Sorry about taking so long to update. I've been really busy and haven't really had a chance to write much. Hope you enjoy and please review!

"And who's this?"

Krory frowned, not quite remembering this name. "Uhh... A… ndrew?"

Komui flipped the card around. "No, Allen. Close, though. This?" He turned to the next card.

Krory smiled. This name he would never forget. "Miss Miranda Lotto…"

"Correct!" Komui flipped the card. "And this?"

"L-L-Lenalee!" Komui frowned, turned the card around, then a dangerous gleam entered his eye.

"That's not Lenalee!" he growled. "That's K-"

"No!" Krory pointed at the door. "Lenalee!"

"Brother!" Komui turned around, startled.

"Yes, my dear sister?" He turned back to Krory with a smile. "You got that right, by the way."

"What are you doing?" Lenalee frowned.

"I thought that perhaps stimulation would prompt the return of his memories. I think it's working." Komui turned to the next card, forgetting that Krory hadn't attempted to identify that one yet. "Who's this?"

"Erm… L-Lavi?" Krory sounded very uncertain.

"How long have you been at this?" Lenalee folded her arms.

"Oh, no more than a few hours, I assure you," Komui smiled, turning the card around. Then his smile turned to a frown. "No, that's Jeryy."

"And we still haven't made it all the way through the deck!" For some reason that Krory didn't understand, this seemed to almost annoy Lenalee. However, though he had been the one that had made the comment, her feelings seemed to be directed at Komui.

Komui held up yet another card. Krory sighed. This game was starting to lose its appeal... "Who's this?"

"Ah... um... I... don't know?"

Komui turned the card so that he could see it. "It's Reever."

"Oh." Krory shifted on the bed, trying to get some feeling back into his legs that had fallen asleep long ago.

"And this?" The tall man suppressed a yawn; this game really wasn't fun anymore. He turned his eyes back to the card. "Miranda Lotto," he purred.

Komui straightened happily, taking a futile glance at his annoyed younger sister. "See? He's getting better!" He whipped another card out, "Who's this?"

Squinting, Krory frowned. The other names had been somewhat easy once he'd gotten used to them... but this was a face he hadn't seen before. "That's not fair," he pouted, "I've never seen him before." The tall man slumped. "I don't like this game. It's not fun."

A bead of sweat rolled down Komui's forehead as he finally realized the grim truth of the matter. "Uhhh..." He looked back at the card, then at Lenalee, who glowered over him. "It's Johnny Gill... Ow!"

Lenalee, still holding the clipboard she'd taken from her brother's desk, frowned, "His memory's going to return on its own. And even if it doesn't, there's no use drilling him like this."

Komui pulled his beret over the bright red swelling lump on his forehead. "Fine..." he sighed unhappily.

"You mean I can go?" He looked at Komui with the expression of a hopeful puppy. Komui sighed, putting down his cards and slumping, obviously dismayed that his technique for getting Krory to remember things wasn't working.

"I suppose," was all he had the chance to say before Krory was off the hospital bed and on his way out the door.

"Oh, I won't forget this! Thank you, uh," Krory struggled to remember the card that had had Hat Man's face on it, "…Komui."

Lenalee shook her head and sighed.

The second Krory got in the halls, he started looking around frantically, whirling almost in circles. Ever since he'd seen that Miranda Lotto, he'd wanted to talk to her, but he'd never actually gotten a chance. It didn't occur to him that he didn't even know what he'd wanted to say, but that would come later-

"Oof!" Suddenly, his face was on the floor. He looked up, startled, to see nobody. Looking back behind him, he saw the problem: with all his spinning around, he'd gotten his foot caught on the end of his long cloak. Straightening, he dusted himself off before resuming his search.

"Oh, Krory, you're up!"

The tall exorcist whipped around, careful not to fall this time, to see that one white-haired kid… what had his name been?

"I see that Komui has finally lightened up, huh?" The kid was grinning at him in a friendly manner; he must have known him well before. What had his name been? "Well, Krory, I'm on my way to the cafeteria. Do you want to come along?"

Krory blinked, intrigued by the thought of this new place. Well, he decided, Miranda Lotto would have to wait, unfortunately. "Sure!" He paused a moment in thought. "Uh… Alvin?"

'Alvin' laughed a moment. "It's Allen, but close. What is it?"

"Do you know where Miss Miranda Lotto might be?" He would need to know after his trip to the cafeteria, wherever that was.

"Miranda?" Alvin-turned-Allen scratched the back of his head in thought. "I don't know, probably in her room. Why?"

"Just curious." He gave an innocent toothy grin.

