"abc" - talking

'abc' - thinking

abc - flashback/dream

Ah, the gentle, warm breeze against his skin felt like a soft caress.

The warmth brought by the last rays of the sun enveloped him in an embrace.

The scent of wheat reminded him of… of what?

Ah, yes.

Home.

He was finally home.

Silver eyes opened, a certain amount of tranquility to them, courtesy of the dream no doubt.

Allen remembered seeing that particular scenery before, back when Nea's consciousness swallowed him upon meeting the Earl.

Honestly, his sole target was to find the mansion, alas the chaos that erupted in the meantime averted his attention from it.

'Maybe it's time to resume the search,' The white haired teen mused as he sat on the edge of the bed, immediately biting the inside of his cheek to stop the string of curses from erupting upon stomping his foot on something small and hard.

Right. Tyki's silver earring.

Not that it was the first time, mind you. Aside from the oh-so-warm welcome the boy received from the Portuguese, said Noah of Pleasure had as much responsibility in him as Allen had black hair on his head.

Thus, from the next morning till now, the both of them were often found - by either Kanda or Road - arguing their ears out about tidiness and all round 'keeping things in their rightful place'.

Hence Allen's current reaction - a rather violent smack upside the head with a fist, followed by a square hit in the face with a pillow.

"What the hell?!" Tyki groaned, throwing the pillow in the opposite corner of the room.

The teen simply gave him one of his 'I'm so pissed I don't want to talk to you right now' glares, and left the room in search of a better company.

Luckily for him, Kanda and Road were both in the kitchen- one playing with dolls, the other fixing some kind of a dish on the counter.

"Morning," He greeted them politely, and opened one of the cabinets to grab a cup and pour himself some herbal tea.

"Morning Allen," Road answered with a smile - which faded as quickly as it appeared upon noticing the vein popping on her favourite person's forehead.

"Moyashi," Kanda nodded in return, needing not to say anything more.

Which was all too fine by Allen. Currently the flood of concerned questions and other what-nots was the last on his to-do list first thing in the morning.

Therefore, even when the samurai put the plates full of pancakes and soba on the table, none dared to speak up.

Even the ever so fashionably late Tyki Mikk.

"So, Allen," Road supplied quietly, not quite sure if it was alright to strike a conversation now, even though they finished eating their food, "What do you want to do now?"

"Hm?" The teen looked up, still half in his own musing, "About what?"

"The Millennie, the Order, everything. You're the so-called third side of this war, so I assume you have a plan?"

A not so subtle snort cut through the air and three pair of eyes landed on a certain bluenette ponytail.

"As if Moyashi ever had any kind of plan for anything. You're just going with the flow of things, no? Not being able to pick a side until now just proves it,"

"Hey, hey, Kitch-"

"I did pick a side," Allen cut in on Tyki's words of protest, "I picked it six months ago. Well, a little word of encouragement from a certain Noah helped to ascertain that choice," Here he smiled at Road, stroking his belly.

"You… you picked Nea? Despite all that he brought you through? Despite all that he's done?" The girl whispered, touched - the evidence of it a small wet trail cascading down her cheek.

"It's not like I know everything. And speaking of," Here Allen looked to Kanda,"There's a place I want to visit. Though I don't really know where it is. Do you think there's any way we can contact Bookman or Lavi to help me with finding it?"

The samurai - as well as the other man in the room - stiffened, an uncomfortable silence setting in.

"Kanda?" Allen inquired, a sudden foreboding feeling befalling him.

"Both the Bookman and Lavi went missing ever since the Alma incident. From what I've heard at the Order, their whereabouts are currently unknown.

"A-about that…" Tyki's shaky voice cut in, and all eyes turned sharply on him, "Hehe, funny thing you should mention Eyepatch-kun," He scratched the back of his neck awkwardly.

"Tyki, you know something, don't you," It wasn't even a question that slipped past his niece's lips, only a hard statement - one that demanded answers, /now/.

"Sheryl and Fiidora took them both to learn anything they could about The Fourteenth. Well, in Sheryl's case it was more about the nature of the relationship between him and Road," The Portuguese paused and swallowed thickly, his next words already forming a careful sentence in his head, "When I told him that Road disappeared because of Apocryphos' attack, he took it hard and, well, lashed it all out on the red head when Bookman refused to answer his questions. Not-that-I-had-anything-to-do-with-this," Tyki added the last sentence quickly as an afterthought.

