Disclaimer: I do not own D Gray-Man!

AN: Hello! Doing well? Fantastical, I hope! I've decided to use this author's note more 'productively' from now on. Well, I say productively, I mean something even more stupid than usual :D Be it random things I've thought about on DGM or weird aspects of life. Like how I was wondering why there aren't many long haired guys, and why I didn't have one as a friend, when I realised I do have a long haired guy friend! He has this awesome hair down to his waist that has (somehow) natural goldish streaks and smells like heaven in the shape of hair...and he's a downright flirt as well. Not a normal one either, he will (and has) intercept me in the middle of going to class to casually pick me up and sling me over his shoulder. Which is quite impressive, seeing as he's shorter than me...
the point of this being I can boast I have a long haired guy friend YES. MY LIFE IS COMPLETE :D Hope you enjoy!

Well, so much for being able to find my way back by myself.

I slumped over the railing, staring down into the black depths that the elevator had dropped me down to. I was lost, even after I told Lavi I'd be able to get back to my room by myself, and I was just giving up after what seemed like hours of wandering. After coming out of the storage room, we had discovered it was surprisingly late, and most were already asleep, which meant I couldn't exactly just knock on someone's door and wake them up rudely.

"Maybe I should just sleep on this railing…"I laughed quietly to myself, because it was actually looking like a possibility. I suddenly heard the creak of hinges from the door behind me as it swung open slowly, and I saw Lenalee peek out.

"…Ai? What are you doing out here so late?" she opened the door to step out into the hallway, wearing a short and black snugly fitting night gown.

"Oh no, sorry if I woke you! I just...well, got lost." I shrugged helplessly. Lenalee stared for a moment and then giggled, covering her mouth to stifle the laughs.

"You're so silly!" she laughed way more than she should have at my expense and despite my best efforts, a slight embarrassed flush hit my cheeks.

"I usually don't get lost! But this place is huge!" I protested and her laughs finally slowed.

"Right, right!" she smiled good-naturedly.

But now that I looked closer, there were signs of unrest and tiredness on Lenalee's face that made it quite obvious that I hadn't waken her up.

"Are you feeling alright?" I inquired carefully. She started a little but immediately put up a wider smile.

"Y-yes! I'm just having some trouble sleeping, it's fine!" she hurriedly assured. I scoffed a little, and took a step forward, leaning forward a little because I was a bit taller than her.

"If you're going to lie, at least do a better job than that." I teased gently.

"I-I'm really not lying!" she insisted, but less forcefully and she met my eyes for a moment.

"How about keeping me company for a while then?" I grinned. Lenalee blinked and then smiled brightly.

"Okay! Why don't you just sleep in my room tonight?" she suggested happily. "I'll wait here, you should get your sleeping clothes…" she trailed off slightly when she saw me hesitate.

"I don't…really have anything like…that." I trailed off with a gesture to her gown. "I just wear my clothes to bed because we used to have to be on guard all the time and sometimes needed to escape during the night at short notice. Now I think about it, it was quite a useful skill when I was accompanying Cross." I shuddered slightly.

"But you're at home here! You won't need to get up and run. Come on, you can borrow one of mine!" she tugged me into her room.

"So? Why couldn't you sleep, Lenalee?" I asked as she fumbled around in a small drawer.

"N-no reason…" She stammered.
"You're a bad liar when you're tired."

"No…it's just...ah, here we go! You're taller than me, this is one of my larger night gowns." Lenalee handed me silky black night dress that mirrored what she was wearing now.

"Were you having nightmares?" I took it from her, looking at it a little warily and sceptically.

"Something like that…but I'm fine!" she reassured. I looked at her incredulously and then sighed, struggling a little to put the dress on. Finally, I managed to get my incapacitated arm through the strap, folding and placing my other clothes on the floor.

"Perfect!" Lenalee clapped. I looked down sceptically, it fit… little too snugly and though I had worn a lot of dresses before, I had never really worn a night dress. It bared a lot of skin.

"I think I'll wear something over the top." I shrugged on the new black shirt Johnny had made over the dress, finding it just as comfortable.

"That just defeats the purpose." Lenalee pouted.

"Don't be so cute, Lenalee!" I pounced on her, hugging her with my free arm. She laughed lightly and sat onto the bed, patting the spot beside her.

