Hello everyone! Sorry for all my late updates, but I am filled with joy that you have stayed with me. I hope you enjoy this chapter. I only own Flora.

Ch. 5 Heat, Snow, Flowers, and Nightmares

~(The past few weeks of events)~

It has now been two weeks since Flora was grounded and Lenalee still hasn't woken up. Kanda has been in a bad mood, worse that he normally is, so everyone has been avoiding him so they won't be killed. Lavi almost died a few days before because he simply didn't know when to not use Kanda's first name, like usual. Allen tried to visit Flora to see how she was doing but he was greeted with Kanda's sword at his throat as he stated, "No one goes in there, unless it's me or Lenalee." Komui got his hat sliced in half when he asked if Kanda was ready for another mission.

~(Present time)~

Allen stepped into Komui's office to find Kanda sitting down angrily in front of Komui. 'Wow! He's finally taking another mission! I thought he wasn't going to leave until Flora's punishment is over,' he thought to himself as Komui greeted him.

"Good Morning Allen. Quick question, how do you do with extreme cold? How about heat?" he simply said with a small smile. "Neither bothers me if that's what you're asking," Allen replied as he took a seat. Before anything else was said, Flora came in wearing an exorcist's uniform, like Lenalee's but she had dark blue leggings on. Komui let a squeal out as he started to hug her saying how cute she looked. Kanda didn't look happy, in fact, he looked pissed.

Flora managed to get out of Komui's hold and asked, "Floppy Hat, why did you make me try this on?" Komui regained his composure and simply asked, "Flora, you grew up near New Orleans in America right?" She simply nodded her head, "So you are used to extremely hot weather," she nodded again, "How would you like to see snow without being cold?" Everyone froze at what he asked. Flora was trying to form words to speak but she couldn't, no matter how hard she tried.

"You Baka!" Kanda exclaimed, "You aren't sending her on a mission when she still hasn't finished being punished from when she snuck out last time!" Komui simply raised his hand and said, "Kanda, Flora has been training for four years now. It is time for her to get real battle experience and I did promise that I would send you with her on her first mission to keep an eye on her, when the first available mission was up. It will be months until another one is available for her to go on." There was dead silence for a few minutes before Kanda folded his arms and said, "Che."

Flora excitedly tackled him and said, "Thank You Big Brother!" Kanda didn't say anything else as he just patted her head. Allen has to smile at the scene in front of him, but Kanda noticed it and said, "You better not mess up Bean Sprout. If she gets on scratch on her, I will kill you and turn you into an Akuma to kill you all over again." Allen's smile dropped and Flora exclaimed, "Don't scare him, Big Brother! I won't get hurt, I promise!"

Komui just chuckled as he said, "I believe you should get ready. You train leaves in two hours." Flora gasped and then ran off yelling, "I Have To Pack!" Komui continued to chuckle as Allen let out one of his own and Kanda was chuckling in his mind. 'Knowing her, she will over pack from being too excited,' Kanda thought as he went to make sure Flora didn't over pack.

~(the waterway)~

Allen was seated at the middle of the boat as Kanda and Flora was sitting up front. Flora was practically jumping in her seat, while Kanda sat next to her to stop the boat from rocking from the fact Flora couldn't sit still. They were about to go, when Lavi and Bookman joined the boat.

"Hey there, Allen, Yuu, Flower-chan," Lavi said as he grabbed the pole to push the boat. "Don't Call Me That!/BB!" Kanda and Flora both yelled. Bookman sighed as he started to explain why they decided to come to Allen.

"I understand," Allen said as he tried to tune out Flora, who got up and moved to the back of the boat, fighting with Laiv about her nickname once again. "Also, we came to see if what Hevlaska said about Flora is true," Bookman added. Allen looked surprised but quickly got control of it before asking, "What did she say about Flora? I mean she said I am the destroyer so who is Flora?" Kanda just ched before quietly saying, "Flora is God's true Apostle." Bookman nodded and said, "Yes, she is, but now isn't the time." "Time for what?" Flora innocently asked as she sat back down next to Kanda. "It's time for you to explain why I can't call you Flower-chan," Lavi simply said with a goofy grin. Everyone sighed as they started to fight once again.

