Confrontation

...

When you look at yourself in the mirror, what do you see?

"Where…" Allen opened his eyes in panic, but the entire room was dark. He gasped. "No! I—"

"Shh. Calm down. We're home. You're safe." A low, gentle voice murmured as warm fingers patted his head reassuringly.

"Kan…da?" Allen asked uncertainly, his head still blurry. But the voice, it had to be him.

"Yeah."

"You look stupid."

"Shut up, bean sprout."

Allen breathed a sigh of relief. It was him after all. He strained his memory, but he couldn't quite recall what had happened. "What time is it?" He asked.

"Eight thirty-seven. It's nighttime."

"What happened?"

Kanda raised an eyebrow. "You don't remember?"

Allen frowned. "No… All I remember is getting kidnapped… There was a room and…" He stopped. The rest of his memory was blurry.

"Well, I suppose that's a good thing," Kanda muttered to himself quietly.

"What?" Allen turned his head slightly.

"You're an idiot, but that's fine. It's still amazing how much you can forget." Despite his words, his voice held no trace of irritation. "Are you still feeling sick?"

Allen winced and sat up slowly, fighting the urge to throw up. "I'm fine," he mumbled. "I have a week's worth of school to catch up on, don't I?"

"You're worried about school at this point?"

"Well, yeah," he said defensively.

"Shut up and go to sleep. You're not going to school for another week, at the very least." Kanda placed a hand on his head and tried to push him back down.

"No!" Allen shoved his hand away with a hint of panic in his voice. "I'm going! I'm definitely going! There's nothing wrong with me, okay? I'm perfectly normal!"

Normal.

"Why are you so insistent on going? You need rest," Kanda snapped, frustrated.

"Don't be ridiculous," Allen gasped, struggling to get up. "Why would… I need rest…?" He winced as he almost fell over and caught himself against a wall.

"I don't understand why this is suddenly such a huge issue!" Kanda grabbed his arm as he began to sway. "You didn't have such an ridiculous reaction to missing school before!"

"I'm completely normal. There's no reason to miss school. None."

Seeing that the younger boy was adamant, Kanda hissed in irritation and relented. "Fine, then. Tomorrow's Saturday, so if you rest properly during the weekend, I'll let you go, alright?"

Relieved, Allen nodded. "Yeah."

…

It wasn't until well into the afternoon that the bean sprout woke up the next day. He still looked rather dazed, but at least his skin was a much healthier color, and his eyes were a bit brighter. And he had changed into real clothes.

"Finally awake?"

"Yeah." Allen yawned. "I'll make something to eat now, I guess. Do you want anything?"

"No."

"Alright." The younger boy was in a rather good mood as he swiftly tied on an apron and opened the fridge and pulled out several ingredients. By himself. With his own hands. He hummed happily as he turned on the stove and grabbed a frying pan. "Hey, I'll make dinner today, too," he offered. "Since I haven't done that in a long time."

"Obviously, you can't."

"What? Why not?" Allen asked, offended. "And I was being nice enough to offer."

"What would be the point in resting if you just did work the whole time?" Kanda glared. "Don't be stupid."

"It's just a bit of cooking," Allen told him with a frown. "It's nice to finally be able to move around properly."

"Tch, fine, then. Do whatever you want." Kanda rolled his eyes. "Simple people have simple pleasures."

"There's nothing wrong with that," the younger boy scoffed as he worked, expertly tossing the contents of the frying pan. "By the way, what have we done in class recently?"

Kanda glanced up from the papers he was reading and thought for a minute. "Molecular orbital diagrams and shit. We have a test on Monday, by the way." Allen grimaced. "And in English, we read some lovely, heart-warming short stories about death and bloody murder. Friday was Masque of the Red Death, if I remember correctly."

"Oh, I've read that. That's it?" He sniffed the food and quickly turned off the stove, dumping the contents of the pan onto a plate before grabbing a pair of chopsticks and sitting down.

"Pretty much. Lovely story, isn't it?" He snorted.

"Everyone dies," Allen said pointedly through a mouthful of food.

Kanda shrugged. "Technicalities."

"Well, since you're disagreeable, I'm sure you liked it. By the way, you never did get those bloodstained skeletons and torture devices installed."

"It was bloodstains and skeletons, bean sprout. If you're going to say it, then get it right. Besides, didn't you have enough of torture devices at that freaky lab?"

"What are you talking about?" Allen asked with irritation.

"The—" Kanda stopped. "Oh, that's right. You forgot." He smirked. "Memory span of a goldfish."

