Ah…Saya just realized this was on her computer and that she forgot to post it...But anyway, Saya's decided to put in a bit about Cross and Allen's vacation, even though it was really more or less a honeymoon n.n; Those two… And some…plot-movement, maybe? Who the heck knows anyway? Certainly not Saya. She should try and plan this out more.

Disclaimer: Saya doesn't own the actors, just the script they're acting to.

Warnings: Rated M for sexual material en masse, and pedophilia, considering how both Cross and Tyki are much older than Allen.

11. Investigation

"You've been taking longer and longer to return home lately Lavi," Tyki said, sipping at a cup of Darjeeling tea, "Meeting a secret lover when your master isn't looking?"

Despite himself Lavi jumped a bit at the accusation. It was true that ever since he'd found out where Kanda was he'd been visiting the raven-haired boy on a nearly daily basis, but Yuu wasn't his lover… He was just a long-lost best friend who happened to be his first love. Yuu would probably strangle him if Lavi were to ever tell him that anyone had thought them lovers.

"Is that the pot calling the kettle black, sir? You've always taken longer than me to get back from your walks, just who is it you used to meet every morning?" Damnit, he'd sounded too defensive and bringing up those walks seemed to have annoyed Tyki greatly. Of late Tyki had been acting as he normally did, but only for as long as no one brought up those walks. It was mysterious, though his master's reaction to that question raised Lavi's suspicions.

The older man huffed then scowled, his posture becoming a bit stiff in his chair as he closed his eyes in an attempt to reign in his annoyance. "Please, who don't I meet in the mornings? It's a constant barrage of hellos."

"I thought you enjoyed socializing sir."

"I do, which is why I always stayed out so long." He did like socializing, but the person he wanted to socialize with was currently out of the country and wouldn't be coming back for another month. Allen probably hated him anyway for that stunt he'd tried to pull in the coach. Clearly his life was over for the time being.

Lavi realized that Tyki didn't want to dwell on the things he did during the mornings, and tactfully changed the subject.

"In truth I've been meeting a friend whom I lost contact with six years ago. Originally I had gone to the Marian manor to visit Lenalee, I think you've met her once or twice, but it turned out that another one of my primary school friends now works there."

Tyki's expression was strangely surprised when he heard Lavi mention Cross Marian's mansion; it was the sort of surprise one showed when something they were familiar with was mentioned. How odd, as far as Lavi knew Tyki and Cross got along in an interesting sort of way; it was a battle of the egos any time they met. They were social rivals, almost, though they were not familiar in any way. The redhead didn't think Tyki would get angry with him for meeting someone there, either. Therefore, Lavi could see no reason for Tyki to give any reaction to hearing that name.

"Oh, what a coincidence, the two must've been good friends if it was so easy for you to pick up where you left off so quickly," Tyki said, focusing his attention on Lavi's story. The butler had to say he appreciated Tyki's attentiveness.

"Yeah, we were best friends in primary school," Lavi said as he picked a stray book off of a shelf that he knew it didn't belong on. Something in his expression hinted to the aristocrat that the two of them had been a bit more than friends. He gave a small grin at the thought of Lavi having a sweetheart.

"Why did the two of you lose contact though, if that's not too personal a question to ask?"

"Ah…" Lavi scratched his cheek as he grinned a bit awkwardly, "We got into a spot of trouble and it was determined that I shouldn't be seen with him after that." Tyki raised an eyebrow at that statement.

"Oh my, what did you mischievous boys do?" Tyki asked teasingly. Lavi flushed up to his hairline at the insinuation in his master's voice.

"Nothing! I just… It wasn't his fault…" A troubled look came to Lavi's lone eye and Tyki decided this was not the appropriate topic to dwell on.

"Well then, it's certainly a miracle that you've met this person again," Tyki said, and that particular conversation ended there.

