Allen trailed the forest, sweat beading at his forehead. The incline of the mountain seemed to push him farther back, but being the leader of the trail he had to push on. His boots crunched the leaves beneath him and Tim swarmed around his head, trying to keep him cool. The hot, humid hair made him dehydrated and tired…but he couldn't stop climbing. If he stopped, everyone else would stop, and then they would be behind schedule and out of sync. He pulled back his hair into what looked like a 'tail' to try to get it off of his neck. Pushing off of a rock and onto higher ground, Allen helped Lenalee up the incline.

"Are you okay, Allen?" Lenalee huffed, still holding onto his hand. "You look really," she took a moment to breathe, "really tired."

"Yeah," Allen replied, trying to keep his breath under control so that she wouldn't notice. "I'm fine. Y'know, I used to climb up exotic mountains all the time when I was with Master Cross, and we used to-"

Suddenly, Kanda pushed off from the rock and broke Allen and Lenalee's grasp, cutting right into the conversation. "Can it, Beansprout." He sneered, pushing on ahead. "I'm not goanna be late because of your stupid nostalgia." Lavi followed behind and shrugged towards Allen.

"I think he's having another one of his 'moods'" he assured, following Kanda. Allen glared at Kanda, who was now leading the trail instead of him, and followed behind Lavi. That retarded imbecile! He thought, thinking that he had totally owned Kanda with his choice of words. Sadly, he didn't. Not that he had said it though…

But, somehow, there was something funny about how Kanda broke into the conversation. When he did, he took Lenalee's hand and slapped it off of Allen's. He made it look like he just pushed through it. Allen caught it thought, and didn't stop wondering the whole way back to the Black Order…

A week later, Allen sat down for lunch, bringing over the huge tray as he usually did towards the lunch table where Lavi and Lenalee sat. Oddly, Kanda was sitting down with them, but a little to the side away from Lavi. Lavi and Lenalee were having a great time and laughing together, just like any other day. Allen sat down suspiciously. Why was Kanda sitting here?

"..so then I was like, 'What do you mean, I'm a rat? I'm a bookman!" Lavi exclaimed, wheezing out in laughter. Lenalee held her mouth as she broke out of laughter as well, holding onto the table for support. Allen didn't get the joke as much as Lenalee did, but he smiled in amusement. It was always interesting to hear one of Lavi's stories. Taking a huge bite out of some meat rolls, Allen sat down and listened intently.

"Oh, Allen!" Lenalee chimed, excited that he arrived. A certain light beamed in her eyes. Allen blushed a little, but hid it in his napkin as he wiped some sauce off of his face. Lavi caught on and smiled.

"You missed the whole story, man!" he said, holding the table. "It was when I was Prague! The old mad was going on about chips and shit, and it was hilarious!" Allen nodded, pretending like he understood the hilarity in the situation. Lavi just sat back down and took a breath, catching some air from all the excitement. Lenalee waited for Lavi to calm back down before she spoke.

"So, where were you Allen?" she asked, in her sweet natural tone. Allen's chest grew a bit hot. Her voice was like the fluffiest piece of cheesecake he had ever eaten. He smiled and looked back down at his food. "You're not usually late for lunch."

"Head Advisor Komui needed me for something." He said in it a nonchalant tone. "Just something trivial." He took another bite of a hamburger, eating a quarter of it and swallowing it whole. Lenalee didn't mind and pressed on further.

"Something trivial?" she asked, tilting her head to the side. She wasn't one to pester, so Lavi did it for her.

"What something trivial?" Lavi pestered, his 'something-secret-that-I-need-to-know' senses picking up. Kanda sat to the side silently.

"Well…"Allen began, glancing towards Kanda. He didn't even look up from his soba, which he was almost halfway done with. Allen glanced back at Lavi and looked back at Kanda, giving him the "First-why-the-heck-is-he-here" look. Lavi 'ahhed' and nudged Kanda.

"Yu here is here because he said the table that he usually sat at was getting repainted." Allen looked behind him 40 tables behind, where Kanda sat, and saw a huge "FRESH PAINT- Do Not Touch" sign on it. The place was packed, too. Kanda didn't have much of a choice.

"Don't," Kanda started, clenching his fists and stiffening his back. "ever, call me by my first name!" Kanda hissed, violently. Lavi backed a little, scared by Kanda. Kanda just gave him a glare and stared back down at his soba.

"Oh? No grabbing me by the shirt? No punching me in the gut?" Lavi looked closer at Kanda. He grabbed his chopsticks and shoved it in Lavi's face.

