Allen pulled the car into a vacant spot. We sat there a moment before he spoke. "...Do you want me to walk you up, or would you rather say good night here?"

I pondered the question for a second before I recalled something that had happened earlier that required an explanation, and I wanted one. "Before we get into that, what happened earlier? When you freaked out at the bar. What was that all about?"

He sighed and turned the car off. "Honestly, I'd rather not tell you."

I frowned, disappointed in his answer. I was curious to know, but if he didn't want to tell me, then I wouldn't push him.

Allen sighed again and ran his hand through his white hair. "On the other hand, this is something that I don't want you to hear from anyone else, and I don't think I'll ever have a better reason to tell you. But this isn't something we can talk about in my car. Can we go upstairs?"

That wasn't what I was expecting him to say, I hadn't thought the incident was that serious. But as long as he was willing to explain then that didn't matter. "Sure."

He waved at the landlady as we passed her apartment, and that reminded me of something else that had been said at the bar that night. "So, how do you know Anita? And how'd you convince her to let you into my apartment?"

The smile he gave me was full of laughter. "Have you met her fiancé yet?"

I frowned at the attempt at misdirection, but I still answered the question. "Not officially. I've seen him around though. He's a flamboyant guy with long red hair, right?"

Allen laughed and winced at the same time. "Yeah. His name's Cross Marian. For lack of a better word, he's my stepfather."

I froze in place halfway up the stairs. "What?!"

"Cross was really good friends with Mana and Neah. He took me under his wing when they died." Allen smiled at me and tugged on my hand to get me moving again. "Anyway, to get back to your original question, I bumped into Anita when I was leaving last week, so she knew about what happened. That night I was sitting outside your door, waiting for you to get home, and she walked by and let me in."

"Isn't that like a breach of privacy or something? I should talk to her."

"You should. But not about that." He smiled brightly at me. "You two have a lot in common."

I blinked at him. The only thing I had in common with Anita was that we were both of Chinese descent, and that wasn't anything special. "What do you mean?"

"She's a human dating a vampire."

"Oh." That made sense. I didn't know if I actually would talk to her about that, but I filed the information away for if I ever needed advice.

We paused at my door and I let us inside. Allen took off his boots in the entryway, which was odd. He hadn't done that before, and it wasn't something that I did. I offered to make us some tea, and while I did that, he wandered into the living room.

When I followed with our cups, I found him sitting in front of my bookshelf. His eyes sparkled as he looked up at me. "Wow. Lavi wasn't kidding. You really do like the same books as me."

He asked my opinions on some of the ones he hadn't read, and gave me his on those I hadn't gotten to yet. It was a sweet moment, but it wasn't what I really wanted to talk about. I took the book he was holding and slid it back onto the shelf. "So..."

"Ah, right." Allen stood up and moved over to the couch. I sat beside him, not right next to him, but close enough that holding hands wouldn't be awkward. "So, what happened at the bar... Well, I told you that I inherited Mana's power, right?"

I nodded. "You did."

"Ok, well, the psychic thing works on its own. I see when something bad is about to happen, but I don't have any control over it. I think I might have told you that already too." His gaze was locked on the mug of tea in his lap, so he didn't see me nod. "Anyway, Mana's power works through touch. For the most part I'm able to choose when I use it, but sometimes, or rather, under certain conditions, it'll activate on its own."

I raised an eyebrow at him in curiosity. "And that's what happened in the bar?"

He nodded, his white hair falling into his face a little. "Right."

Allen suddenly gripped his mug tighter, and the words that came out were angry. "Alma should have known better than to ask you that while we were holding hands. I can't believe he did that."

"Huh?"

"Oh, sorry." He blinked as he realized he'd gotten ahead of himself. "It's the combination of touch and extreme emotion that sets it off. So when Alma asked about the time you were bitten as a child, you recalled a horrible memory, and your emotional response made my power activate."

"So why did you react like you did? And how did you know that that memory was horrible?" It hadn't escaped my notice that he still hadn't told me what his power was.

He shrugged and smiled lightly at me. "You were bitten as a child; it's akin to being molested."

I hadn't thought about it like that before, but it was an appropriate comparison. There was something off in the way he said it though. "Allen... You were...?"

I couldn't finish the question; asking Allen if he was molested was much too horrible to say out loud.

His smile faded. "It's a long story; we don't need to get into it now, or ever. But since I know you won't drop it, the short answer is yes."

"Allen..."

"Don't give me that look. I already told you that I had a crappy childhood before Mana took me in. This isn't new information." He sighed. "Besides, my traumatic childhood isn't the issue here, yours is."

"I wouldn't call my childhood 'traumatic', and that isn't what we were talking about either." He was getting off topic, and while I appreciated the honesty he was giving, I was annoyed that he continued to dodge the one question I really wanted the answer to.

Allen set his mug down on the coffee table with a heavy sigh. "Actually, it is. You see, Mana's power gives me the ability to see the past."

"Wait. You mean that you ... you saw what happened to me?" I didn't know if that was relieving or if it was a reason to panic.

"Yes and no." He sighed yet again. "When I touch people or objects, I can see scenes from their past. And obviously it's not that straightforward, but that's too complicated to get into. Sometimes all I get is flashes of emotion. Which is what happened tonight at the bar. So: what happened to you when you were a child?"

.x.x.

The answer I got wasn't what I was expecting in the slightest. I hadn't thought that Lenalee would have actually had a traumatic experience. I'd been acting like she did, more to downplay my own childhood than because of anything she might have gone through. I was just being nice so that she'd tell me what had upset her so much.