"How are you finding it here?" she asked.

"Lively." I replied instantly. "It's hard to get used to, especially the fact that I have a place to call 'home' now, but…."

Lenalee smiled knowingly and idly cast a glance out of her window.

"I didn't really call this place 'home' before either, but now, I don't think I'd want to be anywhere else." Lenalee's eyes flickered to her legs quickly and her hands tightened on her thighs. I frowned at her expression and fell backwards onto the bed with a loud, exaggerated sigh.

"A distracted Lenalee makes me sad…"

"Oh! I'm sorry, I didn't mean-"

"I'm joking, Lenalee! I like it when you're really smiling…I haven't had enough of those in my life." I pointed at my own silly grin.

"Now you mention it, you have been smiling a lot more, Ai! It looks better on you than that sad face you used to have."

"It was a pretty bitter expression, wasn't it? Lonely, self pity, self loathing, guilt…it was such an ugly look!" I slapped a hand over my face. "It's almost a little hard to believe how much better I feel."

"That's great to hear!" Lenalee tilted her head with a genuine smile on her face. The conversation flowed more comfortably from there, and I didn't even notice when I fell asleep.

"Lenalee! It's horrible, Ai's gone missing-"Miranda burst into Lenalee's room, pausing when she saw Ai half sprawled on the bed, half sprawled on the floor, sleeping soundly on her back. When the door hit the wall, she shot up, glancing about wildly for a minute before relaxing. Miranda slumped over in relief as Lenalee got up sleepily from her place on the bed. She rubbed her eyes and stretched.

"Miranda?"

"Good morning, Lenalee, Ai." she said weakly.

"Morning! Is something wrong?" Ai asked with a greeting wave, wincing as she jostled her arm.

"The supervisor asked me to call Ai, and when I went to call her from her room, she wasn't in there, and I was so worried!" Miranda took a deep breath.

"It's not like I have anywhere to run to." Ai laughed softly, but Lenalee was more focused on a different part of the sentence.

"My brother did?" she hurriedly brushed her hair and beckoned for Ai to follow.

"Um! Ai, Lavi asked me to give this to you if I saw you first…"Miranda placed her hand in her pocket and fumbled around for a bit, a panicked look taking over when it came up empty.

"Check the other pocket, Miranda." I suggested calmly and took the paper Miranda found after scrambling around in her opposite pocket. I only had to take a brief look at it before I knew I had to find him.

"Lenalee, I'll be right behind you…" I trailed off quietly as my hurried walk slowly turned into a run to where I guessed Lavi's room was.

"Ai?" I felt a little bad for ignoring Lenalee, but I had to find Lavi first.

I held the paper to my chest, because what he wrote on it was time wasting and tedious and unnecessary and….so…..!

Who on earth would copy out a damn music score after the original was burned?

I vaguely remembered Lavi's room and took a chance with it, pounding on his door. There was a shuffling noise, and then a loud thump.

"Whaaaaat? It's too early…"I heard Lavi's groan from inside and knocked on it more furiously.

"Open up!" I called and as soon as that made its way through the door, there were scrambling noises and eventually the door opened quickly to reveal a slightly dishevelled red head. As soon as he came entirely into view, I lunged forward and threw my arm around his neck, hugging him tightly.

"Wha?" Lavi stood stunned for a moment, and I could feel his arms kind of flailing.

"You idiot, wasting time on something I already…" My voice wavered and I took a breath, not daring to raise my head from his neck. "I destroyed it, and you recreated it from memory?"

"W-well, I felt really bad that you threw away something so important to you. It's not a bad thing to hang onto stuff from the past, as long as you keep looking forward." He said cheerfully and almost sounded panicked when a quiet sniff escaped from me. "Whoa! Please don't-I didn't mean to make you-"

I swiped my sleeve across my eyes quickly as I let go, eliminating all signs of tears and smiled shakily at him.

"You...just keep on giving me reasons to fall for you, don't you?" I grinned and whirled around, starting to jog towards Komui's office.

"W-wait, what did you just say?" his shell shocked voice called, but I just spun around briefly to shrug cheekily.

"Thank you!"

AN: Next week I plan on divulging some interesting things I've found on the name 'Lenalee Lee' as a Chinese name! Thanks for reading!