000

The first month of their vacation had been spent lazily drifting around the mansion in Venice. This was their vacation after all, they'd come here to relax and get away from work. The first thing on their to-do list was sleep. Allen worked so much during the year that sleep tended to allude him, and well between Cross' parties and his experiments that often took him to the lights of dawn (not to mention the work that he did actually do, despite popular belief), the master didn't get much sleep himself. So Allen released his responsibilities for a while and Cross refused all invitations he received, choosing instead to spend their nights sleeping and their days curled up in the recesses of the old mansion.

But of course that got boring after a while. By the end of the first month Cross was out sight-seeing on a daily basis and Allen was caring for him in any way he possibly could. This city made them careless, or maybe not so much careless as daring. Like two mischievous teenagers they would steal kisses in dark corners of restaurants or on the gondola when the gondolier wasn't paying attention to them, their fingers brushed as they walked down the street, each time coming closer and closer to intertwining completely. If anyone noticed anything they quickly dismissed it as a trick of the mind; Cross was a well-established womanizer, certainly he wouldn't bother with his butler.

More than half the time they returned home feeling foolish, but it was a happy sort of feeling that made for warm memories. They weren't around their close friends or employees or snooty family members who were putting pressure on Cross to get married, who were putting pressure on Allen to be a perfectly reliable butler, who would disapprove of them if they knew. With that weight temporarily off of their shoulders, they changed. They would go back to being normal later, when the pressure was back on.

For now though, their biggest worry was...

"No way in hell Master."

"Oh, you're no fun Allen."

"You squeeze yourself into that contraption and then try to tell me that."

"But if you did, then we wouldn't have to be the least bit secretive on the streets, we'd just do as we please."

"Yeah, if I don't pass out first. You're just a pervert who wants to see me in frills."

"You know me too well."

Allen sighed and shook his head, glaring at the…the thing Cross held in his arms. It was frilly, lacy, puffy, and completely feminine in design; of course it was, it was a dress. Cross was attempting to convince him to cross-dress.

"No means no Master," Allen said with a stern look, "Remember what happened last time?" The youth's face flushed a little every time he brought up the incident. He'd been so eager to please back then and he hadn't imagined women's clothing could be so constricting… How did they do it? He couldn't tell if wearing corsets was a talent or pure stupidity.

"Hm, right. You got far too many stares for my liking," Cross mumbled. Allen dropped his face into his hands with a groan.

"I was talking about the part where I nearly fainted on the main street because I couldn't breathe in the corset. How about you dress as the woman this time, and then we'll see if you ever ask me to do that again?"

Cross sighed in defeat; he had so been looking forward to this, too. Oh well, he knew better than to push Allen on certain matters and the danger of getting caught with Allen was more thrilling when they were both dressed as men anyway. Still, the boy would've been so precious, like a little porcelain doll.

Allen knew that Cross was attempting to guilt him with all of those sighs and disappointed looks, but he would not be fooled. Allen had his own tricks to use, and he could easily guilt Cross out of this crazy idea. He was the next one to sigh, only the snowy-haired boy sounded much more forlorn than the master had.

"Master had gotten fed up with having a lover that he has to hide. He's finally starting to think it's troublesome…" Allen put his fingers to his lips and looked down with sad eyes. "Perhaps now he only likes me because I can pass for a girl still… the moment I grow up, I'll be thrown out…"

"Ah…" Oh crap. Cross knew he was being strung along but he was very drawn in by Allen's words and his performance. Of course Cross didn't think Allen was troublesome or anything like that! What if Allen really thought those things somewhere in his mind? Oh dear…

"It's not like that… Of course it's not," Cross said, pulling the hurt-looking boy to him. He knew that he was playing into Allen's hands, and so this whole thing felt a lot more foolish than it should have. Allen's eyes fluttered upward, his expression innocent though his eyes seemed to say "Do go on." Damn, this kid had Cross wrapped around his little finger and he knew it.

