"ALLEN-BOO!" Allen Walker sidestepped around Lavi's lunging form as the white haired teen made his way to the bus station twenty minutes early to meet up with his friends. Allen's mood was at an all-time high after a delicious dinner date with Kanda, who had actually opened up and talked with Allen for most of the date. Despite seeming on edge after receiving a few texts from his family, Kanda had managed to get through the whole date without snapping at or arguing with either Allen or their newbie waiter- a feat Allen was aware took a lot of effort from his boyfriend.

"Do not touch me." Kanda growled out as Lavi turned to give his other roommate a similar hello. Allen sighed, realizing Kanda's good mood had seemed to instantly dissipate, and walked over to Lenalee with furrowed eyebrows. "For some reason, I thought you would have more bags with you?"

"Hey, I have some self-control and know my spending limit!" Lenalee replied with a chuckle as she waved the measly three bags she had obtained during her three hour shopping trip.

"Well that- and she ran out of money," Krory added with a chuckled, only to be nailed in the face with a Victoria's Secret bag in response. As Lenalee went on to review her purchases and ask Allen's opinion, Kanda muttered some excuse about grabbing a drink for the bus ride home and hauled Tyki by his arm over to the closest convenience store.

"What the hell is going on? What the fuck does this mean?" Kanda demanded as he shook his phone in Tyki's face the minute they were out of Allen's sight and in the store. The screen read a simple two word text, He's back.

Tyki's expression hardened as he replied, "It seems that Neah has either caught on that we're keeping Allen from him or just suddenly gained a renewed interest in the kid still legally under his guardianship."

Kanda crushed the bag of chips he had grabbed to buy and ground his teeth in frustration. "What do you fucking mean still legally under his guardianship?"

"What I mean is that we can't stop him from seeing Allen. Neah was appointed Allen's guardian in Mana's will and there wasn't anyone else Mana mentioned in his will to act a second guardian. Meaning unless we outright charge Neah with endangering Allen's welfare, to which we had no evidence, or convince him to legally sign Allen over under our care, we can't stop him from taking Allen." Tyki's voice was terse as he relayed the seriousness of this information to Kanda.

"No evidence my fucking ass. You are the richest family on the whole entire fucking planet and you can't even hire a lawyer good enough to prove that that bastard hurt-" Kanda cut off with a growl of frustration before taking a few deep, steadying breaths. "Okay. Just- tell me what happened?"

Frowning in response, Tyki replied, "I'm not exactly sure yet. Neah just called me about an hour and a half ago asking about how Allen was doing and then saying he was going to come visit Allen to ask if he wanted to go on tour together again."

Kanda opened his mouth to reply, but glanced up to notice the store clerk eyeing them nervously from behind his counter. His left arm was shaking and, from what Kanda could deduce, obviously hovering over an emergency response button. Now that would make for a very, very annoying complication to their problem. With an audible snap Kanda closed his mouth, threw the bag of chip pieces down, and stalked to the counter.

The wide-eyed clerk nervously stuttered out, "I-i-i-i-is there anything I c-c-can help you with s-sir?"

"A water," Kanda grunted out before Tyki cut in, "Oh and I pack of cigarettes please?"

The clerk glanced down at the register before taking a deep-breath and replying, "Can I p-please see you ID s-sir?"

Tyki chuckled as he quickly pulled Kanda into a restraining hug. "I'm Mr. Mikk, a science teacher over at Black Order, and I would really appreciate it if you would kindly skip the formalities. We're kinda in a rush here and I'm afraid my student here, with a notoriously short temper, is in a bad mood."

"But-"

Kanda's patience had been reached and with a glance, he shoved Tyki away and stormed out of the store with a growl. Tyki sighed in response, "I'm sorry for any inconvenience we caused you. Here's for the cigarettes."

The clerk glanced at the cash Tyki threw him in confusion. "But I didn't give you-" With the flash of a brand shiny new pack of nicotine, Tyki glided out past the baffled worker.

