Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters in D Gray Man, no matter how much I wish Road was mine… I mean… Ahem… This is merely a situational story of what might have happened, and should not be taken overly seriously.

Chapter One

"R-Road!? What the fuck are you doing here!?" Allen shouted, drawing attention to them. The

people that were passing them on the road looked up, some concerned, some disapprovingly, all surprised. Road was sitting in a wet and dirty alley, covered from head to toe in rags almost as filthy as she was. Her once nice hair was plastered down to her head in sheets, and had dead bugs, and blood scattered throughout. Her hair had also grown much longer, appearing as though she had not had a haircut in over a year, which was probably true. Cuts adorned her entire body, at least, all of her body that was actually uncovered. She had a massive black eye that made it impossible for her to see through her left eye. Though her clothes were in shreds, and looked like she hadn't changed them in over a year (which was true), she was relatively well covered. She wore what looked like a fireman's jacket, a hat that covered her ears, though she had taken it off when she saw Allen, and her gloves, though they had holes in them, and were fingerless, were there nonetheless. In addition, she wore poorly fitting pants that seemed to be falling down practically, but she held them on her with a frayed piece of extension cord. Even through all of her layers, he could see that she had lost weight. Her clothes looked like they draped over her, and they did. She had become a real ragamuffin. What was creepiest about her, though, were not the dark circles around her eyes, or the sickly pallor that had lent itself to her face. It was her eyes. They looked haunted, almost afraid, and at the same time, completely broken. The pride and arrogance that had once gleamed in her stare was gone, replaced by a resigned humility and shame.

Despite seeing her like this, Allen wasn't happy. He knew that it was wrong to gain enjoyment out of others' misfortune, but Road was a different story. She had killed some of his best friends. He had been sure that after she disappeared, for indeed, they never found her body, that she was gone from his life forever. What the hell was she doing showing up like this in front of him again? On that note, he couldn't believe that he recognized her. Even though she did have those shocking yellow eyes, her hair was long, ragged, and plastered down to her head with grease and filth, and her skin was oily and dirty along with the fact that she didn't have the Noah crosses across her forehead anymore. Some would say that she looked like a completely different person.

Road had lost everything when the Earl was killed. Her family was gone, the Earl was gone, her powers were gone, her influence was gone. She had nothing left. So, she ran. Now that she looked back on it, perhaps it would have been better to have died with her family. Tyki Mikk, Jasdero, David, and everyone else. She constantly mourned their deaths. She wondered if they hated her for being such a coward. She wondered if when she did die and go to hell, she would be punished by them for running when she should have continued to fight. She was afraid to die, though. After all, she was only sixteen. It wasn't like she was any older than the man standing in front of her. The only difference was that he was brave. He had fought to the end, watched his friends around him die. Lenalee, Yuu Kanda, so many of them were killed outright or died later on. Allen was one of the few that survived. And Allen only survived because he awoke to the true power of the Heart at the last moment, and saved the few stragglers that had managed to survive thus far. Allen was a hero, and was celebrated. There were rumors that when he died, he was going to be made a saint. Road wasn't sure if she believed that, but it would be nice to know that at least people appreciated all that Allen had done for them.

Allen could have been furious at seeing Road again after a year. After all, she had been the one that had killed Yuu Kanda, and Lenalee Lee. He had been in love with Lenalee, and Road murdered her. Allen could have stared down hatefully at Road and just kept walking, leaving her to die an ignoble death in the cold, wet, filthy alley, like a mongrel dog, not fit to live with normal people. He could have killed her outright. He could probably have snapped her neck with his bare hands had he been so inclined.

He looked down at her and grabbed her by her jacket collar and began to shake her violently. Road merely went limp and allowed her body to be tossed back and forth. She didn't really care anymore. The truth was that even she was starting to believe that she deserved to die. Maybe he would kill her quickly. That would be the kind thing to do, rather than force her to live even one more second in the wretched existence that was her life.

"Y-you killed my friends!! You killed Lenalee!!" Allen screamed, throwing Road against the wall, causing her to gasp as the wind was driven from her lungs. Allen watched icily as she struggled to stand up.

Lately for Road, even walking had been a burden. She got out of breath after only a few dozen steps as if she had just run a mile. She was terribly malnourished, and gaunt. If Allen could have seen her under her jacket, he would have seen that her ribs were sticking out rather grossly from her stomach and chest, and that her arms were so thin that they looked like little more than twigs.

He was about to punch her, but then he saw once more the resigned look in her eye, and he realized that she wasn't going to fight back. He wasn't usually in the habit of hitting girls, especially if they were this weak, especially if they refused to fight back. Instead, he looked at her and spoke again.

