To Learn the Truth

Chapter 1

"Yuu~ did you hear? Allen's in the infirmary. Some akuma messed with his head, and now they won't let us know anything." Something felt off to Kanda, like Lavi was hiding crucial information about Allen. He opened his eyes enough for Lavi to see he was listening. Standing up, he motioned to the door. Lavi followed, leaving Lenalee confused over what just happened.

"What is it?" Lavi asked, just before Kanda shoved him against a wall. Momentarily shocked, Lavi responded on impulse. "What'd ya do that for? 'Cause I'm sorry for being loud while you meditate, if that's it." Kanda tisked.

"What are you hiding." Kanda glared, and Lavi's expression lost all life. There wasn't a good enough reason to keep up his act. "What's happened to the moyashi?"

Lavi looked around, searching for anyone who might overhear. He was only too glad to get this information to someone besides himself.

"His memory's missing. The kid doesn't even remember who Cross is, and is just shouting at everyone who walks into his room. When someone asks about his father, what's his face Walker, he spits on the person's clothes and scowls. No one knows what's going on or why he's acting like this. There's even a chance of an alternate personality being placed inside of him. Only Bookman, head nurse, Komui and I are allowed to see him. It seems he doesn't trust people that much, but I've been able to sit in the same room without him trying to take off my head, which is more than the others can say. Well, the head nurse scares him into submission, but he still glares at her. But you can't tell Lenalee. Branch Chief doesn't want her to panic more than she already is." Kanda grunted and walked back into the dojo, releasing Lavi from his grip. Lavi let out a sigh and walked back to the main building. It was time to go visit a certain white haired, bad tempered little boy.

"Why can't you idiots just leave me alone! I'm fine! I've lived on the streets all my life, and nothing bad's happened yet! You had no right to drag me into this dump and lock me up! None! Fuckin' bastards..." Was the first think Lavi heard as he walked into Allen's own personal section of the hospital. Bookman walked out of the door seconds later, letting out a sigh. He glanced up at Lavi.

"Deal with him." Lavi blinked as Bookman walked off.

Cautiously rounding the corner, Lavi entered the room. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary, only Allen was turned, back towards the door.

"... Hey, Allen." He said, not fully sure whether or not the boy would respond.

"Hey, bastard. Why are you here?" He mumbled to the wall. Lavi stepped forwards into the room, moving sideways just a little bit, wanting to know why Allen was facing away from him. The boy normally had the common courtesy to point his body in the direction of the speaker, even if he refused to look directly at them. The front of Allen's shirt was ripped open, though the buttons were still in place. They had put Allen in a dress shirt and black pants, since that's the comfiest clothing they had in the hospital wing, and Komui was too cheap to go out and look for something more suitable. The left sleeve was completely missing, showing Allen's red arm for the world/room to see, and large sections of his chest were showing through.

"You bastards put me in such shitty clothing. How am I supposed to get out of this thing? Can't fucking figure it out." Allen continued mumbling to himself as Lavi undid the buttons, though he didn't know why he bothered. Just a couple more tares and the thing would fall off. It would take less effort than unbuttoning.

A glance at Allen's face told him the boy was fascinated with this new method of closing shirts, and Lavi was wondering yet again what had happened to the boy's mind.

"Hey, Allen, what do you remember?" Allen looked at the young Bookman like he was insane.

"Everything. Don't be an idiot. It's you bastards who are keeping me locked up. I'm not certain, but I think experimenting on people without their consent is illegal, and I definitely haven't said yes, so get me out of this room!" Allen glared once more before shifting in his bed and lying down, hiding under the blankets.

"Just tell me. You said you didn't remember your father. Who do you remember?" Allen peaked out from under his covers, his eyes lost in memory.

"I remember a dog. And there was his owner. The dog died. He was really old. But the man didn't cry. I cried, but that stupid fuck didn't. Other than that, my life was even shittier than some pampered boy could believe. Someone like you probably hasn't seen a man drown his twin daughter and son, or a woman hanging herself because some lord told her to, and threatened her family to make sure she would. You probably haven't even seen someone get raped in front of you, and dying after it was over, bleeding from all of the wounds inflicted by the men." Allen's eyes were dark, dead, and unfitting in the normally cheerful Allen's image.

"And what if I have?" Lavi may not have seen any of this happen, but he had read about it over and over, spanning across the ages and within most every commoner life book or journal he had seen.

Allen searched within Lavi's eyes, looking deeper than Lavi though possible for the boy. And his eyes narrowed when he found what he was searching for. "It's not smart to lie to a street rat. We know how to read people better than anyone. It's like our living. You know of it, but you've never experienced it up close, have you." Lavi stayed silent after than, and considered leaving after an hour of no sound. Until a thought came into his mind. At the beginning, Allen didn't know what his name was, and would get upset with people for calling him that. There would be times when he forgot to respond to his name altogether.

"Hey, what's your name? Your actual name?" He asked. Allen looked at him sceptically. After deciding it wouldn't be too harmful to give such a useless piece of information, he spoke.

"Don't got one."

"What should I call you, than?"

"You can stick with Allen. It doesn't bother me anymore."

"What did people call you on the streets."

Allen quieted once more. His response was a mere whisper. "Red."

"Red? Why would they call you Red? Unless you went off and killed people." Allen was shocked with Lavi's assumption.

"Kill? How could I kill people? I don't have that kind of strength, so no. It's because of my hair. 'Cuase it's redish-brown, people who were chasing me would see the redish hair and shout out 'there's Red!' so that became my name. It's the only thing people called me that wasn't an insult."

"What are you talking about? Your hair isn't red." Lavi pointed out, and Allen nearly fell off the bed.

"What?! Get me a mirror! Now!" He shouted. Lavi blinked at the sudden energy in the boy, and helped search after a couple moments of stillness. When Allen left the room, Lavi followed, panicking when he couldn't see the boy anymore. He relaxed when he heard a surprised yelp just a couple rooms away, and followed the sound. Allen was standing inside of one of the bathrooms, staring at his appearance, shocked.

"What... the... hell?" He was stroking at his hair, trying to wipe off anything that could have been covering his natural color. Discovering nothing was changing, he moved to his scar/curse mark. Finally, he stood back and looked at his entire body. "I'm so... old. What the fuck happened? I was, like seven! Now I'm eighty!" He rounded, turning to Lavi. "What did you fuckers do to me?! I'm not supposed to be an old man! Why did this fucking happen?!" Realizing he was crying, Allen covered his face with an arm to hide his tears. "Damn it!"