Me: I know, what the hell am I doing adding another chapter fic when I haven't even finished Genetics. But this one is catering to one of my biggest ships, so I can't really deny my muses. Speaking of which, Winters makes a terrifying, demanding muse, and Cross tends to hide whenever Winters is around. Unfortunately for him, Winters dragged him out kicking and screaming this time...

Warnings: This will kind of involve a bit -just a hint!- of Shota, which I can't make excuses for because I have no idea where it came from and I don't support that sort of thing. Thankfully nothing will come of it, even if I have to beat myself over the head with a clue-by-four to make it stop. Also; young!Cross is a midget, a brat, and almost nothing like older!Cross personality-wise, at least in my head-canon. He's also a brunette. I know, my head-canon is weird. But it will be explained later, I promise, Author's Honor.

More Warnings: There's actually nothing bad in this chapter.

It was odd to hear the whispers of the women around him gossiping about something as normal as men, especially given the ratio of men to women in the Black Order. Even Klaud had been taken with the sudden epidemic going through the female population, and Maria was always eager for a good bit of gossip. He was sure he'd hear all about it, despite his own disinterest in what his friends thought about the male population. He wasn't even sure what had set it off, being unaware of any sudden happenings within the Order. Then again, he'd been in the Infirmary for almost a week now, having collapsed from exhaustion after working for almost 96 straight hours on an experiment that would no doubt lower the mortality rate of the Exorcists if only he could get the damn thing to work. Not that anyone really took him seriously, being thirteen and all, but he'd be damned if he let the other idiots in the Science Department look down on him for his age.

For being twelve, the two girls were certainly strong, as they so displayed by dragging him and his pile of dishes over to a table by the wall as soon as his food came. Grumbling irritably as they dragged him around, he glared at them through his messy bangs, sitting obediently when they each pushed down on his shoulder to force him to sit with his back to the wall. As they scrambled into seats across from him, he pinned them with the most unimpressed look he could manage in his tired, starving state. They just started giggling in response, and if Cross hadn't had a run in with the Earl himself before joining the Order he would have said hearing Klaud giggling was the most terrifying thing he'd ever witnessed. Sighing at their odd symptoms, he just started in on his food and swore to look into a cure for this strange condition known as "puberty" as soon as he finished with his experiments on Akuma. Which he really should get back to, but his stomach was positively roaring, so he'd give in to its needs for as much food as he could possibly stuff in it before getting back to work.

It was as he was buttering a roll that he suddenly found himself with two twin blondes just inches from his face, their eyes sparkling rather manically -even Maria's glassy, unseeing ones- as they invaded his personal space like the Spanish Armada. Reeling back in shock, he had to pinwheel his arms to stop from falling off the bench, losing his roll but managing to hold onto the butter knife in the process. There was a startled yelp somewhere behind the two girls, but he paid it no mind in favor of leaning back as far as he could without tumbling onto the unforgiving stone floor.

"W-was ist das?" That they giggled more at his high, slightly breathless question did nothing to help him regain his composure, breathing heavily from how close he'd been to cracking his head open and heading back to the Infirmary with all its nasty hospital food. Thankfully their return to giggling had led to them sitting back in their seats properly, allowing him to carefully sit upright again, though he was quick to hunch in on himself in an attempt to not draw their attention to himself again. Just what the hell was going on with them? Was puberty normally this terrifying when it afflicted females? Would it be this extreme for him?

"Y'know, Cross, you're kind of adorable when you freak out like that." That was Maria, her eyes closed again as she giggled behind her hand.

"Especially the German. I've never heard anyone speak German in such a high voice." And there was the typical follow up from Klaud, and as usual she was making fun of him.

Scowling at them both and further hunching in on himself, he grabbed one of his other rolls and bit into it with a vengeance, not even bothering to butter it for fear that he'd fling the knife at someone if they suddenly lunged at him again. Knowing they'd get to the point -if they even had one- eventually, he just let them continue their tirade of teasing him, the comments switching between light-hearted and down-right mean depending on who was speaking. Sometimes he wondered why he continued to hang out with them, but knew it was because they were the only people in the Order even close to his own age.

The point came when they once again invaded his space, but this time he managed not to recoil quite as harshly, simply jumping and feeling his hair stand on end at the sudden, devilish grins directed at him. Oh by the Gods, what had he gotten himself into? Lau Shimin was even mimic-ing their grins, head tilted to the side and looking down right evil despite its minimal amount of true sentience. He needed new friends, regardless of the age difference, his heart couldn't take the stress of working in the Science Department and friends like these any longer. Preferably men next time.

"Have you heard?"

Obviously not.

"There's a new Exorcist. Mexican."

Oh fuck, he knew where this was going.

"They say he's pretty handsome, for a supposed Death Row inmate."

Death Row? Were they insane? And for that matter, was the Order?

"No one's seen his Innocence, though. According to Hevlaska, it's some sort of giant bladed thing."

They gave an ex-convict a knife? A giant one? But wait, if Hevlaska said it was huge, then the thing must be bigger than any of them!

"We haven't met him, though. He only rarely leaves his room, and then he only comes here and goes to the training grounds."

Oh god, he needed to leave. What if the guy showed up here? They were suicidal to be hanging around here, apparently waiting for either him or this crazed Mexican.

"None of the other Exorcists have talked to him, either, but Froi told us that his General told him that the new guy is only a year younger than him."

Okay, that was just difficult to follow, even for him. Granted, he was still slightly hyped up on meds from the Infirmary, so that might have made sense otherwise.

Probably not, though.

It was as he was trying to figure out a way to get all his food, himself, and the twins out of there and down into the bowels of the Science Department -without getting lost- that the doors to the cafeteria swung open. Paying the new arrival only the briefest of glances, he had to do a double take when he saw the tall, dark-skinned man that had walked in and was heading toward the line for food. If Maria and Klaud's prattling was anything to go by, this had to be the "new guy," judging by the strange spiky things on his shoulders that could only be some sort of Equipment type Innocence, given they appeared to be staying on his shoulders of their own free will. Eyeing the tall man nervously, he turned his attention back to the girls in an attempt to convince them that they needed to leave now, but they'd noticed his distraction and were focused on the new arrival.

Even Maria was gaping at the man, and given she was blind he knew Klaud had to be doing some sort of twin thing to allow her to see the man. Said Exorcist seemed to feel their eyes on him, despite the multitude of others trained on his person, because he tensed up and glanced around before focusing on the gaping girls.

Cross felt oddly horrified to note that the man's eyes were even more distressingly blank and white than Maria's, there being not even a hint of an iris or pupil to them. Despite what appeared to be obvious blindness, the man was focused intently on his friends before his blank gaze seemed to shift from the girls to him, making him stiffen at the feeling of being scrutinized, as if he were being judged at some unseen level. Which was completely preposterous, given the man couldn't even see him. Unless, perhaps, his Innocence had some sort of ability like Maria's? Though she could only use her odd eco-location-like ability when her Innocence was activated, it stood to reason that others could adapt in similar ways.

Regardless of the how or why, it still made him pale and wish to hide under the table when the man slowly smirked, his lips just barely turning up at the corners, but it was enough for Cross to want to run screaming from the room at the sight of unnaturally sharp teeth. They reminded him of a shark, and he'd never been fond of the creatures.

He didn't know how the women could possibly find this man attractive. He was clearly a predator, and, for some reason or another, Cross had suddenly become the "prey." He hoped he didn't actually end up dead, all things considered.

Fuck, he should have just joined the Earl and been done with it. Where was that fat bastard with his offers of riches and safety when he needed him?

Me again: Edited it a bit, as I found a few mistakes when I read through it.