Mornings were not her favorite, especially mornings after a night of heavy drinking, and especially not mornings in which she was ungracefully pulled from her slumber. Renge growled as the incessant pounding on the door aggravated the pounding in her head. It had been a while since she last had a hangover, and she was not happy. Throwing back the sheets she forced herself out of bed and stormed over to the door, violently opening it. "What!?" she snarled, regretting her decision immediately as a sharp pain shot through her head.

"Hey, Yuu-" Lavi started as the door forcibly opened just as he was about to knock again. To say he was confused was an understatement. Sure, the person who opened the door had long dark hair and straight fringe, sure the annoyance and venom laced in their words would rival something that came out of his mouth, but unless Kanda mysteriously turned into a girl over night the person who opened the door was certainly not Kanda.

"This is Yuu's room right?" The Junior Bookman whispered to Lenalee, as he attempted to rationalize why a clearly disheveled Renge was standing at the door in lieu of their temperamental friend.

Lenalee suppressed a laugh as she nodded. This was indeed Kanda's room, and that was certainly not Kanda standing at the door, which could only mean that Kanda did indeed like his birthday present. This was going to be an amusing week.

Glaring at her once dear friends, Renge huffed and slammed the door shut, silently cursing herself for doing so, as that also did not help the splitting headache she was nursing. Mumbling a few enchantments she sealed the door so sound could not penetrate it and then stumbled back into bed. Pulling the sheets around her, she once again cocooned herself into the bed, and it was in that moment that it dawned upon her where she actually was. As his scent enveloped her, she could feel a warmth radiate throughout her body and for a brief moment all was right in the world.

Kanda was not amused when he rounded the corner to see a group of all the people he wanted to see the least gathered outside his door. Although, he did raise an eyebrow in amusement when the door suddenly opened and a very irate Renge glowered at them. He was too far to make out their exchange, but judging by the dumbfounded expressions left on the idiot brigade's faces when the door slammed in their faces, he could only conclude that she did not offer them much in the way of an explanation.

A slight smirk quickly flashed across his lips before his usual scowl set in as he closed the distance between them. "The fuck are you guys doing outside my door?" He barked as he pushed past them and entered his room, slamming the door behind him before they could even answer.

A low growl escaped the pile of blankets on his bed as the door slammed shut. It had been a long time since she last had a hangover, and she was not enjoying one second of it. Peering out from under his covers she tried her hardest to soften the scowl on her face, but found it impossible as the throbbing in her head refused to relent. "You wouldn't happen to have some water would you?"

"No…" he said as he studied the pained expression on her face. "Are you okay?"

Letting out a scoff she threw the blankets off and swung her legs over the side of his bed, burying her head in her hands. "Yes, fine. Just hungover. Water would have been nice." Looking up she flashed him a weak smile.

"Sorry, no water, but I got you this." He said, tossing her the jubako boxes he had wrapped in a furoshiki.

Unwrapping the cloth, her face lit up as she stared down at three boxes packed with black sesame mochi cakes. "I love you." she said as she bit into the soft smooth mochi. It was not water, and could not help her with her dehydration, but it did fill her stomach with something other than sake, besides, it was her all time favorite comfort food.

A light blush found its way onto Kanda's cheeks as she murmured those endearing words, even though he was not quite sure if they were directed toward him or the boxes of pastries littered around her. Either way, he felt a warmth pool in his stomach as his heartbeat increased. "So what's your deal with daifuku anyway?" He asked, as a means to distract himself.

Renge shrugged as she shoved another piece into her mouth. "What's your deal with soba?" She retorted after swallowing.

"I don't have a deal with soba." He replied flatly, refusing to admit he had a problem.

"Umhmm." she hummed knowingly, devouring another mochi. "You sure ask a lot of questions..."

"No I don't."

She chuckled softly to herself. "You're a horrible liar." She said, tossing the empty boxes aside, sated. "To answer your question, I guess it's because they remind me of my mother."

"Your mother?"

"Yes, my mother. You know, the woman who gave birth to me…" her voice trailed off. No, maybe he did not know, being a second exorcist and all. Straightening up, her features relaxed as the pounding in her head had subsided significantly thanks to the treat he brought her. Softening her eyes she looked up at him again. "My mother died when I was really young, which is why I ended up at the Asia branch. Papa didn't want me at Headquarters, if it were up to him he would have kept me as far away from the Order as possible, but he wanted to keep me close to home, and it was unrealistic to keep me in Edo considering... so I ended up at the Asia Branch. Anyway, I don't remember much about my mother, only fleeting images here and there, and what papa would tell me about her. What I do remember is black sesame daifukumochi, which was rare, because the filling is usually a red or white bean paste, so the black sesame really stood out in my mind. Whenever I eat them I could almost see her smiling face and feel her arms around me keeping me safe and warm."

