this is GEN, because even if Rin/Allen would be very cute, i'm horrible at romance. the only reason Rin is... like that is because Allen's my only true sweetheart (if you don't count Tsuna, Tetsu, Shintarou, Nai, Gon and Al... oh yeah, Rin's my sweetheart too, and there's als—)
i won't use japanese sufixes or words, even if i love them very much, because right now i'm talking/speaking/writing english (this sound like some kind of caprice...)

One-hundred years
and five seconds

1. First Friend

Rin kicked a rock, shooting it straight into a small pit next to him. He walked to the back of the parc, sitting on a bench that was hidden behind some trees. Once again, he was alone, but maybe it was for the best, as he was always so angry, and had that unbeatable urge to hit and bite everything in front of him.

The adults around him said, in ushed whispers — and who were they to talk about him like that? — that he was the son of the demon; but Shiro each time reassured him that he was a boy like every other.

Sometimes, Rin didn't know who to trust.

Personnaly, it wasn't like those urges pleased him. On the contrary, it scared him. He didn't understand why his twin brother was so calm, when he himself was so angry, harsh and horrible.

When he succumbed to those, Yukio would look at him with that visage — face pale, eyes wide and trembling lower lip — and when Rin would reach out to him, his brother would look away and, still shaking, act like he didn't see anything.

(When, later, they would go home together, Yukio would be much warmer — but Rin wasn't blind, and he could see that flicker in his eyes, or the slight faltering in his steps.)

All that: it was surely why he couldn't socialize.

So as it was, he didn't have any friends, and could only hang out with Yukio and everyone from the church.

(They all had that something in their eyes. All, even the old man.)

Rin closed his eyelids, was he fated to live alone all his life?

"Excuse me," Rin snapped his head up, "can I sit next to you?"

There was a kid in front of him, who looked barely older than him. He had red-ginger hair and silver eyes, that held a certain emotion he couldn't recognize. Was he really asking him of all people? Rin glanced around, he was the only one here.

He nodded slowly, and moved to make place for the other. The boy sat down, quite close to him.

"My name is Allen, yours?" the kid asked quietly, galncing at him from the corner of his eyes.

Rin hesitated, would he run away when he learned his name? "Rin Okumura." Allen only nodded.

"Hey," he called after a few minutes of silence, attracting Rin's gaze, "would you like to play a game with me?"

(Later on, Rin and Allen promised they would be friends for life.

Rin forgot him two months after his departure.)

2. Reminiscence

To be honest, Rin was lost. He was suddenly thrown into a new world he didn't know anything about, and suddenly, his father was dead and his brother was an exorcist.

(Was it his fault? No... It couldn't be, right?)

But what could he do against that?

(I promise, I will defeat Satan!)

Rin gritted his teeth, and walked a little bit faster, as if it would make his rage disappear.

"Hey, are you alright?" asked a voice from his right. Rin turned toward it, and almost jumped back in surprise at the face that welcomed him. White hair, silver eyes and a stricking feeling of déjà vu.

Remembering that the boy in front of him had asked him a question, he shrugged and weakly said "Yeah..." He hesitated, looked around for some seconds, before turning back to his interlocutor. "Hey, do I know you from somewhere?"

The teen blinked, and nodded. "Yes, you are Rin, right?" At Rin's confused nod, he elaborated. "You probably don't remember, but we are childhood friends."

Rin's mind abruptly came to a stop, as he tried to remember. He didn't have any friends when he was younger, right? No wait, Rin frowned, there was someone. Someone who wasn't afraid of him... Someone with red hair and silver eyes. What was his name again? Ah, yes, he remembered now. His name was—

"—Allen!"

Said boy smiled gently and nodded. "It's nice to see that you didn't forget about me. I had some doubts for a second."

"Bu-But! You had red hair, right?!" Rin advanced toward Allen, getting into his face, to see the white hair from closer.

Two pale, seemingly weak, hands pushed him away softly. "Yes, my hair was red. And before you ask," interrupted Allen when he noticed Rin opening his mouth to ask more, "I did not dye it. Something happened and it became like that."

"Oh, I see," said Rin quietly. Even he, as brash and loud as he was, knew not to press. "So, what are you doing here?" he asked, hoping to change the subject and make the atmosphere around them more relaxed.

Allen began to walk along with him, and even if Rin didn't know where Allen was going, it was the same way as his dormitory.

