A/N: No, I'm not going to apologize for posting another story! I'd be working on it regardless of whether it was posted here or not. I'm terrible, I know. Throw me in the trash; it's where I belong. OTL
It was inspired by some content I cut from No Home & No Heart.
This story begins when Kanda and Allen would have been on the mission with Lala!

Disclaimer: I own neither DGM nor any songs mentioned or used throughout the story!

The mission Komui deemed perfect for himself and Lenalee Lee proved to be an odd one. The details were scarce, but all the available information pointed to either a rogue piece of Innocence or a rapidly evolving Akuma that needed to be taken out. Regardless of the circumstances, they had been dispatched to determine the cause, root it out and put a stop to it.

The problem that this town faced had more than a few townsfolk expressing alarm. The mayor had all but begged the Black Order for their assistance in the matter because left and right, people were awaking to find that they'd lost memories of people they could only assume were important to him. Wedding documents co-signed with names they'd never heard in their lives became defunct as the person in question disappeared without a trace. Property ownership transferred to a next of kin that knew nothing of the person in question. Family portraits turned into a mess of questions revolving around the one individual that not a soul could remember.

In the last two years, it had grown from a few instances to a widespread occurrence that could no longer be ignored.

The search had the Exorcists moving to and from the local hot spots. Parks, inns, restaurants, taverns... They examined every inch of public space they could find, hoping for even a scrap of information to crop up.

"Last one..." Lavi muttered as the two of them stepped into a bar booming with life and laughter. The sound of a piano being played soared over every noise in the bar and not a single set of eyes turned from the stage when the bell attached to the door jingled to signal their arrival.

When a voice joined the melodic drone, Lavi had to admit that he couldn't blame any of them for being so entranced. Distinctly young and male, this person had a beautiful voice. Rhythmic and melancholy, soft and sweet, brisk and bright like the sun peaking out through the clouds after a mid-summer shower.

Lavi felt himself drawn to the source, pulled through the crowd as if the voice tugged on his hand and drug him in the stage's direction. The matter at hand was pushed the furthest parts of his mind, his attention stolen away by the exotic beauty sitting at the piano's keys. The teen's light hair shone beneath the bar's unnatural lighting and his pale, petite lips formed perfectly around every word that fell from them.

Gorgeous, Lavi couldn't help but think as he joined the crowd in front of the stage. He pushed past the other onlookers with a few half-hearted apologies and false smiles before finding his way to the front. He rest his elbows against the wooden stage, staring up at the angelic being who wove the lyrics around each depression of the piano keys spread out before him.

"Hidden so deep in veils of deceit, imprisoned in twisting spells," he sung, weaving a heartbreaking melody. "Are we the plaything of fiends or merely the dreams that we're telling ourselves, telling ourselves?"

How much time passed with Lavi standing there, listening to every word that slipped from those beautiful lips, he couldn't say. Somewhere along the way, he'd lost track of the time that seemed to drip by at an impossibly slow pace. It all but ground to a halt when the gray-eyed beauty turned his head and flashed his sunshine smile directly at him.

Lavi's heart nearly leapt into his throat. To see him beam like that while singing such a tragic song only served to further enchant For someone to beam like that amidst such a horrifically tragic sound should have been illegal, but it only served further enchant his audience.

"What are you doing, Lavi?"

The magic blinked out in an instant when Lavi turned and found Lenalee staring at him. She blinked her wide, amethyst eyes at him, breaking the musician's spell.

"Ah, well..." he said, rubbing the back of his neck because he couldn't exactly tell her that he was ogling the young pianist on stage who was closer to Lenalee's age than his own. He hadn't exactly advertised that his attraction included men, in part because he wasn't supposed to have it in the first place, but also because it was generally frowned upon.

"Uh, I was just thinkin'... Maybe that kid knows something?" Lavi asked, gesturing to the singer. Lenalee looked up at him, as if to gauge whether or not Lavi's suggestion was worth pursuing. "I mean, look at the crowd. These people all came to see him; it's not the first time he's played here. Pro'ly won't be the last. He might've seen something."

"It's worth a try," Lenalee said,showing off a smile with a weak glow that didn't even rival the intensity of the boy's. The signer's made Lavi feel as though the moon might permanently eclipse and leave eternal daylight in its absence.

Several songs later, he departed the stage with a certain degree of modesty unexpected of someone capable of weaving such masterpieces. It was no surprise that half the crowd sought an audience with him afterward, crowding around him as he stepped off the stage. Some asked for autographs, others asked for something as simple as a touch while others still desired something as intimate as a kiss or a hug.

But this boy had grown accustomed to it, Lavi realized by the way he calmed and dispersed them with several words and gestures. As they approached, Lavi couldn't help but think the transparent smile he donned at the sight of them shouldn't belong to someone who seemed so sweet.

"Can I help you?" he asked as they stopped in front of him. Lavi could make out the slight British lilt in his voice that hadn't been present when he sang. With the multi-colored lighting of the stage no longer overhead, Lavi could see the boy's was pure white like freshly fallen snow in the dead of winter.

"Yes, we were wondering if you'd heard anything about the memory snatcher rumor," Lenalee said, bearing a smile that the boy returned in kind. Lavi was almost jealous of the nonequivalent exchange—almost.

His brows knit together as he hummed softly, drumming his fingers along the back of a nearby chair as he considered the question. "Nothing more than you have, I'm sure. People forget their loved ones, supposedly," he said before letting loose dulcet laughter that bled color into the world and turned tension into tranquility. "It all seems a bit silly, to be honest."

"I see... Thank you anyways."

