A/N: Guess who wrote the second chapter~

First of all, I would like to thank everyone who favorited, followed, and reviewed this story. Your support means a lot to me and I love the fact that people are reading this and taking the time to type out a review. Thank you all! *bows*

Next thing, this is never happening again. I will never again update this quickly. The only reason I am is that I had 3/4 of this chapter written out when I posted the first one. Think of this as a late Thanksgiving present. Give your thanks to me (JK, JK).

... and yeah, that's all I have to really say. This chapter is more of a filler than anything else so try to enjoy it. Sorry, I hate fillers too but this one is kind of necessary.

Disclaimer: Cari-Chan does not own D. Gray-Man or any of its characters (though I wish I did). Cari-Chan makes no profit off of this story.

Warnings: Some swearing and self-depreciating thoughts.

Enjoy~


Allen hurriedly closed the door to the bathroom stall, placed his back against the cinderblock wall to his right, and slumped down until he was sitting on the ground.

What the hell had just happened? That Lavi guy had just talked to him. Not only that, but the redhead had invited Allen to eat lunch with him. Allen had hardly been at school for a week and he knew two things for certain: first of all, no one liked him. Any student that would even try to be friendly with him was immediately discouraged by his silence and if not that, then his or her own friends would steer them away. Secondly, the person that was trying to talk to Allen was Lavi Bookman. Even Allen knew that Lavi was the most popular student in the entire school. During his summer term English class, Allen had heard every single girl — even ones that were in a relationship — gossip and swoon over this Lavi Bookman.

Allen had never thought much of it, but he had heard the name enough times to have it embedded in his brain. That's why when a redhead with an eye patch came in and announced that his name was Lavi Bookman, Allen figured that he would be like all the other popular teens and harass him.

But Allen was wrong. Lavi had tried to talk to him. And even though Allen could see through the fake smiles and forced cheeriness, the junior didn't do anything that was rude or demeaning. Yes, Lavi had touched his left arm, but it wasn't like the redhead had known about it. And if he had, then it hadn't been an intentional method of bullying the white haired boy, that much Allen could tell.

And when Allen had finally responded to Lavi out of a smidgen of guilt, the redhead hadn't done anything other than say that Allen was British, which was a true fact and in no way offensive. So Allen had decided to lend a hand to the most popular kid in school and had received tons of grateful smiles for it.

When class had ended, Allen had assumed that everything was over. But no, Lavi Bookman had decided to engage in idle chitchat with the freak of the school. The redhead had reintroduced himself like Allen hadn't known about his major popularity and had then teased the Brit for his accent. But it wasn't mean. It was more of a friendly type of teasing than anything else. Then Lavi had invited him to lunch. And Allen had ran off because he had been, admittedly, terrified to pieces about the offer.

That led him to where he was now, curled up into a ball with his backpack digging into him from behind. Why would Lavi want to talk to him, let alone be around him longer than necessary? Even if the redhead had decided that Allen was halfway decent to talk to, he probably wouldn't risk his popularity for the sake of befriending the weirdest kid in school.

Oh. Allen blinked twice before his body relaxed. That was why. Lavi didn't know about Allen's little reputation. That was the only reason that Lavi had been nice, the only reason that the two had been friendly to each other, and the only reason Lavi asked Allen to eat lunch with him. The junior just didn't know. Then again, how could he? Allen was a freshman and had only moved into the neighborhood during late June. There was no way that Lavi would have an inkling as to who he was unless the redhead's friends had told him about Allen, which was doubtful.

Allen sighed to himself. He knew that it had been too good to be true. The only other plausible reason the most popular student would want to hang put with him would be if Lavi wanted to trick the Brit into some sort of embarrassing scenario where everyone would laugh at him. Fortunately, Allen had gotten uncannily good at telling whether some one was faking or being sincere, lying or telling the truth.