"I…Well, you know…" Why was it so easy to say careless things to women but so hard to say the important things to Allen? They were the same words, or at least similar, but they meant more when directed at the boy. It was hard to say and that frustrated him.

But Allen knew his master well, knew that when he couldn't find the words he wanted to say the most precious things. With a gentle smile he touched his forehead to Cross'.

"Master is so awkward," he said affectionately, and sweetly kissed him.

000

Lavi was starting to wonder why he hadn't done this before. For a while he hadn't bothered to think about the strange way Tyki had acted after those morning walks that he no longer took, but now he was suspicious again. That reaction to the topic, the even stranger reaction to the mention of the Marian manor (only strange because he'd reacted at all), the newly created suspicion that Tyki was meeting someone (possibly a lover, if the master's insinuation about Lavi's business has an indicator of anything). At first it had seemed like the only way to learn anything about what was going on would be to trail Tyki one day while he was on his daily walk. Of course that plan was scrapped when Tyki stopped going on said walks.

That didn't mean that Lavi couldn't still investigate, however. As he stood at the front desk of the local cobbler's shop (he was at this particular store for himself rather than for Tyki), he made pleasant conversation with the owner.

"Is Lord Tyki sick?" asked the cobbler; he seemed to have a friendly relationship with the master. Then again, everyone did.

"Something of that sort, yes," Lavi replied vaguely, "Um... This may seem a strange question to ask, but has my Master been doing anything out of the ordinary during the past few months? He's been coming home in strange moods for a while now, so I thought that maybe something had been happening to him on his morning walks."

The cobbler made a thoughtful expression for a moment as he thought over the question. "About how long ago did he start acting strange?" The man asked.

"About half a year ago. At first it was nothing big, he'd just be happier than usual or a bit down, just little changes. Then he suddenly decided to quit smoking and his moods changed more dramatically… Though I suppose that could've had to do with the nicotine withdrawal."

"About half a year ago…. Well, I do remember that at the time he'd made a purchase here. Nothing really out of the ordinary happened… At least not that I know of, but… Oh, but after that he suddenly started to meet with that nice Walker boy!" The cobbler's face lit up when the subject came to light. Lavi's eyes widened. Walker boy? The only person Lavi knew with that name was Allen, and granted Walker wasn't a particularly uncommon last name but even so Lavi could only think that this person was talking about Allen.

Well, it never hurt to check.

"Do you mean Allen Walker?" he asked, tilting his head to the side, "Why would my lord meet with him, I wonder…?"

"Well," The cobbler started, as though he was very much looking forward to dishing out some gossip; 'City folk,' Lavi thought with a sigh. "You see, Mr. Walker has this penchant for trouble it seems. He's a darling thing really, so it's no surprise that he gets all sort of attention, dangerous or otherwise. Plus I've heard rumors that he was adopted right off the streets, so I imagine the rats who skulk around here are jealous of him because he's successful.

"Now that I think about it, around the time you're talking about, six months ago or so, the boy got into a spot of trouble. I think your master, God bless him, must've helped the boy out of it. After that Lord Mikk started escorting him so that the ruffians wouldn't harass him anymore." The cobbler nodded at the end of his story, thinking that this was definitely what must have happened. Lavi's eyebrows were as high up on his forehead as they could be. So had Allen been the one who was affecting Tyki for so long? Well, the redhead certainly knew the white-haired boy had that sort of ability but to think that he'd even gotten to his master!

This was a very useful find, it was. Allen tended to affect people without realizing it, so Lavi imagined that even the smallest word from him would be able to change Tyki's mood after a certain amount of time. And well, if Tyki had been meeting Allen on a nearly daily basis then they had already had an ample amount of time to become good friends, and the boy's influence would be great...

'Well, I should do a bit more investigating to be sure…' Lavi thought, and headed to the Marian manor.

000

"Che, asking about that Moyashi?"

