Okay before I even mention saying hi… I should probably apologize…. SORRY! I know this took waaayyy too long to get put up. I DO have actual valid excuses, but I doubt anyone would care either way so ya… Anyway! Thanks for all the reviews! I was astonished at the number! I don't deserve your kindness! It's soooo fun when I update 'cause I get reviews in the morning! Sigh…I need to stop editing at 2 in the morning, it reaaallly doesn't help all the grammatical errors at all… K I'm done, here ya are at last!

Disclaimer: I don't own -man, Katsura Hoshino does! Though... If I did own it... I'd update the manga faster... *cough*... (I know the reasons, just let me complain a little!)

/"Think fast!" A wet snowball collided with Allen's flushed face as Mana bent over in a laughing fit from the jumbled look on the young boy's now soaking face.

"Hey! What was that fo-" Another ball of snow was acquainted with Allen, cutting his question off.

The child soon gave into the growing temptation and began to form his own pyramid of deformed snowballs; a soon-to-be all-out war in the snow. Before either of them knew it, a goofy had smile plastered itself over the white-haired boy's pale face.

As for Mana, he was inwardly sighing, a relief beginning to ease its way into his body as he simultaneously dodged yet another hastily thrown snow ball. He had been previously trying to distract his adopted son, doing anything and everything to comfort him, even though he himself needed the comfort too.

The reason was due to the unfortunate fact that shortly after their brief visit with Mana's brother, Uncle Neah, the uncle had fallen sick with a disease that had been looming over him for years. After an aggravating time span of one week, the illness had claimed the man's young life.

Allen had just learned of the news that morning and tried his best to put on a smile no matter what, just like Mana had continuously reminded him.

After a good twenty minutes of tossing the freezing balls, Mana sat down over- theatrically and the younger boy soon followed suit, plopping down practically on top of his father-figure.

Droplets of melted snow trickled off of Allen's shoulder-length white hair, his teeth were even audibly chattering. With a smile and a heavy pat on the head, Mana chuckled. "Maybe the snowball battle wasn't a very wise idea, huh?"

Mana took his old beaten coat off, and securely wrapped it around his boy's shoulders, warming the soaked kid. The adult then stuck his barely-gloved hand onto the frozen ground and produced a broken twig that had been idly lying there. He began to drag the stick through the snow, with Allen's eyes following his every move as he tightly grasped at the heavily-scented fabric that engulfed his small figure. In less than a minute the father complicated circle with lines randomly distributed throughout it had been drawn into the white ground.

After a few moments of confused silence, the watching boy innocently looked his adoptive father in the eyes. "Um, Mana, what's that?" he hesitantly poked at one of the protruding lines. A faint smile caused a pause before answering. "Well it's our language. Only you and I can use it, and we can talk about anything without anyone every knowing! Now you won't have to be self-conscious about speaking to me in front of people." Mana seemed pleased with his answer, though Allen was still rather confused.

The rest of the winter day was solely devoted to the bizarre language, and Allen found himself in deep concentration as he tried to copy multiple lines and swirls. Mana gleefully beamed the entire time he was teaching his 'son'. After all, he was able to distract the boy from his depression, and in the process, continue to connect with the lonely child.

xX-Xx-xX-Xx-xX-Xx-xX-Xx

Kanda Yuu was different.

Kanda didn't feel nearly as many emotions as most other people. He didn't feel the most, as he would say, 'pestering' emotions, as he chose to ignore caring or liking anything. Though, he did dislike, ignore, and feel impatience. Quite often, actually.

Among these select few emotions, they did not, however, include surprise or shock. Being surprised was such a bother.

Yet, this alien feeling was the exact jolt that caused the moody teenager to stumble back from his spying post outside the occupied room he was listening in on.

'Subdue? Allen? I knew the moyashi was in trouble, but I thought this his problems stayed at his house. Now the brat's got the freaking 'hospital' after him!?'

Kanda may have been ignorant, and he may have been even a giant jerk who took shameless joy in making small children cower in fear and cry, but he wasn't stupid.

Allen had arrived to school with a bruise on his face. And that bruise was fist-sized.

The Japanese teen, of course, would know because he was highly trained in martial arts – especially kendo – and when he began the first day, he had left the teacher with a nasty bruise nearly the same size as the one decorating Allen's face, after decking his teacher when he demanded that young Kanda must do some twirly exorcises before even beginning to learn what he had come for.

