Whoa. I re-read this story and thought to myself, "When the hell am I gonna finish this?" and "Wow, my writing really sucked back then, but at least I learned something". Sorry for the incredibly way-too-long wait! Mr. Ree here, and welcome, at long last, to the final chapter of 'Linked'! Compared to my new stuff, this is okay, but the concept was nice. This is short, FYI. Thank you for reading it and waiting! You're all gonna hate me by the end of it, but hey! So! Let us commence forthwith with the final chapter of 'Linked'!
Disclaimer: D. Gray-Man is property of Katsura Hoshino and Funimation. This series is a parody and nothing more, so please support the official release. Got it? Damn well better.
~X~
19. Linked
Six days since the mission passed, and the Innocence, recovered. The memories of Carroll and his bitter insanity, along with the woman who made crazy dolls, were all but forgotten. Lavi was immediately admitted to the hospital wing for the sake of his arm and various other injuries. Kanda, in all his pissed-off ways, sulked off in his room or the training floor, while Lenalee resumed to serving coffee to her brother. Nothing seemed right with her, though, as she sometimes glanced at Allen with concern. When she visited Lavi, she often bit back her tongue from saying something rather offensive. However, she remained chipper for the sake of her brother.
Allen, on the other hand, was not the same. Whenever he ate, he sometimes gazed out into the distance and refused to talk to anyone. The amount he did eat dwindled to a few crackers and cheese. He kept himself in his room all the time, and when he did come out, he always asked Kanda for a fight without provoking the Japanese man first. After he often lost, he would go back to his room for the rest of the day. No one knew what he did in there, but even Johnny, who was supposed to take measurements for the new uniforms, wasn't allowed into his room.
"…You mean he really won't talk to anyone?"
"No." Lenalee shook her head out of worry. The smells of blood and cleaning fluids did not make for a pleasant stench within the wing, but she stayed by Lavi's side all the same. "He won't even eat," she added, then stared down at her hands. "Lavi, I'm worried. What if he needs us but won't let us in?"
He stared at her for a moment before sighing. "Want me to talk to him?"
"No!" It was too late to stop herself when she said it. Her eyes widened, her hands covering her mouth, as the redhead stared at her out of confusion. "I mean, I don't think it would make any difference. And you're still recovering. How is your arm, by the way?"
"Still numb, but Matron says that it'll fully heal," he said, though his tone dropped to sadness quickly. His mouth opened, but no words came out. He tried again. "Lenalee, why don't you want me to see the bean sprout?"
He gave her a moment as he watched the courage build up inside her small body. Her hands formed fists on her skirt, her leg bouncing without any regard of how annoying it was. She exhaled slowly before answering. "You're just going to hurt him more if you go to talk to him. At least, that's how I see it."
"At least you're honest." He chuckled, but it wasn't friendly. "I know that, Lenalee, though I think it's me who he wants to talk to."
She nodded. "Do you want help sneaking out?"
"What?"
She only smiled at him. "I want Allen-kun better as soon as possible, and if you think you are the solution to the problem, then you have to do it now. Otherwise, we really are just letting him down, you know?"
Letting him down. I already did that. What's a second time gonna do? Make him commit suicide? No, wait, bad Lavi! He slapped himself inside his head before nodding at her. "Okay."
"Great. Now let me just go talk to Matron."
~X~
After a few suggestive hints about the possibility of her brother suffering a caffeine overdose (which, in fact, was true), Lenalee snuck the paralyzed redhead out of the hospital wing. Reever nodded at her and gave a confused glance at Lavi, but didn't call them out. He had too many papers to fill out because his boss was too lazy to do it himself.
"You go on ahead," she whispered as they passed the dining hall, "and I'll keep Matron distracted. I reckon you have about twenty minutes or so if I play my cards right. Go!"