"Moyashi?" Lavi gave Kanda a questioning look; he'd asked about Allen, not a moyashi, whatever that was.

"Allen. He's the Moyashi."

"Um…if you say so." Lavi scratched his cheek and decided to just dismiss it; in any case it was sort of cute that Kanda had a nickname for Allen. At least he hoped it was a nickname. Lavi wasn't sure what he would think if it was some sort of pet name…

"Anyway," Lavi said, shaking off those strange thoughts that he didn't really have a right to anymore (he never had in the first place). "Back to the question. Has Allen been coming home with anyone these past few months?"

Kanda gave Lavi a suspicious glance, one eyebrow raised to the question. "Why do you need to know, anyway? If it's the Moyashi's personal business then I've got no right to tell you."

"It's not about Allen so much as it is my master," Lavi said with a sigh; gosh, how many times was he going to have to explain this? "About six months ago he started acting strange. I got it from a somewhat reliable source that around that time he started hanging out with Allen. I'm just asking you this so that I can confirm whether or not it's Allen who's got my master acting so strangely."

Kanda regarded him for a moment with a searching look, as though he were trying to find deceit in Lavi's face. He found none, and sighed before giving up the information he knew.

"Allen has been coming home with someone about once or twice a week for a few months now. He usually arrives in a coach, so I don't know who he is with, I just know that he's with someone because he says goodbye to whoever is in the coach with him. Whether or not it's your master with him, I've no idea."

So Allen had been coming home from time to time with someone who may or may not have been Lavi's master. It wasn't an everyday occurrence though, so perhaps Allen was meeting with someone different? But the person who had been described to Lavi had definitely been Allen. So then perhaps Allen was only taking Tyki partway home with him on most days. Maybe the boy didn't want anyone to see who he was riding with? But in that case, why?

Lavi had a sneaking suspicion that Allen's master had something to do with it.

"I…see…"

"You seem to be thinking a lot deeper on this than necessary," Kanda said, his expression rather blank except for the hint of curiosity that lit his eyes. "What are you thinking of?"

"It's just… Well if my master has been meeting Allen on a daily basis and the kid really is the cause of his strange behavior… Why didn't he tell me about it? He knows Allen and I are friends. And it seems as though Allen was trying not to let you see the person he was with. But… Why?"

Kanda did not have to think for very long to come to an answer about that matter. It was no small secret that Lord Marian was rather strict with Allen as far as who he was to associate with. And Kanda, ever observant to the point where he really wished he wasn't at all, knew that the issue ran quite a bit deeper than that. However, it certainly wasn't his business to go flaunting around, so he was going to keep his mouth shut about Allen and the master's dirty laundry. He'd just have to cut out some of the truth.

"Lord Marian…" Kanda muttered, catching Lavi's attention before continuing on in a louder tone, "He's very strict with Allen. I imagine that the only time the master doesn't have control over the kid is when he's out in the mornings so… If he were to be meeting anyone whom Lord Cross would not want him to see then I suppose he would try to hide it."

Lavi raised an eyebrow. It seemed he wasn't the only one who was thinking on these things. He was also pretty sure he'd never heard Kanda say so much at once since they were children. Well, he'd known for a while that Cross was strict with Allen but for Kanda to go so far as to say that the mornings were the only time the boy wasn't under his control was a bit much, wasn't it? And if that was no exaggeration then why on earth did Allen put up with it?

"Huh… Well in any case, I think we're getting a bit too into Allen's personal life with this talk. I guess if Tyki wants to meet Allen when he goes on walks then that's his business. Just sort of wish he'd have told me so that I wouldn't have worried so much." Lavi sighed and shook his head. Well, he could think on the real reason why Tyki was acting strange later; at the moment at least he knew what the cause of it was.

000

Allen really hated the morning after, especially when he hadn't been involved in the night before. It was the same routine every time, except for today he was going to have to try to rush a proud woman out of the summer home in Italian. Thankfully he was fairly fluent in the language.