~(Train)~

Allen just fell asleep listening to Lavi's stories, next to Bookman, as Flora was sleeping with her head on Kanda's lap, who was sleeping as well. Out of pure boredom, Lavi took out a marker and started to draw on Allen's face as he heard a couple passing by saying, "Aw! That is so Adorable! I wish I had an elder brother that would let me fall asleep on him when I was that age!" "If I had a sister that was that cute I would do the same thing as him, but I would also be the one to spoil her rotten."

He had to let out a laugh before turning it into a cat like grin. Bookman simply said, with his eyes closed, "I'm not going to save you if you are going to do what I know you're thinking of doing." Lavi replied, "Why would you need to in the first place? Yuu and Flower-chan won't kill me." Then he was off.

Kanda was dreaming out his lotus fill filed, until he felt something tugging at his hair. He woke up to find Lavi braiding his hair. "Hi there Yuu, You should go see Allen's face. I believe it suites him," Lavi said as Kanda glare at him and said, "Go away before you find yourself a bloody mess on the ground." He just put his hand in the air for surrender as he said, "Alright! Alright! I'm going," he was half back to his seat before adding, "but, what you think of Flower-chan's new look? I think she looks adorable now." Before Lavi's words fully left his mouth, Kanda quickly looked down at Flora and saw that Lavi took her hair out of her braided ponytail, which caused he hair to be very wavy, and applied tons of make up on her face. Since it was poorly done, it looked more of a clown face. "Lavi!" Kanda exclaimed, but the red haired teen was already too far away to do anything.

Flora started to wake up, due to the noise, and Kanda was already trying to dig out something to clean her face off. She sat up and started to wipe her eyes and said, "Are we there yet?" Before he could even speak, she noticed the make-up that was smudged on her hands and started to freak out. Kanda quickly took a cloth and wiped her hands to show that the stuff on her hands comes off. She calmed down and then exclaimed, "Baka Bunny! You are in so much trouble!" Kanda sighed as he wiped the rest of the make-up off her face as she continued to rant on how Lavi was dead meat. 'The baka really got us this time, but Flora will get revenge one way or another,' he smirked as he also thought, 'That will be amusing when she sets it in motion.'

He finished cleaning her face and said, "I got most of it off, but you will need to wash your face in the bathroom." He paused before adding, as he heard Allen yell out in surprise, "You better get there before Bean Sprout, or you will have to wait an hour for him to get the permanent marker to get off of him." Flora ran as fast as she could to the bathroom and slammed the door before Allen could even get up.

~(Time skip)~

Flora was about to jump off the train until Kanda held her back. Before she could ask why he stopped her, she noticed the blizzard and blushed in embarrassment that she nearly jumped right in it without noticing it. He picked her up and started to run to get inside the train station. When inside, he put her down. Flora was about to complain about the storm until she heard, 'The storm is his way of protecting himself. We must travel against the wind to find him, once we find him, I can calm him down and stop this unnatural weather.' Flora understood and thought, 'I understand, but we will have traveling in the weather.' 'We can travel with our barrier up,' it replied once again.

Before she could give her reply, her train of thought was broken when someone said, "Flora!" "What?" she replied cutely confused. Lavi grinned and said, "You were staring into space for so long, we would have had to start pulling the weeds growing around you." She gave him a cute looking glare as she said, "I was thinking of what we should do next," Allen then said, "We have to wait out the storm for now." Kanda glared at him before turning to her and asked, "What do you believe we should do?" She smiled and said, "We need to travel against the wind, since I believe the innocence should be in the center of it. Also we can travel under my barrier if someone carries me so I can concentrate."

