Thank you OtakuShipping, Andune Carnesir, and candy crackpot for reviewing!

The next few weeks followed just the same as the day Allen arrived. He seemed to only appear a few times a day and only for a few seconds before he was gone again. The only thing that really changed besides Allen's presence and the actual eating of three times a day, was the cleanliness of the house. Neah was not a clean freak, in fact, he was the complete opposite. He didn't like admitting to it, but his house was usually a complete mess. Every few months, he would invite some friends over to help him clean until it was squeaky clean, but within a week, it'd be all dirtied again. However, somehow, his house was completely clean no matter how many clothes he threw on the floor. He often trashed his house accidentally by throwing trash from cereal boxes or popcorn bags on the floor while he was watching TV; but no matter how dirty the house was by night, in the morning, it would be good as new.

Feeling that he secluded himself from the world ever since Allen moved in, Neah invited some friends to come over.

That hadn't been one of his brightest ideas.

He only intended to invite Lenalee over, but then her persistent friend, Lavi, was...well, persistent and in the end, her, Lavi, Kanda, Daisya, Marie, and Chaoji all came over. Honestly, Neah thought that Allen had went out to 'make money' again. Little did he know, Allen was in his room sleeping peacefully. It'd been a long month and going out in the cold everyday to get earnings and wait in line to go inside...well, he caught a small cold and it only grew worse since he didn't get as much rest as a sick person needed. He managed to hide it from Neah whether it was because the man was an oblivious moron or he was sneaky...well, it didn't really matter, as long as he didn't know about it. Why? Well, Allen's pride wouldn't let him be seen like this.

He'd find out today, that was for sure.

When all six were in his living room, things got pretty crowded and he had to move them all to the dining room, which was a lot more bigger than his living room for whatever reason. There was a soft thump that echoed from Allen's room, but the only ones who managed to hear it was Marie and Kanda. Kanda excused himself to the 'bathroom' and took his sheathed sword with him. The others didn't mind his strange behavior (except Marie, that is) because Kanda was...strange. No one could ever tell what was on his mind anyways. Neah thought about Allen and wondered whether he should introduce him or not. It seemed like he wouldn't really care about them...then again, if they didn't know about him being here then there'd be trouble sooner or later. "Ah, that's right, I need to inform you all of something; it's probably the reason why I haven't really been out and about as much...you see-"

Neah froze, hearing the sound of a...actually, quite high pitched scream.

Then it all fell into place. Kanda took his sword...Allen's room was on the way to the bathroom...

"SHIT!" He cursed and bolted out of the kitchen, knocking a few things down. Everyone looked at each other before running off after him. Neah paled when he saw Kanda holding his unsheathed sword against Allen's neck, who was breathing a little too quickly. He looked terrified. Neah shouted and rushed forward and yanked Kanda off of the younger teen. Allen breathed out a gasp and scooted away up against the wall.

"Are you bloody insane?!" Allen shouted.

"Ha...ha...guys, this is...my nephew..."

"HE'S GOT A BLOODY SWORD ON HIM!" Allen screamed, angry that Neah completely ignored the face that Allen almost had his throat slit by a stranger.

"Technically, it's not really bloody-"

"IT'S AN EXPRESSION!"

"Wow, even Lenalee didn't scream that much when Kanda had her at sword's length." Daisya whispered to Lavi and the two of them laughed.

"Now, Allen, let's just calm down now..."

"C-calm down?! That wanker had a sword at my throat! I could've been killed and you want me to calm down?" His voice cracked.

"Pffffft..." Lavi held a hand to his mouth and Lenalee let out a giggle.

"The fuck did you just call me?" Kanda growled and stepped forward threateningly, only to be held back by Marie. Neah tried his best not to smile at Allen's language, he was holding back his laughter as much as he could but...wanker? Really? He held a hand to his mouth and couldn't contain the giggles coming from his lips and soon enough, the entire hallway erupted with laughter.

