One Night 1

AN: Okay, chapter one!! :D yay for annoying plot bunnies that won't leave me alone!!!

Right anyway, a friend told me the first chapter was short and lacking in detail.

And it was.

On purpose.

I wanted it to be short and choppy to represent how suddenly everything started, a heat of the moment kind of thing. The next chapters will have a much higher level of awesome.

I was a little disappointed at the small amount of reviews... but I guess I should have explained the prologue first. So if it's not too much to ask... lots of reviews please?

At least 15... Pretty please? I don't usually set review minimums, but just this once? A lot more than 6 people read my stories, and I want to know what you guys think, feedback makes the stories better for you!

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Lavi and Allen had been the best of friends since the moment they met. Neither were quite sure why but they were drawn to each other, something behind their false smiles connected them. The second their eyes met, the bond had been formed, and they were careful around each other at first, but that brief period of caution had melted away faster than fresh snow in a desert.

Fighting together, speaking together, laughing together, being together lifted their spirits, because they were as close as two people could get, they knew everything about each other.

Or, at least Lavi had thought they did. As the person Lavi had thought he had known explained him- herself to him, there was hurt and a feeling of betrayal in his heart, where there definitely shouldn't have been, but there was something else there too.

Why was did he feel so excited?

He turned, looking Allen in the eye and swallowing thickly, unsure of why those eyes, that had never done anything to him before, made his heart hammer loudly in his chest and his palms sweaty. He tried to play it off, to make them both feel like they were exactly the same as before, but who was he kidding?

Nothing was the same.

And it never would be again.

----

The party wasn't extravagant, nor was it too fancy. It was more of a friendly get together between friends over alcohol and food than a party. The older adults sipped their wine and conversed over the thrum of music while the younger members of the order milled around and laughed at whatever they found amusing. It wasn't the most festive place in the world, but both Allen and Lavi found it endearing. They were invited to stand with Lenalee, her brother a few of the other members of the science department but they declined, opting to stand by the snack table together instead.

"Not much of a party huh?" Lavi commented idly as he picked at some on the food he had put on a plate. The girl in front of him made a noncommittal noise in the back of her throat as she cheerfully swallowed her mouthful of the food Jerry had put out for the occasion.

"No, but it's the thought that counts, right? They all wanted to give the exorcists a break from the battlefield, and the scientists a break from the labs, so this is a great reason to come together just to enjoy everyone's company." Lavi nodded and they lapsed into silence, watching the people have fun together.

"Hey Allen? Are you really only sixteen? Or did you just say you were younger so that people wouldn't think anything of you being so small?"

A twitch, "I am not small. And no, I really am sixteen or so. I'm not entirely sure, but Christmas is the day I celebrate my birthday, so sixteen it is."

"Huh..." they lapsed back into silence, neither quite knowing exactly what to say, but neither feeling awkward at the same time.

"Are you really going to drink that?" Lavi blinked, looking down at the glass of wine he had picked up from the cluster on the table then back up at Allen with a questioning look on his face.

"Uh, yeah, why?"

"It's alcohol."

"Yes Allen, good job. There is alcohol in wine." Lavi grinned swirling the glass' contents with practiced ease.

"You're really going to drink it?"

"Sure I am, it's okay to have a little here and there, it's good for you actually, as long as you don't get drunk off your ass, there's no problem with having some alcohol." Lavi smiled, lifting another glass and holding it out, "Not everyone is like Cross when it comes to drinking Allen. Try some!" The younger girl eyed the glass wearily, looking up to Lavi's reassuring face and back to the crystal wine glass before tentatively reaching out and accepting it.

"Fine... but this is a one time thing!" she insisted adamantly, before lifting it to her lips and taking a tiny sip.

Allen's face twitched slightly and Lavi leaned forward curiously, "So? What do you think?"

"It's... weird... but not bad I guess..." She smiled a little, taking another, longer sip of the dark red liquid.

"That's the spirit~!" Lavi grinned, taking a long draft of his own glass of wine, licking his lip to get any stray droplets as Allen nodded shyly.

Who knew a simple glass of wine could change things so much more?

----

Lavi sighed in contentment as he stretched lazily in bed, enjoying the strange warmth of his room. It was usually so cold in his bed in the morning, but right at that moment, he was the perfect temperature. Nothing could have ruined his perfect mood right then, except for maybe the slight headache that made itself known, but everything other than that was just right.

A warm body pressed against his and snuggled close, breaths coming soft and even as the person slept. It was a soothing sound and Lavi welcomed the contact, not yet fully awake. 'Why can't I wake up like this every morning? I wouldn't even mind the headache...' he thought sleepily.

That's when he realised that there wasn't supposed to be anyone in bed with him.

With a startled yelp, Lavi jumped back, falling with an ungraceful thud on the cold stone floor. 'This is not my room!' most of the blankets came down with him, but the unidentified figure that had been his bed-mate managed to keep enough to stay covered.

'I'm naked?!' the realisation brought back a flood of memories from the night before and Lavi's only visible eye- how he managed to keep the eye patch on after the night he had, Lavi didn't know- widened and he swallowed nervously, jolting as the person still on the bed groaned, pulling the pillow over her ears as if that would block out the noise that had woken her.

"Nnngh... my head..." it would seem Allen wasn't someone who could hold her alcohol well.

"A-Allen..." Lavi could see the young girl tense, even from under the blankets. Slowly, Allen looked up from under the pillow, and the moment their eyes met they both knew that neither was ready to acknowledge what had happened between them.

But they had to anyway.

"I..." Lavi started lamely, looking down at his blanket covered lap, doing anything he could to avoid that silver gaze, "You can't tell anyone this happened. I would be kicked out of the clan..." his voice was quiet but firm, and Allen sat up, clutching the blankets around herself as she swallowed thickly.

"W-well, telling someone about this would mean telling them I'm a girl; s-so... you don't need to worry about that Lavi..."

"Alright..." there was an awkward silence, neither of them willing to look at the other, Lavi, because it hurt too much to think Allen held her secret closer to her heart, and he wasn't supposed to hurt over anything.

Allen just didn't know how she would ever be able to look him in they eye again.

"Y-you... do you... regret it?"

"Yes." The blunt answer to the timid question was like a dagger to the chest, one Allen was not expecting but she did well in not showing how much that one word ailed her, "We should never have gotten this far... ever. I have my bookman duties. I'm not supposed to do that kind of thing..."

"R-right." She cursed the way her voice shook and she bit her lip as she chanced a glance at Lavi. He looked just as conflicted and confused as she felt and it was strange to see his emotions written so plainly across his face. She was used to having to stare into the bright emerald eye for a long time to get any sort of real emotion from him.

"I-I... should go..." was it just Allen's imagination, or was Lavi's voice shaking too?

"Probably..." There was a long pause as Lavi hunted for his clothes, keeping a blanket around his waist before he looked up and met Allen's gaze with a sheepish smile.

"So, I'll see you at breakfast, yeah?"

They were going to act as if everything was the same again.

But nothing was the same.

And it never would be.

--CHAPTER END—

AN: ha-ha! See! See!!! What did I tell you? Much more awesome yes? and they did have more than one glass of wine guys!

Lavi- 4-5

Allen- 2-2 1/2

okay? okay. good. we all get it.

Okay, I would like 15 reviews please... I won't set another review minimum for this story, but for this chapter, yes I am.

PLEASE REVIEW!!!!

come on guys! Three more!!!