[A/N] - Hi~ You already know I'll ask you to read this, right?
Right! Anyhow, hello again! Despite not having reached the review limit I imposed in the previous chapter on your poor souls, I have to say that I missed writing this story. I also got a couple shoves in the back from some of my wonderful reviewers who motivated me to write a bit more for this story.
This was kind of on short notice because of that, as well as all the schoolwork I've been saddled with, and so it is shorter than the other chapters so far. Hopefully that doesn't impede your enjoyment of the story, because I had a lot of fun writing it! And that's what it's all about, right? /shot.
No, I'm kidding. Please enjoy the fourth chapter of For the First Time!
Recommendations: Read in 3/4th page size. I personally think it looks cleaner that way.
Disclaimer: I do not own D. Gray-man in any way, shape, or form. If I did, there would be more canon pairings tailored to my liking. -coughthispairingcough- ouo.
Allen thought that the school day didn't last all that long. Before he'd known it, his first two classes and free period were over and he was eating lunch with Lavi and Lenalee, both of whom gawked at him when he smiled at Jerry and asked for a massive amount of food for his lunch. Despite their amazement, they helped him carry the food so they'd be able to eat outside underneath one of the large trees in the courtyard.
"Hey Allen," Lenalee asked in between bites of her sandwich, "what hobbies do you have?"
"Hobbies?" Allen lowered his plate of curried rice to the table and looked at her. "What do you mean?"
"You know, something you do for fun to pass the time," Lavi elaborated for her.
Lenalee nodded in agreement. "Right. For example, my hobbies are running and cooking. Sometimes, I ask Jerry if I can borrow the kitchen so I can make something for fun."
"And mine are reading and sleeping," Lavi chipped in, grinning. "Though I'm sure you figured the last one out already."
Lenalee wrinkled her nose. "You mean you really consider that your hobby? I said that and I was joking, but I didn't know you really thought so."
Allen put his hand to his chin, resting his elbow on his knee where his legs were crossed on the grass. Free time… Master never really allowed me any when I was with him. Normally I just worked to pay off his absurdly large debts. I don't think working counts as a hobby though. Allen thought back to some of the things he had to do to pay off Cross' debts that he hadn't minded doing and immediately thought of something.
"Well…" Lenalee and Lavi returned their attention to Allen, pausing in their friendly bickering. "I guess I prefer to play cards, then."
"Cards, eh?" Lavi smirked. "Do you gamble?" Allen nodded without thinking. "That makes it more interesting! Remind me to find a deck of cards when we get back to the room."
The four-tone bell rang, signaling the end of lunch. Allen stood up, stacks of empty dishes in hand.
Lenalee waved at them and jogged off in the direction of the classrooms after saying, "I can't be late to my class or my brother – er, my teacher will get mad at me. See you later!" Lavi and Allen waved after her.
After lunch, Allen had his last two classes of the day – history and general physical education – with Lavi. History was rather interesting, made more so by the fact that Lavi was actually quite knowledgeable about what was being taught and could never keep himself from adding his own information to what Allen heard from the teacher.
"See, 'cause I've decided to be a historian when I get out of here, I make reading a hobby and use it to learn more than the teacher tells me," Lavi whispered to Allen, explaining himself for his wealth of knowledge.
After history, general physical education forced both Lavi and Allen to change from their comparably comfortable uniforms into plain, slightly starchy white t-shirts and black shorts with the school's crest printed on them. The exercises they did in the gym weren't all too strenuous, Allen thought, compared to what Cross had made him do in the way of clearing the man's debts with dangerous people.
Lavi was impressed by Allen's subtle show of strength and stamina and asked, "How'd you end up like this?"
Allen laughed nervously. "There were… circumstances that required me to be able to defend myself, so I trained myself before I arrived here."
"'Circumstances,' you say? Sounds dangerous. You'll have to tell me about them sometime. Promise, okay?" Lavi thumped Allen on the back with his hand, grinning all the while.
Allen rolled his eyes. "If you say so."
A week passed by in that fashion of hanging out with Lenalee and Lavi during the day, doing his homework in the evening, and getting a good night's sleep at night. It was Sunday once more, the one day of the week when there were no scheduled classes, allowing the students a break and a chance to relax before shoving their noses back into the books and studying for their classes during the following week.
As far as Lavi was concerned, Sunday might as well have been that following week.
Allen watched amusedly while Lavi pored over a select few of his textbooks at his desk, mumbling to himself and cursing their history teacher every once in a while. That teacher had announced to them the previous day that there would be an exam on Monday, testing them to see whether or not they'd actually been paying attention during class. Allen understood why Lavi might be worried about an exam, but he also thought that the red-haired boy was going a little overboard.
"Lavi, if you press your face any closer to the book, you won't be able to read the words," Allen noted, seeing Lavi's nose only an inch away from the pages of the thick textbook. "Anyway, why are you so worried? If anyone, you'll do the best without studying in the first place."
He looked up at Allen, who was standing over his shoulder with a hand on the back of his chair. There was a slightly crazed look in his eyes that scared Allen a bit, if he was being completely honest. "If I don't do well on this test, it's going to make me have to work harder for the rest of the term. His tests are worth a lot of points and if I don't do well, I'll be doomed to sit at a desk like this forever trying to get my grade back up… Anyway, why aren't you studying? You should be even more worried than I am."
