Hello, everybody!

For those who dislike MarieMiranda, avert your gaze for the starting scene! Muahahahahahahaha! Lol, sorry. But I think they make a good couple. And it's not too fluffy...I hope :\ I suck at writing romance, in any case.

Standing in the foyer of the Black Order HQ, Noise Marie took in all the familiar sounds. There was the sound of the chefs all the way in the kitchens, preparing food for the next meal of the day. There was the sound of everybody going about their daily business. And there was the sound of a pair of hurried footsteps coming towards him, stumbling at regular intervals because the person was forever clumsy.

Marie smiled as he heard the fast thumping of a heart behind those footsteps. His own limbs twitched in anticipation as he put down his travel case and prepared to greet the oncoming person.

"Marie!"

Marie laughed as the person stumbled and crashed into him. But, luckily, he was ready and didn't stumble. Not like she was very heavy anyway. "Hello, Miranda."

He couldn't see her but, as he put a hand up to caress her face, he could practically hear the blood rushing to her cheeks. "How are you?" he asked gently.

"I-I'm doing well, thank you. H-How are…y-you?" Miranda stammered, unable to move from where she'd crashed against his chest. He was holding her there and it wasn't like she had any complaints but what if someone came now?! Her already blushing face turned even redder.

"I'm good." Having a similar thought, Marie released her. "So, shall we go?" he asked, holding up a hand.

"Y-yes, let's." she agreed, demurely resting her hand in his.

"So, how are things?"

"As they have always been…since the war ended."
"I see. And how is everybody? Have any of the other Generals visited?"

"No. Since everything ended, all those who left haven't come back."

"That's too bad. I wouldn't have minded meeting everybody."

"Yes." Miranda smiled, "But, even if it is the same people all the time, life never gets boring."

"Oh? And what happens?"

Miranda laughed once. "Recently, Lavi was turned into a child by one of Supervisor Komui's old experiments. It's going to last two weeks and Kanda has to look after him."

Marie's interest perked. "Oh?" a smile spread across his lips, "I'm sure the General would have loved to be here if he'd known."

"Yes." She chuckled.

"So, did you know I was coming in just now? You came pretty quickly."

"I saw you coming from the window." she mumbled.

"I see. It was a nice welcome." He smiled.

Lavi was sad. Lily's mommy had phoned and said they wouldn't be able to make it due to the bad weather. And he'd been looking forward to playing with Lily so much.

So, instead, he was getting acquainted with Noise Marie, who he'd taken to calling "uncle". Since papa and Uncle Marie had been students with the same master, didn't that make them like brothers? And papa's brother would be Lavi's uncle.

Uncle Marie was telling Lavi stories of his travels with Team Tiedoll. Now, he was telling about the Eiffel Tower. "…it's an amazing piece of work. Have you ever seen it before?"

Lavi shook his head. "What it like?"

"It's big. It's very big."

"How big?"

"Hmm…let's see, if Kanda had a hundred clones and they all piled up on one another's shoulders, the Eiffel Tower would still be bigger by a large margin."

Lavi tried to contemplate this as he looked papa up and down. He tried to picture it; a hundred clones of papa forming a human tower of their own…it was hard…"A hundred of papa?"

Papa sighed and ruffled Lavi's hair. "Let's just say it's huge, all right? Don't strain yourself."

Lavi grinned, still trying to picture what Uncle Marie had said…but it was hard…hundred was a big number. "Bigger than a hundred papas; it's gotta be huge!"

"Oi, don't say it like that. It makes me feel offended, for some reason."

"Haha, sorry, papa! Uncle Marie, what else in France?!"

"Well, there's the Louvre where there's a bounty of amazing artwork…not that I can see it but…"

"But the General went to that place, no doubt," papa scoffed.

Uncle Marie chuckled. "Anyone would go to the Louvre if they're in Paris. And Master's an artist too."

"Right."

"What else, what else?!" Lavi asked eagerly.

Uncle Marie laughed again. "You're still your usual self, I see."

Lavi frowned. What did that mean…? "Huh?"

Papa spoke up, "Never mind."

Uncle Marie then went on to describe the atmosphere in Paris. Lavi was rapt. The afternoon turned into evening and then it was time for dinner. After that, Uncle Marie and Aunty Miranda went off somewhere to be alone so papa went back to his room with Lavi following closely behind.

