Second chapter of First Meeting…

This chapter got so long that I made two parts out of it. I need some opinions before putting more work into it. It's my third attempt for this chapter and I am still not completely sure… -_- Since the main storyline won't change I don't wanna rewrite it again.

For the most part the second half of this is already written (actually it only lacks the ending)… I am more looking forward for to the things that are coming after (another reason why I need opinions on this one).

This chapter is not beta-read yet :(

The weeks after that fateful day went by slowly. The damage done to Allen during the time in the orphanage made him clingier than ever. Cross sighed as he was sitting on a bench outside his house smoking a cigarette. At first he hadn't noticed it at all. He was awkward with the child. Allen was sweet and all, actually too sweet, but he was not used to take care of someone and he didn't know how to show his feeling to a child.

Before he was in the orphanage Allen used to spend time alone still, now it seemed as if Allen was afraid that he wouldn't return if he left and followed whenever he could. He also refused to go to a kindergarten and when he had tried to force him to go Allen had used the first chance he got to sneak out. If it hadn't been for Timcanpy he probably wouldn't have found Allen again. That though was what worried him the most.

As he told Bak, who was the company's doctor and a psychologist, about the troubles with the kid he said that the best thing to do would be to take Allen along as often as possible and make him go out and play with people that he liked. Bak also told him to just try to get the child to talk and listen when he had problems.

He had tried to do that and was surprised to have Allen sit down beside him happily and talk about whatever was on his mind as long as he had the feeling that his uncle was listening and didn't mind him around.

Bak guessed this was a good sign and that the child most likely just needed time and someone that he could believe would not be taken away or leaving again all of a sudden. This however was not something Cross liked. He liked to spend time with women and stay a few nights away ever so often.

For Allen's sake he had decided to cut down on that. As well as starting to smoke outside of the house (Allen hated the smell of smoke on the furniture.) Luckily he could send the kid over to Tiedoll still when he wanted to spend a few nights away now and then. The little one had gotten attached to Tiedoll's brat and really liked spending time with him.

Cross, though grateful for that, also wondered about his nephew's taste in people. The boy was stoic and even worse than him with showing his emotions. Still, for the most part he was patient with Allen and understood the child's needs. The brat also saw to it that his nephew had no reason to cry.

The first two times he had made Allen sleep over at Tiedoll's place he had gotten sick however. His body had refused to keep his food down, which for Allen could be deadly since his metabolism was completely off and he required a lot more food than a normal person.

Allen had been afraid that his uncle would leave him behind and not return anymore or that he was a bother to Cross. It had taken a lot of time to get Allen to trust him in that aspect, to make him believe that he would return and that he should enjoy sleeping at Tiedoll's place instead of getting sick.

Now that was no problem anymore and Allen would always happily tell him after the sleepovers what he and Tiedoll's brats had done.

He stared up at the sky some more before finally going into the house. Allen most likely was at Tiedoll's place already, as the brat had told him earlier.

Kanda watched as Allen taught Daisya how to juggle. It was a skill that Allen had learned from his father, Mana. No one asked too many questions about Allen's father though, as that was a sure way to make Allen's smile disappear in no time and tears well up in his eyes.

Allen kind of was the cute adopted younger brother of Marie and Daisya, which they never had. Kanda after all was by no means cute. They loved to spoil Allen and enjoyed playing with him whenever they had time.

The first time his two older brothers had met his moyashi he had had a fight right away with Daisya. The young boy had come into the kitchen, trying to hide behind Kanda while curiously looking around. Daisya had thought it was a very cute sight and tried to hug Allen. However the memories of getting hit by other children had been too fresh for Allen and he had gotten scared and tried to hide.

As such Kanda had been very angry. Not only had Daisya tried to hug his moyashi but he had scared him also. He at once hit Daisy and the two started to fight. The fight probably would have ended with both of them injured if Tiedoll had not interfered. Meanwhile Marie had calmed Allen down and brought him back into the kitchen, where they finally could be properly introduced to each other.

He still could clearly remember Allen's reaction to his oldest brother's introduction.

"Are you a girl?" Allen asked confused and Marie, who had just taken a sip of tea, started to choke violently. Daisya was rolling on the floor, laughing, while Allen blinked. Kanda couldn't help but grin at the situation and made no move to clarify the mistake.

