Well, way back in chapter 34, there was mention of Lavi's twenty-first birthday party, which involved General Cross, and strippers. Well after drinking excessive amounts of alcohol last night (encouraged by Kiracookies- yes, I'm blaming you!) I had an attack of the plot bunnies, who hauled me away from ATW and made me write this. But never fear, I'm also putting 38 up, which I suggest you go back and read that first if you haven't already, otherwise there are parts of this that won't make sense.

To anyone who hasn't read A Twisted World yet GO DO IT!! No, seriously. Well you could read this, but as the overlying plot won't make sense, and you don't know the OCs, it might make you go a little batty.

As always, Rika owns this storyline, but not the characters. Except for Seren and Jim (is thinking of starting a James Harvey fan club)

Lavi's 21st

"I don't know if anyone's really in the mood for a party, brother. Especially Lavi. He's been hit really hard by Allen's disappearance."

"Nonsense! If anything that means he needs a party more than anyone! You're only 21 once you know. Just because we are in the middle of a war doesn't mean we can't have fun once in a while."

Lenalee bowed her head in defeat, knowing there would be no dissuading her brother now he was in full party planner mode.

"We'll have to do something to make it really special…maybe I can make a new robot…" Komui was muttering to himself.

Oh boy. The female exorcist shook her head in despair. It looked like someone was going to have to keep an eye on her brother. She smiled ruefully. Well, maybe a party isn't such a bad idea after all.

"I'll help you, brother…" she held up her hand to forestall the girly squeal of joy that erupted from the supervisor. "…but no robots" she finished sternly.

Komui pouted but reluctantly agreed. After all, what was creating a new robot compared to working side-by-side with his wonderful sister? Then a cheery, if slightly sadistic grin burst onto his face. "So, what would Lavi like best?"

Lenalee looked thoughtful for a moment or two, and then proclaimed "I've got it! It's perfect! But we're going to need some help."

"WHAT?!" Jim's voice could be heard throughout the order, causing several finders who had been sitting behind him to jump, almost falling out of their chairs in surprise.

Under the cover of the food fight that broke out when one of the surprised finders dumped an entire plateful of mashed potatoes and gravy onto his dining companion, Lenalee explained her plan to the New Zealander, whose eyes grew larger and more horrified as she spoke. By the time she'd finished, the young blond resembled a startled deer, his big chocolately brown eyes only adding to the overall effect.

He flushed a delightful shade of cherry red when she explained, in full, M-rated detail, what she wanted him to do.

"I don't think I can do this Lenalee!"

"Pffft. That's nonsense. You do it all the time, and you're so good at it now!"

The blush deepened with the compliment, but Jim wasn't going to go down without a fight. "But I've never done it with actions!" he hissed, anger and embarrassment evident in his voice.

Lenalee's grin broadened, she knew she was wearing him down. "But Jim! It's for Lavi! You know how down he's been!"

She immediately knew she'd said the wrong thing.

"It's not been easy on any of us Lenalee." He said sadly, moving to get up from the table, the pile of food in front of him forgotten completely.

The only reason he was at the order right now was that after a battle with some Akuma, Seren's innocence had been damaged and required repairing. Since Komui had refused to let Jim continue the search for Allen alone, he had been forced to return to Headquarters with the Welsh girl while her axe was fixed.

Lenalee bit her lip, wishing she could think of something to say. Eventually she just patted Jim's slumped shoulder in a reassuring way. "Maybe it'll help cheer us all up. Will you do it Jim? Please?"

He sighed, knowing he had lost. "Sure. Why not? It might be fun. I take it it's all a surprise?"

"Yes, and you are the star attraction. Get practicing!" She gave him a saucy wink and almost skipped away in happiness. This was going to be the best party the Black Order had ever seen.

Despite Lavi's supposed all-seeing bookman eye, he remained completely oblivious to the ongoing party preparations, despite the fact that everyone else in the order knew about it or was involved in some way.

His first clue should have been the run in with Kanda that he had first thing on the morning of the 10th August.

