Title: Invisible Bonds

By: EsTeLweNadia

Summary: Set after Ch 212, written BEFORE Ch 213 is out. First DGM fic. In which Allen realized that true friendship is inseparable by distance and unbreakable by trials. Bonds that cannot be seen, but your heart feels it and your mind remembers it. No pairings. Allen, Johnny, Kanda, Link.

Rating: Hurt/Comfort/Friendship/Angst

Warnings: Whenever there's Kanda, profanities bound to follow.

Disclaimer: Not mine, and will never be. Except in my dreams, maybe. ^^

Author's Note: Based on the manga Chapter 212 and CalenlassGreenleaf1's Sinner, Savior, Martyr. You must read her fic; it's awesome! It is not necessary to read the story beforehand; mine is able to stand just fine on its own. So this fic is dedicated to her. Thank you! Chapter 213 sure takes its own sweet time to appear, so I got impatient and decided to churn out a fic of my own. This fic has not been beta-ed, so any mistakes, visible or no, are all regretfully mine. Reviews are very much appreciated! Flames shall be used to keep me warm at night, and you know how cold the nights can get. ^^

Thank you…

It was uttered so softly, Johnny almost thought he was imagining it.

But as soon as he realized that it wasn't his imagination, Kanda had already left; the door shutting quietly behind him.

"Did you hear that, Allen?" Johnny said, clutching the Innocence hand tightly. It was strangely soft and smooth despite its blackish appearance; almost like a human's skin, like a real human arm instead of an anti-Akuma weapon. "Kanda actually thanked you. And here I thought he is incapable of thanking anybody. You have succeeded in chipping away the ice around his heart, Allen. He came back just for you. If it weren't for you, he would have preferred to hide away forever. I know it's hard for you to believe, since you and him are at each other's throats almost all the time, but you have to wake up to see it, Allen. You have to open your eyes and see for yourself. That Kanda came back for you."

Allen didn't respond. The few signs that belied the peacefulness of his sleep was how his brows were set in a mild frown, his mouth locked in a slight grimace. Whether it was the pain from Kanda's Mugen wound, or the vicious internal struggles with the 14th, or both, Johnny had no idea. But one thing for sure, Allen wasn't alone anymore.

"That's right," Johnny went on. "You're not alone anymore. We're in this together. With you. Everyone's in the Black Order are rooting for you, cheering for you, supporting you from wherever they are. They miss you. They are worried about you. They want you to return. They are waiting for you to return. So we will go home together, right Allen? And Kanda will come along too, sulking and all."

Home. Johnny had considered the Black Order as his home, and the people in there, his family. And as far as he was concerned, it had been Allen's home, too. Johnny tried to imagine himself in Allen's shoes; having the people he had always unflinchingly risked his life to protect, to turn on him and labeled him as a traitor when the only thing he ever did was to save them, and Johnny couldn't help but shudder at the horrifying glimpse of disappointment, hurt and despair that brushed lightly against his heart.

Tears filled Johnny's bespectacled vision again. How could the Central be so merciless on Allen? It wasn't Allen's fault that he had a Noah within him. He didn't ask to have a Noah within him, much less an Innocence. He didn't ask for the life he was having now, so none of this wasn't Allen's fault. Yet he was being punished severely for it. It just wasn't fair!

The door slammed open. Startled, Johnny looked over his shoulder, and saw Kanda come in, dragging someone behind him. Throwing him into the room, Kanda swiftly used a leg to kick the door shut. As soon as the person recovered, Johnny saw red.

"You!" was all he managed to force out before he launched himself at Link.

Kanda was too surprised to react as Johnny slammed Link to the wall with a strength and ferocity nobody knew he had. Johnny glared at Link, in spite of the tears that were running heedlessly down his face as his body shook with indescribable anger towards the former Crow member.

In the end Kanda decided to break them both up before he broke some bones, preferably theirs.

"What the fuck is wrong with you, Johnny?" Kanda snapped, "I get it that you don't like the Dog of Leverrier, but if you two wanna fight, take it outside!"

Johnny stood protectively in front of Allen, still glaring daggers at Link. "Don't you know, Kanda, during the time you and Alma disappeared, Allen was imprisoned by the Central?"

Kanda nodded stiffly. He knew that, and that shouldn't be enough to make the scientist so angry to make him want to actually pummel somebody.

