Hello, people! Here's chapter 7! Thanks to everyone who reviewed. And now, we get to see Kanda in cat ears, Lenalee in pants, Link's drunk personality and, the highlight and most important part of this chapter, Neah to the rescue(but Allen isn't getting rescued just yet)! So, sit back and enjoy this belated New Year present from me.

~Shop-lifting and Passenger-Seat Driving~

"Faster, faster, faster!" screeched Neah through gritted teeth.

He was seated on the passenger seat of Cross's car, clutching his seat-belt like it was his lifeline, while simultaneously glaring daggers at Cross. Good that Cross happened to be too busy with the steering wheel to notice. Otherwise, he might have died a hundred times over already.

A string of very colorful words came out of Cross's mouth as he took a particularly rough turn, almost sending both himself and Neah flying out of the window. He eased his feet on the accelerator, slowing the car a bit, and immediately, Neah started nagging him about how he was not going fast enough.

Why did I sign up for this again?

"For God's sake, Neah, shut your damn mouth! I'm going at, like, fucking 185 right now! How much faster do you want me to go? If I go any faster, our teeth will fly out of our mouth!"

[Not that he cared about Neah's teeth flying out. He would actually be rather glad if that happened. But alas, luck was not on his side.]

Neah muttered something unintelligible under his breath. It was soon followed by something along the lines of, Who cares? Our teeth are gonna fall off sometime, anyway. We aren't exactly getting any younger over here.

On the outside, he yelled/whined at Cross, "It's not fast enough, Cross! Go faster, fasssterrr! My dearest Allen is in trouble, we have to go save him! Right now!"

"Goddamn Neah, what the fuck? Why are you in such a hurry? The brat can handle himself just fine! It's literally been like, one minute? Seriously, you and your damned nephew complex! You tell me to go faster one more time and I swear I will throw you out of the car!" Cross yelled back.

"But-" Neah tried to protest but was immediately cut of by Cross.

"No buts. Shut your fucking mouth for a moment, would you?"

Neah, although begrudgingly, complied and stopped talking. But what he did next was far worse.

He shoved Cross out of his seat, leaned sideways and grabbed the steering wheel. His whole body weight pressed down on Cross, almost sending him under the seat and making his foot press down on the accelerator even harder, making the car speed up, which was exactly what he had been hoping for.

"What the fuck, Campbell?!" Cross shouted and tried to push Neah out of the way. But it only served to make Neah lose control of the steering wheel and the car to swerve dangerously close to a stop sign.

A wide grin spread across Neah's face, in that classic, cliche Noah-style. Cliche or classic, it managed to portray the same level of insanity.

"Passenger seat driving," said Neah, his grin splitting his face, "I've always wanted to try this out. Figured that since I have the opportunity now, why not make the most of it? Oh, look, look! This is much more fun than I thought it would be! I can't believe I did not try this sooner! It is a bit uncomfortable, though. Oh, and why are we switching to last names now?"

Cross's eyebrow twitched as he tried, to no avail, to push Neah back and take control of his car. "Get back now, Campbell, or I swear I'll torture your traitorous hide so hard that your grandchildren will feel it!"

This only served to widen Neah's grin, if that was even possible.

"Don't have any grandchildren, Cross, and I doubt I'll be having any in the future. And if you're talking about Allen's children, I'll have you know that in order to make that possible, we have to save Allen first. Which, might I remind you, is exactly what I am trying to do. So, shut up and help me out, would you?"

Cross groaned to himself, but in the end, resigned himself to his fate. It was obvious that Neah was not going to back down anytime soon.

He groaned once again as Neah's elbow dug into his stomach, and wondered to himself, for the umpteenth time, Why did I sign up for this again?

Neah took a particularly rough turn, sending both of them to the very front, with Neah almost face-planting in the wind-shield. Curses flew out of Cross's mouth, and a sound of pure glee from Neah's. That bastard was having a bit too much fun with this. This should be illegal.

Oh, wait. It already was.

After a few more moments and a few more life-threatening turns later, Cross decided that enough was enough. Fuck Neah and his illegal activities. This was his car and he was the one in charge. If Neah did not like that, then fuck him, because who cares about his opinion, right?

Taking a deep breath, Cross prepared himself to partake in a tug-of-war with Neah. Normally, Cross would never need any kind of preparation for that sort of thing, but then again, normally, they weren't in a moving vehicle.

After having made sure that he was totally prepared, Cross lunged towards Neah and tried to grab hold of the steering wheel. But Neah proved to be much more resistant than he had originally thought. And to make matters even more unbearable, he even stuck his tongue out at him. As if he hadn't been acting enough immature as it was.

The two of them engaged in a tug-o'-war, with neither of them willing to lose. In their fight, they were so absorbed with just grabbing the steering wheel that they completely forgot to check if they were going in the right direction. By now, neither of them was steering the car, and it was going forward still solely because of Cross's foot still being on the accelerator.

Cross finally managed to shove Neah away and take control of the steering wheel but once his eyes landed on the front, they widened with horror. They were driving straight into a dead-end of an alley. And, the rate they going, the car was bound to hit the wall before Cross could stop it.

Neah seemed to have figured out the problem as well, if his bulging eyes and dissipating grin was anything to go by. It was too late to stop the car now.

So instead, they braced themselves for impact.

The impact came soon enough. And it came hard.

And to make matters worse, Cross was only one who had to experience it, because Neah(that traitorous bastard) had somehow managed to open the door at the very last second and flung himself out of the car before it hit. Cross was not nearly as lucky. He suffered it first-hand, and had to watch as his beloved car smashed into that damn wall, destroying the headlights and bumper, and totally damaging the whole front.

