"Why'd you let him leave? No, first, why'd you let me attack him?"

"Hmm? Are you saying you're upset to be back alone with Allen?

"You're not Allen."

"Hmm, true. But I'm as close as you're going to get from now on. Y'know," Neah continued with a small smile. "I've experienced everything Allen has since becoming joined with his soul two years ago. I've seen what he's seen and heard his thoughts. Many of those thoughts were about you." The smiling Noah turned his eyes up to an angry swordsman whose expression showed a hint of contemplation that only someone who had access to a mind full of the man for years would be able to pick up.

"Spit it out." Kanda snarled.

"Yes yes, always with the quick temper that Allen somehow found endurable. Anyway, although I don't share my host's fondness of you, I do know quite a bit about you. I know you have the strength to defy me. To hurt me. To kill me. But I know you won't. I've seen how you treat everyone with reckless abandon. Everyone except Allen. I've felt how gentle you are with this body. Incomprehensibly gentle. Oh god, it actually makes me sick." Neah paused, staring off with a knit brow and his hand to his mouth. He shook his head and lowered his hand. "Excuse me, the point is, I trust you. You're not my ally, but you're Allen's. And, as I mentioned, I'm the closest you're ever going to get again. So, I have a proposal."

"No."

"Y'know, you could listen first."

"I don't give a shit. You trust me. I don't trust you."

"Which is why you should listen to what I'm pla-"

"No, fuck you." Kanda crossed his arms and leaned back against the cool iron wall behind him. He thought. Moyashi still had to be in there somewhere. If Neah could take over his mind then Beansprout could take it back. For sure. But, before, the Noah had only been able to take over for a few seconds at most. If Moyashi actually had given up then Kanda would have to reach him somehow. Neah was able to take over when Allen was physically and mentally exhausted. Normally physically exhausting someone wouldn't be a problem for the Japanese man. But Allen's body already looked like it should be lying in a morgue. Blood was slowly seeping from the sewn-up surgery wound on his abdomen, the side of his chest was black from bruising, the rest of the bare torso was gleaming with copious amounts of sweat, and the tan face of the Noah turned gray without the normal pink undertones of rushing blood. If he made Allen anymore physically exhausted the kid would die. But he also didn't know anything about Neah to know what to do to make him mentally exhausted. So Kanda was stuck.

Kanda snapped out of his thoughts when Neah started walking toward him.

"If you won't listen to what I'm trying to say then I'll show you." Neah slowly reached a hand toward Kanda's throat which the swordsman batted away. The Noah's other hand came back swiftly and clasped on Kanda's throat, just barely touching it. "See this. You can push me away all you want. But you think Allen will come back. So you can't kill me. Right now you're too scared of killing Allen to even harm me." Neah's cold hand slid up to Kanda's tense cheek. "You'll continue to be Allen's guard dog. I don't know what the Noah have been up to since I've been gone and I never quite got along with them in the first place. I need someone I can trust by my side. I can trust you. If you agree to protect me you will be able to spend all of your time near the body of your beloved. You can try your best to make Allen return to you. I'll even allow you to have sex with me if you can behave yourself. I think this arrangement is the best you could hope for. So," Neah stepped forward so that the two men could feel eachother's breath and smiled slyly, "you're not actually going to decline, are you?"

Kanda snarled at the breath tingling his chin and glared at the gold eyes looking up into his own. Fuck this brat. He pushed the Noah's hand away from his face. "You expect me to just agree to that right here and now?"

"Of course I do. I told you, I know you. You'd follow this body anywhere. You followed it here."

"You're wrong. I would follow him anywhere. But you're not him. If you've seen Beansprout's memories you know I'm impatient. I'm not going to follow around an imposter with the hope of him reappearing. I'm not going to protect you. I'm going to protect Beansprout. Right now." Kanda pushed Allen's body away from him and sent a kick into his tan chest, knocking the boy onto the ground.

"What the fuck are you doing?!" Neah shouted at Kanda who was standing over him with his arms crossed, glaring. "You're going to kill me and Allen will die with me! You love him! You won't let him die!" Neah went to stand up but found Kanda's booted foot on his chest once more.

"You're right. I won't. But I'll fuck him up if I have no other choice. And I'm running out of options."