"I'm a boy." Marie responded after he could breathe again.

"But Marie is a girl's name." Allen stated making Daisya laugh even more, so that he ended up coughing.

"Ahm… I am a boy however. Do I look like a girl?"

Allen shook his head. "That's strange."

"Well… though it may be a girlish name I am a boy." Allen hesitantly nodded.

"I like him already." Daisya commented between laughing, not caring that he was sparking Kanda's possessive side again.

At first Allen had been suspicious of Kanda's brothers, but soon enough he accepted that they were not going to hurt or reject him. They didn't even push him away when his left arm could be seen after he had fallen down and the left sleeve of his shirt had been ripped. Allen had been sure they would react like the other children had and kept his eyes fixed on the ground, stepping back when he realized someone was coming closer. Kanda told him to stand still however and pulled him back towards his brothers.

If he was honest he would have liked for the moyashi to not talk to his brothers. But he also realized that the younger boy would need other people as well in order to live and get better. He decided his brothers were the better than some idiots he didn't know.

And now his brothers were almost as protective of Allen as he was, which was a good thing he supposed. That way the younger would have someone to talk to if he wasn't around. Especially Marie was good at that. The oldest boy had also taken it upon himself to learn Japanese with Allen. Allen seemed to like learning the language and was improving slowly but steadily. Even if his pronunciation was completely of sometimes, a fact that managed to make Kanda lose his cool now and then. How could someone not pronounce 'soba' right?

"Kanda, do you want to join as well?" Allen asked with a hopeful smile.

"No."

The smile vanished at once. "Why not?"

"I have homework to do still."

"You always say that when you don't feel like doing something." Allen pouted.

"It's always true though. If you could write in Japanese I could let you do my homework and play instead, but unfortunately you can't…"

"I am learning though." The younger boy answered with a sad look on his face.

"What's with that look?" He hated Allen's sad face almost as much as he hated the boy's fake smiles that he gave people when he felt unsure and wanted to hide.

"It takes so long to learn. I could read English. Japanese is too difficult."

"You would have an easier time in kindergarten then." But Allen shook his head vehemently. Even Kanda couldn't make him go there.

"Maybe you should come along to school Allen." Naturally it was Daisya who had the most stupid idea again.

"What good would that do? In that case he could go to kindergarten and he doesn't want that."

"You learn better if you are surrounded by people who talk the language. And if he doesn't want to go to kindergarten maybe he would like to join us in school."

Allen just stared at the two brothers who had started to talk in Japanese. They didn't do that too often, but he usually felt left out when they switched languages. It was one of the reasons why he was trying hard to learn it. Just that it took so long…

"I think the idea is good." Marie said when he came out of the house. "I could take him along tomorrow to High School."

This was one of the few times he really pissed Kanda off. "No way in hell. Moyashi is definitely not going to High School!"

"What about me, Kanda?" Allen asked confused when he heard the other's nickname for him.

"Nothing." But Allen already was staring at Marie, who almost never refused to give answers.

"I was suggesting that you could come to High School with me. It's easier to learn a language when you are surrounded by people who speak it." The oldest boy explained.

Allen nodded. "I can go with you?"

Marie was about to say yes when Kanda stopped him.

"Moyashi, do you wanna go that badly to school?"

Allen nodded again. "If Marie is there it's fun."

"You could also come with me." Daisya smiled at the tiny boy.

Kanda glared at both of them with venom. "Fuck it!"

"Is it bad to go to school?" Allen asked him.

"You'll come with me instead of Marie. And don't even think of joining with Daisya."

Allen blinked and smiled. "Hai!"

"However it's really boring, so don't expect anything fun."

"It's more boring here. Only Tim is here and he doesn't talk."

"You are not allowed to talk during the lessons either."

"I won't."

"And there are a lot of annoying children there."

Allen looked unsure for a few seconds. He didn't trust strangers. But Kanda would be there too. "You are there. It's fun with you." He decided and beamed at Kanda again, who in turn sighed. Damn his brothers for giving the boy stupid ideas. And he sure as hell wouldn't let his moyashi go with either Daisya or Marie.