"Ahahah, Rin," began Allen with a quiet laugh, looking at Rin from the corner of his eyes with a somewhat tender face, effectively making Rin blush, "can't you see my uniform? I'm a student too, obviously."

Rin spluttered, his face going red from Allen's teasing.

"A-anyway, w-where are you going?" he asked, trying to change the subject one more time; because even if Allen's chuckles sounded sweet to him, he couldn't let himself be teased like that.

"Ah, I'm currently using the old boy dormitory, as there wasn't enough place to the new one." Rin almost stumbled on his own feet. Say what?!

"What?!" he cried unconsciously. Allen flinched away, but came closer to him when Rin gripped his hair and leaned forward, hiding his face.

"R-Rin? Are you okay? Is there something wrong?"

The half-demon held up one hand. "It's okay, I'm alright. It's just... I'm in the old one too. I was just... surprised?"

Allen took a few steps away, and they continued walking. "Why do you sound so unsure yourself?" There was a troubled smile on his face, and something inside of Rin stirred, telling him, urging him, to make his friend smile in joy once again.

Nonetheless, Rin only shrugged. "Don't know, it's just that I thought that only my brother and I would live there." Allen nodded, apparently satisfied with his answer.

They ended up talking of the old time the rest of the walk.

3. Games

"Woah," drawled out Rin, eyes shining as he looked at Allen's amazing poker skills. Even now, he still couldn't hide his amazement at his (only) friend's... power.

Allen glanced at him and stopped shuffling his cards. Instead he smiled and held them out to Rin, "Want to have a game?" he asked.

"What for? I'll just lose anyway," replied Rin, pouting and looking away. Though he delighted in the way Allen's quiet chuckles made him shiver.

"You're a sore loser~" sang Allen. Rin turned just in time to see him smirking mischievously. That damn basta—

"—What?! I'm not!" Rin growled. "Okay, let's play a game! You'll see, I'll win!" Rin slammed his hands on the table they sat at. Allen nodded, a peaceful smile once again plastered on his relaxed face.

"Let's go then."

Rin had never played at Poker, so he had Allen explain the rules before they began. They gambled on their chores, even if it seemed like Allen didn't mind to do them that much.

"Hey Rin," called Allen in the middle of the party, his voice no louder than a whisper, "do you remember the first time I played at the cards with you?" Rin glanced up from his deck, and nodded.

"Yeah, I was so surprised. I think I broke something at that time, no?" Rin laughed at the memory; he had been furious to lose, as it had been the first time he had ever played with someone.

Allen accompagned him in his laughter. "You did, you snapped a tree in half." Seeing Rin's skeptic face, he added. "It was a small one, you're not that strong." Rin mock-glared, making both of them laugh one more time.

Finally, the party ended on Rin winning, effectively surprising him.

"W-What the hell? Why did I win?" he stared with wide eyes at his friend.

Allen took some seconds to answer. "Well, it's just that I didn't cheat for this party. I guess you just won because you had a more powerful deck." Rin choked, and Allen immediately went to pat his back.

After having regained his breath, Rin asked: "W-What do you mean 'cheat?' Don't tell me all this time you were cheating!" Allen just blinked.

"What do you mean? You never realized, so it was like I never cheated. If you want I can stop cheating when playing with you." Rin grumbled, but accepted anyway.

Rin leaned on the table, his chin on the hard wood. "Hey Allen, do you have another game we can play?" Allen crossed his arm, seemingly concentrating on finding a new game.

"A board game? I don't really... Chess? Another card game? Anything is fine with me," said Allen after some minutes of silence.

Rin shrugged, "Then, let's go for chess, whatever that is." Allen gave him a disbelieving look, before he ah-ed in understanding.

"It's true that in Japan, you don't play chess and you only play shogi. Well, I can still explain the game to you."

They ended up playing two parties, with Allen winning each time, before Yukio arrived.

"Ah, brother, when did you meet Walker?" he asked, surprise clear in his eyes. Allen simply smiled, while Rin tilted his head.

"Walker? Who is that? There's only Allen here, right?" he shot his friend a look.

"Oh, I forgot to tell you, but my full name is Allen Walker," explained Allen as he continued cleaning the chess board. "I'm an exorcist too, and before you ask, I know about you being a half-demon."

Rin's eyes widened, and he glanced at Yukio and Allen, the two looking at him. "H-How did you...?" he trailed off, would Allen hate him or...?

