What the crap? I have more time on my hands than ever now (seriously. I'm bored out of my mind) but I've been writing less than ever. Where is the logic in that, I ask you? Anywhore, I've finally managed to get my arse in gear and type up another chapter of my little 'Through the Looking Glass' majiggy. There'll probably be another two chapters of it or so after this one, but I may add in another random oneshot to break it up a bit. You know, for shits and giggles.

Please forgive any mistakes. As always I am lacking a beta (since my unofficial beta does not like yaoi :( We will convert him one day.)

Well whatever. Here it is you guys who were patient enough to wait for it :)

(Oh, and I don't own D. Gray-man, are you happy now you sadists?)

Blinking his eyes open slowly, Kanda grimaced; it felt as though his eyelids had been glued together. He held a hand to his throbbing temple and pushed himself into a position that vaguely resembled sitting, glancing around at his unfamiliar surroundings. The walls, bed and floor were all varying shades of white and cream; giving Kanda the impression of a hospital. The harsh smell of disinfectant only strengthened that theory. As always, his first thoughts jumped to Allen and he immediately began searching for something – anything – reflective.

The large windows provided enough of a reflective surface for him to make out Allen's sleeping form and Kanda let out an inaudible sigh of relief. The pale boy was slumped on one of the chairs near Kanda's bedside, his head resting near Kanda's reflection's leg.

It was strange, Kanda decided, glancing down at the bed – there was no hint that Allen even existed in the real world. No slight dip in the mattress, no creased sheets where his head lay. If it weren't for that moment in Rhode's world, then Kanda might have started to think that maybe Allen really was just a figment of his imagination – not that he had much of one, as Allen frequently pointed out. Kanda flopped back down onto the bed, closing his eyes. This was a good chance to catch up on lost sleep.

As he hovered on the brink of unconsciousness, a distant part of him registered the door opening, and he opened his bleary eyes to glare at the blur of red and black.

"Hey Yuu," the blur greeted cheerfully, and Kanda managed a semi-coherent growl in his general direction. Lavi – the blur – laughed easily. "Gave us quite a scare there, Yuu – I don't think you've ever slept that long before!"

Kanda grumbled quietly, his eyes flicking to the window to make sure that the usagi's racket hadn't woken Allen – thankfully the boy was still sleeping soundly. Lavi followed his gaze curiously, his eye pausing when he realised that Kanda was staring at the window; or rather, the reflection. For once, he held his curious tongue, though he was simply bursting with questions. Turning his head back to the doorway, Kanda met Lavi's eye for a few seconds before something occurred to him.

"How long have I been asleep?" He asked softly, mindful of the boy still sleeping in the mirror. Lavi raised an eyebrow but didn't comment, and followed his lead.

"Almost a week," he whispered, and Kanda nodded, trying to contain his initial reaction. For him to have been unconscious for so long was unheard of – his healing abilities didn't usually allow it. Poor Allen must have been bored out of his mind; unless he had been sleeping as well, of course.

"What happened after Rhode let us go?" Kanda asked eventually, and the hesitant look that flashed through Lavi's eye did not go unnoticed by him.

"What do you remember?" Lavi asked in lieu of a real answer. A faint scowl crossed Kanda's face before he rearranged his features into a more neutral expression. That the usagi was a constant annoyance was nothing new, and he reminded himself that Allen would be upset if Lavi were to die. Though Kanda didn't usually let other people's feelings govern his actions, the thought of Allen hating him was close to unbearable. He took a deep breath, unsure of how much he could tell Lavi.

"Blacking out," he said flatly, waiting to see what Lavi's reply to that would be, well aware that he was walking on metaphorical eggshells.

Lavi bit his lip, perhaps the first outward sign of uncertainty that the Bookman apprentice had ever unconsciously shown. Whether or not he had actually managed to erase his emotions, Lavi wasn't one to let people know how he really felt about anything; Kanda could see it in his eye and was possibly the only one (apart from Allen who spent far more time staring at the red-haired boy than Kanda thought was strictly necessary) who could do so. Now, for the first time since they had met, the expression on Lavi's face was a perfect match to the look in his eye.

"Well, when Rhode let us go, we ended up back in Miranda's apartment – you were unconscious, obviously, and we got Miranda to deactivate her Innocence without too many problems; uh, I'm a bit sketchy on the details after that since I passed out and had to rely on Miranda's account, but from what I can tell she ran outside the city and found Toma. He called the Order and we were brought to this hospital."

Kanda nodded once to acknowledge that he had heard and understood. Allen slept on, oblivious.

"There was something else I wanted to ask you about," Lavi continued, his eye flicking to the window briefly before focusing on Kanda once again. He seemed to be waiting for some form of reply, but Kanda just stared.