Marie smiled. He had known that Kanda would take the younger one along, as soon as someone else would take him with them otherwise. Kanda was way too predictable in that point. Once he claimed something as his he wouldn't let it go again.

The situation made him remember just how useful that fact. It was one of the few ways to manipulate his little brother.

The first time they had found out just how possessive was, was when Kanda had laid eyes on his wooden sword. It had been a present from Tiedoll three years ago. Kanda saw it and at once claimed it as his. Never before had the child wanted anything so Marie didn't really mind giving it to him. Especially when he could make Kanda agree to take another room in their old house, so they could renovate the complete first floor finally.

Now however it wasn't something that Kanda had claimed, but a living person. This was making it a lot more complicated for Kanda. Allen was still too naïve to really understand what was going on and Marie truly hoped that things would stay well for the two of them in the future. For now though he was grateful that Allen made it easy to manipulate Kanda into doing things that were for his own good too.

"We'll have to ask your uncle and Tiedoll too." Marie informed him.

Allen smiled happily. He was sure his uncle would agree to let him go. "Let's go ask my uncle then!" Allen excitedly tugged on Kanda's hand.

Cross unfortunately for Kanda liked the idea. The man thought that if Allen had decided it on his own, it shouldn't be all bad for him. And Kanda would be there too, so maybe it would be easier to get him used to other people again with the brat's help.

Cross had tried to take Allen to work now and then, but ever since the murder of his father Allen was tense around adults and it was anything but enjoyable for the child to be surrounded by many. The only two people Allen had warmed up to were Bak (who had put in a great deal of effort to get Allen to relax around him) and the companies cook Jeryy (the cook had had a lot less trouble to gain Allen's trust). Again Cross had to wonder about his nephew's choice in people as he thought about it.

"Make sure to keep an eye on him." Cross said as Allen went to pack his backpack. "He doesn't do well with strangers."

"I know." Kanda's eyes narrowed. He had often enough seen Allen's reactions to strangers, who did that man think he was?

"If anything happens use Timcanpy to call me." Cross continued and Kanda nodded. The man often enough acted cold towards Allen, but he really liked his nephew and cared a great deal about him.

"In that case have a nice day tomorrow and make sure he doesn't do anything stupid."

"I don't do stupid things." Allen had finished packing and came back.

"Stupid people do stupid things. It's natural." Cross told him and poked his forehead. "No child would prefer to go to school than to kindergarten. You are stupid."

"Am not. Kanda, Daisya and Marie are in school. It's fun with them!" Allen half-glared at Cross, causing the man to laugh. His nephew's glares always were big failures.

Tiedoll also thought that taking Allen to school was a good idea and at once called the principal of Kanda's school.

The principal, an older man who truly loved children, saw no harm in it as long as Allen would stay quiet and wouldn't disturb the other pupils. Allen promised both and was way too excited for the rest of the evening.

The next morning Tiedoll had prepared breakfast for them and brought them to school in his car. He gave each of them a bento box and promised to pick them up in the afternoon again.

Allen jumped happily out of the car and stared at the school building. Kanda saw nothing special in it, but Allen seemed to like it. "Mana always said that I would go to a school too in a few years." It was the first time Allen said the name of his father without any hurt in his voice.

"I'm sure you'll have fun on your first day here." Marie smiled at Allen while patting his head and Allen nodded.

"I'll show you my classroom first, before you go to Kanda's." Daisya said. "Come to me if you get separated from Kanda."

"Ok." Allen grabbed Kanda's arm and followed Daisya. As they arrived on the third floor of the building Daisya pointed towards his class. "Come if anything is wrong. Kanda will show you where I am during midday break, kay?"

"Where is Marie?" Allen said as he noticed that the oldest brother was missing.

"Marie is too old to be in this school. His school is a bit further ahead." Kanda explained.

"Just come to me, moyashi-chan, if there is a problem." Daisya smiled. "I'll see you later Kanda." Then he turned around and left.

"So is there anything you want to see, moyashi?"

Allen asked where he was normally hanging out and Kanda started to show him the places that he preferred. Allen especially liked his tree that was behind the school. Naturally it was the one that was furthest away from the school-building and as such the other children. As always Kanda liked silent places with few people best.

"We'll eat here, if the sun is out, otherwise it's still too cold." Kanda told him.

