~Lenalee

"Allen!" came her voice a second time, "What are you..."

"I couldn't sleep," came his reply. He grinned sheepishly, rubbing the back of his neck, "I guess now I know who had the door open, huh?"

Lenalee stifled her surprised face, and smiled back at him. "I guess so, I couldn't sleep either." Her heart was still racing. Why had Allen chosen that moment to appear? She had been so lost in thoughts of him, but the sight of the real thing sent her heartbeat fluttering and her mind doing back-flips. She had never reacted that way to him before, but something felt different in the air around them, as though everything around them had tensed up with anticipation.

Lenalee shook her head once to clear away the rampaging thoughts. She manged to choke out a sentence in a voice that sounded normal enough. " If you've been walking around out here as long as I have, maybe we should both sit." She gestured to a fallen tree at the edge of the clearing. Allen nodded and smiled, sitting down on one end. Sitting down close beside him, Lenalee found herself disappointed when her fellow youth shifted away, giving her space as always.

They sat in silence for several moments, and Lenalee felt as though she could feel the absence of sound swirling around them, enveloping them. Still, it wasn't an uncomfortable silence, she could sense that Allen was relaxed, and she striven to do the same.

The girl's head turned to the person beside her, and her head filled with thoughts of him for the second time that night. He always tried to be such a gentleman towards everyone, especially herself. There were moments when it slipped, like when she woke up to be reunited with him in Japan. Yet, he was always trying to be polite, to give her space. He never seemed to think that might want to be close. Lenalee knew that people noticed her. It was only natural, she supposed, with the skirt on her uniform, but she didn't have a choice about that. She new that Lavi had a slight crush on her, although he had crushes on many people. Allen was different. Lenalee wanted with every shred of her existence that Allen would notice her, that he would be less polite, because she wanted to be closer to him. It was so different on missions, she thought. He had taken her hand, he had held her in her terror of the fallen one, he caught her when she fell in the ark. But when they were home and the stress was over, he would always keep his "polite" distance, he would barely meet her eyes. Why did he have to be so-

"Lenalee," Allen's voice broke the silence, cutting the girl's thoughts short. Lenalee turned to face Allen, and found him staring into the stars, his silver eye glimmered softly in the moonlight.

"Lenalee, can you promise me something?" His words surprised Lenalee. He turned to face her, and smiled the saddest smile she had ever seen. Her eyes widened as he continued in a soft voice. "I don't know what's going to happen to me. I don't know who the fourteenth is, or why I'm connected to him, and it scares me. If anything ever happens to me, if I ever do anything against you or the order, I want you to stop me. Or at the very least, let me stop myself."

The girl stared in shock, at what had been revealed to her. The piece of darkness that Allen had let slip from his heart was greater than what she had ever imagined. "Allen, I can't"

"Please," he interrupted again. "Just promise not to stop me from doing what needs to be done, if that time comes. I don't know what the fourteenth has to do with me, and I don't know what will happen in the future. I just need to know somebody will be on my side, and will let me do what I have to."

Lenalee looked into Allen's eyes, and saw closed her own. She reached down, and her fingers of her left hand brushed one of the bands circling her ankles. She felt the coolness of the metal, and the deep power that coursed within them. As she shifted her right, she felt the rough bark of the fallen tree below her palm. Ancient, but dying, it's energy fading. The very opposite of what she had felt with her other hand. The sensation of the difference, and the sharp tension in the air, seemed to supercharge her senses. She breathed two words, but felt the weight of a thousand more lift from her shoulders. "I promise."

Lenalee watched as Allen slipped slowly into a gentle smile, a contrast to the sadness in his eyes. Still, for the first time that night, his expression looked sincere. She watched as his left hand reached forward, and rested his fingertips on her own. "Lenalee, th-"

"ALLEN WALKER," someone shouted from far off, shattering the peace around them. Lenalee's heart sank as Allen pulled his hand away, and turned his head back toward the castle, in the direction the voice had come from. His face changed quickly, melting back into the falsely playful smile he wore so often.

"Sorry Lenalee," he said with a laugh too obviously fake, "it looks like Link noticed I was gone. I should go before he gets mad and finds your brother."

Lenalee nodded, remembering that Allen was under constant surveillance by an employee of central. "I'll wait a few minutes before going back, so we don't both get in trouble." In her head, Lenalee knew that the smile she wore must look as fake as Allen's. As he stood and turned the away from her, Lenalee felt her heartbeat move faster. She wanted to do something, to say something, before he left. She wanted to do something with her fluttering heartbeat, instead of simply ignore it.

Without thinking, she ran a step forward, and took Allen's hand. He turned, openly surprised and off balance, stumbling forward. Completely lost now in her storm of emotions, Lenalee turned her head up, and kissed Allen just as he caught his balance facing her.

Her lips brushed against the boy's for only a fraction a moment, before her common sense regained itself. She stepped back, and saw Allen's face flushing redder and redder. Her heartbeat multiplied ten thousand times, and her own face was hot. Yet somehow, beneath the raging torrent of emotions, she was strangely calm. Looking at Allen, she smiled playfully, and spoke, "Goodnight. Allen." Then she slipped into the trees.

Allen~

Allen Walker was panicking. Lenalee Lee, the kindest, strongest, most beautiful person he had ever met, had just kissed him. "L Lena l lee," he choked on her name, before realizing that he was alone. She was long gone, disappeared into the trees, leaving him alone. He was torn between being glad she hadn't seen the extent the confusion, and disappointed that he hadn't had the time to... to what? Allen yelled at himself inside his head. He had been too shocked to move, let alone react. Then there was the issue of Lenalee's brother. Suddenly the boy was thankful he had left Timcampy asleep in his room. If Komui found out... Allen let out an involuntary shudder.

"Walker!" for the second time that night, Link's impatient voice shook him from the haze that enveloped his mind. Allen turned to see Link crashing through the thick trees at the edge of clearing. "What?" began link, brushing stray leaves and creases from his uniform, are you doing here?

The white haired youth shrugged slightly, "I couldn't sleep, I thought fresh air might clear my head. In any case, I was heading back." He turned before Link had a chance to lecture him further, and slid back between the trees, and set off back toward the castle.

What had happened back in that clearing? Why had Lenalee... It was no use. Every time he tried to think about what had happened, his heart started beating like a wild animal trying to escape from his chest, and his thoughts spun into some giant whirwind in the back of his mind. He considered finding her again, going to her room, but what would that accomplish. He couldn't say anything important with Link around, and if her brother caught him in her room at night...

Then there was the promise he had asked for. Everything he had said to her, was it true? He had never thought about it before, but the words were slowly becoming true in his mind. There was no way for him to be sure of his future anymore, or of what would happen to him. He could at least rest easy knowing that Lenalee would support him, no matter what he had to do.

Allen laughed to himself, he had come outside to get rid of the confusion of his dream, but it had only been replaced by a different sort of confusion. Still, the images in his mind now, of Lenalee sitting next to him, outlined in the moonlight, were much more pleasnt. As he walked, he felt the confusion slowly lifting. He would decide how to thank her, how to react, next time they were alone. It was useless thinking about it until then. He would just smile and act like nothing had happened between the two of them.

So Allen Walker returned to the castle, in the knowledge that he had given his first love a piece of what haunted his heart, and she had returned it with a promise and a kiss.

I appologize that if this chapter was extremely cheesy. I did try, but I'm an inexperienced writer. Hopefully the next one will be better.