Sorry for the long wait guys! Hell month of swimming has commenced. I thank you for all of the support you guys have given me through the time I have been gone. Enjoy, read and review always!

As a response to your review Latias426:

1) Read on to see. Tyki is in this chapter for ya.

2) You'll see *wink, wink*. But yes, a relationship between Lenalee and Lavi will eventually happen. However, not without some drama first.

Warnings: Swearing. Of the average person's speech, about .5% consists of swearing. Luckily for our samurai friend, these forbidden words are officially on par with 'we', 'our', and 'us'.

JE SUIS CHARLIE.

XXX

Tyki, at last, was alone in his dorm room. Lavi had gone out a while ago, and as much he liked Lenalee's company, she was off doing something as well. She was probably shopping with her girlfriends.

The Portuguese man lay sprawled out on the bed in the most organized way possible. His arms lay in almost a horizontal line, his legs were spread shoulder width apart. Tyki's toes dangled just over the edge of the bed.

He had been lying there for only God knows how long, just looking at the dorm's unchanging ceiling. It was peaceful. It was mesmerizing. It was his life at the moment.

RING! RING!

Tyki started up, fumbling with the smart phone in his lap. He sighed out loud when he noticed the name on the caller ID.

"Why hello Road."

"TYKI! Oh I'm so glad that you answered me this time!"

The man laughed softly, moving a stray strand of hair away from his vision. "Road darling, I answer you every time that you call. So what is going on? Why did you call me?"

A gasp could be heard on the other end of the line as Road whined, "But why? Can't I call a beloved family member when I'm getting lonely? Besides, I also have something important I need to talk to you about. I wasn't just wasting your time."

Tyki scowled. Of course she would go and pout, it was so like her to manipulate him in such a way.

"Oh Road, you would never waste my time! You are always the highlight of my day!" The Portuguese man replied in a sickly sweet tone. "So, what would you like to tell me about?"

"The Seijin no hi ceremony of course! I hope that you have found people to dance in it with you on such short notice."

Tyki smiled. "As a matter of fact I have." He knew what she was about to get at.

He could hear Road shuffling around on her end. The faint moan of "Lero!...Lero!" came through as well. "Did you find someone for me?"

"Yes, the perfect person for you to play with. He has the stature, quirks, everything. He just fell right into the palm of my hand, so to speak." There was a quick pause. Then Tyki added, "Though you may need to be careful, he seems a bit fragile."

"Oh! I absolutely love the fragile ones!" He could almost see her now, licking her lips. "What is his name then?"

Tyki hesitated, "It's… Allen Walker."

XXX

Allen had until the end of the week to carry out the 'deal'. That was all the time Kanda was giving him. It was about two or three days since the two had started staying in the same dorm room together again. Tensions were still high, but at the very least they could stand each other.

Kanda was used to ignoring things as they were for the time being, but Allen, no matter how hard he tried, just couldn't. He wanted their relationship to be mended and molded into it a semblance of what it was, or morphed into a better one, if that was possible.

He needed to clear his mind. He needed to think.

However, that was hard when he couldn't really get to sleep.

There was only one thing left to do.

"Kanda, get up, we're going somewhere." Allen said as he shook the other awake with a gloved hand.

Kanda scrunched up into a ball, then stretched his limbs out. He glared up at his roommate once he glanced at the clock. "What the hell? Beansprout! It's fucking two in the morning…" Kanda grumbled, rubbing his eyes. "I should have your head on a stake for this. What the fuck do you want?"

"Oh come on idiot, it's a Saturday night. Half of the fucking school is probably still awake about now. Besides, I have something in mind tonight."

The first thing that popped into Kanda's mind for what Allen had in mind was surprise sex, but he had a feeling that's not what the white-haired teen was so excited about.

"What?"

Allen managed a smile. "Oh no you don't. It's a surprise."

The longhaired teen looked at him, then fell back on his bed, throwing the sheets up over his head. "I fucking hate surprises. Now go back to sleep. You can bother me in the morning. Wait. Scratch that. You can't bother me in the morning."

Allen huffed and started to turn away. Then, however, he got an idea. This would shock him.