Now the fact that it was 5am and he'd met Kanda trailing down the deserted corridors wasn't that odd in itself. It had happened before, as Lavi quested endlessly to escape Bookman and his ever present, ever annoying logs, and since Kanda liked to begin training at the crack of dawn, they had often crossed paths, so Lavi didn't think much of it, not even expecting a 'happy birthday' from the Japanese man as he grouched through the empty corridors of the order. Which was good, because Kanda wasn't going to give him one.

It wasn't long after this chance meeting that Lavi realized that it should have seemed odd to him. Kanda shouldn't have been outside his room at all. He was under house arrest, and was only allowed out to use the bathroom, and that was under escort.

So why was he wandering, alone, in the early hours? Lavi decided not to question it, for all he knew, Kanda had been sneaking out every morning since his imprisonment began nearly two weeks ago.

He also knew that any of the others, exorcist, finder or scientist, that came across Kanda would never report him to the higher ups. There wasn't one among them that thought Kanda was guilty of anything other than doing his duty, both to the order and to himself.

What Lavi didn't know was that Kanda had been released for the day so that he could help with the party preparations. Not that he wanted to, but a day free from the guard who trailed him even to the bathroom was too good to pass up, and he'd (if a little reluctantly) agreed to the terms.

Lavi thought it strange that, when he approached the dining hall for breakfast a little while later, he wasn't chased away or sent on a ridiculous mission to find a left-handed paintbrush or something equally absurd, as was apt to happen on someone's birthday, so a surprise party could be set up. Of course, after so many years and so many birthdays, it wasn't a surprise for anyone anymore.

However, this morning was the same as any other. It was early, so the dining hall was nearly deserted, with just a few finders dotted randomly around the room, and at a far table, a group of harassed looking scientists were slouched down, some of them dozing, others half heartedly picking at their plates of breakfast. Lavi assumed Komui was slacking off again, forcing his dedicated team to pick up after him.

Feeling a little put out, he approached the hatch, where he was greeted by a subdued and much less sparkly Jerry. Lavi put in his order, not at all surprised by the downcast attitude of the chef. Jerry hadn't been the same since Allen left.

Accepting his plate of egg on toast, Lavi made his way to a vacant table, feeling more dejected at the lack of birthday greetings. I mean come on, just because everyone's depressed doesn't mean they should forget about me! He took a mouthful of his breakfast, feeling immediately guilty. Everyone's had a lot on their minds lately, it's not fair of me to expect them to drop it all just for my birthday. He finished his breakfast quickly and silently, and slunk from the dining hall. It was only 6.30 in the morning and already it was shaping up to be the worst birthday ever.

Lenalee chuckled and rubbed her hands together with a slightly dark grin on her face. Perfect, he thinks everyone's forgotten about his birthday…

She glanced over at Jim, who was reluctant flipping through one of Lavi's magazines.

"I really don't think someone of your age should be looking at such things."

The sudden voice behind the pair made them both jump up, spinning wildly. There didn't seem to be anyone in the corridor, but that didn't mean they were alone. Lenalee brushed off her skirt. "General Cross, why are you sneaking around the order?"

"Why would I want to be seen?" The red-haired General stepped into view, peering over Jim's shoulder. "I like the blonde" he commented, studying the centre fold critically.

"General Cross!" exclaimed Lenalee. "Stop polluting Jim's mind!"

The General blinked a couple of times. "Me? I'm not the one sitting there while an underage boy flicks through a porn magazine!"

"He's doing research for me," she retorted with a perfectly straight face.

The General's eyebrow rose. "Well well, Miss Lee, I didn't realize you swung that way." He settled his hat more firmly on his head. "For a religious order, we do seem to have an extraordinary number of homosexuals."

Lenalee spluttered. "I'm organizing Lavi's birthday party! Jim's doing research for that! We're getting him some strippers!"

An slightly twisted grin appeared on the debaucher General's face. "Am I invited?"

The Chinese girl did not like that look one bit, but who was she to refuse a General? "S..sure. Everyone's invited, I guess."