She was in a guest room that was connected to the master's. He never did anything with women in his own room; it had something to do with keeping his sheets clean. Allen was the only one who was ever allowed to be with him in there; that was one of the few things that stopped the boy from succumbing to jealousy. The fact that the master never stayed in the room with the woman was also another one of those points that made it easier to cope.

"Miss, Miss, it is morning," he said with a voice that hopefully sounded calm and unconcerned. He didn't want to sound as though he was looking down on the woman because she was a shameless hussy who had been easily used as entertainment for a night. He tried to save such judgments for after they had woken up and left. It was the prissy ones who didn't leave without a fuss that he usually felt were that type.

Apparently this woman was that type.

She openly glared at him as he motioned to her clothes -hung neatly on a hanger near the changing screen- and asked her as politely as he could to please be quick about leaving for the master did not like waking up to company. He said "company" because it sounded a lot better than calling her a bed warmer.

"Don't you look down on me, brat," she muttered venomously as she changed, "You are just a dirty servant so you've hardly a right to criticize me."

"I would never dream of looking down on you Miss, I apologize if I gave off such an air." As a matter of fact he'd been thinking very lowly of her. After all, he may just be a lowly servant but he was the only one allowed to sleep in his master's bed, to stay until morning, to come back again, to accompany the master everywhere. He was definitely higher up than this careless girl who'd been sucked in and used by Cross. He was constant and he was close, two things a woman like this could never be to his master.

"Right, I'm sure you think horrible things of all the women who you push out in the mornings. You must think you're so much better than us all." The woman walked out from behind the changing screen.

"But of course not, Miss. Whatever gave you that idea?"

She narrowed her eyes at him. "You're name is Allen, isn't it?"

Allen widened his eyes a bit in surprise; he didn't recall being introduced to her. "Um, yes it is."

The woman shook her head in annoyance. "I can't believe it," was all she said, and she was walking out the front door in the next few minutes.

"I don't get it."

000

The social season in London was nearly over, there was less than one month left to trudge through. Tyki knew that during this season he was expected to attend many more gatherings than was normal for him, so he tried to find a happy medium between his usual and the number of outings expected of him. There were plenty of other expectations that came with the social season, but most of them were easy enough to fulfill if he just showed up in the first place.

"Milord, the mail for today…" Lavi sighed as he motioned toward the sizable stack of letters on far corner of Tyki's desk. Because the season was coming to a close, everyone was rushing to get out the invitations to their last balls. The majority of them were used as fire kindling in the winter.

The young master groaned as he reached for the pile, flipping through them one-by-one in order to eliminate the invitations he knew he would deny. What on earth was so wonderful about those stuffy balls anyway? The hosts threw away buckets of money and the entertainment was so plain most of the time, either that or it was much too ritzy for his liking. He remembered the days when he used to travel from place to place before he'd been taken back into the nobility; the parties he'd crashed back then were much more exciting than the ones he was invited to now. He was sure they had cost much less to organize, too.

Faintly Tyki thought that Cross had the right idea, leaving the country for the better part of this season. It was just a shame that he'd brought Allen with him. Oh well, Tyki would live, really.

"So these are the accepted invitations?" There were all of three of them, which was quite a few for Tyki. Lavi almost felt bad for the man, but there was nothing to be done for it.

"Yes, they are. Please make the proper arrangements for me to attend," Tyki nodded kindly with a small apologetic smile; he knew it was the rejected pile that was going to be the real problem. Lavi nodded, giving no hint to the fact that he was getting a headache just looking at the stack of invitations that were to be kindly turned down.

"Ah… I need to get out of here," Tyki sighed out and sunk back into his office chair; it was high quality leather and ridiculously comfortable but it did nothing for him when all he wanted to was to get up and move. "Maybe a walk…. Can't stay inside forever." It was about time he got back to being normal anyway. Besides, if he started back on his old routine the moment Allen came back to England, how suspicious would that be? Little did he know that such precautions had already been rendered pointless.

