news by now, and "hopefully Allen is able to straighten things out,"
"I hope so! Hey…. What if they don't let Allen to be near me?!" Lavi panicked a bit, his train of thought going south as he widened his bottled-green eye.
"Aww, that's so sweet, Lavi," Lenalee pinched Lavi's cheek, causing the Demon Lord to pull away as he continued to ramble on,
"Sweet smcheet. Who am I gonna annoy now if Allen has to stay away from me?"
Kanda visibly rolled his eyes.
Then the smell of demon blood attracted the lazing demons' attention. Four of the Vatican was coming their way, one male grinning as big as Saint Earl Millennium himself.
General Winters Socalo took out his two biting blades and swung in it an upward stance, "you don't have to worry about that. Come on, lemme see you really fight!" The announcement surprised the other three Generals as they tried to discourage the bloodthirsty fighter into causing a ruckus.
Lavi was tempted to knock some sense through demon-style into this irritating human when a hand gripped his arm tightly. Krory stood as the voice of reason, "No, Lavi! You can't fight him. It's not worth it!"
"I don't care. That guy needs to be taught a lesson. I'll smash his head into pieces!" Lavi growled as his Demon Lord armour was materialising, his eye slowly turning demonic red.
Sensing the sudden change in Lavi's aura, Komui quickly pulled out the angel-card, "Imagine Allen's face if he catches you fighting with one of his church members!"
Lavi instantly withered as he clutched his head in mild frustration, poorly deprived of demonic fighting. Allen would show that certain kind of face that Lavi didn't like to see. The face of dismay was not one of Allen's good faces. The angel would look at you with down eyes and a pitiful look that just cried out "Why?" to increase the guiltiness that he felt. Allen's distraught face would make even the worst enemies fall to his feet and beg for forgiveness. Lavi shivered, holding onto the memory of Allen's refreshing and soothing scent to bring him back into reality.
Lavi scratched his head as he coolly stood up as if he wasn't in a petulant mood just a second ago. He stared at the waiting General who still had his demon-slaying blades out. With slightly sharpened wings, Lavi tucked his hands into his jeans pocket as he resolutely say, "I'm not gonna fight you,"
To say that the Generals of the Vatican were taken aback by surprise was an understatement. No demon had ever rejected the challenge before, their demonic bloodlust demanding them to take revenge or to go insane with battle-fury. So to see an actual demon -a Demon Lord no less- calmly dismissing the demand for battle was earth-shattering for them.
Nevertheless, General Winters grin became wider as he started his attack, "Fine! All the easier to cut you into pieces!"
Lavi dodged the attacks with fluent moves, not taking his hands out of his pocket as he bend low to avoid getting cut into half by the sharp blades. His face painted in eerie serenity as he moved side to side but never once attacking nor returning fire to the enraged General. The strange picture made General Klaud Nine spoke out of intuition, "his demon clan isn't helping,"
True to her word, the demon clan were just standing by and watching their Demon Lord playing dodge-the-blade with General Winters. Their weapons weren't out nor did their faces betray expressions of worry or showed any signs of anxiety. The beautiful General twisted her lips in confusion as she watched the demon clan do nothing to aid their Demon Lord, "what're they doing?"
Ever the sensible one among the lot, General Froi Tiedoll mused, "Maybe because they know that Lavi won't fight back. If a Demon Lord isn't triggered, then his clan members don't feel threatened,"
"Well, I hope that they won't fight. This battle is useless anyways and I don't want anyone to get hurt," General Kevin regarded with an upset voice. He cringed when he heard another failed slice of General Winters's weapon of mass destruction, making the fighting General roar his anger to the sky.
Inside the room, Allen perked up his wings in curiosity, "did you hear that?" he stood up from where he was sitting and headed to the balcony, "it sounded as if something heavy fell,"
With Allen leading the way, General Cross and Father Bak left their own seats and entered the balcony only to be greeted by the triumphant laugh of the crazed General Winters. Allen gasped in shock as he leaned over the balcony's edge, his eyes trained onto the fight below. Lavi was pinned down by the hyper General with one of his arms crushed by one of General Winters's legs. He saw General Winters lift his death blades up high and the angel screamed out of fear, "LAVI!"