"Now that wasn't very nice." Kanda glanced up from his spot slumped to the ground against the back wall behind the irritating convenience store. Kanda's answering, 'Do I look like I give a fuck?' look had Tyki shrug in response and offer one of his nicotine sticks to the Japanese teen. After having his offer waved away, Tyki rolled his eyes and took a long drag. "I guess it is a bad habit."

"What the fuck are we going to do?"

Tyki rubbed his temple in exhaustion. "Fuck if I know. I was kinda hoping you'd have some idea…."

"And I'm assuming Lenalee and Road and Daisya don't happen to have one?"

Tyki shrugged. "If they do, I haven't been clued in on it. I think the closest we've had to a plan is Road's immediate suggestion that we dress Allen in drag, dye his hair, and send him to school with her."

Kanda chuckled with no humor. "Trust Road to immediately come up with an idea where she gets Allen in drag." They left each other to their thoughts for a few minutes as Tyki finished getting his nicotine fix.

As Tyki glanced at his watch, he sighed and stubbed out the last of his cigarette. "Let's get back before Allen starts to look for us."

Kanda dragged his now tried body up and dusted off his jeans. "Should I tell Link?"

Tyki's eyebrows furrowed as he considered the suggestion. "Hmmm…Yes that does sound like our safest bet. Give him Neah's picture too. We may not be able to prevent him from coming but hell if I'm gonna let him surprise us and get to Allen alone."

Kanda nodded in agreement and lead the way back to their group, attempting to compose his anger and frustration at the situation along the way.

Allen smiled as he noticed Kanda walking back and moved to meet his boyfriend. "No drink?" Allen asked and he slipped his arms over Kanda's shoulders.

"The clerk was too fucking annoying. He thought we were gonna rob the store." Kanda scoffed and wrapped his arms around Allen's waist.

"Yes, it's a completely insane notion that your ray-of-sunshine disposition didn't charm the pants off that cashier." Tyki quipped as he strolled past the couple and towards his own boyfriend who seemed to be attempting to befriend a pair of frightened freshman.

Allen gave Kanda a pointed look. "Were you scaring some poor cashier again?"

Kanda sighed, "Tyki, why don't you go deal with your own boyfriend. Preferably before he decided to take one of the terrified freshmen under his wing and we have to deal with the kid in our room all the time?"

Allen nodded his agreement but as Tyki left the couple alone, Allen turned to his partner. "Now, you wanna tell me what's up?"

Kanda's head whipped down to stare at Allen. "I have no idea-"

"Oh cut the shit Kanda. I can read Tyki like the back of my hand and I've had experience getting past your poker face before."

"…Baka Moyashi, you're too damn good at cards," Kanda sighed.

Allen chuckled, "Well I do have the experience. Now come on, spill it. I know you're all on edge about something and I hate being out of the loop." Allen leveled Kanda with a serious look.

"It….your…your uncle seems like he might be coming back to…visit." Kanda attempted to relay the info as carefully as possible, gauging Allen's reaction.

To the British boy's credit, he showed little to now reaction; sadly for Allen, however, Kanda also was quite adept at reading his boyfriend's emotions by now.

"We won't make you face him alone," Kanda added. "You're staying with us Moyashi."

Allen's eyes snapped up to meet Kanda's as he stepped out of his boyfriend's arms. "What did Tyki tell you?" Allen's clipped tone surprised Kanda for a moment, until the Japanese teen realized his slip up.

"Nothing. He only clarified that Neah was your legal guardian, not him or Skinn or the Earl. And I figured after you told me how attached he had become to you and how hard it was for you to leave him and your music…" Kanda quickly back pedaled. "We…we just don't want you to leave us Moyashi."

Allen nodded and stepped back into Kanda's waiting arms, but Kanda didn't miss the small sigh of relief he felt Allen release.

"I'm not a Moyashi, by the way." Kanda chuckled in response.