The teen strode over to the bed as softly as he could. Suddenly, Allen grabbed Kanda's feet, and started dragging him off of the bed. Kanda protested and struggled, but he didn't give his roommate enough credit. Before he knew it, the samurai was on the floor.

"Fucktard!"

Allen smirked. "Now you listen to me fucktard. For what I have in mind, this can't wait until morning. Get up and get dressed. Stop whining."

Kanda's eyes widened. He had never heard Allen talk in such a way. "Don't push your luck Moyashi."

Reluctantly, Kanda decided to get up. He changed into something that he could be seen publically in before giving his roommate the cue to lead the way.

Allen didn't seem to mind what others thought of him though at this time of day. He was still sweatpants and a shabby tank top.

As they exited the building and made their way to Allen's PT Cruiser, Kanda sighed. He might as well give it another shot. "Beansprout, where the hell are we going?"

"Out," he replied. The harsh, mocking tone was almost completely gone by that time.

The car was turned on and off they went.

The journey to wherever the hell Allen had in mind took about forty minutes to execute. Kanda's mind drifted into a comfortable doze. Though he had to add a side comment in every so often for good measure. It was very peaceful like this, just the two of them. All there was on earth during that time for the swordsman was that car, that road, that person beside him.

Time blurred together for Kanda, and when he looked over at Allen, he saw a sight like one at the party. It felt so long ago, despite it being only a couple months in passing.

Allen's face was illuminated by the moonlight as he was intent on driving. He had been to blind to notice how wonderfully proportioned Allen's features were. The dip of his nose lead its way down to smooth lips that were parted with slight breathing. Shadows gathered at the base of Allen's neck, which made the light and dark of Allen even more mysterious and inviting.

Sometime during the car ride Kanda realized why he stuck to Allen even though he absolutely despised him. He was jealous of other's ability to live in the moment and enjoy life. It was something the black-haired man had lost the ability to do after his parents died. The longer he stayed around Allen, the closer he was to achieving that bliss again.

He must have dozed off again because Allen had to shake him awake from the driver's seat. "Come on sleepy head. Out."

After much moaning, groaning and swearing, Kanda's foot landed on soft grass, not hard cement. "Walker, what are we doing?"

"Don't tell me that you already forgot about the deal?"

He watched Allen lay a blanket on the grass and sit down. He patted the extra space next to him on the blanket as a gesture for Kanda to sit down too.

"Again, what are we-"

Allen put a hand on the longhaired man's shoulder. He put one finger to his lips, while another pointed upwards.

The sky was full of unabashed stars. It was amazing the variety of colors that lay up there. Nearly all the constellations that could only be seen in textbooks were here to be identified, blinking silently at them.

There were no cars to be seen here, no streetlamps. It was just them and the stars. It was absolutely magnificent. He couldn't help but gaze in astonishment.

"H-how… did you-"

"My foster father Mana before he died, always used to take me to isolated places like this to look up at the sky. 'These are the natural lights,' he said. 'It is where all things began, and where all things will end.'"

Kanda hesitantly laid himself down next to Allen on the blanket and looked up as well. The body next to him radiated heat. It smelled like fresh grass with a slight tint of mint. Their legs touched as each lounged to peer up. The warmth that came from that simple contact was driving Kanda crazy.

Allen shifted his head from its position in his hands to get a better look at his roommate. When he smiled, Kanda's heart clenched. "It's kind of sad to think that some of these stars have already died out, and that we're just seeing the light from them thousands of years ago. Isn't it?"

"Well, they're lasting out for us aren't they?"

"Yeah," Allen replied.

"So stop complaining."

The other laughed. "Such an odd thing for you to say, mister grumpy pants."

All was silent for a long time. Neither said a word, nor wanted to. But the calm was bound to be broken. They had things to talk about.

"So," Allen said, "You get two questions to ask me, and I get two. Each week we must do this. Right?"

Both locked eyes.

Allen gestured for the samurai to go first. The other folded his hands behind his head and asked, "How many languages do you know?"

The white haired teen was a bit taken aback. "That's your first question? Seriously?"

Kanda glared. "Are you going to fucking answer or not?"

