Lavi went for his morning run as per usual. He'd started, obviously, while he was in the Order, and he'd meant to get right back on track. After all, it was never a bad idea to stay in shape.

Of course, most morning runs don't include jumping over six foot wide gaps between buildings.

"Lavi!" The redheaded teen looked down in an alley to find Allen running along the ground, keeping an easy pace with him. Lavi smirked, wondering if this were some sort of challenge. After all, Cameron had probably tattled to Gale that he was currently roof-hopping. The police intern had given him a withering glare as she'd left, and he'd smiled sweetly until she'd gone. In fact, she'd been dressed rather nicely, and he had had a hard time keeping his eyes on her face. His memory may not serve him correctly, but he might've wolf-whistled. That may have been why she'd given him the glare...

"LAVI!" The redhead was pulled back into reality after he came to the realization that he was thinking (and drooling) about Gale's hemline and the legs that followed. Sheesh, he had to quit doing that! Still, it was hard, especially in this era. The hemlines were higher, the necklines were lower, and the girls were bolder. He wasn't used to it, but that didn't mean he couldn't enjoy it. After all, he had to keep his hopes up somehow. Being so far from home was really becoming a drag.

He couldn't deny the fact that he was steadily sinking into a sort of depression. Still, he'd buried the homesickness. He wasn't of any use being a moper.

"Hey, Allen! How are you this fine morning?" Lavi called down as he suddenly changed direction. Allen scrambled down an alleyway, dodging a man taking out the trash. He was verbally accosted as he tried to answer back, "Cameron said that people don't take kindly to roof-hopping teenagers! Witches like high places, too, so you'd better be careful!" Lavi ducked underneath something that looked like a very dead, very spindly metal tree sticking out of a silver box on the tops of the apartments, along with those weird dishes just next to them. This was the fifth one! What were those things even for?

"Aaaaah, don't worry, Allen-chan! I'll be perfectly fine - WHOA!" Lavi nearly tripped and fell down another alley, narrowly hitting the ledge of the next apartment by a hair. He really had to keep his focus up. If he wasn't careful, he was going to end up in the trash! Luckily, there seemed to be plenty of it, way more than seemed necessary for such an advanced society... Or perhaps because it was an advanced society.

"That's not what I'm worried about! Besides, I was only the messenger! I wanted to ask if I could join you!" Allen shouted back with a mischievous tone. Lavi pretended to gasp (at least, as well as he could while running) and responded, "Allen! How could you be so scandalous! Disobeying a direct order from Cam-chan!" Allen laughed. Cam was Allen's 'mentor' to this world, and she got quite naggy when Allen disregarded her warnings.

"I'll take that as a yes!" Allen shouted back, and he bounded up a fire escape. Soon, Lavi and Allen were falling in step with each other. They huffed and puffed, running at the same pace over various buildings, people glancing up in surprise as the boys vaulted over the alleys. Lavi laughed as he ran past a girl who was suntanning on her roof wearing this incredibly skimpy outfit (not much more than a bra and underwear in bright yellow!) in the early light. He winked at her - and promptly fell over the end of the building. He had all of a tenth second to comprehend that he was headed straight for the ground. A comical look of disbelief crossed his face as Allen skidded to a stop and watched in horror. A cloud of trash suddenly exploded into the air as a dumpsterload of rubbish broke Lavi's fall.

"Euuuuugh! Look at this!" Lavi lamented, dragging himself out of the weird, stringy pieces of the bags that held the trash. He picked off pieces of food from his hair, grimacing. Allen waved to the girl apologetically as he climbed down to the alley by the fire escape.

"Are you alright?"

"No, I'm not alright! I've got a banana all over my new shirt! And this looks like baby throw-up - EUGH. I don't want to know. Man, it'll take forever to wash this out! Thank goodness Gale's got those automatic washer things. Why didn't the Science Department come up with those themselves? Sheesh."

Allen sighed with a slight smile, realizing that Lavi was more than alright. With the way he was going on, you would've thought he'd bought everything at a designer's or had it hand tailored, rather than bought it off a rack (which was a concept Allen was still dealing with and failing). After removing all offending pieces of trash, Lavi sighed.

"Okay. Now, what do we do? I'm not walking around like this," Lavi complained, and Allen resisted the urge to roll his eyes.