"Papa?"

"Hmm?"

"What papa do now?"

"I'm going to bed." Papa grumbled as he went over to the bed and sat down. Lavi followed after him and, with a little difficulty, he clambered up to sit beside the man.

"But it early!" he said.

Papa grunted an incoherent response and he shifted back and lay down. Lavi knelt beside him, looking down at him with a puzzled frown. "Papa tired already?"

"Yeah, it's been a long day."

Fiddling with his hands, Lavi wondered what he was supposed to do now. He wanted to play with papa, like they had in the rain that afternoon, but they couldn't go outside. He could try colouring, but he liked it when papa looked at the pictures he drew and commented on them.

Maybe Lavi sleep too? He thought. He squiggled over to the edge of the bed and removed his shoes and then laid himself down beside papa.

"You're going to sleep too?" papa asked, lifting a hand up to brush Lavi's hair away from his face. "I thought you said it's early."

"Lavi not do anything if papa sleeping so Lavi sleep too," Lavi mumbled.

Papa shrugged. "If you say so."

"Hey, Kanda?" Lenalee asked as soon as Kanda put down his breakfast and helped Lavi onto the bench.

"Hmm?"

"Morgan asked if it'd be all right for Lavi to come over?"

Kanda frowned as he set himself down next to his charge. "Who the hell is Morgan?"

Lenalee sighed. "She's Lily's mother. She said Lily was down yesterday since she'd been looking forward to coming over to play again. So Morgan wants to take them to the park."

"Ooh, park! Lavi go, papa?!" Lavi asked excitedly.

Kanda groaned. "Fine. Why don't you go with Lenalee?"

Lavi's green eye was pleading. "No, papa come too! Papa, pwease? Pwetty pwease?"

"Oi, I know you don't usually talk like that so drop it; it makes me sick."

Lavi pouted. "Please papa?"

Being subjected to such an innocent, beseeching gaze, Kanda couldn't refuse. His shoulders slumped. "Fine."

"Yay!"

Allen, Krory and Marie were conferring among themselves. "That was quick," Marie mumbled.

"Yeah, I think each time Lavi asks for something, the time it takes Kanda to agree gets less and less." Krory agreed.

"It's almost like he's under some kind of weird hypnosis." Allen mused.

"Oi! I can hear you, you know! Shut the fuck up!" Kanda snapped.

"Sorry," Krory was the only one who apologised. Marie hid an amused smile. Miranda sighed. Allen grunted, stuffing his face full of food.

Lenalee beamed. "All right then! It's decided! I'll be coming too, of course!"

"If Lenalee's going, I'm going too!" Allen said, raising a hand.

"Put your freakin hand down; this isn't a classroom, bean sprout!" Kanda spat, just to vent some of his annoyance.

Lenalee interrupted before Allen could retort. "And what about the rest of you? Why not turn it into a picnic? We could ask Jerry to prepare the food and then we'll be ready to go by about eleven?"

Marie shrugged. "Sounds okay to me."

Miranda blushed, "then, I guess I'll come too."

"No use wandering around here by myself so I'll be coming too." Krory said.

Kanda heaved a defeated sigh as happy chatter broke out across the group.

"Oh, is this Lily? What a cute girl!" Allen said as he fell to one knee before the little girl. "Hi there."

Kanda looked down as Lavi walked over to stand beside his little friend. "Lily-Ann to anyone who not a close friend," he said with a huff as he took Lily's free hand in his own. Lily looked confused.

Allen blinked owlishly. "Whoa…did you just get jealous, Lavi?"

"Lavi did not!"

"Did too!"

"Did not, stupid bean sprout!"

Morgan, Lily's mother, chuckled and, letting go of her daughter's hand, she turned towards Lenalee, "he's picking up Master Kanda's bad habits."

Lenalee masked a laugh as a cough as Kanda glanced over. "Don't say that when he's right there," she whispered.

Morgan grinned. "I'll bear that in mind then. But, I can't believe the Supervisor's still doing things like that, though."

"Oh, he's not…well, he might be. Don't know what brother gets up to, as always. But this was an old experiment. Brother just made the two of them clean out an old storeroom."

"I'll bet Master Kanda wasn't too happy about that!"

Lenalee laughed again. Kanda's narrow-eyed gaze found hers and she immediately straightened her expression. "Still, I think it's come to the point where he won't complain about anything as long Lavi's there too."

