Author's note: This story takes in the assumption that Lavi was born in 1879. It also takes place in the universe of "Lost Reason" and "Angelus" and the rest of those, but it doesn't really count as a sequel, I don't think, since it's strictly PWP released for Lavi's birthday.

Special thanks: I could not have finished this story without the help of a whole bunch of people: my beta Patti, for being honest with me and telling me when I'm being an idiot (and for noticing it before it gets too bad); my pal Fuku-Sensei for being a sounding board when the beta wasn't online and I needed someone to bounce ideas off of; my loyal fan-turned-friend Dhampir72, for helping me work through a hell of a quagmire regarding the lemon itself; and all the members of the Lavi x Allen Fan Club on D.Gray-Divinity, for cheering me on and giving me the support I needed to slog through this fic. I love you guys, seriously!

Disclaimer: I do not own any part of "D.Gray-man" or its characters. It all belongs to the brilliant Katsura Hoshino-sensei. I'm just playing in the sandbox of this beautiful and complex world.

Warnings: Yaoi. Yes. You probably could see this one coming, right?

"Ten of Eight"

The first thing Lavi noticed when he got home late in the afternoon on a warm summer Tuesday, was that he wasn't greeted by his nine-year-old children. They weren't anywhere to be seen, in fact. The small apartment was occupied, though. He could see the gold-trimmed greatcoat of his long-time lover Allen Walker hanging on the coat rack. Allen pretty much never went anywhere without his coat.

"Allen?" Lavi unzipped his own coat and shrugged out of it, hanging it on the rack. "Where are you?"

In response, there was a bright gold streak from the bedroom, as Allen's golem Timcanpy came jettisoning at the redhead. It banked sharply and began swirling excitedly in the air over Lavi's head. Then a familiar head of white hair popped out of the bedroom door. "Ah, Lavi! I was wondering when you'd get in."

"Where are the kids?"

"Mandy's staying with Lenalee tonight, and Peter wanted to stay with Miranda and Krory. I think he's absolutely fascinated by their little girl."

Lavi blinked. "Why are they both staying elsewhere tonight?"

"Because tonight, it's just you and me."

"Oh? What's the occasion?"

"What do you mean, what's the occasion?"

"Yes, what's the occasion? And don't give me that 'Do I need an occasion?' crap either. You've managed to find someone to watch each of the kids; you've gone to some pretty extensive lengths to procure an entire evening alone, for it to be something random."

Allen stared at him in amazement. "Did you look at the calendar?"

"No, was I supposed to?"

"Today is Tuesday..."

"Yeah, so?"

"... August..."

"Yes."

"Tenth..."

"Indeed."

"It's the Tenth of August, of the year 1909."

"So you know today's date. I'm not going to praise you for that, Allen! Honestly!"

Allen slapped his forehead with his palm. "Thirty years ago today, a certain redhead was born, if I'm not mistaken. A certain redhead who has had a profound impact on my life. In other words, Lavi, I'm fully aware that today is your thirtieth birthday, and that is all the occasion I need. And don't try and tell me that you forgot, either. You don't forget details like that."

"I didn't forget, but it's also not a big deal to me. Never has been."

"Well, today it is a big deal, to me. I've wanted to get you alone for a while anyway, and this was a good reason to send the kids off. Komui-san promised me he'd see to it that you got home in time for me to do this. After dinner, it's going to be just you, me, the bed, and a jar of lubricant, all night, until sunrise. If you have objections, get over them."

Lavi grinned at him. "Okay, then. But you're not going to dominate the whole damned night. Last time we did anything like this, you insisted on topping all night. I won't allow for that this time around."

"Fair enough." Allen crossed the room and put his arms around him, kissing him. "Welcome home, by the way. Life is always so dull when you're away from home."

Lavi firmly held his lover close to him, extending and deepening the kiss considerably. "I love you, Allen. I miss you when we're apart for any length of time."

"Even though I drive you nuts?"

"Bah, that's mutual, right? My entire lot in life is to see to it that you get exasperated with me on a regular basis, after all."

