Chapter 44

March 29th 2015

Allen stood by the bags in the middle of the lounge room and looked around for what was probably the last time. The furniture was still in place, as it was still their apartment, but it still seemed quite bare due to a lack of books and ornaments. He felt another wave of sadness wash over him and wished he could see his friends one more time. Especially Lavi. He wished he didn't have to leave things the way the were but…

Timcampy gave a disgruntled yelp from his travel cage and Allen smiled down at him sadly.

"Nothing I can do about it now boy," he sighed morosely. Cross came out into the lounge room, stuffing his wallet into his pocket and asked, "You say something kid?"

Allen glared at him in response. His godfather raised an eyebrow and said flatly, "Hey, this move wasn't my idea. I'm not exactly thrilled about it either. I mean, I've just met Klaud again for Christ sakes!"

"I don't think she was as happy to see you as you were to see her," muttered Allen. Cross frowned at him before saying, "Come on. Our taxi's here. Let's go."

With a pained sigh, Allen picked up Timcampy and his bags and headed out the door.

Kanda had been strumming aimlessly at his guitar for about half an hour when the doorbell rang. He stopped playing and walked over to the door and down the spiral staircase outside. He hoped this wasn't an unexpected social call from his idiot family. That was the last thing he needed right now.

He reached his gate and opened it a crack, ready to slam it shut if he saw any member of his family. However, Lenalee was the one standing outside the gate and she smiled when she saw him, albeit weakly. He opened the gate fully and she greeted, "Hi Kanda. Sorry for dropping in unannounced like this."

"It's fine," he responded. She had been crying. Stupid moyashi. Even when he wasn't here he was causing problems.

"I just…" she said haltingly, "I don't know. I just needed a friend to talk to and… you were closest, I guess."

Kanda shrugged and stepped to the side to let her through. He closed the gate after her and they headed up to his apartment. Once they were up there he said, "You want some tea?"

"No thank you," she said softly. And abruptly she burst into tears. Kanda froze, uncertain what to do. He opened his mouth to say something but couldn't find the right words.

"I'm sorry," she said through her tears, "I just… I'm just so sad… about Allen… it's just not fair that he had to leave like this… and he didn't want to leave either… and I'm worried we'll fall out of contact… or he'll… forget about us… oh, I'm a mess…"

"He won't forget about us," Kanda said gruffly, walking over to stand in front of her, "We won't fucking let him forget about us. We'll call him three times every fucking day if that's what it takes."

Through her sobs, Lenalee actually managed to laugh a little. She looked up at him and smiled, saying shakily, "T-Typical Kanda… You're always so blunt but… you always make me feel better."

Kanda stared down at her for a moment before muttering, "Damn it," before leaning down and kissing her. It wasn't long and it was a bit wet from her tears, but it was still a kiss. And it made him feel more terrified and more exhilarated than he had ever before in his entire life.

He broke it off and they stared at each other, him frowning at himself and her wide-eyed with shock. An idea came to him then. It was a completely stupid idea but… hell, most of the ideas any of them came up with were.

He moved over to the couch and picked up his jacket, shrugging it on whilst shoving his phone and keys in his pockets. Lenalee broke out of her surprise and asked, "Um… where are you going?"

"We are going out to the airport and stopping the moyashi from getting on that plane," he growled, "Hell, I hate him but we're kind of, sort of, not really friends and he means a lot to you so I'm not letting him go anywhere."

Lenalee stared at him in shock for a moment before breaking out into and huge smile and launching herself at him, catching him in a vice-like hug and kissing him again. She released him and said, her eyes narrowed, "But before we do that, we have to make a quick detour."

It was past eleven and Lavi still hadn't gotten out of bed. He usually didn't stay in bed this long but… he just couldn't bring himself to get up. He had utterly no energy or motivation to do anything and what was worse was the crushing sadness that was weighing down on him.

Allen's probably just about to head out to the airport, he thought sullenly. He buried himself deeper under the covers at this thought. He had never felt so terrible about a missed golden opportunity before in his entire life. All he wanted to do was to remain in bed and wallow in his misery. Nothing could budge him.

That was until Kanda threw open the window and shouted, "GET UP STUPID RABBIT!" at the top of his lungs, giving Lavi a near heart attack as he did so. The red head screamed, scrabbled backwards and fell of the bed, landing in a crumpled, moaning heap. There were the sounds of people climbing in through the window and suddenly Lenalee's worried voice asked, "Lavi? Are you okay?"

"I think I broke my spinal column," wheezed Lavi in reply. He managed to struggle into a sitting position and peer over the top of the bed at the two intruders. Lenalee was watching him with concern in her gaze whilst Kanda was staring at him, unimpressed, arms folded.

