Chance Encounters

WAIT! Before you skip the A/N (because you probably will) be sure to at least read the last paragraph for some info on the story.

Hello my loyal fans, NirvanaFrk97 at your service. You know, I've had this idea for a story for a long while, hell, I told my ex about it like a year ago and never got to writing it. Well thankfully since I have an easy first semester for my senior year (I seriously have three classes, out of four, one which is an academic class) I spent my time writing a rough draft for this story.

Oh yeah, pertaining to the "very nice" guest reviewer labeled as "LOL" who accused me of publishing "His Past" repeatedly for attention, please get your facts straight before accusing others of things they haven't done. I accidentally replaced the first chapter with the second one (so both chapters were one and the same) and had to fix that. I don't need to republish for attention because my story is already doing well on its own. (Trying not to sound arrogant).

Okay so I had to change a few things for Allen (Red) and Lenalee to have the story make sense, hence, this is an obvious AU. Red is older than Lenalee (noticeably since his actual age is unknown), Lenalee is 6 since that's when she was taken to the Order and Red is around 7, meaning that he had been in the circus for a longer amount of time compared to canon. Another thing is that I'm going to have Mana show up when Red is about 8 and Lenalee 7 because it'll give them a while to become friends and for them to rely on each other. Everything that was supposed to happen to Lenalee between when she first started at the Order to when she met Allen happens but in a shorter period of time, of course Kanda will have been at the Order first as an exorcist (she was 8 when he joined apparently). Mana will still die, but he'll die a year sooner. Any other questions that I may have missed will be explained as the story goes on, if you have questions be sure to leave them in the reviews. Oh yeah, before I forget, sorry but Red won't have an accent. I'm honestly not skilled enough to do so, don't worry, he'll be informal and rude at least.

Well let's get started then.

Oh yeah, so you can tell them apart.

(blah blah): A/Ns

(blah blah): Usually inserts for the convenience of the readers.

The sounds of desperate panting and plodding feet fill the air as a small figure ran out of the a forest. The figure was one of a young girl, easily six years of age, with tears of dread streaking down her cheeks. The child however, knew that she was still being followed as she continued to sprint as fast as she could. She then noticed a town up ahead of her current path which allowed a sense of hope to flow through her that is until she saw another, taller, figure exit the forest close behind her. Eyes wide in terror, the small youth forced herself to run even faster in order to escape her pursuer and had finally reached the town when she heard the binding spell crash into a building she took shelter behind of. Peeking her head out from her hiding spot, she saw her would-be captor stop as other figures in similar attires arrive. The girl then trembled in horror when she saw him.

"Sir, I apologize but the target was able to escape into the town." The first pursuer addressed his newly arrived superior. Said man frowned deeply, his already antagonistic appearance shifting into a more deceitful expression.

"I see, how unfortunate. Well we cannot afford to draw any attention towards ourselves so we'll leave things like this for now." The man responded turning his back on the town.

"Sir? What of the Apostle's innocence?" The same subordinate asked.

"Do not worry, the innocence has become dormant meaning akuma may not be able to find it. But soon we will return for Apostle Lenalee Lee." The superior answered darkly.

"Now come, we have other matters to attend to." The same man added. The lesser of the two nodded in agreement.

"As you command, Inspector Leverrier." Hey bowed slightly as the group took their leave.

The young girl now known as Lenalee Lee sighed in relief as she saw her pursuers and that man retreat. Tears welled in her eyes as she felt joy for finally being able to escape from that accursed building she was forced into after being separated from her brother.

"Ah." She winced. It seemed as remembering her brother still brought deep sorrow to her heart. She shook her head in an attempt to clear her mind, now was not the time to think of that. Looking around and seeing the buzz of the population not too far off in the town square Lenalee quickly hid into an alley. Refocusing on her situation, she realized that she was in an English speaking town (thankfully she had a decent amount of knowledge of the language), somewhere in Britain if she heard her captors mention correctly once before, and she herself was exhausted, cold and hungry. It did not help that the weather was hinting towards an early winter.