Allen sighed. "Let's see. I know French, Hindi, Mandarin, German and English of course, fluently. But I also know a tad of Japanese, which is your first language Kanda. But of course I didn't know what Moyashi, or whatever that is meant because of my limited vocabulary."

Kanda scoffed. "A hyper polyglot huh? It is hard to believe that you are proficient in so many languages with your brain."

Allen was about to make a nasty retort, but his roommate cut him off. "But for some reason I believe you baka."

"Warugaki (brat)," Allen replied, rolling his eyes. "Now its my turn."

The white haired teen turned his face away for a moment, the bangs on his forehead covering his eyes. He was going to regret not going easy on Kanda from the start, but he supposed that it couldn't be helped.

"Umm, so when did your parents get… murdered."

Kanda pinched the bridged of his nose. It took him a while to answer. "I must have been about five or six."

"Ah I see."

"I don't remember much of my parents really. My father was apparently an important political leader in Japan. However, our family lived in a small village. He didn't want us caught up in the chaos of the city. My mother stayed at home and took care of me while my father was away in Tokyo for the majority of the week to do his job. I usually only saw him at night."

Allen nodded, taking in all of the information. The first part of Kanda's childhood seemed pretty peaceful. He wondered what made someone want to murder his family like that.

"Now," Kanda continued, "What are you hiding under those gloves?"

Allen froze; he should've been expecting that. He turned to face Kanda, eyes full of fear. His hands were balled up into fists at his sides as he sat up. "Are you sure you want to see?"

Kanda ran a hand over his face in exasperation. "When the fucking hell will you realize that whatever you are hiding will never be enough for me to actually hate you. I'm not going to shun you dammit! You can trust me."

That samurai's deep blue orbs shone with sincerity.

Allen brought his arms up to look at his hands. They were shaking furiously. His vision was blurred slightly; it was becoming even fuzzier as the moments passed. Tears were about to be shed. "I…I don't think I…"

"Then I will do it for you." Kanda gently took both of Allen's hands in his own. He looked straight into his roommate's eyes as if asking permission before pulling the fingers off of both of the gloves at the same time.

Allen cringed. He couldn't look. Kanda was now staring at his hands. His real hands.

There was silence. No gasp of shock, no movement made.

Kanda let go of his friend's unblemished right hand in favor of the marred, disfigured, burned one. The longhaired teen ran his thumb on the bumpy skin. He let out a slow exhale as he tried to memorize every horrendous, painful detail of this part of Allen's anatomy.

"Can you promise me something?"

Allen's head shot up quickly. "What?"

"When we are alone. Don't you ever hide this from me."

The other's grey eyes blazed with a furious fire. "Why not! This arm I have is disgusting, unsightly-"

"Do you really think I give a flying fuck?" Allen almost whimpered at the equally ferocious look his roommate was giving him. "This is part of you. Nothing will change that. Yeah, you're annoying sometimes and do really stupid things. Yes, your sense of direction is total shit, but those are also parts of who you are. But as I said, nothing will change that."

Allen's eyes began to spill over onto their joined hands.

"To be honest, I don't really mind anyway."

Allen nodded eagerly, slipping his hands out of Kanda's. It was a while before the white haired teen dared to speak again.

"I get one more question, don't I?" Allen asked. He managed to crack a very sad, solemn smile.

"Why are you so nice to me?"

Kanda averted his eyes from the other teen. He couldn't answer that question just yet, though the answer was slowly becoming clearer. "I…I don't know. You don't make it easy for me to hate you."

Finally the sun began to rise and the teens sat up to watch the sun creep across the horizon. The dark blue of the sky bled into the dark oranges and yellows that made up the supreme star of the universe.

Kanda looked at Allen for a moment. Then words he never thought could enter his thought processes slipped out. "That was nice."

After seeing Allen's shocked face he added, "Don't make me regret saying that idiot."

The other just nodded knowingly and smiled. Eventually, after the sun finally made its way up into the sky, the pair headed back to their dorm. There they slept until late afternoon, oblivious to the world around them, dreaming of those same stars.

XXX

Lately I've been so obsessed with the French singer Shy'm, since we had a project in class about a whole bunch of French singers. Have any of you guys heard of her as well?

Anyway, until next time! I hope to get the next update up sooner. You guys keep me going and I thank you for that.