Kanda was certain that the injuries hadn't been adorned due to other school mates, due to the fact that Lenalee would tell her brother if anyone even mentioned picking on poor angelic Allen, and the usagi would tell Lenalee who would tell her brother. There was no way Allen could've been injured at school, so it must have derived from his home.

'But who are these people? What do they want with the stupid bean sprout?'

He didn't want waste any further time with the questions that aimlessly proddled in his mind. Letting small, small amounts of concern pace its way in, Kanda rather calmly walked to search for the surely lost Allen, cursing the moyashi the entire way there, for causing him the trouble.

xX-Xx-xX-Xx-xX-Xx-xX-Xx

The kitchen took a good hour to clean and dry after the cake incident. After about half an hour the smell started to dissipate into the air vents, but Allen swore that he would be smelling birthday cake for at least another week.

"Allleeeen! Sweety I've got the rest handled! Thank you sooo much for the help, you little gentleman!" Jerry's bright smile could've lit up the entire room, and Allen just scratched the back of his way in a modest fashion.

"My p-pleasure, please ask if you need more help." He nodded his head in a slight bow, and walked out into the clean, wide hallways.

After his cleaning services were finally lifted, he stepped into the large hallway. Walking for only a few seconds he noticed a bright red figure flash in front of the windows, steadily making progress towards the automatic sliding entrance.

When he finally realized what, or rather who it was, it was too late. Lavi had trampled the injured worker to the ground in a literal, bone-crushing hug. Only when he heard a strangled whimper escape from Allen's lips, did he take notice of the cast, and multiple bandages on his victim.

"Buddy, are you okay? I got word that you were in the hospital! And wo- what happened to your arm?! You look like you got attacked by a bear! Or worse!" he paused for an overly-dramatic gasp, " ah, did Kanda try to hug you and it turned out that the chemical E.V.I.L. was found in all of his cells, making a reaction between any kind of affectionate human contact with him, ever, impossible, resulting with the other person highly injured and hospitalized!?" The over-eccentric red-head's eyes grew larger by the second, fake sympathy forming in the shape of giant tears that rolled out of his eyes as he pulled a handkerchief out of his pocket and mock blew his nose.

Allen, though at quite the loss of words, struggled up to his knees and patted the faker with his good arm. "um, L-Lavi, if you don't mind telling me, how did you hear I was in the h-hospital…?" His gray orbs curiously searched for an answer in his class mate's vibrant green ones.

Lavi threw his snot rag into the bin behind him and his he wrapped his arm around his white-haired friend's stiff shoulder. "Principal Komui! Don't know how he knows, but he told me that I should visit since he observed how much of an amazing friend I am to my short pal! Plus, did you know that Yuu-chan works here! I'm sure you'll run into him sooner or later!"

The younger boy felt the familiar guilt sting at his insides again, and he wanted nothing more, but to apologize to his principal. A different kind of sting distracted him though.

Allen was increasingly sore by the minute, with the pain medication Doctor Bak had given him in the morning, quickly wearing off, the arm heavily slung over his shoulders defiantly did not help matters. He also couldn't help to give in to the growing fear of contact with someone, even if Lavi was more harmless than a five year old girl with a lollipop, Allen just couldn't handle physical interaction with people anymore.

Lavi, had been able to spot his friend's uneasiness and carefully lifted his arm from the neck that it had rested next to.

Allen continued with a glare, remembering his fun conversation with Kanda. "Ya, I… saw Kanda earlier… "His staring in the distance made Lavi curious.

"You did? Great! Now we can both find Yu and hang out!" He retook his place with Allen, shooting an arm through the younger boy's and escorting him to where ever Kanda probably was.

In mid-stride, the happy red-head stopped. A look of realization dawned on his face as his free hand rush up to whack his forehead.

"I can't believe I forgot! Komui told me that you don't have to attend school for a month! Lucky! Though, he did say that Kanda or I will be bringing your homework at night time along with a few textbooks and notes! Dude, you are so lucky!" Lavi released Allen's right arm so that he could emphasize his point with large fits of flailing.

'Oh yes. Lavi, I am so lucky. In fact, I must be the luckiest person alive.' Allen figured he must be tired, because usually he didn't even think that sarcastically. But, despite his slowly-ebbing irritation, he couldn't help but feel more and more grateful to Principal Komui.

