A/N:

Before we begin, I'd like to point out that I'm pretty much either morphing or ignoring some nice facts out there, but hey, that's life!

This is quite possibly going to be a not-so-graphic piece of fiction, with the pairing set to be Earl/Allen (even though you won't really see it until the end, 'k?) And definitely not in any "fatso captures his precious to perv on his prey" kinda way. Nope. Fleeting mentions of Neah/Allen and ... well, see following-

POLL:
With the structure of this plot bunny I have in mind, I can slip some others getting in it on with Allen aside from dear Adam, but merely momentarily and probably just one, two tops (also, unfortunately due to the nature of this fic, all Noah are out of the question.)

Okay? Okay. Carry on.

Prologue: Memories

The pain he seemed to be experiencing looked absolutely unbearable. Even when unconcious, Allen's face was horridly scrunched up in discomfort, small whimpers and moans escaping his mouth every once in a while.

To top it off, he was feverish, delirious and sweating non-stop on the dusty bed of the room Johnny and Link had merely hours ago managed to scrape enough money to pay the inn for.

After Kanda had left the group to fend to themselves, Link had joined his place. Which, to Allen, had apparently brought some illusionary relief admist his misery. No, he had looked almost delighted that the golden haired Crow had returned to his side. Well, as delighted as one could look anyway, under the given circumstances.

Kanda, on the other hand, had returned to the Order to become a General. While the Order in its all corrupted glory was a dangerous place to be for someone who didn't completely agree with their methods and policies, being their puppet was a safer option than becoming their enemy.

Link was now looking at the former exorcist with worry etched to his face. He feared the teen had started the very last stages of his Noah transformation.

Even though the 14th was to be the greatest asset for the whole "anti-Earl movement", he couldn't help but be slightly saddened by the fact that it meant sacrificing Allen Walker's persona altogether. And he'd really begun to like the kid, too. Outside their previous professional relationship, even.

He didn't have the heart to tell all this to the ever-so-optimistic Johnny, though, who blindly believed Allen still could and would win the mental battle over the Noah.

Link removed the soaked washcloth from Allen's forehead, dipped it into the bowl of cold water on the bedside table and sweeped some of his white bangs back with it before arranging the cloth to cover the whole forehead.

Link knew Allen's fever was dangerously high, but at the moment they couldn't risk it to go to a real hospital for treatment. To walk into such an establishment with a group consisting of a wanted scientist, an exorcist-turned-Noah with very prominent features and a supposedly-dead Crow member was plain suicide. They'd be hunted down in mere hours, whoever caught them first.

Link gave a small sigh and sweeped his fingers slowly over the embedded cross on Allen's hand, silently hoping whatever was to happen in the near future wouldn't be so bad.

Allen gave a small painful moan upon contact, his breaths turning into short gasps and Link quickly pulled back. The breathing turned immediately slightly less labored, but it still wasn't quite normal. Well, it hadn't been normal for quite some time, but at least he was still breathing.

There had been a small moment of panic as Johnny had suddenly cried out last night, waking Link up from his slumber, and announcing Allen's breathing had slowed to an alarming pace. After a few worried moments, though, the breathing had turned to a much better pace and they'd both sighed in relief. Neither slept after that, though.

Johnny was still out there "fixing things" to ensure they'd have some food and a place to stay the next night, he realized. And it was getting rather dark, mind you.

Link spared a glance at the sickly teen and decided he could leave him unattended for just a moment. He was in a dire need of a nice hot cup of tea. And some painkillers for Allen, in case he woke up during the night.

He sighed. Perhaps he'd get a whole pot of the tea, just so he could offer Johnny some, who was likely to come back soon and hopefully with some change in his pockets.

He padded to the door, closed it quietly behind him and set out to find the innkeeper.

The place itself was pretty run down, but it was cheap and passable. Some rooms (like theirs, thank God) had a very small joined bathroom that consisted of a small toilet and a sink.

There was a bath tub and a shower at the other side of the inn, reserved mostly to the keepers' use, but you could use them as long as you asked for a permission.