"Lavi, you're fine. Besides, no one knows us. It's not like you can embarrass yourself in front of, say, Lenalee or Reever." Allen started walking out of the alley, hoping he was going in the right direction. After all, his sense of direction was not the best, and being attacked by more witches and gang members was not exactly on his agenda for the day. He was sure to keep an eye out for both. In a way, this was worse than looking for Akuma. These were actually humans - impervious to his eye, and definitely not stacked in his favor. He'd never thought he'd think something like that, but desperate times call for desperate musings...

"Yeah, but what if I see some cute girl? And she sees this?" For emphasis, he pulled his shirt, pointing to a large stain where what they thought a rotten potato had smeared the cotton. The white-haired teenager pushed Lavi away as the redhead started to shove the offended piece of stained shirt in his face, ordering, "Look at that! Look at that! Lookit!"

"Lavi!" Allen laughed, trying to get away. Lavi was practically trying to smother him, and Allen had to resort to running up the fire escape back to the rooftops. Lavi gave chase, laughing all the way, when he suddenly smashed into Allen on the roof when the kid stopped running. Lavi nearly bowled him over, and Allen protested, "Lavi, watch it! Shhhhh! It's Kanda!"

"Kanda? Where!" Lavi stage-whispered. The wind was suddenly picking up, and the sun was already baking the city. Allen scooted near the end of the apartment roof, pointing over the low wall that enclosed the roof to keep people from falling off to the empty lot below. Both peered over conspiratorially, only their noses and eyes showing.

"Huh, so it is him. And he's got a girl with him! Hey... she's kinda cute..."

"Lavi! Get your mind out of the gutter. All you've been talking about these days are the girls. It's not gentlemanly."

"What? There are so many of them! And all of them are adorable. Well, from a distance, anyways."

The two of them watched Kanda and the girl he had with him walk out towards the middle of the makeshift courtyard, noting that she didn't speak at all to him, only held up a whiteboard now and again after scribbling on it. The two narrowed their eyes as Kanda nodded, saying something in tones too low for them to hear.

"How long do you think it'll be before he figures out we're spying on him?" Lavi asked quietly. Suddenly, Kanda looked in their direction with suspicious eyes, and the two ducked behind the wall. Even from their place of observation, they could feel Kanda's withering glare. Lavi shook as he thought of the myriad of ways that he could be dismembered or otherwise incapacitated. Allen was calmer, but nevertheless, thinking of ways to block Kanda should he try and oust them. Allen wondered if he could use his eye to see him - after all, it saw souls, so technically he could see right through the brick straight to the foreign soul buried within Kanda's flesh.

"He'd turn me into one of those slushies... no, worse than a slushie. I'd be a puddle. He'll turn me into a puddle," Lavi lamented as he let his mind stray. "A measly, little puddle with red hair..."

"Lavi, don't fret so much. He wouldn't dare," Allen muttered as he risked another glance over the wall. He tried to willfully activate his eye, but he couldn't seem to get a good grasp on it. Normally, it turned on only in the presence of Akuma - it was an Akuma borne curse, after all. Allen sighed as he merely observed the two. Lavi popped up, finally summoning the courage to attempt such a feat. He blinked in surprise, and he said, "Hey now, I smell magic." Allen looked sidelong at Lavi.

"You do? You have a sharp nose."

Miles had briefly explained residuum to the both of them, and Bookman had gone into even greater depth with Lavi. From what the redhead could remember, the residuum was the magical signature of a witch or warlock, created after the exchange of energy was completed. Smell had no energy of its own other than to be, so it was a mystery where it came from, as a witch only ever dealt with the world of energy. Bookman had proposed the hypothesis that the energy exchange was not always complete, and a small bit is converted into actual mass, becoming residuum, but it was only a hypothesis.

What Lavi smelled was a mix of peat, ozone, and metal shavings. Obviously, it wasn't Kanda's brand of magic - Lavi knew that the regeneration Kanda could achieve didn't have the same sort of energy exchange as the processes the witches of this dimension used, therefore emitting no odor. However, Miles had said that Kanda was a warlock. Perhaps he was learning from this woman.

And, to the shock of both Allen and Lavi, the young woman Kanda was talking to kissed his cheek with a quick peck. Their eyes nearly bugged out of their respective heads.

Kanda was not a touchy-feely person, much less someone who allowed strangers (for she had to be a stranger) to kiss him.

"Did she just -" Allen pointed down, looking to Lavi. His companion rubbed his eyes to make sure he wasn't dreaming. When he saw that he wasn't, he let loose a loud guffaw.

"Kanda's got a giiirlfriiiend~!" Lavi cackled, and Allen flinched at the loud noise his friend was making.

"Lavi..."

"Aaaaaahahaha, it's gotta be love at first sight or something, woooohooo!"

