Chapter Text
“Why…?” Spilled between bloodied lips, tongue filled with iron and teeth sticky with the red substance.
He trembled as the figures surrounded grew larger and larger. The shadows around them grew bigger and all he could do was lay there.
The object piercing his chest was suffocating him, he couldn’t feel his legs and his lungs were drowning-
“Why- why are you doing this?!” He shouted; blood dribbled past his chest as he choked through the sentence. His golden eyes widened and tinted with an edge of desperation and betrayal. “Aren’t we a family?!”
The noise in his head grew frantic and screaming as he did too and the more, he struggled the more he felt their eyes judging him.
As if they were disappointed in him not accepting his death. As if they thought him struggling to stay alive was a nuisance.
Whywhywhy, why don’t you love me, what did I do wrong-
"Ņ̸̼̟͍̟̠̝͐̊̏̎ͅe̵̡̛͚͔̩̲͈̙͓͉͔͓̟̭̽͑͝ä̵̩̟̟͙̻̥͓̭́͊͛̏̎̄̄̒̕…” The largest figure in the middle finally spoke as he panted, coughing even more as he struggled to breathe.
“I’m doing this for us,” and he froze in disbelief in those words.
Doing it for us , what did they even mean?
“I want to be whole; I want this emptiness in my chest to disappear.” The figure continued.
And the more it talked the more shadows covered them, from crawling under its feet to slowly creeping its way to its chest.
He could only watch with dread curling in his chest and a sick feeling began rising in his stomach as the figure raised its hand and gripped the handle of the object currently in his chest and oh-
That was a sword, and he was going to die.
And then the figure gripped the handle tightly and pulled and all he could do was cry and laugh because he should have expected this-
“Please die for me Ņ̸̼̟͍̟̠̝͐̊̏̎ͅe̵̡̛͚͔̩̲͈̙͓͉͔͓̟̭̽͑͝ä̵̩̟̟͙̻̥͓̭́͊͛̏̎̄̄̒̕”
“One more beer sweetheart!”
The laugh of drunk men rang throughout the entire inn and a pretty girl looking around the age of seventeen sighed exasperatedly but non the less obeyed.
The air was filled chatter and excitement and smell of alcohol prominent, and it made the girl wrinkle her nose in disgust.
Just as she delivered the beer and was about to take her break, a voice called out.
“Sarah, I need a hand back here!”
‘Sarah’ rolled her eyes and looked behind and at the person who was calling for her.
It was her mother and current innkeeper and she looked with the overwhelming number of orders of food. “Coming!” She yelled back, her voice barely heard over the loud noise.
And as she made her way to the kitchen, a man walked past by her and onto the stage.
The lovely piano was waiting for him there, it looked a little old, but it was obvious it was well cared for and just waiting to be played.
He sat down and the instant a note rang out the room began to quiet down.
All eyes were on him.
Nea smiled and began to play.
“A small-town suspecting to have innocence?” Silver eyes blinked in surprise.
“Yes, there were cases of people feeling very ill and then feeling better the day after,” Komui said, he eyes glinting and smile ever present.
Allen furrowed his brow, his voice questioning. “Would that not be a common case of a cold or some other sickness.”
“We thought of the possibility, but it is unlikely due to the fact that even the common cold takes a few days to maybe even week to recover, though it is likely just rumors.” Komui explained, waving around his hand nonchalantly.
Allen remained skeptical though.
“It doesn’t explain why so many of us are being sent to go.” He spoke.
Komui smile instantly dropped and Allen felt a chill go down his spine.
“Normally you would be sent alone yes, but one of our finders said they spotted the Noah of Pleasure lurking around there.”
“What?” the white-haired exorcist gasped.
Komui nodded, unusually solemn, “If- and that’s an if.” He spoke. “That Tyki Mikk really is there, then I want you to be as prepared as possible if you run into him.”
Allen breathed in deeply.
He can still remember the feeling of his heart being pierced, the way a hand easily went through his chest and destroyed his left arm as the Noah smiled -
“Understood.”
…
Nea stretched on his chair, back cracking satisfactory and he left a groan of relief when he felt tension work its way out of his body.