As the bus back to school pulled up, their group piled on along with the pair of relieved freshmen Lavi had been dragged away from and a trio of female sophomores who seemed content to quietly whisper amongst themselves at the front of the bus.

Allen adjusted himself to lean against Kanda's shoulder and slip his eyes closed as the rest of their group separated off into pairs. As Allen's breaths evened out into signs of a light sleep, Kanda sighed in relief and watched the bus pull away. He'd been stupid and almost gotten Allen suspicious. He glanced over at Tyki, who sat resting with Lavi two rows in front.

Kanda remembered when Tyki had first come to him under the premise of having a 'man-to-man-talk' almost five weeks into Allen and Kanda's relationship. Kanda had thought it some irritatingly stupid gesture on Tyki's part just to annoy Allen's boyfriend. That was until he was pulled into Tyki's office and told to sit in the most serious tone he had ever heard Tyki use up until that moment.

"Kanda, I'm not about to give you some stupid lecture about how you will disappear off the face of the earth and never return if you ever harm a hair on Allen's head or on piece of his heart. That's pretty much given considering who his family is." Tyki chuckled with little humor, causing Kanda to furrow his eyebrows in response.

"Then what am I doing here?"

"I'm here because I want you to help me keep Allen with us. And because I thought, as not only his friend and roommate but his boyfriend as well, you should know why Allen will act at times the way he does."

"Tyki….I admit to being a bit curious about his background but I don't think it's right for-"

"Kanda," Tyki leveled the teen before him with a hard look. "I'm not going to tell you every little detail of what happened in Allen's past, but please just hear me out on this. Believe me that I don't want to go around telling Allen's life story to his friends for him but you should hear some of the things I have to say because I'm telling you them for a reason." Kanda paused for a moment in though before nodding hesitantly.

Tyki sighed in relief and sagged down into the chair across the desk from Kanda. "Alright. I have no doubt he's already explained his orphanage and circus years to you as well as his arm." Kanda nodded in agreement. Allen had finally, with some encouragement from Kanda, opened up and told the rest of their group about his arm and Mana's death. The British teen had been further astonished to find out that none of his friends really minded his arm and were only truly worried about how he was dealing with his father's death. Ever since then Allen had slowly gained up enough courage to casually roll up his sleeves when hanging out with just his friends.

"Good. So you know that after Mana died, Allen was left in Neah's care. That was for about a year, maybe year and a half, before the Earl was finally able to convince both Allen and Neah to place Allen under our care.

"Now after Mana died, Neah was….a wreck. Mana had been Neah's sanity, the one to always pull him away and guide him when it became too much. Because Neah may be an adult in the eyes of the law, but he is hardly able to care for himself- always throwing hissy fits and just succumbing wholeheartedly to every emotion he feels. Coupled with his alcoholism after Mana's death, Allen was just some poor depressed young kid left to attempt to care for his abusive uncle."

"What?" Kanda shouted as his eyes bulged out in shock.

Tyki nodded solemnly. "Neah, in the beginning, blamed Allen for Mana's death. None of us really know how or why, but Neah did blame Allen and somewhere along the line, Allen started to agree."

"Baka Moyashi!" Kanda growled out between clenched teeth. He balled his hands so tightly that his knuckles turned white.

"Yes Allen was an idiot. But he was also hurt and scared and depressed and being blamed, by the only person alive he knew and loved dearly, for his father figure's death. After a few months, Allen was clinically depressed, verging suicidal at times." Tyki let the information sink in, watching as Kanda's hands dropped limply at his sides and the Japanese teen seemed to blankly stare wide-eyed at the picture of Allen on the desk in front of him

"…What happened?" Kanda finally broke the silence with his practically whispered question.

"It was by this time the Earl had found out about Allen and assigned me, Road, and Lulubell to meet Allen. We quickly realized what was going on and told the Earl he had to get the kid out of there. So Neah was told he should come let Allen stay with us while he recovered from his alcoholism for a while. Everything seemed to be mapping out until….something between Neah and Allen happened."

