The Fine Line

Oh no!! Niamh posts again!
I must apologize for leaving this chappy rather unpolished. I wanted to keep going, but I figured I could get away with increasing the suspense a little here and there… besides, two smutty chapters in a row might be annoying. :)

I LOVE YOU REVIEWERS AND READERS! – Hearts and Cookies for you ALL!!

Disclaimer of Deliriousness: I don’t own D.Gray-man. If I did… My mental Allen wouldn’t be yelling at me that I don’t own him.

WARNING: MORE MAN-ON-MAN. Mild angst. YOU have been WARNED.
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Title-less (Suggestions?)

Uri’s tongue flicked across his lips in an attempt to wet them, but the effort was useless. The metallic taste of blood filled his mouth; the source of the flavor most likely the dried gore that covered his face. Rhode and Tyki had taken turns questioning him, hurting him in an attempt to get him to say something useful, but he had not said a word. They had stopped asking why or how he betrayed them. The questions revolved more around the Exorcist’s themselves, what he had learned from touching the one’s mind.

I can’t tell them, He thought in-between moments of torture. His fears, his hopes, his dreams, his desires, He felt a sob shake him but felt no tears come with it. I have to keep them. I have to hoard them like treasures in my heart, defend them with my life. Something sharp struck him in the shoulder and sent him wobbling back and forth in his chains. He didn’t even cry out anymore when that happened. If I don’t, they’ll take him. They’ll make him suffer like I am suffering. I must endure so he can live.

“Uri-chan, your scars are gone,” The little girl’s voice scratched in his ears painfully. “Why is that, Uri-chan? Do you not have the strength left to sustain them?”

He swallowed in a dry throat and attempted to bark an insult at her, but his voice refused to function. He would have laughed at the irony of being question to the point of being unable to respond, but that seemed impossible as well. The more he thought about it, the less seemed possible in his cold, dark world.

“What’s wrong, Uri-chan? Have I broken you?”

I’m sorry, Sable. He thought, letting out a shaking breath. I never got to tell you that you were right.

“Uri-chan?”

Find me, Sable. Kill me. Don’t let them know. Don’t let them find out. Don’t save me.

“Uncle Tyki! I think I broke Uri-chan.”

I deserve the death they have wrought.

Tyki looked up from his book and sighed at the girl before him. She didn’t look too concerned, but she never did get concerned unless she was bored. She looked at him with her big amethyst eyes and rubbed her elflike shoes on the cement floor, the picture of innocence if not for the twisted grin that marred her face. Rhode was a sweet kid to her uncle. An angel of the Noah family.

“What did he say?” Tyki asked, closing his book gently in his hand.

“Nothing. He won’t even moan anymore. It’s boring.”

Tyki’s expression fell somewhat as he pushed himself up from his chair. Uri had been threatening to collapse after the past few days, but he didn’t think death was that close in the man’s future. He was a Noah, and Noahs did not just keel over after a week of punishment. Tyki seriously doubted that anyone would be able to hold there tongue so long as to die while being questioned, especially someone as hard to kill as that.

He sidled past the girl and into the room that had been designated as Uri’s, not that room was the label that fit it. The floor was polished concrete, the walls coarse stone, and a single small window lit it from near the ceiling. Tyki had no enjoy for this part of the basement, but for perhaps how he could take pleasure in someone else not liking it. His eyes did not like finding Uri’s head lying against his chest, his legs no longer attempting to hold him up, his hands no longer held in tight fists. Blood covered much of Uri’s face and chest, small cuts adorned his limbs like lines of sliver-thin rubies, and his breathing was slow and labored.

In his right shoulder was one of Rhode’s pointed candles, the kind she used when physically hurting people outside of her own dimension. Tyki took hold of it none-too gently and pulled, but did not smile at Uri’s lack of reaction. Some small part of him cared for Uri more than he liked to admit, and seeing him so compromised hurt his heart perhaps a hair too much. Much like Tyki, Uri led a double life of sorts. He blamed his worry on that similarity. There was no way Tyki would really care for a human just because they were human or a Noah just because they were a Noah.

“Have you lost the ability to speak, Uri-chan?” Tyki’s voice echoed off of the stone walls.

Well, my vocal chords aren’t working, if that’s what you mean.

A heavy sigh shook Tyki’s frame as he thought about what came next. He only had a few options, and he didn’t particularly like any of them. Kill Uri? But he was wearing his favorite gloves. Have Rhode kill Uri? But she liked lively prey. Leave him to die at his own pace? But valuable information would be lost. So he made up a fourth option, one that made him smile outwardly at his own corrupted sense of humor.

With sure fingers he unchained his captive, careful to take him under the shoulder as to not let him fall onto the hard ground. His pulse was erratic at best, and another head wound would most likely end it all.