"I'm being merciful today. Just be glad I don't shove these down your throat."

Lavi backed away even more and finished his food quietly. Lenalee, rolling her eyes and wishing they would all just shut up, continued eating her food quietly, and Allen sat there angry.

Kanda messed up their lunch! They were all happy, laughing and getting along, and Kanda just had to mess up the mood! Allen stood up from his table, away from his food. He glared at Kanda, who only peered at him from an eye. It was a cold feeling.

"Are you always such a bastard in the early afternoon?" Allen growled, his shoulders stiffening. Kanda jerked his eyes up and clentched his chopsticks again.

"Is it any of your fucking business?" Kanda retorted, looking up at him with fire in his eyes.

"Well, if your going to ruin my lunch, then yes. It is my fucking business!"

Kanda then sat up, almost knocking over his tea.

"Look, you fucking Beansprout…" Kanda started, veins pulsating through his arms and hands. They both glared at each other, and the room seemed to just blow up in fire. Kanda kept his gaze, and so did Allen.

Then, Kanda backed down.

Lavi stared in disbelief as Kanda closed his eyes, took a deep breath and got out from the table. He grabbed his soba and his tea and began to walk away. Allen was seriously surprised to, since usually all their arguments ended up with a fist fight of some sort or swords and innocence-hands flying everywhere. It was beyond disbelief…beyond any kind of sick or twisted surprise that Cross had ever laid on him. If he could, his eyes could bulge out from his head. Kanda usually would smack him right in the face! But he didn't! Kanda just…backed down. His shoulders slouched, his body language calm again…just like some sort of water had just doused the flames that were burning up the whole aura between them. Before Kanda was completely out of sight, he turned around and looked at Allen.

Allen, wide eyed, saw the look in Kanda's eyes. It was like he was...sorry. Allen just let his mouth gape. The look wasn't sheepish, but it wasn't sad. It was just a glance, a small, insignificant glance, but that was all it took to amaze Allen. There was no words, no mouthing, but just one, simple look. Allen stared at the deep blue eyes before Kanda turned away and threw his food away, walking out of the cafeteria.

Lenalee growled and finished her food.

"Y'know, you guys might not know, but deep down inside, Kanda is just as good as a person as any of us!" she glared at Allen and Lavi. Allen was still trying to get over the look in Kanda's eyes. Did he just admit…somehow…that he was…sorry? Lavi sheepishly looked at Lenalee.

"Well, Kanda was the one that got angry at us." Lavi muttered, playing with his food. Allen still stood there, looking at the place where Kanda stood. He couldn't feel his hands. Time stood still, and so did he. He was still in disbelief. Kanda was…sorry….

"Well, this is all really your fault." She said, addressing Lavi. "You called him by his first name. You know he hates that."

"I'm his best friend! What did you expect?" he said, backing down like when a cat obeyed his master. Lenalee huffed.

Allen was still surprised. Getting ahold of himself, he cleaned up his food without another word and went out of the cafeteria too. He didn't notice Lavi's talking, or Lenalee's questions as he mindlessly went about his business. He walked out, the look on Kanda's face still burning in his thoughts. He didn't smile, didn't frown, but wondered. Why had he done that?

"Allen?" Lenalee called, troubled. Lavi looked at him as he walked away.

"Must be the food." He mumbled, finishing his plate.

Weeks and months had gone by, and more occurrences happened with Kanda again and again. One time, when Allen was alone in the library, he found Kanda in there too, 'reading a book'. He found him staring at him, but then Kanda looked away. He got up and left the place, just tossing the book to the librarian.

In another instance, Allen got a huge gash in his arm at a mission, and Kanda ripped part of his coat to help stop the bleeding. At the time, Allen just thought that Kanda was being realistic, just wanting no casualties so that he could maintain his perfect mission record, but Allen noticed later that the Kanda's whole ripped coat was laying there on his bed. There was a note that said, "Just keep it" that laid on top of it.

And in another instance, Kanda just flat out protected Allen when he was being tossed around by an unexpected, hard-leveled Akuma. Even though Allen could still fight, through his bloody arms and stained white hair, Kanda just shoved him to the floor and handled the Akuma by himself. He muttered something like, "Damn wealking.." but Allen didn't take notice to that.

Allen was starting to get extremely curious. What was with Kanda lately? He was being protective around him, especially around Lenalee, and was beginning to stop fighting with Allen all together. The Black Order never noticed it, but Allen did. Kanda was actually…being nice. Allen wasn't sure if he liked it.

