Allen gripped the strap of his bag tightly, his heart was pounding loudly against his ribcage and yet, kept a steady beat. He bit his lower lips, hoping that the pain would distract his mind, but underneath his calm exterior, underneath there was fear.

Not fear, but paranoid.

To be honest, one would also be paranoid if people kept starring at you for more than seven hours. Non stop, not to mention. And why people? It was quite obvious it wasn't an individual person.

Painfully obvious.

Allen stopped wondering after the fourth hour and the second round of Dora the Explora.

So know, it was almost painfully awkward to walk back home. It actually hurt, as if their stare was able to actually bore a hole through his skull.

Sleep deprivation and hunger further fueled his paranoia, and not to mention Allen was usually skittish. So yeah, going back home was almost painfully awkward, it didn't become physical. Not yet at least.

Well Allen doesn't hope it will become physical, cause you know. . .he doesn't enjoy being inflicted by pain.

But the one inflicting it. . .sometimes no and sometimes yes.

And if the person that's been observing him for the past seven hour doesn't stop in the next ten minutes, the answer is yes. So yeah, let the pain commence.

He looked down, starring at his wrist warch. The second hland moving clockwise around the numbers, the long hand pointing at the Roman Numeral ix while thr shorter hand pointing at the Roman Numeral vi.

6:30:17

Just another 9 minutes and 43 seconds.

A short 9 minutes.

Allen gripped the strap of his back tightly, half of his attention on the pavement before him and the other half on the time.

Hahaha. His mind was already plotting what he would do once the time was up-

"Allen!" A familiar voice called him, and simultaneously the prickly stares diminished.

Allen's hand slumped to his side, feeling actually disappointed. He turned around, feet turning and - face falling forward.

He tripped and fell.

Instinctly, his hands stretched out. Palm spread on the ground to stop himself from falling and pushed himself back upwards, all whilst moving forward. But unfortunately, he collided into someone, and that someone was the one who called him earlier: Mana.

"Allen," Mana gasped, pulling Allen's arm before he could fall to his back.

Which he could only reply by an embarrassed laugh as Mana set him back on the ground. But then, he frowned, noticing the casual clothes Mana was wearing.

"Where's you school uniform?" Allen ask, pointing out the plain obvious.

"Oh, I finished school early today," Mana deadpan, answering Allen's question with all seriousness.

Allen recalled faintly earlier this morning, when Mana had said he was coming home in six hour. . .yeah. . he didn't want to know the details.

"How's Nea?" Allen instead ask the current state of his other brother.

Mana frowned at that, looking as if he was in deep thought until finally settling in a sigh. "The usual,"

"The usual?"


As soon as Allen got home, he instantly excused himself to his room and took a shower. A cold shower to say the least as the wether, to him, was already hot. Not to mention he was wearing long sleeves to begin with.

And now that he was in the safety confront of his home, he decided to wore a simple shorts and a grey t-shirt. After all, it's not like he was going outside anyway and it have been five years since the last visitors.

He bended down, picking his school uniform that was thrown into the floor. Courtesy of him, hurrying to take a shower as it was too hot.

Allen laid the clothes on his bed, then he bended down again to grab his pants. While unblucking his belt, he noticed a slight bump into his pocket. He reached out for the object, pulling a metal chain tied to a gem.

He recalled yesterday's yesterday event, when he had abruptly shoved the necklace into his pocket and somehow forget it existence ever since. Findling with it in his hands, he couldn't help himself admiring it.

Mana's birthday is coming soon, maybe he could use this as prop.

He turned the necklace to the back, fingers tracing over the soft outline. As if it was a writing. "Maria, huh?"

"Allen!" Someone yelled, accompanying by abruptly lunging at him from behind.

Allen was simply helpless when the sudden weight on his back completely changed his center of gravity and made him to fall forward.

"Nea!" He said in exasperation. "Get off me," He tried to shake his older brother, but to no avail he was strenuously pinned.

"No! This is your punishment for abandon me!" Nea cried, a bit too loudly for a sick person and a bit too loudly before his doom. Allen could not wait to turn his smile upside down.

"Nea!" Allen cried out exasperately, trying to shake Nea off as his finale attempt. "If you don-"

"What's that Allen?" Nea suddenly ask instead, cutting Allen's sentence short. He sounded curious, but the voice was dry.

"A necklace I found!" Allen answered, turning his head to see a glimpse of Nea's face. Just for a second, he could see Nea's face contorting into a look of. . .it's gone. "What's wrong? Do you still feel sick Nea?" Allen ask, fearing that Nea was still sick or hurt.

"Nothing. . .just still a bit tired. . ." Nea breathed, and he finally let go Allen out of his hold.

Allen stood up and dusted, after all, he'd just taken a bath, it's too early to be dirty. Then, he crossed his arm over his chest and glared at Nea. "Then next time don't pull stuff like that,"

"I'm hungry, wonder what manas cooking for dinner, I'll check first," Nea said instead, trailing off to the door. What a way to avoid a lecture! Surely he learned from the best.

.

The End

.


Omaeke

Dinner was somehow awkward to the, mostly by Nea as he wanted to eat dinner without someone plotting his death. To be honest, he didn't remember Allen having this kind of personality.

After all, Allen is kind, honest-

"Nea, you should eat instead of playing with your food. . .and is that a sculpture of Allen's head?"

"Eat it Nea!" Allen hissed, grabbing Nea's hand and plunge it at the potato.

"No!" Nea cried out.


I would probably update the next chapter on three days or so, I'll have my fourth exam next Tuesday so maybe I'll update it on a Monday or a Thursday. I've been thinking of making a Neallen fic (again) but I'll need to finish one of my stories first so I'm planning to quickly update, Don't Stop; it's our duet. And for those who are wondering why I never update The Virtue of Insanity, the answer is I did, since the psychologist says I have to remake it or edit it. LOL, they came in a team of four last Wednesday and like my therapist was like y u no update and I was like I no computer. So yeah, I've neen editing it from the first chapter but it's long so I use my father's laptop for it.

Gosh, the authors note was so long. And one more thing, the following chapter will include children's song, some adele and a whole lot of anime mvp, opening and songs so stay in tune. Good bye and thanks for reading.