"Road, how did you get here? Aren't you Japanese?" he asked quietly, allowing her to slide back down the wall, breathing heavily just from trying to stand for so long. He looked in his backpack. He had been about to go to the church to train in their underground training facility, so he had brought lunch with him and some snacks. Surely, though, this was more important. He held out a sandwich to her. At first, she refused it, but when he wouldn't take it back, she took the sandwich and bit into it gratefully. It was the first meal that she had eaten in three days. She rarely got to eat. Only the kindness of others had kept her alive so far. Sometimes, restaurants had scraps of food that they were willing to give her, but just as often they had to send her away hungry. The homeless shelter was run by the church, and they refused to accept her. They knew who she was, and they would never allow her to seek shelter there. She was a Noah. Even if she wasn't dangerous anymore, she didn't deserve any hospitality. She deserved only to die a slow, agonizing death.

Eventually, she stopped trying to convince them to help her, and she just resigned herself to her fate. Soon after, she stopped talking, even to other homeless people. Now, she wasn't even sure if she could speak. She opened her mouth to say something, even though she was eating, but no words came out. She sighed, feeling a tear slide down her face. What a way to be. She was so humiliated to be seen like this by the one man that she had ever loved. He looked at her sympathetically and crouched down in front of her, removing his Dark Order coat, noticing that she was shivering, and putting it over her shoulders.

"Road…? Are you alright?" he asked. She had just been staring at him, and had not yet answered his question. Road nodded and stood up, giving Allen his coat back and beginning to walk away. After a few steps, though, she collapsed again, and this time, even when she tried to get up, she couldn't.

Allen groaned. He hadn't been planning on taking anyone in. He didn't really have room in his house, but the least that he could do was take her back and bring her back to health. After that, he could get rid of her if he needed to, but he would have at least done the right thing. He would have felt bad if he had just left her there. She didn't look like she had much time left if she stayed in that condition. So, grudgingly, he picked her up, and started carrying her back to his house.

The walk home seemed to take forever. The church, after the war, had arranged for a house for him to live in. It was a nice house, and although it was small, it had always been more than enough for one person. Allen wondered, though, if it would be enough for two people. Then suddenly, he turned red, hoping that Road hadn't noticed. The idea of him living with a girl seemed ridiculous. He hadn't thought of it that way back when he was talking to her and picked her up, but now that he thought of it, it probably wouldn't go over very well if anyone heard that he was living alone with a woman. Road probably wouldn't care. But Allen cared what others thought of him. He knew that nothing was going on, but nobody else knew that. However, despite the possibility that it would be misunderstood, he continued toward his house and unlocked the front door, carrying Road in and bringing her up to the bathroom. He may have been willing to let her stay, but she certainly wasn't going near any of his furniture when she was so filthy. She had to take a bath first. So, he shook her gently, waking her up and showed her the soap, shampoo, conditioner and everything else and then left. Road didn't stop him, but for a fleeting second, she wished that he would stay and watch over her while she got clean. She was sure that he would never do something like that, though, especially for someone like her. After all, she was an enemy to humanity and to God, and besides, she wasn't even all that pretty like Lenalee was. She suddenly found that she hated herself for killing Lenalee. It hadn't been the long haired exorcist's time to die, and yet Road had cut her life short as though she had the right to decide whether the girl should live or die.

As Road ran the hot bath water, she felt tears streaming down her face, washing off small amounts of dirt and sweat, and leaving streaks on her cheeks. Her forehead was no longer marked with the marks of the Noah Clan. They had gone away after she survived the fall of the Earl, although her life didn't get any easier for it. Feeling the water in the tub, she took off her clothes and got in. She wondered vaguely what she was supposed to do after her bath. She couldn't walk out naked, and she couldn't put on the filthy rags that she had been wearing again. Maybe Allen was going to give her some clothes. Did he have any clothes that would fit her? His clothes were all too big for her, and unless he had some girls' clothes in his house, he wouldn't be able to help her.

Mere moments later, though, she heard a knock on the door. Although she couldn't answer, she tried, and a second later, the door opened a crack. Allen's arm came through and put a pair of pajamas on the floor by the door for her to change into. She noticed that they had a drawstring on them so that she could tie them to adjust to her waist. Road smiled sadly and put a generous amount of shampoo in her hair, scrubbing it in hard with her fingers. It felt good to finally be able to scrub her head with something that would clean her up a bit. Over the time that she had been homeless, she had done some pretty dirty things to make enough money to survive. Cleaning up garbage, chimney sweeping, going in the sewers, and she smelled it, too. She was proud to say, though, that she had never resorted to prostituting herself, although it would have made more money than all of those other jobs. She was at least young, even if she wasn't stunning to look at. Some men were into that kind of thing. She shuddered at the thought. She probably could have made money selling herself. But that was one thing that she refused to do. The one person that had tried to get her to have sex with him, she had broken his arm and left him crying on the street. After that, her reputation preceded her wherever she went, and she was afforded a good amount of space and respect. That notoriety had died out, too, though, and she soon went back to getting things the way she had been doing.