A mix of emotions scattered across Tyki's face: concern, worry, frustration, sadness... "The Earl got a call one night from the local hospital near where Neah was staying with Allen. Allen was in intensive care- some kind of accident. We all rushed to the hospital...And as we took in Allen's bandaged face the doctor told us how Allen had been rushed in with a cut that had sliced from right above his left eyebrow to the bottom of his left cheek, straight through his left eye."

Kanda's eyes widened in horror, "Did Neah…?"

Tyki's frowned deepened. "That's the problem. The doctor said that he couldn't tell whether it had been self-administered or from an attack. And we extensively questioned both Allen and Neah. But they both swore that some man had broken into their house and attacked Allen. There was no knife found at the scene and the place had the look of being ransacked so, of course, the police took the sketch Allen described and accepted his story."

Kanda's glare at the wall at that moment could have sent killers skittering in the opposite direction in wariness and fear. "Do not tell me that fucking bastard got away with it…"

Tyki sighed deeply before closing his eyes and massaging his temples. "The first doctor said he couldn't tell if it was self-administered or not. Of course we didn't believe him, but by the time we got Allen to another doctor, the second doctor had said the surgery meant to repair the damage after Allen was brought in had been done so horribly, he couldn't confidently answer our question….A few days later, the courts found one burglar who did have a knife with Allen's blood on it that could have been used to make the scar and so that became the accepted story of what happened. Case closed."

Kanda eyes Tyki suspiciously. "But…."

"….But it was all too nice and neat. Quite a few of us Noah, including the Earl, suspected Neah plotted it; not that we could prove anything at all. Being that us Noah have our own codes of conduct and laws, however, we were able to punish Neah for his negligence to take care of Allen. Legally, though, Allen was still under his care."

"After the 'break-in', we finally moved the two into the Earl's main estate. It took time and a whole hell of a lot of self-control on the part of most of us Noah, who simply wanted to pummel Neah to a bloody pulp and tear Allen away from him, but we finally got through to Allen. And now, he's here- completely free from Neah's influence at the moment."

Kanda and Tyki sat in silence, one attempting to process everything he had learned while the other patiently massaged his temples to rid himself of the horrible headache he was gaining.

"So, why did you tell me this? Not that I don't understand how important and personal this was, but why now exactly? This isn't something that you just go around explaining for the sake of the knowledge itself. What's going on?" Kanda's hardened expression threw Tyki for a moment.

Tyki gave Kanda an impressed look, "…You're smart and I'm glad I don't regret telling you." Sighing, he went on, "Neah is growing restless. He traded alcoholism for drug abuse in his last few weeks with Allen and he's getting even more uncaring of what the rest of us Noah, and even the Earl, say to him. He's ended his recent tour and seems to be ready to come swoop Allen away on some four month long duet tour across Asia."

Kanda's frown intensified. "He can't go."

"You got that right. We were barely able to help him last time and there's no telling what effect even spending time with Neah, let alone 4 months on tour together, could do to set Allen back." Tyki gave Kanda a look. "We're doing our best to keep him away, but if Neah does end up coming here, we're gonna need everyone's help to convince Allen to stay here and fight his uncle."

Kanda nodded in agreement. "So I get everyone to help keep Allen here without them knowing exactly why Neah is so bad."

Tyki shrugged in response. "Pretty much."

Kanda stood up and added his last comment to their conversation, "Just know that Allen will not know you told me all of this. While I'm glad I know this information, there's no way I want Allen to ever know I betrayed his trust like this. I'm assuming you agree."

Tyki nodded and waved the Japanese teen away. "Now go find your little boyfriend and tell him I say hi. Just remember to keep that poker face of yours on. Allen's exceptionally good at reading poker faces so I'd not try thinking about this a lot unless you're alone or away from him for a while."