"He's already fucked up! You're seriously going to kill me!" The Noah screamed, trying to push away Kanda's leg but being unable to due to the weakness of his host' body.

"Moyashi's tougher than that." Kanda grunted, pressing his foot further into Allen's chest.

"Damn, you're so similar to Skinn. It's horrifying. Really." Neah said between coughs, still smiling. "I know what you're doing. I'm not going to give this body to Allen so you won't kill us. It doesn't work like that. I can't give my mind up to someone who isn't there in the first place."

"Shut the fuck up! Moyashi's still in there!" Kanda barked, continuing to increase the pressure of his foot on Allen's chest, too angry to back down even when he felt a crack under his foot.

"If he is then stop fucking crushing his ribs what the hell is wrong with you?!"

"I'm fucking pissed and you're not god damn Moyashi and you should be and this is fucking bullshit! I don't even give a shit anymore I'm gonna fucking kill you. I'm gonna kill you harder because Moyashi's in there. You hear me you fucking sprout! I'm not killing this Neah prick I'm killing you!" Kanda took his foot off of Allen's chest and quickly knelt down and pressed his thumbs into the boy's slender neck. "You don't tell me fucking anything and you fucking give up your mind to a guy that's somehow a bigger prick than you are even though you knew I was gonna come back for you and have to deal with this shit and- and normally I'd be able to brush shit like this off because who the fuck cares about anyone, but of course I fucking care about you-" Kanda pressed harder into the Noah's throat as a tan hand started reaching panickedly around, finally grabbing one of the scattered shards of wood on the floor and repeatedly stabbing it into Kanda's unflinching hands. Blood seeped from the quickly healing wounds. Kanda continued, "out of all the annoying, stubborn people in the goddam world, I had to be found by you and bound by you and abandoned by you and called back by you and fucking abandoned again! Of all the fucking people in the world I had to fucking love you. A piece of shit little fucking Beansprout that has no business fucking with my life. And now that you've irreparably fucked me up and left me to deal with your creepy fucking doppelganger and I'm going to kill you because-"

"Kanda… stop…" Harsh words grated out of clenched teeth. The shard of wood was no longer stabbing into his hands.

"Shut the fuck up, I'm gonna get this shit out and I'm gonna kill you. Cause you, Neah, you're the one who took him. So you can definitely die too. He can die for shoving himself into me like a little fucking parasite and you can die because I fucking hate you."

"Ba… Bakanda."

The swordsman's hands loosened. "… Beansprout?"

Allen coughed, clasping Kanda's wrists tightly. "Yes! Let go!" The white-haired boy gasped when the fingers cutting off his airway were removed. Silver eyes closed as he slowly got his breath back but before he could open them to look at the man still kneeling overtop of him a large hand slammed into his face. "Bakanda!" The name leaked out angrily from under Kanda's palm. "I'm me!"

"Yeah, your eyes give it away." Kanda smushed his hand, covered in blood from the wounds the Noah had given him, harder into Allen's face.

"… Then what the fuck?!"

Kanda shifted his weight onto Allen's kicking legs to hold them down and ignored the weak hands pulling his hair. "Fuck you, that's what the fuck! I meant everything I just said, ok, you're a piece of shit. You "begged" him to take over? I had to actually try to choke you to death to get you to come back out? I know… I know I didn't come in time. I left, I fucked up. I fucking get it. This guy happens to use fucking lightening chains because that's somehow a plausible fucking weapon and that's literally your worst nightmare and I walked away and left you alone to face it and- and we're lucky he wanted your mind and not your life because you would've fucking died, Beansprout. You would've died. And fucking- that fucking Neah piece of shit was right and you should've run the fuck away but you didn't and you're a piece of shit for that and I really want to fucking kill you and… and just fuck you." Kanda lifted his hand off of Allen's face and looked down into gleaming grey eyes.

"You done?" A weak smile played on the tired boy's face.

"Shut the fuck up."

"I love you too."

"…" Kanda looked to the floor instead of smiling silver eyes.

