Disclaimers: Nothing of D. Gray-man belongs to me *whistles wishfully*

Note: In this story Allen is 5 and Kanda 8. I at first wanted Allen to be 3 years old, but realized that no 3 year old could talk like that then… ~_~

The… fatherly side of our most beloved womanizer was inspired by… one of the most horrible *cries* chapters of the manga. I miss him T_T

Anyway: Enjoy reading! ^o^

Kanda was sitting on a comfortable chair in a corner of the room, as far away from everyone else as possible. He didn't bother playing with the other children, they were stupid anyway. The nurses had given up on trying to make him play with the other children about a month after he had been brought here and Kanda was happy with that. He didn't need anyone else.

He had been brought to the orphanage five months ago, when his uncle Tiedoll had to leave for work. Kanda didn't mind too much, his uncle was annoying, and he knew he would be picked up again in probably around two to three months again. Tiedoll had wanted to take him along, but Kanda wanted to stay in his hometown no matter what. As such his uncle had agreed, albeit with a lot of tears, to let him stay.

The orphanage was run by one of his uncle's friends. To her it didn't matter if she had to take care of one more child or not. And the money Tiedoll had given her was probably enough to uphold this place for a year. As a famous artist Tiedoll could afford to be generous.

Kanda had soon gotten used to the place. In the morning he and some of the other children would go to school and later on he would either read or train by himself and ignore all the other annoying children to the best of his abilities - which were awesome.

A few boys had tried to talk with him and made fun of him, after he continued to ignore them. He had beaten them up (and earned himself a night without food). A week later another boy had tried to take his favorite possession - a wooden katana - away. He had used it to show the boy just how good he could handle the wooden weapon. Ever since everyone knew never to touch anything that belonged to the boy and left him in peace ever since.

"Kanda" the nurse called.

"…"

"Kanda, can you come please? We have to talk with you for a minute."

The young boy scowled but got up and followed the nurse into the office.

"A new child will be coming here today." The head nurse explained. " He's the nephew from a friend of your uncle so please take care of him."

Kanda's eyes narrowed into a glare. "I don't want to."

"Just try to still. You're one of the few who speak English. The kid doesn't speak Japanese."

"Then why is he here and not in America."

"Because of his guardian's work. And they will probably move here anyway."

"It doesn't concern me. I want to go read now." Kanda turned around and went back to his chair to read.

"I had hoped the boy would open up…" The nurse shook her head and watched the stubborn child with a worried expression.

Later in the afternoon a red haired man came into the orphanage. Behind him followed a strange boy. The boy was strange for several reasons: he had snow white hair, a bandage was put over his left eye, though a scar could still be seen under it and above the same eye he had a star carved onto his face. The boy's left hand was bandaged and in a sling. He tried hiding behind the tall man and clung to his leg.

"Please stop smoking, Mr. Cross. We don't want you to set a bad example for the children!" The head nurse told the redhead.

"If a beautiful lady like you requests…" He put the cigarette away and smiled at the woman who blushed a lovely shade of red.

The second nurse meanwhile looked at the young child. The boy seemed to be scared and obviously would rather stay with his uncle.

"What happened to him?" She asked Cross.

"I did tell you on the phone that his father recently died, no? Well to be honest he was killed. A bloody murderer had been on the run from the police. He saw the boy and followed him to their home where he cut this into his face." Cross pointed at the pentacle. The nurse gasped in shock.

"When his father got back home and saw what was happening he attacked that fucking bastard. Mana died in that fight, alongside with that… fucking piece of shit." His hands clenched into fists. "During the fight somehow fire must have broken out. The only one we could save was Allen. His arm was heavily burnt and probably will not heal completely anymore."

A heavy silence fell over them. "I couldn't take more than three weeks off. I have to finish my work, otherwise I would have taken Allen along, but… I'll come and pick him up as soon as possible. So please take good care of him till then."

The head nurse took a few shaky breathes "Now I see why you didn't want to tell me about it on the phone. Of course we will take good care of him. Finish your work and do come and pick him up soon again."

"Of course. Tiedoll said his son is here. That's why I brought him. And maybe he already will learn some Japanese."

"Yuu Kanda indeed is here. Though I wonder if he will befriend Allen-chan."

They left the office and guided Cross and Allen through the building, showing them where Allen would sleep (in the room besides Kanda's), where the bathroom and the kitchen was and then brought him to the rest of the children.