'First things first.' She thought to herself, she needed to find shelter before worrying about her hunger. The young girl then dragged her feet along a dirt path as she fearfully avoided being seen by any of the civilians (she did not trust any of them after all) until she saw a simply-patterned tent for accommodation. Slowly walking inside Lenalee immediately noticed a somewhat change in temperature, while it was not warm it did shield her from the cold, observing her temporary shelter she noticed a simple blanket on the floor close by to many suitcases and crates of cargo. As she sat on the cloth the anxious child soon found her consciousness wavering and fell asleep due to her heavy amount of fatigue. The thought of the make-shift bed belonging to someone else had not even crossed through her mind.

"Damn it." A gruff voice muttered. The owner of the voice was that of another youth, a boy this time, who noticeably limped away from a separate tent. He grit his teeth as he held his tender ribs with his right arm, thankfully they weren't broken but they the pain was still excruciating.

'Damn Comisov.' The boy thought to himself. The old clown would always find a reason to beat the boy and nobody would ever try to stop it, nobody. The boy forced himself to move on, brooding would not change anything, and thus he would have to continue to endure this treatment until he becomes old enough to leave. As he limped across the barren landscape, the sounds of laughing children heard from a distance (which the boy outright ignored), the boy neared his usual "lodging" (if one could call it that), it was when he reached the entrance that he heard another's presence inside. The youth immediately froze, someone was inside, slowly but surely he opened the tent and saw a girl with long and messy dark hair lying on his "bed". His eye twitched in irritation.

"What the hell is this?" He grumbled. Who the hell was this girl and why was she here? And most importantly, why did she decide to sleep on HIS bed? He growled slightly with a grimace.

'Whatever.' He simply thought to himself as he carefully sat down and leaned against some cargo. He would simply wait for the weird girl to awaken so he could scare her off, or so he planned before finding himself falling asleep.

Lenalee slowly opened her eyes, she yawned deeply as she sat up. Rubbing any sort of fatigue from her eyes she noticed that there was another's presence in the "room". Her eyes briefly widened in fear. Were they here? She whipped her head towards whoever else was there and was surprised by what she saw. A young boy, though still older than her, with auburn hair, unkempt clothing, along with dried blood and bruising on his face sat right across from her. While he was indeed asleep his expression was that of a grimace, one of pain most likely as he sporadically winced as he slept. As Lenalee continued to look at the boy curiously she noticed both his arms resting on his lap, more specifically she noticed a bit of his left hand, what hadn't been covered by his (tearing) sleeve she saw pitch black fingernails and grotesque, veiny, blood-red skin. Lenalee gasped softly as she felt her cold, aching feet begin to warm, she looked down and saw her heavy heels (Apparently they have always been heels before crystallizing) glow slightly before once again dimming. She briefly wondered if this boy was like her, compatible as she remembered that man calling her. Her pondering was then interrupted by a groan coming from the wakening boy.

A dull ache was what the boy first registered as he awoke. His injured ribs were still in pain but as long as he avoided sudden movements then the youth would be fine eventually. He then looked up and saw the girl from earlier wide awake and staring at him. He merely stared back, perplexed, before he caught her eyes briefly glimpse down towards his hands. He looked down at them and realized that his left hand was out in the open. Suddenly the boy glared deeply at the girl, which caused her to flinch back in fear, and jumped up gritting his teeth as his ribs screamed in protest. Not removing his glare off the girl, the auburn-haired child finally decided that it was time to finally get rid of this female intruder. Slowly, he raised his left sleeve revealing the full extent of his grotesque (whether or not the boy noticed the foreign warmth in the arm is unknown). The dark-haired girl's eyes widened in complete shock as she saw his arm before silently gazing at the boy's now confused visage. Gazing into the boy's silver-blue stormy eyes, she saw a great deal of pain in an otherwise emotionless stare (Meaning she was only able to see his pain in his eyes, his face gave off no sort of emotion other than confusion). Said boy gazed back into the girl's own amethyst eyes and saw the amount of fear and sadness they contained.