"You do it very well."

"By the way, Allen, you are going to give me time to have a shower, right? I mean, I'm covered in dirt, horse sweat and dust. If I'm going to be covered in sweat tonight, I'd rather it be the right kind -- namely mine and yours -- than this stuff."

Allen was far too used to Lavi by now, after almost twelve years with him, to be embarrassed by what he'd said. There was a time when he might've been embarrassed or astonished by Lavi's brash and sordid manner of speaking when it came to referring to sex, but not anymore. "I have to admit that you do have a point. Don't take too terribly long, though, because I'm going to wire down to Jerry to send the food up."

Lavi quirked an eyebrow at him; "You're not even going to give me time to unwind?"

"Nope. Got a problem with it?"

"Er..." Lavi looked like someone had hit him upside the head with his hammer.

"There'll be plenty of time for relaxing and 'unwinding' later." Allen loosened the top button at Lavi's collar, amused at the pole-axed expression on his face. "You're wasting time standing there gawking at me."

"Have I told you recently how much it turns me on when you take the initiative like that, Allen? Cuz, hot damn! I'll be right out." He disappeared into the washroom. Allen chuckled to himself as he watched Lavi go, and then looked up at the golem circling happily overhead.

"No, Tim, you can't watch. I don't trust you not to record us and then use it to blackmail us. You creepy little voyeur," he added with a grin as he held a hand out for the golem to perch on. After giving the little golem some attention, he wired down to the cafeteria to have Jerry, the head cook of the Black Order, send the preordered meal up.

Jerry himself arrived in short order to deliver the meal. He had a huge grin on his face as he came into the apartment, but he held his silence and did his job. Allen busied himself with picking up the rucksack Lavi had left on the sofa by the door. Jerry went about his duties quickly and efficiently, and was done in very short order. As he tucked his tray under his arm, he grinned at Allen. "Enjoy your evening, Walker-gensui." He tilted up his sunglasses and winked scandalously at Allen.

"Thanks, Jerry," Allen said distractedly, trying to hurry the cook out the door. Lavi had a tendency to be a bit of an exhibitionist getting out of the shower, if he knew that the kids weren't around. Allen really didn't want to deal with that embarrassment. He all but pushed Jerry out the door, and sighed in relief when he heard the water shut off in the washroom just after he got the front door closed.

After a few minutes, Lavi stepped out of the washroom with a towel slung low across his hips. In the early evening sunlight through the nearby window, the gouges and scars that checked his torso seemed more prominent than normal, and Allen flinched. The past several years had been especially hard on Lavi; the scars were quite numerous and some of them were pretty ugly.

"Do I smell what I think I smell?" Lavi inquired as he tied the eyepatch back into place (he usually took it off to shower) over his nonfunctioning right eye.

"Probably," Allen said as he turned his attention to the meal placed out on the table. "You don't honestly think I've forgotten your favorite food, do you?"

The redhead grinned. "Not you. You remember all the best meals you've ever eaten, even if you do eat enough to make a horse want to diet."

"Oh shut up! Sit down and eat. We've got another appetite to satisfy tonight, you know."

"Yes sir!" Lavi gave Allen a mock salute, and in doing so, the towel slipped a bit.

"Nice." Allen smirked. "But you've got it backwards. I'm the one who's going to be doing the seducing this time."

Lavi blinked at him as he adjusted the towel and took a seat in the chair at the table. "Er, you did say that this was going to be for after dinner, right?"

"Of course." Allen grinned. "Don't get me wrong, Lavi. I do quite enjoy sex with you, but the thought of combining food with that doesn't sound anywhere near as appealing. I'd rather enjoy each separately, if you know what I mean."

Lavi chuckled at that innuendo while Allen dished up the yakiniku for both of them, setting the two portable miniature grills up and placing the slabs of pork onto them. The meal was conducted in relative silence, as both concentrated on eating quickly. Still, the silence was quite companionable; the two of them were so comfortable with each other by now that talking wasn't strictly necessary. Especially since Allen kept giving Lavi the most flirtatious glances as they ate. It was enough to worry Lavi that he wouldn't be able to keep his masculine composure until they got to the bedroom. Luckily, though, he managed it. He didn't get as much eaten as he really would have liked, but he finished what was in front of him.

