Chapter Twelve

Excerpt from a religious text; The History of the Dark Religious Organization, written by Komui Lee, age 54, in the mid-1900's:

General Allen Walker will go down in history as the great savior, for he not only cleansed the world of the Earl of the Millenium, but also of the fourteen Noahs.

He himself carried the legacy of the Fourteenth, who lived on only to see the death of the Earl. The Fourteenth died the moment the Earl was killed; the moment that General Walker sacrificed his own life to his duty…

-

-

-

On Urahara's orders (who came in as Allen passed out), they took the white-haired Exorcist down to his training rooms and sealed off his limbs with a spell. Ichigo warned Rukia, Kanda, Lenalee, Lavi, and Orihime to be on their guard.

Crown Clown/Allen's first attack hit Ichigo, slicing open his arm.

"Ichigo!" "Kurosaki-kun!" Rukia and Orihime both cried out at the same time as he fell to his knees, clutching his arm.

"Che," Kanda snorted. "Good for nothing, red-head."

The shinigami representative's head snapped up, irritated. "What the hell did you just call me, bastard?!"

"Kurosaki-kun!" Orihime wailed, immediately applying her time-reversing skills to his arm. "Are you okay?"

He grinned reassuringly at her. "Yeah, I'm fine, Inoue. Thanks."

As he stood to separate into his shinigami form, Rukia pulled him aside. "What was that overly-friendly smile you just gave her?"

Crown Clown/Allen struck out, this time at Kanda. The Exorcist was ready, though, and parried the attack.

"Che. Get out of the way if you're not going to do anything," he snorted. "Don't stick around and have a lovers' quarrel."

Rukia grabbed Orihime's wrist and led her out the door. "It's better if we go," Rukia said, more to herself than to Orihime.

"Can't we do something?" Orihime pleaded, stopping at the doorway.

Sighing, Rukia made herself smile. "We'll just get in the way," she said. "Allen has to fight this out."

-

"You're an illusion," Allen stammered. "I killed you."

"And yet, I'm here," the Fourteenth repeated calmly. He, with his white hair, his silver-blue eyes… he was an older mirror of Allen himself.

And that was what scared Allen the most.

Why his hair suddenly turned white; why his eyes changed color… when he was young, ideas circulated through his thoughts. After he saw the Fourteenth, he began having nightmares about it. Was he really the Fourteenth? Would he have any control over him? He thought he did… until now.

"But you know," the Fourteenth said sheepishly, "I don't really want to fight."

Allen stared.

"You… you what?" he asked finally.

"I don't want to fight," the Fourteenth stated simply. Timcanpy landed on his head as well, a sign that he was to be trusted.

Still…

"You're telling me I ran on that piece of crap for three days straight to prepare for a battle I'm not even going to fight?" Allen asked finally.

The Fourteenth shrugged. "Well, you're not going to fight with me. I'm just a part of your psyche. I've had a neighbor who, as of late, has been bothering me. He moved in just recently."

Allen stared. The Fourteenth was… oddly agreeable. Allen remembered him as being stubborn and murder-hungry. Or maybe that was just because the Earl, whom he hated, was so close to him and ready for the killing.

"I do think he's a foreign invader," the Fourteenth continued, conjuring a piano out of nowhere. "It might be that shinigami's fault; the one who kidnapped you."

Allen snapped back into reality. "You mean Mikk?"

The Fourteenth shook his head. "No, no; the other one. The creepy scientist who kept bossing Mikk around. Kurotsuchi, I believe his name was. An odd fellow, that one. He should see a therapist."

"Where's your… your neighbor?"

A smile bloomed on the face so similar to Allen's. "Ah! You're going to get rid of him? Thank you, old chap; he's right over there." The Fourteenth raised his hand, pointing off to the right. A Menos Grande was confined within a rather small cage decorated with musical etchings in the metal. "He took control of your Innocence and your body. I locked him up when you took over again."

"Well, he's not the Musician for nothing," Allen muttered. "Thank you."

"No, thank you!" the Musician called. "He wasn't a very pleasant neighbor in the first place, with his… his rampages."

Allen grinned. He wasn't that bad, he guessed. He slipped Crown Clown's mask on and took a big swipe at the Menos with his claw, thus effectively killing it.

With that done, the Fourteenth grinned. "Would you like some tea, Allen?"

Not knowing how to respond, the Exorcist grinned.

"Good," the Fourteenth said definitely. "There is something of the utmost importance that we need to discuss."

"… You're saying… that Kanda and I were…" Allen paused from his task of adding insane amounts of sugar to the tea that the Fourteenth had mysteriously brewed, finding difficulty in saying the word. "… lovers."