Kanda glanced down at the roommate snoozing on his shoulder. "Baka Moyashi…"

"You know someday we're all going to have to come clean." The distinctly female voice of Lenalee Lee whispered from the other side of Kanda. He looked over to see Lenalee's head poking out over the edge from the seat behind his.

"Hn?"

Rolling her eyes, she replied, "Oh don't give me that. You know we're gonna have to one day. Something's gonna give and all our plans and secrets are gonna come crashing out of the closets we've hidden them in."

"Sounds like a pretty shitty day to me. I think I'll pass," Kanda replied.

"Nu-uh. Nope. I don't think any of us are going to get to pass…And I have an inkling we're somehow, in the end, gonna end up all the better once it's over with."

"Oh and now you're a psychic, huh? While you're at it, you mind telling me whether or not Cross is giving us another pop quiz tomorrow in Drama, cause I'd rather no-" Kanda was cut off by the Victoria's Secret bag Lenalee threw at his face.

"Shut up!" Lenalee acted annoyed, though the smiled edging at the corners of her lips gave her away.

"Hey it's you wh-" The clearing of a throat cut Kanda's reply off, however, as the two over to see a somewhat ticked off Allen Walker who was now quite awake with black bra thrown over his face and three pairs of underwear strewn over his shoulders and head.

"Could someone please explain to me why Road's not even here yet I still managed to wake up covered in female garb and lingerie?"

Lenalee broke out laughing, earning the attention of the rest of the bus.

"Maybe you just have an affinity for female clothing." Lenalee giggled, causing the rest of their group to start smiling and laughing in agreement.

"Maybe this is somehow Road's master plan!" Lavi shouted out horror as the idea popped into his head, causing Tyki and Lenalee to look at each other and nod in agreement before taking their phones out and quickly sapping a pic of Allen.

Said British boy huffed in indignation before throwing Lenalee's purchases back in her bag and shoving the bag into the Chinese girl's waiting hands.

"Road says she's so proud of you Lenalee for finally taking the initiative in your…ummm, what she calls 'United Quest to finally Turn Allen Over to Drag'," Tyki reported. Kanda chuckled as he wrapped his arm around the now annoyed Allen's shoulders.

"Seems that now everyone got something good out of today," Kanda muttered into Allen's ear.

Allen turned to smile up at Kanda before leaning up and whispering in his ear, "Oh? Well if you're already satisfied with how the day turned out, I guess I won't have to come up with some excuse to send Lavi away when we get back."

Kanda's eyes widened before he turned to playfully glare down at Allen. "Oh I wouldn't say I'm satisfied quite yet. Oh not at all."

Allen smirked to himself before sending Tyki a simple text along the lines of: Get Lavi out or you're not getting any anytime soon. I have my resources too. Kanda read the message and quietly laughed before leaning back. Allen soon laid his head back on Kanda's shoulder and dozed back off, this time with hopes of waking up with no female clothing anywhere on his body.

As the bus settled down once more to conversations between pairs, Lenalee whispered as she moved back to her seat behind Kanda, "Just be ready Kanda. I don't wanna see any of my family leave, no matter what."

Kanda sighed before moving his head to glance at the girl who he considered his little sister. He tried to reply to her with a look but she simply gave him one back. Sighing, Kanda quickly and quietly replied, "There's no way I'd let that happen and you know it. We've all got skeletons and it's going to be real shitty for a while when they do come out but you know we'd never truly leave you Lena."

Lenalee gave Kanda a grateful smile and one-armed head hug before leaning back to curl up against Daisya, who simply chuckled in reply.

One day we're all going to have to come clean. Huh, not if I can help it.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

Author's Note: I would apologize for not updating sooner but I've had the most stressful and head-ache inducing summer so anything I would have attempted to post would have been horrible quality and forced for the simple sake of an update. After a summer of having to plan three different moves, I ended up here in the UK without wifi for almost 3 weeks =.= Oh and then school started- jooooy.

But I finally finish the move within the next 2 weeks so for hopes of another update and your thoughts on where/how the story is going- Click below!