The bell rang for the first time and Kanda lead him to his classroom. Most of his classmates were already here and at once started to stare and whisper when they saw Allen. Kanda like always ignored his classmates and pulled his chair to the side so Allen could sit at the side of his desk. Then he went and got a second chair for himself and sat down besides the white haired boy.

Though he ignored them, the whispers of his classmates were annoying the hell out of him.

"Who's that boy?"

"Why is a new boy here? And what's with his hair color?"

"He's cute!"

"But did you see the weird scar on his face?"

"Why is he wearing gloves?"

"Why is he sitting besides Kanda?"

Kanda hated it when others talked about Allen. He hated people that tried to get close to the tiny boy just as much as he hated people who tried to get close to him.

"Why are they whispering?" Allen asked him and he smirked as they now started to talk about what language his moyashi was talking.

"They're curious about you. It's not normal that other children come along to school, you know."

Allen nodded and smiled. "Shall I tell them my name?"

"Don't bother about them. They'll get over it soon enough. And besides, they still won't be able to talk with you. We don't learn English yet."

The bell rang and his teacher, Mrs. Nine, came into the class. At once everyone stood up and the chatter and whispers stopped. The usual morning greeting followed and when everyone had sat down she finally satisfied some of the curiosity regarding the white haired boy.

"Class, today Kanda brought a guest along, as I am sure you all noticed. His name is Walker Allen. He doesn't speak Japanese yet and will be here to learn it. He's recently moved here from England and is five years old. Since he's shy try to give him some space."

After that she gave them some exercises and came to their table. She introduced herself to Allen. "Wouldn't it be better for you to use the empty desk at the back? Do you have enough space like this?" She asked them in English, so that Allen would also understand what was being said.

"If it's no problem he'll stay here. Allen also promised not to talk during the lessons, so no one will be disturbed." Kanda said before Allen could reply. The boy would probably have smiled and moved to the back, even if he didn't want to.

Allen sighed in relief. He'd rather stay besides Kanda and not at the other side of the room. The teacher nodded. She had been informed by the principal today and he had also told her a little bit of the British boy's past, so she decided to leave them, as long as Kanda would stay focused in class.

Though she had to admit it was a surprising sight. Kanda, who never talked with anyone (well… with one exception that forced himself on the other boy), took care of the tiny boy and shared his desk with him. She liked this new side of her pupil.

"Here Allen. I brought you some copies, with Katakana and Hiragana signs. If you are bored, try to learn writing."

Allen smiled brightly at her and thanked her. He took a look at the foreign signs and started to try and copy them.

"If you are done with the exercises you can help him Kanda, but be quiet." Kanda nodded and went to work as well.

The teacher was pleased that the young boy indeed did not disturb her lessons. The breaks in between naturally were another matter. After the first two hours the children gathered around Kanda's table and tried to talk with him. Kanda, though obviously annoyed at his classmates, didn't make a move to push them away as long as Allen was fine with it.

The morning passed quickly. Allen was busy learning the signs that Mrs. Nine had given him. He would later on show them to Marie and his uncle! Kanda would tell him the meanings of the signs and show him which lines to make first when he was done with his work (he liked 'no' best, since that was the sign Kanda explained first).

When the bell rang to signal that the lunch break Kanda was quick to grab their lunch boxes and pull Allen out of the class. He didn't want his lunch break interrupted by his annoying classmates, they'd already done enough of that during the small breaks.

The weather had indeed stayed well as such they went back to his usual lunch-break place. Allen, even though he had three times the amount than him, finished his food long before he finished his.

"Your school is nice." Allen commented with the same excitement he had shown yesterday evening.

"Do you like the people here?"

"I like your teacher. I don't know your classmates."

"Most of them are annoying. The worst of them isn't even here today."

Allen giggled. "Too bad. I would have liked to see the one who is worst."

"I'll go to the toilet, stay here for a few minutes, I'll be right back." Kanda got up and watched Allen for any sign of discomfort. However Allen nodded. It seemed that he trusted Kanda to come back soon.

Allen used the chance to take a good look at the building from this side. The school indeed was nice, it had white and blue walls and was surrounded by a lot of old trees that looked like you could climb up without problems… if you were a bit taller than him.