"I learned it by myself." He surely saw his expression, because he said: "Don't worry, I don't hate you, you're my friend, remember?" Rin nodded, still speechless, but relaxed as soon as Allen broke out into a smile.

(Allen never did have that thing in his eyes.)

4. Books

"Oi, Allen, if we're in the same class, why weren't you there yesterday?" Rin asked, as they walked in the corridor. Said boy shrugged, giving no clear explanations.

As they entered the room, most of the other students looked at them, mostly staring at Allen. Said boy smiled and bowed a little. "My name is Allen, nice to meet you all."

"Oi Allen," called Rin, frowning a little as they made their way to their seats, the other blinked at him, "why didn't you introduce yourself as Walker?" They sat down, not too far, but not too close from the front either.

"Well, japanese people call each other by their surnames by form of respect, right? It's just that I'm uncomfortable for that, as I'm british." As an after-thought, he added: "I guess, it's selfish of me, but I can't help it."

Rin sweatdropped at that; count on Allen to feel remorse just for not telling his surname. "Hey, hey," he swayed his hand at his friend, "no need to beat yourself on that, it's alright." Allen blinked again, but nodded anyway.

Suddenly, Allen produced a book from nowhere, giving Rin a scare. But he didn't comment, knowing that reality around Allen distorted itself without any reason, as far as he knew.

"Whatcha reading?" he asked as he leaned on his friend's shoulder, trying to peek at the book. Allen smiled at him, and simply replied: "It's french, but, I suppose, you don't understand, do you?"

Rin's eyebrow twitched, and he resisted the urge to explose at Allen. "What the hell?! How many languages do you speak?!" That attracted some looks, as Allen chuckled.

"I don't think you really want me to list them. Not right now at least." Rin grumbled under his breath, mock-glaring at the white-head. "Don't glare at me like that Rin. The only reason I know so much of them is because I had a lot of time."

Izumi huffed and looked away. Two tables away, Ryuji did the same; each wondering how the idiot had managed to befriend someone like Allen.

5. Swords

Rin blinked at Allen's sitting form. They were on the rooftop of their dormitory. "Allen?" he called, as the other looked at him, "how do you fight? You know... the demons."

His friend arched an eyebrow at his hesitance, but didn't comment. "With a sword, I'm a knight." Rin had no idea what a knight was. "Through my sword is a little strange." He scratched his cheek sheepishly.

Rin sat up, and looked at him with curiosity. "Strange?"

"Yeah," Allen shrugged and looked at the sky. "It's... my arm," he ended while fleeing from his eyes. Rin choked, his arm was a sword?! That didn't make any sense! Rin voiced his thoughts.

Allen got up, and with a pout — surely, he didn't like being called stupid — he gripped his left arm. He muttered something Rin didn't quite heard, and gave a swift pull at his arm; and suddenly, a long and big sword was in his right hand, while there was nothing at his left shoulder.

"See?" Allen said after a long moment of silence. "I'm not stupid."

Rin blanched. "W-what?! Y-your arm... Did you just rip off your arm?!" he screamed, a little hysteric.

Allen flinched away, and shook his head. "What? No, no. I'm alright," he placed his sword at his left shoulder, and progressively his arm reappeared again, "see?"

Rin got up and stared at his friend's calm face. "What the hell?! H-how is that even possible?!" he asked.

Allen laughed weakly. "Err... magic?" He tilted his head. Rin fought the urge to shake him by the shoulders. "More seriously," Allen began as both of them sat down, "it's what I use to exorcise. It's called Innocence, and was used a long, long time ago by the Black Order's exorcists."

"Black... Order?" Rin repeated, still a little shaken.

"Yeah, you probably never heard of it, as it's been taken down hundreds of years ago. Anyway, I'm a parasitic type, that means my Innocence is inside my body," at that Allen took off the gloves he always kept on his left hand, and showed the black skin to Rin, "it's that cross, here." Allen pointed at the small, silver cross in the center of his hand's behind.

Rin nodded, "So, you mean that," he pointed at the cross, "that thing makes you able to... to rip off your arm and transform it into a sword?"

Allen rolled his eyes at the explanation, but nodded. "Yeah, you understood the basis." Just to make the two of them relax, he added. "How smart of you; I thought you would never make it."

That did the trick.

(Later on, while Rin was laying on his bed, trying to find sleep; he would think about this and ask himself, "Why does Allen have an Innocence, if that Black Order doesn't exist since a long time?")

D Gray Man © Katsura Hoshino
Ao no Exorcist © Kazue Kato