'Sup, people? This is where the climax of the story comes in, Road's party! I think most of you had already forgotten about that but no matter, I'm here to remind you. Now the question is, what sort of party is it? And for what? And is it for Road or thrown by Road? And what are Allen, Neah and Cross going to do when they find out that they have to attend? (OK, that was more than one question.) You wanna know?(another question!) Then keep reading.

~Know Thy Enemy~

"Millennie~" Road's voice rang through the manor as she opened the door with an exaggerated push. Tyki's sigh could be heard from behind.

The Millennium Earl came rushing down the stairs to meet them. Wisely was closely behind, looking at them with his signature smug look which seemed to scream, I know something that you don't and therefore, I am superior to you. No matter how many times Tyki saw that look, the urge to punch him in the face never faded.

"Ah, Road, Tyki-pet~" said the Earl in a sing-song voice, "I am so glad you're back! Did the mission go well?"

"Yes!" said Road. Her voice was a bit too cheerful for someone who had just recently gouged someone's eyes out. Not that Tyki could blame her. He himself had been wearing a shit-eating grin all the way to the manor.

"I knew you could do it!~ It's a shame the others haven't returned yet. I sent Sheril to take take of some state matters in Portugal so he'll probably be a little late. Lulu Bell went to take out a few of our enemies, she said she's be back by tomorrow morning. I don't know what's taking Jasdevi so long, though~"

Wisely snickered. "Probably ran late because of their chicken."

"Again," Tyki added. Road nodded, backing him up. The Earl silently wept at Jasdevi's incompetence. It was not the first time that his faith in them had been crushed to nothing. The others did not worry too much. They knew his trust in them would be mended in no time.

The Earl's weeping did not last too long. He soon brightened up and the dramatic tears were replaced with a shining, dangerous glint in his eyes.

"It's no matter, I'm sure they will be back soon!" See, that didn't take too long, did it? "I actually have a surprise for you~"

Road immediately brightened up. "A surprise? Tell me, tell me!"

The Earl chuckled. "Don't you remember what day tomorrow is?"

Road's eyebrows scrunched up in concentration. Seriously, what day was tomorrow? Tyki did not know either.

Road figured it out first and when she did, she let out a loud gasp. "Oh my god, it's that day!"

The Earl nodded vigorously. "Yes, my dear Road, it's that day!"

Tyki frowned in confusion. "What day?"

Wisely's smug smirk immediately made him rethink that question. That little shit. Couldn't he try to be less smug about things? Not all people were crazy know-it-alls who could seemingly read minds like him.

"Oh, don't tell me you don't remember, Tyki-pet?" Yup, Tyki was definitely going to kill him. He wondered whether it would be possible to get away after murdering someone from his own mafia family.

Tyki decided to play it cool. "Well, you see, unlike you, I have better things to remember."

Wisely's smirk only grew at that. "Like how to cheat at poker? Might I remind you, even after all that cheating skills, you've never once been able to beat Allen."

Tyki was starting to sweat. "Now, now, that's an unfair comparison, isn't it? We all know it's impossible to beat Cheater Boy A in poker."

Road rolled her eyes at both of them. "Now you're getting off topic. But seriously Tyki, it's the day! How could you not remember the day?"

Tyki sighed. "Could you stop it with all the vague bullshit and tell me what day it is?"

Road, Wisely and the Earl all shook their head as if they were very much disappointed in Tyki. Instead of answering his question, they prompted to ignore him and went on with their conversation.

"So, anyway, to celebrate the day, we are going to throw a party tomorrow night!~" said the Earl.

"You mean I am throwing a party," corrected Road, "I'm always the one who hosts parties, you can't take that away from me!"

"Of course not, my dear. You are going to throw the party, of course~"

"Yes!" Road cheered. Tyki was still lost as to what the conversation was about.

"Just what is it about, tell me already!"

