A/N: Nothing much to say. On to the story (:

Somewhere along the way, Allen had met the acquaintance of Lavi Bookman and Lenalee Lee.

Lavi had stopped by their little town to visit a certain "Yuu-chan", as the red-head would like to put it, while also taking a break from travelling the world with his grandfather. Both men seemed to be working on some sort of journal, if which they would jot down certain events and record it down as history. Their so-called "place of origin" as in, their start-line was from this small town where Kanda had resided in with after Tiedoll had adopted him, along with a few others. Ultimately, the both of them met and Lavi took to irritating the raven-haired male every opportunity he could get just because he wanted to see the Japanese riled up.

Lenalee, on the other hand, had caught wind that Lavi would be visiting Kanda and had decided to take the chance to stop by too, to visit both of her childhood friends. She was born in China, but their family moved to this small town in England to settle down for a while. That was how she'd met Lavi and Kanda. However, a few years later, the entire family had decided to move back to their hometown because they couldn't quite adapt to their new environment. Even then, Lenalee had still made frequent visits back because she was one who treasured her friends.

That week which they stopped by, had got to be liveliest week ever for a certain brown-hair male. However, for a certain raven-haired, it was a completely different story.

Kanda was visibly more irritable during that period of time, of which was spent trying to castrate Lavi for annoying him with all that "Yuu-chan!" and being way too clingly towards him. Even though Lavi subtly teased in a whiny voice, "Well, you let Allen-chan get close to you…" He'd never expected Kanda to say, "Tch, he's different."

That was when Lavi realized what was going on between the two. He knew that there was something wrong the moment he caught Kanda being around a younger and such an exuberant boy, for that matter. He'd known Kanda since they were little kids and the redhead had never seen the pissy guy ever get close to anyone of his own free will. Even Lenalee was surprised when she saw how the two exchanged words. There were times when they engaged in aimless conversations, but most of the time, it was mindless bickering. As entertaining as it is to watch, both Lenalee and Lavi were intrigued at how a boy like Allen was able to melt the ice prince's heat so easily, especially since Kanda had always locked his heart up even before they had met.

Feeling childish, as usual, Lavi suggested walking around in the forests, since it was too cold for a picnic. And also, since Tiedoll had a toboggan lying around, why not make use of it too? Surely they could find a clearing in the forest. It's been a while since the three childhood friends went there to play, well, mostly Lavi and Lenalee, since Kanda would just be sitting in a corner and sulking because Lavi had used some underhanded methods of luring him there.

The sun was high up in the sky, but the warmth wasn't enough to melt any of the thick layers of ice coating the entire landscape.

Clad in their winter wear, Lenalee and Allen accompanied Lavi along for the trip, albeit roping a completely reluctant Kanda along for the ride, of course.

The winter landscape in the forest was exactly the same as when the childhood trio came in the past. For Allen, it was a whole new experience.

"Allen-chan! Pretty cool huh? I've always came out here to hide cause Lenalee's house wouldn't do, since her brother's a little loony-"

"Hey!" Lenalee's interjected.

"What? It's true! Just because I came by to your house to hide from gramps, his sister complex starts acting up!"

"That doesn't make him loony!"

"He built machines that attack people! That has got to be illegal!"

"But I still dragged you out here to save your sorry ass."

"... True enough."

Letting the two bicker, Allen walked over to Kanda, "So how did you find this place? It doesn't see like you came with them."

"Tch, this was the best place to do some kendo training by myself. Unfortunately those idiots there decided to barge in one day, make a huge ruckus and then annoy the living shit out of me."

"... I don't know if you're lucky or not."

"Humph, I thought it was pretty obvious." Kanda snorted.

"Well, at least you had friends."

"..."

"Ah, I didn't mean to make you feel uncomfortable. Sorry."

"Baka, why are you apologizing?"

"Ah... Sorry. I'm just used to it. I don't really know how to get along with people since they always shun me."

"You look like you're getting along perfectly well with people."

"But that's just you and Mana! I still feel a little awkward around Lavi and Lenalee, even though they treat me like normal. Then again, it's because they haven't seen my arm yet..."

"Are you that dense? Do they look like those kind of people to you?"

"Um… No?"

"Exactly. So what are you worrying about?"

"Nothing?"

"Tch, Baka Moyashi."

"Hey! I'm not a bean sprout!"

"You're short."

"I'm not that short!"

"You are to me."

"Am not!"

"I'm not playing that childish argument game with you."

"Does that mean you admit defeat?"

"To what?"

"Me being tall."

"Hah! You kidding? Like that will ever happen."

"Why yo-" just as Allen was about to shoot back a smart retort, Lavi interrupted, "Hey guys! How about we play Shadow Tag?"

Apparently, Lenalee and Lavi's argument had ended some while ago and were intently looking on at the two males, bickering like married couple. Fighting over the smallest details can even lead to violent sparring matches, and Lavi have had experience with that, having seen it happened on more then one occasion in that short time he was around the two.