"Lavi, he's staring at us..."

"And-and-and they'll make beautiful ginger Asian babies and it'll be the best thing since sliced bread!"

"Uh, Lavi, seriously, he's drawing his sword now..."

"I wish I had one of those portable cameras that they've got on their little phones! No one's gonna believe me when I tell them! Ahahaha!"

"Lavi, we should leave right now."

It was too late. With nary two leaps, Kanda had scaled up the side of the building and was now towering on top of the wall over the two boys. Allen and Lavi stared at the angry swordsman with looks of sheepish lameness. Allen pointed at Lavi.

"All the laughing - that was him."

"Wha- ALLEN! How DARE you throw me under the - AAAACK I WAS KIDDING I WAS KIDDING LET ME GO," Lavi gasped as Kanda used the back of his blade to put Lavi in a chokehold. Allen scooted away from his friend, hoping to escape the same punishment. The glint in Kanda's eyes as he stared at Allen, who trying to scoot away, spoke otherwise. However, as if by the grace of God, the curly-headed woman with Kanda seemed to pop over the wall like a gleeful fairy, alighting lightly behind Kanda. She tapped him on the shoulder, and he turned to look at her with a deadpan expression.

"What do you want?" he grumbled. "I'm busy."

Allen watched in amazement as she began to make strange hand signals. Kanda couldn't possibly read them that fast... could he? He seemed to be struggling, but he got the gist. He sighed.

"They're my... comrades. Trust me, he's suffered worse." More handsigns. Allen stood up and dusted himself off, trying to look more presentable. He was dressed in a t-shirt, jeans, and gauze around his blackened arm to cover it up, so he felt out of place. He was used to wearing something much more formal, like his collared shirt and vest. Lavi was still fighting to get out from Kanda's headlock. The swordsman in question finally gave the woman a squinty-eyed, annoyed look before dropping the redhead.

"Fine. Talk to them," Kanda said as Lavi theatrically rolled around, holding his throat and sucking down air. Allen coughed at the back of his throat for attention, and all three looked at him.

"Aren't you going to introduce us to your lady friend?" Allen asked politely, gesturing to the young, curly-haired woman. Lavi was right - she was cute. However, Allen didn't feel any sort of attraction. His mind was on other things at the moment. There were more important things to think about than the nice physical attributes of particular ladies. Then again, Lavi was not of such a mind, and seeing as he was now done hyperventilating, he was practically drooling at her feet. She didn't seem fazed.

"She can speak for herself - sorry about that," Kanda said, glancing over at his companion. The woman waved her hands in a 'no offense taken' movement. Allen noted ever so slightly that Kanda made sure that the woman could see his face when he spoke. She must be deaf, rather than mute. However, for Kanda to take any sort of care to do something so civil was odd.

The woman suddenly seemed to materialize a whiteboard and marker. She scribbled on it furiously, producing a good chunk in minutes.

'Name's Ashling Smithson. Teaching your comrade. Strong warlock, needs time. Been teaching him all morning. Nice to meet you. Deaf witch - accident long time ago. Want to join? Any you warlocks? Know Miles and Cam. Helped them out of coven. Know how covens work. Names?'

"Allen Walker," Allen stated simply.

"Your next boyfriend," Lavi said cheekily. Ashling crossed her arms, and she gave him a once-over before sticking her tongue out at him. Lavi pretended to be wounded by the rejection, putting his hands over his heart as if he'd been stabbed. Ashling smiled widely, making a finger gun and 'firing'. In turn, the redhead pretended to catch the bullet with an 'unimpressed' look, and Allen managed not to gag at the hams currently occupying the rooftop. Allen stood in front of Lavi before more damage could be done (and Kanda looked mightily annoyed as it was, so it wasn't any use to have Lavi end up with a bruised windpipe from another chokehold).

"We're not warlocks, but we'd still like to learn about magic. Perhaps we can better defend ourselves that way. Do you mind?" Allen asked politely, holding out his hand. Ashling enthusiastically shook, and Allen felt a strange presence suddenly go through him, as if his entire being were shivering ever so slightly.

I'd love to teach you. Kanda's already been pretty responsive, and besides we were going to have breakfast. Liam is an amazing cook. You might want to relay this to your friend, by the by, seeing as he can't hear this right now. I'm not touching him. I apologize if it feels weird.

"No, no! It's... it's fine, just odd. Of course we'd love to join you for breakfast. Can we see some of your magic at work?" Allen asked. Ashling suddenly got a mischievous look on her face. She looked over at Kanda, still holding on to Allen's hand.