Everyone looked towards her in surprise, except Kanda who gave a proud smile and patted her head. The finder got over his shock, and said, "Then we should get going." Allen and Lavi slowly nodded their heads until Bookman commented, "Who will carry you Flora?" She thought over it for a minute and sighed as she said, "Big Brother can't since he will need to be free to fight any Akumas that we come across as well as BB since he's he needs both hands to fight. I'm too heavy for you to carry me and our finder has to carry his mobile phone, so Allen is the one best for it. He can fight one handed if he needs to without putting me down." Allen felt like someone was staring at him, so he turned and found Kanda glaring at him. "Yuu, she has a point. Allen's eye will warn us if there are Akuma coming and we can take care of them more quickly than if you were carrying her," Lavi said. Kanda calmed down slightly after he said, "Drop her and you die." Allen quickly nodded his head as everyone slowly walked outside.

Once everyone was out, Allen kneeled down for Flora to climb on his back. When she was up, he stood up and she closed her eyes and said, "Innocence activate!" Slowly a warm white light surrounded them, to form a bubble like shape. After a minute the light dimmed down so they could see where they were going. They noticed the wind was going around the bubble and the snow melted where it touched the light.

"Wow!" Lavi said, "You're really something Flower-chan!" Flora still had her eyes closed and didn't even move to in knowledge him. "It seems that she can't break her focus for even a second to keep up this barrier," Bookman stated. Kanda nodded his head and said, "As long as she keeps her focus, the barrier will stay for hours. We better move. We have to get to the innocence before she gets to tired." With that said, they set out at a fast pace.

They traveled at their quick pace for only a short amount of time, before Lavi spotted something. "Guys, I see something up ahead," he said. Everyone moved in the direction he pointed and came across an old man and a teenage girl, faced down in the snow. Bookman kneeled down and check to see if they were alive. "They are still breathing, but we need to get them out of this blizzard," he explained. "There's an inn less than an hour away in that direction," the finder said as he pointed the way. Kanda glared and said, "We don't have time to play nursemaid to these people. I'm going on."

Flora's eye started to twitch, to show that she wants to say something but can't. Kanda saw it and sighed. He went over to her and patted her head as he said, "You will have to go with them. Your barrier will keep these people from freezing as they bring them back to the inn." She twitched her eye once again. Kanda knew what she wants to complain about and walked over to Bookman. As they talked, the Finder said, "I'll go with him as well. I'll call if we need backup." He walked over to Kanda as Bookman came back over and picked up the girl. "We better move," he said and everyone moved out in opposite directions.

After about a half hour, the inn came into view. "There's The Inn!" Lavi exclaimed as he shifted to man on his back into point it out. "Hu-ry!" Flora muttered as her barrier started waver. Allen heard her warning and started to move faster as he said, "Flora can't hold up for much longer. We must get inside now." Everyone nodded as they got up to speed with Allen. As soon as they got inside, the barrier shattered like glass and Flora slumped over Allen's shoulder, panting like she was running the whole time.

Bookman found the innkeeper and got her to show them where the rooms were. As Bookman and Lavi took care of the two nearly-frozen people, Allen put Flora down and asked, "How are you?" She gave a tried smile and said, "Tried." He gave her a kind smile and said, "Who wouldn't be after keeping up a barrier that kept us warm for about an hour or two?" She smiled brighter before the inn keeper came in. "Oh my, I didn't know we had a little one here. Come let's get you something to eat and warm you up," she said as she gently grabbed Flora's hand and led her into the kitchen.

~(time skip)~

Lavi, Bookman, and Allen where sitting next to the fire as Flora was sleeping in the next room, when the teenage girl came out. "Thank you for saving my father and me," she said. Allen smiled and said, "It's no big deal, but I'm curious. Why were you two out in the middle of a blizzard?" The girl looked hesitantly across the room before saying, "We were looking for the Leaf of Revival." The group of exorcists looked at each other as they recalled the innkeeper's story about the leaf. "I'm sorry but there is no such thing. There is nothing that could bring back the dead," Lavi said logically.