"Shadow Tag?" Allen asked, intrigued by the name as he had never heard of it before.

"Its just some stupid childi-" Kanda went before being cut off by Lavi, "You've never played it before? Well! All the more we shall do it, right, Yuu-chan?"

"Yeah, Kanda. It'll be fun! At least let Allen have a memory of it." Lenalee added.

And then Lavi moved to whisper to Kanda, "It's also a good chance to spend quality time with Allen, don't you agree?"

"Do whatever shit you guys want, but count me out." With that, Kanda stormed off, clearly irritated; a side effect from staying near Lavi too long, he presumed.

"Hey! Kanda!" Allen called, reaching out to pull him back.

"Leave him, Allen. He needs time to sort his feelings out."

"Feelings? What feelings?"

"Oh, you know. This and that…" Lavi trailed off.

"Lavi. You're confusing him." Lenalee sighed. "Forget about this. Shall we begin? I've been itching to run!"

"Gosh, Lenalee. You're only excited about this so you can flaunt your track skills again, aren't ya?"

"Oh, Lavi! You know me so well! I'll be 'It' first!"

"Shit! Allen, I hope you can run fast!"

As if right on queue, all three of them took off and peals of laughter reverberated in the air.

Running all over the place had gotten Allen utterly winded. The game extended from only the clearing in the forest, to the entire forest itself.

As Lavi had mentioned, Lenalee was a fast runner. But she had so much fun running and enjoying the cold wind rushing by that she'd decided to tease them a little by running just behind them, but not enough to step in their shadows. Until she got bored of it, Lavi was the unfortunate one who happened to be the one right in front of her. So right after Lenalee stepped on his shadow, she excitedly shouted, "Lavi! You're it!" and took off, giggling, now that she was able to run at full speed.

"Man, Lenalee! You're horrible as always! Allen! I'm coming for you! Watch out, wherever you are!"

At that point in time, all three teens were already scattered all over the place, both Lenalee and Allen were on the lookout for Lavi while the latter had to scout for the other two.

Lenalee, being Lenalee, would have probably taken this time to do some laps so that she'll stay in shape for an upcoming competition back in China.

So Allen was all alone at the moment, and probably far enough from Lavi such that he could slow down a little and take a breather. What he didn't expect was seeing a sleeping Kanda, sitting down and legs folded, with his back leaning against a fir tree.

Deciding against waking him up and asking him why the hell was he out sleeping in the cold for fear of his life (Allen knew from experience that a grumpy Kanda being roused from sleep was never good for his sanity and life). So he just settled for sitting down beside Kanda, and in the same posture, on his left.

"What the hell are you doing here, Moyashi?" Kanda's voice sounded the moment Allen settled down.

"Oh! I thought you were asleep! And I've told you time and again, I'm not a bean sprout! And I have a name called-"

"Bean sprout."

"Hey!"

"Ever heard of meditating?"

"Huh?"

"Guess not."

"Hey, BaKanda! Stop trying to change the subject!"

"…"

Turning to face the Japanese male, Allen saw that his eyes were closed and murmured, "Huh. He fell asleep."

"I'm not asleep, baka. I'm meditating. Are you completely clueless?"

"Well, sorry for not knowing a lot of things. I spent most of my life running away from people rather then sit down, and learn about all sorts of things in the world."

"…"

"Ah. I'm doing it again. I'm sorry."

"Don't apologize, stupid."

"…"

"…"

"So, um. Aren't you cold?"

"No."

"…"

"Are you?"

"… A little…?"

Kanda snorted, but nonetheless did something surprising. He reached out and took Allen's right hand into his own.

"Um. Kanda? You feeling alright?"

"I'm fine, Moyashi."

"It's Allen!"

"Whatever."

Unbeknown to them, both Lavi and Lenalee had already seen the little quiet (not) moment the two shared and decided to leave them alone, whilst hiding in the shadows. The two were just happy that Kanda was able to let someone in and not constantly lock himself away.

So they called off the game and the two headed back to their respective accommodations, leaving the two together to watch the sun set.

As the orange ball of fire slowly disappeared and the sky was visible darkened, the temperature of the surroundings plummeted. Both Allen and Kanda had sat in the exact same spot, freezing their butts off, but never letting go of each others' hands, their only source of warmth.

No idle chatter, no nothing.

Complete silence encased them.

That was, until Allen spoke, "Hey, Kanda? We should be headin- mmfph"

And that was all it took to silence Allen.

Just one kiss from a certain stoic Japanese.

And then, hands still interlocking, they disappeared into the shadows once the light from the sun disappeared and shrouded the entire field in darkness.

A/N: Phew! It's out! I based the theme more on playing Shadow Tag but then again it just seemed more like a cameo appearance rather then anything else. So yeah. I tried adding the word shadows as much as I could in this fic. Guess it worked out pretty well. Guys, do leave a review if you have time. I'd love to hear what you guys think 6: