Nea D. Campbell, Link finds out, cares about Allen Walker.

"Did you know," Allen said all of the sudden from his comfortable spot on Mana's bed, "that snakes and lizards have two penises?"

Mana, bless him, burst out laughing when he looked up from his something-or-other-ology book. Nea, who was sitting in a chair across him, also with a book in hands, was not nearly as impressed. "Why do you think it was necessary to inform us of that fact?"

Allen pretended to think for a while. "I don't know," he then said. "Maybe if they had two pairs of testicles also, they could share one with you."

"How dare you," Nea whispered and really, Allen should have expected the pillow thrown at him.

Mana shook his head fondly and kicked Allen in the chest, as he was laying on the bed, feet in his friend's lap. "Come on, guys, I thought we were studying."

His brother yawned, stretching his arms out. "I don't know about you, but I'm tired," he complained.

"I'll go home, it is getting late," Allen said with a chuckle and pushed the other man off him. "We'll do more sciency-sorcery stuff tomorrow, promise."

Mana pouted childishly. "You could sleep over."

"I live ten meters away from you."

"I know you're trying to make a point," Nea said, "but I don't see any."

Allen replied decisively: "I'll see you guys tomorrow."

Mana waved at him cheerfully while his brother did a shoo motion with his hand, looking back into his book. Unseen by him, Allen rolled his eyes at his friend's antics and left with a small smile on his face.

Nea woke up with a start.

"Mana?" he whispered with a hoarse voice. He sat up abruptly and skimmed the cold, dark room with his eyes, looking for his brother. When he realized it was just a dream - a memory - he sighed deeply and put his head in hands.

Nea was never one to suffer from nightmares. Not even at the lowpoints of his life, some of which would probably give other people insomnia. It wasn't a nightmare though, was it? he thought. Not really. It was a nice dream... Which, if we were being honest, only hurt more. He realized his life would never be like that ever again and suddenly he couldn't breathe.

He thought back to Allen. Looking at his deformed hand, he could feel the guilt creeping up on him, like; Hey, long time no see. You know one of your best friends? You're killing him right now. But he promised Mana that he would make this right. That he would end this war. He promised Allen.

"'Nea, use me' my ass, you jerk," he muttered under his breath.

He couldn't make contact with Allen for the past few days and it made him feel even worse. Not that seeing the hate in his friend's eyes would make him feel better but hey, he'd always been a masochist who thrived on heartbreak, apparently.

"What an idiot," he said quietly, when suddenly a rustling sound carried over the room.

In his self-loathing, Nea completely forgot about a certain Howard Link, sleeping in the bed across him. He tried staying completely still, but he knew the damage was done when the other exhaled loudly.

"Can you go have a monologue in another room please?" Link grumbled.

"I'm having a crisis over here," Nea replied, his voice still a bit shaky. "Have some empathy."

"Go have a crisis somewhere else," was the answer that came from under a bundle of blankets. There were some more shuffling sounds and another deep breath. And a sigh. "Fine. What crisis?"

Nea seriously considered leaving the room to avoid talking, but something stopped him. Maybe it was the masochistic part of him. Either way, he stood up and went to sit on the other bed.

"What are you doing?" Link said with a slightly panicked voice.

The Noah looked at him weirdly. "Sitting down."

"Why?"

"To deflower you," Nea said bitingly. "Why do you think?" Silence. The other was either finding a good comeback, or deciding that he would no longer gratify Nea's sarcasm with a response, same way he did with all the terrible jokes. When he kept quiet for a few more seconds, Nea spoke again; "I knew Allen 35 years ago. No, no, no," he said with a shake of his head when he saw that he was about to be cut off by Link. "Let me speak. I knew Allen, and he was best friends with Mana. I don't know… how much you know about what exactly… happened to Mana, but due to certain circumstances, Allen was on my side. 'The Third Side of the War'. He was a damn good sorcerer and, without my knowledge, he perfected a spell of soul transfer. I only found out after I was about to die. You can probably… figure out the rest, I guess."

"Wait," Link spoke, trying to wrap his head about what he'd just heard. "Give me a moment here."

Nea, surprisingly, stayed silent, though the same could not be said for Sparkles. She jumped up on the bed, meowed in greeting and started purring loudly. In his state of confusion, Link decided to start petting her to occupy himself while thinking.

At last he spoke: "Allen Walker saved you, didn't he? And, what, tried to escape the Order and Adam?" He frowned as he thought of more questions. "How much did Cross know? And most importantly, how is he, well…" he trailed off and gestured to Allen's body. Allen's very much sixteen years old body.

"Yeah, I have no idea," Nea said. "And how did he get the Innocence? I suspect…" He glanced at his ally. "Actually, nevermind. I don't know. And I can't reach him in my mind lately."

"What would that change?" Link asked, frowning some more.

The other laughed bitterly. "Absolutely nothing."

Neither of them said anything for a while. Link was still trying to understand all the information he'd been given (and trying to come up with inconspicuous questions about things that were kept from him), while Nea mourned the loss of his friend. A necessary loss, he kept thinking. He kept thinking that, but he wasn't able to shake off the blinking neon sign at the back of his mind that said: BULLSHIT.

Link sighed in the end, now gently scratching Sparkles under her chin. "Is there no way of getting you a new body?"

"There could be," Nea admitted, which made Link's head snap up. "I've been trying to contact sorcerers from all over the world lately, but no luck so far. They might be dead. Or not on my side anymore. I'm sure they would be able to help, if I only could talk to them."

"You're a sorcerer though."

"Sure," Nea said with a dry smile. "But the guys I'm talking about are completely out of mine, or even Cross's league. You didn't think that Cross made Maria, did you? Allen did."

Link filed that information into his "questions for later" folder. "So maybe if Walker remembered…" he said instead. "Can't you make him remember?"

"I can try." Nea replied. "But there's a high chance of merging our memories altogether, which would be even worse than what we have now."

"This is frustrating."

Nea nodded in agreement. Link glanced at him. He could feel the last lingering traces of resentment disappearing. Nea didn't want to destroy Allen. He was even trying to help. And as Link thought about the slight desperate tone he thought he had heard, he decided to do something he wasn't very good at.

"There's still hope," he said quietly. "I'm sure you'll be able to get in touch with someone. We'll save him."

Hope. He had never been good at that. That was Allen's territory. But he could see that the other appreciated it. Seeing the gratitude in his eyes was a little bit too much of raw emotion for Link to handle, so he added: "Now get out of my bed."

Nea chuckled. "Are you sure? This feels pretty intimate."

"Get out."

Nea D. Campbell, Link finds out, cares about Allen Walker, which gives him more hope than he's ever had. And who knows? Maybe he doesn't have to decide between Allen and Nea, or even between them and Malcolm C. Lvellie. Maybe he can care about people, period. And even though that sounds like a five star recipe for trouble, he sure as hell is going to try his best. But that's another story.

A/N: My gosh, sorry to all of you who thought this fic was going to be longer. Sadly, this is all, and a big thanks goes out to everybody who reviewed, fav'ed, followed or just read this dumb story. You guys are golden. Thank you for your time, now you can continue freaking out over the new anime.