The next think he knew, Lavi had flung a rather large and heavy bag at him, making Allen lose his balance yet again, and land unceremoniously on the cold floor. Books, papers, textbooks, and the like, came spilling out of the black bag.

Allen let out a small yelp as Lavi scurried to help his friend up, "Buddy! I'm sorry I guess I got carried away! Sorry!" he brought Allen up and patted his back in what was supposed to be in a comforting manner. The young teen shriveled at the touch.

Lavi didn't miss it. "Short stack, are you okay? You're shaking." Allen tried to control his small trembling hand.

"I-I'm fine, Lavi. Thank you though." He started to bend towards the ground in order to pick up the mess of papers strewn on the ground but Lavi stopped him with a hand pulling on Allen's right arm.

The elder stuffed all the books back into the sack and this time handed it to Allen after he said his thanks.

"Alright, well I'll see you later short stuff, I'm going to go find Yu! Hope ya feel better!" with the same goofy grin on his face and a wave, Lavi ran almost comically down the long corridor.

With a relieved look on his face, Allen's shoulders drooped and he adjusted the bag so that it sat more comfortably in the crook of his arm. He then started to the workers' lounge in order to drop off the bag, seeing as he had no clue where else he could place it. Luckily for him, he was right next to it, and dropped it on an empty shelf and returned into the hall.

Now that he had spare time on his hands (well, technically, hand seeing his second one was in cast.), Allen found himself being called in for various duties throughout the next five hours. He didn't know where the time went, and he vaguely worried about where he would be sleeping that night.

When he finished another task that had to do with cleaning the retched bathroom he decided he would stop for a break. Finally, he sat down at a lone bench in an-apparent waiting room for a far-needed rest. His arm had been throbbing and aching non-stop for the past half hour and he knew that he needed to find his doctor somehow. With a new-found motivation, Allen shot to his feet and began his search for a doctor, not really caring which one though.

In less than no time, the white headed boy was lost. Somehow he had ended up in a hallway on a floor that he'd never even seen before. In fact, it was all so alien, Allen had been sure that he had somehow wandered into a different building.

Crash!

A loud sound vibrated throughout the hall and you could hear continual apologies. Muffled voices were then heard sounding like they were trying to calm down the chaos, but Allen couldn't tell for sure.

With a growing curiosity, the boy quietly moved towards the commotion that was coming from, what appeared to be, a lab looking room.

When Allen slowly peered his head around the corner he saw a young man with curly brown hair pulled into a high pony-tail, waving his hands frantically as he tried to place scattered papers back into a folder that had opened onto the floor. Standing in front of the scrambling man, was none other than Doctor Bak, standing with a slight smile playing at his lips as he tried to stop the other from his cleaning.

"Johnny it's no big deal I'll pick it up!" Bak tried, once again, to halt the flustered person.

"No! It was my own clumsy fault! I wasn't looking where I was going!" He messily stored the remaining papers into the folder and handed them to the Doctor with another apology escaping his mouth.

"Well, it was probably the headphones! Honestly, are you even allowed to listen to music on the job? This is what happens!" Even though it would have seemed that Bak was scolding the younger boy, he was actually laughing and patting the younger's shoulder in reassurance. That was when 'Johnny' noticed the white hair, hanging over the side of the door frame.

"Um, can I help you?" He boldly confronted the strange boy in the entrance. Said boy looked surprised but then stepped fully inside.

"Allen! What are you doing here?! Aren't you supposed to be working?" Bak, in his own way, greeted the newcomer.

"H-hello Doctor Bak." Allen, out of habit, stuttered. He then turned to the first one who had noticed him and introduced himself. "Ah, my name's Allen W-Walker, it's a pleasure to meet you." He began to lift his right arm in order to shake hands, only to notice a pain shoot through his left momentarily. He felt incredibly dumb for forgetting his broken appendage.

"Allen, is the pain coming back? Do you need more medicine?" The doctor checked his silver wristwatch and smacked his forehead. "heh. Sorryyy! I guess you could've taken your pain medication….three hours ago… wow, that must really hurt." Allen couldn't help but feel a little intimidated at the dark aura that was expertly hidden behind his last few joking words.

"Honestly?! Well, i-if it's alright with you, could I have some of the medicine. Truth be told, the pain hasn't been going away for a while now."

With one more sympathetic glance at the young worker, Johnny took the conversation as his cue to leave the suddenly crowded room.

