A/N: Lucky chapter number thirteen is now up for your reading pleasure.

I know that the last chapter was a bit short so I wanted to get this one up as soon as I could. It's also a but short but hey, two updates in two days.

Disclaimer: Haibanashi does not own D. Gray-Man or any of its characters (though I wish I did). Haibanashi makes no profit off of this story.

Warnings: Self-depreciating thoughts, denial, and some swearing in this chapter. A bit of angst, too.

Venture on!

Allen was petrified.

He vaguely recognized the three people that were staring him down. He knew the girl with the pigtails was one of the most popular in the school and that the one on the right played soccer. The other was rather intimidating, a fierce glare and rather long hair for a male.

He realized that these were Lavi's friends. And all of their gazes were fixed on him.

Fuck.

Lavi opened his mouth to formulate some sort of reply.

"Lavi," the soccer player started slowly before the redhead could get a word out, "I don't know if you know this, but that person that you're acting chummy with is the Cursed Clown. You know, the crazy psycho kid?"

The offense that should have come along with the statement didn't even register with Allen. What was Lavi going to do? Let them know that he had been mistaken? Or say that he hadn't known?

"He's not crazy," Lavi said simply, as if it were and obvious fact. "He's nice."

That had been the last thing Allen had expected.

Lavi was defending him? Why? Sure, they were technically friends, but there was no way that he could hold a candle to people that Lavi had probably known for longer than him. It just… it didn't make sense.

Suddenly, the soccer player whipped his head towards Allen.

"I don't know what kinda dirt you have on Lavi or how much of it," he spat venomously at Allen, "but blackmail is a fucking cheap shot and if you think that you're gonna get away with any of it, you better reconsider right now before I—"

"Daisya!" Lavi yelled at the same time as the pretty girl did.

"He's not blackmailing me," Lavi stated. And to Allen's shock, he had even fixed a glare on his friend. Daisya seemed surprised, too, if his face was anything to go by. "He's my friend. He's a good person and I don't want you talking shit about someone that you don't even know."

The girl sighed and turned to Daisya. "Are you really judging someone based off of a few half baked rumors? That's really cruel."

Wow hold on. Was she defending him now? No, dumb question. The real one was why she was defending him now, too. She wasn't even his friend. Hell, they hadn't even met yet. This is so weird.

"Uh," Daisya's stance lost all signs of aggression, his shoulders relaxing and hands being coaxed out of fists. He looked at Allen and, even more surprising, looked properly chastised, even if a smidge of suspicion still lingered in his gaze. "Sorry 'bout that. I guess I kinda got swept up in all the gossip and shit. Just looking out for my friend, y'know?"

Allen nodded sharply. Lavi still hadn't moved his arm from his shoulders.

"Tch," the other male clicked his tongue irksomely, "I don't see why this even matters. Let the stupid rabbit do whatever the fuck he wants to."

"Rude," Lavi drawled out. "I thought I was your friend, Yu."

"No, we're not," Yu growled out. "Fuck you sideways, Bookman."

"Sorry to say that I don't return the affection," Lavi snarked back sweetly.

Yu looked like that he was ready to completely maul Lavi. He simply clicked his tongue and stalked off, muttering something about going home to avoid idiots.

Allen wasn't sure what to even think of him except aggressive asshole.

"Just ignore Kanda," the girl was talking again. "He's always grumpy."

"It's how he shows affection."

"He doesn't have any affection to be shown, Lavi."

"No one asked for your opinion, Daisya."

"Both of you shut up," the girl commanded. She turned back towards Allen. "I'm sorry, I never introduced myself. I'm Lenalee."

Lenalee grinned as she said her name and stuck out a hand.

Allen was smart enough to recognize and accept an olive branch when it was offered to him.

"Allen," the Brit took Lenalee's offered hand and gave it a firm shake.

"Oh my god!" Lenalee squealed, her face brightening. She squeezed Allen's hand. "You're British aren't you?"

"English, yes." Was his accent really that obvious?