One day, on a Sunday afternoon, Allen walked around the Black Order courtyard. It was half inside, half outside. It was filled with flowers and exotic plants, some that he had seen before and some he barley knew even existed. He wondered how the Black Order could afford this, let alone have time to build and maintain it, but Allen came to this place every time he needed to sort something out. For the past months, the only thing that was on his mind was Kanda. The niceness, the protectiveness, the kindness…he didn't know what any of it meant. He came to a flowery carved marble bench and sat down, looking out of the clear glass dome that surrounded it and looked at the bright blue sky. Usually, where he was, it was rainy and cloudy, but somehow today was just perfect. He needed this kind of weather.

Also, there was another thing that he needed to sort out.

Recently, Cross had told him that he was the Fourteenth. Well, not exactly the Fourteenth. His body was a capsule for him to live in, and apparently, it would consume him and he would let loose on everybody and kill them all. As much as Allen didn't want to believe it, Cross was mostly all the time right. He had already seen the mirrors of the Fourteenth, staring back at him evilly with the sadistic smile on his face. No one else could see it, and it creeped Allen out. What was he going to do? Everything in life just suddenly…didn't make sense.

Suddenly, someone was in the garden. He heard the door open…and then shut, with a locking click.

He stood up from the bench, looking towards the door. Down the dirt path that lead to the Black Order, and clear in black among the bright colors of flowers and bushes…

Was Kanda, standing there with a determined look on his face.

Allen blushed suddenly. Kanda looked…beautiful. His black hair was up, like it always was, but with the indoor air that blew in the place to keep it cool, it lifted his hair and it swayed to and fro. He wasn't wearing his coat, but he had a black long-sleeve shirt and was wearing the black Black Order pants. His long slender arms were hanging by his sides, and his cool blue eyes were searching the garden. He trailed his glance among the flowers, trees and little ponds. Allen hid behind a bush, grabbing his chest.

It was hotter then when Lenalee talked to him. What was going on? What the hell was this?!

"Where the fuck is he…" he heard Kanda mutter, his boots crunching the dirt path. It was growing closer to him when suddenly, it changed paths and he headed west. Allen let out a quiet breath of relief and peeked over the bushes. He needed to get out of here, away from Kanda. Whatever was going on inside of him, he assumed it was a sick acid stomach reaction to Kanda's face, he was now starting to feel a little faint and he needed to get to his room ASAP. But he saw Kanda walk back over to the door…and sit down. He smiled, grabbing out the book that he saw Kanda with at the library a month earlier.

"I know he came in," he started, propping his legs on top of a nearby rock. "So the only way is out."

Allen stopped breathing. That…that ..!

He slid back down behind the bushes, holding his throbbing head. Even though the sickness had reached his head and now it was starting to become a pain, there was another pain in the ass! Kanda!

That sick, demented imbecile! What was he trying to do, corner Allen? In a garden? He took a deep breath, getting some air into his lungs. He was just getting creepier by the week. …His chest got hotter.

What do I do now? Allen thought, running through his head some escape routes that he learned form being under Cross' care. Let's see….what did I do when I was trapped in a garden?

Oh yeah, that's right. I've never been trapped in a closed dome garden before.

Allen whined while keeping his voice low. What now? He looked around, only seeing the pure, clear glass ahead of him. There was a small clearing in front of him, with a semicircle that was made up of cobblestone rocks. A little fountain was ahead of him, with water trickling out. He stared at the water unknowingly, racking his mind for a solution.

Then, the pain hit his stomach…hard. He doubled over, pulling his knees up to his chest and throwing his head back. He gritted his teeth, trying not to scream. It felt like someone was slitting open his stomach and trying to take it inside out. He'd never felt like this before! He gripped his stomach, rocking back and forth to try and quiet himself down. The pain was intensifying! At a time like this!

Finally, he just gave up. The tearing and screeching inside his stomach was clawing through his stomach! He let out a pained moan, shoving his head inside the bush behind him, hoping it would somehow work as a silencer. Shut up shut up shut up! He thought, biting a branch inside the bush.

Confirming his fear, he heard footsteps trotting towards him. He held his stomach, still groaning. Oh God, he's freaking coming! He thought, turning his head to the side. He ended up scratching his pale face. Flinching, he felt a little, itty bitty drop of blood on his cheek. Oh great. Just what he needed.

