A/N: Apologies for another slow-to-arrive update! m(_ _)m

I will probably add at least one more chapter to this fic (for the time being) before switching back to Anniversaries again, in case anyone was wondering.

Those of you who have reviewed or PMed, thank you so much for contacting me & sharing your thoughts! Rest assured I always, always reply (unless you're anonymous). But right now, I seriously need some sleep. ^_^;

Have a great weekend, all. I hope you'll let me know what you think of this chapter!

"I'm sure you can appreciate how incredibly distressing this has been for me," Lavi laughed while running a nervous hand through his red, red hair.

278… 279… 280… 281…

"I mean I guess it's my fault for not making my move sooner, but—"

285… 286… 287…

Lavi tilted his head, apparently considering his situation as he went on; "I mean I haven't confessed in so many words or whatever, but she's gotta know I care anyway, right? I mean girls are supposed to be good at just noticing these things— right?"

293… 294… 295…

"Yeah I know, I know. Leave it to a Bookman to be totally cryptic, am I right?" More nervous laughter. "But I had to talk to somebody and know I can trust you with this stuff, Allen."

299… 300!

Allen Walker flipped back onto his feet after completing his handstand push-ups for the morning. He'd been vaguely aware of Lavi rambling about something since he arrived at Allen's door to wake him (again!), bearing the usual assortment of pre-breakfast sweets. Concentrating as he was on balance, pacing, and rep count (and prior to that, washing his face and brushing his teeth), he hadn't caught much of his supposedly secretive friend's constant flow of words. He'd heard every one, but few registered since he simply wasn't listening. "Sorry, what?"

He observed a sheepish grin, unsettlingly unbecoming of the resident redheaded rabbit. "Just a lame joke. Probably better you didn't hear it."

Allen swiped the sweat off his brow with his forearm. It would clearly upset his friend to reveal the full extent of his ignorance, so he would feign rapt attentiveness to the morning's ramblings. After all, it probably wasn't anything Lavi hadn't already moaned about ad nauseam for the last few days.

He noted the apprentice Bookman scratching the back of his neck while a green eye darted off to one side, apparently in thought. "Hey Lavi, maybe you should get your mind off of this stuff for a while. Come walk with me?"

"Where we goin'?"

xoxo

She was talking.

It was fine at first. The two of them were seated alone in Kanda's favourite quiet room; backs to the rear wall, eyes closed, breathing rhythmic, senses expanding into every nuance of the present moment… until she spoke again. Then suddenly, he was sitting in a small, bland room with a distressed teenage girl by his side, forced to consider persons and places and times that weren't here.

It wasn't that she wasn't trying, Kanda reminded himself. She couldn't help it. So each time he had settled into the blissful moment only to be prodded out of it again by the voice of one Lenalee Lee, he knew he couldn't truly blame her. He could only continue to sit there, remaining cross-legged and stoic as he waited it out.

Of course, just knowing that wasn't enough to stop him from getting extremely irritated.

"It's just that… if we could be open about our relationship-thing and not have my brother sic some new robot on poor Raphy," Raphy? Though his eyes remained closed, Kanda's right eyebrow arched upward at the inauspicious pet name. Lee wouldn't notice, since she sat to his left and probably wasn't even looking anyway. "I wouldn't have to worry about other girls approaching him. But I mean come on, it's not like there are all that many other women to compete with in this place. They could proposition almost any guy they wanted, really… So why don't they?"

He was relieved to notice that she seemed to be asking herself that last question. If he kept quiet, she would simply withdraw into her thoughts, letting him be. And yet— recent events had given him a unique perspective on the upkeep of one's clandestine affairs.

"Tch. Maybe you shouldn't pay so much attention to them." Kanda was aware his tone turned vaguely murderous upon mention of 'them,' but he really couldn't bring himself to care about anyone who'd had a part in upsetting Le— no, his daily routine.

"The… other girls, you mean?"

Kanda neither moved a muscle nor made a sound to correct her.

"So you're saying I should only be concerned about him?"

He remained silent as Lee pondered further along that train of thought.

"Yeah," she quietly concurred, "Yeah." A slight disturbance in the air indicated to him that she was nodding in agreement. "Thanks, Kanda."

He let out a noncommittal grunt even as he sensed the warmth of a smile at his left side. Resettling into his morning ritual as he felt that peaceful glow, Kanda was able to immerse himself deeper into his meditation than he'd thought would be possible that day. Almost imperceptibly, his own lips turned up at the corners.

oxox

Moving in silence, an anxious Lavi followed Allen down several flights of stairs, through the hall, and around the corner— to the last place he'd have expected.