"Wh..."

Allen almost died and they were laughing?

"What's so funny?!" He shouted and Marie sighed.

"You said wanker." The older man explained.

"How is that funny?" Allen asked weakly.

"I believe because it's an English slang word. You're English and...it's just amusing, I suppose." He explained calmly. Allen could hear a few mocking his accent and felt his face go red with embarrassment. So what if he was English? Really, what was so funny? He's been made fun of his accent before but this...this was ridiculous...he glared at Kanda and Kanda sent him a murderous one right back. He huffed and looked away.

"S-sorry, really, I don't mean to laugh...b-but..." Neah wiped a tear from his eye.

"Yeah, yeah, like you don't." Allen seethed and gulped, feeling a cough coming on. He made sure to look well dressed and to comb his earlier-messy hair. He even put some concealer on to cover up the bags under his eyes and for what? To come out of his room and feel embarrassed? He stood up angrily and stormed to his room, slamming the door. He paused, looking at his window as he let out a few bad coughs. A terrible idea formed in his mind and, without hesitation, he opened the window and jumped out.

Back in the hallway, after Neah had gotten his act together, he looked around. "Where'd he go?"

"He jumped out the window." Marie informed and everyone looked at him incredulously. He smiled and tapped the headphones around his ears that helped him hear better. Being blind did have it's advantages.

"...y-you're joking..." Neah stuttered and slammed the door open, only to see the window open and the room empty. "The one time he comes out and now he's gone again." He mumbled to himself.

"Didn't help that you all mocked him for something he couldn't help. What a bother, he was sick." Marie said darkly.

"What? Sick?" Neah blinked.

"You didn't know? He does live here, doesn't he? By the sound of his coughs, it's been there for awhile." He mumbled.

"Oh lord, now I have to find him. Wouldn't want Children Services on my ass." He scowled and hurried to the door. He turned to the others. "I'm really sorry, it seems I invited you over for nothing..."

"We'll help!" Lenalee offered cheerfully and skipped over towards him, her long hair waving as she did.

"I didn't agree to that." Kanda grumbled.

"You're the one that scared him off for the most part." She countered, putting her hands on her hips. "Now you'll help find them. Or shall I tell my brother that you're trying to slit more girls' throats?"

"He isn't a girl!"

"My brother doesn't know that." She said with a twisted smile. Daisya chuckled at him. Kanda made sure to shut him up soon by smacking the back of his head.

"...thanks guys." Neah said, smiling at them.

Meanwhile, Allen was shivering against the Autumn air, wishing he at least grabbed a coat. He did have some money at least. There wasn't a time when Allen didn't have money on him. He sighed and watched brownish orange leaves blow past him. The entire neighborhood had raked their yards, their leaves at the end of their property where they didn't have to mess with them. The wind blowing felt like wind you got in the winter time and you could see people of all sorts, couples, teenagers, elders, all huddled up in their warm clothing as they walked down the street. Allen envied them for their warmth. He slipped into a nearby cafe named 'Deity' and sat down at a table, running a hand through his hair.

"Good afternooooholy shit, you look terrible." A waitress wearing a lavender purple shirt commented. Her green name-tag read: Fou.

"Thanks for rubbing it in." Allen muttered.

"Flu, eh? Or just a cold? We have some chicken noodle soup on special today."

"Sure." Allen mumbled, not really caring as long as he could stay indoors...and away from his uncle.

"Wow, such enthusiasm." She commented with a smile. He glared at her and stood up, figuring that maybe the cafe a few blocks down would be kinder. Her smile became forced and she put her hand on his shoulder, forcing him to sit down. "I'll have that soup in a little bit." She stated and walked off. Allen scowled, wondering if that was even aloud as he looked around. The other girls that worked here wore skirts or dress pants, but she seemed to stick with jeans. Oh. A rulebreaker. Fantastic. He thought and let his head slam down on the table. He didn't even care that some customers looked over at him. A few minutes later and there was a clatter on the table he sat at. He looked down and nearly choked on his own air when he saw her with two bowls of soup and she sat right across from him.

