Chapter 14

~Dallas~

A dull pain was throbbing in the back of my head, and my vision took longer than it should have to adjust to the light shining through the small window. I panicked at first, not knowing where I was, till I realized I was in my room. I sat up slowly, rubbing my head and stretching. I didn't remember what had happened last night. I didn't remember the whole day, actually. I heard a knock on my door and got up sleepily, brushing my hair along the way and opened it. Ashley and Raikou were standing there, looking dog tired. "Hey," Ashley said, and I sighed.

"Good morning..." I mumbled, and we walked almost zombie-like towards the cafeteria. When we were half way there, I broke the silence that seemed to be so loud. "Are you guys even hungry?" I asked, and they both shook their heads 'no'. "Well I'm not either...um, do you guys remember what happened yesterday?" They looked at me with shock displayed on their faces. "What?" I asked.

"You're not hungry?" Raikou exclaimed, eyes wide.

"Why aren't you hungry? Is something wrong?" Ashley asked, and I sighed in annoyance.

"No, I'm not hungry, and yes, there is something wrong. Guys, this is really bad. I can't remember anything past our mission! What if the innocence never made it to Komui?" I didn't wait for them to reply and started for Komui's office. This wasn't good. What had happened? I wracked my brain, trying with all my might to remember until it felt like my head was going to explode. Everything from yesterday or whenever it was we had gone on our mission was covered with a dense cloud in my mind. I turned a sharp corner with Raikou and Ashley on my heels, until we finally made it to that terribly messy office. Komui was face down on his desk, sleeping heavily. A man from the science department was in Komui's office, placing papers on the already messy desk. He didn't seem to notice when we walked in.

"Uh...excuse us." I said, and the man looked up. He had heavy bags under his eyes and messy, sandy colored hair. I saw recognition flash in his eyes when he saw us.

As he walked towards us he said, "Ah...Hi, girls. I'm sorry, you haven't met me before. I'm Reever, head of the science department. Was there something you needed...?" We shook his hand and introduced ourselves.

"We really need to talk to Komui. Though since he's unavailable, I guess it could wait..." Ashley said, and Reever shook his head.

"No, he can talk. Hold on a second," We followed Reever to Komui's desk and watched curiously as he whispered into Komui's ear, "Chief, I hear Lenalee's getting married."

Everything happened all at once. Komui jumped from his seat and screamed like a mad man, falling to his knees. We jumped back as he shouted, "Lenaleeeeee! My Lenalee! How could you get married without telling your loving brother?" We stared open-mouthed at him for a second before he jumped to his feet, acting like that was completely normal. He cleared his throat and when he realized we were in the room he went on talking as if nothing had happened.

"Oh, hello girls. Did you get a nice rest? All of you slept for a whole day." My jaw dropped. 'A whole day?' I thought, appalled.

"We slept for a whole day?"Me, Raikou, and Ashley all said at once. Komui nodded and pushed his glasses up with his index finger.

"Komui, We don't remember anything that happened. You got the innocence from our mission, right?" I asked. He nodded again. "Okay good..." I was silent for a moment before I gasped, and everyone looked at me. I had just remembered something that happened on the train ride to Greece. A smile tugged at the corners of my lips. "Komui...Can we call you Komaoi?" I asked, and Ashley and I looked at each other before we burst out laughing, clutching our stomachs. Everyone looked confused and I laughed harder. Komui gave us a funny look.

"Why, may I ask?" He said, and he looked at me like I was crazy.

"Well, when we were on the train to Greece Ashley called you Komaoi instead of Komui on accident and we thought it'd be funny to call you that. Like a nickname!" I said, still laughing softly. Komui laughed, and I smiled.

"Sure, you can call me that. Oh! And I almost forgot. The things you ordered came in, and I have the paint right here," He brought out three gallons of different colored paint from under his desk and gave each of us the colors we wanted. He also handed us some rollers and trays to put the paint in. We all said thank you's to him and walked out of his office.

As we walked out, I was thinking. "Hey guys, can we paint my room first?" I asked.

"Oh, sure!" Ashley said, and Raikou agreed. I smiled.

"Thanks. Why don't we just put the paint in your room, Ashley. And we can paint your room next since it's closest." They nodded and on our way to my room we spotted Lavi and Allen talking outside of Allen's door. As we approached they turned to look at us. Lavi was smiling mischievously, which made me worry about what he was up to.

"Hey Dallas," he said, "you come back to finish undressing Allen?" I looked at him, confused and slightly embarrassed. Allen subtly nudged Lavi's side and mumbled something I couldn't hear.

"What are you talking-" My words cut off as a huge flood of memories came crashing down on me. I remembered every detail from the second we got back from the mission. The party, meeting General Cross, getting drunk...oh shit. "Oh my God." I said, my face turning bright red as I stared at Lavi, remembering all of the things that I had said and done when I was drunk. He laughed at my reaction, and that pissed me off. I felt like I just wanted to crawl under a rock and never come out. I was about to say something, anything, when Ashley cut in.

"Hey guys, you want to help us paint Dallas's room?" I silently thanked Ashley for an attempt to change the subject, but it didn't change the obvious awkwardness in the air. I couldn't even look at Allen.

Lavi laughed again and said, "Sure." and we put Raikou and Ashley's paint in Ashley's room before walking into mine. When I opened the door I sighed, and put down the paint. I had no furniture besides the bed in my room, so that was the only thing that needed to be moved.

"Lavi, could you and Allen move my bed away from the wall?" They nodded and did that while I tried to pry open the paint can unsuccessfully. I didn't notice they were done moving the bed until Lavi came behind me and rested his chin on my shoulder. As he pried open the can from behind me he whispered in my ear, "Hey Dallas, since Allen looks like Santa, do you want him to come down your chimney instead?"

I blushed again and stood up. "Oh my God! Seriously, Lavi? I was drunk! Get over it!" I shouted in my embarrassment, and everyone turned to look at me.

"Dallas is right, she wasn't the only one who got drunk." Ashley said.

"Yeah, she wasn't the only one who did crazy things, either!" Raikou said and I smiled at both of them, thankful. Then I remembered all that Raikou did and burst out laughing. Ashley joined in and Raikou's cheeks turned pink. "Hey. You can't do that to me after I stood up for you!" she said, smiling through her embarrassment.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry." I said, laughing softly. I cleared my throat and poured the paint into the tray, grabbing a roller. I turned to everyone, and actually looked at Allen for the first time. "You guys ready to paint?" I asked, smiling wide.

It wasn't long till we were almost done with painting my room that deep purple color I loved. Though I was starting to feel funny. I felt more and more lightheaded with every breath I took. Maybe it had something to do with the paint fumes, but I was starting to feel really high. I was so short that I had to stand on a chair to get higher up on the wall, and as I was doing that, Allen painted next to me.

"So," he said, "My scar is sexy, is it?" I turned to look at him, slightly shocked and embarrassed, my face turning pink at his words. I stuttered for something to say, but ended up mumbling something even I myself didn't understand. Allen laughed, and I turned away from him, hiding my face. Then I looked around, away from Allen and realized that we were done with my room.

I jumped down from the chair and stood in the middle of the room, placing my hands on my hips and examining our work. I nodded approvingly and smiled. "Thanks for helping me, guys. I love it! Who knew you could paint, Lavi?" I said, teasingly.

"There are a lot of things I can do," He said, and winked at me. I laughed.

"Okay...now we need to get Ashley's room done." I said, and walked out of the room, content as fresher air filled my lungs.