He nodded, mouthing a word of thanks before running down the stone corridors with bare feet. It felt good to touch, and it felt even better to be running again. He hurried up the stairs and down the hall, remembering where Allen's room was. He panted and caught his breath outside the wooden door, hating how steep the stairs were, and paused. A deep feeling of regret settled in his stomach, his fingers trembling with slight anticipation of the worst to come. He was mad at him, so what made him think that he was going to open the door for him?
"Fallen One!"
He grimaced. He betrayed his friend by giving him false hope, and that was the equivalent of betraying God, in his mind. He really was a Fallen One. Carroll's words were true, after all. However, there was a practice known as forgiveness, so he hoped, at the very least, that the bean sprout would give him a second chance. He nodded to himself. If all else failed, he would just forget about saving what little remnants of their friendship they had left.
He knocked on the door once, and immediately he knew it was a bad idea, but his non-paralyzed hand wouldn't stop until all three knocks were completed. They resonated hard against the wood, making him cringe inside.
He waited.
No answer.
"Allen?" He knocked again, a little faster this time. His knuckles popped because of the quickness, but he ignored it. "Allen, are you in here?"
No answer. He thought about trying a third time, but he refrained and began walking away. There was no point in hanging around if no one was going to answer him. He stopped when he heard a creak of wood and a small voice saying, "You can come in."
He turned, though all he saw of Allen was a wisp of white hair ducking back into his room. The door was left ajar, compelling him to follow the specter, and stepped into the darkened room.
The bed was stripped of all covers. Feathers scattered all over the floor. Torn fabric rested as if it just experienced a world war between the clothes in the corner and lost, its edges fraying. Paper with ink stains that formed incoherent words helped the feathers make the disastrous rug. He hesitated before taking a step forward, the sound of crinkling paper catching his attention, but he didn't look down. Instead, he closed the door behind him as Allen sat still on the mattress, his eyes staring at the floor.
"Lenalee's worried," Lavi said after a long moment of silence. "She says you're not eating properly for a parasitic-type. She asked me to come and talk to you." He studied his friend's expression before continuing. "Allen, listen. I'm sorry. I shouldn't have done that to you. It was an ass hole move, and I should've told you right off the bat. I just hope that you'll—"
"If you apologize, I'll regret going after you in the first place," Allen interjected.
He stopped himself from finishing the sentence and stared down at the floor. A paper with the words "Why me?" transfixed his sight, followed by a sporadic ink stain.
"We aren't just ink on paper!"
"You've already been forgiven," he continued, breaking the apprentice Bookman's thoughts. "I know what you are going to become. It's okay." He looked up at him from his personal Hell and smiled. "It's okay, Lavi."
"How can you just say that?" He broke off the steady gaze and glared at the papers mocking him. "Didn't I hurt your feelings? How are you not mad?"
"Because I love you."
The redhead sighed heavily.
"I don't expect the same from you, but it's the truth."
"Allen—"
"I'm fine," he interrupted. "It's just, you know, you start hoping like that and think maybe, just maybe…" He trailed off, staring at the picture on the opposite wall, then sighed. "False hope is terrible," he finished, then smiled up at him. "But it's okay."
"It's not okay!" He punched the mattress underneath them, his paralyzed hand jumping limply as a result. "Fucking hell, why aren't you going to yell at me? I fucking deserve it, don't I? Yell! Tell me that I'm a horrible human being or something, but don't just sit there and tell me everything's fine when you're clearly not fine! You're not eating and you look like you haven't been sleeping, and this room, this mess! How the hell is all of this 'fine', Allen! Explain it to me!"
"You think you deserve blame?" He only shook his head. "It's my fault we're in this mess to begin with. I should be settled with it. I dragged you into this, and you know it."
"But I—"
"Lavi."
There was no arguing with that tone. His rants that formed in his throat died by the time they reached his mouth, only air blowing through his teeth. He stared at him for the longest time, trying to find some sort of weakness, some sort of fault in his argument to prove him wrong, but there was nothing. No twitching, no fake smiling, no anxiousness, nothing. Everything Allen said he believed to be true. He was taking all the blame, even worse than he was.
"I'm so horrible," he muttered, then got a whack to the back of the head.
