I started my Art exam and have another 4 hours to go, my next session being tomorrow. Argh. Anyway, I managed to crack out a new chapter as I felt bad depriving you guys for a whole week, so here we are. You're welcome, yes I know i'm amazing. Odds are I wont be releasing that many for... most of May really, due to all my exams *Sobs* but there may be a few as I few really guilty when I don't update for ages...

Anyway, please read and review as you usually do you beautiful people \(O.O)/

Allen hadn't told them yet. It's not that he didn't trust them… because he did, well, most of them. He knew they wouldn't be harsh to him like the others had been but at the same time he knew what they would do. They'd pity him. And in all honesty he'd rather be bullied. It's not like he remembers it that well, he doesn't feel any pain. It was a complete accident; his own fault really. He was a child when it had happened, and now, due to his childish stupidity… and clumsiness, he had to hide it every day. After every shower, every rain shower, he had to re-apply his face. How embarrassing. He'd be mortified if they found out, they'll figure out how he hid it.

Allen poked at his face a few times, he studied his reflection; the scar still looked new. It wasn't though; he'd had it eleven years now. He'd been hiding it five. Allen shifted his focus onto the offending item that sat on the sink counter. He remembered when it had first been suggested, hiding the scar. It had been Anita that suggested it to him all those years ago; he had just turned eleven and was due to start secondary school in a few months. She'd suggested it lightly and had helped him weigh out the pros and cons of such an action. They'd decided that the positives of hiding the scar would be: No bullying. No funny stares. No ceasing of talking whenever he entered a room. No murmurs around him. And they had figured out that the consequences would be: Could be expensive after a certain amount of time. Would have to be careful in the rain, may have to re-apply during school hours. If discovered the bullying would get worse.

The decision hadn't been as hard as he'd thought it would have been, and he'd been pleased it was Anita that had suggested it, not any of his Uncles other floozies. He'd always liked her, she had raised him like her own during the four years she'd lived with them. He'd always wanted to tell her he loved her, call her 'Mom', he never could though. She already knew.

He smiled at the container on the sink top, it always reminded him of her; he owed her so much of what he was today. The bullying had stopped; he'd always have some with him close by, in a pocket, just in case of surprise showers. He gained more confidence however that confidence led to more bullying. Allen pulled at his white locks and remembered his classes' response to the bleached hair… not that good, to be honest with himself, could have been better. He picked up the foundation and started the task of covering his scar; it wasn't easy to hid, needed quite a thick layer to hide it. He reminded himself to avoid his eyebrows, "That's how you'll get caught out" Anita would often remind him when he first started, he couldn't help it. He was pale, needed the palest shade possible. He chuckled as the memories of secret shopping trips came to mind, every Saturday, leave the house while his Uncle was sleeping, 9 O'clock, and get the train.

He'd spread it evenly over his face, that was it, no more. Done. Scar official removed from his face. Turned it from side to side, double checking he was evenly covered, making sure it didn't just stop but slowly faded into his actual skin colour. He furrowed his eyebrows and opened his mouth mimicking the many mouth exorcises they'd made him do in music. Just to check he could move it still, he couldn't stand seeing the girls around college, faces caked in foundation, sullying its name. He had to fight the urge to drag them to the nearest mirror and teach them how to apply it properly, but alas, he could not. Allen left the bathroom and walked through the doorway leading to his bedroom. He tugged on his shirt and dark skinny jeans, dug through his drawers and found his favourite ribbon; His worn out red one. He walked to the nearest mirror and fastened it round his neck, tucking it under the shirt collar so only the loose ribbon was visible from the front, Slid on his waste coat and left to make a cup of tea.

Allen had just pulled a mug down from the cupboard when he heard the distinctive knocking at the door. Sighing, he re-opened the cupboard to pull out yet another mug, filling one with a teabag, one with a spoonful of coffee. The sharp knocking reached his ears again, each knock sounding louder than the previous. He lightly jogged, making sure to avoid a sleepy yellow fluff ball, towards to door; swinging it open he met the face of a mid-yawn Kanda. Turning around he asked if a coffee was in order.

