If you've also taken a look at my Ao3 version of this, you'll have noticed a few changes. This is because Ao3 formatting is stupid.

News of Allen's awakening spread quickly. The reactions were mixed, to say the least.

"Allen, you don't know how happy I am that you're awake." Reever told him as he carefully rewrapped the bandage around Allen's empty eye socket. It turned out that the eye, because it had belonged to Nea, had destroyed itself basically the day after Allen had fallen into a coma. Cleaning out the dust from the cavity had apparently been a long and disgusting process, which meant that Reever had handled it. "Johnny's been home with family, and the Wonder Duo are gone every other day to clean up the messes that Central left behind."

The wonder duo being Komui, acting head of the European branch, and Lenalee, the apparent Heart. Allen couldn't say that he was too shocked that Lenalee had turned out to be the Heart-in fact, he was pretty certain that no other person was as good a choice as her. "The other Exorcists are going a little stir crazy, now that they have nothing to do. But with you awake, they seem to be in high spirits, you know?"

Allen would've nodded, except Reever had a vice-like grip on his skull to keep him still. "I still….can't believe it's over." He responded instead. He'd been saying it himself over and over again, that there was no more fighting to be done, and the idea still hadn't stuck yet.

Reever stopped for a second and looked in Allen's single eye, his expression eerily understanding. Then he leaned back, and patted the top of Allen's white head. "Don't worry about it, it took us all a while, too. We've had five months to adjust."

Allen forced himself to nod.

That was one reaction to his awakening-unconditional support, and the trust he didn't deserve, but which his parched soul cried out for anyway.

The other reaction was...less good.

Allen flew directly from a troubled sleep to a adrenaline-fueled awareness, the way he could when the war was still in full swing. He...sensed something. Or someone? They were trying to keep their presence hidden, which was probably why Allen had reacted so badly to it in the first place.

His first thought was, of course, an Akuma, and he wasn't quite in the right state of mind to convince himself that the Akuma had all been wiped out when the Earl had died. There was an enemy out there right now, wanting to kill him, and that was the one thing he could handle with absolute certainty. Whether or not it was an akuma, well….he could figure that one out later.

The green privacy curtains rustled a little, and Allen slowly began to prop himself up against his pillow, which was more….difficult than it had ever been in the past, due to only having one arm. He would manage, though. He would have to manage-there was no way he was facing this threat lying down.

The curtains suddenly parted with a harsh ripping sound. And when the knife came flying for his face, Allen reacted by trying to pull his Innocence from his shoulder.

But his Innocence wasn't there, why wasn't his weapon where he needed it-

He barely got his right arm up in time, and blood splashed onto his cheek as the knife bit into the skin of his hand. His assailant was stronger than he was, though, especially after five months in a coma, he wasn't going to win this. His hand, the only thing from keeping his attacker from stabbing him, lost ground inch by trembling inch, until he was watching the tip dancing dangerously in front of his only working eye.

And then suddenly there was a roar-

The pressure abruptly vanished, leaving him with a fierce pain where the knife was still embedded into his palm and nothing more. Allen looked up weakly, searching for his saviour, and promptly caught sight of Kanda Yuu, an unfamiliar sword pointed at his assailant's throat. The ex-general was scowling fiercely at the other man, looking about two seconds away from foregoing pleasantries and cutting off his head.

"You know that's the Heart's friend, right." Kanda said slowly, as though he were speaking to someone very stupid.

"She's obviously been deceived!" The man growled, though he kept himself from getting too enthusiastic, lest he be cut by Kanda's sword. "That thing is a monster, I'd be doing the world a favor if it dies-"

The sword suddenly dropped, and the man stared at it, obviously not comprehending that it was buried in his leg. "Fucking oops." Kanda said acidly.

"You…" The man dropped like a rock, whimpering in pain, hands wrapped around his leg. "You bastard!" He screamed.

"Whatever." Kanda snorted, and turned to look over at Allen. "Beansprout. You okay?"

Feeling a bit off-balanced about the sudden concern in Kanda's voice, he lifted his hand, where the knife was still sticking out from his palm. "I only have one working arm left," He said, a little shakily, "So I'd really appreciate if someone could get this removed."

Cursing, Kanda called for Reever and the other scientists.

A week and two assassination attempts later, Allen was finally called down to the science lab. He'd actually been expecting it for much longer, considering that A) he was an ex-Noah, and a lot of people probably wanted confirmation that it would stay that way, and B) he no longer had an eye, and needed to be fitted for a false one, or an eye patch like Lavi.

