"What do you think about this place?"

Kanda's hand flies to the place where Mugen has always been and the tack gathered neatly over his arm falls to the ground. He scowls at himself, irritation flaring at the now-useless habit and how easily he's been startled. He picks up a bridle to hang it where it belongs, brushing it off carefully before turning around. He expects to face an annoying grin, but Lavi only looks thoughtful.

"Don't sneak up on me like that," Kanda tells him.

"Don't get me wrong," Lavi says. "It's an amazing place. But what do you think about—" he gestures with his hand vaguely.

Kanda shrugs and bends down to gather the rest of the tack.

"Have you noticed Allen isn't eating?"

Kanda darts a half-hearted glance over his shoulder. "He eats."

"He eats a couple of bites. He spends the rest of every meal pushing it around his plate. I think he feeds it to the dogs later, but—"

"He's feeding the dogs from the table?" Kanda demands, whirling around. Cross's foxhounds were obviously once quality dogs that have become pudgy and lazy, although Kanda assumed it was from lack of exercise. He has intended to rectify that as soon as Bishamon can be trusted to ride; every time he looks at them sleeping in a heap in the corner of the stable his fingers twitch with impatience.

Lavi chuckles. "You're missing the point, Yuu."

"The point," Kanda says, frowning, "is his incompetence." Kanda sees it in everything. He doesn't know how it could possibly be unclear to Lavi. The way the help talks to Allen: not that it is any of Kanda's business if Allen lets his housekeeper treat him as if he were fifteen again. The sad state of the bay in the far stall. The way Allen's fiancée and her grandmother have dictated Allen's daily schedule from the moment they arrived.

Lavi's mouth opens and then closes again, his expression turning even more pensive. Kanda shakes his head and turns back to the wall. "You're never going to get over that infernal need to meddle, are you."

"The horse is coming along nicely, I see. You're committing a lot of time to that endeavor, Yuu. That was awfully big of you; I don't care what you say to deny it." There's an edge to Lavi's voice.

Kanda ignores it and rolls his eyes, wondering if Lavi has been drinking the apple brandy again. "Don't you have some more books to read?" He finishes hanging the last of the tack, dusting his hands off with deliberate motions before reluctantly turning to face Lavi and this incomprehensible conversation again.

"I have to take a break now and then. Wouldn't do to strain the eye I'm working with, would it? Do you think it's odd that Lisette comes calling here rather than the other way around? That's hardly, er, proper, so to speak."

Kanda shrugs again. "The old woman doesn't have a problem with it."

"No," Lavi says, looking down at the straw on the floor.

"What do you want?" Kanda asks after several moments of silence.

"She covers her mouth when she smiles, have you ever noticed that? Lisette." Lavi's hand comes up to his mouth, fingers tapping on his lip.

A memory flits through the back of Kanda's mind, so distant that all he recalls is a tinkling laugh, a glimpse of a wide smile, filtered through a pale, delicate hand. His mother's voice low in his ear. The smell of silk. Kanda swallows and closes his eyes. "She probably has bad teeth," he says finally.

Lavi raises an eyebrow. "Teeth?"

Kanda sighs and scowls. "She's covering her mouth because she is vain. She's self-conscious about it."

"Huh. I speculated that she was aiming for mysterious coquette," Lavi says, grinning.

"You would."

Lavi chuckles again, then clears his throat and frowns. "I wonder how many pairs of gloves Allen has," he says.

Kanda doesn't reply. Not that ignoring Lavi has ever made him stop talking.

"Do you think Allen has nice teeth?" Lavi adds.

"I have honestly never cared to notice," Kanda says. "Now, are you going to keep spewing nonsensical questions at me all afternoon?"

Lavi runs a hand through his hair and sighs. "We'll be eating shortly, I think. I should get some reading in before then." He shoves his hands in his pockets and ambles off.

The words suddenly come back to Kanda. She lets a crooked smile obstruct her happiness, his mother had whispered to him. His irritation flares again, and he glares at the pile of sleeping dogs on his way out of the stable.