"You've been talkative today. It's nice to hear what you think." Allen threaded his fingers through the hair at Kanda's scalp. "I'm sorry. I had planned to stall until you got here or die trying. But when I saw the chains…" Allen's eyes fogged over, the boy deep in thought until he felt thin fingers pinch his ear. Allen smiled. "I never would have given myself over to Neah if I thought you wouldn't come and take me back from him. You came in time. You woke me up. The choking was a little excessive and, seriously Kanda, my ribs were already a wreck before you kicked them in but I'm not in a position to complain. So, thanks."

"Hmm." Kanda dropped down to his elbows and pressed his forehead to Allen's, drinking in the silver color that had always served to calm him.

"So do you know what happened to Skinn?"

"Who?"

"Was he not here when you came? Big guy, golden armor, chains, literally my worst nightmare."

"Oh, he went aft… Fuck, he went after Lenalee." Kanda lowered his head to kiss Allen and then went to run after the defenseless girl being hunted like a deer, but was stopped by hands around his neck.

"Help me up, I'm coming with." Tired silver eyes swam with determination.

Kanda paused. He didn't want to leave Allen alone again. If he saw golden eyes decorating that pale face another time he was going to kill someone. Literally. But if Skinn caught up to Lenalee she had no chance. "Beansprout…" Kanda laid his hand over the wound on Allen's stomach. "If I have to fucking help you up then you need to stay here like a good invalid."

Allen rolled his eyes. "Kanda, I was just asking cause you were on top of me. I'm totally fi-ah, AH, ok, what the fuck, ow ow OW, oh my god, what the hell is going on?!" Allen grunted and yelled as an odd, searing, itchy pain in his stomach grew and grew. He looked down to the place Kanda's hand was covering and ripped the hand from its spot to reveal a slowly healing surgery wound. "…What did you do?"

Kanda stared wide-eyed at the wound and then at his bloody palm. Allen's blood… and his own. "Beansprout, open your mouth."

Allen was staring at the visibly shrinking slice in his stomach with a knit brow, mouthing 'ow' over and over. "Huh?"

Kanda unsheathed his sword and brought his hand an inch from Allen's lips. "Open your mouth."

Allen stared at the hand in front of him and then at the man overtop of him. "What are you doing?"

"Fixing you. Open up."

"Kanda, what? No, Kanda-Kanda stop!" Allen screamed and grabbed Kanda's wrists as the Japanese man brought his sword to his hand. "What are you doing?"

Kanda sighed. "My blood mixed with your blood and healed your stomach. So you're going to drink it and heal yourself completely."

"…You… you want me… to drink your blood?" Big eyes looked up with a disgusted expression.

"Yes."

"No."

Cobalt eyes narrowed. "Yes."

"Kanda, I'm not drinking your blood."

Kanda closed his eyes and clenched his fists. He punched the floor beside Allen's head. "Beansprout. Lenalee got a 15, 20 second head start before Skinn ran after her. I'm not leaving or letting you leave until my fucking blood goes down your fucking throat."

"… I can't believe I'm going to do this."

"Good. Open up."

Allen wrinkled his nose and began to open his mouth. "… Is this going to hurt too."

"I don't know, probably."

"Ok, just… "Allen sighed. "Just checking." Allen opened his mouth and watched reluctantly as shining metal marred beautiful pale skin. The familiar taste of iron coated his taste-buds. He remembered tasting the same thing when the blast that messed him up so badly hit. The fresh cut on Kanda's hand quickly healed and he sliced again and again and again, each time going deeper to make the blood flow last longer, each time having the cut heal before much could leave his body.

Kanda's knuckles whitened against the hilt of his blade as he slid the steel of his sword deep into his flesh, slowly pulling the hilt away so that it continued to draw blood until the tip of his sword left his hand. Blood flowed longer but with how quickly it clotted most of it ended up stuck to the blade. "Fuck, Beansprout, just…" Kanda paused, thinking, before wiping his sword off on his pants, sheathing it, and placing his hand in Allen's open mouth. "Bite."

Silver eyes and a white brow narrowed and Allen bit down as hard as he could.

Author's Note

DGM characters never react fondly to blood.

Thank you to Sei-Eats-Frogs, Ern Estine 13624, amenokuma, and Cutiepie120048 for reviewing.

Please review to tell me what you think! Thanks for reading!