It turns out that while he was indeed needed for testing and eye-fitting, he was actually being called down for a much more immediate problem. The problem being that Lavi was still in the coma the Noah had put him in two years ago, and it was becoming increasingly obvious that whatever they had done to him wasn't going to fix itself. And as Allen was the one who'd been "with" the Noah for the longest, they were hoping that he'd be able to provide some sort of solution.

Komui grimaced at Allen, who was being carried around in Marie's arms, since he was not yet capable of walking long distances on his own. "I'm sorry about this, Allen. It's just that you're the only one who might be able to help him, and…" The scientist shrugged helplessly. "There's talk that he might be getting disconnected from life-support soon."

Allen gritted his teeth and turned his face into Marie's shoulder, not for the first time wishing that the Black Order could just be dismantled already. Even with Levierre gone, they were still kicking up a fuss and causing trouble for everyone. The most prominent of which being that they wanted to put Nea on trial for war crimes, completely ignoring the fact that Nea was technically dead, and they would just be trying the host. They were also calling for Lenalee to reactivate the Innocence for safety purposes, and for Lavi to be disconnected due to an unnecessary drain on resources, but Allen wasn't as concerned about that. Lenalee didn't take orders from anyone she didn't feel like anymore, and Lavi was an innocent as well as her close friend. Those two had far more immunity than he did at any one point in time.

"It's okay," Allen responded quietly, allowing Marie to gently place his shaking feet on the floor. He tried to look at Komui as best he could, but it was made significantly less dignified by the fact he was hanging off of Marie like a limpet. "I want to help."

He couldn't fight anymore. He was next to useless, what with him having no arm and no eye. Allen was staring at a future he never thought he'd have to face, and he was doing it crippled and already two steps behind everyone else. If there was some way of making himself useful, by God he would seize that chance like there was no tomorrow.

Komui nodded, like he'd been expecting that answer, and said, "Come with me. We like to keep him nearby, so we can keep an eye on him."

Unspoken was the fact that if Lavi ever did wake up, he would not be alone.

Lavi was lying, pale and thin, in a bed next to the window, just to the right of Johnny's desk. Someone had removed his headband and placed it on the table next to him with a vase of flowers, which looked to be fresh. There was no movement from the teen; the only thing that marked him from the dead was his slow, quiet breathing. He looked so peaceful, in fact, that it would have been difficult to differentiate him from the sleeping, if not for the tubes hooked up to him.

Allen swallowed hard, and wordlessly Marie maneuvered him so that he could get a better look at Lavi's face. Without quite meaning to, Allen untangled his arm from around Marie's shoulders and dropped to the bedside like Komui had done not so long ago for him. He brushed aside the vibrant red hair from Lavi's forehead, feeling a lump creep into his throat.

This was all wrong. Lavi was-Lavi was lively, and forever moving, not this corpse-like figure lying prone on the bed. He wanted his friend back.

Allen let his hand settle onto Lavi's forehead, resting just below his hairline. Then he reached for the long buried instinct that Nea had gifted him with, so long ago.

Ah.

"Get me Lenalee." Allen said, opening his eye again to the real world, shoving the Noah part of him back where it belonged(1). He didn't look up from Lavi.

"What?" Komui asked.

Allen shook his head, the lump in his throat now accompanied by a burning in his eye. He was-he was so tired, of everything. Of waking up in a sweat from nightmares he only half remembered, of jumping at shadows like they were going to attack him, for thinking that the war hadn't ended yet. He needed to adjust, dammit, not make everything ten times worse for himself, and this whole situation was not going to help. "Just-if you want Lavi to wake up, you'll get your sister and bring her here, right now."

That if nothing else seemed to spur Komui on, and his clipped footsteps faded into the distance, leaving Marie and Allen alone with Lavi. Not for the first time Allen was thankful that Marie wasn't the chatty type, because right now, all he wanted was to be left alone in his thoughts. Talking to other people was more tedious now than it had ever been, simply because he was not always certain where their opinions fell about Nea. Marie was another unknown; all Allen really knew about him was that he was Kanda's friend from ages ago.

Luckily, Komui was quick, so he and Lenalee (who must have been somewhere nearby, waiting for results) returned within minutes. Lenalee had a very serious, determined look on her face, which Allen only used to see during fighting. So I'm not the only one who's head is still partially in the war.

"Allen," Lenalee greeted, nodding at him curtly, all business. "What do you need?"

