DISCLAIMER: DO NOT OWN!

Lenalee liked her new fellow employee. Lenalee had been working at the Black Order (a coffee shop with a rather strange name) for the past few years. Usually she was the only person on shift or worked with Miranda thanks to her brother's insistence of her only working with girls. Lenalee had a feeling that the only reason she still had a job despite her brother's antics was because the owner found him amusing and was also a family friend.

The newest employee was Allen Walker. He was 15, two years younger than her, but surprisingly a junior in high-school like her. He was polite and had a nice smile. Her brother had attempted to lock her in her room.

"Allen!" Lenalee greeted, smiling brightly when she saw the pale-haired teen enter the mostly empty coffee shop.

"Hello Lenalee-san" he greeted formally, returning her smile "how was school?"

"I have a test tomorrow" Lenalee complained "in Calculus, I hope I'll pass."

"I'm taking Calculus too" Allen paused "do you want to compare notes?"

Lenalee inwardly squealed. Despite being uber-polite, Allen never spoke about himself. She had no idea about his family or background, or his sexuality (she was hoping he was gay). However, from habit of wearing long sleeves and gloves no matter the weather and always using make-up around one of his eyes, she had a bad feeling that either his parents were abusive or he had a lover who was.

"Would you Allen? That would be great!" Lenalee said excitedly.

The door slammed open and she heard the familiar sounds of their two most common customers squabbling.

"Kanda! Lavi!" she greeted cheerfully, noticing Allen almost flee into the back room.

"Lenalee! You look beautiful today" Lavi greeted brightly.

"Baka usagi" Kanda grumbled "you just saw her!"

Lenalee, Lavi, and Kanda all attended the same school, the two males being seniors and one grade ahead of her. They were also her best friends, and she'd known them for years.

"Where's the moyashi?" Kanda asked, looking around.

"It's ALLEN!" Allen snapped, reentering the room, now dressed in the uniform. He glared at Kanda "your memory already going BaKanda?"

Kanda scowled "don't call me that, moyashi!" he hissed.

The two continued to glare at each other.

"ALLEN!" Lenalee blinked at the utterly delighted squeal as a girl ran inside and flung herself at the other worker, giving him a kiss on the mouth "you're here!"

"Road!" Allen almost gasped "uh…how did you find out that I work here?"

"I followed you of course" she beamed "now; you haven't forgotten our date, right? It's this weekend, on Saturday."

Allen gave her a somewhat strained smile "alright" he said.

"Oh goodie" she pranced over to an empty table "ooh, these look yummy" she said happily, looking at the menu "what do you suggest?"

For the rest of Allen's shift, whenever he and Kanda began to argue the girl distracted Allen, usually by making another order. Lenalee could only watch in stunned silence as Kanda's expression got darker and darker.

The next day, it was a pair of twins who showed up, arguing constantly and hitting each other, before demanding that Allen be the one to carefully cut whatever they'd ordered in half. They were accompanied by another teen who listened to music for the entire time, nodding his head to the beat and calmly ignoring his companions. He was the one to leave an extra large tip.

Road returned the next day, flirting heavily with Allen. She was accompanied by an older woman called Lulubell who flirted with Allen, seemingly for the sole purpose of making him blush. A man called Skin Boric accompanied them, and instead of having coffee with sugar it was more like sugar with coffee. Seeing how much sugar he consumed made Lenalee feel ill just watching him; and she wasn't surprised to see that the sugar packets of their table and all the other tables in the area had vanished.

Lenalee's only complaint was Kanda's worsening bad mood; though he continued to come each day with Lavi. He and Allen argued constantly. And she was annoyed that Allen seemed to have a girlfriend, she'd been sure that he was gay.

"ALLEN!" Road wailed, slamming open the door and flinging herself at the white-haired teen. Allen managed to juggle the tray he held well enough not to spill anything.

"Road, is something wrong?" he demanded worriedly.

"H-h-he was CHEATING on me!" she wailed.

"Who?"

"Tyler, we started dating last month" Road took a deep breath "I found out he was cheating on me earlier today."

"Do you want me to call Cyril?"

"No, don't call daddy, he'll just try and get him arrested; I'm going to make him regret EVER hurting me" Road began to laugh evilly as she settled at her usual table. Lenalee decided to ignore the fact that she was making a voodoo doll to focus on more important things.

"Allen, you aren't dating Road?" she asked.

Allen blinked at her "no" he said "dating? I actually don't like girls" he admitted "Road just insists on using me as…rebound, and back-up dates" he shrugged.

Stars in her eyes, Lenalee began to make plans.

"Shounen" a tan older male greeted smoothly, obviously groping Allen.

"Tyki, get your hands off of me" Allen grumbled.

"Shounen, you didn't call me last night, I was worried."

"I was busy…working" Allen stressed the last word.

"Why? You just have to ask and you can move in with me. Right Road?"

"Yeah Allen, why don't you move in?"

"Because I already have an apartment" Allen grumbled "and you left your things at my place, again."

"What's a pair of pants between us" Tyki said, waving a hand casually "I'll pick them up tonight; I do promise that clothes won't come off too quickly."

"No Tyki"

"But shounen, how else will I get you naked?"

Allen was twitching "Tyki, please stop hitting on me in front of my coworker."

"You break my heart, very well."