Allen glared but didn't respond as he scarfed down the rest of his food as dumped his plate in the sink. After taking a few moments to locate the sponge – he scowled at the object as he remembered the offenses it had committed at an earlier point in time – he briskly scrubbed both the pan and his plate before drying them and putting them away. He didn't like work, but it really did feel good to be able to move his hands freely again.

After cleaning up properly, he rummaged through his textbooks until he found the right ones and pulled them off of their shelf, dumping them unceremoniously on the carpet and sitting down with a heavy thump. "I wonder if I should call Lenalee and see if she knows what I'm supposed to do for homework," he sighed.

Without looking up, Kanda tossed a paper airplane at him. It hit him square in the forehead, and he winced. "Ow," he complained as he rubbed his head, unfolding the paper. He blinked in surprise. "It's a list of what we did each day."

"Lenalee wrote it," Kanda told him flatly. "She has more classes with you."

"Wow. Thanks. Did you ask her to?" He asked, scanning the list.

"Tch. Mind your own business, bean sprout." That was as good as a yes, then.

"I didn't know you were inclined to be nice occasionally," the younger boy commented with amusement.

"Don't get used to it."

"Fine, fine." Allen shrugged, grinning. He looked up as Kanda suddenly stood up, a scowl on his face. "Is something wrong?"

"No," Kanda told him. "I have to do something. Mind your own business."

Allen raised an eyebrow. "Do something?"

"Yes. Shut up."

"How soon will you be back?"

"I don't know," Kanda snapped. "Probably not before dinner."

"What, ditching me for some lovely girl you met coincidentally at the bar late last night?"

"Late last night, I was saving your sorry ass," Kanda told him scathingly, "and unlike you, I don't make it a habit of mine to frequent shady bars. I don't like alcohol."

"That leaves just the 'lovely girl' part, then," Allen sighed dramatically.

"Those don't exist. And stop acting like Lavi. It only makes you stupider." Without waiting for a response, Kanda slammed the door shut and stalked down the stairway, his face grim.

His fingers clenched around a small piece of paper, wrinkling it and crushing it as if that could destroy the words written on it.

Dear little guinea pig,

Meet me at that very special place. You know the one. Probably. There might be a few things we can talk about. For example, my dear little Allen?

Love,

Road Camelot Noah

A special place… he couldn't think of anywhere other than the bar where Allen used to work. The stupid bean sprout had almost gotten himself kidnapped there twice. How? The place was supposed to be safe, but obviously the Noah were better at infiltrating than they'd been given credit. Kanda gritted his teeth.

The small, black door was hard to spot, but the unmistakable stench of alcohol that wafted from inside gave it away immediately. Kanda had to resist the urge to kick the door open as brutally as he could, and instead settled for simple throwing it open roughly. The room inside was loud anyways, though, and no one paid attention to him as he entered.

With a quick glance, he located the young girl, who was sitting with catlike grace at a table near the corner. She would have been hard to spot but for the fact that the tables around her were empty. Whether or not they did it consciously, people avoided the Noah if they could.

"What do you want?" Kanda demanded bluntly as he slid into the seat across from her. "Spit it out."

Road grinned. "Can't we just socialize? Like a normal boy and girl our age?"

"No. Shut up and get to the point or I'm leaving."

"Fine, fine. Not interested in girls, I see." Road leaned back in her chair smugly, crossing her arms behind her head.

"That's not the point. Why did you call me here?"

"Oh, well, the reason is quite simple, actually. Leave Allen to us."

"No."

"Don't be so pigheaded for once," Road said easily with a wave. "Listen carefully. You're up against one of the most dangerous organizations in the world. Its leaders are nearly immortal. Why stick to Allen if it's nothing more than a job?"

"You're telling me to ditch my mission?" Kanda asked incredulously. "That's ridiculous. You must all have rotten brains."

Road sighed heavily with mock disappointment. "Oh, you silly little guinea pig," she said, shaking her head. "That's the point. It's just a mission. You're not a fool, so you know there's a good chance you'll die if you try to face us head-on. Be smart and leave. Tell that doting father of yours that you can't do it anymore."

"Like hell I will."

Road narrowed her eyes. "Why? Is it really worth getting killed to do your job? Since when did you develop a sense of honor, little guinea pig?"

"This has nothing to do with something shitty like honor," Kanda scoffed.

"Then why?"

He shrugged dismissively and made to get up. "Whatever. This conversation is over."

"Hang on." Road's hand snaked up to grab Kanda's wrist as he prepared to leave. "This isn't over yet. In fact, we're just getting to the good part." She smiled, her expression suddenly ice-cold. "If you had just been willing to leave my dear little Allen like a good boy, this would have ended quickly, but it seems that we have a problem here."

"Is that so?" Kanda glared at her, snatching his hand back. Nonetheless, he sat down and folded his arms expectantly.

