A little lore & world-building dump in the form of a conversation. Ahh I hope it isn't too confusing...

Word count: 3,733

The Quiet Earth

Chapter 3.1

Morning dawned upon a redhead hovering outside a door for the second time in twenty-four hours. Nothing in particular stood out about this door. For all intents and purposes, the furnishing looked as ordinary as the next. Yet Lavi fidgeted and faithfully waited.

An indigo sky domed the world and was empty save for a few wispy clouds. The city dozed in the dull blue of pre-sunrise, quiet and still. Shadows sprawled across every surface with only the occasional electric lamp to alleviate the darkness.

The air smelled refreshing, sprinkled with the heady scent of petrichor from last night's drizzle, but its frigidity spiked uncomfortably against Lavi's dry eyes.

Sleep hadn't come easy. He had lain awake in bed for the better part of the night, eyes unwittingly opening every time he forced them shut. At some point, the gurgling sound of water pipes joined his thoughts of Kanda and the recent disastrous events. Everything roiled insistently against his skull.

It was in that manner that he cooked up the ingenious plan to approach Kanda again the next day. And so there stood Lavi, leaning inconspicuously against the wall, waiting for his target to emerge.

Minutes ticked by and he began to feel a little antsy. It was unusual for Kanda to wake up late. Could the man be sleeping in for once?

A soft click sounded from the room next to Kanda's. Someone had unlocked their door and was pulling it open. Lenalee's upper torso materialised from the depths of her room, and she glanced right, then left, finally spotting him.

"Oh, Lavi!" She smiled in surprise, stepping out next to him. Her breath billowed like smoke from a steam engine.

He offered a tentative smile in return. Now the woman wasn't someone he expected to be up this early. "Morning, Lenalee."

"Good morning, Lavi. Holy muffins, it's freezing."

"Yeah, it rained a little last night."

"Ugh. Why couldn't it have snowed instead?"

The slender woman pulled her woolly green cardigan closer, shivering. In a bid to stave off the cold, she launched into a few warm-up exercises to start off her day.

Meanwhile, Lavi shifted from foot to foot, casting more worried glances at Kanda's door. His strange behaviour eventually caught Lenalee's attention. Bemusement coloured her gaze as she asked, "Are you waiting for... someone?"

Distracted by her question, Lavi looked back as Lenalee wandered over, only for her to lurch towards him with an alarmed squeak.

"Gaia's mercy, Lavi, what happened to your face?!"

"Huh?" Lavi blinked owlishly, caught off-guard by her sudden panic.

"Your—!" Lenalee's eyes flared with concern as her hands rose and waved helplessly in the air, undecided if she should make contact. Finally, she gingerly pressed a soft hand against his left cheek. A flare of pain originating from under the skin made him flinch away, and she withdrew just as quickly, apologising. "Sorry, sorry."

"Ow?"

"Lavi, your face is all messed up!"

Seeing the confusion on his face, Lenalee released a growl split between exasperation and worry. Whirling around, she disappeared back into her room and shortly emerged with a small desk mirror. She impatiently thrust it at him.

Tilting it up under the corridor lights, the reflection of his bruised cheek and swollen nose arrested Lavi with all its glory. He grimaced and swivelled the mirror around, inspecting the damage from different angles. Splodges the colour of blueberry juice had bloomed across the area, dark and angry. His nose looked and felt tender. How did he miss the pain last night?

"Wow."

"Yes, wow," Lenalee echoed with arms crossed. "What the hell happened? Were you fighting demons in your sleep?"

"I was fighting sleep ," Lavi mumbled as he passed the mirror back to her.

She shot him an unamused look. "Get it checked at the MTF today."

The medical treatment facility – commonly referred to as MTF – resided in the Backyard, a wide strip of key government buildings that consisted of the nation's backbone. They were dedicated to treating the sick or injured of the district. Usually that meant government personnel like Lavi, or the military such as sages.

Heading the facility was a tall, blond woman whose hair seemed permanently gathered into a stern bun. Although she had an official name, everyone operated on an unspoken agreement to call her 'Head Nurse' and nothing but.

Unlike most of the other department heads, Naturology didn't play a factor in Head Nurse's ascension to her current position. Skilled and extraordinarily disciplined, she was quick to bear down on any unruly patients with a firm hand. One did not simply walk out of the infirmary until they had obtained her permission.

Fortunately for Lavi, bruises seldom lasted for more than half a day after being treated by a medic-sage, which promised a good possibility of fully recovering before his nosy mentor sniffed out anything suspicious. Namely the injuries from Kanda's ferocious head-butt.

Although he felt thoroughly unenthusiastic at the prospect of being confined in bed until Head Nurse opened the cage doors, Lavi reined back a groan and nodded. His voice creaked as he silently suffered the cold, dry air and lack of sleep.