"Hn," he grunted at her explanation, unsatisfied with the answer, not that he really had any real expectations to what the answer was, nor did it really mattered. What bothered him was the fact that something so insignificant could conjure up such strong feelings within her, feelings he could not even begin to fanthom. Warm and safe; a sentiment, which until quite recently was foreign, no, nonexistent to him. A sentiment which filled his being and consumed his soul every time he looked at her. He resented the fact that a mere object could invoke such feelings within her, but the truth was, he secretly desired to fill that role.

Stretching she stood up and quickly ran her fingers through her hair, smoothing out the knots. "Those three are probably still standing outside aren't they?" She mused out loud.

"Che," Kanda scoffed in affirmation. "Most likely. What did you even say to them earlier?"

"What."

"I asked, what you said to them."

"What." She repeated, suppressing a giggle.

"Tch." He spat, annoyed by her antics, refusing to repeat himself again.

"Oh lighten up Yuu." She cooed, thoroughly enjoying the fact that he was so easy to mess with. "I literally said what."

"Oh," he said calming down slightly. "You could have just said that."

"I did." She retorted impishly.

Letting out a slight growl he mumbled, "you're impossible."

A smile broke across her face as she recalled bits of their conversation from the night before. "Yes yes, I'm impossibly captivating. I know, we went over that last night." She teased.

He halfheartedly glared at her. She was indeed impossibly captivating, so much so that it made his head hurt. His heart was undoubtedly drawn to her, in fact every fiber of his being was drawn to her, his very soul cried out to her, but somewhere deep in his mind fleeting images of another woman remained. A woman, and a promise, who for the life of him he could not shake from his mind. "Your words, not mine."

Renge let out a laugh, "Whatever you say." He was adorable, the way he believed a knitted brow and a scowl could hide his true emotions. "So…" she said, as a mischievous grin spread across her face. "Wanna mess with them?"

A slight smirk graced his lips. "What did you have in mind?"

"Innocence, activate." She whispered, and in an instant her wings unfurled. Wrapping them around herself she softly said "clandestinity" and they transformed from white to translucent.

He watched as she folded those magnificent wings around her, and although she vanished before his eyes, he could still feel her presence in the room. In fact he could almost pinpoint exactly where she was standing in the room, it was as if the air which surrounded her was somehow different. "So what's the plan to get out?" He asked as he watched her move toward the door.

"Oh that's simple." She replied, impressed that he was able to follow her movements across the room. He was the first person to ever do that ever since she perfected this trick, even her father was incapable of pinpointing her exact location. Releasing the previous seal on the door, she murmured a different enchantment and applied a new seal. As she pressed her palm to the door, it visibly warped for a second before settling back to its natural state. "I walk through it."

Smirking to herself, Renge pushed her body into the door and came out the other side, to see Lavi, Daisya, and Lenalee still standing there in a perplexed daze. Deftly she made her way around them and hurried off in the direction of her room. It did not take her long to quickly change into one of her many yukatas and twist her hair up into a bun, securing it with a ornate comb as her golem folded its wings and settled down on her head next to the comb.

As he felt her presence exit the room, Kanda moved over to his door and placed a hand on it, feeling the solid wood beneath his touch. She was full of surprises, it was no wonder she was able to uncover all those despicable secrets from that dreadful place, and he could not help but wonder how much she actually saw. She had commented on Alma's massacre, she knew of the innocence chamber, she knew things that he himself did not even know, perhaps she even knew who that woman was. A little part of him wanted to ask her, but it felt wrong, to ask someone he desired so badly about the one person his brain could not let go of.

A million thoughts raced through the junior Bookman's mind as he continued to stare at the closed door and process what was going on. Sure, last night Renge had said that she was going to bring him his present later, but it was now ten in the morning, what was she still doing there, that is unless her present was… no. He shook his head refusing to allow that thought in. There was no way such a stunning, delightful, charming girl like that would want anything to do with that brass, arrogant, antisocial guy, no. No way in hell.

Lavi frowned. Why did it matter to him anyway? It was not like he could do anything about it, even if he wanted to. He was a Bookman, and as a Bookman he was not allowed to have relationships, connections with anyone, for it would taint his recordings and create a bias. Besides, none of these people mattered anyway, they were all simply pawns being used in a war bigger than themselves, name which would not even be significant enough to be recorded into the true history of the world. Still, he could not help but desire her, to touch her, to know her, but that would be an affront to her character since he had absolutely nothing to offer her, not even his heart.

"We should knock again." The redhead said breaking the silence.

A jingling filled the air as Daisya tossed his head back and laughed. "Go for it, though I say we just leave. It's not like there was a response the last fifty times you tried. Seems to me, our Kanda found something to pass the time with."

Lenalee let out a small sigh. As much as she agreed that they should probably just let Kanda and Renge be, she still needed the older girl's help. "We can't just leave. Renge was supposed to help me secure the alcohol for Nii-san's party."