Allen shrugged, shifting his weight from one leg to the other. "I have confidence that I've done my work and studied enough during the week, so I don't think studying like that would help me. Besides, if anyone, I believe that you can get the best grade without studying."
Lavi turned sideways in his chair, resting his elbow on the back and holding up his head. "Why do you say that?"
Allen sighed. "Do you ever listen to yourself talk? During class, you're always adding on to what the teacher is saying, no matter how big or small the event. I'd like to say that you distract me for the majority of the class time, but I find that it doesn't really matter because I learn the material I need to know from you anyway. That shows that you're more than prepared for whatever he'll test us on."
"Do you really think so?" Lavi seemed surprised by Allen's admission of his knowledge.
The silver-haired boy nodded. "You'll do fine."
Lavi sat quietly for a moment. Allen, satisfied that he'd talked Lavi out of running himself into the ground through studying, turned to fix the covers on his bed. He'd woken up to the sound of Lavi dumping his textbooks on his desk at a relatively early hour of the morning – for Lavi, at any rate. That Lavi had abandoned his favorite hobby of sleeping in to unconventional hours of the day served to scare Allen considerably.
A pair of thin arms wrapped around Allen's waist and he felt something being tucked under his arm. He looked down and raised an eyebrow questioningly upon seeing Lavi giving him a lopsided grin.
"Thanks, Allen. You're pretty good at cheering people up – even though I was wondering where you were going when you said I run my mouth." Lavi laughed when Allen's face reddened slightly.
"I didn't say that," Allen protested. "I just alluded to the fact that you always talk whenever the teacher talks during class."
"'Alluded to?'" Lavi repeated amusedly. "You always manage to sound like an old man, you know?"
The silver-haired boy could feel his face settling into a pout and resisted the urge to cross his arms and look away like a child – not that he could have crossed his arms anyway, with Lavi's head still underneath his arm. "Well, I'm sorry if I prefer to be polite when I talk to another person."
Lavi drew back, pulling his arms off of Allen's waist. He adopted a hurt tone accompanied by a sad frown and asked, "Am I just 'another person' to you, then?"
Allen wanted to gape. Lavi was being completely unfair, turning him into the villain! "No, of course not! You're my friend," Allen stressed the key word, "but it's just a habit that's hard to break. I'm sorry if I offend you or anything like that." Master always made me speak politely to him, or he'd hit me over the head with something. That, at least, was nothing if not effective as far as my manners were concerned.
Lavi instantly brightened. Allen got the feeling he'd just been played and that Lavi had been acting the entire time. "Really? Great!" He paused and seemed to realize something by the way his visible eye widened. "Hey, you know – I think this is the first time you've called me your friend."
Allen thought about it and, to his surprise, arrived at the same conclusion. He's right. The past week, I've never said to him, "You're my friend," or anything like that – not to Lenalee, either. I've never had to, since all the people I've met through them just assumed we were friends. He allowed himself a small but triumphant smile. How about that, Master? I made some friends. I don't know if they'll have to 'cart my ass around' like you said, but I'll bet you never expected me to make any in the first place.
Lavi noticed Allen's smile and tilted his head, curious. "What's so funny?"
"Just a memory. It doesn't have much to do with you," Allen reassured him.
"So you mean it has something to do with me. What is it?" Allen shook his head, the smile still prominent on his face. "Aw, come on, Allen. You're messing with me now."
"It's fine. Don't worry about it."
Lavi huffed. "Whatever you say. I'll find out one day, though, just you wait."
The following day, Lavi and Allen walked out of their history classroom, both of them feeling relieved and, on Allen's part, somewhat smug. After all of the students in the class had finished with their exam, Lavi had admitted that the test hadn't been nearly as hard as he'd been expecting, and Allen couldn't help saying, "I told you so." Lavi had pouted, of course, but Allen could tell he was genuinely happy that Allen had talked him out of his minor 'panic attack' – or at the very least, let him sleep for the rest of the day after his early morning stress.
Of course, that didn't stop Lavi from saying, "I bet I got a higher score than you did!" before rolling up in the covers of his bed and closing his eyes and ears to anyone and everything else.
Allen, the picture of tolerance and good humor, simply sighed with a smile.
[A/N] - Yes, I feel as distinctly as you do as a reader how short it is. Hopefully it was cute enough to distract you from that fact.
Here, I'd like to give a special mention and thank you to a couple of my reviewers. One to FierceEyes, who has entertained both of us with our back-and-forth conversation on music and utaite and the like - thank you for giving me something to look forward to whenever I send a PM to you! And another for Masked-Flame, who gave me such a sweet review, I felt compelled to write and post this - thank you for giving me that push in the back I needed!
Once again, I'm posting this late at night, so please tell me if there are typos or anything that needs explaining. Or if you'd like to chat. I'd like to chat sometimes. ouo
Lesse. Am I really evil enough to set a review limit for this? ... Yes. Yes, I am. /bracesforflameswithcoldwater .
We missed the last review limit by three, so seven reviews before the next chapter? Seven's a nice number. Nana~
Thank you for reading and reviewing and have a wonderful until-the-next-chapter!