After receiving a small cup as a sampling and the steaming pot of tea from the innkeeper's wife; accompanied by a small concerned inquiry on the small kid's health, to which he tried to give a satisfactory reply without giving anything away; Link headed up back to the room.

As he mused upon their current state of poverty and how monstrous the task of feeding the white-haired teen was going to be, he heard a clank that was followed by soft padding, a slam and someone vomiting. Violently. It was soon accompanied by coughs, whimpering and outright sobbing.

And it was coming from their room.

Link gave a panicked grunt of suprise, burst into the room and quickly took in the view. The bowl of water was now located on the floor, the water slowly soaking into the wood.

And Allen was no longer in the bed.

He swiftly set the tray on the now-empty bedside table and made a beeline for the small bathroom where, just as he'd thought, Allen was kneeling on the tiled floor, hunched over the toilet.

How he'd managed to stagger there was a near miracle. The boy was shaky, feverish and clearly still in massive pain. And the vomiting would only add to the headache. Link moved to rub his back in circles for some comfort, but his hand was quickly slapped away quite forcefully and he was greeted by a glaring face of the youth.

"WHO ARE YOU?!"

"What do you mean, Walker? It's just me." Link replied, his face turning into a frown. Perhaps the 14th had finally surfaced, felt nauseus for obvious reasons and for another reasons unknown, could not recognize the faces his host, Allen Walker, had once known.

The person in front of him vomited again, fisted their hair and moaned pitifully, sobbing all the while.

"Who's 'Walker'? Are you adressing me or are y-", the sentence was cut by another streak of vomiting.

Link grimaced. Either this was a very bad episode of a fever-induced hallucination or... either way, this was not good. If this continued as it were, the kid would probably die of dehydration. He removed the hands gripping the medium-length white locks, gathered them back and after a lengthy struggle from the other, gently moved to sit behind the teen, who'd continued to whimper and sob.

"Stop, stop, stop... don't come near me, you dickhead! Did you drug me or something? I definitely don't remember anything about you or yesterday or ... where's Neah? Where's ... I'll call the cops on you as soon as I get u-."

After one more round of vomit the dry-heaving started. Thank God, this was going to end soon. Link needed to calm the kid and think of some petty excuse on the spot, but his mind wasn't working. At the moment so many questions were running through his head.

He merely adopted a calm, soothing tone and said: "Walker... Allen. At the moment you're running a very high fever and you're simply delirious. I suspect being under-nourished and dehydrated has something to do with this as well, but we can fix that. Let me just take off this shirt and get you b-..."

Link paused, gulped and took a calming breath. He had grabbed the hold of the sweat-soaked dress shirt Allen was wearing and... he was no expert on the field, oh no, but those two definitely looked like woman's breasts. Not large, but definitely not small either. A small blush found its way to his cheeks.

"What the-"

The hair and the shirt slipped from Link's grasp and the... woman fisted her hair again, leaning slightly forward towards the toilet and sobbed.

"Not Walker... not Allen... GOD, my head... who the fuck are you... not Neah... why would I even...? Adam..."

In a dash of madness she gave a whimper and started to scratch and claw her left arm. And before Link could grab her hands properly and stop her... for all the love that was holy he did not understand how, but she extracted the Innocence fragment out of her hand and it now looked... normal?

And then she promptly passed away. With no room to really move elsewhere, she fell backwards. Right into Link's open arms.

"Well fuck me." Link whispered and decided that it probably wasn't going to end up being the first and the last time he'd swear.

He warily glanced at the softly glowing Innocence fragment on the floor and tried to figure out what the hell had just happened.

He then felt the flush on his cheeks grow. He needed to move. That would entail moving the passed out, heavily breathing girl currently in his embrace. The sweat-soaked white shirt was practically a see-through now that it clung better to her skin. And even that would need to go for the very reason that it was wet.

Link opted for the option that would cause the smallest amount of damage and proceeded to scoop her up. He tried his hardest to stare anywhere else than at her as he laid her on the bed, quickly covered her with the duvet and went to find the innkeeper's wife once more.

A/N: Got potential? *grin* I sure hope so, for I'm gonna write this to the end with or without you~