Chapter one – Come with me?

All it took was one look at Lavi's face as he sauntered over to the counter for Allen to realize that he was in deep shit.

"Allen, Allen, Allen."

"Whatever it is, the answer in no." Allen said firmly, moving away from his position at the counter to continue making the skinny latte the grumpy old man at table four had ordered.

Lavi of course followed him, sliding around the counter so he was leaning on the smooth wood in front of Allen.

"Is that anyway to treat a prospective customer?" He asked innocently, his fingers tracing patterns on the counter as he batted his eye lashes at Allen. The British teen gave Lavi an incredulous look.

"I'm not an idiot Lavi. I know for a fact that you dislike the coffee here. The only time you come to this particular café is when you want to bug me at work." Allen stuck the metal jug under the coffee machine and the small, cozy café was filled with the hissing of steam.

Lavi waited impatiently for the hissing to stop before speaking again.

"Travel around the world with me?"

Allen almost dropped the mug as he spun around to splutter wordlessly at Lavi.

Lavi had proposed some pretty stupid things in the time they had known each other. In fact, quiet a few of those stupid idea's had almost winded up getting them arrested and Allen had no doubt if it weren't for their well trained smooth talking skills they would be sitting in a jail cell right now.

Lavi caught the look on Allen's face and launched into an explanation.
"Give it a thought Allen-chan! Wouldn't it be fun to travel around the world for a bit? I mean, we're the ideal candidates for it. We have nothing keeping us here. No ties, commitments or anything! And really Allen, the only thing this place contains is bad memories…" Lavi trailed off, perhaps realizing his last sentence was a bit of a low blow. The pained look that briefly swept over his friends face confirmed this.

Allen sighed, setting down the metallic jug and leant forward so both he and Lavi were only inches apart.

"No ties or commitments? What about our education? What about Bookman? My Master?" Allen counted his listings off on one gloved hand. "Consider what you're saying Lavi. Traveling is a big thing. You can't just up and leave."

"Sure we can." Lavi argued with an easy going smile. "In fact that old panda was the one who suggested it." Lavi pitched his tone in a horrible imitation of the bookman. "A Bookman needs experience. Sitting here living your comfy life is not helping." Lavi grinned up at the flabbergast Allen.

"But must you drag me into it?" He reasoned exasperated.

"Walker! Stop slacking off!"

Allen and Lavi jumped at the sound of Allen's name and the younger boy turned around to throw his cranky looking supervisor a charming smile. "Sorry sir. I'll get right on that."

Allen threw the floundering Lavi an annoyed glance and mouthed the word later.

Allen had no intention of going along with Lavi's crazy scheme. Not this time. No way. He had allowed his red headed friend to drag him into more than his fair share of troubling situations and he refused to be swept along by his pace any longer.

But now that the stupid red head had proposed it, it seemed awfully tempting…

Allen shook his head as he sat the latte down at table four, earning an appreciative grunt from the customer.

There was nothing wrong with his life here. Sure, he had no plans to remain here for the rest of his life. And yes, this place did contain bad memories but Allen had long since grown used to the hushed whispers that followed him wherever he went, however uncomfortable that was.

But, there was something tempting about just going. Leaving his Master to pay off his own debts, traveling from place to place where nobody knew who he was or knew his past.

Allen shook his head firmly. He was not getting caught up in this crazy scheme that was doomed to crash and burn.

Oo_____________________________________oO

So why, oh why did Allen find himself nodding thoughtfully as Lavi rambled on and on, hours after Allen's shift had finished and their coffee's on the table between them had long since grown cold.

" - And your Master needs to be taught a lesson about independence anyway! And imagine how beneficial this could be to your Piano? I mean -."

It was at this point that Allen decided to interject. "How is traveling around the world beneficial to my piano in anyway?" He asked skeptically.

"Making contacts, leaning about other peoples culture." Lavi stressed, looking up at his best friend with pleasing eyes.

Allen could do little but rest his head in his hand as he found it harder to find all the reasons why he had considered this a bad idea.

"Please, Allen. Just, please."

Allen felt his defense crumbling at Lavi's quiet words. He looked up wearily. "Can you at least sleep on it?" He begged.

"I already did. I came up with the plan last night. I waited until today to ask you."

"You mean harass me." Allen murmured, he looked up into his friends face. Eye patch, bandana and colorful scarf. Allen had always privately thought Lavi looked a bit like a pirate. Looking on it from that perspective, it only made sense he wished to travel.

"Fine." Allen's mouth felt like it was moving own its own accord, against his wishes and common sense.

Lavi's face brightened drastically and he looked like a three year old who had been offered the chance to meet Santa in person.

"Seriously? You'll come! You mean it?"
Something about Lavi's tone made Allen suspect that Lavi had known he would win this battle the moment it he waltzed into the café.

"When do you plan on leaving?" Allen sighed as he lifted his cold coffee to his mouth. A couple of weeks, maybe? Allen could scrap together a little bit of money…

"I got tickets for a plane to Japan tomorrow."

Allen choked on his coffee, spluttering he wiped the brown liquid off his face and turned to gape openly at Lavi.

"What? I thought you said you were coming?"

"Tomorrow? You only just told me about this today!" Allen could not believe the nerve of Lavi when the elder teen put on an innocent expression.

"But Allen, you'll change your mind if I leave it too long…"

"B-But Money!" Allen did not understand how Lavi could miss that simple but very important factor. Lavi grinned up at him and Allen felt his stomach do a back flip.

"Bookman had a savings account set aside for when I decided to travel. It's all taken care of." Lavi promised and Allen gave up all pretence of control and settled for slamming his face into the table.
What had happened to his brilliant plan of not getting swept along at Lavi's pace? Allen had no idea how he wound up in this kind of situation.

Oo_____________________________________oO

"Master?"
Allen received an acknowledging grunt from the man sitting at the large dinning table, feet propped up on table as he swirled around a glass of wine. Romanee Conti, If Allen was not mistaken. How he had managed to get his hands on that, Allen had no clue.

"Uh…" Now that he had succeeded in getting his masters attention, Allen wasn't sure how he should approach the topic. He settled for the blunt honesty.

"I'm - uh… going on a trip with Lavi tomorrow. I'll be gone a while."

Cross regarded him with a raised eyebrow and took a sip of his wine. "Alright."

Allen was stunned. Sure, he knew Cross didn't exactly care about him or anything, but didn't the guy understand with him gone he would have to take care of his own debts?
"I'll be going to tomorrow." Allen repeated uncertainly.

"I head you the first time, Idiot apprentice." Another sip.

"I'll go, uh… pack then."

Allen made off to scamper towards the stairs before Cross changed his mind or recalled why he became his legal guardian in the first place.

"Don't forget to send me a cheque every week!" Cross called at his retreating back.

Allen stumbled on the stairs. Now it made sense.

In the privacy of his own room Allen contemplated exactly what he should pack. It wasn't like this was his first time traveling around. Not that Lavi knew that. He was under the impression Allen hadn't left the town since he came here when he was six.

He had done a bit of traveling with his Master, but that was three, nearly four years ago now.

Frowning he packed simply and sighing, sat down on his bed.

Japan, huh?

Oh boy. This promised to be a great trip.

A/N: Sorry chapter one's a little bit short and it lacks Kanda. But I promise Yu-chan shall be introduced in the next one! ^_^

Review me, maybe? Perhaps?