How much do you trust this hunk of muscle? It was almost like Kanda could sense what she was saying, because he began to glower.

Allen grimaced with a slight smile as he shrugged. Lavi was watching the back and forth with a slight expression of perplexity. Ashling let go of Allen's hand, and she walked over to Kanda. She held out her hand, and Kanda stared at it before looking into her face. There seemed to some sort of mental conversation going on between the two of them, because for almost five minutes, they did nothing but read each other's eyes. It wasn't the romantic sort of stare, either. It was quickly becoming apparent that their 'conversation' was devolving into a sort of silent contest of wills.

And, to their great amazement, Kanda looked away. He took her hand for a few seconds, and the conversation that ensued seemed heated, though all Allen and Lavi could see was the fact that Kanda had a vein twitching in his forehead, and Ashling had a very determined look on his face. Kanda yanked his hand away roughly, and he answered her in a venomous tone.

"Fine. I need to practice, anyways."

Ashling winked at him with a smile, and he rolled his eyes at her as he muttered, "Tch." He motioned for the other two to come over. Lavi, already lost as it was, felt as if he were a blindfolded mouse in a maze full of electric traps. He had absolutely no idea what was going on. Allen was only slightly more enlightened.

"Allen, I have a bad feeling in my gut," Lavi confessed.

Allen bit his lip, looking at Lavi as they walked towards their teammate hesitantly.

"I don't like this either."

Kanda seemed to be steeling himself. He stepped up on the ledge, and the other two followed. Ashling stood next to Kanda on the far side of both Lavi and Allen, and the three waited.

"What's supposed to be going on?" Allen whispered to Lavi, who answered with a shrug. Very suddenly, all four were lifted off the wall in a great rush. The two screamed in surprise, and Kanda ordered vehemently, "Shut up. Do you want me to drop you two stories?" Despite their initial panic both Lavi and Allen managed to hold still. Ashling did not look the least concerned, but then again, she was a witch. This was probably normal for her.

Kanda, however, seemed to be struggling to keep all of them afloat as he started towards the ground, and ten feet from his target destination, his spell cut out. Allen and Lavi let out another short shout as they were suddenly halted within six inches of the ground. Lavi's nose nearly brushed the concrete, and Allen's butt seemed to be sitting on a very short, invisible stool. Ashling motioned for the two of them to stand up, and they shakily obeyed. Kanda was already in a kneeling position, sweating heavily from the exertion involved with the spell. Ashling suddenly let the spell drop, and all four people hit the ground.

"That's what you've been teaching him?!" Lavi asked incredulously, brushing himself off. Ashling shrugged and motioned with a hand 'so-so'. Kanda scoffed at that.

"Teaching? That's a joke. And you didn't tell me it'd take that much out of me. I'm not some sort of god, you know," Kanda grumbled at her as he pointed a finger, obviously angry, and Ashling stuck her tongue out at him. She made more rapid hand signs, both Allen and Lavi hardly able to keep up with the blur, and Kanda apparently was having the same problem because he was glaring at her. Ashling rolled her eyes as she stopped signing, pushing back her mass of curls from her forehead. She gestured for everyone to follow her.

"We're not going on anymore surprise flying adventures, are we?" Allen asked reluctantly as he trailed behind Ashling. Lavi shrugged.

"Who knows. Still, at the least, we definitely won't be bored," the apprentice sighed, scratching his headband. Kanda shoved the two of them forwards, muttering, "Hurry it up. I'm hungry." Allen shot him a murderous glance, but he didn't retaliate seeing as he recognized he was not on his own turf at the moment. All three disappeared into the garage door behind the theatrical, redhead witch, wondering what other wonders they were going to see today.


The mansion was large. The grounds were well kept. The driveway was impeccable. It was just as Miles remembered it, and she sighed through her nose as she thought about what she had to do. She'd worn a skirt and a white blouse just for this occasion, and she hoped that Serg would take the hint. She pushed the call button, hoping that he'd have the decency to pick up on the first ring.

He didn't. It took her another three tries before an irate voice asked, "What do you want?"

"It's Gale, Sergei." There was a long period of silence. She hoped that he didn't renege on their original plan to meet at his house. His mood was normally mercurial at best, and with his condition he was even more unstable than ever. He was almost the epitome of the depressed, troubled genius, minus the romanticism. No one was willing to hire Sergei because of his inability to work in a team setting, and his money was dwindling fast. His parents had left him a good amount in his inheritance, but that wasn't enough to keep his lavish lifestyle up and running. Already, Gale could tell that he'd been selling the cars that were his hobby, if the demolition of the garage that usually sat on the east end of the house said anything.