"Being imprisoned was one thing, being tortured was another!" Johnny bit out. "And he," Johnny jabbed a harsh finger at the nonplussed Link, "he was there along with the Crow to torture Allen!"

What?

What. The. Fuck?

"When Allen was finally brought up, he was confined in the Infirmary for a week before he was released to his room, and the Nurse refused to let us see him, and when we finally could, we saw the extent of damage done to Allen, and it was terrible!" Johnny's voice had dropped to a broken whisper. "Word had it that they forced Miranda to use her Time Record on him, too."

It didn't take long for Kanda to complete the equation in his head. Miranda's Innocence was able to reverse time, coupled with Moyashi's stubbornly high pain tolerance and the end result was a nearly-broken idiot.

The things Moyashi went through for his sake…

Barely noticing that he was echoing Johnny's movements from awhile ago, Kanda grasped the lapels of Link's shirt and slammed him up against the wall.

"You bastard!" Kanda snarled, raising a fist to drive it unerringly into the man's face.

"Stop!"

Kanda's fist stopped inches from Link's face, but he didn't let the man go even as he half-turned around to face the speaker.

"Allen!" Johnny was on his side in an instant, carefully supporting the Exorcist as he sat up, slumped over his stomach and panting in exertion, as though such an easy task took a lot out of him and caused him a lot of pain. Normally vibrant white hair hung limp and straggly around his darkened face. Timcanpy hovered anxiously in front of his master, before nestling atop the messy white crown.

"Link's just doing his job," Allen rasped. "I don't blame him a bit. It's okay, really." He forced a smile on his face, and Kanda wanted more than anything to wipe that damning smile off. "Besides, I am really happy to see that he's alive." The smile became more genuine, and Kanda was inwardly glad he didn't follow through his initial action.

The smile wobbled as crystalline tears of relief and happiness dripped down from sunken cheeks. "Thank goodness you're alive, Link. I thought… I thought…"

Johnny gently tightened his hand on Allen's quivering shoulder. Stupefied, Link watched on, even as his own heart stuttered at the raw display of emotion from the boy who had given up so much, who had endured so much for others. Vicious guilt and shame swelled from within him as an awful realization dawned.

"Just a little… a little more would have been enough, Link. I wanted you to believe in me…"

It wasn't that Link didn't believe in Walker. He did, but at that point of time he was so confused and was in serious dilemma; hard-pressed to obey orders without question in a time filled with urgency and the stunning realization that he could sense a savage monstrosity seeping from within Walker, a sure sign of the beginning of the 14th's awakening.

Then there was the matter of him being a part of Walker's torture. It was part of his job. He knew that. Walker knew that. But it still sickened him to the core every time he recalled that particular night; of Walker's flinches, grimaces, moans and stuttered breaths with every hit that impacted, the blood that was coughed out, the voice that slurred, the eyes that failed to focus and the legs that refused to stand.

"You… watchdog…"

Those two words, hissed spitefully at him, were thick with betrayal and hurt that run deeper than any of the physical wounds he had inflicted.

Allen Walker trusted him, and only requested the same thing of him. Instead, what had Link given him?

Betrayal. Disappointment. Imprisonment. And a heaping lots of pain and blood and grief.

Yet despite whatever Link had done, or lack thereof, to him, Link was baffled to know that Walker still didn't hate him.

Snorting, Kanda released Link. Brandishing Mugen at former Crow member, Kanda didn't trust him enough to be near Moyashi. Not yet. He didn't trust Link before, and after what Johnny had told him, he trusted him even less.

"Why are you here, Dog of Leverrier?" Kanda snarled, stealthily taking his place beside Johnny, in front of the Moyashi. "What more do you want from the baka Moyashi?"

"It's Allen, BaKanda," Allen muttered.

"Shut up, Moyashi," Kanda sniped back. Glowering at the uninvited guest, the Japanese Exorcist snarled, "Well?"

Slightly chagrined by Kanda's uncouth attitude, Link answered as calmly as he could, "I was sent by the Vatican to protect Allen Walker."

Kanda couldn't help it. His lips twisted into a sneer. "So, you're a Guard Dog now? Congratulations. You have been promoted from a Watch Dog to a Guard Dog. Here's your fucking gold medal."

In spite of himself, Link felt a scowl of sorts manifesting on his face, and it only deepened at the smug smirk Kanda threw his way.