He took out a small ball from his pocket and started to play with Timcanpy as he waited for Kanda to come back. He would throw the ball somewhere and Tim would throw it back with its tail or bring it back to him if he missed.

A few meters away was a young girl sitting on a bench in the sun. She was watching the boy with interest, a smile on her face. The boy certainly was cute. He somehow remembered her of a kitty that made others want to cuddle it.

She wondered why none of the children that were watching him, went to him though. Probably it was better to leave him she decided. Usually when she had that feeling she was right.

Suddenly someone blocked the sun and she shivered, it still was cold in the shadows after all. "Who is that boy?" A cheerful voice asked.

"I don't know." She answered and looked up. The person who had asked was a red haired boy from the upper classes. She had seen him a few times. He was usually surrounded by other children and was smiling cheerfully most of the time.

"The name's Lavi." He smiled at her as he realized she was staring at him.

"I'm Lenalee." She smiled back and he grinned, closing his green eyes.

"Anyway… I'm curious. He doesn't look like he belongs to this school. With that hair I would definitely remember him."

"He's not a first year, I'm one and I know all the others."

"Thought so. But… he's cute, isn't he." He watched as the boy fell into a heap of leaves after he missed the ball that the yellow bird had thrown back to him.

Lavi quickly decided to get to know the newcomer that everyone seemed to make a bow around. "Ah… I wouldn't do that. His frie-"

However Lavi had already reached the boy, who still didn't notice him. She heard a surprised and slightly fearful squeal as the younger was being hugged out of the blue.

She wasn't the only one who had heard it apparently as the black haired boy come running back.

Kanda was furious as he heard Allen's squeal and saw a certain redhead hugging his moyashi. "Keep your hands off! Damn usagi!" He yelled at the other boy. He hit Lavi's head as soon as he reached them and pulled Allen, who looked scared towards him.

He made sure that Allen was alright before turning with a death glare to the other boy. "Try to do that again and you're dead!"

Lavi was rubbing the sore spot on his head where his friend had hit him. "Damn Yuu… ouch… Could you stop hitting me? I wasn't even doing anything!"

Kanda's murderous aura intensified at that. "Don't dare to stay my first name! And don't touch him!" He wanted to hit the rabbit again, but Allen held on to his hand and shook his head. Tears were already gathering in his eyes and Kanda froze. He hated dealing with Allen when he was crying. It always made him awkward.

"Don't." Allen hated seeing people being hurt, especially if it was because of him. And he was scared that Kanda would get in trouble because of this. He tugged on Kanda's arm until the other dropped it to his side again.

"Stop crying moyashi. Just ignore the baka usagi." His gaze softened and he wiped the tears of the boys face to the shock of Lavi who had never seen his friend being friendly to someone.

"Ignore me? How cruel!" Lavi whined and still rubbed over his head. Kanda smirked, he had gotten the rabbit better than he had thought. However his first priority at the moment was to get Allen away from the redhead boy, he didn't want him to pick up any of the usagi's idiocy.

He gently pushed Allen back into the school. "Kanda… he could talk English! Why don't we stay and talk with him?"

The excited look on Allen's face told him that the other really wanted to try and talk with his stupid classmate again. He silently cursed before answering. "He's annoying, I don't like him."

"But he could talk with me. Wouldn't that be nice? If you have to go somewhere there is still another person here that I can talk with." Allen's smile at that made him want to punch the redhead into oblivion. Why of all people was it Lavi that could talk with Allen?

"I'm not going anywhere and if I do then you come along." Kanda shrugged.

Meanwhile Lavi was sitting outside still on the ground and stared after them with a wide grin on his face. Dealing with his friend had just become even more interesting.

"And here I tried to warn you." Lenalee appeared behind him and helped him up. "I don't think you should anger the black haired boy anymore."

"Ah… Yuu-chan was really pissed off, wasn't he?" He could feel a swelling on his head and winced as Lenalee touched it, to see if he was bleeding. "He normally hits where it hurts, but usually he doesn't go all out like now."

"How about trying to annoy him less?" Lenalee suggested with a bright smile.

"And leave out all the fun?" He undusted himself. "I didn't know the boy was here with him though. How come Yuu-chan is taking care of someone as cute as him?"