Behind the frantic angel, General Cross had an impromptu idea as an experiment. He stepped back while everyone was distracted and with great strength, pushed Allen right over the balcony's edge that he was leaning against. The angel shouted as he fell, his wings not helping at all since one of them is still broken.
Lavi must've thought the same thing too when he saw his angel falling. Instinctually, he ripped it out from underneath the General and flew straight at Allen with top speed, "ALLEN!"
He caught the falling angel just in time, almost kissing the welcoming ground. But Lavi broke his arm when he took it out from under General Winters, so he used his body as a shield to break their fall instead. The shaken angel shook him with concern, "Lavi! Lavi! Are you alright?"
"'m fine, sugar.. Just lemme lie down for a while, huh? You weigh more than you look," Lavi groaned out, already regretting his actions as he felt his muscles pulled at areas that weren't meant to be pulled.
When they had reached the scene, Father Bak was scolding and giving Armageddon to the sheepishly-looking General Cross and his Vatican group, "-think you're doing?! What if someone really got hurt?"
"Lavi…" Allen sweat-dropped as he tried to make his healing magic work on Lavi's new wounds, "I can't heal you if you keep disturbing me… I do wish you stop hurting yourself,"
Lavi was having fun nuzzling and kissing Allen's head as he threw the complaint right back at the chastising angel, "I'll stop hurting myself if you stop walking into disasters,"
A hit on the head made Lavi jerk in pain. Kanda was seething, "stupid usagi; you should stop and think before you act!"
"Buzz off, Yu," oh yes, Lavi was going there! He had just dealt with a deranged General and got his arm broken to save a falling angel that couldn't fly because of a broken wing. Yes, Lavi was going there if anyone tried to stop him from touching Allen in assurance. His temper flared as he argued, "You'd do the same for Lenalee,"
"Not to the point of injuring my arm. What's with you guys and acting stupid around each other?"
Lavi's wings sharpened, but their muscles also screamed in pain since they were the ones who absorbed the falling impact. He slung an arm –his uninjured one- over Allen's shoulders as he cheekily said, "we're best friends!"
Komui mentioned meticulously, "we're best friends too; but I don't see you sleeping with me on the same bed,"
"Or sharing the same food," Miranda giggled.
"Or personal space," Kanda growled as he pointed out the two idiots sitting waaaay too close to each other.
"Or spending every hour of everyday with the other; even forgetting about other important stuff," Lenalee grumbled, thinking back about the times when Lavi had skipped or escaped from demon lessons just to spend time with Allen, "Or-"
"Allen's special, alright?!" Lavi shouted out, making his demon clan quietened down. A large, pregnant silence followed Lavi's outburst.
General Cross smirked, "must be really special then, for a Demon Lord to act this stupid,"
Giving up the wasted effort of defending himself, Lavi pushed Allen behind him as he glared daggers at the taller human, "If you want me to 'act like a Demon Lord', I'll gladly give you Hell. Hope you can handle the heat, old man!"
General Cross snorted as he was going to take out his gun from its holster. But the angel came between them as he spoke, "Don't! Master!"
"Master?!" Lavi looked at Allen with astonishment in his eye.
Father Bak clapped Lavi on the shoulders as he introduced the leader of the Vatican, "Lavi, you already know General Cross Marian. But what you don't know is that he's the most active General to visit this area out of the whole Vatican," they watched as Allen tried to persuade the older General to stand down. The General sagged his shoulders as he released his hold on his gun. He patted Allen on the head roughly, making the angel laugh childishly. The scene looked almost family-like, Lavi stiffened at Father Bak's words, "You can say that General Cross acts as Allen's human father,"
Shit, thought Lavi, I insulted my best friend's dad…
You may have also insulted your so-called father-in-law at the same time, Lavi hahahahahaha Good luck getting his approval now! I really do love how these chapters are coming out, and I have you guys to thank for them. Without you, there wouldn't be a Laven story! Again, I appreciated all your reviews and opinions; they make my day go ever more smoother and better! Have an awesome-filled day! =D