Well, now Lavi would probably find out that Allen was to be ridiculed and beaten, not to talk and laugh with. The junior wouldn't want to exchange friendly words with the Brit now. Allen only hoped that Lavi would remember who had helped him on his first day back and have some form or mercy during any future beatings.

Feeling better now that he knew what was going on now (and worse since he knew that the whole thing was over), Allen allowed himself to sit up on the bathroom floor and take his lunch out of his backpack. He always packed a ham sandwich, a bag of chips, and a bottle of water for lunch at school. A small lunch, yes, but later he would go and get some of Jeryy's mitarashi dango for dinner in the small café that was a block or two away from school. Just thinking about the man's cooking caused Allen's stomach to growl in apprehension. The Brit chuckled to himself. His stomach always had been a black hole.

Basking in the quiet around him, Allen inhaled his meager lunch and kept his mind focused on the near future and the promise of his favorite food.

.:*~*:..:*~*:..:*~*:..:*~*:..:*~*:.

Unknown to Allen, the same redhead that plagued his thoughts was thinking of the snow haired Brit.

Lavi took a bite out of the peanut butter and jelly sandwich he had hastily made after the panda had woken him up. Allen was so weird! Not the bad kind of weird that the junior had originally thought, though. Allen was the awesome/interesting kind of weird. Lavi supposed he probably should have been more upset with the fact that Allen had pretty much fled when the redhead offered to get lunch together, but Lavi couldn't bring himself to feel any resentment towards the smaller teen.

Currently, Lavi was sitting in the school cafeteria with his friends. He had talked to Mr. Yeegar about the class and now had a few make up assignments to complete, but it was nothing that bad.

"Hey," Lavi looked up at Daisya as the brunet spoke, "I heard that you talked to the Cursed Clown."

"Who?" Lavi fixed his friend with a weird look. "I don't know any 'Cursed Clowns'…"

"What?" Daisya looked confused now, too. "The Cursed Clown, you know, the kid that's an evil demon spawn? The one that is always sulking and plotting death in the corners of the room? Rumor has it that he killed his own father."

Lavi nearly choked on his sandwich. "Dude, that's a horrible thing to say about someone, even if they're a total asshole! Who the hell kills their dad?"

"Apparently this kid did," Daisya shrugged, "but don't worry. I'll point him out to you later so that you know what to look out for."

"Hm, thanks," Lavi hummed as he finished off the last of his lunch. This was his first time hearing about this Cursed Clown, but the junior wanted to avoid someone that people accused of killing their own kin. Yeah, he got pissed at Bookman all of the time, but Lavi would never dream of killing his grandfather.

This Cursed Clown must be one sick little fucker.

"So how as your first day back?" Lenalee asked Lavi. "Do you like your teachers so far?"

Lavi shrugged. "I got here in the middle of second period so I only met my English teacher. His name is Mr. Yeegar."

"What?" Daisya gave Lavi a weak glare, "Mr. Yeegar is probably one of the best teachers!"

Lavi smirked. "Well, then my hatred for the class he teaches balances out well, doesn't it? Although…"

"Although, what?" Lenalee leaned forward towards Lavi from the other side of the lunch table. "What happened?"

Lavi shrugged, a faint smile on his lips. "I didn't know what was going on, ya know? So I had to look off of another kid's notes. He seemed pretty shy, but he's really nice."

"Aw, that sounds precious," Lenalee sighed happily. "I want to meet him now. What's his name?"

"Allen," Lavi grinned as he added, "he's British too. His accent is perfect."

Lenalee squealed and Kanda tched at her. "I really want to meet him now!"

Kanda rolled his eyes. "It sounds stupid to me. Who cares about some dumb accent?"

"Kanda, be nice!" Lenalee instantly switched from fangirl mode to scolding mode. Lavi and Daisya started to laugh at the sudden change in the Chinese girl.

Ah, Lavi enjoyed the time he spent with his friends. Maybe, Lavi thought to himself, maybe I can get Allen to laugh along with us, too.