"What are you doing?" He asked and she smiled, pushing his bowl over to him.

"Taking a break, what are you doing?" She retorted.

"Hiding." He replied and pulled the bowl towards him.

"Hiding from who? You know, everyone in this town knows each other and since I've never seen you before, you must be knew. That means you've gotta be careful who you talk badly about. Just saying. What's your name anyhow?" She asked before shoving a mouthful of soup in her mouth, ignoring the searing hot soup burning her tongue.

"Allen Walker."

Fou spat out whatever soup she hadn't swallowed and Allen looked away, glaring outside. Great. So she knew who his uncle was. What if they got along? If everyone knew everyone here, then- "You're related to that jerk? Wow, sucks to be you, no wonder you're out here." Allen felt relief flood through his veins. Okay. So Fou and Neah didn't get along, but he had to wonder...why?

"Yeah..." Allen trailed off, humming to himself. "Of course I've only stayed at his house for a few weeks and we don't talk much."

"A few weeks? Where were you before?"

"Living with my father's friend."

"Cross? Oh yeah, I heard him rambling on about that a few months ago. He was drunk, of course. Looked pathetic." Fou informed and tapped her chin. "Your father was his brother right?" Allen nodded shortly. "Yeah...he died seven years ago then...but why are you at your uncle's now?"

"Because Cross was thrown in jail."

"Wow...that really sucks." She paused. "When did he get thrown in jail?"

"Hell if I know, he left me to take care of the house two years ago. It was the first I heard of him since he left."

"God damn. Wait, how old are you?"

"Seventeen." Allen sighed. "If only he could've waited just two more months to get thrown in jail."

"I'm guessing you turn eighteen in December?"

"Yeah. In exactly two months." Fou, out of curiosity and the fact she didn't know what day it was, looked over at the calendar hanging on the wall. Black, blue and red x's were crossed out on all the days previously, overwriting whatever important was going on on those days and who worked.

"Huh. So you were born on Christmas? Cool." She mused.

"Oh yes, quite a little Christmas miracle I turned out to be." Allen mumbled bitterly, slurping his soup cautiously to see how hot it was. Fou pursed her lips.

"You turn eighteen in two months and Children Services sent you over now? I swear, the smarts of those people are not right."

"You've encountered them before?" Allen questioned and she nodded.

"Wasn't exactly on good terms with my parents, ya see. They thought I was nuts and tried beating me. 'Course it didn't work out since they're weak and all. So, a friend of mine contacted them and they tried to make it better. Of course they failed. So, I just decided to move in with my friend. He runs this shop, by the way. I'm just an assistant actually. Pay's pretty great though. You say you've been here for a few weeks, right? Got a job?"

"I find my own way to pay for things." Allen answered simply and swallowed some more soup. It was pretty good. It actually made him feel a lot better even though his head still hurt.

"Oh?" Fou asked, crossing her arms, "and what are these 'ways'?" Allen simply smiled.

"Oh, just usual things I do."

"Uhuh. You're not very convincing."

"Really?" Allen asked, feigning innocence. Fou rolled her eyes. She then spotted a certain redhead across the street. Lenalee and Kanda were with him.

"You're Neah's nephew, right? Have you met Lavi, Lenalee, Kanda, Marie, and Chaoji?" She asked, watching them as they showed the employee of the café across from theirs a poster. The employee called the manager over and he looked at the poster before tilting his head and pointing over at the Deity restaurant.

"Uh...I might have met them this morning? One of them held a sword to my throat..."

"That's Kanda." Fou mumbled, watching carefully as the three walked towards the café.

"Yeah...then I called him a wanker and everyone laughed at me..." Allen muttered and Fou snorted.

