Chapter 36

2nd January 2015

For once, Allen was grateful for the enormous hangover Cross always got whenever New Years Eve rolled around. Not that that quelled his writhing nerves as his alarm rang at five o'clock in the morning, jerking him awake. He listened intently for a moment, praying that the noise hadn't woken his godfather. He then quietly crept out of bed, dressed himself and grabbed his packed bag out of the closet where he had been hiding it. Of all the crackpot plans Lavi had dreamt up in the time that they had known each other, this had had to be the most hazardous to both of their health.

He opened the door to his bedroom slowly and crept out into the hall. He felt a sinking feeling in his stomach when he saw that his godfather's bedroom door was open, which probably meant… he moved out into the longue room and sure enough, there was Cross, passed out on the couch.

Of all the times… Allen thought irritably before creeping past the couch towards the front door. He was seriously despising the fact that the door stuck and made a loud noise whenever it was opened. He unlocked the door as quietly as he could and then wrenched it open with a scraping sound. There was a grunt from the direction of the couch and he froze. There was some silence and he was just beginning to relax when, "Kid, that better not be you trying to sneak out of the house."

Without any more hesitation, Allen leapt through the doorway, slammed the door shut and tore down the stairs. When he reached the front door, he heard the door to his unit bang open, which only made him move faster. As he ran through the dark down the path towards the street, he hoped and prayed that the others were already there.

Thankfully they were. The van was parked directly outside the apartment building and Lavi was leaning up against the side of it.

"GET IN AND START THE ENGINES!" Allen shrieked, "GO! MOVE NOW!"

Lavi looked surprised but then glanced past Allen and saw what was chasing him. He quickly wrenched open the back door of the van and clambered in, holding out a hand to the British boy as he did so. Allen sprinted the rest of the distance before taking a flying leap and landing in the back seat of the van, just as Kanda pulled away with the screech of tyres on asphalt. Allen could vaguely here his irate godfather shouting something after them but it was drowned out by the sound of Lavi sliding the door shut.

"Did… did anyone catch… what he was saying?" Allen panted. Lenalee replied from the front seat, "He was shouting that he was going to change the locks."

"Has anyone ever mentioned to you that your godfather is fucking crazy?" said Kanda, disbelief in his tone.

"Great," muttered Allen, ignoring the Japanese youth, "I've been evicted from my house. He'll probably do unspeakable things to my stuff while I'm away…"

"True. But chin up! It won't be long until we're in Sydney and having a great time!" said Lavi, grinning his usual excited grin. Allen sighed and asked, "How far to Sydney?"

"Eight hundred and fifty-seven kilometres," replied Lenalee. Allen let out and groaned and slumped back into his seat.

The kilometres rolled past and the sun rose as the hours ticked by. They stopped for breakfast at a crappy little café in the suburbs before continuing on their journey. Allen was surprised that no one had yet pulled them over to check whether Kanda was of legal driving age. But then again, he did look mature for his age, and Allen wasn't exactly complaining about the lack of arrests.

They eventually left the city behind them and drove out into the countryside, sticking to the highway, which was steadily becoming more and more packed with cars as the morning wore on. Allen, Lavi and Lenalee spent most of the time sleeping or just staring out the window listening to music. Kanda had ear buds in his ears and wasn't speaking to anyone as he drove.

More time passed and the boredom became very acute. Allen was beginning to wonder if murdering Kanda and sending them all crashing off to the side of the road would alleviate some of the boredom when a sign saying 'Welcome to New South Wales' came into view.

"Hey!" said Lavi, sitting bolt upright, "Yes! We're at the border! Woot!"

"Whoop-di-fucking-doo," snapped Kanda, "We're still not there."

"How long were we driving for?" asked Allen, removing one of his headphones. Lenalee glanced at the clock and then replied, "Six hours."

"You are bloody kidding me," he groaned. Lenalee smiled at him sympathetically and said, "And we've still got around another hour to go."

An hour and forty-five minutes later they were checking into the cheap motel in the small town they were staying in for the night. They had only had enough money to rent one room and the room wasn't exactly… large.

"One single bed and a couch," sighed Allen when they stepped inside, "Great. This is just perfect."

"Well, Lenalady gets the bed," said Lavi. Lenalee looked concerned and said, "Oh, if someone else wants I'll happily sleep on the couch or on the floor."

"Lenalee," said Allen with a smile, "We're being gentlemen. The bed is yours."

She hesitated for a moment longer before thanking them and dumping her bag on the bed. After she had done this, Kanda suddenly moved forward and put his bag on the couch, glaring at Lavi and Allen as he did so. The other two looked at each other hopelessly before Lavi shrugged and said, "I guess we're sleeping on the floor then."

They spent the day exploring the small, crummy town and garnering many suspicious glares from the locals, who tended to look at Allen like he was the devil incarnate. Lavi also drew many a disapproving eye, as did Lenalee and Kanda, seeing that they seemed to be the only Asians in the town, and Allen got the feeling that the general attitude to those who were not Caucasian was… cold, to say the least. As the sun set they returned to the hotel and ate a meal of what the staff claimed to be pasta but Allen swore was just melted plastic.

Afterwards they retired to their room and prepared for bed, each of them taking turns in the tiny bathroom. They then switched off the lights and started to drift off to sleep. This, however, proved to be very difficult for Allen, who had to find the most comfortable patch of floor he could and curl up on it. Luckily it was still warm in the room from the heat that had been plaguing him all day, so getting cold wasn't an issue.

He rolled over again, trying to get comfortable… only to be suddenly grabbed for behind. He managed to stifle a yelp and broke free of the hold he was in. He rolled over again to glare at Lavi, who grinned back.

"What are you doing?" Allen hissed.

"We need to huddle together for warmth!" the redhead whispered back.

"No. It's hot enough already."

"But it might get colder later on tonight."

"I highly doubt that."

"But… but I want to cuddle you!"

"No. Go to sleep."

Allen shuffled away from the American, but he persistently followed. The two of them shuffled and rolled around on the carpet for a while, Allen trying to avoid Lavi's crab-like hands. However, their activities were abruptly ended when they rolled too close to the couch and Kanda suddenly sat up and smacked Allen over the top of the head, snarling, "Would you just fucking stop! I'm trying to fucking sleep!"

"Sorry Yuu," whispered Lavi. Kanda glared at him and hissed, "Don't fucking call me that!"

"Why is it always me?" moaned Allen quietly, rubbing his head. Lenalee slept through it all.

A/N: Oh dear god this is late... *hides* sorry. This is kind of a fillerish chapter before some of the major stuff happens in the next one. And, unfortunately, the wait between chapters will probably be something like this because I am on holidays and I am an awful procrastinator. I'll try to get two done and upload them together. So yeah, sorry about that. But, thank you for the continued support! 'Til next time!