"Ugh"

Allen looked over his shoulder to see Kanda rubbing at his eyes, hair not in its usual high ponytail but instead tied loosely at the nape of his neck. He yawned again and Allen felt as if he'd been staring at the taller man for too long, he walked, half jogged, into the kitchen. Dumped three sugars into his mug and filled them both with the boiled water. Noticing the lump of yellow in the corner of his eyes Allen got out a whiskers pouch and fed Tim, once his hands where washed he got the milk out the fridge, filling both mugs and a saucer for Tim. He placed Tim's milk beside his breakfast and entered the lounge with both mugs. It was there he found Kanda looking almost asleep on his sofa.

"It's what…" He placed the mugs on the coffee table and looked at his wrist watch, "-five to nine. Time to wake up Mr …Kanda? I don't actually know your surname…" Allen sat on the arm of the sofa Kanda was currently occupying, waiting for some form of a response. He watched as the taller man stretched his legs, his feet reaching Allen, trying to push him of the arm. It was the first time Allen noticed Kanda had taken his shoes off without being asked. He's wearing odd socks, he noted to himself with a smile. One, white and black checked, the other, just plain blue. Kanda rolled slightly so his body faced the sofa's cushions.

"'S Kanda" He had his face pressed into one of the sofas many cushions.

"Hmm? I'm sorry, what?" Allen shook himself as Kanda mumbled something to quit for Allen to make out.

"Kanda's m' surname" Allen watched Kanda nuzzle his face into the cushion some more.

"Your surname.. Is Kanda?" Kanda grunted in agreement, "Your name's Kanda… Kanda?" Kanda sat up from the cushions, some of his hair had come out of the hair tie and had fallen into his face; he pushed it out of his eyes as he groaned to himself.

"No. My surname's Kanda. My first names..." The rest of the sentence became a mumbled blur and he reached for his coffee.

"Pardon…" Allen placed his own cup down and he waited for Kanda to continue,

"I'm not going through this again-" Kanda mumbled into his mug, so instead he rose from his seat, tugging his hair tie out at the same time, "'S nothing, where're your notes then?" Allen watched as Kanda swept the underside of his hair up into his grip, he combed the sides into his hand and finished by capturing the fine hair into the grasp of his hair tie. He suddenly became acutely aware the he was being stared at expectantly, almost as if he was meant to be saying something.

"Eh?" Kanda crossed his arms over his chest, eyebrow raised as he was obviously waiting for some sort of response.

"I said, where are your notes?"

"Do we have to rush into it, I mean, can't we just… talk?" As soon as he had said it, he knew what Kanda would say-

"Why would I talk to you, out of choice?"

"Argh, you're so unfathomable!"

"Seriously? No-one says 'unfathomable' in a sentence."

Allen stood his ground; he sat on the arm of the sofa, refusing to move an inch. He stared at Kanda and felt the air around his face get hotter as Kanda refused to look away.

"I don't know anything about you, why on earth would I share notes with someone I don't even know."

"You don't know me? Of course you fucking know me, you've known me for bloody months-"

"-but I don't know you, like friend know you-"

"Friend know me? What, so we're friends now?"

"Of course we're friends, I don't let bloody strangers in my house, I don't feed strangers coffee-"

"Can't feed a drink moron."

"See, this is what I mean. This-" He pointed between to each of them, emphasising his point, "-Is what friends do."

"Wait, so… we-" He mimicked Allen's earlier gesture, "are friends, yet you state that you don't 'friend' know me? How is that possible?"

