But imagine what amazing fantastic friends Alma and Lenalee would be-
So assume an Alma Lives AU, where Alma still slaughtered the rest of the lab but didn’t go as far as killing Kanda too, where the Order was too desperate to dispose of any exorcist at all, even one who’d done something like that, where Kanda and Alma are at once so much closer and so much more fractured than they were before.
And Lenalee, hating God, hating Innocence and the Order, with so much defiance and anger and fear, hears things. Nothing concrete, nothing that would reveal the true nature of the Order, at least not more than she knows already. But things- she sees the way some people, the most important people, avoid Alma, the way they give them looks, sometimes talk about them as if they aren’t there. She hears rumors of rebellion and violence.
And Lenalee, with the beginnings of what would become a complete apathy towards all but her chosen family, is fascinated, the way an open flame or a distant mirage might fascinate her.
In turn, Alma is still simmering with anger; it never went away. A year spent mostly away from the Order, with the kindness of Tiedoll and the wonder of the open world and Kanda, hasn’t changed that. In time, it gets worse.
They meet Lenalee at the same time Kanda does, and Kanda doesn’t notice right away but Alma does - Alma notices the way Lenalee shies away from the CROW, notices her fear, recognizes the resentment, tucked away and secret.
It’s something Alma themself has, something Kanda has, and Marie, and Alma adopts Lenalee almost immediately. (If Tiedoll has it, or Daisya, Alma has never seen it, but they love them anyway. Just- not the same.)
And they notice the way Lenalee gets worse and worse every time they see her, just once every few months, then every few weeks, then days at a time as Tiedoll carefully settles the two of them back into the Order, where Alma can see Lenalee trying to run, to flee without fighting, can see the way she’s burning from the inside out.
It’s Alma who begins to comfort Lenalee when she cries, Alma who hears Lenalee’s whispered confessions, secrets she’s never told before. It’s Lenalee who shows Alma the best places to hide, Lenalee who weathers Alma’s enraged but quiet rants and threats (not directed at her, never directed at her) with understanding instead of confusion and uncertainty and hurt, always a little bit of hurt because Alma almost went too far.
(Kanda herds them both away and snarls the CROW out of the room, and Kanda paces angrily and rips at his hair when they’re crying so hard they start to laugh, and Kanda listens and grumbles and bites at his hand, but always always listens.)
It spills over one day, when Lenalee is crying too hard and won’t calm down, when she’s saying frightening things that Alma understands too much, bruised and bloody and hysterical, and Alma is- angry. So angry.
They’re still no match for the CROW. They still try, and bones break, and Alma burns, and Lenalee gets too close and Alma goes just a little too far again, because they just. Don’t think when they’re angry, and Lenalee was saying. Things.
And Alma is locked away and Lenalee is tied down and Alma realizes that it’s not working, it’s too much or not enough and Alma is doing something wrong, clearly, but-
And Komui comes and introduces himself as Lenalee’s brother, and then thanks him (them, they say, and they don’t know when they decided that but it doesn’t matter, and he doesn’t miss a beat) for looking out for Lenalee, them and Kanda.
When Lenalee gets better, when Lenalee seems herself again, she looks at Alma and she says, “I can’t die. I have to be strong for my brother.”