That would only put him in a fouler mood than he was already in, and Gale honestly no longer liked to associate with him, but he was a friend who might be able to help. She sincerely hoped he could bury the hatchet just this one time to come out and do something for someone else rather than stew in his own juices and grease his fingers down to the bone on those cars in an attempt to forget the world outside actually wanted him to pay bills now and then.

The door clicked open, and Gale looked inside. Just like the last time she'd come, the house was completely dark. He'd had all the curtains drawn, and the paintings his parents had collected seemed to glow underneath their red lights. She stepped into the foyer, noting that it was emptier than usual. A lot of the furniture and quite a few paintings were gone. His funds must really be drying up if he was willing to sell any of his family's collection. His mother and father had been avid collectors, buying paintings from little known artists who were, nonetheless, very good. She shivered as she realized that she was beginning to freeze. Outside it was almost 110 degrees. In here, it was easily 65 degrees.

"Been a long time," a deep, gravelly voice said, and Gale turned quickly towards one of the tall, dark wooden doors leading to the foyer. All of the doorways were dark, and the only light came from the overhead chandelier of spun glass. There were four door ways, one for each direction, and Gale had just come in through one. She knew he was doing this for dramatic effect as well as petulance.

Sergei stepped out of the eastern door way, light spilling over his features like water. His hair was a dark wavy brown and disheveled, and he was wearing a silk robe with a terrible pattern. His face had nearly three days' growth of beard in splotches around his face, and his hands were greasy. He had grease marks on his face, and his nearly skeletal features created bas-reliefs on his skin. Eyes burnt to a sepia color stared out at her, and Gale felt unsettled as she could see the thing lurking underneath. Sergei wasn't dangerous in the least, but what had happened to him showed itself once in a while. It made her feel a deep guilt.

He'd just been an innocent civilian. If anything, she regretted his involvement the most. She should've been the one to shoulder the burden for her hubris, but as God would have it, another suffered for it. And, in a way, she suffered the more from his suffering.

"Alright, just spit it out. You told me the gist. Now I want to know the whole thing," he stated, narrowing his eyes. His thin, sharp nose flared ever so slightly, obviously upset. Still, she'd counted on his curiosity. Gale glanced at the sofa, and Sergei gestured to it. She carefully sat down, being sure to cross her ankles. She couldn't help noticing that Sergei seemed to involuntarily follow the line of her shins, and she shifted uncomfortably. He stared into her face guiltily, rubbing the thin bridge of his nose.

"I... apologize. His new hunger is women these days," Sergei stated, lazily seating himself on her other side, much closer than she knew he normally would've sat. Even he was affecting his subconscious in some ways. A pang of shame went through her. She clasped her hands in her lap, fiddling with a ring on her finger. Sergei stared at the ring for a moment as Gale composed her story, and he suddenly took her hand.

"I remember this. I bought this for you, didn't I?" he asked softly, his sudden change from gruff and angry to gentle and contemplative was jarring. It had been a long time since she'd been around Sergei and his incredibly mercurial moods.

"Yeah. You took me to Chonburi in Thailand for a vacation, remember?" she chuckled. He'd managed to lose his shorts at a waterfall because of an altercation with a rather stingy fish, and she'd had to let him use her T-shirt in order to go back down the mountain and buy another pair. As repayment, he bought her a garnet ring, a turn she definitely had not expected. It was telling of Sergei's personality.

"Those were the good days, huh? Back when you quit and actually joined the real world," Sergei said, his voice rough as his eyes took on a far away cast. Gale stared at the ring, not willing to look into his face. Those had been good days for the both of them, when they'd just been friends who liked nothing more than hanging out when there was nothing to do.

But those were still coven days, and if Gale could've, she would have forgotten them.

"What's your problem now?" Sergei asked seriously, and she looked into his face. Hungry eyes stared out of his face, and she realized that he wanted to know out of more than just curiosity. He was being consumed from the inside by the... the thing within him, and he needed to occupy himself before it drove him mad. He needed distraction and purpose, or else he'd lose himself. His unkempt state was testament to that.

"A couple of guys went dimension hopping involuntarily because of you-know-who -"

"Why don't you just say her name? Not like you're afraid of her."

"...She tried to summon a demon. Something big. Possibly even tried to summon Cthulu or something. I have no idea, okay?! I'm just... I'm just trying to get them back home and help them survive while they're here. They've attracted quite a bit of attention, though, because from Cameron keeps telling me, all of them show up on the ergomund one way or another."