The Musician nodded, taking another sip of his tea. "Needs a bit more sugar," he mused. "Ah, yes. Young love. It was rather… bitter, actually. Neither of you had any of those sappy, romantic moments which, I must say, can be rather entertaining. But to each his own, or so they say.

"I'm under the impression that you two would do well in this time. There's nothing going on; this life is so boring. If you two have any romantic moments, I'd certainly be surprised, though."

Allen was silent, turning over the idea in his mind. He liked Kanda, he knew, but they had been lovers? That certainly was news to him.

Was it to Kanda? Maybe; but then again, maybe not. Kanda's memories were complete; he knew that.

"At any rate," the Fourteenth continued pleasantly, "I think it's about time you got back. I'm sure your friends are awaiting some sort of battle story that never existed in the first place. Tell them I'm terribly sorry for that; I prefer not to battle." Before Allen could say anything, he hastily continued, "Save for the Earl."

The Fourteenth bid Allen farewell and, as if by his saying that opened a portal, darkness swept over Allen's eyes.

-

"Oy, Allen. You alive?" Ichigo asked. "You haven't twitched at all since you came out and slashed at my arm…"

A foot nudged Allen's side.

"Oy. Bean sprout."

Allen's eyes weren't open, but he didn't want to open them, either. He opted to simply lay there on the ground (though it was rather uncomfortable; he wanted a bed) and sleep, not caring about anything else at the moment.

"Che. That stupid bean sprout's probably just sleeping."

A pair of arms skillfully lifted Allen off of the ground (a part of him wondered how many times this person had lifted him up before; it was so smooth and catered to his body). Somehow, he felt completely safe and at ease.

-

"Damn it, BaKanda; why didn't you wake me up?!" Allen demanded, stuffing his schoolbooks into his backpack while trying to change at the same time. He ran over to the kitchen to grab his bagel and hastily slapped cream cheese on it.

"Che. Am I supposed to be your keeper? I'm fucking running late, too, damn it," Kanda snapped, hastily tying his hair up in its ponytail.

Lavi had left quite some time ago, as did Lenalee and Komui. None of them had bothered to wake up the last two who, uncharacteristically, were sleeping like the dead.

The two shoved past each other in their frenzied attempt to fly out the door. They hastily slammed the door shut, locking it as quickly as possible, and sprinted to Karakura High School.

"Che."

Allen looked at Kanda, who had a smirk drawn on his face. His heart skipped a beat. "Don't get lost, stupid bean sprout," Kanda taunted, sprinting faster.

"Damn it, BaKanda; who're you calling a bean sprout?!"

The two slowed down to a walk as they approached the school. Allen strode carefully next to Kanda—at a distance close enough to feel his presence, yet far enough so that it wouldn't be awkward. He sneaked a glance at the Japanese-American to find that those sapphire eyes were staring at him, too.

"What do you want, bean sprout?"

Allen shook his head. "Nothing," he said quietly.

The two walked in silence. Kanda looked down at the white-haired teen beside him and grinned, knowing that he was here with him. Suddenly, the shorter of the two stopped. Kanda walked a few more steps before turning back to look at Allen. He lifted his silver-blue eyes to Kanda's.

"… Were we lovers, Kanda?"

The question caught him off-guard.

Kanda didn't know who the heck told him that, but he figured that, in his position, it was sensible to just say yes and go with the flow to see if it'd end up in a situation favorable to him.

"Yeah. So?"

He thought it was hope and happiness reflected in those silver eyes.

"Do you… are you…" Allen mumbled indistinctly, stammering as he tried to figure out what he wanted to ask.

"Am I still in love with you?" Kanda finished. Allen nodded.

Kanda stared at him. "… Che. Are you fucking stupid?"

Allen felt his face go red.

A hand pulled his chin up, his eyes now locked with Kanda's deep blue orbs. The taller of the two smirked before pressing their lips together in a chaste kiss.

"Of course I am, dumbass. What about you?"

Somewhere in Allen's mind, a voice said, Ahh. A romantic moment. How touching; that it actually happened.

You be quiet, Allen hissed.

"So what if I am, BaKanda?" Allen smirked. "What would you do?"

Kanda echoed the expression. "I'd do this," he said, and pulled him into a passionate kiss.

Lol. Okay. Ending was pretty anti-climactic; I know. I kind of didn't want to do any extreme battle scenes ('cause God knows I fail at those) and I kind of wanted to get this all out of the way... I'm thinking of new ideas that I could write since I haven't been doing much writing.

On the other hand, I won a PTSA-sponsored writing contest :D I don't know how wide it was, but hell, I'm freaking happy. xD My confidence is like, at an all-time high. ANd it's Turkey Day :D :D :D

Happy Thanksgiving, and thank you for staying with me all this time!

Sora Pwns x3