Hello everyone. I finally got some free time and I was able to get my next chapter done. I apologize if it is short but I am lazy and don't want to rewrite everything that isn't even going to change. Please enjoy. I only own Flora.

Ch. 4 A flower with Thorns

Allen slowly opened his good eye to see that Komui sitting next to his bed with Flora right next to him looking very worried. 'Where am I?' he thought as he sat up. Then the memories of the Human girl, Road, came flooding back.

"Lenalee!" he yelled out is shock and worry. Komui placed a comforting hand on his shoulder and said, "She's alright. We have someone looking after her right now." Flora also added, "We got Mr. PandaMan looking after Big Sister Leelee." Allen had a confused look but had to smile at the obvious nicknames Flora was using. She smiled right back at him and said, "And I'm here to protect you until Mr. PandaMan can work on your eye." He then had a grim aura around him as he thought, 'That must mean that Kanda is also here.'

Flora noticed his change in his mood and asked, "Don't you think I can, do you?" Allen then started to way his arms around as she continued, "If I can't protect you, then I can't prove to everyone that I am old enough to start missions with big brother," she started to look down at the floor. "No! I'm sure you can! I am just scared of what Kanda is going to do to me when he comes in!" Allen exclaimed. Flora quickly looked up and said, "But, Big brother isn't here with us. I followed Floppy Hat when I heard that Leelee was hurt and couldn't come back home." Before he could say anything someone said, "I didn't know Flower-chan was a little rule breaker."

Everyone turned to see a seventeen year old boy with an eye patch and red hair leaning against the doorframe. Flora then yelled, "You Don't Have My Permission to Ever Call Me That, BB!" The boy just smiled and said, "Why, Flower-chan? You call me BB. What does that even mean anyway?" Everyone turned to see that Flora was wearing a Kanda like smirk and said, "It means Baka Bunny."

Allen and Komui had trouble holding in their laughter as the boy continued to smile. "Kanda has defiantly been teaching you more that he intended to," he paused, "But you avoided my first question. Why don't you like it when I call you Flower-chan?" Before he could continue, an old Chinese man kicked him in the head.

Allen's jaw dropped at the scene, while Flora was laughing like there was no tomorrow. "Old Panda! Why Did You Kick Me!?" the boy yelled out. The old man just hit him again as he said, "You're trying to interrogate a ten year old, which would only end up with you coming to me crying about how you were burned by her innocence," the said ten year old, was grinning like no tomorrow at the indirect praise until the old man turned right back to her, "As for you, you broke one of the many rules that was set up to make sure you were kept safe." She looked down at the floor guiltily. "But, you did it because you were worried about one of your fellow exorcists. So, we over look it this one time," he had continued. She smiled and said, "I understand Mr. PandaMan. Is Leelee going to be ok?"

The man gave her a reassuring smile and said, "Yes, she will need to be treated by my one more time before she is well enough for her to travel. I just need to look over," "Why does she get away with calling you panda when you kick me when I call you that!?" the boy exclaimed. The old man just simply stated, "Because she asked me and it's cuter when a little girl says it than a teenage boy, Lavi."

Before Lavi could reply, Flora said, "BB and I will go now so you can work on Al nii-chan in peace Mr. PandaMan." Then she left as she pull a shocked Lavi out of the room. Allen's soul just escaped out of his mouth as he processed what she said. 'Kanda's Going To Kill Me!' he thought as Komui and the old man simply smiled. "Don't be like that Allen," Komui said, "You're lucky to recive you nickname so soon and the fact she see you as her brother shows that she really cares for you."

Allen slowly turned his head towards them and said, "But Kanda is going to kill me." The old man just gave him a knowing nod and said, "Flora's a smart girl. She won't use your nickname when Kanda is near. Now I need to take a look at that eye of yours."

~(time skip that whole scene because I am lazy)~

Allen was walking out of the hospital as he ran into Lavi and Flora, who were fighting. "I told you aren't allowed to call me that name ever!" she yelled at the grinning boy. "Come on Flower-chan. Tell me why?" he continued until he saw Allen.

"Hey Bean Sprout!" he called out as Allen stiffened at the nickname. "My Name's Allen! Not Bean Sprout!" he yelled out as he stomped off away from them. "But's that the nickname Yuu calls you by," Lavi said. Flora glared at him and said, "Big Brother doesn't like it when you use his first name." Allen stopped in mid step as he thought, 'Kanda's first name is Yuu?' Flora sighed as she said, "Can we go now? I am bored and I need to practice my Akuma hunting." Lavi just glanced at her and said, "So the true reason comes out. You weren't that worried about Lenalee, you just wanted to fight Akuma."

She glared at him and replied, "It's not my fault that the higher ups are purposely refusing to let me go on missions with Big Brother for some stupid reason." The two of them continued to argue until Lavi stopped and said, "Were did Allen go?" Flora looked around and saw that Allen was indeed gone and said, "He must have gone to the village." "Goback to the hospital, I'll bring him back," was all Lavi got out before he was out of Flora's hearing range. 'Like I am going to miss my chance of getting some real practice. You are really stupid Baka Bunny,' she thought as she said "Innocence Activate!" Her wings appeared and she started to head towards the skys.

As soon as she got to the town, Lavi just grabbed Allen and started to expand his hammer to lead them out of the town. They didn't see Flora as she continued to follow them to the forest. When she caught up to them, Akuma have already surrounded the two older exorcists. They were holding their ground pretty well until one snuck into their blind spot. Flora saw it and flew full speed to cut it in half with her wings. Lavi and Allen quickly turned and saw the Akuma turn to dust as Flora started to change targets.