"Why don't you just get old man Marie to do it? Renge's not even old enough to drink alcohol." Daisya quipped, bouncing from the balls of his feet to his heels.

"Because Renge's better at it."

"Renge's better at what?" An amused sing-song voice asked as it rang through the halls causing all three exorcists to snap toward the right. They stared in bewilderment as they saw Renge herself walking toward them from the stairwell.

"Wait, what!?" Lavi exclaimed, his one exposed eye enlarging, as she stopped in front of them. He was sure that she had opened the door earlier, there was no way she did not, for his photographic, Bookman memory could not have possibly failed him.

Lenalee stared at her friend in astonishment. She too was sure that Renge was inside Kanda's room just moments ago, but then again if there was one thing Renge was great at, it was stealth. It would not have been inconceivable for her to have to slipped out of the room and by them without them noticing. "Renge's better at securing alcohol." The green haired girl replied with a smile.

"True. Renge's the best as securing alcohol." She said with a slight laugh. Feigning ignorance, she cocked her head toward the door and asked, "What are you guys doing here anyway? I didn't know Kanda was coming with us."

"Uh, we were looking for you." The redheaded Bookman replied, scratching his head. He did not like it, there was no way he was wrong, or seeing things, but then again, the reality of the situation was was that she was in fact here, in front of them, and not inside the room they swore they just saw her in.

"In Kanda's room?" She asked amused.

"Well, we tried everywhere else. It was kind of a last-ditch effort sort of thing."

"Okay…" She said skeptically. It really did not make much sense to Renge why they would look for her there, granted that was where she was, but still, it was not like there was anything going on between the two of them. At least not yet, and definitely not openly.

"Where were you anyway?" Daisya asked, bouncing up to her. He liked her, but not in the way Lavi seemed to like her, and if his hunch was correct, definitely not in the way that Kanda liked her. Daisya liked her simply because she made things more interesting around these parts. Besides, the last time she was here she literally impaled Kanda with a sword, and that made him giddy.

"In my room."

"Bullshit." The hooded exorcist exclaimed accusingly. "That was the first place we checked."

"Oh? Is that so?" She asked with a cocky smile. "And how are you so sure I wasn't there? Did you enter? Because I can guarantee you, you did not."

The smile on Daisya's face wanned, it was true, they did not actually enter the room. It was entirely possible that she was in there the whole time, but then again, he was also sure that they saw her open Kanda's door. "No, the door was locked… but Lavi knocked, and screamed, like a madman. No way you didn't hear him."

"Can't hear a thing when there's an enchantment on the door." She retorted cheekily. "Anyway, why are we still here? Shouldn't we get going?"

"Yes we should." Lenalee said, giving Kanda's door one last look before linking her arm with Renge's as they made their way toward the elevator platform in the middle of the tower.

"Oi, Yuu! You coming!?" Lavi screamed, knocking on the door one last time before the took off after the group.

Kanda's glowered at the trio in front of him as he followed them off the ferry and toward the village. It bothered him more than it should have, the way there were all so friendly with Renge. He hated the way she would laugh at the random things the stupid rabbit would say, or the way her mouth curved into that mischievous grin that flashes across her face when she plotted something with that idiot jester, or that endearing smile she would flash Lenalee for no apparent reason. He wanted to believe that he was the only one in the world who could possibly make her happy, but he knew that was not the case, she was not like him, she was a bright shining light, with a smile which could illuminated the world, especially his. He wanted to steal her away, to selfishly keep her light all to himself, for she was the first and only person who had ever made that darkness which surrounded him diminish, and he did not want to share her with anyone else.

Renge smiled to herself as they entered the town, weaving their way through the streets full of people. It was so nice to be surrounded by people who were so full of life. She had been lonely for far too long and reveled in the fact that she had finally found a group of people she could rely on, laugh with, cry on, share her darkness and her light with, and wholeheartedly call her friends. It was such a stark difference from all those years she spent alone, with no one but her father and a ghost she could never grasp. Glancing behind her she took in the form of the gloomy swordsman who lagged behind the group; her ghost in flesh and blood, her ghost who used to be a fleeting image, who now stood before her in all his glorious wonder.

As they continued further into the village, Kanda growled softly to himself wondering what in the world he was doing there anyway. He had nothing to offer them on their little endeavor, he hated birthdays, and he especially hated social gatherings. The fact was, he had impulsively followed them after Lavi's invitation due to the fact that she had flashed him one of those smiles and grabbed him by the wrist. Now that he was here, he wholeheartedly regretted his decision, but that was before she had turned around and caught his eye. The smile she flashed him sent shivers down his spine and made the butterflies in his stomach flutter, it was in that moment that he knew he would follow this girl to hell and back if that was what she so desired.

A/n: Sorry this was basically filler and too me so long... ha. Hope you enjoyed it anyway.