The next three days were the best of Allen's (very short) life. As had become readily apparent on the first day, Kanda liked routine and so the next three days mostly followed the template set up by the first.

Allen found himself lingering around in his room much longer after he woke up in the mornings, not wanting Kanda to have any trouble finding him and ending up wasting some of their time together. Given how their first couple of meetings went, Allen could hardly believe how much he'd started wanting to be around Kanda, to the point where he was constructing his mornings around it.

After coming to get him, they would catch up with each other and Kanda would sit with him while the boy had his breakfast even though the demon didn't seem to need to eat again for a while. It was just an excuse to spend time together - an excuse the both of them were using and since Allen knew Kanda didn't have the best handle on emotions, but he didn't call the other man out on it.

They then went for a walk in the early morning gloom and followed it up with meditation. They either played Shogi after that - with Kanda insisting that he will win - or spent time reading separately but together in the library, even though they both had books stacked in their own rooms for reading. These activities became their routine and although they didn't always talk a lot during their routine, they became companions to each other in a way Allen had never expected.

The uncomfortable silences between them grew comfortable and their company pleasurable. Any awkwardness was mostly gone and replaced with quiet understanding. Certainly they didn't know each other terribly well yet, but that didn't mean that they didn't understand each other in a way. Less strangers than they had been before they had started spending their mornings together, anyway.

...All the books he read and he couldn't even find a way to describe his feelings to himself. Ah, irony. The best way to go about that really was to just say they were being companions to each other. Even the rigid routine their days fell into, which should have forced him into feeling as restricted as he'd been feeling before, was comforting in its own right.

Sure, he wished a little bit for a few more surprises in his days as they went by, but it mostly felt overwhelmingly….comfortable. It took a little while to put his finger on it and he still wanted to blame at least part of it on the lost memories of his previous life, but he eventually did settle on something he could understand a bit more.

The addition of a shared routine with Kanda made him feel like he really belonged here.

Since waking up in this place, he'd felt uncomfortably the creeping feeling in the back of his consciousness that he was an interloper. It was nothing Lavi and Kanda did! Well, his first meeting with the demon didn't help, but it didn't cause the problem.

Intellectually, he knew he was made to belong here, but that knowledge didn't extend to his emotions. The fact still remained that he woke up in a place unfamiliar to him with no memories of what was familiar to him and found himself taking up space in a small world with only two people in it who had been living with each other for who knows how long before he got there?

They had history together and knew every nook and cranny of the place that he had only barely stepped foot in. How was he not supposed to feel at least a little out of place here? But the routine with Kanda unexpectedly did wonders to help with this, so much that Allen found himself almost ready to call this place home in his own mind. It gave him something predictable to hold onto while he got his grip and that wasn't even taking into account how pleasurable most of the activities were.

His favorite part of their routine by far was their walks. It was unbelievably refreshing to take a walk early in the morning and after eating. Each time he did it, he felt like he was breathing new life into himself and despite how dark and cold the world around them was, it could not hide the fact that their surroundings were indeed beautiful.

Or maybe gorgeous was a better word. The mansion was beautifully built on the inside but especially on the outside, with details etched into the walls and windows that must have taken a lot of time. Like that bat! The small clearing surrounding the home on all sides made sure it was the focus of attention and provided them with the space to do their activities. Even the woods, with its lingering sense of danger emanating from it, was attractive in a disturbing way. Appearing to be silently still and empty despite him knowing the opposite.

He could watch their surroundings every day for the rest of time and never grow tired of it, he was sure. It made it even better knowing for almost certainty that Kanda made their walks a regular thing because he knew that Allen enjoyed them. It really did make it all the better and it felt like he was seeing a bit of Kanda that few else got to see.

"Is it always this cold and dark around here? I know it's only now starting to get deeply into the winter months, but there haven't been any days with more than a bit of sun peeking out. Is it like this the rest of the year, too?" The silver haired boy asked, his head swiveling around on his neck to take in everything around them on their walk. No matter how many times said boy saw the familiar sights around their home, he never seemed to get tired of them.

Kanda would freely admit to never being able to really tell what was going on in the boy's mind at any given moment, the enigma that his creation was, but he did quickly learn how spirited the boy was. In hindsight, his failure to recognize that initially was the main contributor to their huge row upon first meeting.