"You see, little guinea pig, Allen is mine. He's been promised to me since nine years ago."

Kanda snorted, and Rhode hissed.

"The problem, then, is that you don't seem to understand that. You seem to think that Allen is yours."

"That's ridiculous. And besides, Allen doesn't 'belong' to anyone. You just have a twisted way of thinking."

"Is that what you really think?" Rhode asked softly. "Hmm, then do you want to know something interesting about him?"

"Interesting?" Kanda glanced at her sharply.

"For example," she told him with a wide smile that revealed her sharp teeth, "Did you know that the back of his neck is quite sensitive?" Her dark fingers trailed over the skin of her own neck slowly until it rested in the curve that met the shoulder, and she leaned forward with a secretive whisper, "Right here."

Kanda stood up abruptly, almost knocking over the flimsy wooden table. "That's sickening," he hissed viciously, his clenched fist slamming onto the tabletop. In a flash, his knife had appeared in his hand, the metal glinting furiously. The last time Allen had seen her, he had been eight. "You disgusting, twisted… I'll—"

"Ah, but hang on a moment," Road said with a grin. "Don't worry, it's not what you think."

"Not what I think?" He snarled, his weapon still tensed for a fight.

"Indeed. So calm down and let's have a talk, shall we?" She pushed a glass of bubbling orange-yellow liquid towards him casually. "A drink, then, first."

Kanda smelled the sour taste of alcohol without even leaning in, and he grimaced in disgust.

"Don't worry, it's not poisoned," she told him, lifting the glass elegantly and taking a sip as if to prove it. "See?"

"I don't screw around with things like that."

"Fine," Road said, pursing her lips. "Although I wonder how well you can protect a certain silly little puppy if your body can't even take a bit of alcohol…"

Wordlessly, Kanda snatched the glass from the dark-haired girl and drained its contents. "You were saying?"

Road giggled. "Yes, that's beautiful. You really are so silly, little guinea pig. Didn't you know? Noah can't be poisoned or drugged. That glass had an extra bit of a special little something."

Kanda's eyes widened as a sudden feeling of dizziness washed over him. He clamped his hands against his mouth as nausea coursed through him and his stomach threatened to overspill. All the strength had left his body.

"What… What do you want to achieve with this?" He managed to force out, glaring.

"Nothing much," Road told him, her smile cruel and vicious. "Just don't forget how human you are. So weak, so helpless. That's all."

"Why… why not… just kill me?" He coughed.

"Why not indeed? Because," she said, suddenly gripping his arm tightly, "that wouldn't be satisfactory. I won't kill you until you truly understand that Allen is mine. I won't let anyone else have him, not Lulu, not Father, not even death itself. And certainly not you. So until I rip him from your arms and cast you into a place where you can't even see him, I won't kill you."

"Insane… you…" Kanda's vision began blurring, and he almost collapsed from his seat. He dug his fingernails into his skin, hoping that the pain would keep him conscious.

"You won't have time to worry about that. It looks like your friends have noticed me. They'll bring you back to your silly little house, and Allen will know how pathetic you really are. Isn't that wonderful?" She whispered into his ear.

Footsteps, hurried, frantic ones, approached them. Kanda thought he heard Lenalee's worried call, but everything was foggy and unclear, nothing but background noise to the screaming in his head.

"Tsk." Road sighed as the footsteps got nearer. "I'll be taking my leave now. See you soon, little guinea pig." And then her presence was gone, like a shadow that melted into the night.

"Kanda! Kanda, are you alright? The barkeeper told us that there was a Noah here!" Lenalee shook him gently, but her words sounded faraway to his ears. "Kanda! Wake up!"

"Don't bother," Lavi told her, sniffing the empty glass. "That's some pretty strong stuff they slipped in there. And Kanda's never had a drink, either, so it's not like he's got any resistance. We'd better get him back to his apartment."

Kanda's fingers gripped Lavi's arm desperately. "Don't!" He hissed hoarsely.

"What?" Lavi glanced at him sharply. "But you're—"

"Not while… the bean sprout…" he coughed weakly, but he had already reached his limit. Lavi caught him as he swayed and then fell, unconscious.

"Let's get him back," Lenalee said quickly.

"No…" Lavi shook his head. "We'll bring him back to my room."

"What? Why?"

"Didn't you hear him?" Lavi sighed, shaking his head. "He doesn't want Allen to see him like this."

"See… what?" Lenalee and Lavi both whirled around at the sound of a familiar voice. Speak of the devil, Lavi thought wryly, as Allen stood just a few feet away from them, his eyes wide, the shock and panic in them apparent.

"What happened?"