"Tyki, you are absolutely the worst. How could you not remember what tomorrow is? We celebrate it every year! Tomorrow is a very memorable day for all us Noahs. It is the day when the Noahs were first created, it is the day when Neah was punched by Allen for the first time, it is the day Jasdevi found their chicken, and most importantly," Road took a dramatic pause, "It is the day when I first kicked the ass of the local police officer, Malcolm C. Lvellie."

Allen nervously sipped his drink. If possible, he would have bolted from the place long before but now that he had ended up accidentally sending an emergency signal to Neah, it would be best to just wait here for him him to arrive and then explain everything. Otherwise, if Neah came and saw that Allen was missing, he would throw a fit, and god forbid anyone who had the misfortune to ever witness that.

Allen glanced at the clock on the wall of the bar. It was well past midnight, but none of the people present here seemed to be showing any signs of getting tired anytime soon. Well, their town wasn't called 'the town that never sleeps' for nothing, he supposed. Still, it would have been nice if these people quieted down. It didn't seem like it would be happening anytime that night.

Allen was only getting more and more anxious by the minute. When was Neah arriving? Knowing him, it was probably not going to be that long. He was probably on his way already. Would Cross be with him? God, he hoped not. If Cross heard what had happened, he would never let Allen live it down for the rest of his life. And then the news would spread to the rest of the family, and then Allen could just kiss his happiness and dignity goodbye.

Allen shuddered to think what would happen if, say, Jasdevi or Tyki ever came to know of the situation. They would make his life a living hell. Road would probably stand up for him because she never liked it when someone else other than herself was annoying Allen. Wisely would probably look at him with that infuriating gaze and-

A shiver ran down his spine. He should really stop thinking about these things. Thinking of these things were bad for his mental and physical health.

He decided to think of other things instead. Such as Two-dots, Eyepatch Dude, Jerkanda or Pigtail girl. What were there names again? Allen couldn't be bothered to remember. His memory had never been the sharpest and it only worsened when he took alcohol. One time, it got so bad that he could not remember Neah's name and Neah cried a river because of that. Cross laughed at both of them for weeks.

God, that was one of the most embarrassing events in his life. Jasdevi still made fun of him because of that.

Briefly, Allen wondered what would happen if Neah and Cross appeared and he couldn't remember any of them. Now that was a scenario he never wanted to experience.

Allen was shaken out of his musings when the front door of the bar opened with a loud thud, almost making the door fly off its hinges. Allen could only think of two people who would do something like that. Three guesses who they were.

Yep, Neah and Cross. The banes of Allen's existence.

Allen heard them before he saw them. "Allen! Where are you?! You're dearest uncle has come all the way to save you!~"

He heard a smack - probably cross smacking Neah for his stupidity - and couldn't help but facepalm. And these two were supposed to be the adults here. Allen sometimes wondered how he had managed to keep his sanity in tact for so long, what with having these two for his guardians. He was willing to bet that even Sheril was a better parent that they were.

Allen could not exactly see them but he could see that the people that had been in the bar brawl were getting rather close to where they - he supposed - were standing. Just a bit closer and Neah and Cross would be roped into the fight as well. Allen pondered whether he should step in and whisk them away, but then decided, nah, it wasn't worth it.

A bar fight was probably not the worse things they had ever faced. Considering how much trouble they made Allen go through daily, this was an act of kindness.

Just as he had been expecting, the brawlers got a little too close to Neah and cross and before he - or they - knew it, they were also engaging in the bar brawl with them. Allen heard Neah's loud curses and Cross's shouts of 'what the fuck' but before long, they completely forgot what they had originally come here for and were totally focused on the fight in front of them.

Although he would rather die than admit it, Allen was a little miffed about that. Was he seriously that easy to forget about? Well, he really was not in any position to comment, though, because it was he himself who always said to focus on the things right before you. Now, he was starting to see the importance of seeing the bigger picture.