"I thought everyone shows up on the ergomund."

"Yeah, everybody does, but there are levels to the ergomund, not just the surface layer. The dark-haired guy with the long hair I was telling you about could very well be a warlock, and there's something magically odd about him, because it's like someone's stuffed a nuclear bomb down his throat. He practically lights up the block to anyone with eyes to see. The white-haired kid as some odd ability, but it's untapped. And the redhead... he's a lot more shrewd than he lets on, and he has his own brand of magic, but it's somehow stored in his covered eye - he has an eye patch - and he's not saying anything about it yet. And the old guy's plenty smart, adapted real well. He has a ton of magical talent already, and he says that he's encountered my... kind... before," Gale explained, leaning back into the sofa cushions. She suddenly felt drained, but not in a bad way. It was a relief to be able to unload this secret on someone else.

Once upon a time, Sergei had been a confidant of hers, someone to whom she told everything. It was a level of security the coven couldn't even touch. Though a coven was supposed to be family, there was so much in-fighting and pettiness among the women that meaningful relationships were scarce as dragon's teeth.

"You need to get them back home before the other coven either kills them or kidnaps them," Sergei stated. Gale nodded slowly.

"I would've arranged for Iris to send them all back using the same circle, but another sacrifice would've been necessary. The original circle we'd created together still needed one human at the least - and the one she used this time needed four -, so I think she would've killed them just out of convenience and spite. I need your help to create a better circle, much better. I... couldn't stand to have to... Dear God..." Gale rubbed her eyes as she remembered that fatal moment, another bystander so carelessly thrown away. That day had been... so disastrous.

Sergei suddenly engulfed Gale in a hug, and she stiffened immediately, her vision slipping into the ergomund almost immediately in response. Slowly she began to relax as Serg said, "It's over, you know. You really should've accepted the therapist I sent you. I think you still need it."

She pushed him gently away, almost reclining against the arm of the couch because he'd leaned so heavily against her. She could guess that his enthusiasm had been partly from him missing her and equal part ... him wanting the nearest female. No wonder Sergei had sequestered himself in his house for so long. He would've been put on restraining order after restraining order if he'd left.

"Look at you. Spend your money on yourself. Are you helping or not?" she asked seriously, returning to business as she looked dead into his eyes, needing desperately to know that his answer was completely his own. Sergei considered, faltering as his expression flitted from uncertain to frightened to intrigued.

"Yes. I will help you." Gale nearly collapsed with relief, bowing her head towards her knees.

"Thank you," she breathed, looking up through her eyelashes and strands of wayward blonde-dyed hair. Sergei leaned back against the opposite arm of the couch, and he laced his fingers over his navel, suddenly all smiles and cheeky cockiness.

"Now, what do we need first."

Gale winced slightly.

"Um, well, if we're going to start on that, we'll need a couple of plane tickets to the Yucatan peninsula..."


"This is amazing!" Allen downed the soup as fast as he could manage without burning his tongue, while Liam watched in amazement.

"Where does all of it go?" the Irish man asked, his thick accent nearly obscuring his words completely as the tall, patrician-nosed brunette continued to stir the soup. Lavi laughed, counting the number of bowls that Allen had consumed in the past thirty minutes.

"The Science Department - you know, the guys who make all sorts of different things, that sort? - thought that maybe he was hiding a black hole in there, but we haven't been able to check," Lavi snickered, and Kanda rolled his eyes at the theatrics of his teammates. Ashling was giggling as well, holding up an iPad with an open, blank page on it. Much to the amazement of both Lavi and Allen, she could write entire paragraphs merely by touching the device. Kanda himself wasn't quite sure how it worked; all he knew was that it was a combination of technology and magic.

Allen set his bowl down with a thunk and pouted.

"Hey! And who's the one who ate nearly five plates of yakiniku? You nearly made yourself sick. I at least eat only until I'm not hungry anymore," Allen rebutted, and Lavi stuck out his tongue. Ashling waved at the two of them with an overly exasperated (though slightly amused) expression. She touched the tablet and it spelled out 'Ladies, ladies, you're both beautiful, no need to fuss.' Liam snorted to himself as Allen and Lavi made noises of disgust at this jab. Kanda quietly sat in the corner of the kitchen, merely watching the proceedings. He didn't like participating in these shenanigans.

