InsaneJournal

Moyashi-chan was up to something, and he was determined to find out what it was.

The younger exorcist had been acting strangely for the past few weeks, and it seemed no one within the Black Order knew why. Or so they claimed. The Bookman-in-training had asked around quite a bit, and had gotten some mixed responses.

Kanda had simply let out his usual “che” and walked away. Lenalee had shook her head, telling him that, while she was worried about the youngest of the exorcists as well, she too had no idea why he was acting like he was. Chief Komui gave him a strange answer that had him rushing out the door before the man was even finished talking, and Reever had no information for him. Krory looked concerned when asked, but had nothing to tell him. Bookman had given him a swift kick to the head and left it at that. Miranda simply looked confused when he approached her to ask. Toma and all of the other Finders were clueless. Hevlaska told him that she had not seen Allen as of late, so she knew nothing of his strange behavior. Chef Jerry seemed to know something, but he had only moaned about how Allen had not ordered any of his legendarily large meals as of late when he had mentioned him, but had only been eating normal sized meals.

And, while it amused him somewhat when he came to the conclusion that Jerry was apparently infatuated with the boy’s stomach (something that had left him in stitches on his floor for quite some time), he was irritated nonetheless having come up with no answers.

At one point or another he had tried to confront the boy in question, but Allen had only squeaked in surprise before scurrying away. This served only to further irritate the redhead, who had chosen to spend the rest of the day seeing how far he could hit rocks with his hammer.

Finally, as a last ditch attempt, he somehow managed to snatch Timcanpi away from its master, hoping to be able to use the golden golem’s memory feature to discover the reason behind Allen’s strange behavior. Much to his surprise, the golem refused, and when he further pressed the issue, found himself with a rather angry golem latched onto his ear. Which was, to say the least, very painful. And embarrassing.

Now with a bandage wrapped tightly around his left ear (who would have thought Timcanpi had such sharp teeth!), he sat in the Order’s massive library, a piece of paper in front of him as he jotted down any ideas he could come up with. As he had been on a break from any missions lately, he was bored out of his mind, and investigating Allen’s strange behavior had become a priority for him. The page before him was covered in his scrawling writing; granted, as Bookman’s successor, he could easily keep all the information in his head. However, he often found it easier to solve a problem like this if he wrote down everything he knew, so he could see it and think it over with more ease. It tended to save him a few headaches.

So absorbed in his note taking, he failed to notice the presence of a certain white-haired exorcist behind him that was leaning precariously over him, trying to see what he was writing. He stopped writing for a moment, reading over what he had, grumbling in irritation when he came up with no new ideas or explanations. Deciding to take a break, he pushed his chair back, freezing when he heard a startled yelp and a thump. Turning around, his single eye widened seeing Allen on the ground, a several books scattered around him.

“Ow ow ow ow….” the boy whined quietly, wincing as he rubbed at his lower back, paying no attention to him. He wasted no time in pushing the chair aside, hurrying to help the smaller male to his feet.

“Aaah, Moyashi-chan, are you okay?” he asked, quickly stooping to gather up the fallen books once Allen was back on his feet. “I didn’t hit you with the chair, did I?”

“I’m alright,” the other exorcist said, gratefully taking the books from him. “Just startled me a bit, that’s all. I wasn’t expecting you to get up so suddenly.”

He sighed in relief, reaching over to ruffle the other’s pure white hair. “That’s good. I was worried I smacked into you or something,” he said, pushing the chair in. He snatched up his notes, folding them with one hand and tucking them safely away in a pocket, before turning back to Allen. “What’re all those books, anyways?”

Allen sighed, rolling his eyes. “Chief Komui asked me to put these back for him, since Reever and the others are forcing him to clean his desk off again. I happened to be in the area and got these pushed off on me.” The boy shook his head, seeming somewhat despaired. “The only problem is I have no idea where these are supposed to go. I’ve been wandering around for a while…”

He chuckled, taking the top book off the stack, glancing at the title. “Here, I’ll help you out. I spend so much time in here I have a catalog of most of the books in my head by now.”

And so the two went off, Allen carrying the books while he located their proper spots; on occasion he would stop, finding a book in a section or shelf it was not supposed to be on, and made the other wait as he ran it back to where it should be. Finally, some time later, they finished putting the last of the books away, and were slowly making their way back to the front of the library.

“Thanks again, Lavi,” Allen said, looking greatly relieved now that he was finally free of his large load of books. He simply chuckled, shaking his head.