"Aw, that's so sweet! But I don't think Master Kanda was ever one to complain anyway, no?"

"I suppose you're right. Even if he does have any problems, he keeps them to himself."

Sneaking a furtive glance at Kanda, Morgan said, "but…he seems a lot less tense then he used to be."

Lenalee smiled. "It's all thanks to Lavi."

"Oi," Kanda growled. Lenalee and Morgan both jumped but he was looking at Allen and Lavi, "have you children finished your argument? I think we should get going."

Allen stood up with an indignant huff. "Whatever, Kanda."

Lavi grinned. "Lavi won the argument!"

"No you didn't!" Allen disagreed.

"All right, all right! It doesn't matter!" Lenalee called out. "Let's just get moving, okay?"

Still holding onto Lily's hand, Lavi walked over to Kanda and fell into step. Glancing down at the two children, Kanda felt a small smile tugging at his lips. Lavi was, as always, ridiculously cute.

The group was split into pairs. Lavi was talking to Lily. Lenalee was chatting with Morgan. Allen and Krory were discussing some trivial matter (something about food…maybe it hadn't been the best idea to leave the picnic basket in Allen's hands). And, bringing up the rear were Marie and Miranda, lost in a world of their own. Kanda was on his own. Not that he cared, but he did catch himself wishing that that little girl would go to her mother or something. How bothersome, he scoffed under his breath, stuffing his hands into the pockets of his coat.

The feeling of being distanced increased as they got to the park. Lavi and Lily went to the jungle gym and climbed up. But, after a few minutes, they saw that Lenalee and Morgan we sitting on the swings.

"Lenalee, Lavi and Lily wanna go too!" Lavi cried as he ran up to them, dragging Lily behind him.

Lenalee smiled and stood up. "Sure, shall I push you?"

"Yeah!"

Noon came and went. The children weren't getting bored in the least. Marie had gone around the fields for a walk with Miranda. Allen and Krory were hungry and kept sneaking food out of the picnic basket as they also walked around. Lenalee and Morgan watched the two children and talked. How women could talk so much was beyond Kanda.

He sat at the park bench, just looking around and observing people. He didn't usually pay attention to random people because he didn't care what they were doing but, for the moment, it helped alleviate some of his boredom as he waited for the outing to come to an end. This was why he'd not wanted to come! He was always bored when the group went anywhere and the one person who Kanda didn't mind talking with was always chatting to the others. Although Lavi was considerate enough to try to get Kanda to join in the group discussions, Kanda didn't see any point in it. As was always the case, he just wanted to go back home and go to his room.

A while later, he heard his name being called out…well, not really his name…more like his temporary title, "Papa, papa!"

He looked away from the crowd of people milling about outside the park grounds and saw Lavi running towards him. "What is it?"

"Time to eat!" the little boy said, taking the man's hand and attempting to pull him up. Kanda sighed and stood up. About time, he thought. "All right."

"Papa, did papa watch Lavi?! Lavi went really high on the swing! It was amazing!"

"Er…yeah…"

They caught up with Lenalee, Morgan, Lily, Allen and Krory and the group then went to find a good place to set up the picnic. As Allen put down the picnic basket and dug out the sheet, Marie and Miranda came back too. And then they started to take out the food…

"What is this?! Allen! Only half the food's here!" Lenalee protested, looking into the basket's contents.

Allen chuckled sheepishly and looked away. "S-sorry, Krory and I got hungry and…"

"Y-yeah, we're sorry…" Krory stammered.

"I can't believe you! Couldn't you wait?!" Lenalee cried.

"I'm sorry…"

"There's still a lot of food here." Miranda said, also taking a look inside the basket. "Perhaps Jerry knew Allen and Krory would eat most of it?" She chuckled.

Kanda scoffed. "Gluttons."

Sitting in Kanda's lap, Lavi was the only one who heard the man's utterance. "Haha, gluttons! Bean sprout and Krory gluttons!"

Krory found this amusing. But Allen, rather than glaring at the offending child, gazed balefully at Kanda instead. "What?" Kanda challenged.

"You're a bad influence."

"I don't know what you're talkin about."

"Hmph! Stupid Kanda."

"Is that all you ever say, stupid bean sprout?"

Lavi giggled. "Stupid bean sprout!"