Lavi cut off his laughter and shook his head slightly. Where the hell had that thought come from? Whatever, he kinda wanted to be Allen's friend anyway so it wasn't like he had thought anything that odd.

Lavi smiled to himself. He hoped that he could talk to Allen again today.

.:*~*:..:*~*:..:*~*:..:*~*:..:*~*:.

Much to the redhead's disappointment, he wasn't able to see the mysterious boy from his English class for the rest of the day. And even though Daisya stuck next to him for whole school day, the soccer player wasn't able to spot the Cursed Clown of Black Order High School. Lavi didn't mind the latter of the two, but the first part bugged him.

As soon as the bell rang announcing the end of school, Lavi sprang up from his seat and raced to the front office as fast as he could. He knocked over a few other students in the process but hey, he had to get there before Bookman arrived at school or there would be hell to pay.

"Reever!" Lavi yelled has he all but crashed into the secretary's desk.

The blonde snapped his head up and stared at Lavi with wide eyes. "What's wrong?"

"Can you look up a student's profile for me? I wanna look up someone in my English class." Lavi asked, the words tumbling out of his mouth so fast that they were almost incoherent.

"Why?"

"I'll explain later, but I need you to tell me before the panda gets here!"

Reever cast the junior an odd glance but nodded all the same. "Come back here and I'll show you."

Lavi grinned and darted around the long wooden desk so that he was next to Reever's computer. Ah, the advantages of being friend with the school's secretary.

"What student do you want to know about?" Reever asked.

"His named is Allen Walker," Lavi told him and the secretary started to type in the name.

A few moments later, Allen's student information was up on the screen.

"Let's see," Reever scrolled through the page, "he's a freshman and he took an English course over the summer." After a bit more scrolling and reading, the secretary added, "And it looks like his birthday is on Christmas."

"Wait, he's a freshman?" Lavi asked incredulously. How was Allen taking a junior level English class in ninth grade?

Reever nodded. "Like I said, he took an English course over the summer… maybe he was already a year ahead before that? I'm not sure. It doesn't say anything about it on his records."

Lavi read Allen's transcript over Reever's shoulder. There was hardly any information on the Brit since he was a freshman and the school year had just begun. It seemed that Allen's only advanced class was English (two years was a huge leap!) as all of the other classes were base level for ninth graders.

"His birthday is on Christmas?" Lavi questioned, causing Reever to scroll up to see it.

"Looks like it," the secretary confirmed.

"That's so cool!" Lavi grinned. "He must get twice the presents! That lucky bastard."

Reever smiled before he glanced at the clock. "Lavi, you should get going soon."

"What, why — oh shit I'm fucking late!"

Lavi probably ran fast enough to beat the world record and Reever didn't even bother to correct the junior for his foul language. No, Reever was too busy laughing to bother.

.:*~*:..:*~*:..:*~*:..:*~*:..:*~*:.

Allen's feet fell silently on the sidewalk as he made the trek to his house. He had already stopped at the Exorcist Café ("It's called that because we vanquish your hunger, sweetie!" Jeryy would always tell him) and picked up his mitarashi dango from the eccentric cook. Jeryy had always been nice to Allen, complimenting the freshman on his manners and his accent. The cook genuinely like Allen and Allen couldn't say that he didn't enjoy the attention.

That's why he was always extra careful around Jeryy. It the man knew what Allen really looked like, what he really was, Allen was sure that Jeryy would hate him.

Just like everyone else.

Oh well, no use to dwell on depressing thoughts. Something positive, something positive… he hadn't gotten beat up today. And he didn't need to use any of the extra supplies he had brought to school! Yes, there had been a heap of insults and snide comments, but as long as there was nothing physical, Allen was just fine.

When the Brit finally reached his house, he unlocked the front door and stepped inside, locking it as soon as the door was closed once again.