"Was it not to your liking?" Allen inquired, noticing the slightly sour look on Lavi's face.

"No, that's not it. It was very good, as I would expect from Jerry. I'm just..." Lavi pulled a face. "It didn't help that you kept giving me bedroom-eyes over dinner."

Allen's grin became positively feral; "Well, I wanted to make sure you were in the mood."

"Ahem!" Lavi retorted. "When am I ever not in the mood? Honestly!"

"You've refused me before."

"What? Oh, you mean back in the beginning, when you were fifteen? I had pretty good reasons, don't you think?"

Allen laughed; "You've refused me since then too!"

"Only when I've been pissed as hell at you and ready to wring your scrawny neck!"

"Scrawny neck?!"

"I can get my hands around your neck, Allen. That, by my definition, is scrawny."

"You have monster hands, Lavi."

"I do not! You're just a petite little thing!" Lavi grinned, knowing that he was pressing a button with Allen.

"Petite, my ass!"

"I didn't say your ass was petite. I should know, too. After all, I'm a pain in your ass more than you're a pain in mine!"

"You sick, twisted pervert! I should top all night just to teach you a lesson!" Allen doubled over in laughter. "I'm your superior, you know!"

"Oh no you don't! I'm not going to let you abuse your authority! The fuck with all that! I told you I'm not letting you dominate all night!"

"You can top, Lavi, I don't mind. I just want things to go smoothly." Allen chuckled at that as he cleared the table, setting the dishes outside the apartment door for the housekeeping crew to come by and pick up. Lavi meanwhile wandered into the bedroom, noting that Allen had stripped the bed of the extraneous covers -- it was just the mattress and the fitted sheet. He grinned to himself; trust Allen to be no-nonsense about this. Allen liked things to go according to plan, at least when he took the time to plan things out. Lavi usually had no problem letting things happen organically, but this was fine with him. If it made sense to Allen to remove the potential of getting tangled in the sheets and blankets and being distracted by that, then Lavi wasn't going to complain. Sex was sometimes pretty rambunctious, and they had on occasion both gotten really tangled in the blankets, which had been something of a mood-killer.

Lavi paused a moment, reflecting. Their sex life had taken a sharp dive after they'd adopted the kids, especially after the kids had both become toddlers and had been able to walk in on them. Mandy had exceptionally good hearing, and Peter was incorrigibly curious about things. Thus, being parents had been the proverbial cold shower on their sex life. While they had been able to fit in the occasional fooling around and some fellatio throughout the years without much problem, proper lovemaking was a rare, rare treat.

He felt a hand on his thigh from behind him, and grinned as he turned his head. "Now you're groping me?"

"Now it's time for the entertainment part of the evening," Allen said in a throaty, lusty voice from where he stood, directly behind Lavi, arms around him. "Dinner first, entertainment later. That's usually how it works. We'll obviously skip the whole 'have a drink afterwards' part. I think I know a good substitute for that anyway." His hands moved up under the towel that still rounded Lavi's hips, and the gensui's mouth pressed against Lavi's shoulder, his teeth threatening to nip the flesh. "A different appetite to sate now."

"It's been so long..." Lavi swallowed a moan.

"Hasn't it? Now you see why I was looking forward to today?"

"Mmmm... careful where you put that left hand, Allen. You know I'm sensitive there, and that hand is really, really strong. Also, shouldn't you be getting undressed? I don't think it's quite fair that I'm standing here, basically naked, while you're fully clothed."

"Fair enough." Allen shucked his clothing in record time, while Lavi discarded the towel and sat down on the bed, sighing with relief. His backside was slightly achy from being in the saddle for so long. When Lavi traveled by himself, these days he traveled by horseback, since the Order had procured a small stable of messenger horses. It was more reliable than trains, with all the strife across the countryside. It also enabled Lavi to quickly get to places that trains didn't run.