Uri didn’t understand. Why would Tyki take him down? Why would he be placed against the wall with care, as if he were not a traitor who deserved to die? He wanted to die. If that happened, no one would know the things he had learned. Had Tyki figured him out?

“Well, my dear Uri-chan,” He felt a hand travel around the back of his neck to take hold of the knot there, a moment later the fabric fell away from his eyes, yet he had not the strength to open them. He knew despite his sightlessness that Tyki was smiling at him, his dark eyes twinkling, his top hat slightly less than straight atop its bed of shiny brow curls. His voice was laced with maliciousness when he spoke. “I think it is about time we met up with your other half. Don’t you?”

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Kanda grinned at the blushing boy in the bathtub, fully aware that grinning would only make the blushing worse. Even after what Allen had done the night before he was still shy, afraid to sit before his lover without clothes, even if he was covered in a rather thick layer of foamy soap. Kanda wanted to take off his pants and hop in the water and have him, but such an act would undoubtedly end with a very messy bathroom and neither of them cleaner than when they had started, which would lead to even more bathing and more messes and eventually a very angry innkeeper. It just would not be a smart move.

Funny how I’m more worried about making a mess than I am about hurting him…

“Kanda, stop grinning at me like that.”

“Che, why would I do that, Moyashi?”

“You make me think you’re going to eat me.”

“And you would object?”

Allen sank lower in the tub, his neck and shoulders disappearing bellow the line of bubbles until he was just a pink face hovering in the water. “I don’t go well with soba.” Kanda shook his head and started at his shirt buttons, Allen’s eyes grew wide as he pulled the garment off of his shoulders and let it fall to the floor. “What are you doing?” Allen blinked at him when the boots came off next, followed by the hair ribbon.

Kanda cocked an eyebrow at him as he undid the top button of his pants. “Che, you don’t expect me to massage you from outside of the tub do you? Baka, there’s water in there that will end up out here.”

“But if you get in here, water will end up out there.”

“Che, I have self-control.”

Allen smirked at him, trying not to watch as Kanda’s hands kept unfastening buttons. Watching reminded him of how amazing the night before had been, and how he would like to do it again, regardless of his aching back, throbbing arms, and thighs that wanted to attack him just for thinking about doing something so strenuous. It didn’t make sense to him why he was so sore though, being he did workout nearly every morning, and none of that hurt. Just one of those mysteries…

A pale foot plunked into the water a moment later and Allen scooted away to allow Kanda entrance. Naturally he turned around and leaned into the older Exorcist, his wet back coming into contact with Kanda’s cold, dry skin. The touch relaxed him immensely, even though he had not realized he was tense beforehand. His lover, who was somewhat surprised by their closeness, wrapped his arms around the smaller boy and leaned his face into his neck, sighing at the warm water. It did feel wonderful. The light scent of foreign flowers filled his nostrils and made him tired.

“Kanda.”

“Hm?”

“Will we get cleaner if we just soak for long enough?”

“Che,” He grunted, moving one hand to Allen’s shoulder, which he proceeded to rub. “How about we find out?”
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Lavi placed yet another glass delicately on his plate, amazed that the glassware could be balanced so easily. He and Sable had been sitting at the breakfast table for perhaps ten minutes without seeing Allen or Kanda, and he was beginning to think that the two had gone elsewhere for their food. Or maybe they were occupied with something else entirely.

“I’m hungry.” He sighed at his glass tower.

“If I can control the ravenous crystal in my forehead, you can control your gut.” Sable chimed, shifting in her seat. I’m kind of tired of Swedish food… She thought at the menu. I’d kill for a cheeseburger.

“I may not be eating for two but I still feel the same you, know? Might just take more to make the feeling go away for you.”

Sable laughed a little as she turned the page, glancing over the glossy paper and over the mountain of dishes to the bored boy on the other side of the table. He was running a finger over the rim of his cup of water, which was thankfully not part of his teetering clear creation. “I’m not eating for two, thank you very much. And I’m pretty much hungry all the time, so I doubt it’s exactly the same. It’s like having a bottomless void in the bottom of your stomach, sucking the life out of you.” She smiled at the horrified look she received.

“Even when you talk like a normal person, you’re still creepy.” Lavi shuttered.

“Fine. Don’t talk to me.”

“That’s not what I meant!”

“No, no. I’m creepy. No one talks to creepy people unless they have to.”

“I’m talking to you now, aren’t I?”

“No. You’re arguing with me.”

“Because you aren’t that creepy! You just have an odd way of saying things, really. Reminds me vaguely of Panda sometimes.” He picked up his water glass and sipped it, the ice tinkled against the glass. “When he gets to talking it’s like the room gets dim, the light fades away until it’s just his face, telling you something that makes you shiver even if it’s happy. He might be talking about the sunrise on the morning of an epic victory but it still has the aura of grimness and ill that makes your bones feel like crawling out from under your skin.”