The looks he received in return were biting into him.

Road gave him an 'are you fucking serious?' one, before promptly leaving the room.

Kitchen Knife-kun simply threw him an angry glare and followed after the girl.

But Shounen… ah, Allen's look was the worst of them all.

It wasn't anger, pain, nor betrayal filling those silver pools.

There was nothing.

Blank and void look directed at him stung far worse than the stab of a sword through his chest.

"Shounen…?"

"Are they alive?"

"Huh?"

"Are they still alive? Bookman and Lavi?" Allen asked calmly, though inside he was anything, but. And the feeling of loathing at his own uselessness when his friends were in danger had not helped one bit.

"Not sure about the successor, but Bookman is. Sheryl wouldn't kill him just like that without gaining the information he wants,"

'Which, in turn, bodes well for the Eyepatch-kun,' He finished in his head, for once being cautious about his position.

Allen just hummed and nodded, before asking another question.

"So, what do you think the Earl's next move is going to be?"

'Huh? Am I forgiven?' Tyki blinked at the sudden change in topic, before leaning back in his chair to actually think.

"Considering his reaction to learning about your baby and who it actually is, I believe he'll try to flush you out in the open to confront you about it. And by confront I mean-"

"Kill," Allen finished, ignoring a rather painful stab at how Tyki said it was 'his' baby, not 'theirs'.

"I'd say he's going to attack the Order again, but seeing as you're not exactly on the friendliest terms with them… Well, if I was in his place, I'd go about individually attacking the few people within the organization who still value you as a friend, trust and believe in you. Which gives us an advantage, Shounen,"

"Hm? How so?" Allen asked, being actually quite impressed that - despite the slip up at the beginning - Tyki really thought it out.

"Because sending an army of Akuma to wreck havoc on the whole of Headquarters is any fool's errand. But finding specific people all across the world? That, my dear Shounen, takes time,"

"And time is something we desperately need right now," Allen finished with a sigh, leaning against Tyki's shoulder to relieve some of the tension.

"So, am I forgiven?" The Portuguese asked with a smirk, only to receive a jab between the ribs.

"Don't push your luck. I'm still angry with you,"

"Yes, yes," And with a chuckle he loosely wrapped an arm around the teen, enjoying the peace and quiet.

"So, what is it?" Kanda asked, stopping a step behind the girl. Without a word, Road turned and - grabbing the ponytail - pressed their foreheads together.

"What the hell?" The swordsman frowned, returning to his previous position.

"If Papa wanted to know about Nea, I'm sure Wisely was there, too. Seeing as I can't exactly go back to our Arc after what happened- Look," She paused and took a deep breath to collect her thoughts, "Yours and Allen's minds were connected to him, and as I don't really want to overexert Allen in his current condition, you're my last resort in trying to contact Wisely. Or else we might spend the rest of our time trying to find the Bookman and Junior,"

"And you couldn't tell me this beforehand, because?" Kanda smirked and sat down on the ground. If this was going to take a while, like hell he was going to stand in that bloody uncomfortable position.

"Well? Get to it," He urged the girl and pat his knees.

Road - with slight hesitation and absolutely not blushing - sat down and gently grabbed the bluenette's head, pressing their foreheads together, all the while focusing her thoughts on the Fifth Disciple of the Noah Family.

'Road, dear?' A very faint voice floated in her consciousness and the girl couldn't help but smile at the little endearment.

'Wisely! I need your help!'

'Something happened? Are you and Joyd well?'

'We're fine! But, I need you to tell me where Papa is holding the Bookman?'

'...'

'Wisely?'

'Why do you wish to know?'

'That's-'

'Is it because of the Fourteenth?'

Well, it's do or be done by. Road decided to lay all her cards flat out.

'... Yes. We're trying to find a certain Mansion, but to do so, we need his help,'

On his end, Wisely sighed, already feeling the headache forming. It was bound to happen, sooner or later, so why not sooner. That and, well, he never got the chance to tell Tyki about Mana.

'Very well,' Was his only reply.

Road grinned happily upon opening her eyes, completely disregarding the fact that both her and the samurai were still sitting in the middle of the street. In a rather compromising position, too.

"Found it," she whispered excitedly, happy to be of use to Allen.

Kanda smirked and ruffled her hair affectionately.

Finally, things were starting to move.