1. Absurd

If someone had told Komui that within the year, he would be lying beside a boy nearly the same age as his sister, he would have laughed.
If they'd told him that the boy in question would be the Order's resident prankster, he would have called them crazy.
If they had also informed him that they would be naked, he would have sworn that they'd been drinking some random concoction produced by the Science Division's chemists.
Now, staring down at the very young, very nude form of his lover, he wondered if perhaps a quiet laugh may be in order.

2. Intuit

Lavi wondered if it were possible to love and hate a person all at the same time. When he looked up into the face of his angry partner, he thought that maybe, just maybe, it was. After all, why else would he feel like stopping the man's hurtful words with his mouth instead of his fist? He also wondered if the scientist felt the same way about him, when he'd said or done something to make the other feel slighted. metimes, he thought that their relationship truly was predestined, since his lover seemed to know exactly what those kisses meant.

3. Enlighten

Kanda had never considered the fact that his lover would gladly die for him. In his mind, to die for another person was both foolish and selfish, a waste of the rest of one's prospective life. When the younger boy had taken a near-fatal blow for his sake, he'd lingered by the bed, awaiting his gradual return to consciousness. After an hour's worth of verbal beration, he had finally explained to the stunned youth that the greatest sacrifice he could possibly have offered would not have been to die in his place, but to live, and remain beside him.

4. Reward

Allen hated waking up.
While he slept, he could see the world as he wished it were, free of evil and pain..
After losing his arm to the Noah, it seemed like his life had ended, until the Evolution. The birth of the Crowned Clown had brought with it a sense of hope, a purpose that made his sacrifice bearable.
When he'd defeated the Noah within Tyki Mikk, his efforts came full circle, setting right the horror that had been.
After that closure, awakenings were full of Kanda, and the days were more pleasant for it.

5. Unearned

Sometimes, Komui hated himself. It wasn't anything that he'd done, not really.. Looking at the boy sprawled across his blankets, he wondered if he could feel it, if he could see the loathing he kept hidden from him. Thinking of all the things that the boy could have had, and the things he could have done, Komui found himself disgusted that he'd allowed the youth to fall for him so completely, despite the fact that Lavi was more than the world to him. It was shameful. Why should he love so much, when he had done nothing to deserve it?

6. Honesty

Lavi had always hated to lie.
For as long as he could remember, he'd been lying to everyone about who he really was, even himself. When he realised that he was in love with a man, he'd been utterly terrified, afraid to speak and even more afraid not to.. To him, not telling was no different than a lie, especially when there was no real reason to keep silent. Telling his lover the truth had been the single happiest moment he could recall, and then..
The man he loved had begun to love him back.
And it wasn't a lie.

7. Plan

Komui had always dealt in certanties, facts and calculations that never altered from their appointed course. At the beginning of his relationship with Lavi, he'd taken all of the facts into account, carefully steering clear of any unforseen snags that may have complicated an already unusual arrangement.
At first it had worked, and his partner had seemed well-pleased with the results of his painstaking caution. Then, there had been something much larger than a mere snag.
He'd begun to need the boy, to crave any and all things Lavi.
In the end, he decided that logic was highly overrated.

8. Denied

Kanda Yuu did not believe in love.
Glaring down at the white-haired Exorcist that irked him beyond belief, he'd assured him that what he felt for him was most certainly not love, nor was it affection.
Leaning closer, he'd repeated his statement.
He didn't believe in love.
There was no such thing.
The boy had laughed, reaching up to catch his shoulders with a smile that was somewhat less than mocking. He'd tugged the samurai down, clamly ignoring his fierce glare.
Just before eyes slid closed and lips met, Allen had murmured that he didn't believe in it either.

9. Repremand

Lavi had never imagined that being in love would hurt.
Hearing the angry voice of his lover directed at him was like a kick in the stomach, a horrible feeling that knocked the air out of him and left him shaken and anxious. Looking up at the man, he wanted nothing more than to crawl away and hide.
The feeling of the man's hand settling between his shoulders made him even more fearful, and he looked away, half expecting to be shoved through the doorway. Instead, Komui pushed him forward against his chest with a tired sigh.
The pain stopped.

10. Sign

Kanda secretly loved Allen's hair. The paleness served to remind him of just how strong his lover was, to have seen and lived through so many things, and still he had emerged a better person for the experience. The mark of his curse was the same, a vivid testemant to the boy's past that had formed him into the man he was today.
Sometimes, he would trace that mark as the other slept, or stroke the soft strands of hair that never quite laid flat as they should have.
He wondered if Allen felt the same way about the lotus.

11. Foresight

Komui wished that there was a way to go back in time.
Not far, only a handful of years would do.. Long enough to tell himself to watch the redhaired boy that everyone called a fool, to explain to his former self that the boy would soon become a young man with much more than a casual meaning to him.
Feeling the boy curl closer to his side as he slept, Komui decided that maybe it was for the best that such a thing was impossible.
If he'd known about this, would the other's unconscious affection strike him so deeply?

12. Unexpected

Linali was astonished at the change in her brother.
After only a few months, he'd become a much happier person, given to moments of daydreaming that no longer frightened the Department staff as they once had. They quickly associated the slight daze and contented sighs with things other than who the man planned to torture next, seeing that he was engrossed in thoughts of his lover.
After being the focus of her brother's attentions for so long, Linali found herself at a loss when her conversation with a handsome young Finder went uninterrupted in plain sight of the smiling scientist.

13. Finale

Lavi didn't want to die.
The promise he'd made to his lover was simple: Hurry home and be with me.
Staying safe was unsaid, but he knew that the man trusted him to be careful, to protect himself as well as to complete his mission.
Seeing the ground so far below him, he wondered if there was a way to undo this, to make the end something less like a lie.
The trees were close, but his regret was closer. Knowing that the time was almost gone, he thought of his lover, clinging to his memory as the world exploded.