A sudden very loud noise interrupted his thoughts; he jumped in surprise. "W-what was that?" He was hiding behind Allen, crouching so his tall frame would fit behind the smaller boy's. Allen just laughed. "It's your stomach, Krory. Let's get you some food," he smiled.


"Ooh! What are these?" Krory grinned, bent over to look at the items on the menu and pointing enthusiastically at a small dish of pastries. "They look delicious!"

Allen leaned over to look. "Those are cream puffs… but you might want to wait on those until dessert. Sugar on an empty stomach can make you sick, you know."

Krory wilted. "B-but…" His eyes scanned the rest of the menu, and he shook his head. "No, I'll be fine, I promise!"

"I don't think that's such a good-" But Krory was already gone, in front of Jeryy and nodding dramatically.

"Yes, I'd like twenty orders of cream puffs! Quickly, please!" Jeryy nodded and left to get his order.

Krory grinned, proud of himself for having ordered for the first time that he could remember, then walked back over to Allen, who sighed, shaking his head and smiling ever so slightly.

After what seemed like hours later, Krory was still slurping pastry sauce off of his de-gloved hands. Although both Allen and Krory had parasitic-type Innocences and consequently had huge appetites, there was a major contrast in the way they ate. While Allen scarfed down all of his food like it was the only food he'd be able to have in a week, Krory preferred to sample his somewhat carefully… after all, it was his first time remembering tasting it, so he might as well enjoy it, he thought.

So, long after the pastries had been ordered, they were finally finished; Krory sat back with content and sighed, closing his eyes. There was no better feeling, he decided, than a full stomach. Especially after being so hungry.

"Hey, Allen, what's up?" His sharp ears picked up the sound of that… that… he racked his brain trying to come up with a name for the voice, but no answers came. Cautiously, he peeked his eyes open. Yep, that had been the face he was picturing: A flop of red hair atop a green headband, and strewn across one eye was an eye patch. But… he couldn't remember this person's name. Oh well… Eye Patch Kid sat next to Allen; he closed his eyes again, almost comfortable enough to fall asleep.

"Um…" Another voice, this one female, woke him up. Again he peeked an eye open, and bolted upright. Standing before him was the one person who he'd been trying to think about since he got up!

"Miranda Lotto!" This exclamation came out sounding like a rather excited yelp, and he blushed slightly. Her cheeks mirrored his, turning a shade of pink at the sudden attention.

"Ahem… sorry… I… uh…." He scratched the back of his neck. "Hi, that is," he added.

"…Hi. Um, Komui wanted to check up on you…"

"Not Hat Man!" With that, the tall man leapt up, nearly knocking over the table, and tried to literally hide behind Miranda. "He s-s-scares me… I mean…."

Miranda, at a loss for words, blinked in surprise.

"Come on, Kro-chan, you're scaring the poor woman!" Eye Patch Kid laughed.

Krory stood straight reluctantly, looking over his shoulders for the evil 'Hat Man'. "Sorry," he chuckled. A smile appeared on Miranda's face.

"I understand," she laughed, "I know exactly what you mean..." The look in her eyes told way more than her mouth was; she was remembering countless Komlins or other of Komui's various horrors. Like her precious clock being massacred to make her anti-akuma weopon…

Krory didn't know that, though, of course. Having only awakened not too long ago, he didn't know how to read expressions at all, much less know what a Komlin was. That being said, he saw her expression as something else entirely… fear.

"N-n-no, don't be afraid! There's nothing to be afraid of…!" He trailed off, biting his lip unconsciously.

"Oh, it's no problem," she smiled. "I'm not afraid, just remembering…"

"...Oh…"

In the background, Lavi elbowed Allen, pointing at the two across the table and grinning. Allen saw him, looked at the two adults talking, and rolled his eyes at Lavi.

"Do I really have to go see him," Krory gulped, looking at the floor.

Miranda giggled. "Of course not! He just wanted to know how you were feeling." Krory breathed a giant sigh of relief.

"Oh. I feel fine," he said, and she nodded, turning to leave. She made it as far as about Kanda's table, which was halfway to the door, and then…

"Wooooaaaahh aaaaaaaaaahhhh!" Her foot skidded in something that had spilled on the floor, and Miranda went flying across the cafeteria. Krory's eyes widened, and he ran as fast as he could to catch her before she ended up hitting the floor.

Miranda saw the floor rushing up to greet her face, and she squeezed her eyes shut, preparing herself for the impact.

It never came.

Cautiously, she opened an eye. The floor was about two inches from her face, but she wasn't falling any further. It was then that she felt the hands around her waist and stomach slowly pulling her up. She turned around to see the black-and-white-haired Exorcist smiling back at her. A tiny red tint graced his cheeks.

"You were falling," he said obviously. "I caught you."

