A/N: Sorry for the wait, but here's the next installment of the "Haunted" series. I highly recommend listening to this while reading:

watch?v=y0dvRMnmN2w

You have no idea how much it hurt to write this.

Rain pelted the window, the dim light pooling on the floor beneath the window. He didn't dare look over, however. His arms were full of warm body, his vision entirely of pale flesh, white shirt, and wispy white hair. She was home, his beauty, Allen Walker.

She reclined on his chest, her arms draped around his neck and shoulders. Her exhausted form was curled with him, home from the latest mission. His face was buried in Allen's hair and neck, taking deep breathes of her addictive perfume. She smelled like soap and peppermint extract, with the thick undertones of her body's spicy musk. It shouldn't have blended as well as it did, but the smells all balanced harmoniously. He sighed, and she smiled, shifting closer in his arms.

"Lavi." She whispered, her hands loosely gripping him. He paused in his actions, and looked up at her, green meeting startling silver.

"Yeah?" He asked, memorizing her eyes, pools of ethereal silver filled with love.

She shook her head with a smile, and shifted, so as to place her head in the crook between his neck and chin. Her hot breath tickled his neck, and her heartbeat thumped against his chest as she got comfortable.

"Don't make me ever leave you." She murmured, eyes drifting shut as she balanced on the border of awake and asleep. Lavi's lips turned up in a fond grin, and he lifted her red hand to his lips. He pressed his lips to the dark skin, and smiled softly.

"I'd never, Allen, not even in your worst nightmare." He whispered to her, brushing aside a lock of white hair to see her face.

"I love you." Were the words whispered to him as his consciousness fell away, leaving him in sleep's black embrace.

Then Lavi woke up, alone in his bed, his arms empty of her, his chest cold and his heart sinking like lead in water.

With a sickening pang in his heart, he realized it for what it was. Those precious moments with her hadn't been real. It had only been a dream of a memory from so long ago, when Allen had been alive and free.

The rain still fell the same outside, and everything was still the same in the room, with its sparse decorations and books. All that was missing was her. He had been home then, but this room wasn't it. That home had burned with Allen.

Now all that was left of that peaceful time long ago, when she had been in his arms, was the rain pelting the windows, and the tears blurring his vision.

"I love you, too." He whispered, even though the receiver of his words could no longer hear them.

"And as always, for ever, 'til the end. I'll love you as I did before."