After a few minutes of scrubbing, she put her head back under the water, not entirely sure if she would be able to pick it back up, but needing to wash the shampoo out. She felt the shampoo wash out of her hair, and she squeezed it, getting everything else out. She then put in some conditioner and did the same thing, scrubbing it in and leaving it for a few minutes before washing it out as well. Her hair was extremely long, now, as she hadn't cut it since the final battle. She sighed in relief. Her head no longer itched so much, and she stepped out of the bath onto the mat and toweled off, squeezing the extra water from her hair into the tub and pulling the plug. The water had become dark gray with all of the dirt that had come off of her in the bath, and she was glad to see the water go. It was like she was drowning away her past, and looking at her future. But what did her future hold? Even she didn't know. How long would Allen's kindness last? He certainly had no obligation to take her in, and no reason to keep her once she was healthy again.

Maybe he saw this as something akin to missionary work. Perhaps he saw her as a sinner, and he wanted to reform her evil ways. If that was the case, then after she appeared to become good again, he would no longer have any need to keep her around. She didn't really think that Allen was that shallow, but it was possible. At first, he seemed so angry at her. She was sure that he was going to kill her, and she was sure that she would have thanked him if he had. But now, she wanted to do everything to keep herself alive. Even if Allen never loved her like she loved him, maybe he would come not to hate her. It was probably more than she could hope for.

Walking over to the pajamas and picking up the pajamas, she slipped into them, sighing with the warmth that they provided, and walking out. The pajamas were very large on her, but she was able to adjust them, and she rolled up the pant legs and pulled the drawstring tight around her emaciated middle. As she walked into the hall, she looked out the window, and realized that it was still the middle of the day. She wondered vaguely how much she had set Allen back. Would he leave her alone in the house, or would he feel that he had to take her with him whenever he went out? It wasn't like she was going to steal anything or break anything. She mostly just wanted to sleep and eat. She hadn't done much of either lately. Her sleep was plagued by nightmares, memories of all of the people that she had killed, of the Akuma whose souls she had damned by destroying them. The people she killed cried out to her, screaming in her face, asking her always why she killed them. What had they done to her? What right did she have to decide their fates? What sins had they committed that would warrant them being killed? Then, they would attack her, and she would be defenseless, feeble, paling in comparison to the hordes of people wanting to kill her, mangle her, destroy any evidence of her. Then, right before she died in her dreams, she would wake up screaming. Nobody was ever there when she woke up. She was always alone, and she would cry for a little while and then after a half-hour or so, she would fall asleep again, only to have a similar dream. Sometimes she died. Sometimes they just continued to torture her, forbidding her from getting a good night's rest. She was sure that soon, she would go insane if she didn't get some sleep.

At the moment, though, she walked downstairs, hanging onto the railing for support as she walked down the steps, taking one step at a time. When she finally got to the bottom, Allen was there, and along with him, the smell of something cooking. He smiled politely at her and turned back to cooking, stirring the pot and then taking it off. Apparently, he was just finishing up. He pulled out two bowls and filled them with stew. Road wasn't sure what Allen had made, or whether she had ever eaten it before. But it smelled good. She was sure, though, that any food would smell good when she had gone so long without any. At first, she just stood there somewhat stupidly, as though waiting for the world to pass her by.

"Sit down, Road. You like beef stew, right?" Allen asked, putting the two bowls on the table in the kitchen and sitting down. When she didn't move, he looked up at her.

"Are you alright? Do you need some help walking?" he continued, looking concerned. Road shook her head and immediately began walking over to the table, making sure that she didn't stumble along the way. She didn't want to appear helpless.

When she finally got over to the table, she practically fell into her chair and picked up her spoon, holding it shakily and thanking Allen silently with a weak smile for cooking dinner. She then began to eat. It was the best thing she had ever eaten, or perhaps she just felt that way because she was so hungry. She began to eat more and more quickly, ignoring how hot the stew was in her mouth. Swallowing it as quickly as she could put it in her mouth, she finished her bowl in less than a minute. She really wanted more, but she wasn't sure if it was alright to ask for more. Allen had already done so much for her. Would it be rude to ask for more? However, it seemed that Allen could read her mind, because he looked up and asked, "would you like some more?" Road nodded rather numbly and Allen took her bowl and filled it again with stew. She followed the example that she had set on her first bowl and downed it, this time in one minute, thirty seconds.

After her second bowl, she was pretty full, so she pushed her bowl away and looked at Allen. She couldn't say anything. She felt like she had forgotten how to talk. Was she really so pathetic? She had to try to talk, though. She opened her mouth, and tried to force air out, making some kind of noise, but all that came was a squeak. It was like her time on the street had taken with it her ability to speak. She hadn't felt this weak in at least six years, since she still lived with her human family. How she hated the lot of them. Her brothers and sisters were arrogant, paranoid, and ruthless. Her father was just as bad, and he often beat Road when he was feeling stressed. Her mother was almost always drunk, and when she wasn't, she had a hangover. None of them loved her, and she was happy when she found out that she was a Noah, because it meant that she was able to leave them forever. She sometimes wondered if they even noticed that she had been gone for six years. She wouldn't be surprised if they hadn't noticed. Allen just smiled, and waved his hand.

"Don't worry, Road. You'll speak when you're ready."

Road sighed with relief. Had Allen always been this sweet? Yes. Now, she realized that he had always been that nice.