"Excellent! I'll see you there!" and the General sauntered off.

As soon as he was gone Jim turned to Lenalee furiously. "What did you do that for?"

"He's a General! He might be a pervert, but I could hardly say no, could I?"

Jim hung his head. "I guess not, but I could have done without the extra pressure."

"You'll be fine." She patted his arm kindly, but the gleam in her eyes carried the silent 'or else'.

Lavi wandered listlessly 'til he arrived at the library. He readied himself for a day of mindless log writing and excess boredom. Pulling the book closer to him, he picked up his pen and began to write, feeling more and more depressed as he did so.

Eventually he stopped for a break, noting that it was now late afternoon. He figured he should probably go and eat something, but couldn't actually get his body to respond, and so gave up. He glared moodily at the book in front of him, once again deciding that this was the worst birthday in the history of all birthdays. And he was part of the bookman clan, he would know.

He spent so long staring at the blank page in front of him that eventually his brain turned off and he slumped across the desk, his eye closing and sleep taking him.

"Where is he?"

"Maybe we should have at least let him know we hadn't forgotten his birthday. Maybe he's wallowing in grief somewhere."

Lenalee shook her head. "I hope not, not after all the effort we went through."

Kanda snorted. "He'll be in the library. I'll go fetch him." He spared a disdainful glance at the finder the usually stood guard outside his room, as though daring him to follow before sweeping from the canteen.

"Are you ready for this Jim?"

"I hope so. It's not usually something I do though. I hope I don't mess up."

"You won't" Komui reassured from where he stood next to his sister. They listened as the sound of running footsteps sounded along the corridor.

"Have pity on me Yuu-chan! It's my birthday!"

"That's no excuse!" the Japanese man roared.

The gathered congregation sweat dropped collectively, each wondering if Kanda was acting, or if he was really trying to kill the birthday boy. Most hastily made bets leaned towards the latter.

The doors burst open and Lavi skidded to a stunned stop, completely forgetting about the other man behind him. Kanda hadn't reacted in time and crashed into the redhead, sending him flying. Somehow, Kanda remained on his feet, one eyebrow raised as he looked down on the heap of exorcist that was Lavi.

"Happy Birthday, baka usagi," he grunted before turning away and finding a dark lonely corner to grouch in.

Lavi looked around, an expression of extreme happiness all over his face.

"Happy Birthday, Lavi. You didn't really think we'd forgotten about you, did you?" Lenalee gave him a giant suffocating hug, all the while sending messages to Jim with her eyes. They'd got really good at this recently.

With an almost imperceptible nod, Jim activated his innocence and sat back against the wall, watching the event take place.

Two young, fresh-faced girls wearing…not an awful lot, pushed through the crowds, ignoring everyone who was currently drooling at them, their eyes fixed firmly on Lavi. Lenalee immediately let go and went to sit next to Jim, a faint smirk on her face.

The two girls (now wearing even less) danced around the currently nose bleeding redhead, who looked to be on the verge of passing out. Which he promptly did seconds later.

"That's it, free for all!" A completely inebriated Cross declared a moment later as the party-goers all stood stunned, looking at each other as though unsure whether to laugh or not.

Cross grabbed the nearest girl, who had blonde hair and green eyes, pulling her onto his knee. The girl's image flickered a moment as Jim shuddered, trying to hold onto the illusion, but then he got his control back and the girl smiled at the drunken general, who smiled woozily back, suddenly getting up and dragging the girl with him.

Jim looked aghast as the thought of a naked rampant General raced through his mind. Which the blonde-haired green-eyed girl promptly turned into. And the General never noticed.

He made to deactivate his innocence but Lenalee laid her hand over his. "Let's just leave them to it for a while…"

When Lavi came round the next morning (not at all remembering why he had passed out in the first place) all he heard talk about concerning his party was how Cross had made out with himself in the main hallway in front of several very shocked members of the central administration and a large group of very giggly finders.

But that was just ridiculous. Wasn't it?