All five people were in the Smithson family kitchen, the three newcomers having already met every one of Ashling's five siblings. They owned the entire apartment complex, running it alongside their repair garage and metalwork shop. Only Ashling was magically capable, however. As Kanda had learned, the other brothers could see into the ergomund, but they had no actual ability to manipulate it. Lavi seemed to have sensed this as well - Kanda had no idea if he had Vision either.

"So, what've you been teaching our dear comrade since he's been absent from our presence? And do you mind teaching us?" Lavi asked in very hammy tones, and Ashling lifted both eyebrows while pursing her lips in a very pleased fashion.

"You had to ask," Kanda grumbled as he glowered in his corner, hands curled around a mug of coffee. He'd taken to drinking the foul tasting substance more to wake him up than for the actual flavor. In the Order, he'd order it (no pun intended) in the mornings just to get himself ready to face the day with all those idiots. He definitely needed it now - the idiots had multiplied in the past hundred and fifty years.

The iPad came alive with a few short sentences.

'I've started him on Basic training. Mostly, it's the usual energy manipulation, recognizing energy signatures and types, understanding the ergomund, looking into it without going mad, that sort of thing. Nothing really hard. He's learning fast. He's in very good hands. And you could be, too. I definitely wouldn't mind teaching you? Most of it's pretty hands-on.'

Ashling winked at Lavi, and he raised both eyebrows at her rather suggestively. It was hard to say which of the three was more mortified than the rest: Liam, Allen, or Kanda. Ashling and Lavi had done nothing but flirt incessantly with each other since breakfast had started. For once, Allen and Kanda could agree on something: Lavi was becoming an insufferable skirt chaser, and Ashling wasn't helping.

"This is a nice place you have here," Allen commented, trying to change the subject and distract the two flirts. He looked at all the metal statues made of random pieces of machinery and bolts, amazed at this new art form. He'd never seen anything like it in his life. How was it someone could fuse metal this way, to create such wonderful pieces of beauty?

"You like it? Caughney did all the remodeling, and Izzie did the art pieces. He sells those to local buyers," Liam explained as he started putting the dishes in the sink. He suddenly pointed at Ashling and demanded, "You are doing the dishes. I cooked. You're not allowed to resume teaching until all of these are done." Ashling gave him a rather rude hand signal, one that none of the 19th century fish-out-of-water needed to translate, before hopping out of her chair and over to the dishes.

"Leave," Kanda stated simply, pointing to the door as soon as Ashling was at the sink. Ashling looked over her shoulder with a downtrodden look, but Kanda only glared at her. No words were needed. She turned back around with a stomp and vicious began scrubbing the massive amount of bowls in the sink. Lavi groaned while Allen stated, "I can leave whenever the lady wishes me to!" Ashling gave a sparkly eyed glance at Allen for his chivalry, but Kanda was adamant.

"Get. Out. You've got no business here," Kanda stated, obviously not joking by the way he grabbed one of the kitchen knives off the counter. Lavi dragged Allen with him, struggling and protesting, towards the door to the garage.

"All right, all right, we're going, we're going!"

"Lavi! Let go of me! I said that I'll leave when Miss Ashling says -"

"She can't say anything, so you don't have to worry about it! Good bye! Thanks for breakfast!"

Ashling waved a sudsy hand at them as they began to leave, unperturbed. Obviously, she hadn't heard Lavi's quip about her not being able to say anything, otherwise Kanda was sure she'd have thrown something at him. She'd already tossed a wrench at Kanda's head, and much to Ashling's surprise Kanda had actually chucked it back at her. Only magic saved her from having a bruise the size of Canada on her shoulder. The ensuing scrabble had been... interesting.

Kanda followed the other two out the door, making sure that they bypassed the myriad of dangerous equipment. Kanda still had no idea what any of it did, but he had the idea that if Lavi tried operating any of it out of curiosity, he was going to lose the other eye one way or another. Just as he'd predicted, Lavi tried touching something, but Allen was way ahead of him. The younger boy slapped Lavi's hand, and the redhead gave him a pouty look.

"What? Not like I was going to break it or anything..."

"Lavi, did Bookman never teach you that you shouldn't touch things that aren't yours?"

"Tch. He probably did, and the idiot could never remember it. Crappiest Bookman alive," Kanda quipped as Lavi surreptitiously tried to look at something else using those prodigious fingers, and Kanda shoved him forward through all the mess of metal scrap pieces.

"Hey, hey! Easy on me, here, sheesh! I'm almost the only Bookman alive by now, thank you," Lavi muttered in a mock-offended tone, though a tone of unease settled in his words. Finally, they were outside on the sidewalk, and Kanda turned to go back inside without further ado.