Cross had never felt like crying so much in his entire life. The fact that Neah had bruised himself while getting out brought him some comfort, but it was still nowhere close to compensating for the loss of his beloved car.

He kicked the door open and got out of the car, determined to murder Neah once and for all.

"Campbell, you fucker! This is all your fault! You cost me my car! My car! All because you wanted to go to that filthy brat. How the fuck are you gonna make up for it, huh? The car's not just gonna repair itself, ya know? You're buying me a new fucking car, ya got me? Oi, do you hear?"

But Neah was not listening to him. He was staring at something else. Or rather, to be more specific, a rather dirty-looking bar at the far left.

"Hey, Cross... I think I found our bar."

There, at the top of the dingy bar, was a bright signboard, and on it was written the name that they had been searching for all this time.

'The Misty Calf'

Link was definitely not nervous.

He definitely was not sweating because of nervousness and was totally getting along with the strange trio of Lavi, Kanda and Lenalee, and he was totally sober and chatting with them, and oozing confidence.

. . .

Yeah, no. Who was he kidding? He was absolutely jittery with nerves and hiccups and his face was tinted red because he was drunk and embarrassed, and he had only taken one and a half shots. Yes, he was totally fine, people. Really.

Except, he was really not. He could hardly keep up with the odd trio's conversation which had somehow gone from politics to robots to cats to- Link had stopped keeping track long ago and he was not even sure what they were talking about right now.

When Lavi had announced their bar-hopping contest, Allen had separated from them, but since the others were not quite as well acquainted with bars in this part of the town, they had resorted to sticking together. Not that Link minded, he found the weird trio's company to be much more likeable than that underage Noah's.

OK, that was a lie. He preferred Allen's company to the three oddballs(not to say that Allen was not an oddball himself; it was just a matter of having known him for a slightly longer time). Hey, come to think of it, that was the third lie he had told so far. Normally, Link was an honest(as honest as assistant of Malcolm C. Lvellie was allowed to be) and truthful person. Must be the alcohol.

Some people became truthful when drunk. Inspector Howard Link became a liar.

He hiccuped as he took another swig. It tasted absolutely divine, and he felt as if he was the luckiest man on Earth. (Lie No.# 4)

Kanda, Lenalee, Lavi, and Link entered a building which vaguely resembled a shop, but Link could not be sure. Weren't they supposed to be bar-hopping? Why would they be in a shop? And why was the shop even open at this hour of the night?

Nonetheless, he did not question it. He was perfectly content with following the trio around, and he was not even complaining, internally or otherwise, to Lavi swinging an arm around him. He was feeling that forgiving and kind, see. (Lie No.# 5)

Lavi suddenly let go of him and pointed to something on display on one of the racks. It was a disgustingly cute headband with furry cat ears, and Link felt pity for any individual who would ever have the misfortune of having to wear that monstrosity.

That individual turned out to be Kanda. Suddenly, Link was not feeling that much pity anymore. (Lie No.# 6. Link was a naturally good-hearted person; he felt sorry.)

"Hey, Yuu-chan, Lena-lady, aren't these cute?~ Hey, hey, I think this would suit Yuu-chan well~ Come on, Yuu-chan, try it out, try it out!" Lavi urged.

"Don't call me that, Idiot Rabbit.." said Kanda, but there was no bite in his words, and they came out totally slurred.

While Lavi kept urging Kanda to put on those cat ears and kept distracting him by calling him that so hated nickname, Lenalee sneakily grabbed the headband and put it on Kanda's head. Immediately, Kanda growled and tried to push it out of his head, but Lenalee grabbed him in a choke-hold before he could to any moaned and groaned for a few more times, but eventually just gave up.

Link decided that Kanda looked weird in cat ears. Sure, they actually suited him and he pulled off the look effortlessly, but Link had never been one to enjoy or appreciate these sort of things. (Lie No. 7)

Somehow, Kanda managed to look scary and threatening while wearing those disgustingly cute cat-ears. Lavi was clutching his stomach, trying to stop laughing, while Lenalee had disappeared off to the dressing room to try on some pants that she had found.

Lenalee came back sometime later, wearing a pair of brown leather pants. Lavi and Kanda's eyes widened at the sight and their jaws dropped to the floor. Kanda even momentarily forgot about his cat ears. Lenalee twirled around and struck a pose, causing their jaws to fall down even more, if that was even physically possible.

Link was confused. Why were they so surprised? Not to say that Lenalee didn't look good in those pants (Lie No. 8; they were the wrong size), but what was there to be so surprised about?

"Bu- but, Lena-Lady, you never wear pants!" said Lavi, sounding impressed and aghast at the same time, "What do you think will Komui say?"

"I'm sure brother will be happy," said Lenalee in a dismissive way, "He never blames me for anything."

"True," both Lavi and Kanda admitted. Link was totally not lost on their conversation. (Lie No. 9)

Well, as long as they were happy, Link did not have any problems. He briefly wondered what Allen was doing, but was soon shaken out of his thoughts when Lavi and Kanda started arguing again and Lenalee started scolding both of them. Normally, Link would have reprimanded them for such behavior, but then again, normally, he was not a lying drunk.

A pink wig came flying at him and hit him in the face. He was totally calm after that and did not do a thing. (Lie No. 10)

And that's a wrap! This was supposed to be much longer but I had no time to write so I cut it down to two chapters instead. Sorry if you guys were expecting to see Allen and Neah meet up. Don't worry, there will plenty of that in the next chapter. Follow, favorite, and leave some reviews! I'll be expecting your feedback. Until next time ;)