Lenalee was relieved to get out of the rain.

"Th-thank you Allen" she gasped.

"Let me get a towel" Allen told her "and then I'll give you my phone so you can ask your brother to pick you up."

She nodded, following him into the bedroom. Her eyebrows rose as she took note of the many clothes that were obviously too large to be Allen's; she squeaked.

"Oh, sorry, I forgot how many of Tyki's things I have" Allen grumbled "he keeps forgetting to pick them up; no surprise since he's usually drunk when he leaves them here."

When her brother came to pick her up, Lenalee barely managed to keep him from storming inside to beat up Allen for making her upset. All she could think of was the end of her dreams of getting Allen and Kanda together.

As usual, Lavi was flirting with Lenalee and Kanda was glaring at Allen. When Lenalee had called the red-head the night before about the amount of Tyki's clothes at Allen's place he had been sympathetic and completely understood her feelings.

"Allen!" Road squealed, throwing herself at the other teen.

"Road, hel-…" he squeaked as Tyki calmly groped him "Tyki!" he hissed, glancing at Kanda "not now!"

"Why not shounen?" Tyki asked, leering at him. He abruptly blinked as calmly walked over to Lavi to give him a stunning smile "hello" he greeted "would you be free tonight."

"No, you are NOT hitting on Lenalee's friends in front of me" Allen hissed, protesting.

"Why not? Are you single?" he asked Lavi.

"Tyki!" Allen protested.

"That reminds me, shounen" Tyki withdrew a wad of cash "I must insist that you return my clothes."

"You were the one who left them there."

"I know" he handed over the money "here, the ransom."

"Tyki, you know better to challenge Allen to poker than anyone, he always wins" Road giggled "oh, and daddy wants you both to come over for dinner tonight."

"I have work" Allen stressed.

"I hope to have a certain red-head in my bed by then" Tyki added.

"I don't understand why you insist on working" Road complained, leaning against Allen "I mean, daddy wants to adopt you."

"And Cross is my legal guardian" Allen cut her off.

"Where is he?" Tyki asked.

"I think China, or at least that's where the latest bill I got was mailed from."

"How much do you think he'd sell you for?" Tyki asked, half-serious "never mind, on to more important subjects" he smiled charmingly at Lavi "how about dinner tomorrow?"

Road ended up dragging Tyki out after Lavi agreed to go out with him the next day and the older man had then started to molest him.

"Lavi, I'm really sorry about that" Allen was blushing heavily. Lavi and Kanda had, surprisingly, stayed until the end of Lenalee and Allen's shift "I didn't know that you were Tyki's type…or that he would be so forward."

"Yeah, is he your ex or something?" Lavi asked, eyeing him.

Allen turned bright red "Tyki? No, he's Road's adoptive uncle, her step-father's brother. I'm…related to them. My step-dad was a relative of theirs, or rather…his brother was. When he died in an accident… they didn't know about me, because they didn't really know about him. They just found me recently" he paused, tugging on one of his sleeves "but I already had a guardian. Tyki wants to beat me at poker, but he hasn't yet. He often ends up staking his clothes and losing. That's why I have his things at my place, he insists on paying me to get them back."

Lavi whistled, eyeing him seriously "Allen, your guardian…is he abusive?"

"Cross? No, he's away a lot actually. Why?"

"Who hits you?"

"No one; and please don't mention it around Tyki or he'll try to kill people again."

"Well, then what's with the make-up and the long-sleeves?"

"Oh, when…Mana, my step-father, died…I was in the accident too…" he shifted, obviously uncomfortable "the scars aren't pretty" he muttered, gesturing to his eye and arm. He fell silent for a moment "sorry" he added "but I actually have another place I have to go to…see you tomorrow Lenalee!" he added before running off.

"Hmm, rather suspicious behavior, don't you agree Y-…" Lavi's voice trailed off.

"Kanda?" Lenalee looked around, where was he?

Lenalee had the dubious pleasure of watching later that week as her brother, Komui, and Road's step-father, Cyril, ended up having a two-hour long discussion praising Road and Lenalee (both had major complexes on their sister/step-daughter). Lavi reported that the date had gone well, and that he and Tyki would be meeting again later that night. Lenalee insisted on asking for details.

She inwardly pouted when Kanda and Allen entered, arguing same as usual. She didn't even note how Kanda grabbed a different table, and watched the white-haired teen the entire shift.

After two weeks, having noticed the change in how Kanda and Allen acted around each other, she decided to give up. They were arguing more than ever, she ate an entire box of chocolate and bid farewell to her hope of the two of them dating.

And then, while walking home, she stumbled upon them making out. When she woke up, she found a note threatening her life if she said anything. Her brother freaked when he was called by the hospital alerting him to the fact that she'd been found unconscious.

A month later, when Allen and Kanda solved their argument, they announced their relationship. Then, Allen having decided to give in to Kanda's wishes, Kanda bullied everyone into helping Allen move into his place.

Lenalee had mixed feelings over their relationship appearing to turn to the worse really being an argument over whether or not Allen would move in (Kanda insisted, Allen resisted).

She then bemoaned the fact that she was single and therefore she, Lavi, and the newest couple could not go out on 'triple dates'. Instead, she and Road stalked the double dates (though Road did insist on making voodoo dolls of Kanda first for stealing her Allen).