He heard a chuckle next to him as the footsteps stopped right next to his jerking body. Allen clenched his stomach even harder, since the sickness seemed to expand inside his body. His legs had been kicking up and down, skidding on the ground or kneeing up towards his head that was pushed into a bush. He knew Kanda was next to him when a book slapped the ground, and he heard clothing scrunch like someone was crouching down.

"Beansprout, what the hell are you doing?" Kanda's deep, masculine voice said. Allen growled, his throat becoming dry. His chest was going to burn through his clothes!

Allen didn't answer. Rather, he just tried to calm down his body. It was like it was going into hyper-drive. Somehow, the fact that Kanda was there didn't freak him out anymore. The pain in his body was becoming more important than him. Letting out another groan, he whimpered at he tried to get out from inside the bush. He cried out a little when Kanda helped him by grabbing his shoulder and softly pulling him out, placing a gloved hand atop of his head so that no more branches would cut his face. As soon as he felt his forehead, Kanda flinched away.

"God Allen, your head is on fire!" he spat as Allen positioned himself on the ground. He placed his head on the cobblestone patio and let his head fall back. With his mouth open for air, Allen unzipped his jacket a little to get some heat off of his chest. It was horrible. He was sweating like a pig.

"Yo, Allen…"Kanda muttered, looking down at him. He didn't look like he was having fun. Allen's eyes was closed, and his white hair stuck to his face messily. His arms were gripping his chest tightly, and his legs were always repositioning, going from laying flat on the floor to kneeing up. He was groaning in pain, rocking his head from side to side. Even though he needed air, he clenched his teeth from time to time. Kanda stared at him with a blank expression on his face.

"Stop…" Allen whimpered, opening one of his eyes. "…looking at me." He could barley get out the last word without taking another deep breath. Kanda just sighed.

"How can I not look at you…"Kanda whispered under his breath, kneeling down next to Allen. Allen couldn't hear through his ringing ears.

Out of nowhere, Allen felt a cold, bare hand on top of his head. Allen opened his eyes, glancing at Kanda. Holding a glove in his hand, he saw Kanda's arm outstretched toward his face and a hand on top of his forehead. Allen let out a relieved sigh, the coolness of his hand spreading throughout his head. It felt so good, so much that he placed his hot hands on top of Kanda's to keep his hand there. Kanda almost jerked away, but then stayed. Then, another hand was placed on his cheek. Allen gasped, smiling.

Allen said, covering his eyes, "Your hands feel good…" He didn't know what he was saying! He just forgot that Kanda was the one that was holding his head in his hands. The heat that was inside of him raged on, but he just couldn't fathom how great the coolness of someone's cold hands felt on his face. Subconsciously, he kept on smiling.

Kanda just stared at Allen's lips as they moved to make the sentence. But he didn't hear him. He just focused on the heat of the boy's body. He couldn't even imagine the hell what must have been going inside his stomach. Taking his hand off of Allen's cheek, he slowly made way for Allen's neck.

As soon as Kanda's fingertips touched Allen's neck, Allen let out a huge sigh. He held Kanda's hand there as he did his forehead. Kanda took advantage of the situation and placed both hands on Allen's collarbone. Allen shivered while groaning, but not as loud as before. It sort of sounded like he was trying to breathe, or to talk. Kanda tilted his head back, thinking of the opportunity. This was one weird situation to be in. He finally got the chance to hand Allen alone in a room, a garden, and he was cooling him down with the ice of his fingertips. Lowering his head, he got a closer look at Allen. His bangs lightly touched Allen's forehead, swaying to and fro. His face was pale, with the same red scar that he had seen over and over again and again. His white, damp hair clinged to his forehead, and his eyes were closed. He let out an accidental cool breath. Stiffening, he instantly wish he could take it back. Soon, he's goanna remember whose the one cooling him down and freak out.

Turns out, soon was coming on quick. Allen shot open his eyes and shot his eyes towards Kanda. Kanda backed his hands away and gloved them, standing up quickly. Allen backed away, leaning on his arms for support. He still couldn't feel his legs, but he backed away so repulsively. Kanda didn't let the notion get to him. He got to see Allen's face…

"Holy crap, what the heck were you doing?!" Allen growled, his eyes wide. He started breathing heavy again. The heat came back, and his head started spinning again.

"Doin' you a favor." Kanda growled in reply, looking condescendingly down towards him. Allen held his head.

"Don't…ever…" his eyes fluttered. "do that…again…"

Allen passed out on the floor, blacking out.

"Oh shit!" Kanda said, rushing to Allen's side.