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"Tyki?!"

Oh boy. Oh damn. Oh shit.

"What are you doing here?"

Really. "I could ask you the same. Shouldn't you be in school right about now?"

Road just stared at him, still attached to the boy's arm like a limpet. Coming to think of it- "And what would your parents say if they saw you acting like that? They'd throw a fit."

And so would the Duke, should he ever catch wind of what Tyki was currently up to. Fuck.

So, this whole situation was bound to end very, very badly. Tyki was fairly certain of this.

Road simply narrowed her eyes at him and then turned her face back to Allen wearing a far more innocent look. "Allen," she whined. "Do you think I'm shameful?"

"I don't think anyone here's even remotely shameful," Allen said, keeping his face perfectly straight. "Now shameless on the other hand…"

There was a pointed look sent Tyki's way, and the man in question immediately felt his fingers twitch. The urge to strange the brat was strong, and was gradually becoming unbearable. Nevertheless− "Who's the shameless one, you little stalker?!"

Krory meanwhile had seen it fit to fade into the background; it looked like there might still be some hope for him after all. Not that Tyki cared or anything, really.

"Stalker?" Road repeated in seeming surprise, looking back up at Allen now.

Allen meanwhile smiled brightly; the smile was so fake it nearly made Tyki nauseous. But yeah, the stalker thing; Tyki could definitely use that – to muddy the waters if for nothing else.

"This guy's been following me all over Europe," Tyki explai−Well, complained. "Like, I tried to cheat him out of some money once, and now he won't leave me alone! I go to a new place, he shows up, I go to another place, he shows up. I manage to lose him for a couple of weeks and next thing I know, he shows up, hires me as a goddamned babysitter and drags me all the way to Germany!"

Road looked from Allen to Tyki and then back again. "Is it true?"

"It's true," Allen gleefully admitted. "Although he did leave out the part where I had him strip down to his underwear."

That was back in the old timeline, but Tyki still buried his face in his hands, mortified.

"Why?" Road asked, sounding honestly intrigued, and Tyki thought, oh God, fuck no.

"Because he was a bit mean to a friend of mine," Allen said, with a positively sunny disposition. "But I've mostly forgiven him for that, because he helped break me out of prison once."

Oh boy.

"Why were you in prison?" Road asked. "And why would Tyki help you?"

Oh damn.

"I will tell you," Allen said, smiling down at her. "But not here."

Road glanced Tyki's direction, no doubt taking in his expression. "I have a place," she finally said, more serious now.

"Then we'll go there," Allen agreed. "But before that…"

He turned his head, glancing towards a nearby clocktower. "I've got a small matter to deal with."

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Said 'small matter' proved to be a quiet chat with a skittish-looking Krory, likely to relay some type of instructions on how to proceed from here.

Tyki did not know what Allen had said, and frankly, he did not really care either; he was far more apprehensive about what Allen could possibly intend to do about Road.

Even so, he tagged along as Allen steered them towards the city gates, knowing well that even if he ran now, it would hardly be the end of it. Besides, while apprehensive, Tyki was also undeniably curious as to how Allen intended to bring Road over to their side of things.

So, when they got out just in time to sense a citywide barrier slamming into place, Tyki kept a wary eye on things.

"Innocence," Road noted, and her voice had a rather dangerous edge to it.

"It's not the Heart," Allen said, offering up a mild shrug. "Trust me."

The boy's behaviour didn't exactly inspire a whole lot of trust, but… with things having gone this far already, Tyki figured he might as well put in a word for him. "Trust him," Tyki said. "Failing that, at least listen to what we've got to say first, okay?"

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