“I already told you, it’s no problem,” he said, smiling widely. “Oh, but, if you don’t mind me asking,” he started, putting a hand on the other’s shoulder. “I noticed…you’re not acting quite right lately. Almost everyone else has noticed too, and Chef Jerry misses making you your giant meals. Mind telling me what’s up?”

Allen’s pale blue-gray eyes widened in surprise, before he quickly averted his gaze, choosing to stare at the floor. “Um, well, that is…”

“Allleeen…” He dragged out the boy’s name, almost amused by the way Allen was shuffling his feet nervously across the carpeted floor of the library. “You can’t run away this time,” he said, giving the boy’s shoulder a light squeeze. “Seriously though, I’m getting worried. It would be one thing for you to just be acting weird, but not eating as much as normal? That can’t be healthy for a parasite-type like you…”

“I…I’m fine…” Allen muttered, still refusing to look up at him. “I’ve just been busy with a project for the last couple weeks, that’s all…”

“So busy you can’t take the time to eat?”

Allen flinched slightly at his words, shaking his head. “I just…wanted to get it done before I had to leave on a mission, that’s all…I barely made it, too…”

He frowned, letting go of Allen’s shoulder, letting his arm fall to his side. “What do you mean?”

“I’m leaving first thing tomorrow morning for Madrid,” the teenager said, shrugging his shoulders. “Komui wants me to investigate…something that’s been going on there. He thinks there might be an Innocence.”

“I see.” He leaned back against a nearby bookshelf, taking a moment to let his brain absorb everything he had just heard. “So, it’s a solo mission?”

“Yeah…Just me, Tim and a Finder…” Allen said, somewhat dejectedly. He then jumped as a nearby clock went off, chiming off the hour. “Oh no, it’s that late already?” he muttered nervously. “Sorry Lavi, I’ve got to run; Komui wants me up early so I need to get to bed soon,” he said, turning to hurry off. He stopped mid-step, appearing to remember something, and quickly turned back around as he fished something out of the pockets of his coat. “Oh, right, catch!” he called, tossing what appeared to be a simple leather-bound journal to him. “Think of it as an early birthday present!” he said, waving as he turned and ran off.

He watched as the white-haired boy disappeared out the large doors, one hand held in the air in a sort of wave. After a few long moments he looked down at the book in his hand, and slowly wandered over to a nearby chair. Plopping down into it, he gave the cover of the journal a look over, checking for any writing or indication of what it was. He finally flipped it open to the first page, and failed to hold in an amused chuckle seeing what much have been Allen’s handwriting across the page.

His handwriting looks like a girl’s, he thought with a wry grin, his single eye quickly skimming over the lines of sloped, curved writing. His grin gradually vanished as he read, being replaced with a look of a mix of surprise and curiosity. He wondered how Allen had known his birthday was coming up in a few days, and also why the boy had chosen to give him this.

According to what the boy had wrote, the younger exorcist originally had no ideas as to what to give him for his birthday. It was Chef Jerry that had eventually given him the suggestion to make something instead (he knew the man had known something!), and then this idea had come to mind.

Slowly, he began to flip through the pages carefully, single jade eye wide as he looked through the small book. Allen’s writing filled most of the pages, and those that had none of the neat print had carefully drawn illustrations.

It was a story book. Allen’s adopted father had written these stories for him long ago, and only he and his father knew them. As he could not bear to part with the original book Mana had recorded them in, he had copied them down into this simple journal, painstakingly reproducing each word, each illustration, to keep it as close to the originals as possible.

Allen knew that he had to memorize the history of the world as Bookman’s apprentice. So he had decided to give him something he would not have to memorize, but could just sit down and read for fun.

Nevertheless, it boggled him to think that the younger teen had spent over two weeks reproducing the book just for him. He had a feeling that even he would not be able to sit and work on a project for that amount of time.

He gave the book one more look-over, pausing to look at some of the illustrations a bit closer. He was amazed to see that, for as clumsy and awkward the boy seemed at times, he was really an amazing artist. This struck him as strange, as Lenalee had told him once that Allen had once drawn a picture of Miranda when they first met her, and it had barely looked like a woman. Had he improved that much within just a few months?

Snapping the book closed, he carefully tucked it away in a deep pocket of his coat as he stood, making his way to the door. Moyashi-chan would not be going on that mission to Spain by himself, if he had anything to do with it. Moreover, he certainly could not -would not- allow the boy to leave without properly thanking him (and asking him about his apparent art skills).

He was sure Komui would let him go along as well. At least he got along better with Allen than Kanda did.