"Okay."

Lenalee seemed mollified enough by his acquiescence and popped back into her room to reinstate her little mirror. Then she returned, expectations etched on to her face.

"I have questions," she said without preamble, shutting and locking her door. "But first we're taking care of you. Follow me."

Running his fingers through his thick ginger locks, Lavi silently cursed his luck. It appeared increasingly unlikely that Kanda was in his room at all. With no idea where the other man could have gone, he wondered if he should have stayed in bed. He had come by for nothing, not that foresight could have seen this. Squeezing the gift stowed away in one of his jacket's deep pockets, he resigned himself to trailing behind Lenalee.

Halfway down the stairs, Lenalee almost tripped. Her hands flew out to latch onto the railings and the closest parts of a startled Lavi, who in turn clutched back.

She exclaimed loudly, "Ah! Sorry, Lavi."

"Lenalee? You okay?"

Their voices echoed in the stairwell as they recollected themselves. Lenalee straightened up with an abashed smile, smoothing out her silk pyjamas.

"Don't mind my two left feet."

Lavi raised an eyebrow. Lenalee being clumsy? What next, Kanda being sweet? He tried not to think about that and held his tongue.

Together they traipsed into the dimly lit lobby, and he was steered straight into the kitchen – but not before he noticed an odd little detail. On the coffee table farthest from his left sat a lonely mug. Its contents produced a wispy steam spiralling lazily upwards.

Breakfast was chicken congee topped with fried shallots, freshly sliced spring onions and thin ginger strips. Lenalee made fantastic congee; silky in texture and with enough soup to slurp without the consistency tipping into watery. Warm and comforting, it was perfect during such a chilly morning.

By the time they finished their meal, Lavi was feeling considerably less of a dried-up corpse. Not wanting to be inconsiderate, he took on the job of cleaning up while Lenalee brewed them two mugs of hot tea. Then they gathered back around one end of the kitchen island with their drinks in front of them.

"Are you feeling any better?" Lenalee asked around the rim of her mug.

Lavi smiled gratefully. "I am, thanks to your delicious cooking."

"Your bruises though..." She winced.

He lifted his chin and ran his fingers through his hair in a suave manner. "Nothing can hamper these good looks. The ladies need not worry."

Lenalee rolled her eyes. "The ladies have no reason to worry about that." Setting her mug down, she regarded him with sharp eyes. "Well, how did you even get those?"

"What, this handsome face?" Lavi waggled his eyebrows. At the sight of her exasperated face, he hid a grin and quickly schooled his own into solemnity. He shouldn't push his luck while the woman was determined. "Heh. Well. It's courtesy of Yu, which shouldn't come as a surprise. We had a... talk and he didn't appreciate how it went. So, he... hit me and ran away."

Lenalee mulled it over with an odd glint in her eyes, a small smile lifting her lips. "I'm feeling like you could do with a little positivity right now, so I'm going to go ahead and tell you it's great you managed to talk to Yu last night. I was worried when he didn't show up to the welcome party."

Not that the 'talk' did much for his situation, but Lavi wasn't too sure about revealing that information to Lenalee presently. How much did she know, really? Did Kanda talk to her about them at all? It felt unlikely.

If Kanda hadn't, then it might not be within their best interest to mention any of these private details... not that it implicated the other man more than Lavi. Because, on both occasions, it had been Lavi initiating dubious acts. But he supposed if word got out then Kanda's ego would suffer disproportionately given the man's reputation.

In any case, Lavi knew he should continue honing his courage and persistence. If not for himself, then for Kanda. Lavi had had a year to languish in his bed of thorns – now he was home, and he would be damned if he wasted another opportunity.

He settled for a neutral, "I guess so."

"Hm. Was that why you were waiting outside his room?"

"Yeah."

"You're really brave, Lavi." Lenalee's voice was gentle. "I'm sure it isn't easy trying to talk to him."

"It definitely isn't." Lavi raked his hair with frustrated fingers. Should he at least elaborate a bit more? He reckoned Lenalee wouldn't judge either of them harshly – he placed a good amount of trust in her ability to be calm and understanding and helpful. "He's... so closed off all the time. I can't tell what he's really thinking. I never know if I did something wrong or if he's just being himself, and it becomes so difficult to know what to do around him. Anger isn't a personality, damn it."

"That's Yu for you." With a heavy sigh the woman leaned her chin on a palm. "I'll let you in on a tiny secret. He wasn't quite like this before. He wasn't as open and energetic as the other kids, but he was... gentler than now."

"Oh?" Lavi's interest was immediately piqued.

"I suppose I should start from the beginning... We were about eleven or twelve when Uncle Tiedoll brought Yu over to our house. I thought he was a girl at first, with that long hair and cute face."