"I know how to fix this." He said, wishing that he could comfortably reach down to take Lavi's hand. Having only one arm meant that a lot of his previous habits were impossible, and it was frustrating. "But I'm going to need you to trust me." He looked at her, searching for the faith she had in him that he didn't deserve, the faith that he wasn't still the Fourteenth.

He looked, and found.

Lenalee's determination didn't fade, not in the slightest. She fixed him with that same steady, fierce gaze, tempered by years of fighting and innocence lost, and said, "If you said you could fix him, Allen, I would hand you the Heart on a platter and turn away."

Allen's eye widened, and he had to look away in the face of such a bold, clearly insane statement. Marie shifted next to him, clearly just as shocked by such a display of trust to an ex-Noah from their leader. Allen was reminded, then, of a young girl who put her friends and the world on a scale, and always found the world outweighed. Only now it was much more dangerous, because she was such an integral part of their organization, and if she was willing to die to save her friends then they would lose. They would lose because Lenalee would sacrifice the Heart so she didn't have to be alone.

Would've lost, Allen reminded himself. They had won, and this sort of attitude was much less dangerous than it would have been before five months ago. Lenalee could afford a little selfishness.

So he looked Lenalee dead in the eye, and said, "I need you to activate Crown Clown." He paused, considering. "And then I need you to get the Bookman down here."

Komui jumped in before Lenalee could say anything, his face lined with harsh creases. "That's asking for a lot, Allen." He sent a meaningful look towards the ex-exorcist's stump. Allen winced a little and rubbed at it absentmindedly, but had to concede that Komui's concerns were legitimate.

"This is the only way I can remove what the Noah put in him. The extraction process is...delicate, to say the least, but Crown Clown can handle this sort of thing." Allen scowled a little, his eye lifting upwards as another thought occurred to him. "Oh, and do me a favor and get Kanda as well as Bookman, if you don't mind."

Komui frowned lightly, but stopped pursuing the issue, for the moment anyway. Lenalee was currently ready to do any number of stupid things to get her close friend back, and arguing with her now would be fruitless as well as painful. So instead he said, "What do you need Bookman and Kanda for?"

The ex-exorcist turned away again to look at Lavi, and gently began smoothing his friend's bangs back again. There was something very sad about him that Komui couldn't place, like a tragedy personified. If nothing else, Allen Walker had been born to suffer. "When the parasite was put inside him, he was in a situation where he was scared, and in pain." The hand hitched over Lavi's peaceful face. "I can remove the parasite, but if Lavi thinks that waking up will only mean suffering, then he'll sleep forever."

Lenalee spun on her heel and darted back up the stairs as Komui's eyes flickered with realization. She had obviously figured it out the second he had. "We need to convince him that he's safe."

That would explain the need for Bookman and Kanda, at least-and if Lenalee helped, they just might be able to convince their comatose friend that he was no longer in danger. Komui tilted his head thoughtfully, suddenly remembering their other comatose exorcist. It would also explain why Chaoji wasn't waking up either, even though whatever had been done to him by the Noah had been destroyed. However Chaoji would be much more difficult to rouse-after all, Anita and his friends were dead. Maybe those finder friends of his were still alive….. Komui tapped his chin as he followed his sister, already making plans. He completely forgot, between one moment and the next, that he was supposed to come back.

Marie helped Allen roll Lavi onto his side, so that his left ear was facing up. The older man was being surprisingly calm about this whole thing, despite the fact that Lenalee would essentially be rearming Allen with a weapon he could potentially use to kill a lot of people with. They'd never been very close, though, as they'd usually been assigned to different missions. Allen half wanted ask him how he felt about all this Noah business, but the other half of him was terrified of uncovering some very quiet, very intense hatred.

"Do you think Lavi will come back?" Marie asked, startling Allen out of his thoughts. He glanced at the taller man, a little guiltily, despite the fact that he knew Marie couldn't read minds.

"Lavi's strong." Allen said, leaning in to get a closer look at his friend's ear. "I sincerely doubt that it's going to be very hard to wake him." There'd always been a vitality about Lavi, that couldn't be faked, no matter how many times Allen had attempted. There were certain roles that he'd had to abandon when conning people, because he just couldn't muster the same confidence that Lavi wore with ease. The Bookman Junior had loved life, and loved learning, and despite all the horrible things they'd gone through on a daily basis Lavi had always been eager for more.

He was probably waiting for them to hurry up.

"I wish Jerry was here." Allen said suddenly, and twisted himself around so he could curl Lavi's hand in his own, like he really wanted to. He felt a little bad for saying that, because Jerry was catching up with some of his siblings, but still.

