Home Again: Intrusion

Chapter 11: Intrusion On Sleep

Allen's POV

"It's all his fault", the souls cried from under the blanket of white. "Snuff him out!"

"Wait", Allen shakily whispered.

"Save us!"

He struggled to break free from Tyki, so he could save the souls, but couldn't seem to move. He turned a glare at the noah and yelled, "Tyki! Let go!"

Although the noah kept a tight grip on the boy, his expression was calm as he poked out his lip in a pout. "What? Why", he asked, sounding as though he was pretending to be confused for his own sick entertainment.

The white figures lowered and flattened into the white nothingness as the souls began to vanish, crying out for help as they did so. The ex-exorcist's heart began to beat rapidly with impatience and he struggled harder to break loose, yelling at his half-enemy, "This isn't funny! Tyki Mikk, let me go!"

One of the figures began to slowly seep down and, as it did, it's voice began to sound more normal. More like Mana. It called out to Allen to save it repeatedly and he couldn't take it anymore. Even though he knew that Mana was dead and that wasn't his adoptive father, he couldn't stand to hear him cry out to him for help any longer. Even if there was the slimmest possibility that he might be Mana, Allen wasn't going to let his soul disappear.

He pushed himself and finally managed to activate his crown cloak, immediately holding his black hand close to Tyki's face and yelling, "Crown edge!"

Allen looked behind him and, just as the cross formed over the noah's face, he caught genuinely heart-broken, glazed over eyes and a voice that was just as broken, whispering in his ear, "Are you going to kill me, Allen?"

Allen's POV

He woke up in his mostly-white bedroom – or, the one that was assigned to him upon joining with the noah – and sat up in a rush. He was covered in sweat and his hair was out of it's ribbon, sprawled across his hunched shoulders as he looked around the room, his white blanket, edged with gold, still covering his lap. The noah of pleasure was laying on the white couch by the piano, sleeping with his hands over his stomach. Allen got up and slowly walked over to him, careful not to wake him.

As he neared the older man, he recognized how tired he looked and the ex-exorcist remembered his dream, once again feeling conflicted at what to do with the noah and narrowing his eyes. Tyki was so tall that his body and head took up the two cushions while his legs hung over the edge, the backs of his knees resting on the armrest opposite the end which sat nearest to the piano. He, as well, had his hair out – though it was longer than Allen's – and it hung off of the edge of the loveseat.

I wonder what that dream meant. He touched the ruby necklace he wore around his neck, which Tyki had given to him soon after joining the noah, and remembered the expression the man wore in his dream. That one which was more sorrowful than he'd ever seen. It broke his heart to see him so broken. Mana... how could I kill him? He may be a noah and partnered with the Earl, who tried to manipulate your soul, and he may have been the one who nearly killed me on multiple occasions. These things bother me, too. But how can I kill a human – especially one who looks at me with those innocent eyes and jokes with me the way any normal human would do. He remembered how, just before he passed out in the church, Tyki destroyed the souls of many, many akuma. He remembered how he killed Suman and admitted to being the one who tortured General Yeager. He isn't evil, despite his actions being evil, at times.... But why do I feel bad letting him go free? Do I want revenge? Or is it you, Mana...?

He bit his lip and lowered his head, frustrated by his inability to discern right from wrong, before lighting his expression at the sight of the purple ribbon, wrapped around Tyki's neck. The one that he'd given to the noah in return for the ruby necklace.

As though his gaze was making the noah uncomfortable, he began to stir, finally opening his eyes once the boy took a surprised stepped back. "Shounen", he asked, groggy and innocent as he always was upon waking.

He rubbed the back of his head, laughing nervously at being caught staring at the other, "Ah, you're awake? It's good that you're awake." He continued to laugh nervously; eyes closed as he waited for the one on the couch to respond.

When he received no response, he stiffened and serioused up, looking down at the noah and lowering his hand to his side. Tyki was looking up at him as though he was contemplating and studying him carefully, somewhat of a frown painting his lips, as though there was something he was concerned about. After several moments of being stared at by those sharp, golden eyes, Allen finally decided that his face was warm enough from embarrassment and decided to break the silence by speaking the noah's name, implying that he wanted to know exactly why he was gawking.

The noah of pleasure rubbed his messy hair tiredly and positioned himself correctly on the couch, eyes closed as he did so and still lacking that playful attitude he always had. What happened to make him so serious? Mikk's voice was rough as he asked, "Oh? Were you waiting for me to wake up, boy? I should be the one relieved to see you awake. You've been..." He dropped his hands into his lap and narrowed his eyes, staring at the air as though he was trying to be careful with his wording, for some reason. "You've been... sleeping... for several days, after all."

He widened his eyes at the way he phrased his statement. "Sleeping?" Moments of silence passed before Allen decided upon asking more questions in the hopes that he might recieve a clue about why the noah of pleasure was suddenly so serious. "And where is Road? I thought you weren't allowed to come back to the ark. Are you here because of Road or did you kill someone already?"

The noah looked back at him, glaring tiredly, but not saying anything.

He glared back, balling his hands into fists and barking, "Tyki Mikk! Answer me! Did you kill my-"

The noah cut him off, just about hissing his words with seeming accusation. "Road is missing."

(Hey, friends! So, I just really wanted to ask this, since I'm not really sure how I want to do the next few chapters and I know flashbacks can be tedious, I wanted to ask you guys' opinions. I want to do some flashbacks/a flashback, explaining what's happened during the time that Allen's been "sleeping", but (Option 1, here) I'm not quite sure if I want to do only one flash back, in which I either go through what happened after Tyki entered the ark or what happened between Tyki and the Earl/how he managed to get back onto the ark. I was considering (Option 2) having both flash backs, but at that point I might as well have just had this chapter about what happened while Allen was asleep! My other option (Option 3) was to have Tyki just explain what happened in a short paragraph and we could get on with how Allen will take the news and finding Road, but I feel like that would be a little too rushed and I could add soo much more drama and action if I were to do a flashback since – spoiler alert – a lot of crazy stuff went down while Allen was asleep! But I don't know, since it's my story. Tbh I don't even know why I had the time jump – I think I just wanted to have more of Allen's POV, since I've been doing a lot of Tyki's and Road's POVs, but not much of Allen's. Besides that – I wanted you guys to experience the shock he experienced from waking up days after "fainting" in the cathedral, despite having nothing happen to him and being a fast-healing exorcist.

But anywhose, what do you guys think? Should I do a flashback explaining just one thing, a flashback explaining EVERYTHING (lengthy af), or just a quick Tyki-summary?)