"Oh, you want to go out today?" Lavi asked with surprise; to his understanding Allen was not due back until the end of August. Perhaps his theories about his master and the younger boy were wrong? If Allen wasn't the reason he'd stopped going out then Lavi had a lot more investigating to do.

"Yes, I think I shall. You usually go out about this time also, care to join me?" Lavi gave the matter a little consideration before nodding in acceptance. Before Lavi had stayed home to get the manor running properly in the mornings when Tyki went out, but if Tyki wanted company then it was Lavi's job to comply. Besides, everyone knew what they should be doing.

It was a nice little surprise to Tyki when he found that going out wasn't as bad as he remembered it being. That was partly to do with the fact that Lavi made for wonderful company, and partly because Tyki really disliked staying close to home all of the time and being out again was refreshing. Lavi seemed relieved too, perhaps because Tyki was getting back to normal? He imagined he wasn't a very reliable master if he was making the redhead worry so much.

"Hello Lord Tyki! It's been so long, we feared you'd been sick!" The woman who ran the store he usually bought his cigarettes from was a bit big, she was the kind of woman who everyone knew could take care of herself no matter where she was. Her motherly demeanor went against her projected image though. Tyki sort of wondered why a woman like her was selling packaged cancer, but didn't question it.

"So sorry to have made you worry, Madam." One apologetic grin and playful bow later and the woman was sure he wasn't lying. This is what Tyki spent a good portion of his morning doing variations of. It was touching to see how many people had worried about him. It was almost enough to make him feel a bit guilty over it, too, but not quite enough to actually get the job done.

"Why did you stop going out, anyway?" Lavi asked, figuring that since Tyki was finally getting back to normal it would be alright to ask. Tyki looked thoughtful for a moment as he considered how to answer.

"The thing I wanted was gone," he replied vaguely with a shrug; it wasn't like Lavi would have any idea what he was talking about anyway.

Only he did.

000

It was mid-August when Komui had called Cross in Venice. Apparently someone had broken into the armory on the manor grounds. And they hadn't broken into the one that everyone knew about, either. No, no, they'd broken into the one that only a handful of servants knew about and even fewer knew how to enter. Cross' family had been making and selling the highest quality weapons for generations, and they specialized in intricately crafted handguns. Needless to say Cross had grown quite fond of the things and kept a well-maintained collection of them. The fact that one had been stolen from Cross' personal armory was bad enough, but Komui just knew someone was going to get shot when he found out which gun had been stolen.

And of course, Komui also knew that was going to be the first question the master asked.

"Which one was it?" Cross all but growled into the receiver. He could hardly believe this! Couldn't he even go on vacation without something coming up? He was sincerely hoping this was some sort of prank on Komui's part, but he knew that the Chinese man wouldn't pull something like that.

"Ah… Well, I can't really be sure…" Komui really did not want to be the bearer of bad news, but he was doing a very bad job at sounding unsure.

"Which. One."

Komui took a deep breath as he prepared for the explosion that was sure to come. "Judgment."

Cross had nearly crushed the telephone in his hand when he heard this. That was his most precious possession. It was the first gun he had designed and hand-crafted for himself by himself and some idiot had the gall to steal it?

'Oh so help me God I will shoot everyone in London if that's what it takes to get it back.'

Cross tried to control his rage long enough to reply to Komui calmly; he could feel the younger man's tension over the phone. He was also doing his best not to destroy anything just yet.

"I'm coming back," he ground out angrily, "Now."

000

Kanda could recognize that mop of messy red hair from a mile away, but the person walking beside him was another story. He put on a half-hearted scowl as the grinning idiot came within earshot of him, waving happily in Yuu's general direction. The person beside him looked much calmer, sort of like he was just enjoying the walk and didn't really care about where he was going.

