It had been several days since the incident with the wolves. Allen and Lenalee had started spending more and more time together. At first, Lenalee just split her day between exploring the castle and seeking Allen out and tagging along with him for a while. Soon, though, she wanted to spend more and more time with him and she did so. It ultimately came to the point where she woke up, found Allen and spent the better part of her days with him including sharing meals. Lenalee was initially shocked by how Allen ate his food. Aside from his deplorable table manners and the way he tore at his food and stuffed it into his mouth, he ate a monstrous amount of food (pun intended). The servant, Kanda, Lenalee figured, seemed to be used to Allen's appetite. Without his asking, Kanda brings out exceedingly large portions of many kinds of food. She doubted he even asked Allen what he wanted to eat and that the first time Allen finds out what that is is when they are placed in front of him on a plate.
For his part, Allen tried to do things that would interest Lenalee or at least not bore her. He usually did mediocre things that other people would find too mundane. He would walk around the hallways or outside the castle and often sat in a chair in his room just staring off into space thinking or daydreaming. But he was a gentleman and didn't want to have the lady follow at his heels wherever he went. He still walked, just less and he did it at a leisurely pace localized mainly in the garden. Previously in his life when he was still in the center of a lot of people, he hadn't made much of an effort to think about what others liked to do. It had been a long time, anyhow, since he had been around girls and he wasn't sure what they liked these days. Reaching into his memories, he could see many women taking their liberties strolling in his gardens and smelling the flowers. So when it had been about three days since she started following him, he took her to the garden. He would point out all the kinds of flowers that were planted there especially the foreign ones or ones that had special properties. They were all dead now, cursed, but they were still recognizable and they would never become something else. His garden was his pride and joy even back before he was cursed. He would be sure to show her everything even the rose bush.
Lenalee was amazed at the beautiful roses that were Allen's. She had been through the garden twice, once when she entered looking for her missing brother and again when she fled in fear of Allen's rage. Everything was bathed in darkness and shadows so she couldn't see the garden very well much less notice the well hidden rose bush, the only plant actually thriving in the otherwise dead area. Thinking on it, she hadn't really yet wondered why everything in the town was black and colorless. Even rainless impoverished places she read about in books didn't look like that. Well, maybe it had to do with that curse told about in the story. After all, the story had been right about the monster, but Lenalee was having a hard time associating that word with her host any more. But since Allen so kindly walked her through it, kindness she hadn't known he possessed, had seen the many kinds of flowers that had made up the garden. She was surprised at how emphatic someone could be over flowers that weren't colorful or radiant, but it drew her in. And the rose bush! It's beauty was unparallelled by anything on this Earth it seemed. They glowed with an internal light that was almost beyond being described. She could tell they were precious to Allen.
"Why do the roses thrive while everything else dies?" Lenalee asked. She hadn't meant any harm by it, but she seemed to do some, all the same. "Sorry." She apologized hurriedly, but Allen held up his hand to silence her. "There is a curse on these lands that was placed by a fairy and nothing can grow here. The soil and even the weather are forcibly barren. However, the roses were a gift from her and are immune to the spell. In fact, the rose bush itself seems to be enchanted to put out the best blooms that ever grew from ground." Hearing this, Lenalee looked back at the roses in understanding and awe of everything that they were. When she finally turned back to Allen and saw him watching her warily, she could not help but feel the same way towards him.
Other than the lack of fear and animosity between them, neither really noticed that they were getting closer. Allen was being constantly reminded by his friends who wanted to break the curse that Lenalee had begun to trust him and that maybe she could love him. Lenalee, for her part, never really thought about how important Allen had become in her everyday life. She spent all of her time with him and felt rather empty without him around, but never thought about what that meant. She didn't, that is, until one day. It was a day like any other for Lenalee, but Allen was planning something special. Not that he wanted to, he told himself, it was just to shut Lavi and Kanda up and make them leave him alone. As usual, they were pestering him about getting her to love him so that they could be free. Lavi was giving him dubious tips on wooing women. Kanda was making jerkass remarks about not messing it up and they naturally got into a long winded fight about it. After Lavi broke up the fight between him and Kanda, he dragged the struggling Kanda away to help him with housekeeping or something Lavi related leaving Allen to fume by himself. Doing what he usually did when he was pissed, Allen paced the mansion for a while and slowly calmed down. Once he'd been walking for a while, Allen's thoughts turned to something other than the baka Kanda. He didn't like to admit it, but what Kanda was talking about really got to him. She's gullible enough to like you. Don't screw it up, stupid beansprout. "Gah! Why am I thinking about what Kanda said?! He was just being his usual jerk self!" But Allen knew he was worried that she wouldn't like him. May girls had called him cruel and he, begrudgingly, had to agree with them. He didn't want the same thing to happen with Lenalee, though. He didn't think he could stand it. Just for the curse. He told himself. I'm only so invested because I am more than ready to break this curse. He went to see Lenalee.