Allen groaned. "Will you stop teaching him stuff like that?!"

"I'm not teaching him anything. It's not my fault if he picks things up."

"Then you ought to watch what you say around him!"

"Why should I? It's not like he's never heard it before."

Allen was at a loss as to what to say; Kanda's insensitivity was just astonishing. In the end, he just growled before digging into the food he'd piled onto his plate. Everyone heaved a collective sigh. Would these two never give it a rest?

But Kanda was thinking. What if Lavi did start picking up his bag habits? What would Kanda do if Lavi swore?

As if on cue, Lavi swore as he knocked over a bowl full of food, "Oh…fuck…"

Six pairs of eyes (including Marie's empty gaze) stared first at Lavi and then travelled over to rest on Kanda. Kanda cleared his throat and resumed his meal as calmly as he could. But, on the inside, his thoughts were raging out of control. WHAT SHOULD I DO?! WHY DID HE HAVE TO SAY THAT?! AND WAS HE READING MY MIND OR SOMETHING THAT HE CHOSE TO SWEAR AT THAT EXACT MOMENT?! I'M BEING STARED AT AS IF I COMMITED A FELONY!

Predictably, it was Allen who spoke first. "See what I mean? This is all your fault, Kanda."
Lavi and Lily looked confused as they glanced around at the faces of the adults. Lavi spoke, "did Lavi say something bad?"

Lenalee chuckled nervously. "W-well, you see, Lavi, that word is not a very nice one and…"

He frowned and pointed a tiny finger at Kanda. "But papa says it all the time."

"Ah, well…grownups are different, see, and…"

Allen interrupted with a matter-of-fact tone, "Well, grownups should know what to say and what not to say in the presence of others…but, this just doesn't seem to be comprehended by people sporting dark, long hair and who go by the name of Ka…"

A pair of chopsticks flew through the air with deadly accuracy and lodged into Allen's forehead. "Shut the fuck up." Kanda hissed.

Allen fell back. "I am…slain…"

Lavi giggled and pointed at the white-haired boy. "Haha, Polonius! Look, Lily, he's Polonius!"

"Who?" Krory asked.

"A character in 'Hamlet'," Morgan supplied, "he gets killed by Hamlet and says "I am slain"."

"Oh, I see." several people nodded. Kanda was confused. "What the hell is Hamlet?"

Now everyone turned to look at him incredulously, including the revived Allen (with chopsticks sticking out of his forehead). "You don't know what Hamlet is?" he asked.

Kanda shook his head. Even Lavi was looking at him in astonishment. "Wh-what? It's not like I have time for…for whatever the hell that is."

Allen snickered. "You really are dumb."

"Say that again and I'll make sure you die, bitch!"

"What part of me looks like a female dog to you?!"

"Your face. That must be it; I always get so pissed off lookin at it!"

"Then don't look at it, stupid Kanda!"

"Can't help it, can I, bean sprout? You're always sticking your mug in everywhere!"

"Break it up, you two!" Lenalee called out. "When are you going to grow up? You're not children anymore!"

Kanda harrumphed and resumed his meal (after getting another pair of chopsticks since his previous ones were still stuck in Allen's forehead). Allen grumbled something unintelligible and finally pulled out the chopsticks and continued his own meal.

Lavi giggled as he turned to face Lily. "Papa and bean sprout a hoot!"

Um...while writing this chapter...and the start of the next one, I was feeling a little on high (probably from lack of sugar, though I dunno how that'd work O_O) so...yeah...eh heh heh...I hope it wasn't too crackish.

So, next chapter sees the return of the actual Lavi. Including next chapter, there's only two left before this story finishes. I was going to do a Part II but, realistically, it'd have been over in just one or two chapters so I didn't see the point in it. I had quite a few endings in mind too but, lately, I've been feeling really lazy and, on top of that, it just seemed to me that an epilogue was unnecessary. Haha, one time, I wrote an epilogue for this other story where it was set a good few years in the future after the plot had cleared up. It was complete bullshit and a waste of space :| lol, I suck at writing epilogues XXD

Anyway, I hope you liked this. I realise the picnic scene could have been more in-depth but...I was feeling lazy XD same for the last chapter's bath scene, sorry, Demoness Drakon :(

Ah, that reminds me, thanks for your reviews, guys! It means a great deal to know that people are actually enjoying this story ^_^

Peace out~!