Summary: Trying to escape your past is hard, but trying to start fresh at a new high school is even harder than you think. But out of all the problems in the world and all the troubles life brings, there's only one person that's able to dig down into his skin and make him re-evaluate his input on life.../Laven AU/

A/N: I've recently reconnected with this show, and just out of the blue, I had to right this. This was an idea I had for a while, and was supposed to be for the Kingdom Hearts fandom (oops), but with Lavi's charismatic charm and Allen's innocent personality, I decided to rewrite the whole thing where it would fit for the character of -Man. And not to mention, this shiping is too cute! I HAD to write about it! w

The school bell's high chirped ring echoed throughout the school campus, signalling the weary and unmotivated students that it was time to head back to class after a relaxing forty-five minutes worth of lunch and chatter. Many groaned, not really wanting to have to put up with lousy teachers and unnecessary class work, but their legs objected to their teenage angst and headed them straight towards the dull buildings of Black Order High, where their dreams were crushed and souls broken.

The school lunch yard was nearly deserted, only a few janitors and hurrying students out and about for whatever business they had, but like any other high school, you had your fair share of students who decided that their free time was more important than education. Lavi Bookman just so happened to be one of them, covertly hiding behind one of the vending machines that had broken down a few weeks ago caused by some idiot who had shook the hunk of metal while trying to earn himself a free bag of chips. That idiot was also him, but he was successful in obtaining a bag of Cool Ranch Doritos that day.

Once a decent amount of time had passed, the junior cautiously made his way out of his hiding spot, surveying the area to make sure that nobody important (a.k.a- the school principal) was around to catch him in the act of ditching. To his relief, only a few wandering students were left, and really, who had the time and energy to tattle on a student for something stupid? For now, the redhead was in the clear, and heaved a heavy sigh of relief. He made his way out of his hiding spot, and pulled out a pack of Marlboro cigarettes.

Once again, Lavi had cheated the school system, and had no shame in admitting it. It was always pleasing to see the irritated faces of the school staff when entering the office for the umpteenth time, or hearing the bored, helpless groans of the detention teachers as Lavi purposely rambled on about stupid things to make their day absolutely miserable. One of the staff members even quitted because she couldn't handle the extreme package that was labeled Lavi Bookman.

He inhaled the cigarette ashes and savored the burning sensation in his lungs. He exhaled the smoke long and slow, admiring the haze that faded into the baby blue sky.

Yep, the redhead was such a rebel, and didn't give a rat's ass about it. In his eyes, there was some sort of huge advantage that came along with being the bad boy, and since his freshman year, he had grown used to it.

"Destroying your body with those cancerous sticks, I see."

The remark threw Lavi out of his train of thoughts, the sudden voice scaring him slightly. His head whipped around to fortunately meet a familiar, not-so-authority like face, and his signature grin was immediately placed onto his face. "Such a hypocrite, Tyki. If you wanted one yourself, all you had to do was ask." The rebel pulled out his pack of cigarettes from his pocket, and handed a white stick to his friend. "If you also need a lighter, just come out with it."

Tyki returned the smile, and took the cigarette out of his buddy's hand. "You know I'm not one for simple talk. Besides, you seem to get what I mean without much trouble." The dark haired male sat down on the floor, his back relaxing against the wall behind him. He set the cigarette's bud aflame, joining Lavi in his daily ditching spree. "So, what's the news on you? Anything interesting happen to you lately?"

"Nah, just the usual crap." The other answered, taking a break from the cigarette's toxic smoke. "Got in trouble by the principal yesterday; caught me not paying attention in class. So, as usual, I spent the rest of the day in his office as he went on lecturing me about the importance of education and why I should save the naps for later." He chuckled, blowing some stray hair strands out of his face. "But you know me- I'm not the kind of person to listen and act like the 'good student' the school expects me to be." After taking one last drag, he threw his cigarette to the ground, his foot crushing it to let the smoke die out. His head turned to face his Portuguese friend, arms resting behind his head as he let his back hit the wall. "So what's on you? Did ya hear anything good lately?"

Tyki's eyes looked up to the sky, his mind trying to wrap around any good news he had heard in the last three days. When he was able to dig something out, he hummed, "Well, there's really not much on me. Other than school work and family matters, I've honestly got nothing...except..." His mouth curled into a smirk, a small, dragged out 'oh' escaping his lips. "Oh yeah, forgot to tell you- there is this new kid here, and I hear he's pretty unique."

"Unique, huh..." Lavi let that word sink in a bit before deciding to push his friend for more details. "What's so unique about the guy?"

"I haven't seen the kid myself, but rumor has it that he had snow white hair and this odd red scar on his left eye. He also tends to wear gloves a lot, even though we're in the middle of the hottest days of the year. The only thing I can say with confidence is that he's a sophomore." Tyki took a long time taking a smoke from his cigarette, and Lavi, even though he had heard so little of the new kid, was wishing to hear more about the odd student. "I swear, there's something special about this guy. Makes me wanna see if the rumors are true...but then again, it's just high school gossip. Nothing good comes out of that."

