Why hello thar.

Well, here it is: the first chapter of the sequel to "Stalking Lavi Bookman"! It's just sort of a general intro that sets up some of the action, and it's kind of short, but I hope you guys enjoy it nonetheless!

Also? Writing from Lavi's perspective is amazingly fun. Don't know why I didn't do it sooner.

A quick note: My update schedule for this fic is bound to be erratic at best. Law school is Really. Freaking. Hard. You guys... You don't even know. Well, maybe some of you do, I'm not sure. Anyway! I'll try to get chapters out as fast as I can. I promise!

Now, onward!

Disclaimer: I do not own D Gray-man.

Lavi Bookman was feeling ridiculously pleased with himself.

He chuckled slightly, humming a merry little tune as he made his bed. When he was finished, the bed was less "made" as it was in a state of only slightly less disarray than it had been after he'd rolled out of it not thirty seconds earlier. Now that he really looked at it, he noticed that his comforter had somehow been flipped upside down and hung unevenly off the left side of his bed. Underneath it, there was a sizeable lump on the right side where his flat sheet sat, rolled into a tight ball—he still wasn't quite sure how he'd accomplished that. Most people would scoff at his abysmal housekeeping skills, but Lavi decided to give himself an "A" for effort. Lavi always gave himself an "A," mostly because he deserved it for being so unbelievably awesome.

His cell phone beeped, dragging him out of his satisfied self-congratulation. He walked over to his desk (tripping over The Berlin-Baghdad Express: The Ottoman Empire and Germany's Bid for World Power, 1898 to 1918 by Sean McMeekin as he went) and picked up said device, pushing the tiny buttons with a grin when he saw who the text was from.

Hey! I'll be back in town in about an hour (finally). Christmas with Cross was a nightmare. You busy later?

This, of course, was the message he'd been waiting for. It was why he'd gotten up so early (on a Saturday, even!) and was currently trying to make his room—and, by extension, himself—a bit more presentable. And it was why he was feeling so ridiculously pleased. He would almost say that he was giddy, except Lavi didn't use lame words like "giddy." That just reminded him of cowboys and horses and that time in the fourth grade when his grandpa forced him to take riding classes after school when everyone else got to go home and watch Power Rangers. He'd had to listen to stuffy rich kids bore him to death with stories about how well bred their horses were or whatever, while the bitchy instructor made him ride some cantankerous old pony called Bartholomew (Barty to his friends, of which Lavi was not) that tried to throw him every chance it got.

Moral of the story: horses are stupid. And the Green Ranger was obviously the best.

But anyway—back to the matter at hand.

Allen was coming home today.

Lavi grinned even wider as he replied with of course not—call me when you get here and threw his phone onto the floor; it landed with a soft thwump on a sweatshirt he'd neglected to wash for about three weeks.

The redhead allowed himself a contented sigh—something that would normally never occur, but there was no one around to hear it and make fun of him so it was all good—as he raked a hand through his tousled hair. Allen had been gone for almost a month, what with Winter Break and all, and Lavi was starting to go crazy. Sure, they'd had their little Christmas/Allen's birthday celebration before the white-haired boy had gone back to spend the holidays with his godfather, but that had been so long ago. Lavi felt like he was going through some sort of Allen withdrawal.

He had a fever, and the only cure was more Allen.

Congratulating himself for that clearly hilarious mental pop-culture reference, Lavi threw open his bedroom door and bounded down the stairs. Allen's text had left him in high spirits. Obviously, he needed to share his good mood with the world.

He found Lenalee in the living room, frowning at the script she was holding at arm's length.

"Lena!" Lavi cried, jumping up behind her.

She shrieked and fell off of the couch.

"Oops," Lavi said, rubbing the back of his head.

Lenalee hauled herself back up, glaring. "What do you want, Lavi?"

"I just got a text from Allen. He should be back in about an hour!"

Lenalee's harsh look softened as she smiled up at him. "That's right; he's coming back today, isn't he? That's great! We've really missed him around here."

"Speak for yourself," Kanda grumbled, stalking into the room in his usual bad mood. "That's the worst news I've heard since I found out the he and the stupid rabbit are…" Here he paused, nose wrinkling. "Dating," he finally spat.

"Aww, what's wrong, Yu? Are you jealous?" Lavi sauntered over to the angry boy and wrapped an arm around his shoulders. "Did you want me all for yourself? I can see how you'd feel that way. Everybody wants a little Lavi action now and th—okay, okay, you're choking me," he gasped, twisting sharply away as Kanda smirked.