Allen watched as one by one, all the brawlers fell, either injured or exhausted, and the only ones still standing were Neah and Cross. Allen happily took a sip of his drink(he wasn't exactly sure what it was). He had not even had to dodge a single punch or kick, because none had come his way.

As soon as Neah noticed Allen, he let out a delighted whoop and rushed forward to give him a bear hug. Allen managed to dodge at the last second and pushed him away, but Neah wasn't deterred in the slightest. He happily went on babbling about how glad he was to see Allen in one piece and without any scratches.

"Oh, Allie-pop!" Allen shuddered at the dreaded nickname. "You don't know how glad I am to see you!" Yes, I do. You're making it pretty clear here. "I thought you'd been kidnapped by some pedophiles or something. Or your stomach finally reached a limit and you passed out from having eaten too much. Uh, OK, I don't think that's actually possible but since it's you, I had to consider every option. So, what is it? What happened?"

Cross held back a snigger at the sight. "Yeah, brat, what the hell happened that you had to send an emergency signal, and to Neah, of all people? I don't see anything threatening around. Wait, don't tell me it was those amateur brawlers. I taught you better than that, idiot apprentice."

"Er, well, you see..."

Allen narrated the whole incident, from when he had entered to how he had ended up accidentally elbowing the transmitter. He was rather embarrassed, to say the least, and Cross's laughter wasn't really helping. By the end of the story, Cross was too busy laughing his ass of and Neah had a dumbfounded expression on his face.

"Wait, you mean to tell me, I left all of my midnight fortune cookies at the oven, still baking, for nothing?" said Neah, his expression crestfallen.

"Um..." Allen wasn't exactly sure how to respond to that. Cross was now laughing even harder.

It took a while for Cross to stop laughing and for Neah to get over the loss of his perfect batch of fortune cookies. It still remained a mystery as to why Neah was cooking fortune cookies at midnight in the first place, though.

"Wait a second, filthy brat, why were you in this bar in the first place, anyway?" asked Cross.

That was another question that he had been dreading. Reluctantly, Allen spilled the whole story to them, from how he met Link(hey, he could remember his name now!) to how he had ended up in a bar-hopping contest with said person and three other strangers.

Allen expected Cross and Neah to either look at him with disappointment or laugh at his expense, but to his surprise, they did neither. Both of them had very serious expressions on their faces, which would have been almost comical if Allen did not think that they were actually serious about this. Last time they had gotten this serious, Cross had died a week later. Clearly, this was not to be taken lightly.

"Hey, that Link fellow, isn't he a police? if I remember correctly, he's that bastard Lvellie's assistant," said Cross in a thoughtful tone.

Allen almost choked on his drink. "What? You mean that I sold drugs to Lvellie's assistant and dragged him to a bar? And why the heck was he wearing pink pajamas?"

"Poor guy, Lvellie'll probably end up firing him. He baked some great cookies too," said Neah in a sympathetic way. Cookies still seemed to be the most important point to him.

"And those other people you described... they seem like Black Order members to me."

"Yup, no doubt. They are all beasts. None of them know how to appreciate a good cookie." Neah stuck steadily to his point. One great point about Neah was the steadiness with which he could stick.

"What?" This time, Allen did choke on his drink.

"Well, nothing we can do about it now except to stick around and see what happens. As they say, keep your friends close and your enemies closer," said Cross, a smirk now forming on his face. Allen was still stuck up about the fact that he had just been bar-hopping with his mortal enemies just until sometime ago.

But Allen could not stick with as much steadiness as Neah. He ended up accepting it as reality pretty soon.

"So.." he said, not exactly sure what more to add. Luckily, he didn't have to.

"So, we stick around and meet these folks," said Cross, "Know thy enemy, and all that."

Seriously people, you have to agree that kicking Lvellie's ass is definitely something to celebrate. You should all remember to stick steadily to your points, because it is a great point to be able to stick with steadiness. F&F, R&R. Until next time ;