Lavi did have some disobedience in him, but he would still show his neck to the older demon with only a little pressure and besides the vampire, Kanda didn't deal with a whole lot of people who were willful and unbending. In fact, any time in his entire life that he'd dealt with someone of that persuasion, it was always in a manner where he could react with violence, either killing the person or otherwise subjugate them to his will.

He was not prepared for the creation of someone who was meant to be his lover to be so willing to fight with him over nothing right off the bat and even angry as he was at the time, spitting words that proved themselves to be too cruel, he'd known he couldn't react with the violence and murderous intent he was used to using almost indiscriminately.

At first, he thought that this overriding character trait of the boy's of being wilful would be too much to stomach, a huge flaw in the beings recreation that Kanda wouldn't be able to suffer too long before he ruled the experiment a waste of time. However, the boy surprised him yet again. His being didn't stop at being stubborn and argumentative, but extended to being energetic and curious.

The boy wanted to know everything about everything and that was far less frustrating to the demon than it had any right to be. It felt good to talk at length and have someone listen for that entire time. Surprising, since he usually preferred to be more brisk in his dealings with people. He hadn't known how good it would feel to have someone show such interest in everything he did…

The demon felt the tips of the boy's questing fingers brushing against the back of his hand.

...It was nice.

Kanda stopped walking as quickly as the thought hit him.

Nice…nice...it was nice…

Kanda felt his heart thundering in his chest and in his ears.

"Kanda? Are you okay, what's wrong?" Allen's soft voice worried next to him, yet Kanda couldn't hear it. All he could hear was, Nice…nice...it was nice… No. No, he couldn't—he couldn't like it like this. "Kanda?" Allen had only enough time to call out his name one more time, before the demon jolted into movement, fleeing the scene faster than Allen could comprehend the situation.

Allen was left behind. He stared at the front door of the mansion through which his demonic host had disappeared through before he too burst into movement. The boy cursed his human running speed as he fled back inside and looked around his immediate surroundings, hoping to identify where Kanda might have gone. Maybe upstairs? To his room!

Allen took up the several flights of stairs, not stopping to question if his assumption was correct until he got to the demon's floor. There was no room for tact in Allen's mind for the moment, so he just started throwing open doors along the spacious hallway under the assumption that Kanda would have to be in one of them. Well, he never opened the right door, but he did soon come upon one that was locked near the end of the hallway.

Kanda's room? Allen wondered as he tried the knob one more time and failing that, he started to knock vigorously on the door. "Kanda? Kanda, are you in there!" His tone was so panicked that his voice sounded foreign to his own ears.

Allen couldn't hear anyone speak from inside the room, but when he pressed his ear up against the door, he did hear the slight - oh so very slight - swishing of fabric. Someone moving.

"Kanda!" Allen cried out, not nearly giving up. "Come out of there! What's the problem, was it something I said? Talk to me!"

The hall and adjoining room was silent for several long seconds, crushingly silent, and then, "Go away, Beansprout." Kanda's voice came from inside the room, dark and resolute...but there was something else there, as well. He sounded upset. As soon as Allen identified that, he started pounding on the door again.

"I'm not going away when you're clearly troubled by something! I'm not leaving you, so could you please open the door?!" No answer. "Kanda, really! What's the problem? If you let me know, then maybe we can fix it!"

"We need to take a break from spending time together." The statement came once again from the voice behind the door and it felt like a shattering blow to Allen.

NO! He'd just started feeling like he belonged, just started feeling like he and Kanda were making progress together and now Kanda was shutting him out! "Why? What's wrong with our time together, isn't that why I was created in the first place?! Talk to me!" Nothing. The silence hung heavily.

Wait.

Shutting him out.

Was that why Kanda was doing this? Was he trying to shut him out? Why and for what purpose?

"Kanda…?" Allen's voice was softer this time, but it cut through the silence of the hallway like a sharpened knife and he was sure the demon could hear it in there, even through the thick wood of the door. He heard something shift behind said door in response to his lowered tone. "Are you doing this because you don't want to get close to me?"