"You called him a wanker? High five." Allen grinned at her as they slapped hands. "Anyways, you might want to hide because Neah's little underlings are on their way to get you." Allen blinked and looked behind them.

"What? He's actually chasing after me? Why the hell would he do that?" Allen asked, rubbing his stuffy nose with a napkin. Fou shrugged.

"Does he know you're sick?"

"No..."

"Then who knows. I have an idea! Come with me." She said, dragging him out of the chair.

"What? Where are we going?" Allen questioned as she pulled him towards a door that had an 'Employees Only' sign on it. "Um...I'm not allowed in there."

"It'll be fine!" She insisted and shoved him through the swinging door.

"Ahh!" Allen shouted and froze whenever some employees that were cooking looked over questionably. "Um...hi..."

Fou rolled her eyes and headed back to their table, stacking the two bowls they had together as Lavi walked in triumphantly. He saw Fou and his eyes beamed. "Fou!"

"Hello to you too, annoying rabbit."

"Gee, now you sound like Yuu. Anyways, Neah's looking for his nephew, have you seen anyone like-"

"Neah has a nephew?" Fou asked with disbelief. Fake disbelief, but disbelief nonetheless.

"Yeah, like I was saying...he looks like this." Lavi said, holding out a poster of Allen smiling directly at the camera. She furrowed her eyebrows. How did they even manage to get him smiling was the question.

"How did you even get that?"

"Neah contacted his old school and it turned out that they had school IDs or something there and they sent us his picture." Lavi replied. "Have you seen him?"

"Nope."

"Really? But the guy across the street said that he came in here..." The redhead said, frowning.

"Maybe he came in for a little warmth and left? I don't know, I haven't seen him."

"Huh...oh well...we look elsewhere then!" Lavi said and marched out into the cold again. Lenalee and Kanda begrudgingly followed. Fou wiped her brow and looked back at the door that Allen had disappeared to. She hummed and swung the door open, deadpanning at the mess before her. Jerry, one of the Black Order's cooks that had transferred over since Deity needed help that day, was apologizing to Allen, who was sitting on the floor covered in...cake?

"What happened?" She asked lamely.

"Well, I was just about to give this cake to Bak because he seemed so stressed and then I saw this cutie and dumped it on him! It was an accident, but don't worry, darling, I'm sure there are plenty of spare clothes around here. We'll get you all washed up. Fou, darling, don't we have a shower somewhere in this place?"

"Yeah, out back but I highly doubt Allen wants to go out there covered in cake." She said, helping Allen up. She leaned over and licked Allen's cake-covered cheek and hummed. Allen blushed at her actions, looking at her incredulously. "I think it need a little more strawberry."

"Alright, hun! I'll have that cake recreated and whipped up soon!"

"You better hurry before Bak starts breaking out." She scolded and threw a towel at Allen. The orange haired girl then stuck a wet rag under the faucet and threw it at him.

"...thanks." He mumbled, wiping his face.

"So you're not showing your face around your uncle for awhile, right? How 'bout you come over to my house and camp with me? I'm sure Bak won't mind."

"I don't know...I have a few things I need to do tonight..."

"No? Well, don't say I didn't try and help."

"Thanks anyways." He smiled.

"Right." She paused and let a smile creep on her face. "If you apply here I may be nice enough to give you some new clothes~" Allen deadpanned.

"No thanks. I'll go home covered in cake."

"What's with you and not wanting to get a job anyways?" Allen shrugged at her question.

"It's harder than the way I get money. Not to mention you have to work your arse off the whole day whereas I simply sit there and smile for what I do."

"...what do you do?" She asked suspiciously.

"That's for me to know and you to never find out." Allen replied with a smile. She crossed her arms and glared.

"I'm not satisfied."

"Sorry, there isn't anyway I can satisfy you then." He replied and started wiping at his clothes. "I should probably get back and sneak in through a window or something..." He mumbled, rubbing his eyes tiredly.