"T-t-thank you!" She blushed furiously, fully aware that his hands were around her waist. Never had she been in such close proximity with a male…

However, naïve Krory didn't even know the significance of what he was doing. He pulled her upward so they were standing. "You really should be more careful," he smiled.

"Uh, yeah, thank you," Miranda stuttered, then made her way awkwardly out the cafeteria double doors.

(A/N: This isn't actually a memory, just something that had happened earlier.)

"Grandfather, what's a friend?" Eight-year-old Arystar fidgeted nervously with the red ball in his hands.

The bearded man whipped around, not angrily, but with worry. "Where did you hear that word, Arystar?"

The little boy looked down, the white streak covering one eye. "I… I was in the garden, tending to your flowers when I saw a group of boys hiding among them. I saw that one had kicked a ball toward me, so I picked it up to give it back to them, but they all started screaming and ran away. One of them tripped and fell, but they didn't wait for him… I heard him yell… something like 'Some friends you are!' …But I don't know what that is… So what's a friend?"

Grandfather sighed, staring at the inside of his own white streak a moment before answering. "A friend is… a person who somebody talks to a lot. Usually they spend a lot of time with them. Useless."

Little Arystar blinked. "Why?"

"They usually don't do what they say. Humans are senseless creatures…" Grandfather took the watering can and began watering various plants.

"But, Grandfather? Aren't we human?"

The old man's gaze fell sadly to the window. "Not according to them. But they don't matter. And neither do friends."

"Yes, Grandfather." Arystar nodded, staring at the ball.

"The only thing that will truly bring you happiness is to live in this castle and take care of my wondrous plants with me."

"Yes, Grandfather."

Grandfather's eyes turned to Krory suspiciously. "You're positive you got rid of those brats in my garden?"

"Yes, Grandfather." Not on purpose.

"Good."

Krory stared at the doorway for a few minutes after that; though she was already gone, he stood there, still as a rock. A strange feeling tugged at his heart, as if a cloud of euphoria had made him giddy with glee and paralyzed at the same time…

"Hey, Krory," Lavi said, popping up behind him, "are you just gonna stand there all day or what?" The older man jumped suddenly, having been startled by Lavi's sudden presence.

"Oh, uh, um," Krory faltered. "Heh, I'm done eating… so I'm just going to, you know, find my… room…" And with that he was all but running out the door. He paused a moment just outside, looked both ways, then hurriedly chose the same path that Miranda had.

Allen, beside Lavi, frowned. "Does he even know where his room is?"

Lavi shrugged. "Nope. But I don't think that's what he's lookin' for, if you know what I mean." His eye gleamed and he laughed.

"Wait! Miranda!" With his long legs, it had taken him little time to catch up with Miranda at a running speed. She stopped and turned around, somewhat bewildered.

"Yes? What is it?"

"I, I, I, uh," Krory looked at the floor. "Don't know where my room is. Could you… maybe help me?"

Miranda had to keep a smile from pushing up the corners of her lips. "Well, I'm not very good at finding things…" With one glance at his crestfallen expression she added, panicked, "But I could try!"

An overjoyed grin pushed his mouth upward, and they went down the halls together, looking at various doors and trying to remember which was correct. "Perhaps it's this one?" They stopped at a door that looked exactly like the other ones.

Miranda knocked on it just to be certain. A deep voice from within the room growled, "What the hell do you want?"

Both pairs of eyes widened and Miranda stammered, "Uh, um, n-n-nothing, K-Kanda!"

Before he could say another word, they were both running as fast as they could down the halls of the Order, terrified for their lives. Krory's long legs carried him farther than Miranda's own clumsy ones, so when Krory started to notice that Miranda was lagging behind a little, he grabbed her hand without a second thought, so they could keep running.

They raced wordlessly like that, holding hands, for a long time; after a while, it wasn't out of fear but fun. Krory started to quietly chuckle, and that made Miranda giggle, which made Krory burst out laughing entirely. Miranda started laughing too, and because of that, she wasn't paying attention to where they were going and tripped over her feet. This sent them both sprawling on the floor.

"Did you see the way we ran?" Krory laughed, holding his head. Miranda, beside him, giggled, clutching her wrist she'd fallen on.

"Yeah… we're chickens!" A slight pause, then they both started laughing some more.

"He didn't even threaten us!" Krory gasped for air, then added with a smile, trying to calm down, "We thought his room was mine!"

Suddenly, he straightened up, still sitting on the floor. His eyes widened as he looked around. "Uh, Miranda? Do you know where we are?"

Miranda turned her gaze on all the unfamiliar doors. They didn't even look like people's rooms… "No…"

Their smiles faded as they looked into each other's eyes.

They were lost.