A/N: hello, my D. Gray-Man friends! Back with another one! (finally) I have been working on this fic for the last MONTH, trying to get it done so I can work on other things and...I just can't seem to finish it. So, I decided to post the PROlogue first to see what people think and maybe that will help get my ass in gear. Contrary to this tiny little teaser chapter, this story is MASSIVE. It was supposed to be a little one shot, perhaps no more that thirty, thirty-five pages...yeah, not so much. So far, its 78 frickin' pages and counting so I have to break it into parts. So. Here is the little teaser, I hope I all make you curious enough to come back and read the rest when it's posted! XD Thanks and enjoy! Don't forget to tell me what you all think!

Warnings: Mature content, slash sex, oral, some shota (as in, two young kids kissing) stubborn Kanda (big surprise) and probably OOC-ness (it's AU so I'm using that as an excuse. I did try, though XD)

Something Old, Something New:

It was just a picture, in a cheap, metal frame that would have to be replaced because it had been damaged in the last move, with frayed edges and a flat cast to the coloring that betrayed its age. Just a picture of two young boys, one with deep, dark hair and blue eyes and the other with shockingly white hair and pale, silver eyes. Both of their young faces glowed with joy, even though the boy with the dark hair did not smile and they were clearly good friends who loved to be in each other's company. The background was nothing special, just a yard and a swing set and a row of trees made perfect for climbing but that was not really the point of the photograph. Its focus was on the two boys who had their arms around each other and were looking into the camera like they had nowhere else in the world they would rather be than with each other.

Kanda frowned down at it for long moments while kneeling in front of the battered box he had been unpacking.

He had meant to throw the thing out. In fact, he was sure he had but every time he turned around, there it was, staring back at him and mocking him with its presence. Sometimes he thought he could fool himself into thinking he didn't give a shit about the picture; that he had simply forgotten to get rid of it and it wasn't still around because he wanted to keep it. Even so, the memories flooded him as they always did when he looked at the faces of the two boys, one of which had been himself when he was nine, making him grit his teeth in annoyance and something well up within his chest that he couldn't identify but which felt like a great pressure trying to squash him into dust.

He should throw it out. He knew he should and he even moved his hand to drop it into the pile of crumpled newspapers he had used to protect more of the fragile of his belongings that would be going into the dumpster when he was done, meaning to be rid of it once and for all.

Then he thought about the pale haired boy and he swallowed hard around a lump he would later deny had ever existed, hand clenching hard around the photo and further damaging the frame.

Somehow, it ended up back in the box to be put in the room he would be sleeping in when he finally finished unpacking.

Just like it always did.

Because after all these years, he had never learned how to let that one boy go…

To be continued...