"Or you can stay here and hang out."

"Nah, too tired. Besides, I'd probably get someone sick..." He pointed out.

"Probably. Well then if you're not going to register, then get out of my store!" She huffed, pushing him out the doorway.

"Shouldn't I pay my bill? For the soup?"

"Nah, Jerry was the one who insisted. He offered to pay for it too."

"Oh...I don't want to impose-"

"Nah, you're fine. Jerry's always like that with everyone he meets. Usually he works at the Black Order though so you probably won't see him much here."

"The Black Order?" Allen questioned curiously. He remembered Cross mentioning that before...but where?

"Yeah, we have a lot of different restaurants. We're all branched off from one another, but the Black Order is the main branch. It's a weird restaurant process thing. Bak is the one who made Deity as another branch of the Black Order. He's one of Komui's best friends actually."

"...who?"

"...don't even worry about it." She dismissed. "Your soup's free, now get out of here, you're scaring my customers." She said in a final tone and shoved him outside. He stood there, covered in cake, looking back at the café with a small smile.

"Allen! There you are!" Allen's smile was wiped clean off his face when he heard the sound of Neah's voice. Said man ran over and stopped in front of him, kneeling over to catch his breath. He was most definitely not fit. Allen voiced his thoughts. "Yeah...I...usually...coop myself up in the house...so...not very fit..." He wheezed. He paused and straightened up, looking at Allen's clothes oddly. "Is that cake?"

"Um...yeah..." He mumbled awkwardly, coughing into his glove.

"That definitely doesn't sound good! Come on, let's go back."

Allen wasn't sure why he even followed Neah home, but he did. As soon as he did, he walked past Lenalee, who was waiting anxiously inside, and went straight to his room. Neah became worried that Allen would jump out of the window again and tiptoed towards his room, sliding the door open by just a little and peeking inside. His eyes widened at what he saw. Allen was standing in front of the full-body mirror Neah had stored in there and was holding out his left arm, staring a it for a long time. It was a dark, charcoal black color. It went all the way up his arm and ended at his shoulder, where an odd design followed. He sighed and slipped on a long sleeve shirt and then pulled on some gloves before sitting on the bed, placing his head between his hands to think. Neah felt like he just saw something that Allen never would have wanted him or anyone else to see.

"What are you doing?" Lenalee whispered beside him and Neah's eyes widened. He almost shouted had it not been for the fact he was intruding in Allen's business so he spun around and covered her mouth. Lenalee didn't seem amused by this at all. He shushed her and then dragged her back to the living room, looking guilty to hell. "Were you snooping?" She asked accusingly.

"I thought he was going to jump out the window again!" Neah defended. "But...I probably saw something I shouldn't have...anyways, have you called Lavi and the others?"

"Yeah. Kanda said he had to take Daisya to work and Marie went with them but he's probably going home after and Kanda said he wasn't coming back."

"Eh? So it's just going to be you and Lavi?"

"Well...more like just Lavi. My brother just texted me and said that he wanted me home before three since we're going out to lunch."

"Awe, okay...maybe next time, huh?"

"Yeah." She said with a smile and texted her brother to come pick her up. He waved her goodbye and Lavi rushed into the driveway, slamming into her on the way. Neah watched as he helped Lenalee up (with, most likely, an apology) and ran up to Neah's front step with a grin on his face.

"So what are we going to do today? Movies? Bowling? Slumber party?" He asked excitedly and looked past Neah to see Allen walking through the hallway to the kitchen. He stopped briefly and glared at Lavi before continuing his small adventure to the kitchen. Lavi tilted his head and Neah looked behind him to see that no one was there.

"What are you looking at?" He asked, but Lavi wasn't paying any attention. He knew that look, the feeling of it anyways. He used to have it on his own face at some point. The look was a mixture of sadness and envy. Lavi pursed his lips, thinking about that.

Was Allen jealous of him?