What do you do with

A demon that needs love and

An angel that cannot love

Allen was surprised at the sudden transformation of Timcampy from his trusty golden gauntlet to a magical shield that was connected to his right hand. The demon was also in shock, but he barked in frustration as he lifted his sword once more to break apart the annoying shield. The unlucky demon didn't make any more moves, however, as Lavi ripped the opponent into half with nothing but his bare claws. Lavi roared in anger as his hands were soaked with the blackness of demon blood, his eyes taken over by the demonic colour of bright red. The smell of demon blood and the taste of victory were drowning Lavi's consciousness, his battle fury raging into a crazed frenzy for more. Lavi wanted more blood. Wanted more fights. Needed more killings.

"Lavi?" Allen's soft voice broke Lavi's bloodlust into pieces. He shook his head, trying to clear his wayward thoughts from succumbing to his demonic side. He saw the worry in Allen's eyes as the pure angel crept closer, but Lavi stepped back out of sorrow. He had nearly lost control of himself, in front of the last person that he wanted to reveal his demonic side to. He closed his one good eye and flew away, leaving one confused angel behind.

Nights and days passed before Lavi took a break from killing more of those foolish demons. After almost losing control of himself, Lavi had thrown himself completely into fighting against the onslaught of demons that still attacked the Church's territory. He led and commanded hid Black Order clan into waves of demons without doubting his power, emotionlessly killing demons and saving angels. But as time went by, Lavi was unceremoniously shoved into the Church to recuperate as the Demon Lord had worked tirelessly from day one itself.

They're just worried about me. Thought Lavi as he begrudgingly washed his dirtied arms and legs using the one of the many water pipes that flowed throughout the entire Church of Angels. He heard a resounding laughter that belonged to a couple of children that he knew, and Lavi watched patiently as he saw the innocent children come running towards him with pretty smiles and light laughter.

He was just about to touch them when the innocent duo was pulled back by their worrisome mother, who looked at Lavi with a terrible mixture of disgust and agitation. The children were wailing loudly when the mother carried her children away from him, hissing poisonously into their ears, "He's a demon! Don't go near him!"

Lavi was left alone after that. Nobody had dared to approach the Demon Lord. Not even the humans that he had so graciously saved from the clutches of demons had taken up the courage to thank him. The Demon Lord felt empty as he made his way inside the Church, feeling the people ostracising him from afar. Lavi laughed grimly as he felt the humans' internal insults like they were spoken out loud.

Monster!

Demon!

Get away from here!

He pointedly ignored the holy workers and injured people when he sat down and wondered amusingly, yet sadly, that he was being treated like a foreign foe in the land of friends.

~.~

Allen was just about finishing his prayer of blessings upon an elderly man when he sensed his warrior brother coming out from the shadows. With a polite hand, Allen waved the human away and greeted Tyki with a light smile, "Tyki.. Do you need help recovering?"

"It's not me that you should be worried about, my little angel," Tyki kissed Allen's cheeks before leading his brother deeper into the Church. Tyki's black armour was scorched in many places as the magical protection had taken the brunt of the demons' fiery damage. But Saint Tyki Mikk was nothing if not a determined fighter; with him spearheading the Judgement Knights with precision and leadership skills, the angels had gained the upper hand in numerous battles. Alas, the noble Tyki was not perfect. He still needed rest, just like any other mortal being. Just like a certain Demon Lord that he knew.

"Lavi's been fighting like a possessed thing since the start of this war. Any thoughts on it, Allen?" Tyki knew better than to beat around the bush when it came to the matters that concerned Lavi and Allen's strange relationship, "you should go talk to him,"

Allen shook his head in gloom, "Lavi's been avoiding me like I'm a disease. He won't talk to me, he won't even come near me!" Allen miserably tried to gain Lavi's attention after the incident, but the Demon Lord was always looking for ways to escape. Lavi wouldn't even look at Allen even if Allen was standing directly in front of him. One moment Lavi would swear that he would always protect Allen, the next moment Lavi would push Allen away without explanation. The Demon Lord's strange behaviour was astounding and it gave Allen a whiplash of a headache. The angel sighed heavily, "what can I say, Tyki? When all he does is run away,"

Tyki clapped the smaller angel by the shoulders as he pushed Allen into the giant blue hall, "He will listen; if the one speaking is you,"

Allen saw Lavi sitting unhappily alone below his own statue, the once-proud Demon Lord looked as if he was carrying the world's burden by his shoulders and that he was tired of taking that responsibility. Allen saw that the humans and everyone else were giving the weary Demon Lord a wide berth, making Lavi stand out even more than he already was. It was pitiful to see such a confident Demon Lord being depressed with his black wings drooped all too lowly, but Allen was also a bit miffed that nobody here had taken the chance to comfort the warrior. Don't they know that Lavi is on our side? Why can't they accept him? Allen puffed out his cheeks in slight irritation as he marched his way towards the down Lavi.

"Lavi," Allen said soothingly, making sure that his wings were opened up to show friendliness.

Lavi only took one look at the newcomer and got up to walk away. But Allen was resilient when push came to shove. He grabbed Lavi's arm and pulled him down onto the cold ground, making sure to keep his hold as he knelt before the dejected Lavi.