"Stop that. I'll be forced to resort to violence."
"You? Violence? In the same sentence? What, are you going to join the Earl, too, or what?"
Allen only laughed. It sounded better, sounded normal, sounded like him. The pity seemed to evaporate with it, along with the self-hatred and any other emotion that didn't belong there. Carroll's words, Lenalee's words in Rhode's world, everything. All was good, even if it was just for a few seconds. "Yeah, that's what Kanda thinks, until I beat him up."
"Last time I checked, Yuu-chan owned you, not the other way around."
"H-Hey! You don't need to tel— Stop laughing! I'm warning you, I will hurt you!"
"You, trying to be dangerous… Hah!"
"Do you want me to deal out a deck of cards?"
"I know for a fact you cheat. Count me out."
"What if I lied?"
"You don't lie, Allen. Besides, I could tell if you lied." He grinned. "You're like an open book."
"Hah, good one."
Silence enveloped the room, the two staring at their hands. Neither of them moved. The lack of tension was relieving, but now what? Allen side-glanced over to the redhead, who was chewing on his lower lip. "Uh, Lavi," he started, then frowned. "Uh… Never mind."
"No, what is it?"
He sighed. "I was just wondering… could we still be… still be… friends? Even though you're a Bookman and I'm an Exorcist?"
Lavi nodded. "Of course! Just don't try to do anything funny, alright?"
"Hah, I won't. Or, at least, not when you're awake."
"That's not funny."
"I know, I know. Hug?"
He stared at the younger teen, whose arms were spread open wide and grinned slightly, hugging him with his movable hand. They stayed that way for about a minute, not moving or even breathing, until Allen pushed him away and smiled.
"You should probably get going. I can hear the Matron yelling from here."
"Aw, shit, really?" He jumped up to his feet, looking around when he heard her booming and irritated voice. "Damn, Lenalee! You said twenty minutes!"
"It's been longer than that. More like an hour."
"What? Shit!" He headed towards the door and paused, turning behind him and grinning. "I'm glad," he said, "that you forgave me. I promise, as your friend, that I'll never do it again, okay?"
"Okay. Just hurry up and go before she starts tearing the place apart!"
"Gotcha, pal," he said, then ducked out the door hastily, closing it behind him.
Allen sat there and stared at the door for the longest time, listening to the Matron berating him about sneaking off while being injured. He only shook his head, listening to the idiotic redhead apologize profusely. Even injured, he was still hyperactive, as always.
"Allen…"
He frowned, a pulse beating in his head, his breathing turning to sharp, heavy gasps. He stood up and started to pick up the scattered papers off the floor when he turned to the window. The shadow nearly consumed him. He thought maybe, just maybe, if he stopped thinking about it for a while, it would bother him less. Instead, it did the opposite.
"Allen… you thought that… would break our link?"
"Shut up."
"You're me… no matter what… and bound, for eternity…"
"Shut up!"
"Linked," the shadow, whispered slowly. "Linked. For eternity."
He grimaced as he slammed the papers down onto the table beside the bed, staring at the shadow hovering in his reflection. He frowned as his body trembled out of foreshadowing, his eyes twitching. Under the mess was a new mission to Jordan that he was expected to go to soon. He stared at the details for the longest time before tossing it aside, staring at his reflection in the window once more.
Lavi. I trust you with all my heart that when the time comes, you'll kill me. He walked over to the mirror and touched the glass, the cold making his fingertips shudder. I love you, so please, even if you only see me as a friend; please kill me when the time comes. I cannot stop him that much longer.
We're linked forever, he and I, and only you can severe it.
I trust in you, friend.
~END~
Last time. So! Did you like it? Hate it (expecting this one)? Love it? Destroy it? Hit me with a review, por favor! It will be greatly appreciated! Thank you all for your reviews and patience and favorites and alerts! I hope to see you again in other works, which would be really freaking cool. Speaking of which, a Miranda one is working inside my head… Hint! We hope to see you again!
—Mr. Ree & Mr. Meenor