Allen played with his fingers under the table. He thought for a moment, taking in deep breaths he let them out slowly. He counted to twenty then did it again. Finally he was ready. He recalled the night he met Marion Cross.
It was cold. Manna had been sick that day. Neither he nor Allen had gone out to do their little act for money. Some times they would even go down to the orphanage to make balloon animals or do tricks for the kids. Today, they had stayed at home.
"Allen, do you mind going to the store for my medicine?" Manna asked him late in the afternoon.
This was something Allen did often, run errands for the man who had taken such great care of him. In that time, Allen wasn't scarred, he had two normal looking arms. He looked like any other kid but his hair was ghostly white, while his eyes remained red. Some kids called him old, ghost or demon due to this. Allen never let it bother him too much.
Today the kids were all in school. Allen hurried along the streets. He would wave to those he knew or stop to pet the newspaper man's dog. Then continue on his way. He got the meds. Coming home he was given bread from the bakery, a case of donuts too! Allen grinned happily at that.
The butcher shop held out a bag of meat that would have had to be tossed that day. He reminded Allen that he needed to cook it right away. Allen said he would. He scurried home. Manna was asleep so Allen left him some butter bread, a glass of water and his meds with a donut next to his bed. He then went to cook the meat up. Once it was done, he took a serving to Manna who had woken to eat.
Allen sat with his "dad" while they ate. They talked about where they wanted to go after the holidays. Manna even asked Allen about his birthday. Manna always tried to do something special for him. Allen laughed talking about going ice skating again. Manna had agreed.
Once Allen cleaned up, he went to his own room. It had been a good day. He hugged the stuffed bunny that Manna had gotten him the snowy Christmas morning the man had found the freezing child. That had become Allen's birthday. Allen went to sleep peacefully.
He was awoken while it was still dark out. That wasn't a surprise since it was winter. He got up thinking he heard noises coming from Manna's room. He walked down the hall...
A tall man with flaming red hair stood in the doorway to Allen's father's room. He held something in his hand. Something that was dripping red paint onto the floor. Allen cried out. He grabbed a towel from the bathroom he was passing. He had just cleaned the house after all!
The man had laughed. When Allen tried to clean the paint, he man lifted him up by one arm. He shook Allen hard making his shoulder hurt.
"Who are you?" he demanded.
"Dad!" Allen cried.
For up here he could see Manna upped over the foot of the bed. More red paint dripped below the bowed head. The man laughed again.
"So he kept you! That's why he ran from me!" The man sneered at him.
He dragged Allen back to his room. Tossing the boy inside, he ordered Allen to pack what he wanted to take with him.
"Is dad ok?" Allen sniffled.
"Manna is dead. You are now my concern!" the flaming haired man ordered.
Allen didn't argue. He packed what clothing he had, his bunny, a framed photo of him on Manna's shoulders along with a few other items he held dear. Once done, the man dragged him out to a waiting car.
They drove off into the darkness. The man smoking a cigarette as he laughed. They reached the end of the road Allen lived on. Suddenly there was a large explosion. The man laughed, chomping onto the cigarette as he looked in the mirror. Allen turned to see the house he once called home with fire locking out the windows. He cried for Manna. He cried for his happiness, he cried until the red haired drank smacked him hard over his face.
The man had several rings on his hand. One caught at Allen's skin. It tore his cheek just under his eye. Allen wailed from the shock of the pain. The man yelled at him jot to get blood in his car. As Allen pulled a tee shirt from his bag to stop the flow of blood, he realized that it hadn't been paint he had seen.
"Since then, I did what he said so he wouldn't hurt me." Allen explained.
The men watching him both tried to hide the horror his words elicited inside them. Kanda fiddled with he sword as Tiedoll twirled his cup from hand to hand.
"What was life like with Cross?" Tiedoll finally asked.
Allen began once more. He told them about Cross taking him to a fancy house. The man tossed him into a room that smelled of mold. There was a dirt floor, a single bed with a bucket in the corner. That was all. The man shut the door.
Allen didn't know how long he stayed in that room. He used the bucket to relive himself, since the door was locked. His stomach growled for food, his lips chapped from lack of water, yet the man never came back. As Allen curled up on the bed bundled under the clothing he brought with himself since there wasn't a blanket, the door opened up.
"BOY!" The man yelled.
Allen sat up. The man held a tray of food. He set it on the foot of the bed.
"It smells like shit in here!" He laughed around the stinking stick in his mouth.
Allen didn't care what he said, he dove for the food, guzzling down the water as fast as he could so the man wouldn't take it away.
"Relax will ya! I'll give you more later!" the man laughed.