The Japanese boy removed his hands from where they'd been wrapped around the redhead's neck and shoved them into his pockets. "Quit being an idiot," he said flatly. "It's just now the damn beansprout is somehow over here even more than he was before. I have to look at his stupid face all the time now. It's annoying."

"But he's been gone for a whole month!" Lavi said, pouting. "His face hasn't even been around at all! Oh," Lavi whimpered, looking pitiful and forlorn. "I miss his face…"

Lenalee mustered every ounce of acting talent she possessed in order to not laugh as she patted the depressed redhead on the back.

"Shut up," Kanda grunted. "Quit whining. Not having his ugly face around has made this one of the best months of my life."

"Geez, Kanda, quit being an ass," Lenalee chided. He glared at her and then stomped into the kitchen and started banging around in search of his soba. "Anyway, Lavi, will you help me prepare for this?" She waved her script at him imploringly. "Auditions are the first week of second semester, and I'm having a bit of trouble with this Shakespeare stuff and—"

"I just had the best idea!" Lavi exclaimed, rounding on the girl and interrupting her plea.

"What?" she said, disgruntled.

"Allen and Yu don't get along, right?"

"Right," Lenalee said slowly, as if unsure of where this was going and annoyed that Lavi was ignoring her.

"I mean, I need my best friend and my boyfriend to get along, don't I?"

"I thought Allen was your best friend."

"He was," Lavi said, "but now he's my boyfriend. He can't be both."

"But why no—"

"So clearly, I have to formulate a plan to make them stop hating each other," he said, pretending she hadn't spoken. He stared at the Chinese girl with the look of fierce determination he reserved solely for discussions of his infamous adventures. "Operation: Allen/Kanda Friendship is go!" He held up a triumphant fist, inwardly marveling at his extreme genius and general amazingness. Some might argue that "amazingness" isn't even a word, but Lavi would just tell those people to shut up, because it is now.

"That'll never work," Lenalee said bluntly.

"Hey!" Lavi said, offended. "Don't underestimate my extreme genius and general amazingness! It'll be epic, I'm telling you. So much better than old William Shakespeare, at any rate. And we can always rehearse later! C'mon, whaddaya say?" He gave her a pleading look, his single green eye shining with hope.

She sighed, glancing sadly at the cover of Twelfth Night before setting it aside. "I'm not going to have a choice in this, am I?"

"'Course not!" Lavi said happily. He grabbed a bright red notebook off of the bookshelf in the corner of the living room, dug around between the couch cushions until he pulled out a pen (it had a bunch of unidentifiable crumbs stuck to it, which Lavi hastily wiped off on his pant leg) and then plopped down next to her with a grin. "Let the planning stage commence!"

Exactly one hour and twelve minutes later, Lavi was once again congratulating himself on a job well done. He'd covered five notebook pages with his messy handwriting before he'd finally struck upon an idea that Lenalee didn't bitch about. Honestly, he loved her like a sister, but she could be such a pessimist sometimes. Always harping on about how his ideas were "physically impossible" or "probably illegal."

But finally, he'd mentioned something that she actually seemed excited about. After that, they'd worked everything out, down to the last detail, and drew up a plan. Hell, he even made a flowchart.

"You know what, Lavi? I think this might actually be fun!" Lenalee said, smiling up at him.

Lavi grinned his signature cocky grin. "'Course it will, Lena. Everything I come up with is fun."

She rolled her eyes and smacked him lightly on the shoulder. "Get over yourself."

"Never!"

"Do you think Kanda will actually agree to this?" Lenalee wanted to know, frowning slightly at Lavi's (sweet) flowchart.

"Uh huh," he said, leaning back against the couch. "All you have to do is tell him you'll be sad if he doesn't go along with it. You could throw in an adorable pout, even," he suggested.

"Like this?" she said, demonstrating.

Lavi laughed. "Perfect! He's too easy to manipulate, it almost isn't even fun."

"'Almost' being the key word here," Lenalee giggled.

Suddenly, the slightly muffled sound of Lavi's obnoxiously happy ringtone floated down the stairs.

The green-eyed boy leaped up, smiling so wide it actually kind of hurt. "You fill Yu in on the plan. I'll let Allen know what's up!" He snatched the notebook from Lenalee's hands and sprinted up the stairs and into his room. He spent a frantic moment searching for his phone before he found it (that sweatshirt really needed to be washed, he decided) and answered with a slightly breathless "hello?"

"Lavi?" Allen's bright, clear voice answered. "Are you all right? You sound like you've been running."

"I'm cool!" he insisted. "You home?"

"Yes," Allen replied. "You have no idea how glad I am to be back."