“Nice playing there Nea!” a chipper and bright voice cried out.
The black-haired man turned around, rotating to face the cheerful looking girl whose smile was bright and her blue eyes sparkle.
“Thanks,” he laughed and stood up, walking off the stage.
The moment his feet touched the wooden floor arms were thrown around him and he yelped in surprise, almost falling and having his back and spine make out with the hard floor.
He groaned and she laughed at his misery.
Betrayed by my own sister , Nea lamented as he stood there back bending backwards as he had an armful of blonde hair and scrawny but surprising strong arms wrapped tightly around his waist.
Sarah let out one last giggle before deciding to have mercy on his poor back as she gave one last squeeze before letting go and setting back. “I’m serious, Nea.” She smiled, face tilted up and eyes turned to look directly into his. “If it wasn’t for you, we wouldn’t have gotten as many customers.”
Nea scoffed and looked down, cheeks flushing lightly as Sarah giggled at his embarrassed expression.
“It’s more like they’re there for you,” Sarah pouted in protest.
“That’s not true I’m serious!” She stomped her feet in protest as it was now his turn to look at her in amusement.
“Ah! Mamma you agree with me, right?!”
Isabella Fallon, the mother of the two children squabbling stepped out of kitchen, a bemused smile on her and a mischievous glint in her eyes.
It was right then that Nea knew, he was going to be ganged up on.
“Your absolutely right dear,” her voiced echoed softly. “Your brother really doesn’t give himself the credit that he deserves.”
Oh my god
“Mom please,” Nea pleaded, he felt a warm heat travel towards his ears, and he just knew his face was red again.
Isabella laughed and Sarah smugly smiled.
“Please dear, we all know that most of our generous patrons come to enjoy the lovely music you enjoy playing.”
He whined as he slowly covered his face with his hands. “That’s not true,” he sputtered in protest.
“The inn is great, the food is warm and delicious, and the rooms are comfy-“ “Yes of course darling, but do you really think that would make the inn full of people almost every night.”
Isabella mercilessly shot down his reasoning. Obviously used to his excuses and used to dealing with them.
“It doesn’t help that you have the face of a very handsome gentlemen,” Sarah jumped in, a teasing smile on her face.
Let the ground swallow me, Nea looked up at the ceiling as if to find some sort of answer as the two women giggled around him.
Even through his obvious embarrassment, Nea still smiled and laughed with them.
"Nea, could you take table 3?"
Nea hummed in confirmation. Sleeves rolled up and with a notepad in hand and went over to table 3.
“Good evening gentlemen,” he spoke smoothly, ignoring the pungent smell of alcohol coming from them. “What can I get for you?”
One of them chuckled, the largest and the most likely leader of the three of them smirked as he took another gulp of his drink.
“Another beer sweetheart,” he purred, a wicked glint in his eyes.
Nea nodded, internally grimacing. Sweetheart, really ?
“Got it,” he said. “I’ll be right back.”
As he headed to the kitchen, Sarah walked up to his side, concern written all over her face.
“Are you going to be okay dealing with them?” she asked.
Absolutely not . He thought instantly before clamping his mouth shut before the words could escape them.
Nea looked at Sarah’s concerned expression and knew that if he didn’t deal with those group of drunks then Sarah would have too, seeing as the inn was a family run place and they didn’t have any other staff.
“I’m fine,” he lied. Looking at her face, he knew she didn’t buy the lie but she still let it slide for the time being.
“Alright,” she said. “But tell me if they try anything.”
And with that, she walked away and greeted another customer into the inn with a practiced smile on her face.
Nea sighed as went to get the beer the man requested.
Drunk people coming to their inn wasn’t new and most of the time sat quietly while nursing their choice of beverage for the night, it was just these troublemakers.
The three men who he had just seen were regular customers who would come in and cause trouble for whatever reason. Either the food was too salty or not salty enough, the drinks didn’t have enough alcohol- etc, etc.
A pain in the asses is what they are . Nea fumed as he remembered the one time they purposely spilled their drinks all over the floor, it was complete pain to clean up and the smug smiles on their faces made him want to punch them.
Maybe he should have, if only to wipe the stupid smirk off their faces.