He kicked the bed as he leaned against the wall by the door. He watched as Allen wolfed down the food.
"Here is the deal. You do as I say, when I say it and I won't lock you up in here again, understand?" he demanded.
Allen nodded wiping his mouth off on his arm.
"Great. You can call me Master." He insisted.
He led Allen out of the room, up some steps into the beautiful mansion. He took him to a bathroom where the boys as allowed to clean up. After that, Allen had to wait on Master day and night. He fetched him food, did his laundry, kept his alcohol glass filled and never, ever complained. It was spring time when the men came to beat up Master.
Master ran leaving Allen behind. The men dragged Allen away, chaining him up in a northern dark dank room where he wasn't given food or water. It may have been hours or several days, Allen wasn't sure, but Master came from him. That was when Allen found out Master sucked at gambling. He had debts all over the city! Master took Allen away.
They met a pretty blond haired woman. She took them to her home. There Allen became part of the staff to wait on the couple hand and foot. Allen soon found out, this is what Master did. He found women he could charm into giving him a place to live, food to eat and lavish him with wealthy gifts. Meanwhile, he racked up debts he couldn't pay..
Allen became good at gambling. He was able to pay off most debts before the collectors tried to kill them. Also, he had an ace up his sleeve, or a little golden ball. Timcanpy had been in the first house Master had taken him to. The little ball had befriended Allen, who shared his room along with his food with it. They became friends.
It was years later that Allen found out that Master forced Timcanpy to spy on him. Allen couldn't even be mad. The little thing had to survive just as he needed to. The situation was always the same. Master would find a women to lavish him in the lifestyle he chose to live.
Allen would be forced into servitude. Master would rack up debts. Allen did he best to pay them off. Yet Master would always find one Allen didn't know about. It was that or he would cheat on the mistress that was taking care of them. Usually with someone wealthier than her. Sometimes the woman's husband would come home early...
What ever it was they would have to run again. Master would find a other rich lady to cater to him and the cycle would repeat. All the while he told Allen of the back order.
To Master the black order was a place of lies, cheats and cutthroat. They wished to kill the fun in the world. They wanted master dead. That would he preferable to what they would do to Allen. It was Master who told Allen he wasn't from this realm . That he came through a doorway of sorts.
The black order monitored these doorways. They killed or captured anything that came through. If they captured Allen they would experiment on him. Cut him open to see what made him tick. Master made the black order sound like a nightmare demon to the poor child who was still grieving the loss of his beloved father.
"Then, we met the Noah clan." Allen's voice turned dark.
He talked about the clan, a family of sorts, that ran illegal operations. Master owed them more money than Allen could make in a lifetime. As it turned out, all those debts Master racked up that Allen never found out about until it was too late, were all to the Noah clan.
"Tyki is part of the Noah family. He helped me run away." Allen explained.
He told them of how the handsome man played into Allen's desire for a friend. He was lonely and Tyki knew how to play to that. He befriended Allen. Then they became even more than that. Tyki played Allen as well as Master had. It was while he was with the Noah's that he discovered Master's name was Marion Cross.
Tiedoll drained the rest of his coffee. He swiped his mouth clean with a napkin. His eyes gleamed behind his glasses as they met those of the silent dark haired male next to Allen. Kanda was slowly cleaning the gleaming blade in his lap. His blue eyes sank deep into the pale boy across from him.
"That is another matter altogether." Tiedoll muttered.
He swiped at his face.
"Did you know?" he demanded of the silent man sitting between hem.
"No." Kanda growled out.
"I met Tyki only when he came to get Allen one day from work. I didn't know he was a Noah!" He snarled. As the blade cut through the air.
"It seems to me, we have no other choice." Tiedoll turned his sad grey eyes to the ae ghost in their midst.
"We will need the backing of the entire order to protect him." He offered.
"They won't kill me?" Allen asked nervously.
"Not while I protected you!" Kanda snarled.
"Nor while I do. As long as you don't lies to us, then I see no reason that we will ever turn against you." Tiedoll smiled fondly.
"Now, we should be going. It will take us a bit to get there..." He stood up joints popping.
"You Mena back to Kanda's?" Allen asked.
"Kanda lives in a place the protects one of the ways into one branch of the Black order." Tiedoll began.
"The only branch I will allow him to be taken to! You're not suggesting we take him to Headquarters!" Kanda growled.
Tiedoll laughed. "Foolish me, why would I think that was the best place. Take him to your branch, Kanda." Tiedoll walked away from them.
Kanda led Allen back to the motorcycle.
"Will I be ok?" the small boy asked in a tiny voice.
"That I will guarantee with my life." Kanda insisted.
They rode off into the rising sun.