"Elda," called out the old man as he entered the room. He didn't look happy. "Father, I was thanking them for saving us," she tried to explain until he cut her off. "Get ready, we leave in the morning," he said until they heard a scream.

"Flora!" Lavi and Allen shouted at the same time as they ran into the next room. When they got to Flora, she was crying and screaming bloody murder. "Flora! Wake Up!" Allen said as he gently shook her. She woke with a start, and looked around for a minute before she started to cry. Allen pulled her into a tight embrace as she continued to cry. "It's ok Flower-chan. It's just a nightmare," Lavi said as he tried to touch her head until she screamed out, "YOU'RE NOT ONE OF THEM! YOU CAN'T CALL ME THAT! THE ONLY ONES WHO DID ARE GONE FOREVER!" Lavi backed away shocked as Allen continued to let her cry on his shoulder. Everyone could only stare as this happy carefree child, cried like there was no tomorrow. After fifteen minutes, she was asleep once again and Bookman finally said, "This is the reason why Kanda can't be gone for more than three weeks at a time. He was the only one that knew of her reoccurring nightmares."

Allen placed her back in bed and followed everyone out of the room. "What is that poor child dreaming of?" asked the innkeeper. Bookman sighed before saying, "Kanda warned me of what to expect before we separated. Apparently, she has continuous nightmares of when she first encountered akuma." "Akuma don't exist," the old man said roughly. "Sir, if the leaf of revival exist, then why can't akuma," Lavi quickly replied. Bookman coughed to gain everyone's attention again before saying, "She has been having the same dream over and over for the past four years. Four years of reliving her sister's murder and her father's second death, I am honestly surprised of how Kanda was able to control this for so long." "Did he mention on how he was helping her deal with it?" Allen asked concerned.

Bookman simply stated, "How does any child deal with a nightmare?" Lavi started to chuckle as he said, "You mean, she runs into Kanda's room to sleep next to him." He nodded his head and Lavi continued to chuckle until he stopped and said, "But, what about her screaming at me for calling her Flower-chan? Was that her nickname her family called her?" "I believe it is Lavi, or she wouldn't have yelled at you," Allen replied.

"What about her mother? Where is she?" Elda asked. The exorcists didn't say anything for a while. "Flora is an orphan. Her mother died long before her father and sister did," Lavi stated as calmly as he could. She covered her mouth to stop the gasp as the old man looked in a different direction.

There room was awkwardly silent for a few minutes, Elda and her father left the room before Bookman said, "I believe another piece to Hevlaska 's prophecy for Flora has just been brought to light." Lavi looked surprised for a second before he said, "You're on to something old man." Before Bookman could kick Lavi, Allen asked, "What is Flora's prophecy?" Bookman sighed once again before reciting, "You, child, are God's true chosen. You are the one who hears what others lost, but only when you've lost everything is when your true light will shine. From behind the stage, you will light the path to peace and true happiness, only when you have overcome your darkness."

After a second Allen replied, "You believe her nightmares is this darkness she has in her?" Bookman nodded his head, "She has much poetical, but she will not progress further until she over comes her past." There was an uncomfortable silence for a few minutes. "I'll go keep an eye on Flora," Allen said as he started to head to her room. Once he was gone, Lavi said, "I forgot how hard Flora's life was before she came to us." Bookman looked out the window before saying, "It is easy to forget for the time being, but some things are impossible to completely forget." Lavi sighed before saying he was going to bed. When Bookman was alone, he quietly thought, 'I fear that this war will force her to grow up before she is ready.' After that thought he went to bed as well.

I hope you liked it. I ran into a few road blocks as I was writing this but I managed to make it a lot better than what I original wrote. Thank you everyone that reviewed, it helped overcome my road blocks when I was writing.