Lenalee huffed lightly, smiling. Lavi couldn't help but smile as well, envisioning a young Kanda. Adorable.

"Brother told me to be extra nice and patient, because Yu had just been transferred over from Easfrija." Her smile lost its shine as she spoke. "I found out some time later that he was one of the survivors from the Nihon project, and the Chang family had taken him in. They stayed in Wen Haisha for a year or so until the Changs finished their inspection. Anyways, he was really quiet at first. Didn't look at anyone except the floor. He didn't get angry or... anything. It was almost creepy; he didn't respond to anything or show any kind of emotion... almost like a living corpse. Uncle Tiedoll had to spoon-feed him his meals so that he'd eat... He told Brother that it happened every time, but he didn't mind. He was more worried about how to make it better."

Lenalee swallowed, looking heartbroken as she recalled the memory, but Lavi didn't interrupt. His fingers dug into the fabric of his pants as he listened.

"I tried talking to him, first in Visterish – though my Visterish still kind of sucked back then, then I tried again in Wen. That was when he looked at me, at my face... and I think he saw or recognised something because he wouldn't stop staring. He wouldn't let anyone except me or Uncle Tiedoll feed him after that."

Her eyes brimmed with tenderness as she gazed into the distance; brows forming a sad inverted v .

"But he still wouldn't talk to anyone, until I had the best idea ever – I'm still proud of myself for that one, by the way. I had Brother bring home a duo translation book and spent a couple days learning how to speak a few basic phrases. The first thing I said to him in Nihongo was 'hello, welcome.' And, ugh, he started crying."

Lenalee bit her lip and shook her head, wearing a helpless half-smile at the memory.

"I panicked – I thought I screwed up. I ran to grab the book to look up how to say sorry. I don't think I've apologised that many times in my life as I did in that minute. But it seemed to do the trick – after he threw himself at me and cried himself silly all over my shirt... I hugged him tight and kept apologising. But since then, he acted more normally. He was still quiet, but at least he verbally responded when spoken to and even smiled a couple times. Yeah, I know. I told Brother what happened, and I guess he must have told Uncle Tiedoll too, because after that we got a home tutor – a Wen woman – who taught us Visterish through our respective native languages. Yu wouldn't go unless I was there though."

Lenalee finally focused her eyes on Lavi, who stared back attentively.

"I don't know how it really went wrong after that; I'll be honest. But I strongly suspect it had to do with his growing proficiency in Visterish. He was an insanely quick learner; after two years he passed the advanced level. He began reading about the Nihon projects... from old newspapers, public records. I'm sure he asked around the First District as well and got answers. People knew he was Uncle Tiedoll's son."

She took a deep, shaky breath, her fingers curled into fists on cool marble.

"That was around the time we noticed a change. He wasn't just quiet anymore. He got angry. And not just angry – he became mean . He would lash out at anyone who didn't look Easfrijian, even if they hadn't done anything to him. He started acting cold to Daisya and Marie too. Daisya would never show it, but it really hurt and confused him when it happened. They were making such good progress at becoming a real family too... Yu seemed to trust Uncle Tiedoll and the boys more than anyone else, besides me and Brother that is. And... I think what happened also affected Daisya to the point he emotionally closed off from others. I wouldn't say he became mean as well, at least not like how Yu did... but he definitely became a lot more difficult to deal with. You know what I'm talking about."

Lavi knew what she was talking about, but it still came as a surprise to hear that the rude prankster hadn't always been that way. Rude wasn't necessarily in the same corner as mean , but at times it still spilled over rather significantly into nastiness and caused hurt regardless. It was understandably tough not to be, especially without this context, but Lavi surmised he had probably been overly judgmental about Daisya.

"We somehow convinced Yu to go for therapy – with an Easfrijian of course. I guess it helped with the direct outbursts... but I honestly don't think he feels any differently about the people here. At times I wonder if he's simply... waiting. For something. It doesn't make sense to me – that he would willingly sign up for BMT and go on to become a sage for the damn army that destroyed his home. But I can't and won't pry into it, except do what I can to look out for him."

"He chose to be a sage? Here?" Lavi would be lying if he said he wasn't shocked.

"Yeah," sighed Lenalee, leaning her chin on a palm and tracing her finger in circles on the smooth porcelain of her mug. "I saw his application last month. I'm sure he has submitted it. Once you're recorded as attuned on the sage test, it's a guaranteed acceptance into the sage program."

"I wonder why he didn't just stick to finishing BMT and be done with it..."

"Well, he didn't even need to do BMT."

"He didn't?"

"No, he certainly didn't have to." Lenalee frowned into her tea, still outwardly bothered by Kanda's decisions. "He's not a Visterian citizen, so it isn't compulsory for him. Did you not know?"