"Everyone listen, this is Allen-kun. He's just arrived here and probably won't understand much Japanese yet. Please welcome him and help him get used to our home."

The children agreed with a loud 'Hai' as was expected from them.

Kanda looked at Allen, who was still clinging to his uncle's leg. "Che." What a weird guy. Allen smiled and waved at them 'Hello.' he said in a small voice. Some children waved back, but Kanda doubted that anyone actually understood him. The pale boy, who was smiling entirely too brightly, was pissing him off. Like hell he would go out of his way and talk with him.

Half an hour later Cross was about to leave. He took Allen into his arms and hugged him. "Don't worry. I'll just have to take care of a few things and then I'll come back. Be a good boy like you promised."

Allen smiled shakily at his uncle and nodded, though tears could be clearly seen in his eye.

"Time will go faster than you think." The man kissed him on his forehead and set him down again. "Bye then."

Two days had passed since then. At first everyone had been interested in the tiny boy, so much that he had actually gotten afraid. But seeing as he couldn't understand and talk with the other children they quickly lost interest in him.

Some of the boys quickly took the chance and started making fun of his appearance. Luckily the new boy didn't seem to understand. He smiled at them and tried to play with the others. Kanda hated that the boy always smiled. When the boy came to him and introduced himself he had hit his hand away. Just because he understood the boy didn't mean he had any intention of talking with him.

The only ones making an effort to talk with him were the nurses. Though Kanda wondered why they were surprised that the child didn't cry. He also hadn't cried when his uncle left, so why should the other cry?

Allen didn't really get used to the orphanage. Only some of the children played with him, for the most part they ignored him though. Sometimes they talked to him, but he couldn't understand them, which made him sad. He missed his father and also his uncle terrible and prayed every day that they were fine and that his uncle would come and pick him up soon.

After ten days Allen's bandages were taken down for good. All over the left side of his face there was a scar now. The boy's eye luckily hadn't been damaged though. The problem however was his arm. The entire left arm was dark red, black and deformed. When one of the girls had seen it she had screamed and pushed the boy away. Ever since none of the girls wanted him close anymore.

Allen, who had only wanted to play with the others, didn't understand why they would suddenly act as if he wasn't there. Or why they wouldn't take toys, that he had touched. Like when a ball fell in front of his feet and he wanted to give it back to the boy. The other boy had shouted something at him and shoved him back.

Kanda, who had observed the whole display scowled. Why was that damn baby still smiling?

An hour later on the same day one of the older boys marched up to him. He punched Allen in his stomach and started to yell.

Allen looked up at him with wide eyes, his hand clutching his stomach. "Why did you do that? What do you want?"

Hearing him talk in English the other boy seemed to get more angry and yelled even louder.

"Damn idiot!" Kanda yelled at the older boy in Japanese. "You should know that others blame him when things go missing. You do it yourself asshole. Now shut your damn mouth!"

The older boy glared at Kanda and probably would have started a fight when the nurse came in to see why they were yelling so much.

Allen got up and thanked Kanda, smiling at him.

"I didn't help you so don't thank me. I just wanted him to shut up." The black haired boy explained in English. "And one word of advice: stay away from the other kids. They like to blame you for whatever and don't like you. Baka, as they call you, means idiot."

And for the first time since the boy was here the smile became smaller and vanished from the face completely. The silver eyes, that Kanda only now really saw for the first time, widened as the small boy processed that not only someone could talk English, but also what had been said.

Kanda however did not feel pleased that the smile vanished all of a sudden. The hurt he could see on the normally smiling face surprised him really much. He had believed that the others opinion didn't matter to the boy.

Allen turned around and ran out of the room before he could say anything else to him.

That night Allen ran away from the orphanage. He didn't want to stay there any longer. He wanted his father back and his uncle! He didn't want to stay in a place where he was a bother for everyone else, where he couldn't talk with people. He walked as far as he could, before he was too tired to continue walking and sat down on a bench.

The next morning the nurses and also all the other children were frantically searching for the white haired boy. But to no avail.

The children were asked, if something had happened, but everyone was just looking down until Kanda got fed up with their behavior and just spilled everything.

The police was called as well as the boys guardian who said he would be flying back in the next machine. Two of the nurses along with some of the older children went to search for Allen as well.

Kanda, feeling guilty, also decided to go search instead of going to school.

He first searched in the nearby shopping street and the two parks, that the nurses took them two if they wanted.