Allen then rushed to the kitchen and immediately dived into the delicious dango. The white haired boy moaned. Why was the Japanese dish so good?

Once he was halfway done, which meant that he had finished six servings of dango, something knocked into Allen's head.

"Oi, Tim," Allen wasn't quite fazed as his small golden pet bonked into his forehead before it landed in front of him, "how many times have I told you not to do that?"

In all honesty, Allen wasn't sure what Timcanpy was. The golden animal had a hard spherical body with a cross of the front of it along with two horns and four spikes for feet at the bottom. Throw in the wings, the long thin tail with a flame like design at the end, and the fact that Tim could eat almost anything… yeah, Allen really had no idea as to what type of animal his pet was.

It figures that Cross would have such a weird pet.

Speaking of the alcoholic, Allen wasn't quite sure when his guardian would be back, if ever. Cross had been drunk and murmuring incoherent things when he had taken a hammer and knocked Allen out with the weapon. By the time the snow haired boy had come to, Cross was long gone along with his possessions. The only thing of his that he left, of course, were the numerous bills.

Allen sat up a bit straighter, an annoyed aura surrounding him. It wasn't like he wanted Cross around. Oh god, no! The man was a womanizer, a druggie, an alcoholic, and gambled frequently even though he was terrible at it. Allen was so much better off without the bastard.

But that didn't mean that Allen liked the eerie silence of the house, either.

Timcanpy bit the Brit's hand, effectively dragging him back into the real world.

"Sorry, Tim," Allen smiled softly as he offered a stick of dango to his pet, "I merely zoned out for a moment."

Timcanpy seemed to find that to be an acceptable excuse because it started to feast on its meal, Allen completely forgotten.

Allen watched Tim ravish the food for a few more moments before sighed.

Whether it was Allen with Timcanpy or Cross, he would be alone. That's just how things were.

And he had accepted that fact long ago.

.:*~*:..:*~*:..:*~*:..:*~*:..:*~*:.

Lavi gritted his teeth as he read his physics textbook. He had, inevitably, not gotten to the old panda's car on time. Once Bookman had kicked Lavi in the head, the old man had driven them home. When they got inside, Lavi found out that he was grounded for the remainder of the week.

That was where Lavi was now, sulking/studying in his room because the punishment for being a minute or two late was way too unfair. However, the junior had to admit that it was worth it so that he knew just a little bit more about Allen.

He still couldn't believe that Allen was two years ahead of everyone in English. Lavi knew that he sure as hell wouldn't be pulling a stunt like that anytime soon. The redhead had come to the conclusion that Allen either adored English or that the Brit was just insanely good at it. Whichever it was, it didn't matter.

Lavi flipped to the next page of his textbook once he had finished the one that he was on. He continued to scan through the tiny print when a sudden thought struck him.

Why am I so obsessed with a kid that I just met this morning?

Lavi put the textbook down and squinted his eye, actually giving the idea some serious thought. Well, Lavi had always loved a good mystery and Allen was the perfect example of one. Hell, Lavi didn't even know what the freshman's face looked like. Anyone in their right mind would be curious, so it wasn't that weird that Lavi was a little hung up on the whole thing.

Nodding to himself, Lavi picked his textbook and continued reading, a certain freshman with a British accent stuck in his mind.


A/N: Yup, crappy filler chapter is crappy. I tried to switch over POVs a bit more because the last chapter primarily revolved around Lavi.

Poor Allen-kun, I'm making him so depressed... but I still love him. *sighs* Am I keeping Allen in character? I honestly can't tell because I'm making him depressed. Oh well.

And if you couldn't tell, I'm trying to keep Timcanpy in his original form. At first I was gonna make him a cat but if I did that then he wouldn't be able to fly so then I made him a bird but then he wouldn't have teeth etc. etc.

So yup, thank you for reading once again! Reviews are appreciated. Happy (late) Thanksgiving!