I watched a thousand different emotions flicker across her face before she finally settled on one that was full of fear. "I watched my parents get murdered."

"Oh god. I'm so sorry."

She frowned at me. "I don't want your fake sympathy. I-"

"No." I couldn't help interrupting her. "That's not what I meant. I'm sorry for asking you, I didn't intend to dredge up something so awful."

.x.x.

The apology threw me; I didn't know how to respond to it. But Allen fortunately kept talking and I didn't have to worry about it. "You don't have to tell me anything you don't want to, but I would like to know what happened."

Allen pulled his legs onto the couch, turning so that he was sitting cross legged, facing me. He held his hands out to me, palms up. It was an invitation for me to touch him, so that he could see my past.

I sat there frozen. I had no clue if I wanted to let him know what I'd been through or if I wanted to keep it to myself. Allen dropped his hands and placed one on my knee. "I know this is hard for you, and I don't want to push you. But I also know that part of you thinks I'm lying about what I can do. I figured this would be the best way to ... prove myself to you."

The words confused me. "Allen. You don't have to prove anything to me."

"I feel like I do. The last time we sat here like this, you accused me of keeping secrets from you. And there are a lot of things that I can't be completely honest with you about. But this isn't one of them."

I frowned, things had gotten uncomfortably deep. "Is this really a first date conversation?"

Allen laughed lightly. "What about everything that happened at the bar earlier? Or everything that we've talked about in the past week? It's been two months since we first met, and you already know me as well as my friends do. Maybe even better. I even told you that I was molested as a child. We passed 'first date conversation' a long time ago."

"Oh god, you're right." I buried my face in my hands, disturbed by the realization. "This may have been our first date, but we've been a couple for three weeks now, haven't we?"

"It's creepy when you say it like that, but yes." He paused and gave me a weird look. "Why three weeks?"

"There was a whole lot of stuff that happened between us that weekend, but mostly because that's when Road first called me your girlfriend. It's terrifying to think that she was right all along." Looking back, I could see it so clearly. The anger I had felt when I had learned that Allen was a Noah; that wasn't angry at a sort-of-friend, that was full on I-caught-my-boyfriend-lying-to-me betrayal.

"Well, when you put it like that..." Allen ran his free hand through his hair. "I guess you were right: I don't have to prove anything to you. This isn't about trying to get a second date, but about getting closer to my girlfriend."

My heart skipped a beat when he called me that. Allen pulled his hand off my knee, and offered me his hands once again. "So, will you let me, your boyfriend, get to know you better?"

"I don't really have a choice when you say it like that now, do I?" I slipped off my shoes and mimicked his cross legged position. He smiled reassuringly at me, and I placed my hands in his.

I don't know what I was expecting to happen, but it wasn't: nothing. Allen's eyes glazed over momentarily, then they went wide with panic and he dropped my hands. "Allen?"

He blinked a few times before staring at me with that kicked puppy expression he was so good at. "I don't know whether I should hug you or give you your space. I mean, I knew you hated vampires, but I thought it was because you were misinformed. I had no idea that there was an actual reason."

He babbled on a bit more before he calmed down. I didn't interrupt, but then I didn't know what to say. I had no clue what was going on. Eventually, the kicked puppy look turned into a sheepish smile. "Sorry, I got a little carried away. When I see someone's past, I'm seeing it through their eyes. Witnessing a violent crime through the eyes of a seven year old was hard. You are amazing. To have survived all that, and become such a wonderful woman..."

He reached out like he was going to touch my cheek, but froze just inches away. "Allen?"

His fingers curled into his palm and the kicked puppy look came back. "How are you ok with this? With me? With what I am? You watched a vampire kill your parents! How are you dating me?"

I grabbed his hand and pulled it into my lap. "Allen. Calm down. Look at me." I waited until his expression softened before I continued. "I'm not going to lie, I'm scared. It's hard, but at the same time, it's not. You make it so easy to forget that you're not human. Because you are the exact opposite of everything I thought vampires were."

There was more I wanted to say, but I didn't know how to say it. And Allen had returned to himself. The hand that wasn't in my lap had been placed on my cheek like he had wanted to do earlier. He kissed me before the silence got awkward.

When we moved so that I was laying on the couch and he was on top of me, I briefly worried about him trying to take things too far, but it was Allen; he'd been scared of touching me just minutes before.

The make out session was wonderful, but it was far too short. It came to an abrupt end when his cell phone rang.

He pulled away from me with a groan, and fished his phone out of his pocket. The look on his face matched the annoyance I felt. "Why don't you just silence it?"

"Can't. I'm sup-" He looked at the caller ID and made a face. He sighed as he swiped the phone open. "Hey Tyki. What's up?"

The joking retort I had planned to give to Alma died in my throat. Something bad was brewing if Tyki was calling Allen. I lay there frozen while Allen nodded and made a few noises of understanding. "Got it."

He hung up and turned his attention back to me. He smiled sheepishly. "Sorry about that, but like I was trying to say: the Noah get really pissed when I don't answer my phone. I'm not allowed to silence it. And I do not want to get another lecture from them."

Allen gave me one more kiss then he stood up. "Unfortunately, I have to go. There's a job for me to do."

"Now?" I sat up and followed him to the door. "But it's so late."

He laughed as he slipped his boots on. "For you humans maybe. But for vampires..."

"Right."

We kissed goodnight and then he was gone.

.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.

Edited February 2017