"Who was that boy? The one that stopped you in Rhode's dream world?"

Kanda's heart stopped momentarily before picking up again at double the pace. He had known, of course, that Rhode had heard Allen, but whilst he had suspected that the others may have too, there was no way for him to be certain.

"At least, I assume it was a boy," Lavi continued after a brief pause, rubbing his chin thoughtfully. "The voice was high pitched, so it was a little hard to tell, especially without seeing him... her... it." His voice trailed off and he looked at Kanda expectantly, waiting for him to reveal all. Kanda gritted his teeth, but he knew he didn't have much of a choice in the matter. Bookmen were experts at gathering information, after all. It would probably be far simpler and less painful for them both if he just answered Lavi's questions.

"Him. Allen's a boy." Lavi's eye widened.

"Allen?" He asked, his voice a smidge too loud – in the mirror, Allen flinched at the sound of his name and opened his eyes slowly, yawning and stretching as he did so.

'Kanda? You're awake now?' Allen mumbled, and Kanda frowned slightly when he realised that Allen was now moving his mouth when he spoke like any normal person would. Was this some new development or just a habit that Allen had picked up?

Yeah, Kanda thought back. Did you get enough sleep?

'Plenty, thank you. Is everyone alright? Did Rhode hurt anyone?' Allen seemed to take the Noah girl very seriously – he looked to be genuinely frightened at the thought of her harming any of the Exorcists that Kanda had been with. He stood hastily, knocking over the reflective chair in the process; Kanda winced as it crashed to the ground and it took him a few seconds longer than it should have to realise that Allen had never managed to affect the mirror-world like that before.

"What was that?" Lavi asked slowly, suspiciously, cautiously and a thousand other words ending in 'ly' that Kanda didn't know. Allen seemed torn between overjoyed at this new-found ability and petrified by the fact that someone other than Kanda had witnessed it. At least, that was what Kanda assumed - it was a little hard to tell with Allen sometimes as his moods were rather unpredictable and difficult to read.

Kanda, on the other hand, was completely dumbstruck. Was Allen getting stronger? From past conversations, Kanda knew that Allen had not spent his entire existence trapped in mirrors, but the boy had never gone into any more detail than that. Could this be a sign that he might be able to leave the mirror world at some point?

Or (perish the thought) was this an indication that Allen was becoming more a part of the mirror world, therefore lessening the odds of him being able to escape?

'That's new,' Allen mused quietly.

So is the fact that you are actually talking now, Kanda replied silently, keeping a careful eye on Lavi; not that it would do much good. Whether or not the redhead actually knew – or even suspected – anything, he would not let Kanda know by something as easily manipulated as facial expressions.

'Oh, I suppose I am, aren't I?' Allen replied, his face lighting up in surprise, and Kanda felt the urge to repeatedly hit his head against the nearest brick wall. Had Allen really not noticed?

"Kanda? What was that?" Lavi asked again, and Kanda jerked slightly at the sound of his name being called – when had he stopped watching Lavi and started staring at Allen again? This was beginning to spiral far out of his control, and he didn't like the feeling in the slightest. "I know that you know, Kanda. What was it?"

It seemed that he didn't have much of a choice anymore; he could try lying, he supposed, but it was likely that Lavi would see straight through any tale he could fabricate. Kanda shut his eyes and prayed that Allen would forgive him.

"That... was Allen."

The onslaught never came.

'Well it's about time someone noticed something,' Allen commented idly, picking the chair up and sitting down on it, flicking a lock of white hair behind his ear. It was amazing to Kanda that the boy was no longer self conscious about his scar – or his arm, for that matter, since he presently wore both sleeves rolled up to the elbows. 'How many years has it been now? I'm amazed that no one figured it out in the beginning, when you insisted on talking to me out loud.' No longer worried about Lavi thinking he was insane, Kanda glared at the window.

"If I hold a mirror close enough to the edge of a cliff, do you think you'll be able to jump off it?" Kanda asked, though his voice lacked any real aggression.

'Yes, but it won't do any good,' Allen said, grinning wickedly, before his face dropped into a rather pitiful expression; the movement that was quite obviously practiced. Even so, Kanda felt something remarkably like a hand squeezing his heart at the sight, and for a moment he had to glance down to check that he wasn't really injured. 'Do you really want rid of me that badly, Kanda?'

"No! That wasn't – I didn't mean – I – you..." Kanda trailed off when he realised that Allen was laughing at him so hard that he had toppled over, his face pressed into the bed as he giggled. "Fuck you, moyashi."

'Oh Kanda, darling, I'd love you to,' Allen managed, turning his face to one side so that Kanda could hear him clearly before dissolving into laughter again. It took all of the considerable willpower that Kanda possessed to fight down the growing flush he could feel on his neck and ears. To save face, Kanda scowled at Allen and threw himself down on the bed, smirking when Allen yelped and moved quickly away; he wasn't sure whether his reflective self could harm Allen or not, but it seemed that the white-haired boy didn't want to take any chances.