'She couldn't have done that!' Allen thought as he continued to struggle fight with the people that he couldn't tell that were akumas. 'She's like a small flower, just like her name, but she fights these people that she can't tell if they are akuma or not,' he paused his train of thought until he realized the lesson his master taught him so long ago, 'that's it.' He was now facing the last of the Akumas in front of him that was trying to use a human hostage. 'She is a flower. A flower with thorns,' he thought as he killed the akuma that held the woman hostage. As she stumbled forward, he also killed her as she showed her true form. When the last one was killed, his bandage fell off his fully healed eye.

Flora collapsed on her knees as her wings burst into thin air. As she regained her breath, Lavi turned his hammer back into its smaller size and gently hit her head with it. "OW!" Flora exclaimed as she rubbed her bump. Allen looked over and saw that Lavi had a small grin on his face as he said, "Now that's for not listening to me." She glared at him and stuck her tongue out at him as she started to stand up. "I don't care. I told Al nii-chan I was going to protect him until his eye was better and did exactly what I said," she simply said as she turned to head back to the hospital.

~(timeskip)~

Everyone was walking towards headquarters as Lavi started to bug Flora again. Allen and Bookman sighed at the same time as the two of them started to argue.

"It's nice to see that she's acting like a normal ten year old," Komui said as Allen turned his head towards him. After a few moments of thought, he had to smile in agreement. 'That must be why Lavi bugs her so much. It is the only time when she forgets about everything and actually act like normal kid,' he thought as they approached the gates.

Gatekeeper looked scared until he saw everyone approach. "Thank The Lord!" he exclaimed in complete relief. Everyone looked up at him with a confused look. "Hurry Inside And Stop Him!" he continued as he opened the gates. Lavi looked over to Bookman and Allen and gave them an affirmative nod as he grabbed his hammer as Komui tried to get answers out of Gatekeeper. "What happened since we left?" he asked calmly as he stepped protectively in front of Lenalee, who was being carried by Bookman. Gatekeeper gulped as he said, "Kanda came back and went out of control when he found out that Flora was gone."

One word went through everyone's heads, except Flora, 'CRAP!' Flora then ran right into the building yelling, "Big Brother! I Am Home!" Everyone ran in after her, hoping that there were no dead bodies that they will have to clean up. They didn't have to go far since Kanda jumped from the ceiling and was hugging Flora so tight she couldn't talk. He quickly let go as soon as he saw everyone else and yelled out, "Where The Hell Did You Take Her, Bakas!" Before anyone could answer, Flora jumped in front of them and said, "I snuck out when I heard Allen and Big Sister Leelee were hurt. I followed Floppy Hat to find them and then I followed Allen and BB into the forest to fight Akuma. I am sorry for sneaking out and for worrying you but I couldn't stand back and wait to hear if my family is alive or not."

Kanda's dark aura disappeared slowly as he stood up. He sent everyone a glare as he grabbed Flora's hand and started to drag her away. When they were gone, Bookman went to place Lenalee in her bedroom as everyone else went to check the damage that Kanda caused. It turned out that Kanda simply knocked everyone out cold as he cut everything in the base into a pile of rubble.

As they cleaned up the mess, Kanda dragged Flora into her room. As soon as they entered her room, Kanda closed her door and gave her another tight hug. After a minute, he let her go and said, "Don't ever do that again." Flora looked down at the ground with guilt as he continued, "Do you know how worried I was? You could have been killed!" "Sorry," she muttered softly. Kanda sighed as he also said, "But from what you've told me, you handled yourself very well and I am proud of how much you've progressed." She blushed at the complement but it disappeared when he said, "But that still doesn't excuse you from your punishment," he paused to think of what her punishment should be. Soon he decided it. "You are grounded. You are to stay in your room unless you are going to the cafeteria, bathroom, training with me, or doing errands with Lenalee. This will be done until you've learned your lesson."

After a moment of silence, Kanda said, "Do you understand?" Flora weakly said, "Yes, Big Brother. I understand." Kanda let out another sigh and said, "I must help fix the base now. I will return later and I expect to find you right here." Flora gave a small nod as Kanda left. As soon as she couldn't hear his footsteps any more she let a few tears fall as she thought, 'I am sorry Big Brother, I had to lie to you but I didn't want to make you worry about me.'

'It's for the best. You had to go and protect them when their accommodators were unable to,' said a soft ancient voice. Flora wiped her tears away and thought, 'Yes, but I can't tell them that or they would lock me away from Big Brother, thinking that I have your mother in my back instead of you.' The voice's presence gave off an understanding aura before saying, 'Yes, but they can't control that they all lost the one thing they were born with to communicate with us. You're the first to be found before you lost your understanding of us.' Flora had to smile before she thought, 'Yes, I am lucky but I can't help if I am stuck at the base all of the time.' 'True, but for now, you must rest. Your body isn't use to battle. We can continue later with our conversation,' said the voice in a loving and caring tone. 'Alright,' Flora told the voice as she climbed into her bed to take a nap.

I hope you enjoyed it. I would like to thank Halley Vanaria for helping me with the nicknames, it really helped me very much. Sorry if some characters seemed ooc, I am trying my best not to do that but there are times it will have to happen. Please review. I love to read them and it helps motivate me.