No matter how much he tried to hide it, Lavi saw the subtle dip of his lips as his smile disappeared for the slightest of seconds when he expected them to turn and leave. It returned tenfold, but his false smile shone twice as fake. Lavi narrowed his one eye at the boy. He knew more than he let on, but why would he lie? Was he involved? Was he being blackmailed? Threatened?

"You're lying," Lavi blurted out before he could stop himself. The thoughtless words—the accusation—attracted the heat of the crowd's gazes, their ire and their whispers. They chided him for even implying that the young and pure boy in front of them would be capable of such a dastardly thing as a lie with only their eyes.

But Lavi wasn't blind. Who better to see through fake smiles than a Bookman, even if this one was still in training?

"Lavi! Don't be rude!" Lenalee said, but Lavi flashed her a smile. It wasn't rude; it was the truth. The boy withheld what could very well be crucial information and if getting it meant being "rude", Lavi didn't mind.

The bright smile fell this time, replaced by furrowed eyebrows and lips that were almost puffed up into a deliciously adorable pout. "I'm sorry, but I really don't know anything. If I learn anything, I'll be sure to let you know."

A voice called from behind a nearby door and the boy's attention turned from them to the door behind him.

"Y-yes, I'm coming!" he said and looked back at them for a second to flash a pretty smile and give a slight bow of apology. "I'm very sorry."

As soon as the words were out of his mouth, he disappeared through the door behind him.

"C'mon," Lavi said as he gestured to Lenalee and started after the boy, quietly stepping through the door to follow him. He ignored the sign on it meant to ward away customers and focused on finding the boy instead.

"What are we doing, Lavi?" she hissed under her breath, voice disapproving even as she followed him through the door only employees were supposed to pass through and down the subsequent hallway. He held a finger up to his lips, hushing her and watching with some amusement as her eyebrows furrowed at his choice of actions. That didn't keep him from going with him, however.

And as they reached the end of the corridor, Lavi heard something that alarmed him. The crack of skin against skin echoed off the empty walls like a cry for help that fell on deaf ears.

"You ungrateful little whelp! I took you in only because my sister was smitten with that man and that unique ability of yours, now you're refusing to use it?!"

The voice was rough and thorny, grating and devoid any attachment besides the one he had with his own greed. It didn't take a genius to realize how unappreciated the white-haired boy was, that his being here stemmed his possible uses and nothing else.

"As I said, some people are more perceptive to it than others, if I—"

The sound came again and the vibration of the noise sent a chill crawling down Lavi's spine. The boy wordlessly took the assault without making a single sound.

On a nearby table, a stay glass cracked down its side. The wine sitting inside it trickled out as the yelling continued, the glass going unnoticed by all but Lavi.

"You think I care about something like that?!"

"No, but I was hoping you'd half an ounce of—"

Another slap, followed by another. Lavi winced while Lenalee covered her mouth with the palm of her hand. Shock and disgust spread through Lavi. Even though he'd seen this situation a thousand times, something about this one struck a chord in him. A kid even younger than Lenalee being used for some scheme wasn't new, yet this one in particular grated on his nerves.

"Don't talk back to me, you little—" he cut himself, raised his hand to hit the boy again and before Lavi knew it, Lenalee was running past him. She twisted away from his grasp, twirled out of his reach with a grace that no other Exorcist could match and advanced at a speed that would have made anyone's head spin until she stood at the singer's side.

Lavi watched in mute horror as the man's palm collided not with the white-haired boy's cheek, but Lenalee's.

"Who on Earth—"

She spread her arms out to show her intentions, a fierce glare in her amethyst eyes that sparkled with life. "I won't let you hurt him!" she yelled, voice more clear and beautiful than Lavi would ever like to admit around her older brother.

"Who the hell are you?" the bar owner asked gruffly. He scratched his head to illustrate his confusion and Lavi could only guess his thoughts turned to how he was going to talk himself out of the situation he'd just put himself in. A smile wormed its way across Lavi's face as he stepped out from behind the wall he'd been hiding behind to join Lenalee and the boy.

"We're his friends, but ya wouldn't know that, would ya?" Lavi lied and the white-haired boy turned his eyes from Lenalee to him. Silver eyes went wide with surprise and curiosity, but Lavi tuned out the emotions in his eyes in favor of the splash of red dashed across his left cheek."Are you bleeding?"

He recoiled, covering the color with his right hand as if he'd been burned by the inquiry. "I-It's a scar!"

The stuttering brought Lenalee's attention back around to him. She swiveled around to face him, eyes wide at the insinuation that he'd been hit hard enough for the skin to break. Silver eyes darted between the two of them and his frozen guardian before a warm, concerned smile overtook Lenalee's soft features. She took his free hand and the boy visibly flinched at the touch. Lavi didn't miss it, neither did Lenalee, but it didn't stop her from leading the boy out of the bar and into the light of the setting sun.

"Come on," she said with a voice so gentle that even someone with the coldest and hardest of hearts would've listened. "We'll get you cleaned up."

He cast a glance back at the man who'd slapped him more than once. Lavi saw the pleading look in his eyes. Save me, save me, it said.

But why would he look at him like that? Hadn't they saved him? Hadn't Lenalee saved him? Something akin to fear sat in those girls and he twitched at even the slightest of sounds as they walked through the streets. The gaze of a dozen strangers sat on them as they walked. They fixed Lavi and Lenalee with looks that could kill anyone weaker.

The way the boy walked—rigid and stiff—made Lavi wondered...

What in the hell was he so anxious about?

A/N: The song Allen was singing is Ashes Of Dreams. It's from the PS3/360 game NieR! Wonderful game, wonderful soundtrack!