Suddenly, Lavi said, "Wait wait wait wait wait!"

Allen looked at Lavi critically, already knowing what he wanted to ask. Still, if he wanted to commit suicide by samurai, that was his prerogative... Still, Allen himself wanted to hear the answer to this. Though he didn't like Kanda in the least, the topic of him having an actual love life might finally give Allen some ammunition to use against that cold fish of a swordsman. Kanda looked through the door with a deadpan, dark face.

"What?"

"What was with the whole kiss thing about?" Kanda looked confused for a moment before realizing what he was talking about, and Kanda sagged against the door frame, head against the jamb, staring at them almost dejectedly.

"Crap. I'd thought you'd forgotten." Allen was surprised by the sudden display of humiliation. In fact, he attempted to be polite by hiding a snicker by turning his face away. Kanda took a deep breath, looking less than pleased.

"I don't have to tell you," he finally stated, staring straight at Lavi with narrowed eyes. Lavi smiled mischievously, threatening, "Oh, but I can always spin this any way I want. And don't think that anyone will believe it if you tell them that it was all just a lie." Kanda contemplated this while gripping the sword on its belt at his waist, narrowing his eyes further. Allen watched with avid interest, hardly aware his eyes were growing to the size of platters.

"She... talks to people by touching them. It's more convenient. And she... likes to tease. Besides, I met her yesterday. I'm not some manwhore like you who sticks his tongue down the throat of the first girl he sees," Kanda stated flatly. Lavi's jaw dropped as Kanda pointed the sword at him.

"Tell anyone, and I'll tie your intestines around your neck," Kanda seethed, and Lavi scootched as far away as he could without stepping into the street.

"Right! Right! Well, I'll see -" The door slammed shut.

"- you later."

Allen shook his head.

"Rude," he muttered. "Come on, let's go home. I'm starving."

"Allen, you just ate!"

"Well... I only ate half of what I normally would've. I thought it would've been rude to make them cook more than they had to..." Allen suddenly felt a buzzing in his pocket, and he dug around for the little device. He still couldn't figure out all the buttons. All he knew were the number keys and the call button. He'd originally thought they were golems, but now he knew they were closer akin to the phone packs that Finders used all the time, just smaller. Still, it was hard to wrap his head around. The text function was odd, too, and he wondered if he'd ever get used to all this new technology.

"Huh. Cam sent me a message," Allen said, taking another five minutes to figure out how to open it.

Lavi sighed and stated, "You know, we want to read this today."

"I'm trying the best I can! Oh... wait... Lavi, we need to get back to the apartment!" Allen suddenly shouted, running headlong across the street without any regard for traffic or bystanders. Lavi, floored by the sudden change in direction and tone, fought to keep up, much more aware of the stares and glares of the drivers.

"Sorry! Sorry! Allen, what's all this about!"

"Cam! She's been attacked! THE APARTMENT'S ON FIRE!"

Lavi finally looked to sky, and his eyes widened as he saw smoke billowing away to the east, swept away by the wind.

And as Lavi pushed himself to keep up with Allen's frantic pace, something followed them...


A/N: My apologies for the length! It's so long... But I had so much to write. I'm sorry for the delay. I worry that this is a filler chapter more than anything else that has nothing to do with the plot. Hopefully it's enjoyable, by way of fillers, and still has some modicum of goodness about it. My apologies for my absence as well. School (or, more accurately, everything else that isn't school) has eaten my time to the nub, so I'm writing on weekends and holidays and whenever I have a free minute here and there.

Great thanks to karina001 for that magnificent review. And please, be as chatty as you want! I love to see a good review on the story, even if it's just a paragraph long ramble on how funny it is to see Kanda get flustered. :)

Also big thanks to 0Book0Worm for favoriting this story so full of sordid OCs and a band of brave canon characters who so willingly try to wade through them.

And muchos kudos to karina001 for subscribing! So wonderful to know I have so many people who're willing to read the story whenever a new chapter comes out!

Finally, the discussion questions: What parts of the story did you enjoy? Are the canon characters still in-character, or have they begun to derail? Do you foresee any future romance plots, or has it remained ambiguous from the get-go? This story has a lack of any sort of action - is this good or bad? What do you think is the prevalent genre so far on this story (as in, comedy, romance, fantasy, realism, etc.)? What did you enjoy the most out of this chapter? Do you think the story needs to pick up the pace? Or is it going too fast? How do you enjoy the day-to-day lives of the Exorcists so far?

God bless you and happy reading! I'll try to get the next chapter up as soon as possible.