"I think maybe I have some idea." He moved to the window and drew back the shade to gaze at Allen's house, only to find his boyfriend grinning at him from his own bedroom window. Lavi laughed and waved.

"Christmas with Cross was one of the worst experiences of my life. Did you know that he—? Well. I'll tell you all about it later." He smiled. "It's so good to see you," he said, raising his right hand and pressing it against the glass.

"You too," Lavi replied, copying the action. "I've missed you."

"I've missed you too," Allen said softly. They stood like that for a minute, just staring and smiling at each other through the glass, glad they were together again once more.

"Together" in a purely metaphorical sense, of course, because at the moment they weren't technically together so much as they were in separate houses. But Lavi figured it was close enough.

"Well!" the redhead said brightly. "I think we've just met our sappiness quota for the month." He gave Allen a thumbs-up, which was accompanied by a cheeky grin.

Allen laughed, letting his hand drop. "I think you're right. Sorry about that."

"It's cool. Anyway! Now that you're back, guess what we have to do?"

"Have a party?"

"Aww, you're so smart!"

"I try. So, what's the theme this time?" He cocked his head to the side in question.

Lavi took a second to enjoy how completely adorable Allen looked when he did that before he answered. "Ah, that's the thing! It's a totally different kind of party than we usually have!"

"Really?" Allen said, raising an eyebrow. "Okay, I'll admit I'm intrigued."

"As well you should be, my good man," Lavi said, nodding sagely. He held the notebook up and pressed it against the glass. "Ta da! Behold my genius!"

"I can't really see it that well from here," Allen said, squinting. "Is that a flowchart?" he added suspiciously.

"Hell yes it is," Lavi said proudly. "And dude, what are we doing still talking over the phone? Get your ass over here so I can tell you my plan."

"Oh, right," Allen said sheepishly. "I'll be right there." Lavi watched him hang up the phone and move away from the window. Lavi started to move away from his own window, but stopped short as his gaze fell onto Allen's front yard.

There, crouching in the bushes, was Chomesuke.

Lavi blinked, confused. Ever since he'd spread the word that he and Allen were dating, he figured that his crazed horde of fangirls would give up and move on to someone else—hopefully Yu, because that would be freaking hilarious. He felt a little sad about losing them until he remembered that most of them were terrifying and/or stalking him.

As he continued to watch the brown-haired girl, he realized that she was facing the wrong direction. Usually, she skulked in Allen's shrubbery with her gaze fixed on Lavi's living room window. But this time, it was Allen's house she was watching, scribbling furiously on a yellow legal pad while she spoke into a camo-green walkie-talkie. Curious, he tried to open his window to hear what she was saying, but it was frozen shut. It made a horrible screeching sound as he tugged on it, but otherwise remained resolutely closed.

The noise drew Chomesuke's attention. She whirled around and looked up at him, her eyes wide. Lavi raised an eyebrow at her. She said something very fast into her walkie-talkie and then bolted across the yard and down the street. Lavi shook his head, bemused. What had she been doing? He would have found out, too, if not for the window refusing to cooperate. He glared at the thick coating of ice along the sill that had prevented him from opening it. Stupid winter, thwarting his otherwise ninja-esque stealth.

Lavi left his room and descended the stairs, meaning to tell Allen all about Chomesuke's stranger-than-normal behavior—which was really saying something—but when his boyfriend entered the house, wiping his boots on the rug and shaking snow out of his hair, Lavi was so excited to see him that all thoughts of Chomesuke immediately fled his mind.

This would eventually come back to bite him in the ass. But more on that later.

"Allen!" Lavi said blissfully, leaping forward and enveloping him in a tight hug.

"Hello, Lavi," Allen said, attempting to return the hug but finding that he was having trouble breathing. "Agh… too…tight…"

"Oh, sorry little buddy!" Lavi apologized, pulling away slightly. "I just missed you, you know?"

"Yes, you've made that abundantly clear," he replied, grinning. He leaned up and pressed a soft kiss to the taller boy's lips. "I've missed you too."

"Aww!" Lenalee cried, appearing out of nowhere and scaring both boys half to death. "You two are so cute!"

"Lenalee," Lavi wheezed, holding a hand over his racing heart. "Don't do that!"

"That's payback for this morning," she said sweetly.

Lavi hung his head while Allen glanced curiously between them.

"Anyway," Lenalee said, moving forward to give Allen a 'welcome back!' hug of her own. "Have you told him about the plan?"

"Not yet," Lavi said, brightening. "But he'll love it, I bet! Did you get Kanda to agree?"

"Who do you think you're talking to?" she said slyly. "He'll be there; no problem."

"Yes!" Lavi cried, pumping a fist.