"Mornin' Yuu!"

"Tch. So it wasn't enough to have just one person bothering me while I'm working, huh? Needed to bring a friend along, too?" Lavi laughed off the question; he'd expected something like that from Kanda. The raven-haired man had always been put off by the fact that they met while he was on the clock, so it was no surprise that he wasn't thrilled to see there were two distractions coming his way that day instead of one.

"Aha, this is actually my master, Lord Tyki," Lavi said with a little motion toward the older man. Tyki almost thought it was odd that Lavi didn't seem the least bit embarrassed or annoyed by being spoken to like that in front of his employer, but then remembered that was just one of the redhead's quirks. Tyki politely tipped his hat and said a fair hello. Kanda inclined his head respectfully and apologized for being rude. Tyki could tell that despite the sincere words, this person did not easily acknowledge people and the older man would have to do some work to get any real respect from him.

"I think I remember you, vaguely," Tyki said once the three entered into what was turning into a half-decent conversation. "A long while back you visited Lavi at my townhouse, or am I wrong?"

Kanda shrugged, "Perhaps. I used to go there often." Tyki knew better than to ask why that had stopped. From there the conversation actually went somewhere, though the Asian boy didn't say much. Tyki just figured that was Kanda's way and didn't question it. He always did answer Lavi though, and while neither said anything he could tell that they had a thing going on. What kind of thing he didn't know, he wasn't even sure they knew, but he knew it was there. It was almost sort to cute, like watching two kids with their first crush in the schoolyard together.

All was well until the guard suddenly tensed. "You two, get out of here now."

"Huh?" Lavi tilted his head to the side with a curious expression. "Why?"

"Someone is coming up the drive and you two are not supposed to be here," Kanda answered; slacking on the job was not acceptable. The last thing he needed was someone coming here and thinking the security was lax. People did stupid things when they thought they could get away with it. Even worse, someone had already done something stupid and while Kanda was unsure of what had actually happened, he knew he would lose his job if he was caught slacking off now of all times.

Luckily both Lavi and Tyki understood that it was Kanda's job they were carelessly endangering and quickly got out of the area. But of course they were curious, so they chose to hide where they could see what was going on.

A carriage pulled to a stop in front of the gate and Kanda went to open the door. The two observers were both surprised to see Allen descend from the cab, followed by his master. Cross did not seem to be in the best of moods, and the snow-haired boy was clearly worried because of this.

"Please watch your step master, you're going to hurt yourself rushing around like this," Allen said as Cross stormed on through the gates to his home. Kanda's brows furrowed when he saw his master's furious expression. He'd heard that something had been stolen and had been told to keep a keen eye out for anyone who was acting strange, but he didn't know that the situation was serious enough for Cross to come home. If it was that bad, then someone had really messed up and he hoped to God he hadn't been the one to make a mistake.

"Oh, I'm not the one who's going to be hurt," the master muttered, but tried to calm down nonetheless. It would do him no good to look so undone in front of his servants. Besides Allen looked so worried, he didn't want to be the cause of his deep concern.

"Master…" Allen placed a soothing hand on Cross' arm; the action was platonic enough to be easily dismissed by those watching. "We'll find it, okay? So please don't worry so much."

As the scene went on before them, Lavi and Tyki watched from around a far corner. They couldn't hear what was going on, they could only see that Lord Marian was not in an amicable mood and that Allen was worried. Lavi noticed something more than just the master and butler's interaction though. He also noticed the incredible aura of jealousy coming from behind him. He was sure that if he turned around he'd find himself staring at the green-eyed monster. Goodness, how could Allen not feel that?

Still, that confirmed one thing for Lavi; what Tyki wanted was definitely Allen.

Ah… And so the cat's out of the bag, or at least half-way there. How will Lavi handle this situation? Will he run interference or cheer Tyki on? How will Allen react next time he sees Tyki? Oh joy, there's plot!