Maybe he thinks tormenting Yuu will cheer me up? Can't say he'd be wrong about that…

Lavi grinned to himself. Somewhat awed, he watched a brave young Moyashi dip his head in the door of Kanda Yuu's favourite quiet room. Honestly, the boy must have tipped his head into one too many lion's mouths during his circus days. And heck, maybe he even missed it? Lavi sometimes suspected Allen of being a few kernels short of a bag of popcorn. Well, nothing for it but to keep out of sight and watch the fallout, courtesy of the ever-homicidal Yuu and one entertainingly suicidal Moyashi.

"Hey Kanda!"

Surprisingly, Lavi heard no response. Instead, he imagined, Yuu's eyes must have been flashing dangerously as he glared up a storm at the accursed disturber of his peace.

Allen's voice became strangely soft, yet goading: "To the far dead tree. From the training grounds. Barefoot."

"No cheating with your innocence this time." Yuu accepted the vague challenge.

"Sure, sure, whatever you say. BaKanda. How about you, Lavi? Up for a morning sprint? Gets your mind off things. Works up an appetite too," the boy grinned devilishly.

Yuu snorted. "As if you of all people need help with that, Moyashi."

"When will you get it through your thick skull that it's ALLEN!"

Lavi poked his head inside in time to catch Yuu rolling his eyes at little Bean Sprout. Then, seated in an identical cross-legged position to his left was…

"Ohhh, good morning Allen, Lavi," she yawned out while stretching her arms. He gasped in surprise. She looked so tranquil; violet eyes all heavy-lidded and a small, sweet smile. Just angelic.

"Mornin', Lenalee," Lavi bowed, lifting an imaginary hat. She giggled.

"Good morning, Lenalee! Wide awake now, are we?"

Allen and her bantered so effortlessly, Lavi couldn't decide whether to be jealous or relieved at the utter absence of any tension between them. Was she really entirely over that crush she's had on the kid for ages now? That Raphael guy is one lucky bastard.

Allen playfully teased Lenalee for apparently falling asleep. She tried to deny it but she was such a terrible liar, Lavi could plainly see her face reddening and dimples of embarrassment shaping her helpless eyebrows. It was all rather fetching, really.

"So what's your answer already?" a gravelly voice tore through the redhead's trance. "We don't have all day here."

"Well, Yuu, seeing as it's so early in the morning I'd say we do have—"

A deep, threatening noise issued from Yuu's lips. "I've said not to call me that…"

"Right, right. Whatever. So uhh… where's this 'far tree' exactly?" he asked with apprehension.

"You know that big lightning storm a week ago?" Allen queried excitedly. Too excitedly.

Lavi could tell he wouldn't like where this was going, but all he could do was urge his borderline-demented young friend onward. "Yeah—?"

"Remember that fire in the low part of the east woods? Everyone was talking about it," Allen's smile somehow grew even larger. "You couldn't've missed it, Lavi!"

"But that was—"

Kanda Yuu stared impatiently. Allen Walker beamed disturbingly.

Oh yes. It was now evident as the first signs of daybreak outside that young Master Walker definitely, definitely had a screw loose. Yuu's sanity deficit was always as brutally direct and straightforward as everything else about him, but the boy's lapses into madness, on the other hand, had a nasty way of sneaking up on you from behind.

"Allen, you're— you're not joking?" Of course he wasn't.

His eye was met again with a pair of enthusiastic ones, and another pair appraising.

"The fire that left one section of the forest a sooty, splintery mess?" Lavi just barely managed not to jump at Lenalee's dismayed outburst. (Between the deranged friends and unreturned affections, he realized, was feeling rather jittery. An idle portion of his formidable brain made a mental note to try switching from coffee to tea in the mornings.) "You want to race to the tree at the farthest end of that disaster area? With no shoes on!"

Allen and Yuu turned their unified gaze at Lenalee now, eyebrows raised. Lavi glanced back and forth between their faces, nonplussed. Sometimes, if he didn't know better, he'd think the two of them had everyone fooled with their antagonistic rivalry schtick.

"Are you guys insane?" Her expressive face looked as incredulous as he felt. (Except a whole lot cuter.)

A wrinkle appeared between Yuu's brows as he crossed his arms. Was he actually sulking? "Tch. If you're fast enough, none of the ash you kick up will even touch you."

"If you're really fast, though" Allen taunted with a self-assured grin, "you can skirt that mess entirely and reach the mark from the other side."

Yuu turned a haughty glare on Allen now, his dark eyes narrowing. "But you only need to do that if you're too weak to risk inhaling a little soot."

"You really only need to put up with ash and cinders on your feet if you're too slow to cut around them."

Lavi watched in amusement as the pair of youthful, mentally unbalanced exorcists bickered on like some old married couple. He was therefore shocked breathless when Miss Lenalee Lee suddenly appeared beside him. Surely his heart was now racing fast enough to take him to the far end of Europe before the other two could get anywhere near that tree… "Come on, Lavi, you don't have to go with these twits. I've got a much better idea."

So Lenalee took his arm and led him away from the oblivious, squabbling duo.