Sable snorted at him, a small smile crossing her lips that he could not see. “Lavi-chan?”

“Hm?”

“You’re creepy like Bookman, too.”

He smiled at that, taking it as something of a compliment. After a moment he sighed at her again, this time leaning over and clutching his stomach as if pained by it. “I’m ordering without them!”
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“What if Sable and Lavi are waiting for us?” Allen asked as he attempted to rinse the soap from Kanda’s hair. The samurai’s face was more or less covered with the ebony tresses, strands clinging to his neck and shoulders. His was rather un-amused in appearance, dripping wet, frowning, suds on his chest and arms. Allen might have laughed at him if he weren’t sharing the tub.

“Che,” Kanda shook his head to get his hair out of his eyes. “We’re practically done anyways, so they don’t have much longer to wait.”

“But my fingers are pruney.”

“And?”

“And that means we’ve been in here for a while.” Allen looked at him from behind his bedraggled white bangs and he cupped his hands around yet more water, which he splashed at his lover. “So even if they don’t have that long to wait, they’ve already been waiting all this time.”

Kanda harrumphed and pulled the plug out of the drain. “You’re just hungry, aren’t you?”

Allen waved his hands in front of his face defensively as the other man stood up to leave the tub. “N-n-no! I am, but that’s not why we should hurry.”

“Mmhmm.” Kanda intoned, disbelieving. Allen watched him wrap a towel around his hips and search for a comb, a thoughtful look on his face. “Are you going to sit there all day?”

“Oh, could you hand me a towel?” Allen smiled up at him from the now nearly empty bath, his hands wrapped around his shoulders from the cold. Kanda vaguely wondered if he were sitting there, naked on purpose, trying to tempt him into doing something to make them both dirty again. I seriously need to stop thinking such things, He mused to himself as he threw a towel at Allen. I’ll become a health hazard for him and his soreness if I don’t watch out.

Allen found himself thinking blatant thoughts as he watched Kanda locate clean clothes. He had yet to leave the bathroom himself, but he could watch Kanda’s reflection in the bathroom mirror if he tried. The curve of his hips, the angle of his jaw, little things that Allen had never thought to appreciate caught his eye. But appreciating them led his mind in directions that made him blush quietly to his reflection, solemnly wishing he knew a less messy way to have some Kanda before he went down to breakfast.

“Oi, Moyashi,” Kanda called from the room. Allen leaned around the bathroom door’s frame to see what he wanted.

“Yes, Love?”

“Are these mine, or yours?” Allen almost laughed to see the no-longer-quite-naked man buttoning a pair of pants that had to be four sizes too small. They were too low on his hips, too tight in the legs, and about a foot too short at the ankle. The fact that he even had to ask who’s there were made it all that funnier in Allen’s mind.

“Hey! Get out of my pants!”

Kanda looked up with the younger Exorcist, an evil expression on his face. “You liked being in mine, Moyashi-kun. Why don’t I get to try out yours?”

Ah, the eyes. He’s giving me the eyes… must – resist – the eyes! Allen’s feet carried him floatingly across the room to stand next to Kanda, regardless of his resistance. He had said the name also, which always deserved at least a kiss, if not a small hicky, but Kanda was giving him that expression that meant even the most innocent of touches could lead to a long session of anatomical exploration.

Allen’s lips just hardly brushed his, just enough to let him know that they were there. It was perhaps the worst thing he could have done for Kanda’s self-control. He took the smaller boy by the shoulders and pulled him flush against him, pressing their mouths together thirstily, one hand moving to touch his trembling neck, the other falling to unwrap the towel at Allen’s waist. No matter how Kanda’s mind demanded that they had just gotten over doing this and there was no reason for them to do it again so soon and Allen was still sore from there previous adventures, his body would not listen.

It was not until Allen felt Kanda step toward him that he realized he was not going to put up much of a fight. He was sore, he was tired, he was hungry, but that didn’t really matter that much anymore. He wanted Kanda.

“Love…” He gasped when the older Exorcist backed him into the bed, catching his knees on it. Kanda ran his fingers over Allen’s hip, received a small intake of breath in response. “We just – got clean. And Lavi – and Sable –” But he knew arguing was pointless. Kanda was a determined fellow, and he pushed Allen back onto the bed with little effort. That was Allen’s last attempt at resistance. With a small smile and a shaking exhalation he gave himself up to Kanda’s touch.

Sometimes, Allen thought distantly. The two of us together like this is more important than whatever is going on outside. He hissed at his lover’s teeth on his neck, his fingers curled in Kanda’s hair, I wonder if this is what I’ve always waited for.
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Owari! Try not to over analyze that last sentence there… though if you do I’ll be analyzing with you. I am a bad authoress… sometimes the characters choose to say things and I don’t understand them.

My posts will be a tiny bit slower now, because I’m busy, though they will still be coming rather regularly. Forgive me and my slowness!