"Where are we going?" Lenalee asked, curiously. She was currently being led by the hand by none other than her host) she never thinks of him as her captor now). He had come into her room where she was making a rose bouquet from the garden roses Allen allowed her to pick. Allen had announced that he had a gift for her, but it was too big to move. She was now following him to an undisclosed location. "I told you 'it's a surprise'. I don't want to spoil it." Allen joked so playfully that Lenalee couldn't help but giggle and joke back with him. By the time they arrived at their destination, they were playing around as if they were best friends. Allen was paying so much attention to Lenalee that he almost walked right past the door. "Alright. We're here!" Allen announced with a flourish of his hand. Giggling cutely, Lenalee tried to open the door to the what the surprise was, but Allen cried out. "No! Um...I'll open , first, close your eyes." Lenalee gave him a questioning look. "Allen..." "You're not seeing it until you close your eyes." Allen stated matter-of-factly and, with only a second more of hesitation, she closed her eyes.
After lightly waving his hand in front of her eyes and then pretending to swipe at her to make sure she wasn't faking, he turned to the doors. Grasping both handles, one in each handle, he threw the wide double doors of the library open. He turned around and hesitantly took her hands in his own. She seemed startled by the touch, but did not open her eyes and, after a moment, relaxed. He began walking backwards, drawing her blindly into the room. After he had her placed nicely in the room where she had an excellent view of all angles, he all but ran back to the double doors and lightly closed them. She felt a tinge of sadness when she felt his hands leave her, but hoped he didn't notice. "Open your eyes." Allen breathed in her ear after taking up behind her. Trying not to focus on the rising heat in her cheeks, Lenalee opened her eyes. The calm facade she had tried to put on quickly dropped. "What...is this?" She asked, trying to find the words. Before her was an enormous library. She always liked to read, but they didn't even have a library in her home town. It had rows upon rows of books to read that she had to crane her neck to see the end of. There were also a few couches, a chair and several pillows splayed out in the center of the room. All were used to sit on and looked very comfortable.
"This," Allen began to answer her long forgotten question. "is my private library. Well...ours. I'll share it with you and we can use to together." A small blush creeped onto his cheeks at this which seemed to draw a blush out of Lenalee as well. "Oh! Your private library and you want me to use it too? What can I say?" "Maybe 'thanks'?" Allen asked, worriedly. Lenalee froze and Allen thought that he'd offended her before she turned around and hugged him close. The blush on his face deepened as the warmth of her embrace spread throughout his body. Before he'd recovered from the initial shock, she drew back slightly and gave him a small but tender kiss on his nose. "Thank you so much, Allen." Said just above a whisper and with the close proximity, these simple words carried a lot of weight for Allen and it was clear she meant it to be that way.
Later that night, Kanda made some cookies and hot chocolate for them and Lavi lit a fire in the fireplace. After being left alone, Allen and Lenalee began to eat their snacks (Allen trying and failing to not wolf them down) and cracked open a book from the library. Together they had picked out a fairytale book called The Green Fairy Book (yes, this is a real thing) and decided that they would read it together later. "Let's start on the second story. It looks more interesting." Lenalee pleaded. "How can you tell by just reading the title? We need to read it first." "Nooo..." She whined, using the methods she usually did to win in fights with her brother. To her surprise, it wasn't working on Allen. He glanced over to her and gave a smirk, showing her that he knew what she was trying to do. "Shh...you'll see, okay?" Allen leaned back and opened the book to the first story. "Don't judge a book by it's cover." At these words, they each smiled a knowing smile. They spent their night going through as many of the stories in the book as they could before falling asleep together on the floor.