"Why's that?"

Allen grinned. "Lavi loves Jerry's cake more than anything else in the world. There's no surer way to wake him up."

He was distracted from that notion by the return of Lenalee and the others, so he missed the slightly startled, considering look Marie sent his way.

"This better be good, beansprout," Kanda said, but there was no venom to it. A year and a half as a general, and another five months of no war had mellowed him considerably.

Before Allen could even say anything in response, Bookman butted in with a blunt, "Lenalee says you can wake my stupid apprentice." The last two years had been anything but kind to him; he'd lost a considerable amount of weight, and he was hunched over like the world was resting on his thin shoulders. Losing Lavi had obviously been extremely difficult for him, and his impatience for his apprentice's awakening was declared loudly in every movement he made. "I've been in the Order too long, trying to wake him up. If you can…"

Allen gave him a look, and then pointed at a surprised Lenalee. "Lenalee, Lavi's close friend." He pointed at Bookman, who was giving him an unreadable, half-hooded look, mind still whip-fast despite the fact that he'd look like he'd aged forty years. "Bookman, the closest thing that Lavi has to a father," And he got an even fiercer look for that, but Allen just shook his head. There was no point in beating around the bush. He finally pointed at Kanda. "And Kanda, Lavi's…." Allen squinted at the taller man.

Old Kanda made a dramatic reappearance in the curve of his frown and the storm above his eyes. "He's an idiot."

"Fair enough." Allen said easily, and mentally labeled Kanda as Lavi's idiot. Bookman was giving him an especially sour look at the non-explanation, so Allen continued hastily. "After I finish removing the parasite I'll probably pass out, so I figured I'd explain now."

"Pass out?" Lenalee asked, looking horrified.

"It takes a lot more energy than I have at the moment," Allen said dismissively, flicking his hair to one side, not for the first time wanting his arm back. Not just for the Innocence, either; eating, getting dressed, scratching an itch-they were all made a thousand times more complicated because he didn't have a second hand. "I'll collapse for a few days, but after that I should be fine. Anyway," Lenalee was still giving him an alarmed look, but Bookman's expression hadn't shifted, so Allen continued. This was what she wanted, and what did it matter if Allen was incapacitated for a bit? So many people wanted him dead anyway, they'd probably be happy about him being unconscious. "After I remove the parasite, he'll need to feel safe, so... focus on touch-hold his hand, pet his forehead, that sort of thing."

Kanda looked so disgusted by that thought that Allen almost burst into laughter.

"That was directed towards Lenalee, Bakanda." He said, carefully not looking at Bookman. He did not think about how if the older man tried holding his apprentice's hand, most likely they'd never get Lavi back. He'd probably think he was in some sort of elaborate illusion, or in hell. "I want you and the Bookman to talk to him-in your own way, tell him it's safe to come home."

There was a moment of silence, as the members of the group digested their assigned positions. Allen half expected them to argue, or tell him that he was crazy for thinking they would trust him with something as precious as this. But Bookman had this look on his weary face, like he'd just seen the sun for the first time in years, and Lenalee was staring at Lavi's hand, like she wanted to come over and take Allen's place. Even Kanda looked genuinely thoughtful, which wasn't exactly a positive reaction, but was better than outright refusal.

Lenalee was the first to react; she walked over to Allen, and gently laid her hand on his shoulder. "Okay, then. Let's get started."

White light began to pour from her ankles, almost too bright to look at. It hovered there for second, shining slippers of power, looking for a second like the old Dark Boots. Then the light shot from the base of her feet to the top of her head, covering her in a thin layer of pure radiance. Allen glanced at the others nervously, wondering if this was supposed to happen, but they just watched her with grim calmness. He was pulled back to the spectacle when the light flew down her arm, and contacted his shoulder-

Allen stood before his Innocence. It took no human form, but it didn't need to; he recognized its touch.

He watched it, for a second too overcome to move, much less say anything. Here was the comrade he'd fought so hard with, the one he'd loved and respected in equal measure.

The Innocence sent a feeling towards him. ?

Allen smiled. Hey Crown Clown.

! The Innocence was happy to see him. Allen was suddenly buffeted by images-them fighting together, killing Akuma, the sweet taste of victory in his tongue-and staggered back, but only because he hadn't been expecting it. It'd been so long since they'd communicated, he had forgotten how strong his companion's presence was.