"What plan is this?" Allen demanded. "I don't know if I'll be too thrilled with it if Kanda's going to be there."

"Dude, I made it, okay? You'll be thrilled, trust me."

"All right," Allen said dubiously.

Lavi led the way into the living room, throwing himself onto the couch. Allen sat next to him, peeking curiously at the notebook Lavi still held in his hand. Lenalee wrinkled her nose at Lavi's orange armchair—which was ridiculous because that thing was fan-freaking-tastic—before curling up on the loveseat.

"Okay," Lavi said dramatically, holding the notebook out to Allen like it was the Holy Grail or some equally important historical artifact of questionable existence. "So. We're going to have a scavenger hunt."

"What." Allen deadpanned.

"Come on!" Lenalee said. "It'll be great! We came up with this cool list of stuff to get, and—"

"I'm sorry, but since when are we all ten-year-olds?" Allen wanted to know.

"Dude, quit being a jerk," Lavi said amiably. Allen huffed, probably highly affronted, but Lavi ignored him. He was incredible at ignoring people. "So, here's how it'll go down. We're going to have teams of four—you, me, Lena, and Yu are a team, natch—and we'll have two categories of things to find. The first category is stuff you can take a picture with. At least three teammates have to be in the picture, to prove that your whole team is together and that you're not cheating by splitting up to cover more ground and get more items on the list. The second category is stuff you have to actually physically collect and bring back at the end of the hunt. Sounds fun, right?"

"Can I see the list?" Allen asked.

"Sure thing, darlin'!" Lavi said, handing it over.

"'Darlin''?" Allen repeated, eyebrow raised. "What have I told you about nicknames?"

"What? It's not a nickname! It's a term of endearment!"

"Didn't we already have this conversation?"

"Probably," Lavi said, shrugging. "Anyway, what do you think of the list?"

"Huh," Allen said, reading it over. "This actually seems like it could be pretty fun."

"Right?" Lavi said happily.

Lenalee's phone beeped, and she grinned as she quickly read the text. "Oh! Miranda says that she, Krory, Daisya, and Daisya's friend Noise Marie want in, and they'll be a team. This'll be—" she was cut off by the sound of her phone beeping again. "Oh! Fou, you know, one of my friends from the theatre department?"

Lavi nodded, remembering her vividly. Aside from Lenalee, she was the only other girl who was ever able to resist his charm. Unlike Lenalee, however, she had a penchant for punching people. The redhead rubbed his shoulder and pouted, remembering the time she's wailed on him for some rather inappropriate comments he'd made about her stomach—namely that he liked what he could see of it from the belly shirt she'd been wearing and was wondering if she'd like to show him a little more.

In retrospect, he could see why she'd been offended by that.

He would exercise far more caution around her this time, in order to save his poor shoulder from any further abuse, as well as to prove to Allen that he wasn't nearly as perverted as the white-haired boy insisted he was.

"Anyway," Lenalee said. "She and three of her friends are going to make up a team as well. Everyone should be here around 6:00 pm. Oh! This is going to be such a good time!"

"Wait, am I reading this right?" Allen said, holding the notebook out to Lavi for verification. "It says we have 24 hours to get as much of this stuff as we can."

"Yep! This is an all-day, all-night thing. So no sleeping!"

"At all?" Allen said, aghast.

"Yep! That's what makes it so fun!"

"Che. I doubt that," Kanda said, appearing in the doorway to the kitchen. He spotted Allen on the couch and sneered. "Oh. It's the beansprout. I was hoping you'd died or something."

"Shut up, jerk!" Allen hissed.

"Why am I being forced to spend time with him again?" Kanda demanded.

"But…" Lenalee began, her eyes filling with tears.

Kanda looked away quickly, grimacing. "I said I'd go, didn't I?" he said through gritted teeth. "You don't have to cry about it."

She and Lavi shared a knowing smirk.

"Be nice to her!" Allen commanded. "You really are a vicious brute, you know that?"

"Like I care what you think."

Lenalee moved silently around the back of the couch to whisper in Lavi's ear. "Do you really think this is going to work?" In the background, the bickering between Allen and Kanda continued. "They really can't seem to get along."

"Oh, it'll work," Lavi said confidently. "Trust me."

On the inside, however, he was starting to feel slightly less confident about the whole thing—especially since the two of them had started throwing things at each other.

But this had to work, Lavi decided, ducking the ladle that came flying at his head. If it didn't work, he didn't know what he'd do!

Well, okay, that was a little dramatic. What he'd probably do was just try a different plan next week.

He had a whole notebook full of them, after all.

What do you think so far? Drop me a line and let me know!