"Nice work rabbit," he said sarcastically. Lavi frowned and said in response, "I thought I was chief in charge of breaking into other peoples' houses."

"Che. Whatever. Now get dressed and grab the keys to the old panda's car. We need wheels," Kanda said bluntly. Lavi frowned in confusion and asked, "Why?"

"Why do you think idiot?" Kanda snapped, "To stop that fucking moyashi from getting on a plane to fucking Canada."

Lavi stared at him for a moment before transferring his gaze to Lenalee. He saw the seriousness in her gaze too and sighed and said, "That's not going to work guys."

Kanda narrowed his eyes and growled, "And why not?"

"Because Allen's heading out to the airport now," Lavi said flatly, "And it's not like he's just going to stay if we ask him too. He's still a minor. He has to go with his guardian."

"Lavi, it wasn't exactly like Mr Cross was looking after Allen when we first met him," countered Lenalee. Lavi smiled weakly at her and said, "That's true, but it's still not going to work. Allen's… gone. We'll try to keep in touch but we shouldn't ask him to-"

"Jesus CHRIST!" Kanda yelled and abruptly a book made contact with his forehead, sending the red head once again crashing into the ground. He heard Lenalee give out a worried squeak and say irritably, "Kanda!"

"You're in love with the kid, aren't you?" Kanda snapped at him. Lavi sat up, rubbing his forehead reproachfully, but also with an air of shock. Kanda was frowning at him as he growled, "You can't really think I'm so much of an idiot to believe you just want to leave things like this. And I know we all know that this is a fucking bad idea for the moyashi. Which is why we are posting an intervention."

"For the both of you," said Lenalee with a smile, "And even if we can't manage to make him stay, you'll be able to clear the air until the next time we see him."

Lavi stared at them both, thoughts chasing themselves around his head. Allen was leaving. He had to accept that fact. Or… did he? And it was true that he had been wishing to have a chance to clear things with Allen. And this… this was his golden opportunity. Not only to clear things but maybe… prevent Allen from making a terrible decision.

He cracked one of his trademark grins and said playfully, "You guys mind stepping out for a minute? Or, if you'd rather stay and watch me get changed that's fine too."

"Shut up rabbit," snapped Kanda and he glanced at Lenalee who smiled warmly back at him. Lavi stared between the two of them. Something was different there. The look they were sharing right now was definitely… relationshippy.

"Did I miss something?" he asked.

Allen unloaded the rest of the bags from the boot onto the trolley had had acquired whilst Cross paid the cab driver (wow, he was actually making a legitimate transaction for once). The airport was incredibly busy, as it was the first weekend of the holidays. There were families everywhere, all getting ready to go on holidays somewhere. All of them looked happy, looking forward to reaching their destinations. The exact opposite of what Allen felt.

Cross got out of the car and it drove off and he moved into the terminal, leaving Allen to wheel the heavy trolley. Allen narrowed his eyes and wondered whether he could get away with ramming his godfather in the back of his legs with the trolley, as Cross wouldn't abuse him in public. He decided against it though, as he would probably pay for it later.

"We have to take the dog to get checked onto the plane," Cross said, grumpiness plain in his tone. Allen didn't respond. Talking was the last thing he felt like doing, especially to his insufferable, irritable godfather.

They moved across the tiled floor, weaving in and amongst scurrying travellers, Timcampy staring out of his cage sadly. Allen felt sorry for him. At least he could walk around, not get trapped behind bars for the whole journey. He became vaguely aware of the sounds of honking car horns and the screeching of wheels outside. Probably people running late for their flight. He really couldn't understand why people left something as important as preparing to catch a plane to the last minute.

He continued to wheel the trolley until he was stopped by the shouts of two people shouting, "ALLEN!" and another voice shouting, "MOYASHI!"

He spun around to see Lavi, Lenalee and Kanda standing a few metres away from him. Kanda looked like his usual grumpy self but Lavi and Lenalee looked a bit… dishevelled. Like they had just been scared badly by something.

"You guys…" Allen said, astonished, "What are you doing here?"

"We're here to stage an intervention, moyashi," snapped Kanda. Allen frowned at him and was about to ask what he meant when Lenalee said pleading, "Please don't go Allen! We don't want you to go and we know you don't want to go either! Stay here. You'll be happier. I know you will and I know you know you will be too."

Allen stared at them in shocked silence. He couldn't think of anything to say. They really cared about him this much? The thought made him unbelievably happy.

"Kid," came Cross's unwelcome voice, "We have a dog to quarantine, bags to check in and a plane to catch. What we don't have time for is this."

"Shut up," said Allen before focussing on his friends again. Lavi had stepped forward and was smiling at him, not his usual mischievous grin but a smile filled with a mixture of happiness, sadness and… Allen wasn't quite sure about this but he thought he saw… love.