"But why?" Allen breathed, his brow furrowing into a deep, puzzled frown. "I thought… they mentioned that… they found your body in the prison I had escaped from…"

"That is exactly what Inspector Leverrier wants everybody to believe," Link answered, pointedly ignoring Kanda Yuu. "He feels that I am essential in ensuring your safety… and the 14th, so I was saved, hidden and healed before I was ordered to find you and protect you."

Allen snorted. His voice was strangely dark and bitter when he said, "Traitor or not, looks like the Vatican still need me to destroy the Earl."

Need you…

…or me?

Allen hunched over at the unexpected voice in his head, gasping in agony.

"Allen!"

"Moyashi!"

"Walker!"

Three voices rang out at once, really not helping with the pain thundering in his head. Peals of amused laughter echoed as the 14th backed away deep into the crevices of his consciousness.

"It's okay," Allen gritted out, for a moment unsure which hurt more, the wound in his abdomen or the pounding in his head. "He's gone. He's gone, for now. It's okay… I'm okay."

He was, and even if he wasn't, he would be. As long as he was alive, his injuries would heal. In time to come.

Unwittingly, Mykk's words floated to the surface of his mind.

Can you, of all people, say that? That evil Noah memory and Innocence… you carry two monsters inside you. You, who will most likely end up merging with that disgusting Apocry-bastard. You don't know what you are, and you don't even try to learn what you are. All you do is create chaos and conflict wherever you go. You are the worst of them all, Allen Walker.

Allen looked down at his hands, feeling the venom of the words wrapping a cruel vice around his heart. Now that his friends were here, he had to know.

"Is it true?" He half-whispered, his damp bangs shielding his eyes, "that I create chaos and conflict wherever I go? Just because I'm not sure of what I am?"

There was a brief, shocked silence at the unexpected question.

"I don't know who more of an idiot is," Kanda was the first to shatter the stillness. "The idiot who put the idiotic thoughts in your head, or you who actually believe in the words of an idiot." A light snort. "Which makes you an idiot, of course."

Johnny shot Kanda a scathing glare. Kanda just raised a calm, challenging eyebrow and Johnny looked away quickly, immediately softening his gaze when he looked back at Allen.

"No, Allen, of course not," Johnny told him gently. "You did no such thing. You are our comrade. Our nakama. Our friend. If the Order is indeed in chaos, it's because it's for you, not of you. None of us agrees with what the Central decisions of late, and everyone is consistently trying to support you however they can. Because they love you. We love you. You are not just our friend… you are our family."

Allen averted his gaze, feeling how the lump in his throat had brought tears in his eyes. Love, family… those two words invoked feelings of warmth in him he thought had long vanished.

"Tch," Kanda snorted. "Baka Moyashi!"

Allen felt a vein at his forehead twitching, and it had nothing to do with his headache. "My name is Allen, BaKanda! A-L-L-E-N. Allen! How many times must I repeat until it finally gets into your thick skull?"

"There you have it," Kanda said smugly, before fixing Allen an intense glare. "You are Allen Walker. I'm going to call you Moyashi for as long as it fucking takes… until you remember who you really are. You are not the 14th. You are not a traitor. You are you, and no one else." Then, muttering under his breath, "Baka Moyashi!"

"Kanda…" Allen breathed, staring at the sword-wielding Exorcist with wide eyes.

Something crackled underneath their feet.

Something round and frighteningly black.

Grotesque arms began to emerge from the darkness; reaching and grasping for the…

"…14th… I feel the 14th… I feel the 14th…"

"Shit!" Kanda swore. "Johnny, grab Moyashi. Doggie, gather the things. We're getting the fuck out of here! Move it!"

Swiftly kicking open the nearest window, Kanda leapt down to the streets below, and the rest followed.

Somewhere in the distance, long red hair glinted in the moonlight, and the single eye not covered by the gleaming red tresses tracked the running forms until they disappeared from sight. The glowing end of the cigarette clamped between lips wobbled slightly as the lips parted to reveal pearly white teeth.

"Hmph. Baka deshi."

- The End -

Finally done! *phew*

Hope it didn't turn out so bad. I know the title and the summary is crappy, but I've ran out of ideas! -_-

Oh, and I really don't want Cross to die. Really. So I just had to put him in my fic. ^^

I might, might, be writing a multi-chapter based on Timcanpy's POV, so keep a look out. ^^

Thank you for reading. Reviews are very much welcomed!