She turned sharply to Lavi. "Is he the cute guy in your English class that you were talking about?"

Lavi had mentioned him. Allen was past the point of being surprised now. He was dumbfounded.

"Ah, yeah," Lavi smiled easily, finally removing his arm from around his friend's shoulders. "Lenalee, this is Allen."

Lenalee looked ready to burst with excitement. "I think I'm gonna like you, Mister Allen."

She hadn't known him for all of a minute and she was already saying stuff like this. It was odd, but not unwelcome.

Allen smiled back. "I think that I'm going to enjoy your company as well, Miss Lenalee."

.:*~*:..:*~*:..:*~*:..:*~*:..:*~*:.

Lavi watched with a sense of pride as Allen and Lenalee shook hands and smiled at each other. He couldn't have hoped for a better meeting between the two. Kanda had acted normally so no harm there. Daisya's initial reaction had been pretty volatile and not that good, but he seemed to be handling it now. Hopefully everything would work out between them. Lavi sure hoped so.

When Lenalee had first said his name, he had felt Allen's entire body tense up under his arm. He knew that Allen was nervous, scared even. Which is why he kept his arm around him, a reminder that he had someone on his side if things started getting bad.

He had felt Allen tense further when Daisya decided that being a complete and total douche was a good idea. And for whatever reason the Brit had gone completely rigid when he had jumped to his defense.

But now, Allen was still a bit tense and nervous, but he was much more at ease than he had been before. Which was good. Definitely good.

"So," Lenalee turned to Lavi, her arms crossed over her chest, "any reason that you never introduced us before?"

"Uh, well," Lavi looked away sheepishly, "just, you know, didn't know what the reaction would be like. And I didn't want to put Allen in that kind of position."

Lenalee smiled. "Alright, that's fair. But just so you know, he's eating lunch with us tomorrow. I want to get to know him."

"I gotta go," Daisya said suddenly, fixing Lavi with a look that assured that they'd be talking about this later. Fan-fucking-tastic.

"That may not be the best idea, Lena," Lavi said. "I mean, Allen isn't exactly popular and, you know—"

"If anyone decided that they want to be an asshole to him I'll knock them out," Lenalee assured, smile still intact.

"Okay," Lavi nodded. "Looks like you don't have much of a choice, Allen."

"Nope!" Lenalee chirped happily. Becoming slightly more subdued, she added, "I have to go. Komui will get angry if I'm not there for him to pick up. See you guys tomorrow guys!"

"It was nice meeting you," Allen smiled back.

Lenalee grinned at him. "You too, Allen."

And with that she was gone.

"I like her," Allen declared.

"Yeah," Lavi agreed. "It's hard not to. She's just… so peppy."

Allen nodded. "So what now?"

Lavi shrugged. "Let's walk around the shopping area. Maybe we can grab an ice cream or something."

"Alright then," Allen turned to Lavi. "Lead the way."

.:*~*:..:*~*:..:*~*:..:*~*:..:*~*:.

It just so happened that getting ice cream was the very first thing that the two of them did. They each got a cone and continued walking, simply losing themselves in easy conversation.

"All I'm saying is that grades are pretty stupid," Allen stated, licking at his cone. "They don't really tell you how much a student has learned and you need to get less than ten percent wrong to even be considered a good student."

"I know," Lavi groaned. "And they expect us to sit in a room for ninety minutes and just fucking absorb everything. And then due a ridiculous amount of homework. Like really, some of us do actually have this thing called a life."

"Speaking of life, shouldn't we be learning more technical skills?" Allen asked offhandedly.

"What do you mean?"

"Well, why don't school teach us things like basic first aid or how to get a job? Something that we can apply in the 'real world.'"

"Huh," Lavi fixed his gaze onto the Brit. "You know, I never thought of it like that. But you're totally right."

"Well not completely correct—"

"Nope," Lavi cut off. "You're right. Take the compliment."

Allen chuckled. "Alright then, be that way."