He didn't know why Kanda was so upset, but he was clearly trying to distance himself from Allen. There was nothing else he knew, but that Kanda seemed to be trying to lock him out of more than his room.

"I don't...I don't know what's going on with you right now, but I can't if you won't talk to me about it! Maybe that's what you want. Maybe you want me to go away so you can rot in peace, but I'm not leaving you! I'm here for you, whether you want me to be or not. I don't know what's going on and I'm confused because things have been going so well! We were talking and having fun and I already miss that. You must, as well." The boy stopped and took a deep breath.

"Whatever's going on, this isn't the answer! I am begging you not to lock your door on me, don't shut me out!" Allen cried. His voice wasn't one that could get very loud or high without breaking, but he would completely destroy his voice box if it got Kanda to listen to him.

The hallway was quiet. The room was quiet. Everything was quiet and Allen waited peacefully for anything to happen. He was still upset, but having gotten his feelings out, he felt arguably at peace for the moment. He could wait for Kanda to come out, even if that took a while.

It didn't, though. The silence stretched for only ten seconds, before the awaited answering voice came from inside the room. "Beansprout."

"Y-Yes?" Allen inquired, voice hopeful.

"Why are you here?" Kanda's voice asked. That stopped him.

Why was he here? Isn't that a question he'd be asking Kanda or Lavi? He didn't know why he was here—he—oh. But Kanda wasn't asking that, was he?

"I—I know we don't know each other very well, but I don't not care about you and no one deserves to be alone. That's why—I'm here, right by your side. It's what I'm meant to do, right? And it's what I want to do, so could you please come out? Or just...let me in?"

Quiet. Silence. And then the sound of a lock clicking and the door slowly swung open. Kanda stepped out with all of the grace and none of the flourish of his usual entrances. Allen craned his neck up - as he normally did - to get a better look at Kanda's face.

"Well? Are we going to go?" Kanda said. He was trying to sound his usual kind of snappish and coming up a little short of it.

"Where?" Allen asked while tilting his head, lost.

"To the library." Kanda asserted. He was refusing to look directly at Allen, instead glaring just off to the side.

The silver haired boy felt a wide smile ruthlessly taking over his face and he nodded, wanting nothing more than to preserve this feeling. "Right! Okay! Let's go then!"

The rest of the day was quiet for them. No more blowouts, but not much talking, either. They weren't uncomfortable around each other again, which Allen was incredibly grateful for, but he could still feel what they hadn't talked about hanging between them like it was floating in the air. A slight bit of tension in their otherwise relaxed activities.

Allen found worry beginning to curl up in the back of his mind night began to encroach on the mansion. Normally in their routine, he and Kanda would have split off into their own rooms or their own activities by nightfall, but they were still together as it came upon them now. Allen was glad for it, he didn't want Kanda to leave after what had happened between them earlier, but they still had no resolution for it and he was worried that they wouldn't get one.

Though even with that fear, Allen couldn't bring himself to ask Kanda about it. Partially, he was afraid Kanda would close himself off again if Allen were to push about an uncomfortable subject, but Allen was also slightly nervous about talking about it, himself. He didn't know if he could bring himself to ask, ultimately for reasons that were entirely his own.

Would they go to sleep that night with this still hanging between them? And if they did, would it be forgotten tomorrow or would it go on; a taut string between them?

"Let's go outside." Kanda said at one point after night fell, startling Allen who had grown used to the silence and his own thoughts. Also, this was new.

"Outside?" Allen checked, his brain not quite catching up. They'd never gone outside this late before but then again, they had rarely spent any amount of the night together. Should he be worried?

"Yes, outside." Kanda said with a raised brow. "Come." He brusquely got up from his seat and took off at a walking pace. Allen tripped over himself a bit while trying to get up and follow Kanda. Even though the demon was walking, his long legs made it difficult for Allen to keep up beside him without breaking into a light jog.

Soon they were outside and with Allen still none the closer to identifying the reason for it. Against whatever flimsy expectations Allen might have had, Kanda kept to the outer wall of the mansion and trailed along the side of it until they got to a suitably secluded spot. With the same elegance the man practically exuded, the demon pressed his back against the wall and slowly slid down until he was seated on the ground.