"You don't get my point-"

"-obviously-"

"Okay, okay, I'll show you what I mean-" He got up of the arm of the sofa and started walking from one end of the lounge to the other, spouting out examples of friend facts. "Lenalee, she's of Asian descent, her birthdays February 20th and she turned seventeen this year; she has an older brother who means the world to her, however he has a tendency to irritate her with his ridiculous over-protectiveness. She finds me to be a little brother of sorts and thinks I'm totally adorable; which for some strange reason has caused her to become scarily possessive. She has a secret soft spot for Lavi which I really don't think I should have just told you… and, finally, she sees you as a brother who she knows she can always rely on, like, if ever there's a problem in her life, it's you she' going to go to." Allen looked at Kanda expectantly; his response was to raise both his eyebrows.

"Alright but-"

"-And Lavi, no-one knows where's he's from, he's just this huge colossal mix of races. His birthday is on the 10th of August and he has yet to turn eighteen. He had a year after school off, which he spent trying, and failing, to keep down a job. After being chewed out by his grandfather he moved in with you and started college. His grandfather is his only living relative that he knows off, and although they fight whenever they're near on another, they actually care for each other greatly-"

"-I do know all this already-"

"-He calls Lenalee, lenalady or princess, which obviously shows his deep affection for her; even though I'm relatively new to the group I already have a whole heap of nicknames, most to do with my height, which may I just say is a perfectly normal height for a teenager. I'm still growing-"

"-Just accept that you're sho-"

"-and you. Lavi, for some unfathomable reason, see's you, Kanda Kanda, as his best friend. He blatantly shows his care and affection through incredibly annoying, childish… bullying? Can I call it that? He's not trying to hurt anyone… could it be called bullying?"

"Just say it's bullying."

"Okay, annoying bullying… which… um… oh yeah, which would explain why you're picked on so regularly." Allen placed himself down on the sofa's arm again, turning his head in the direction of the older teen. "And then there's you. Let's see, birthday is… 6th June, Asian descent… and you're eighteen, you went to another college at first but dropped out due to the fact that you hated it, meaning you joined this college this year… and… that is actually all I know about you. I thought I knew, like, a little bit more than that. Jesus, I really do know nothing about you… I don't even know what subjects you take! Minus the English, of course…" He stopped talking and rubbed his nose with the back of his hand; July is a bad month for hay fever sufferers, he thought duly to himself as he sniffed.

"You know-" Kanda shifted himself closer to the edge of the sofa so he could reach his lukewarm coffee "-You're pretty observant."

"Thank you"

"You seem to be able to analyse people with mush more ease then anyone I know…" Allen raised his eyebrow as he waited for Kanda to get to his point, he watched as his Adams apple bobbed as he swallowed the coffee, "-One would think you have a lot of pet hates."

"Yeah…?"

"And none of us know that much about you either. Funny that, eh?" Kanda had picked up the one thing Allen hoped he wouldn't have. He felt his sweat creep under his collar; he could feel it run down his back until it bled into his shirt. He was scared. He wasn't ready for his walls to break yet.

"A-And? Your point is?"

"You could have some secret life we know nothing about."

"Right… what are you-"

"why're you so protective of your notes?" Kanda had placed the mug down and was now facing Allen, his hand resting on Tim, who Allen hadn't noticed until this particular moment. Traitor.

"I wouldn't say I'm protective-"

"Is there something you don't want me to see? Plans maybe?"

"Wait. Are you implying…"

"Implying what?" Kanda had a smirk plastered on his face, eyebrow raised in a superior manner.

"Hey! I'm not-" He jumped as Kanda's hand was in front his face, pointing accusingly in an ace attorney manner.

"Ha! You know, I know, so you deny it!" Allen couldn't believe it was possible but Kanda smirk grew larger.

"I don't know you know anything! But if you are thinking what I think you're thinking, you're completely wrong!"

"So what do you think I'm thinking?"

"Ah." Know he had him. What was Allen meant to say that would cast the spotlight of him, how on earth could Kanda think he was the blogger. He's the one that had spent all the time of listing any possible blogger characteristics. He was the one sad enough to do it, not Kanda. "Okay, wait here."