Following Johnny out only a few moments later, Bak, followed by a still-lost Allen made their way to the employee's lounge. For the majority of the trip, they had both remained quiet, as there wasn't much to talk about anyway. But, even though neither one was talking, they both were doing their fair share of thinking.

Allen couldn't believe just how lucky he had been to run into a familiar face in an unknown location. And he even offered to help subdue the pain in his body. Allen wasn't suspecting a thing.

Bak, on the other hand, also found himself feeling lucky, but for an entirely different reason. The blonde felt lucky, because he didn't have to actively go out, search, and find Allen, and he could get his task done sooner than he had at first expected. He slowly walked around a familiar corridor and got ready.

xX-Xx-xX-Xx-xX-Xx-xX-Xx

Roughly four hours earlier

'Damn it!'

Kanda thought, putting to use his vulgar language, yet again.

'I've been looking for the moyashi for an hour! Where. Is. He?!' Kanda felt his last small thread of patients snap as he flung himself around a corner he could've sworn he been around before.

He hated it. He hated feeling worried for someone as dumb and insignificant as the moyashi, but his pride got in the way of leaving a weakling to get picked on by mysterious people.

When he rounded yet another corner he punched the wall out of frustration. A dent was left and a small cut formed on his knuckle as dust fell from the indentation.

Out of nowhere an excited, red-haired rabbit appeared at wrapped it's annoying arms around the growling teen's neck. "Now, now Yu-Chan! Hurting other's property is illegal! I won't tell anyone if you give me a piggy back to the cafeteria though!" He attempted to climb onto Kanda's back but got launched next to the abused mark on the wall.

"Back off usagi, I'm not in the mood to deal with your shit, "he threw Lavi a glare that normally would've scared anybody else, but apparently rabbits are impervious to death threats.

"AW! But Yu~! I just ran into sweet little Allen! Did you know that the principal has been helping him with stuff?! I couldn't believe the stuff he's letting Allen get off with! It's like he's an over-protective parent, that guy!"

Kanda cringed at the use of his name, but his nerves had been too erratic of the past hour that he managed to brush it off and focus on the given information.

"Che." With that detailed answer, Kanda ran -or rather hastily walked - to the employee's lounge, leaving behind a rather disappointed and confused Lavi.

Kanda ran into the lounge and pulled his compact workers' locker open and grabbed his cell phone. 'If Lavi said that Komui acts like the bean's parent, then he's telling truth. The stupid usagi has like mind powers or something. Maybe if the stupid principal is involved then he'll know what's going on with Allen' He was chasing after a whim, but he couldn't bring himself to care in the least as he dialed the schools number and asked to speak with the principal.

"Hello~?" Komui's cheerful voice filled the line, to which Kanda responded with a grunt. " Kanda! What a pleasant surprise! What can I do for y-""the stupid beansprout's in trouble, if you know anything then get to the freaking hospital now." He shut his phone and completely disregarded the fact that he had heard a distinct snap that was probably the screen cracking from the force.

He sat down on the couch and let out a huff. He had hoped that the principal, as Lavi had said, was on Allen's side, because he found it entirely too troublesome to worry about someone besides himself.

"Well, that was quite a risky move. Are you sure that was the right thing to do, Kanda?" Before Kanda could even wonder who was behind him and talking, a worn fabric was firmly pressed over his face, effectively covering his mouth and nose and forcing him to inhale the scent.

In a normal situation, the Japanese teen would've easily overcome the attacker, but seeing as he was physically and, for a change, emotionally exhausted, with the element of surprise adding in, there was no way he could defend himself. He felt strong arms hold his own down in case of a struggle. What happened next was unknown to him, because he slid into unconsciousness.

'That was too easy. He should be out for at least an hour, if not two. Just enough time to make sure he doesn't tell the annoying brat my plan. Yes, just enough time." The man adjusted his suit and left the unconscious boy on the couch, in a manner that made Kanda look as though he had dozed off while on break.

Malcom walked out of the lounge and pulled at his coat sleeve, catching a glance from his expensive watch.

6:42 pm

A smirk pressed at his lips as he waiting patiently for Bak to arrive with Allen.

Finally, I finished this chapter! I'm so mad at myself for not finishing earlier! My life has gotten really hectic lately and I'm sorry it affected all of you reading this so much! I hope I did ok on this chapter, as it was written over a span of time, so it probably has some weirdness to it. Thank you, again for waiting, reading, and reviewing! I can't wait to hear from y'all! Review please!