I can totally do this once a month thing. Totally. (oh no, its all falling apart)

I don't own D. Gray Man or Harry Potter.

"No, Allen," Harrick said. He stirred the pot, squinting down at the clumpy contents. (Maybe…trying to make chili by memory alone was not his best idea…) Harrick dismissed his doubt and poured more beans, mixing it together. "We're not getting a pet."

"A dog could help out while travelling or we can train it to scent akuma!" Allen tried to argue. He kept his hands clasped behind his back, anxiously twisting his fingers together as he attempted to make his case.

"Or, the dog will get shot by a blood bullet and we'll cry. Allen, I have a horrid crying face. No one wants to see that." Harrick shot a smile over his shoulder, to his partner who lounged in his high-back chair sipping wine. "Right, Marian?"

Cross raised an eyebrow. "Absolutely hideous. Snotty."

Allen narrowed his eyes. "Why do you know how Manon looks crying?" He mimicked Harrick's signature stance; his hands planted on his hips, his legs a shoulder width apart, his chest puffed out, and his shoulders pushed back.

Every time Harrick pulled out that move, men cowered and bowed to his whim.

Cross tried not be overly amused by his stupid student attempting to imitate his partner – or rather, his partner's female form. It was almost cute. "Why do you want a dog?" he countered.

Allen deflated, his stare slashing to the side to fixate on the ground. "I asked you first."

Harrick tapped the pot twice, spelling a stasis charm, before turning to his boys. "It doesn't matter who asked what, Allen. I want to know why."

Allen tucked his hands behind his back again, slouching slightly as he stared at the ground. Harrick took him in, canting his head in thought.

"Are you lonely, Allen?"

Allen startled, quick to shake his head negative. How could he be lonely? Harrick was always around, even when Master Cross went out. It was getting to the point where Allen wondered if Harrick's entire world revolved around his two companions.

(For an immortal, for Death, Allen wouldn't be surprised if that was the case. Allen's world revolved around his two teachers and Mana, after all.)

"Look me in the eye and deny it again," Harrick challenged, his voice dropping to an almost dangerous tone. One Allen was not familiar with but it raised his hackles enough that his eyes latched onto Harrick's unearthly pair immediately. "Are you lonely?"

"No," Allen denied.

Harrick hummed, but seemed to accept that as fact as he returned to his pot. "Then why do you want a dog?"

"I…like dogs."

Cross scoffed. "You have Tim, you don't need something as dirty as a dog." He dodged a wood spoon.

"I like dogs too, Allen, but you need to think about this long term," Harrick said conjuring up another spoon to stir the chili. "You'll be leaving for that Black Order in less than a year. Do you really think Marian will take care of your pet in your absence?"

"You could take care of it, Manon," Allen said, eyeing the new spoon hesitantly. "Or I could bring it with me."

"I believe in a more…free roaming type of ownership. Giving me responsibility of an animal is asking for it to go missing." Harrick shook his head with a small secretive smile. "The Black Order is hardly a place for a child, let alone a dog."

"The Finders are still alive, aren't they," Marian commented. "There's an idea. Get a pet Finder; train it, raise it, care for it. Problem solved."

"Not solved," Harrick denied immediately. "Those Finders have enough problems without setting Allen on them. They are tragic, broken players with their desire for vengeance twisted against them in the name of a war they were victims of."

"Testy today," Cross noted, slouching back in his chair to eye his partner. It wasn't concern. He was simply wary of Harrick's moods. They always led to some unplanned adventure and usually ended in injuries – or tears.

"Let's compromise," Harrick decided, moving the pot off the stove to cool before serving. He rolled his wrists and hunched slightly, feeling the change roll over him. It was rougher than his usual transitions, but he rarely allowed himself the treat of shedding the skin of humanity for a simpler form.

In his place, a large black dog sat – styled after a Caucasian mountain dog instead of Sirius' grim. Harrick was self-destructive, maybe, but he respected his godfather's individuality and the precious meaning behind the canine form. Harrick took the quiet moment of Allen and Cross gaping in union to shake out his limb and test out a step forward. It was awkward, clumsy, but he adjusted fast enough.

"I don't prefer these forms," Harrick admitted, his jaw and tongue twisting uncomfortably under his magic. "But this is as close as we can get to owning a dog."

Cross pointed and boomed out a deep laugh.

Harrick huffed as Allen buried his head in his hands to muffle his own cackle.

The things he did for his boys.

Harrick didn't change back for well over a month.

He still roomed with Cross, either curled up at the foot of the bed in a tight ball or pressed up against Cross's side when the other man started twitching from a nightmare.

He still cooked, relying on his magic more than his natural skill to feed his boys. It wasn't as good, but better than trying to enlist Cross. Allen stepped up to the plate occasionally, siting nostalgia for Before. Harrick let it be for now, the taint of the leach suppressed by the Stone and growing fainter with each day.

He still taught Allen, dipping deeper into magics – wards, runes, minor healing potions – and non-magical disguises. He dug into those old card shark skills Marian cultivated before he arrived and sent Allen out with a single name for a hands-on lesson. One day he was little lordling, Henry Bridgeton. Then he was street rat Kettle. Maid Alice. Apprentice Phillip.

Allen hoarded the skills, like a dragon jealously protecting his treasure. Harrick wanted to cut down those who scarred Allen's heart.

It was so so dangerous.

He held his boys up to the sun and watched them shine, forgetting how soft his heart was each time. Harrick forgot how quickly he loved. How his loyalty was a steadfast thing, stronger than his spirit – but he couldn't be Harry James Potter first. He had to put the souls resting within him before the little boy who loved too easily.