He got up of the arm of the sofa and quickly, but still respectively, rushed into his room out of the inquiring eyes of the older teen. He pulled open the familiar drawer, pulled out the worn notebook and ran a hand through his hair. He let out a pent up sigh and got ready to 'face to music', so to speak. He re-entered the lounge and threw the notebook on the coffee table, satisfied with the slap it made.

"This should clear my name. Here, the long awaited notebook. Feel welcome to add to the ever growing list" As he spoke the words he felt himself lower his eyes to the carpet, fascinated by the patterns. His ears felt warm, why did his ears feel warm? He subtly raised his hand to feel his cheeks. They were warm. Warm. Oh god, he was blushing. Blushing.

"Jesus Christ" The mumble reached his ears along with the turning of pages and he lowered his head further. Mortifying, that's what it was. Mortifying. He was a stalker, an actual stalker. Why was he so creepy? "You- you did all of this?" Allen, to mortified to speak, nodded his head. "Impressive…" Allen's head snapped up and his mouth hung agape, completely baffled by Kanda's reply, all he could do was nod when Kanda asked if he wanted a tea.

As he watched the taller man walk through his kitchen doorway he shifted himself onto the sofa, leaning fully against the cushions. He reached out for Tim and was pleased when the cat let out a slight purr. The cat rubbed his face against the corner of the notebook and Allen picked it up. Kanda had already written in it. He'd been allowed to see it for less then, what? Three minutes and he'd already scribbled all over the page in his fancy writing. Allen was irritated at first, but once he read what was written he was quickly, shamefully, impressed.

Swears, likes to place the blame onto others (mythical shit) clearly irresponsible personality. Sense of sarcasm, root of abbreviation hatred could be they were forced to speak probably as a child, sees it as unfair? Might be surrounded by ill-mannered people and has had enough of the situation? Use of 'Argh' shows a spoken habit? Makes regular mistakes, could be overly clumsy? Doesn't believe in soft such thought, has to work for things. When angry is intimidating.

He looked up from the page and looked at Tim, the cats head was turned to the side slightly.

"Tim. Three minutes and he already has a better idea than me… shit. He added a quote and everything…" The cat placed his paws of Allen's outstretched leg, "I know Tim, but, this is hard to accept, y'know?" He heard a thump from the kitchen alongside the distinctive rumbling of the boiled kettle. Tim placed his head alongside his paws, "I know you're a fan Tim… yes, I know he can make tea… Arrgh, I dunno Tim…" The cat stood up and jumped down from the sofa, running of into the kitchen. That was an extra five traitor points just earned.

Before Allen could call after him he felt something come into contact with his head; suddenly deafened by the impact he missed Kanda's smirk of victory. Allen looked down to find a penguin bar on his lap and most likely a penguin bar lump on the side of his head.

"You went through my cupboards!"

"I could hear your stomach from the kitchen, feed it and for god sakes shut it up."

"Feed it and for god sakes shut it up" he mimicked in a pathetic attempt of a Kanda voice; the older man visible rolled his eyes as he took a sip from the boiling mug in his hands. Allen lifted the flap on the rapper of the chocolate bar,

"Why don't penguins drink out of a glass?" He saw Kanda look up from the notebook, "They drink from a beaker" Surprisingly, the two of them looked at one another, both their faces saying the same thing, Oh god that's so stupid. Yet when their eyes met, Allen couldn't stop a laugh from bubbling up his throat. It shocked them both at first but shortly after, it quickly lead to Kanda releasing the air from his mouth in a quick silent laugh. Allen could feel his eyes tear slightly as he laughed and Kanda had raised his hand to his mouth as he shook his head gently. The laughter didn't die down as fast as it probably should have, and Allen found himself unable to look at Kanda's face without laughter bubbling from his mouth. So he looked at the carpet and thought to himself, maybe, just maybe, this partnership could work.