In response, Allen sent back his own series of happy-fighting-together images. His Innocence didn't really understand words, but he'd learned easier ways to communicate. They had, after all, been together for the whole of Allen's life.

Then the Innocence sent another feeling. ?

Curious, wanting to know why it was woken up. Akuma to fight? Noah?

Allen grimaced a little at the intensity of feeling that he got when the Innocence projected about Akuma. It had always been a bit overenthusiastic about it's favored enemy (and the reason the Noah were not it's favored enemy was because those children of the Millennium Earl were apparently too close to human). The only times his Innocence had woken up and taken control during a fight was when it was against an Akuma. As much as he'd always appreciated the...assistance...there were times when he wished the Innocence had just let him pass out in peace. His original wounds were only exacerbated by his Innocence's 'help'.

He thought for a moment, trying to figure out the best way to phrase his request. It would be tricky; as he'd once said, his left hand was for the Akuma, his right for the humans. Crown Clown had accepted this distinction easily, but now he was asking his left hand to be for the humans, too. This was only barely related to the Noah, and he wasn't sure if Crown was willing to reSynchronise to help a human….

Ah.

Allen sent a series of images towards his Innocence-fighting for humans and Akuma, Lavi's smile, fighting with Lavi, Lavi motionless on the floor of the cube-and waited.

Ally, the Innocence responded, latching onto the images of Allen and Lavi fighting Akuma together. Then it sent a blur of images back, of Allen injured, of him being rescued by his friends. Need help?

Relieved, Allen sent back a feeling of confirmation. Then he sent a few images of the parasite, and the extraction process he'd witnessed once or twice. He made sure to connect the image of the Noah along with them, to emphasize that they would still technically be fighting the enemy.

Ally, Crown Clown sighed back, slowly fading into the corners of his mind, where it always used to sleep. It felt like coming home.(2)

Allen gasped aloud, sucking in as much air as he possibly could. Dimly he realized he must have stopped breathing when he'd been communicating with his Innocence, but he was heaving air too hard to focus on that thought much. It was also a little alarming, to be frank; he didn't usually nearly die while communicating with his Innocence, and this new development was an unwelcome one.

Evidently, Lenalee and the others felt the same way, judging by how they were hovering around him (when had he fallen to the floor?) .

"What the fuck was that?!" Kanda demanded, a wild look in his eyes, sword waving around him as though he were looking for something to attack. It had probably been a little frightening for them, he mused, to see him lying on the floor, motionless and breathless. "Stupid Moyashi, what the fuck-"

"He was talking to his Innocence, and it responded." Lenalee said, face pale, eyes wild for a very different reason than Kanda's. "It responded to him, that's never-"

Bookman raised his head sharply at Lenalee's words, staring at Allen with a new, sudden fascination. Marie made a choked noise like he was going to start suffocating too, and Kanda didn't even pause in his tirade, apparently too irate to listen to the words coming out of the Heart's mouth. He was only thankful that Komui wasn't here, because apparently talking to one's Innocence was a Thing People Couldn't Do, and that surely would've set the crazy scientist off. (Speaking of, where had Komui gone?)

Allen grabbed the side of Lavi's bed so he could haul himself up, and ended up half-sprawled across his comatose friend. He wanted to get away from these people, who were freaking out because apparently speaking to Innocence was another weird thing that he could do. He'd always been the freak, he'd always been different, and as time rolled by he was just finding more and more things that made him less than human. It scared him, the thought that he might wake up one day the monster he'd always feared he would be.

Allen really, really wanted to pass out for a few days, and hoped the others would just go away and leave him alone. And with this in mind, Allen gently placed his Innocence arm over his friend's ear-

Activate! Allen thought, and allowed his consciousness to travel down with his Innocence, following it as its thin tendrils slithered into Lavi's brain.

The outside world faded into darkness.

Lavi's mind was nothing like Allen had suspected it would be.

Lavi himself was a bright, joyful, somewhat scatterbrained personality, so Allen had expected his mind to reflect that. He'd thought the Bookman Junior's mind would be cluttered with information, books of memories strewn across the floor like leaves, thoughts dancing in the breeze of a free soul. From what he remembered from Nea, this was usually the case-that souls were the closest representation of one's personality.

What he found instead was row upon row of neatly organized file cabinets, clearly labeled with handwriting that bore an odd resemblance to Lenalee's obsessively clean penmanship. As far as the eye could see, there was block upon block of clinical metal all lined up against each other on a thick, green carpet. And even these blocks had some sort of pattern; floating above sections were words like, 'memories', 'feelings', 'friends', and others of a similar vein. Allen really shouldn't have been surprised, now that he thought about it, considering Lavi's profession, but still. The fact that the personality and the mind were so obviously different was telling of Lavi's strength of character.

