Chapter 3: A new name, a new face.

It had been a long time since Deak had been allowed out into the yard to play. After his stunt with the exploding pressure cooker the matron had assured him he would give penitence. While her punishment wasn't particularly hard, he was beginning to get far too acquainted with the chapel of the orphanage for his comfort. Sneaking a glance out of the stained glass window he glumly watched the children outside playing in the snow. He didn't regret his actions but the loneliness of five hours of silent prayer a day was beginning to get to him. Mournfully watching the others play he pressed his forehead against the cold stained glass.

"You know child if I were Madame Christine you would be in a whole new world of trouble right now."

Jumping and knocking his head on the iron bars rimming the windows Deak fell down from the window with a thump. The young priest who had spoken chuckled softly and shook his head,

"But luckily I am not her." He smiled picking Deak up off the ground, "she's been called to the Vatican on urgent business, so for now I am in charge." Deak grinned at the priest and he smirked back, leaning in conspiratorially, "and I think that you've spent enough time praying for one day kiddo."

Whooping in happiness Deak streaked towards the door, ready to join the other children outside only to turn back at the priest's polite cough.

"Yes father Keller?" he asked, the priest shifting awkwardly at the formality,

"I would just like to ask of you one small favour Deak," he sighed looking sad, "our newest family member has refused to leave his room for two days now and I'm beginning to worry. Could you just keep an eye on him maybe, try to coax him out of his shell?"

Deak saluted father Keller and nodded,

"mission accepted!" before spinning round to dart out of the doors of the chapel and into the sharp winter air.

After suitably enjoying his freedom and thoroughly thrashing the older kids in a snowball fight Deak began to feel tired. Not wanting to waste his free time he made his way towards the boys dormitory. He had after all agreed to help father Keller out, and Deak didn't like letting people down.

Opening the worn door to the dorm he scanned the messy room for its newest occupant. The matron's absence was most apparent here, if she had seen the room in its current state there would be more than silent prayer to do as punishment. Peering into the room he couldn't see it's supposed occupant. Shuffling in cautiously Deak tried to think where the kid could be, after all there were only so many places in a sparsely decorated room for five boys that someone could hide. Not seeing anyone he huffed to himself and approached the new boys bed, if he couldn't talk to the kid he could at least find a little out about him.

Every boy in the dorm had three main possessions, a bed, wardrobe and a chest of drawers. Many of the longer term residents of the orphanage had decorated theirs in some way, either through paint or by scrawling things onto them in any medium they could. Deak's own was painted the same bright red as his hair. The new kid's furniture was however, untouched. Being new Deak expected this but he thought there would at least be some trace of the kid, nothing was atop the chest of drawers and the bed was pristinely made. Opening the wardrobe he was disappointed to find only a few meagre belongings, a few plain shirts and a thick, worn coat. Pulling the coat out he was surprised by how finely made it was, even with the visible scuffs and marks of age it was clear the coat was product of time and care. Even the worst rips and tears had been painstakingly patched in similar fabrics. Strangely the coat seemed to drop ashy dust when he moved it, maybe the kid's parents had died in some terrible way like a fire, or worse, and that's why he wouldn't talk to the other children? Returning the coat back to the wardrobe Deak investigated the chest of drawers; the top held only the barest of necessities and the second was empty, the third bottom drawer was surprisingly heavy and he had difficulty even moving it an inch. Firmly grasping the handle and planting on of his feet firmly on the frame he got ready to yank the drawer out.

"What in heavens name do you think you are doing!" a shrill voice cut out from behind him. Jumping up and spinning to face the door Deak was surprised to find a small child he did not recognise glaring at him. Rubbing the back of his head he tried to explain,

"well ya'know I saw the drawer was stuck and wanted to give you a ha-" he was cut off the small brown haired boy marching across the room and shoving him aside to inspect the chest of drawers.

"I don't know much about church orphanages but I sure as hell know you weren't trying ta' help." He hissed facing Deak with a scowl on his face.

Raising his hands in surrender he smiled sheepishly at the smaller boy,

"okay, you got me." With a casual shrug he stepped back from the boy, "Father Keller asked me to check on you and make sure you weren't going to run off or some stupid shit like that."

Upon hearing the priest's name the boys face darkened, slamming a tattered red leather rucksack on the bed he muttered to himself looking conflicted before facing Deak again,

"Look, thanks for both o' ya concern but I'm doing just fine by myself." Turning back to his bag and sifting through it he began to unpack clothes and other objects. "I was just going back ta' my old home to fetch some stuff." He explained, "nothing for you lot to worry 'bout,"

Deak shrugged and made for the door turning back as he was leaving,

"well if you do need any help, even just someone to talk to you can come to me, alright?" he announced before striding out of the room deeming his task fulfilled.

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Sitting down for afternoon prayer the next day, Deak's thoughts drifted back to his tasks in the morning. His orders were simple, he had to categorically rate all the of the children and staff at the orphanage on their likeliness to summon an akuma. After all Deak wasn't at the orphanage because his parents had died or abandoned him, he had a mission. The Black order had requested the Bookman to investigate how frequently new akuma were made in different settings, Deak was only one of hundreds of trainee bookman who had been drafted in to help. It hurt Deak to treat his fellow humans so coldly but trainee bookman had no such problems. People were in the end just another statistic, just another line of ink on the page.

In another week Deak would be leaving the orphanage, a distant uncle would be informed of his existence and would grudgingly take him in. In reality trainee bookman's job was simply coming to an end, this specific orphanage wasn't producing results. It was good in a way he supposed, that no one wanted to resort to the dark to resurrect their loved ones, that no one felt truly alone.

Lifting his head from silent prayer Deak sent his friend Michael a smirk, he may only be here for one more week but he still had a job, but who's to say he couldn't have fun in the meantime. Running from the chapel, Michael in tow, Deak plotted their next dastardly plan. However one serious thought still lingered at the back of his mind, even as he helped his friend fill the kitchen sink with baking soda. Why did he feel like he was forgetting something?

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This should thankfully be the last of the drabble-ey chapters for a while, its finally time for some actual story telling instead of just building the foundations! In case you haven't gathered by now all the chapters so far have only really included Levi, bookman and red but the next chapter should have a new faces in store, red might disappear for while depending on my plans. I'm stuck between flicking forwards to the future or slowly building my way towards it?

As always regardless of if you liked this or hated it show your opinion in a review, who knows maybe you'll get your way :0