Lenalee's smile wavered a bit. Lavi didn't really seem stupid, so why did he want to annoy that angry looking boy? "I don't know. Did you understand what they were saying?"

"They were talking in English. I didn't know Yuu-chan can talk English though. Seems like I have still a lot to learn about him."

"Uhm… try at least to not scare that small one anymore. I don't think he appreciated your hug." Lenalee tried. Maybe the tall boy really was stupid. Her brother had warned her not to get close to stupid boys.

"Ah… but he's so cute. And it makes Yuu-chan angry." The redhead answered with a wide grin again. The boy clearly had no value for his life.

Kanda had brought Allen back into their classroom after a little visit to Daisya to take his thoughts of the usagi. Luckily his classmates knew better than to come and try to talk with him. His patience was already gone ever since a certain green eyed boy had appeared in school that day.

"What?" He asked Allen as he noticed that the little boy was staring at him.

"You're angry." Allen said sounding unhappy once again.

"Not at you though."

Allen shook his head. "You didn't want me to come here… you only took me because Marie said you should, didn't you. I know you didn't want to take me along. I'm sorry. I wanted to see what your school is like. It's always boring when you're not around."

"I wouldn't have taken you along if I was completely against it." Kanda knew it was useless trying to lie to Allen. The kid sometimes had the uncanny ability to understand other's emotions too well. He just hoped the other wouldn't start crying again.

Allen's reaction was worse than crying however. He had his mask back in place and told him he'd call his uncle and go home, so that Kanda could concentrate again. Somehow this made Kanda a lot more angry. He had thought Allen had finally started to accept that he could ask for things he wanted and that he didn't have to try and stay out of everyone's way so much.

He took a hold of Allen's wrist before the other could go outside and tried his best to not sound too angry. If he did, then Allen for sure would run away. "Moyashi… stop being stupid. You're here already, I promised you could come along and you're not the one who made me angry. I'm angry because of the stupid usagi. If someone should go back home it's him."

He hoped he'd gotten his point across and that the white haired boy believed him when he said he wasn't angry at him. Often enough he had mistaken Kanda's anger at someone else as anger directed at him.

Albeit slowly Allen nodded and smiled a tiny smile and Kanda poked him once again. "You like being here, right?"

"Hai."

"Then it's ok for you to be here." Finally that seemed to work and Allen hugged him, which caused Kanda to tense up and awkwardly pat his back.

"Awww… why does he hug you and is scared of me when I hug him?" Lavi had finally decided to go back to their class as well. "And since when do you let others hug you, Yuu-chan?"

"Shut up, usagi!" He glared at his irritating classmate, so for once the other made no move to come close. Instead he was staring at his moyashi. "And what do you think you are staring at?" He ground out through clenched teeth.

"Your little friend." Lavi smiled at the boy that had finally turned to look at him too and seemed to be torn between his curiosity for him and staying close to Kanda.

"Say, who are you?" Lavi asked Allen finally in English, all the while ignoring the murderous aura Kanda gave off.

"Allen." Lavi was excited that the little one finally talked with him. "Allen? Where are you from? I'm-"

"Usagi." Allen smiled. "I know already… and you shouldn't call him Yuu-chan anymore." He pointed at Kanda and frowned as he said so.

"Errr… why should I not? And my name really is L-"

"Usagi." Kanda smirked and pulled Allen towards himself again.

"If I can't call him Yuu, then you cannot either." Allen explained still frowning at that. "So why do speak English?"

"Cause my grandpa wants me to learn many languages." Allen was impressed and curious about him. "Can you speak other languages too then, usagi?"

"Is that some kind of payback?" Lavi's smile became a bit strained when Allen blinked and looked confused.

"Payback? Why"

"Cause my name is" But once again he was cut off by Kanda who had kicked him once again. He had warned the other boy to stay away from his moyashi! He didn't care too much that he had to calm Allen down again now. At least his moyashi wasn't focused on the stupid redhead anymore.

He was saved more troubles in form of the bell that rang and was for once glad when his teacher came back into the class. Lavi glanced at him and seemed to pout. He had wanted to talk with the white haired boy longer. Kanda however didn't want that at all. Daisya was more than enough of a bad influence for the little boy already, there was absolutely no need to add Lavi to the list.

