¯\_(ツ)_/¯

-o0o-

As things turned out, Neah would find reasons to throw his hands exasperatedly into the air a fair number of times over the next couple of days.

And as usual, it was mostly albeit not entirely Allen's fault.

"I'm sorry… I'm so-so−"

Neah wanted to deck the brat, really, but he refrained. Because reluctant as he might be to admit it, he could definitely use some help; Allen had managed to make quite a mess out of himself, and Neah would definitely have to have a serious talk with him about getting himself injured and infected by the akuma virus because of recklessness. After all, while the brat seemed to be from a well-off family, his life surely wasn't worth as much as either of theirs.

"Get up."

The brat just looked at him, his eyes wide and his face covered in tear streaks and snot.

Disgusted, Neah clicked his tongue and turned his head towards the hovering Timcanpy instead. "Timcanpy."

The brat's reddened eyes went even wider as the golem grew bigger. "W-what?"

"Magic," Neah answered simply. "Now help me out here."

-o0o-

The context of the situation was as follows:

They had spent the night at the prostitute's – Agnes' – place but left in the morning, because they had other stuff to do. Returning over there was not really in their agenda, despite the allusion to an open invitation. Because really, the woman had to make a living, and doing so by her usual means would not be feasible with them hanging around.

Neah still considered her a decent find however. And, as much as Neah might disapprove of Cross' ideas and actions, the man probably had the right idea about these women. If one was looking to build a secret spy network and keep it secret, befriending these women was probably the way to go. Because their clientele and people in general was too preoccupied with other thoughts to consider what these women really thought and knew, and in some cases, these women knew a lot more about what was going on than most, and many had the smarts to shut up about it, unlike certain others.

"Fucking childish…"

"Like you're the one to talk!" snapped the child in question, pointing at him with a wrench. "You're even younger than me!"

Neah's eyebrow twitched, because really, really? "Again, I'm older than I look. And if you try to patronise me one more time, I'm not responsible for what happens next. Got it?"

Perhaps it would have been better to inform the brat outright just how close Neah was to stabbing him? Never mind the fact that Neah didn't have a knife at hand. There was a screwdriver within reach and you could do a whole lot of stabbing with that, and without Allen here, it all came down to Neah's self-restraint, really.

And really, that Allen, how dare that nosy brat get involved in spite of Neah's veto against it. Because really, when idiotic little brats ran around shouting about akuma, the right choice was obviously to steer clear of them, not to engage them.

Getting involved had brought nothing but trouble, and the extremely risky kind at that.

"That damned idiot…"

-o0o-

"Coming to think of it, we never did do a proper introduction, did we?" said the brat, oblivious to or blatantly ignoring Neah's not very subtle signals to get out. "I'm Jan Russel, twelve-year-old genius inventor."

"Genius inventor? Not bad," said Allen, his face full of smiles. "I'm Allen. The one scowling is Noah, my younger twin."

Oh, he went there, did he?

The brat gaped. "Twin?! But he's so…"

"He didn't eat his veggies," Allen said, wagging his finger. "He paid the price."

Neah restrained an ever-intensifying urge to commit murder. If he got too caught up in his emotions, then he might just end up revealing his presence after all.

-o0o-

It would suffice to say that Neah was not happy with the situation at hand. Still, that was not to say that it was without its perks.

First, there was Allen, confined to bedrest; his injuries were hardly life-threatening, but still serious enough to warrant some recuperation, especially given the fairly extensive blood loss. This whole experience might even serve as a good lesson for all of them; for Jan to pay attention and not call unneeded attention to himself, for Allen to not pick fights with powerful madmen, and for Neah to keep Allen on a tighter leash.

Because after the previous night's events, there was a very, very good reason to do so.

-o0o-

For some context: Jan the reckless brat had found out about akuma from… some notes that his clearly negligent Order-hired scientist of a father had apparently left lying around, and so Jan the reckless brat had decided it would be a swell idea to go out hunting for akuma with his buddy – Leo? Leon? Something like that. – somehow failing to pay a lot of attention to the fact that his little buddy's mother had just dropped dead and that the buddy had struck a deal with the Duke, been killed by an akuma and was now merely a shell worn by the aforementioned akuma.

And, as Allen had just outed the other boy as an akuma, the Millennium Earl himself had decided to pop in for an impromptu visit.

There was really one way to summarise the situation at hand, and Neah had done so on the night in question as he watched the spectacle unfold from behind a mausoleum.

"Fan-fucking-tastic."

That said though, it could've been a great opportunity, had they been adequately prepared for it.

If Neah and Allen had just coordinated properly and used the element of surprise, then they could possibly have put an end to this farce once and for all without having to go through the rest of the Noah family first.

However, Neah had unfortunately been forced to sit this one out for fear of early detection. Besides, with all three of them present at the scene, Neah would much rather not have seen the Duke go into a frenzy, because that would no doubt have ended very badly for everyone involved.

The Millennium Earl was incomplete, and if overcome by instinct, then he would have likely sought to devour them in order to attain his missing pieces.

And frankly, dying a second time around, especially in such a lame manner without really accomplishing anything, would have really, really sucked. Hence, Neah had kept his head down low while keeping an eye on things, quietly grateful that Allen himself was largely oblivious to his own frightening potential.

-o0o-