"Allen," the red head said now, "If you really think leaving will be the best thing for you then we won't stop you. We just wanted to let you know that we want you to stay. You're a great friend Allen and if you leave we'll all miss you until we see you next. And… I wanted to see you so that… if you do decide to go… I don't leave things completely unfinished," he smiled widened as he continued, "This is going to sound really stupid and sappy but I've gotta let you know that I am seriously head over heels for you, you amazing beautiful Brit. If you stay you will make me one of the happiest people on this entire fucking planet and I will do everything in my power to make you equally as happy. And if you decided to go… I'm going to sound like a bad romance film now… I will wait for you."

Allen stared at Lavi in silence for a very long time. Everything else seemed to have faded away. He actually wasn't too embarrassed by the feeling of awkwardness radiating from Cross, Lenalee and Kanda.

He suddenly turned to his godfather and said, "Yeah, I'm not going to Canada anymore."

Cross frowned and said, "Kid, this might be news to you but I'm legally required to take care of you."

"And you've done an amazing job of that in past," said Allen dryly, "I'm not going. Just put money in my bank account so I can survive and I'll mail you bills. Oh, and I'm keeping Timcampy."

Cross's frown deepened as he said, "So you expect me to pay all your bills, top you up with money and let you steal my dog?"

"Godfatherly duties," said Allen with a shrug, "You have to honour your promise made to my dad. And Timcampy's my dog now. I look after him way better than you do."

Cross stared at him in silence before throwing up his arms in exasperation and exclaiming, "Fine! Whatever. Do what you want kid. In return, whenever you ask for money send me updates on Klaud."

"Fine. That's creepy, but fine. I will have no fond memories of you," said Allen with the fakest smile to ever cross a human being's face. His godfather shook his head in what appeared to be irritation but Allen thought he saw what looked like an amused smile as he turned away.

Allen then turned and, surprising everyone, ran at Lavi and enveloped him in a joy-filled hug. The American staggered a little at the impact but was soon retuning the hug with just as much vigour. He chuckled a little bit and asked, half playfully, "So… can I get that kiss now?"

In response, Allen tilted his head up, reached up, and kissed him, not caring that they were surrounded by people staring at the spectacle, some of whom let out little hoots when their lips met. For that moment it was just him and Lavi.

Lenalee watched the spectacle before her, slightly embarrassed but mainly happy. Kanda, standing next to her, was far more embarrassed than she was and was looking down at the ground, a thoroughly nonplussed expression on his face. But she could also see the slightly softer edge to his usually cold eyes and knew he was also secretly happy as well.

"Well, as they say, all's well that ends well," she said cheerfully, "I'm glad they finally hooked up. It was getting kind of frustrating, to be honest."

"Che. Whatever," muttered Kanda, but not with his usual aggressiveness. She smiled at him and then asked, "So… what about us?"

He looked up at her with a frown and replied, "What about us?"

"Well, after what happened back at your apartment," she said with a blush, "Are we going to be a thing now or… was that just a kind of 'caught in the moment' thing?"

He stared at her for a moment before shrugging and saying, "We can be a thing. If you want to."

Her smile widened and she took his hand, saying, "The next step is you taking me out on a date."

"Che," he said, but Lenalee could see the corners of his mouth twitching up into a small smile. It was about then that they heard the sound of approaching sirens.

When they heard the sound of sirens, Lavi broke away from the kiss with a muttered, "Uh oh."

Allen frowned and asked, "What? What's going on?"

Lavi grinned sheepishly at him and said just as sheepishly, "Did I forget to mention that Kanda drove us here. Using his normal driving style so we could go faster?"

"Oh. Oh."

"Mmm. They seem to have caught up with us."

"Come on! It's time to fucking go!" Kanda called to them. He and Lenalee were already running towards the exit, heading for the car they had illegally parked out the front.

Allen stared after them for a moment before sighing, "Maybe I should have gone to Canada. It would have done wonders for my high blood pressure."

"Aw, but where's the fun in that," laughed Lavi, before he grabbed Allen's hand and started dragging him towards the doors, "Now let's skedaddle before we get arrested."

Allen allowed himself to be pulled along, following his two friends and boyfriend, and smiled the happiest smile he ever had in his life so far.

A/N: IT'S DONE GUYS IT'S DOOOOONE! WOOOOT! A year and two months, 230 pages and several thousand words and now it's done. I'm both relieved and a little sad. It's been a lot of fun writing this! I want to thank everyone who has read, favourited, followed and reviewed this story for all the amazing support you have given me whilst writing. Your positivity played a really big part in helping me finish this and I couldn't have done it without you. Thank you all! I'll be working on projects for other fandoms for a while but I might return to the DGM fandom one day. Who knows? Thanks for everything guys! You've been great. Animecrazy13ify out.