It would take a very stubborn person to not let the title 'Bookman' also mold his interactions with the world around him.

Allen looked around for a second to collect his bearings, squishing the carpet beneath his bare feet (unfortunately jumping from soul to soul meant no clothes-the soul was, after all, the purest form of one's body). He quickly spotted the physical manifestation of the parasite he was looking for-it would've been hard to miss it. The creature had taken the form of long, thin electrical ords, and was wrapped around the cabinets that had the word 'consciousness' floating above them.

There wasn't a lot of room for mistranslation. Allen flicked his Innocence arm, activating it, and began to approach the mass of tangled wires. He would need to be delicate; if he accidentally destroyed or knocked over a cabinet, there was no telling the kind of damage he could cause, especially to such a well-organized mind like this. However he was less worried about that, especially because the Noah who had planted the parasite were all dead, which meant that the creature was, for all intents and purposes, dead.

Indeed, when Allen carefully began cutting away the cords one by one, the parasite didn't even respond. There was no attempt to defend itself, and that made Allen sad somehow, that this pitiful creature was helpless without it's masters and the war it had been bred for. He could draw a lot of parallels to-

But no. There was no point in going down that road.

The minute Allen finished cutting away the last of the mass, the drawers of 'Consciousness' suddenly all burst open at once, slamming so hard that the cabinets themselves all nearly fell over. The movement was so violent and unexpected that the ex-exorcist fell over in shock, scrambling away frantically from the perceived attack. There was a moment of stillness as Allen stopped moving and simply stared at the manifestations of Lavi's awakeness, waiting for something to occur-

A feeling blew through Allen-

Pain.

Allen gasped, clutching at his chest and squeezing his eyes shut, trying to fend off the violent invasion into his head.

Pain, and fear. We're so scared, we're so scared. Is it safe?

Was-was Lavi's mind trying to communicate with him? If so-if so, he had bare seconds to convince his friend that he was safe, before his friend gave up and slunk back to where it'd been hiding. Because he'd underestimated the intensity of the emotions that Lavi felt, he'd underestimated the sheer mortal terror and the need to be safe. He was going to pay for that if he didn't reassure Lavi quickly-

But Allen was a traveller, wasn't he? What did he know of safety, of coming home and falling into comfort the second he crossed the threshold? All Allen had ever known was long, hard treks across continents and welcoming sleep with open arms, and coveting food like it was made of the richest gold.

But then again, hadn't Lavi also been a traveler as well? He was Bookman's apprentice, and that meant going wherever the fickle whims of history took them. Lavi wasn't even his real name, now that Allen thought about it.

Which still left him at square one-how did one convince a traveler that he was safe?

Allen thought about his life, his experiences, everything that had ever happened to him. He thought about cold winters in Russia, and soft Spring in Switzerland, and the brazen heat of the Sarutobi desert in the summer. He thought of traditional dancing with the Germans, and wearing exotic clothing in India, and gorging himself on rich, delicious meals in Italy. He thought of languages learned, and languages forgotten, and friends he'd written to as often as he could before he changed permanently to a Noah….

And then it came to him.

Allen gathered up the memory he had chosen and gently, ever so gently, pressed it against Lavi's mind. It was up to his friend to accept it, because forcing it now would just scare him away. Allen waited with baited breath, hopeful, and then-

Allen stood in the center of a field of wildflowers, the breeze a breath of warm, gentle air. He was thirteen, and Cross was in town doing business, and so Allen had made himself scarce. He was so glad he had; Greece was a beautiful place, and he was content to stand there, hip-deep in a sea of vibrant purples and yellows.

Allen looked up, and the sky was an endless, vibrant shade of blue. He smiled up at it, and the thought that

No matter where I am, the sky always looks the same.

And as strange as that seemed, he was comforted.

The memory took.

Lavi's mind shuddered with something that Allen thought might be relief, and then he was abruptly ejected from his friend's mind. Blackness followed behind him like a blanket, and Allen accepted the darkness with open arms. He was so, so tired.

1) I kept forgetting that Allen only had one arm and eye. I went back a few times to make sure it made sense, but someone please let me know if you see any more mistakes.

2) I actually got the inspiration for this type of communication between Allen and his Innocence from another fic on Archive, called Synchronization. I highly recommend it.