"Tell me about it." Lavi laughed, and soon after, so did Tyki. Just as their short laughing fit had ended, the sound of shoes hitting against the pavement caught their attention. With curiosity piquing their interest, the two juniors turned their heads to the source of the noise, and to their surprise caught sight of someone unique. "Hey, isn't that-"

Before Lavi could even finish his sentence, a body slammed right into him, causing both him and the stranger to fall to the floor. The redhead groaned, a growing pain emanating from his lower back, and suddenly felt anger towards his 'attacker' building up in his blood. And of course, Lavi had a tendency to react before thinking. "Owwww, watch where you're going, you little-"

Again, Lavi had stopped mid-sentence, but only did so because the other had caught his interest. There were many distinguishable traits about the guy, other than the fact that he lacked a sense of surrounding, but the one thing that immediately caught Lavi's attention was the white hair that was resting on his chest. Another noticeable feature was the red scar that was embedded into the young face before him, which currently held the expression of both pain and worry mixed in one. And lastly, emerald eyes caught the sight of leather, black gloves preserving the stranger's pale hands (Lavi only predicted that his hands were pale due to the fact that the kid was the male version of an albino Snow White).

Lavi couldn't believe it. Just minutes before, him and Tyki were talking about the rumors on this guy, and now out of pure coincidence, Lavi had the opportunity to meet the kid who had previously, and currently, caught his curiosity. Sure, the kid slammed his body into his with full force, but nonetheless this was completely out of the blue. This was...This was...

"Ahhh! I'm so sorry! I-I didn't mean to push you to the ground like that! I promise you I didn't mean it!"

Loud. This was very, very loud. In the background, Lavi could hear Tyki sniggering while the kid stuttered on, and so the rabbit sent a death glare to his friend that plainly read 'laugh one more time or else I'll shove that cigarette up your tan ass'.

It was only until the stanger's stuttering got louder did Lavi realize that he was still being grounded by said unknown stranger's weight. Lavi spoke quickly before the poor kid's rambling session could go on any further, interrupting the nonsense with a cough. "Hey, it's okay! Really! You must've been in a hurry to get to class, and I don't blame you for it." He sent his most kindest smile towards the other in hopes of showing peace, but for a moment, Lavi found himself lost in the grey orbs that were delicately placed on the boy's colorless face. They looked lively, yet filled with constant worry and weariness. The redhead wondered what could cause such an innocent kid to feel so much stress until he realized that he had embarrassingly been letting an awkward silence dwell in the air for the longest time.

And that he was still underneath the other boy.

Lavi blushed slightly, immediately breaking eye contact with the timid kid, and scratched the back of his head out of sheer humiliation. "Ahem. So...You wanna get off me now, or...?"

"Ahhh! I'm very, very sorry!"

It took about three minutes to calm the kid down, and when Lavi succeeded in doing so, he helped the boy up to his feet, even though the boy's knees were shaking vigorously and looked like he could fall over any minute. He extended his hand as he attempted to make a decent introduction, and put up that gentle smile once more. "So, now that that's out of the way, I'm La-"

"Allen Walker. Pleasure to meet you. By any chance, do you happen to know where room 32a is?"

Wow, rude. The junior thought sourly, and pulled his hand back to his side. Still, the boy, who was finally known as Allen, seemed to be in a big rush, and appeared desperate to make it to the remaining minutes of his current class. So, like any benevolent person in the world would do, Lavi pointed towards the building opposite to the trio. "Towards that building, three doors down to your left-"

"Thank you!" And with that hasty show of gratitude, the sophomore was up and running to his next class, even though he was 20 minutes late and fourth period was to end in fifteen minutes. Lavi only watched as Allen ran, confused and surprised by the boy's unusual nature.

"Well..." The redhead turned to meet Tyki, who had a rather amused smile on his face. Lavi, on the other hand, was utterly confused. "Guess that was the new kid we were talking about."

"It appears so." Tyki hummed. "And just as I thought..."

Lavi raised an crimson eyebrow to add to his confused look. "'And just as you thought' what?"

Tyki merely took a quick glance to his perplexed friend before taking one more hit of his cigarette, his entertained smile slowly growing into a large grin as the smoke wafted out of his nostrils and teeth. "Just as I thought, that kid is adorable. We should really get to know him some more, don't you think?"

A/N: And that's that! The first chapter of A Rather Dangerous Waltz! To be honest, I really had no idea on what to name this story, so I just chose the first thing that came to mind. Might change it later, but then again, most work-in-progress titles tend to stay permanent without meaning to...

Also, since I am currently re-affiliating myself with -Man, the character portrayals may seem off, or just absolutely unlike themselves. I apologize in advance if I make a character appear too OOC, such as Tyki Mikk and Lavi in this chapter, and will fix this once I am fully confident in me writing the characters in different situations.

Well, I guess that's it. Pretty proud of myself for writing this in three hours, and right now, It's 4:35 am (SLEEP IS FOR THE WEAK BWUAHAHA). I know I had quite a few grammar errors and sentence structure problems, so could you guys offer any comments on the story so far? Thank you! :)

~heartsbren