Kanda. Sitting on the ground. It seemed so casually lowly for the demonic master of the house that Allen almost found himself as shocked by it as Kanda's breakdown earlier. The fact that Kanda still managed to look regal and controlled while sitting on the ground with his one of his legs splayed out in front of him and the other bent up in front of his chest was not lost on Allen, but it defied reasonable explanation.

Allen slowly took the few steps needed to bring him right up next to the older monster and took the same actions, plopping onto the ground with far less finesse. The ground was not wet, but it did give the impression that it was with the moisture that always seemed to cling to the air here.

Kanda didn't say anything and only checked to make sure Allen had sat down next to him before leaning his head back against the wall and closing his eyes. After a few seconds of looking around aimlessly, Allen used the opportunity to once again take in Kanda's features without having to justify his actions. The demon looked troubled but peaceful, like he was taking the moment to relax after thinking hard about something.

It was this feeling of relaxation out in the open with the new air and nightly chill, this ethereal openness that gave Allen the confidence to tackle that thing hanging between them all day. "Why did you choose to have me created?" He kept his voice light, wary of speaking too loudly in this atmosphere. Allen didn't expect a response so soon, but he jolted as Kanda didn't waste a moment in replying.

"I was lacking something." Kanda spoke just as quietly as he had, but his voice still rumbled deeply. "I can't stand to not have anything."

"Why?" It was all Allen could ask, here. He looked up to the sky instead of at Kanda and took in the glittering stars above. Fog spread thinly over the ground, but the sky was clear.

Kanda seemed to take a moment to think about that. "I suppose...because it's weakness. If you don't have something, you're lacking and if you're lacking, you die. Maybe I was bored, as well. I remember when I took and remodeled this place, I viewed it as a lair but just as much I viewed it as a way of passing the time. A project, a new amusement, to help my eternity pass more gracefully. Maybe you were that, too."

All of this was said in a calmly factual manner, the tone of Kanda's voice as if he were thinking about these things even as he said them. Allen's mind whirred away as he consumed the knowledge being deposited into his lap.

"I don't suppose you know anything about what it's like to grow up a demon." Kanda stated.

Allen shook his head. "No. I barely know a thing about demons at all."

Kanda nodded, absently. "I thought as much. As a demon...we're basically on our own from the beginning. We have to fight for everything from birth until death and most of our fighting is against each other. There are reasons why so few demons exist in the world at any one time and principle among them is that demons relentlessly kill of their own kind as competition.

"I came here because there are far fewer demons elsewhere in the world compared to where I was born. I earned the title of strongest among my kind back in my homeland, so I didn't flee for survival. I would never do something so pathetic...but most demons do not make good company and I was better off on my own anyway."

Kanda let out a loud breath and started to look up at the sky, as well. "I wanted to see other lands and I did that. I'm the best there is so it stands to reason that everything around me would be weak in comparison, even if they're other demons, but I still hate the idea of not having something. You understand?"

"Yes." Allen answered, breathlessly and he did. Kanda was aggressive, acting decisively and disdaining anything that could be seen as a challenge or critique towards himself. He couldn't stand losing.

He thought he could understand why now. He didn't understand why Kanda got so upset earlier or what all he'd been thinking about since then, but that was okay. He could let it rest for now. In this moment, right here, right now, he was happy with Kanda.

He was glad Kanda had shared this with him, he certainly didn't have to but he did. Allen could let it lie, because right now, they were together. He thought it felt even nicer than their walks together. They weren't even doing anything, but it still felt so nice.

Without looking, Allen slowly let his hand crawl towards Kanda's, pressing first their fingers together and then their palms. He met with no resistance. Just the slightest curl of Kanda's fingers around his own, not a word spoken about it.

Allen smiled and closed his eyes, leaning his head back against the wall in a mimic of Kanda's position. He was happy here.

And he would always stay right by Kanda's side, forever.


A/N: Not gonna lie, I was really tempted to end the story here even though I haven't even gotten to the more interesting of the stuff I have planned for this story, just because of how beautiful the end of this chapter turned out and, really, how beautiful the whole chapter could have worked as a send-off with some adjustments.

But I got PLANS, man! So, we press on.