"…Why aren't you scared?" He asked, bewildered. Everyone who's seen his demonic arm would always run from fear. So why wasn't she scared of it? The girl in question, however, remained silent which angered the boy.

"Answer me!" He yelled harshly, once again scaring the girl (she closed her eyes tightly and lowered her head). He himself didn't know why he was so mad, normally he should feel a speck of hope of finding someone accepting his arm but, it was as if his outright mistrust for humans did not allow him to. The girl meekly rose her head and hesitantly looked at the boy again.

"I… I've seen worse." She was able to whisper softly. While the arm was in a league of its own, Lenalee remembered the monsters that took her parents from her after attacking her home. Tears welled in her eyes, they killed her parents without mercy and caused her to be separated from her brother after her heels reacted to them. The boy observed the girl silently as she lowered her head again and cried to herself.

'What's with her?' He wondered. The girl did not look like she was from around here, she looked different compared to all the other girls and women he had seen before. Her attire was no better than his was, hell, he wouldn't be surprise if she was cold since it was only a simple dress. But what stumped him the most was how she didn't fear his arm at all. What a weird girl was what he thought as he looked on to her sobbing form. He furrowed his eyebrows, crying would get her nowhere plus it was annoying, so he figured that he should distract her.

"Oi, you have a name or something?" He asked (what he thinks of as) softly. The girl in question briefly stopped crying and looked back up at him. The auburn-haired youth was looking away from her with his chin resting on his right hand, his emotionless eyes gleaming somewhat more softly. Although it looked as if he didn't care, he was clearly awaiting the young girl's answer. Said girl dejectedly nodded her head.

"L-Lenalee Lee..." The boy turned to look at her. So he was right, a name like that or even remotely similar has never been heard around here. He looked at her, Lenalee, he briefly wondered what her story was, she was obviously far off from home. His wondering thoughts were then interrupted by a shy Lenalee.

"W-What about you?" She asked softly. This boy was scary, but it looked like it was only if his arm was involved. As emotionless and insensitive as he seemed, he was still able to show some amount of tenderness, and it also helped that she was able to sense mutual loneliness come from him. She smiled to herself, maybe he could help her find her brother.

The deformed boy merely looked at the girl. While she wasn't the first person who had ever talked to him as if he were normal (Rose from His Past has already met him), she was in fact the first person who did not run from his arm. Although he constantly admonished himself for doing so in the past, the boy felt that this girl was different, he couldn't explain it but if he could start then he'd simply say that he felt some sort of connection because of their similar situations. The boy then realized that he still hadn't answered Lenalee's question, said girl was shyly looking down sporadically glimpsing at the boy as she waited. He briefly struggled to find an answer for her. He didn't have a name, but he did remember the nickname the circus folk had given him or referred him as because of his left arm. He sighed lightly before settling on giving her that one.

"Just… Call me Red."

And we're done.

I wrote the rough draft for this a few weeks back and finished it just a few days ago, man did I do some editing for the final draft. This was a bit harder than I first thought, hehe.

Well what do you think? I know it's very AU, but I had to be able to have this make sense. I felt like the scenario where Allen and Mana find Lenalee instead was too cliché, plus, Lenalee meeting Red instead would change so many things about Allen and her which in turn will change many things about DGM. Now while I do love the pairing, I also know that given the situation for DGM, romance cannot work out in this world. So instead of an eventual romantic fic, I will have more as a them having a close bond and deep connection, obviously they are both still human so love will get involved but they will be professional about.

Well I hope you guys liked this, I will later start on my final chapter for His Past before continuing here. TBF… *sigh* I honestly don't know how to continue it from the point that I stopped, I'll probably just wait until I'm inspired again. Anyways, be sure to leave any criticisms (try not to flame) and reviews you may have about the story.

Question:

If you could change one thing about Allen (personality or appearance wise), what would it be?

Please take the question a bit serious, give me your honest answer.

Well, I'll see you soon.