Allen rummaged around in the nightstand and came up with the jar of lubricant, a special concoction their friend Catherine Beauchamp had concocted for them a while ago, that worked especially well at loosening up the skin and preventing painful stretching or tearing. Catherine had said it worked wonders on fresh scars too, which she claimed was her reason for creating it, but she'd given them the first complete batch she'd made, with a wink. Either way, it definitely came in handy when they had time for things like this.

Lavi caught the tossed jar, and gave Allen an inquiring look.

"We'll just make this easy," Allen said with a licentious grin, "I'll get you ready, and then you get me ready, and then we'll make up for lost time. How does that sound?"

Lavi blinked as if unable to process the order, but Allen just took the initiative again, and proceeded to go down on him without any further ado. Lavi squawked in surprise and dropped the jar as he reached down quickly, stopping Allen before he could go very far. "Stop, Allen."

"What's the matter?"

"You're going way too fast. What is this, an obligation? We have all night, don't we? There's no need to go by a script or a plan so strictly. Relax. You know I won't need to use as much lube on you if you're more relaxed."

Allen made a growling noise in the back of his throat. It was his equivalent of a pout, really. Lavi just smirked and grasped him around the waist, pulling him onto the bed with him.

"There are some things about you that really piss me off, Lavi," Allen muttered, fumbling for the dropped jar of lubricant.

"Mmm, I don't care. I told you, that's my main reason for existing -- irritating the hell out of you." Lavi pulled him close and rolled onto his back, allowing for Allen to lean over him, the long white hair brushing against Lavi's shoulders as he did so. "Someone needs to keep your feet on the ground, you know. Er, figuratively speaking, of course."

"Of course." Allen placed his hands on either side of Lavi's neck, as if pinning Lavi to the mattress. His voice had pitched down an octave or two. "And my reason for being here is to make sure you pull your own weight around here, you slacker." His arm snaked out and grabbed the jar again, pressing it into Lavi's hands. "Dammit, Lavi, we're going to do this right. I have a mission in the morning, and I don't want to be sore! Now use it, damn you!"

"Yes sir, general, sir! I'd salute you, but you've kind of got my hands tied, in a manner of speaking."

"No need to salute; just do as you're ordered, idiot."

Lavi chuckled as he popped the lid off the jar and scooped out a liberal dollop of the lubricant, rubbing it across his fingers. "Mmm, this might be cold."

"I'm quite well aware of that. Get on with it."

As he applied the lubricant, he pinched Allen's thigh with his other hand; "You don't need to be so grouchy, Allen. This is supposed to be fun. You're treating it like a chore."

"Instead of running off your mouth, work your fingers, rabbit-brat," Allen grunted, pressing a hard kiss to Lavi's mouth to shut him up.

While Lavi's fingers nimbly went about their task of lubing, stretching and generally getting Allen ready for penetration, Allen himself decided to speed something else up, and he reached down, grabbing onto Lavi.

"Careful!" Lavi jerked in startlement at being grabbed and manhandled thus.

"Ouch! You be careful! You almost scratched me!"

Lavi let both his hands drop to the bed as he succumbed to gut-wrenching laughter. "This isn't working out, is it? We're going about it all wrong. I think we're both a little too eager for our own good. Perhaps we should hold off on this; we do still have all night, you said."

Allen ran a hand through his hair, the beads of sweat that were gathering on his brow glistening in the red rays of the setting sun streaming through the window. "Can I help it if I've missed you?"

"I didn't say it was a bad thing, but frankly, I think we'll both enjoy it a lot more if we relax, slow down, and just let it happen. Besides, if you're going to be leaving tomorrow on a mission, then I'm not going to get much time to just talk with you, which you know I like to do." He rolled Allen off of him and sat up. "So how about a little pillow-talk? Complete with pillows, too." He grinned as he reached behind him and pulled one of the pillows closer, leaning into it and drawing Allen up to lay beside him.