During the next break the redhead was prevented from trying to talk with Allen again since his classmates were asking him questions about the boy. They couldn't ask the tiny boy themselves and Kanda never gave answers, so they were hoping that Lavi could tell them more as he had spoken with him. They were disappointed though since Lavi didn't know much either.

He decided to talk with him during the next break, but Allen fell asleep during the lesson. Apparently he was exhausted from all the excitement and from having that many people around. He watched Kanda as he placed his jacket around the boy and for once thought he'd be better off with not going against Kanda's wishes. As such he let the little one sleep.

"Who is he really?" He whispered to Kanda instead.

"Allen Walker."

"I know his name. But who is he? Why is he with you? What's with the scar?" Lavi rolled his eyes at his friends. The boy knew damn well what he wanted to know.

"Don't you dare ask him about the scar!" Kanda whispered furiously. "I met him in the orphanage I was in. We are neighbors and he wanted to see what my school is like."

Lavi thought about that for a second before he grinned. "And you're nice enough to let him?"

"Stuff it!" Lavi smiled when he realized that he finally found something that the black haired boy liked. Up until now Kanda had always just stated when he didn't like things (an almost endless list in Lavi's mind), so he had tried to figure out what Kanda would like.

The last lesson passed fast. Kanda shook Allen awake when they were allowed to pack their things. "Come. We're finally leaving."

"I fell asleep." Allen whispered guiltily. Children weren't supposed to sleep in school.

"It's your own fault you were tired. I told you to go sleep early yesterday."

"I was worried. I couldn't sleep." Allen was really disappointed at that and Kanda sighed. What could he say that would get Allen to cheer up again and make him move out of the classroom?

"Did you like it here?" Their teacher had come up to them. When she received a nod as answer she told Allen to learn the first ten signs that he had been working with today as he would get a little test tomorrow. Kanda was surprised at that but didn't say a word as it cheered Allen up again.

It wasn't Tiedoll that picked them up in the evening, but Cross Marian. He explained that Tiedoll had to work longer today and that he would take them home instead.

Allen instantly started to tell his uncle about his day at school. When he mentioned the name of Kanda's teacher Cross nodded. "She's a fine woman… good looking too. You're lucky to have her as a teacher, brat."

Kanda just shrugged, he wasn't interested in boring teachers. Allen on the other hand agreed with his uncle.

"I think so too. She was really nice and helped me learn when no one had any questions."

"So you wanna go to school again kid?"

Allen nodded happily and Kanda groaned.

"Allen, join me in class tomorrow." Daisya said with a grin. "My classmates were really curious about you."

Seeing Allen nod, Kanda quickly reminded him that Mrs. Nine was expecting him tomorrow. "She gave you homework after all."

"So I'll have to go to Mrs. Nine tomorrow again?"

Daisya snickered. "Unless you are afraid of the test she will give you."

"Am not. You don't mind if I come along?" He asked Kanda.

Kanda noticed how everyone seemed to wait expectantly for his answer. He blushed slightly and looked away. "Che…"

That was enough of an answer for his small companion though. The boy smiled happily and continued to tell his uncle about how he met a strange red haired boy who was named usagi. This caused laughter to erupt in the car.

"Usagi means rabbit." Marie told him a few minutes later. "I'm sure it's one of Kanda's nicknames for someone."

Kanda sighed. "His name is Lavi."

"Bookman?" Cross asked, suddenly interested. As Kanda nodded he continued. "I know his grandfather. The man is one hell of a doctor. So the brat is this old already. I saw him as a baby once." Though Cross really remembered the proud mother who held the baby more. Not that the children in the car needed to know that.

This chapter was a pain in the a**. I hate broken characters, but given the background I gave Allen it would be scary if he was normal. I mean… no child would be normal if they saw their parents get killed and knew it was because of them (Mana got involved because Allen was under attack.) No matter what anyone says, Allen can't be fine with that.

So what I tried to do was showing him more as a healing person than anything else. Of course that will have drawbacks.

I initially wanted to make it into a one-shot, but I have way too many ideas in my head for them growing up. First meeting was Kanda and Allen, this was family and also friends. Next chapter will take up from here again, though after that there will be some years in between the chapters.

Anyway, give me some opinions on this one!