"Tell me what's wrong, Lavi," Allen asked kindly, trying to get Lavi's attention. When Lavi still looked away from him, Allen decided that he had enough of this petulant side of Lavi. He exhaled a discrete breath of coolness to calm the dreary air as he rubbed Lavi's arm earnestly. As soon as Lavi's eye caught his, Allen kept his gaze as he begged in a lowly voice, "please, Lavi? I want to help,"

Lavi was the first to blink as he turned his gaze away, surrendering to Allen's angelic face easily. He looked around them and saw that the humans were watching them, observing and practically judging them. If it wasn't for Allen as his stronghold anchor, Lavi would've popped and shouted at the busybodies. But his angel was still looking at him, waiting patiently as if he had all the time in the world for him. Lavi glared at the onlookers, feeling his wings sharpening slightly to mirror his annoyance, "no matter what I do, or how many humans I save, or how good I am, I'll still be a demon to them all," he looked down at his scarred hands as he whispered a secret to Allen, "these hands… Are drenched in blood. Innocent blood… I'm better off being called a murderer while everyone is at it! I won't deny it. After all, it is true,"

There was silence to follow Lavi's statement. When Lavi actually thought that Allen had left him alone, the angel proved him wrong by sliding closer towards him. Allen took both of Lavi's hands gently as if they were made out of precious glass. His steady hands were holding onto Lavi's own with such meticulous care as he kissed Lavi's open palms pleasantly, giving light butterfly kisses onto them.

Lavi tried to pull his tainted hands away, not wanting to soil his best friend with his dark sins. But with every reverent kiss that Allen placed onto his palms, Lavi felt his struggling strength seeping away to be replaced by a sense of contentment. Lavi felt unworthy and dirty as he growled to Allen lowly, "don't, Allen.. I have the hands of a killer-"

"-But you have the touch of a lover," Allen retorted back all the more softly. He placed a deep kiss onto Lavi's bloodied palms, "with this hands, you cleanse demons," then, Allen moved closer to caress Lavi's torn body from the bottom up, "with this body, you protect people," finally, Allen's hands reached Lavi's broken face. He gave the Demon Lord a hard stare in contrast to his delicate touches. Cupping Lavi's face with both his small hands, Allen scolded Lavi with a melodious tone, "If anyone says otherwise, don't listen to them! If you want to listen to anyone, listen to me! Listen to my voice, Lavi!"

Lavi held his laughter at bay when he saw Allen pouting childishly with a blushing angelic face. As soon as Allen had touched his demonic body with his beautiful hands, Lavi yielded to him fully like nobody else. He let out a chuckle as he cupped the angel's red face, "look at us; a demon who needs love to live and an angel who cannot love anyone. What a cursed pair we make!" Lavi kissed Allen's temple before the angel could respond, his voice falling into a deep tone that made Allen's wings quiver, "But I wouldn't change a thing,"

Lavi started kissing Allen on the forehead, pecking mischievously at the show of pale skin that appeared from Allen's loose shirt. Allen laughed as he tried to push Lavi away, his wings fluttering in delight as Lavi's own wings came to play as well. "L-Lavi! There are people watching!"

"Let them watch. I don't care," Lavi bit onto Allen's nose playfully, causing the angel to yelp in cheer at the show of compassion, "Because the only person I see is you,"

Suddenly, a father came running towards them with a panicking face, "Saint Allen! The Holy Chalice is missing!"

This made Allen jump up and rushed through the throngs of people to follow the father's lead. He called out to Lavi, "Sorry, Lavi! I have to go!"

Allen joined his angelic brethren as they gathered at the Church's main Sanctuary. Along with jewels and gold coins, the Sanctuary was also the keeping-place of ancient instruments that carried holistic powers. One such very important instrument was the Holy Chalice itself. Allen stood by Tyki's side as they looked around for the missing Holy Chalice, ice creeping at the angels' spines. Whoever had stolen the Holy Chalice at such a crucial time like this was not of good will. But what niggled at Allen was not the thief himself. He pondered at a frustrated Tyki, "The Sanctuary is tightly secured.. And the Holy Chalice cannot be simply touched by any normal person… So how could the Holy Chalice disappear?"

~.~

At the same time, Lavi was stretching his muscles when Komui came forward with a grim look on his face. His faithful second-in-command was frowning seriously, causing the Demon Lord to put on his business face as well, "talk to me, Komui," he ordered.

"Something's been bothering me lately, Lavi… How did Malcolm know about the Gathering of Angels back at Allen's church? Or even when they had the meeting at the Requiem Chapel? How was he supposed to know that all the angels were together?"

"Spies, Komui. He has spies everywhere," Lavi rolled his eye.

"But do these spies know about the angels' weakness? Angels' characteristics and information were known to only a handful of trustworthy people! How did they find out about Allen's weak spot in his magical seal? How did they know that they can use the children as bait? Malcolm's spies are notorious, I can say that, but even they cannot enter an angel's territory without direct permission! Something's wrong, Lavi, something's just not right,"

"Komui.. Are you saying that there is a traitor?" Lavi growled, his eye glowing red.

Komui shook his head as his mind tried to fit in different puzzle pieces, "not among us Black Order, no.. It needs to be someone close.. Someone that has infinite knowledge on the angels. Someone who knows their workings from the inside out. The traitor would be disguised as-"

~.~

Meanwhile, the angelic brethren had their backs turned from the shadowy one. The hidden person smiling maliciously as his final act began to fall perfectly into place. Taking out his mighty sword, the traitor struck.

"-An angel himself,"

Plot twist! Haha Now, who do you think the traitor is?

I can't stop adding Laven fluff wherever I go, I hope I did them justice! Also, I hope that you're enjoying this chapter as much as I love writing it! I want to say thank you to all of you who have talked to me or sent a review, it made my dreadful days all the more cheerful! Chinese New Year is coming soon and I'm quite excited, to say the least! Have a wonderful day!