"Not much to talk about, though. I mean, we live together, so it's not like there's much happening with me that you don't already know about. And it's not like you were gone for a month or anything."

"No, but I'm sure there's something you can think of to talk about. How are Peter's lessons coming?"

"About as good as can be expected. He learns better from you, I think."

"That's because I know what I'm doing. I received semi-formal training in hand-to-hand combat. You just learned on your own!" Lavi gave Allen's shoulders an affectionate squeeze. "I imagine Yuu could teach him a thing or two, but..."

"No way. Kanda's not a good teacher. Hell of a fighter, yes. Lousy teacher. His deshi have all said as much."

"All two of them! And one of those deshi was Sven, who can hold his own in a fight with Yuu."

"Mm, I know, and no one's as bad as Shishou was. But still. I'd rather we trained Peter ourselves."

"Good point."

They fell into a companionable silence as Allen rested his head on Lavi's chest and breathed deeply, inhaling his lover's scent as he did so. As his tension wicked away, he relaxed in Lavi's embrace, feeling slightly foolish for having tried to rush things.

Finally, Lavi sat up again, reaching for the jar of lubricant. "Now just stay relaxed, Allen," he said as he scooped out a little more of the jelly. "This pretty much always works best for both of us if you're relaxed." He gently began applying the lubricant again. Allen brought his hands up to Lavi's face and pulled him in for a long, passionate kiss.

After a few minutes, their mutual arousal was pretty obvious, and Lavi rolled Allen onto his back, maintaining the kiss as he did so. Allen shifted the positioning of his legs to grant his lover easier access, and concentrated on keeping his muscles as relaxed as possible as Lavi pressed in. A warm shudder worked its way through him at the heat of contact. In their twelve years together, they had developed a consistency in their lovemaking. Allen tended to prefer to be on the receiving end, simply because he liked the way he felt when Lavi penetrated him. There was no real description of that feeling, it wasn't that he felt in less in control, or more in control; it was simply that he liked it. Occasionally he and Lavi would switch roles, depending on Allen's mood (when he was aggressive, he wanted to top; otherwise, he was perfectly content to receive).

Lavi nipped playfully at Allen's shoulder as they settled into rhythm; Allen just buried his hands in his lover's unruly red hair and moaned in response to the movement. This right here was worth all the hassle of planning, agonizing and waiting. This thrill never got old.

The heat went up another notch when Lavi moved one hand down to grasp onto Allen, to stimulate him further. His touch was gentle, but erotic, and Allen very nearly lost control of himself.

"Just relax," Lavi murmured, "no need to get too excited. Ease up, you're getting tense."

In response, Allen latched onto Lavi's mouth forcibly, his fingers digging into Lavi's scalp with the force of his ardor. Lavi's response was to increase the fervor with which he thrust into Allen, bringing them both closer and closer to climax. Allen moaned a bit and pressed his forehead against Lavi's shoulder, as if bracing himself for an explosive climax. Lavi arched his back, driving himself into his lover with a renewed vigor, while he moved both hands around to clasp Allen at the small of his back.

"L-Lavi..." Allen grunted, his breath coming in ragged gasps. "I-I'm... I... I'm..."

"Yeah, I know. Same here. Just breathe, Allen. If we time it right, we should both come at the same time."

"How can you... be so... calm?"

"You think this is calm? Whoa, hang on a... oh god!"

"Nnnngurgh!"

With a spasm of muscles, both of them climaxed, one after the other. The release of that tension caused Allen's limbs to feel suddenly leaden, and he felt more deeply relaxed, post-coital, than he'd felt in a long time. It was amazing how relaxing sex could be in the end.

Lavi was dripping with sweat, and breathing hard from the exertion. "Goddamn, Allen. We need to do this more often, I think we're out of practice."

Allen chuckled as he brought his hands up to Lavi's face, pulling him down for a tender kiss.

"Happy Birthday, my beloved," he murmured. "Give me a couple of minutes to catch my breath, and we can go again."

THE END.