Lavi grinned. "Hey."

"What, Lavi?"

"You should take your hood off."

Allen stopped walking.

"Lavi," he started, soft and slowly, "I'm not taking my hood off."

"You've done it before—"

"With just the two of us," Allen nearly snapped at him. "I'm not going to display myself for all the world to see, sorry to disappoint."

"No no no no no no no," Lavi said hurriedly. "I didn't mean it like that. I'm sorry, that was really rude."

Allen's shoulders dropped after a few moments and he heaved a world-weary sigh. "It's fine. I overreacted."

"And I was being a douche bitch," Lavi smiled. "Now c'mon. I only have until five to talk with you."

Allen looked up at him. Probably. It was kinda hard to tell with the hood. "May I ask why?"

"My grandpa," Lavi answered. "He wants me home by then. And if I'm not the old panda will probably beat me or something."

"Makes enough sense," Allen shrugged off the explanation.

"Okay, since we need a new topic, why don't we play twenty questions?" Lavi proposed. "That's a good game to get to know someone else."

"Alright."

"You go first."

"Hm," Allen tilted his head back. "Favorite book?"

"Damn," Lavi muttered. "You just had to pick that one."

"What did I do?"

"There are too many good books," Lavi stated. "It's like you said, there are too many plots and adventures and not enough time and too damn many to pick just one. I just—I can't even—"

"Don't go all white girl on me," Allen snickered. "Just pick one that you like."

"Ugh," Lavi groaned. "Nope, not doing this. I am vetoing your question."

"That's not how the game works!" Allen protested.

"I'm older, I get to make the rules," Lavi singsonged.

"I'm smarter and faster," Allen rebutted, "so it should be me making the rules."

"The smarter part is debatable," Lavi argued. "And fuck, I doubt that anyone in our school is faster than you. You should really try out for the track team. They'd love you."

Allen turned to him. Just from the shape of his mouth, Lavi could tell that Allen was regarding him skeptically. "I'm not exactly all that lovable."

"Sure you are!" Lavi exclaimed. "You're small and that's kinda cute and you're British and really polite. No one could possibly not like you."

That includes you. Especially you.

Shut the fuck up, Lavi thought back at himself, still smiling.

"That's kind of you to say Lavi," Allen acknowledged. "But if you haven't noticed it by now, I'm not all that well liked around the school."

"That's their problem," Lavi dismissed flippantly. "You need to spread your wings. You're like a chrysalis right now. You need to break out and become a beautiful butterfly."

Allen was looking at him weird. He just knew it.

"Strange analogy."

"It's true though," Lavi insisted. He paused. "How the fuck did we go from twenty questions to this again?"

Allen laughed openly at that. Lavi felt something odd in his chest. "I don't even remember. Our conversations seem to consist entirely of tangent upon tangent."

"Those are the best conversations, though," Lavi pointed out. "You never get bored."

"That is true, I suppose," Allen conceded. "The banter is also entertaining."

"Yeah, it is. But seriously, do you know how fucking hard it is to find someone to do it with?"

"Yes, I do. Not everyone can pick up on it when you throw out a comment—"

"—and then they get offended and sometimes people just aren't intelligent enough to come up with anything—"

"—and there are people that just don't do it," Allen concluded.

"Exactly," Lavi grinned. "You get what I'm saying. I would never say something mean to Lenalady, Kanda would fucking kill me, and Daisya just kinda blow it off."

"I haven't bantered like this with someone for a long time," Allen said.

"Glad I can be a banter buddy for you then," Lavi threw an arm over Allen's shoulder. "Okay, my turn to ask a question now."

"You never answered mine though!"

"Sucks to suck."

Needless to say, the two of them had a wonderful time.

A/N: And that's all she wrote. For this chapter, at least.

So much dialogue. I can't tell exactly how much I'm fucking this up.

I'm not a Lenalee hater. I love her as a character. For those of you that like her, she may or may not play an important role later on.

Please review, favorite, and/or follow. Your support is always cherished.