Lavi shook his head. Despite being Bookman's protégé, he had yet to be allowed clearance to higher archive levels such as citizen records. As such, he had no idea about Kanda's citizenry.

"Uncle Tiedoll asked him if he would like to take up citizenship here, but he refused. I'd never seen his face look so... dead." Parched from all the storytelling, Lenalee gulped down a couple mouthfuls of tea and wiped her lips with the back of her hand. "Then a few months later he went and registered for BMT by himself. Sometimes I can't figure him out at all... I wish he'd trust us more. We're his family..."

Lavi digested all the information, confused and curious.

What the hell was going through Kanda's mind? Why was he doing this to himself? He glanced at his own forgotten tea, internally going through the other man's possible motives. Like Lenalee, could he protect Kanda in his own way too?

"I wasn't aware anyone was allowed to join the army if they're of a different citizenry."

"I heard from Brother that these are usually decided on a case-by-case basis. Yu is an orphan and estranged from his homeland, as well as Uncle Tiedoll's legally adopted child. So, on account of these factors, he's considered a temporary resident. Rather like Krory, because his barony does business directly with the Visterian government. Though I suppose Krory's role here is rather transactional. I'm willing to bet it's because they were aware of his attunement. Vistenarum is quite desperate for more sages."

"Figures," Lavi muttered.

Neither of them had mentioned it, but Lavi held sizable knowledge of the Wen projects, perfectly aware of its existence. Vistenarum had displayed significantly more respect to Wen Haisha as opposed to the Nihon islands, which could be attributed to the Wen's greater military strength and organisation.

The Wen's rulebook primarily prepared them to defend against invasions. They believed in upholding sages as healers and protectors, not fighters. Unsurprisingly, they failed to hold a bright enough candle to the more seasoned and combat-ready Visterian sages.

Anyone would agree that imbalanced political deals offered a far better bargain when the alternative was being pillaged and subjugated – but that served as an extremely low bar by which to determine one's options.

Lavi carried a strong suspicion that Komui and Lenalee had been one of those forcefully displaced due to the aforementioned deals. Like him, they hadn't much of a choice as to where they could go.

Everything about this life felt disheartening.

For a decade , Lavi hibernated in a little orphanage in the middle of nowhere. Shunned by potential adopters due to his defective eye and subpar personality. At age fifteen, the orphanage kicked him out immediately, leaving him to the mercy of the BMT program.

Admittedly it was the best thing they ever did for him – he flourished in the First District, surrounded by all the books he could want, hot meals and his own room. Most crucially, he met other youths who genuinely cared about him. Friends who similarly had to suffer through a tortured past, with whom he could share private details and relate to.

Just like Yu.

The thought tumbled around his gut like a rock, guilt tripping his insides for daring to feel any sort of happiness to be here.

"Well... I've disclosed a lot of personal details about Yu's history to you." Their eyes met, and Lenalee's gaze took on that determined air again. "I don't think it has to be said that you will absolutely keep it between us and only us."

"I would never, ever tell anyone about this," Lavi promised sincerely.

Lenalee nodded, adequately satisfied. However, Lavi carried on after a moment's hesitation, buoyed by that strange, newfound courage he gained whenever he thought about Kanda.

"I... care a lot about Yu. More than he understands or is willing to understand, I think." He gathered a deep breath. "I've read about the Nihon projects myself, and I must confess I took interest in it only after I came to know him. I don't know if you read them too but—"

"I have," Lenalee interjected sadly.

"—then you know I already understand why he acts like that... and nothing you've said has changed my feelings. I know it's going to be difficult, probably more than I expect if I'm to be honest with myself... but I want to try my best... for him."

They stared at each other for a few seconds and then Lenalee was lunging across the kitchen counter to wrap her arms around Lavi's neck, causing him to jump in surprise. He exhaled in bewilderment over her black hair, but eventually brought a hand up to gently rub her back.

"We never thought we'd find others besides family who would care this much about him." She finally spoke into his shoulder, her voice slightly muffled.

"...I never thought I could care at all," Lavi quietly admitted.

Drawing back, Lenalee laid warm fingers against his cheek and warm eyes on his face. "I think you're a wonderful person, Lavi. Sometimes we just need more time and opportunity to find ourselves."

Lavi breathed at length, in and out. "Thank you, Lenalee. That's a really good thought."

They exchanged small but heartfelt smiles and settled back to finish their tea.

"Oh, about that mug in the lobby..." Lavi began conversationally, watching Lenalee's face. "That was Yu, wasn't it?"

Lenalee didn't bat an eyelid as she hopped out of her seat. "Right, I should clear his mug. You should get more sleep; you look like shit."

Lavi snorted but let it slide.