I woke up to bright light and loud voices echoing in my head. Sitting at my side was a familiar face, as blurred as he was. Turning my head slightly, I said, "Hey, why the sad face?"

Allen looked up at the sound of my voice. "L-lavi! You're awake!" he exclaimed.

"Yeah, I'm awake," I said as I managed to push myself up into a sitting position. "What'd I miss?"

"Everything."

"Ah, com'on, you can't be serious! I missed the Apocalypse?"

"BAKA!"

A small figure jumped up at the end of my bed and before I knew it, a fist rammed into the back of my head. "uaaaahhh...." I muttered as I fell back down in the bed.

I heard Allen gasp. "Bookman-san! He just woke up, so don't hit him like that!" he breathed.

"Yeah, Panda-man, I'm still kinda dead here..." I said in agreement.

My grandfather snickered as he crossed his arms. "I can't believe you went off and lost your Innocence. On top of that, you almost got yourself killed! I thought I taught you better than that."

"But, Bookman-san, we got the Innocence back, and Lavi didn't die," Allen stated.

Instead of accepting the hard facts, my grandfather huffed and turned to leave. "The director wants to see you when you've fully awakened."

I sighed as I sat up again, a little more painfully this time. "Jijii..." I mumbled. "So, wait, you found my Innocence?"

"Yeah," Allen replied. "On my way out, I got lost in the house and found it tied up in spider webs."

"Did you get the girl home?"

He nodded. "Yeah, and I got the dress off too, though I didn't expect for it to explode as soon as I typed in the code."

I raised a brow. "I'm not surprised; it's Komui-san."

My friend scratched his head, saying, "You do have a point there..."

"Hey, about that kiss," I said as I turned my head away.

"Yeah?"

"... it didn't really mean anything..."

"I know."

"So, just to establish the fact that I'm not gay, and you're not gay..."

"Lavi, it's fine," my friend interrupted. "I understand." Then he took something out of his coat pocket, placing it in my hands. It was the Allen doll.

I blinked down at it for a while, noticing that the left arm had been carefully sewn back on. "I thought you gave this to the manager's granddaughter."

"I did," Allen said. "It arrived this morning with a note saying to give it to you."

Picking up the doll, I smiled. "Hey, are you still in there?"

"Lavi! You're awake," the little thing replied.

"Yeah, I'm awake. And you looked fixed up," I said in return.

"Yep!"

I set it on the bedside table as I slid out of bed and pulled on a shirt. "You know, this has got to be the weirdest mission we've ever been on," I said.

Allen nodded in agreement. "Yeah, and it didn't help that I was in a dress and you had attempted to act straight."

My eyes narrowed. "I thought we established this already..." I growled.

"Come on," my friend interrupted again as he took my arm, "we need to see Komui-san."

I followed Allen to the director's office, rubbing the back of my neck. Two blisters were there, though I didn't know if they were from the first or second time the monster tagged me. We arrived at Komui's office to a regular sight; the director was seated at his desk with a mug of steaming hot coffee in his hand and a smug grin on his face. "So, I see the mission went well," he stated as we walked in.

"Yeah, if you call me getting captured and Lavi almost dying going well," Allen replied sarcastically.

Komui stood, taking a couple of papers from his desk. "Well, I will have to say that from my point of view, it was rather successful."

Allen and I both stared back at the director in awkward silence. "Successful? In what way?" I asked carefully.

The director showed us the contents of the papers; there printed in bold colors, was a shot of me kissing Allen. "My methods worked!" he exclaimed.

About that time Lenalee walked in behind us. "Nii-san, you called me?" she asked.

While I held Komui's arms behind him, Allen snatched the photos away and hid them behind his back. "Oh, Lenalee, you're here too?" he asked with a nervous chuckle.

Lenalee's brow rose. "What's going on here?"

"I have blackmail! And I'm not afraid to use it!" Komui shouted as he struggled against me.

"Shaddup! You ain't usin' it while we're alive and kickin'!" I shouted back.

"Allen-kun, what do you have behind your back?" Lenalee questioned as she made her way over to him.

"Nothing! I swear!"

With a swift punch to the face, Allen fell against the couch and Lenalee grabbed the photos from his grip. Her face went pink with either embarrassment or arousement; either way, I hoped to God it was the first. "Lavi, you kissed Allen-kun?" she asked, turning to me.

I released my hold on Komui and held up my hands. "L-let me explain, it's really not what it looks like," I stuttered.

"No," Lenalee interrupted. "I don't want to hear it."

Allen massaged the side of his face as he sat back in the couch. "Komui-san, out of curiosity, how did you get these photos?"

Komui grinned. "The doll! The science department made it; it came with a camera."

My eyes widened. "So... it really wasn't his soul?" I asked in shock.

"No silly," Komui said as he waved his hand gaily at me. "We took a recording of Allen's voice so whenever you asked it a question, we could respond and sound like Allen here."

"... this whole thing... was a set up?"

Komui nodded. "Yeah, we just didn't expect there to be an actual akuma."

Allen and I stormed at Komui. "WE'RE GONNA KILL YOU!!!!!"