He didn't want to admit it, but he was worried about the boy. And the hurt look in those eyes didn't let him rest. He had wanted to get a rise out of the boy and also to make him stop smiling. He just hadn't thought that his words would affect the other so much.

Two hours later, just as he was about to head back to the orphanage, something white caught his sight. As he went closer he realized that it indeed was the person he was looking for, laying on the floor behind a tree.

"Allen!" he called but got no reaction. He poked the boy and realized that the other one was sleeping. The chubby face was dirty and it was clear that the boy had been crying. The wind picked up and the younger boy shivered, rolling up for more warmth.

Seeing the boy like this, sleeping on the ground with a dirty face and shivering from the cold, made Kanda realize that the boy was actually very beautiful. And also very fragile. That probably was the reason, why the boy always kept smiling. He probably wanted to be stronger.

Kanda threw his jacket over the boy and sat down besides him, absentmindedly playing with the silky white hair of the boy. The longer he stared at the sleeping figure, the calmer he felt.

Just after it was starting to get dark Allen woke up. He looked around disoriented and tears started to gather in his eyes.

"Why are you crying?" Kanda asked with a calm voice.

That startled the boy and he jumped up. Kanda grabbed his hand. "Let go!" The tiny boy screamed and started to panic, but Kanda just pulled him down again. "Why are you here?" The boy asked when he realized that struggling wasn't going to help him and had calmed a tiny bit. "Answer my question first."

The boy sniffled and was silent for a few minutes. "My father died. He was always there, and now he is not anymore. And I miss him." The boys shoulders began shaking. "My uncle came, but now he is gone too. And you said that no one likes me… I knew that… but I wanted to have a friend and play… but since they saw my arm… and no one understands…" The boy explained in between sobs until he couldn't talk anymore. The pain that he had kept at bay the whole time finally overwhelmed him.

Kanda didn't know what else to do than to gather the crying boy in his arms and pat his back, like Tiedoll had loved to do with him. Not that he had cried.

The younger boy either liked it or didn't realize what he was doing, but slowly the sobs got less and less. Half an hour later he was breathing evenly again, Kanda was sure that the pale boy had fallen asleep again when the boy asked him again why he was here.

"I was looking for you. The whole orphanage is searching for you right now." He finally told the other.

"I don't want to go back." Kanda however got up and pulled him with him.

"Come with me." Allen looked around, unsure of what to do. Kanda held out his hand for him. "Come."

Allen slowly took his hand and smiled a tiny smile.

It was at that moment that Kanda decided that the other boy was his. And that a smile definitely suited him better than the look he had received the previous day. Though he only wanted to see real smiles on the boys face.

He started to lead the way back never once letting go the younger boys hand.

When they arrived back the head nurse didn't know whether to scream and yell at them or to hug them and cry of joy when both were back safely. No one had gotten wind of Kanda's plan to go look for the smaller boy, so when he also turned up missing at midday she almost fainted from worry. She settled for neither and just ushered them inside where both boys found their guardians waiting.

Tiedoll, who had been crying, hugged the boy for dear life and cried some more while Kanda tried to push him away.

"Yuu-kun, how could you make me worry so much? I came here to check up on you with Marian and you had vanished too!" he sniffed and wiped his tears away.

Cross however looked behind the taller of the boys, to find his charge staring on the ground with his shoulders shaking and quiet sobs escaping his mouth. He sighed and walked over to the tiny boy and picked him up again. "Brat, you sure like to make others worry, don't you." He put a small yellow ball with wings into the tiny hands.

Allen looked at him confused and then at the ball in his hands. "What is that?"

"That is Timcanpy. He will watch over you from now on. Though you will be coming with us anyway."

When Kanda heard that, he pulled free from Tiedoll's hug and kicked Cross' shin.

"What the hell are you doing brat!" The older man flicked his finger against the boy's forehead.

"The moyashi is mine! So he stays with me!" Kanda glared daggers at the man who wanted to take what belonged to him away.

Cross and Tiedoll looked at one another for a few seconds before Tiedoll started to cry once again (Kanda had for the first time said that he liked someone else). While Cross just grinned and picked the second boy up as well, throwing him over his shoulder with one arm.

"Your uncle will be very happy to have you with us."

As such it was decided that both boys would both come along with their guardians.

Duh… I somehow truly wanted to write a child Allen and Kanda story. This was it. Hope you enjoyed reading :)