Harrick was amused, because he wasn't neutral. He lost that neutrality years ago, when he met a flame-haired man but he delusioned himself. It took a boy with a familiar tragedy wrapped around his throat to break that last strand of ignorance.

He made a terrible incarnation of Death.

He was too human, even after all these eons of existence.

"Manon." Allen ran a hand along Harrick's flank, calling his attention from his ruminations. "Are you happy?"

"I have my two favorite people at my side," Harrick responded, his head resting on Marian's lap. "How could I possibly be sad?"

Marian didn't look away from the paper when he flicked Harrick's furry forehead. "That's not an answer."

Harrick was suitably amused. "I almost feel ganged up on."

"You deserve it," Marian proclaimed, his hand transitioning to pet Harrick's skull, smoothing out the fur. "You're worse than Allen at ignoring your emotions."

Allen let out a token protest that none of them believed for a second.

Harrick huffed a laugh. "Well, I suppose I am happy, then. I am with the people I love. Is that not a requisite to happiness?"

His two boys froze. Harrick lifted his doggy head, taking in the sheer shock and confusion on Allen's face as well as the blatant horror on Marian's. He shook his head and barked out another laugh, louder this time.

"Amateurs," he scoffed.

"You can't just say that, Manon!" Allen finally forced out, his hands curled in his hair.

"Can't I?" Harrick hummed, shifting onto his side and nudging at Marian's stilled fingers. The best part about being an animal, a dog especially, is that no one hesitated to touch a well-groomed dog. He didn't think he had gotten as many snuggle hugs from Allen in the last year as he had in these five weeks. "Seems like I just did."

Marian choked on something. Probably his own repressed emotions. That, or his over-inflated ego. It was usually a bit of a toss-up.

"No, you really can't," Allen tried to impress on Harrick to no avail.

"I still haven't heard either of you say it back," Harrick pointed out.

Allen flew into a complete tizzy, moaning into his hands as he tried to tug out his hair. Now, that just wouldn't do. Harrick whacked him with his tail.

Marian choked again, sputtering as he physically griped his heart like Harrick was about to send him into cardiac arrest with his abundance of emotions.

"I'm surrounded by children," Harrick realized. Emotionally repressed, walled off, children. He stood, shaking off any remnants of fatigue and flopped onto Marian's lap with the grace of a breaching whale. "I love you, Marian," he cooed, his tongue lolling out of his mouth as he stared up at the General. "I love you."

Marian's horrorstruck face was totally worth every second of mockery this would no doubt incite. He looked even better than that time Harrick whacked him in the face with a fish. He wished he had a camera.

A pensive would just have to do.

Coughing out a laugh, Harrick rolled off Marian's lap and straight on top of Allen where he was seated on the floor. The boy squawked under Harrick's impressive weight but stilled completely when he nudged his cold snout to that damnable cursed pentagram.

"I love you, Allen," Harrick said. "I love you."

Harrick didn't say anything more as Allen ducked his head, pressing his face tight against Harrick's thick fur.

He didn't say anything when Allen's fingers twisted and tugged at his fur either, or the wet spot he felt growing with each muffled cry.

What was he going to do with these two?

"Figures Manon would say it first," Allen taunted the next day, the redness around his eyes finally faded. He waited in his seat at the table, a deck of cards spread out before him as he shuffled and placed them repeatedly.

Harrick, finally shedding his canine form for something with proper vocal cords and opposable thumbs, raised an eyebrow from the stove.

Marian took a sip of wine. "Harrick suffers from his own stupidity. He's oddly proud of his delusions."

Allen scoffed, "I guess only someone delusional could claim to love you."

Before Marian could attack that opening – though Harrick doubted the man would utilize it to its full potential seeing as he had long since gone soft on their student – Harrick cut in, waving his wooden spoon like a wand and magically setting the table. "Actually, Marian said it first."

"What?" Allen and Marian said in unison, bewildered and confused. Harrick loved these moments.

He hummed in thought, reaching for that not-so-distant memory as he finished up breakfast and set up to serve it. "That time in Turkey…" he led.

"I was drugged!" Marian argued immediately, incensed.

"Still counts," Harrick chirped. "Now, what was it you said? 'Love you, don't leave me'? Or wasn't it –"

"Brat! Out!"

"But I haven't had breakfast!"

"Out!"

Harrick leaned back, basking in the chaos as Marian tried to physically throw their student out of the hostel room before the immortal could divulge all his embarrassing secrets.

Their little trickster of a student would, no doubt, use it as blackmail.

Yeah, Harrick loved moments like these.

In a totally bizarre turn of events, I can't let myself – or Harrick – have anything nice without making it painful. A fluffy 'I love you' ends with Allen crying.

This went through so many rewrites, like wtf. I finally settled for something fluffy cause why not.

*shrug* I usually like the silent 'i love you's, but I felt like no one really said it to Allen, so I needed to fix that. Immediately.

Guest Reviews:

Guest (1) - That would, of course, have to wait until Allen actually has control of the Ark. There are possibilities, but Harrick would probably only agree as a last resort and even then only if he knows Allen would be alright against the Order or the Noah without him. Cross and Allen are literally the only two people Harrick cares about right now. Unless Cross got injured by, say, Apocryphos, and needed Harrick to watch over him in a secure location so he could heal...well, Harrick would just have to prioritize which of his two boys needed him more, no? A nap or two probably wouldn't hurt though, I can agree with that.

Guest (2) - Thank you!

Thefriendyouhate - Well, you didn't have to wait long~ (I'm glad you're enjoying the story so far!)

I hope everyone enjoyed this chapter!