"You've been listening to the baka usagi too much," he muttered, forgetting for a moment that said baka usagi was standing in the doorway and staring at Kanda with a somewhat dumbstruck expression. "Whatever. I'm going back to sleep. Don't bother waking me up."

'Gotcha,' Allen laughed, covering his mouth with his red left hand to smother the sound of his amusement. 'G'night Kanda.'

The next few weeks were perhaps some of the worst of Kanda's life, and that was certainly an accomplishment in his eyes.

For a start, when he had finally been left alone with Allen (and no, times when one or both of them were sleeping did not count) the boy had been unusually quiet, and had deflected his questions far more often than usual. His explanation of his behaviour and momentary burst into reality in Rhode's dream world was limited to a brief 'your guess is as good as mine'. When he'd asked how the Noah girl had known Allen's name, the pale lips had twisted into a mockery of a smile while his eyes grew distant. In the end, Allen didn't reply, and Kanda dropped the subject, not entirely sure what to make of his reaction.

On top of that, he'd had a near-constant barrage of questions directed at him by various people from within the order; from a friendly 'are you feeling any better' from Lenalee to a full-blown interrogation session from the scientists.

Collapsing onto his neatly-made bed, Kanda groaned and rubbed at his eyes slowly.

'Long day?' Allen asked sympathetically. Kanda didn't bother answering – Allen had been there through all of it, so he knew exactly how long the day had managed to be.

'Anything I can do?'

"Not really, no," Kanda sighed. With a soft 'hmm' Allen fell silent, playing nervously with his hands. The action was unusual – Allen was normally quite calm and collected. The only times he really showed any emotion were when Kanda provoked him into an argument (or vice versa) or when something sent him into one of his brooding sulks, as Kanda had secretly named them. "Oi. What's the matter with you?"

Allen blinked, surprised at being dragged back into a conversation by Kanda of all people. 'Oh. It doesn't matter. Just something Lavi said earlier when you weren't listening.'

Of course; Kanda should have known. Now that other people were aware of Allen's existence, they had been attempting to hold one-sided conversations with him; trying to persuade him to show himself to them (Kanda had neglected to mention that Allen didn't know how. So what if they all thought that Allen didn't like them? Kanda didn't have a problem with being the only one who could see him, so why should they?) and occasionally forcing Kanda to relay Allen's messages. This, of course, ruined the illusion that Allen disliked anyone that wasn't Kanda, but at least Allen seemed happy with the development.

"What did the idiot say this time?" Kanda sighed, more than used to seemingly useless pieces of information and 'friendly advice' from the red-haired boy. Allen shook his head slowly, and when he smiled at Kanda, the Exorcist thought he saw a tightness around Allen's eyes that hadn't been there before.

'Nothing important,' Allen replied breezily, and Kanda wondered if he was imagining the uneasy undertone. At the disbelieving look Kanda shot him, Allen laughed, the almost unnoticeable lines around his mouth disappearing in favour of slight dimples. 'Honestly, Kanda, I'm telling the truth. If I thought it was important then I would have told you already. It was just one of Lavi's daft jokes.'

"Hm. Well you should know better than to listen to him by now." Kanda turned away at that, completely missing the way that Allen's face fell.

'Yeah. You're right.'

There was something wrong with Allen. That much was apparent to even Kanda, who was not at all wise in the ways of emotions. The boy had developed a habit of staring off into space (and occasionally at Kanda when he thought that the dark-haired boy wasn't paying attention) sometimes for hours on end. This on its own may not have been particularly strange, but Allen had also developed a rather irritating habit of cutting short his conversations with Kanda and trying to avoid speaking to him as much as he possibly could.

At first Kanda hadn't thought much of it – missions were pouring in faster than ever, and he spent most of his time exhausted from the near-constant skirmishes. He assumed that Allen was just trying to give him a bit of space and time to relax. However, it had continued long after Kanda had grown used to the amount of work he was being made to do, and to be frank, he was sick of it.

Allen was avoiding him. There was no two ways about it.

Avoiding him as well as someone who was doomed to constantly follow his reflection no matter the circumstances could, at least. So far he seemed to be doing a damned good job of it.

Kanda's chest was aching more and more these days – directly below the black mark of his curse. Whenever anyone asked, that was what he put it down to, but he couldn't lie to himself. His pride wouldn't allow it. He was hurt by the way Allen made a point of turning away whenever their eyes happened to meet in the mirror, and he was sure as Hell hurt by the way Allen frequently refused to speak to him. He didn't know what he'd done wrong (because, according to Allen's logic, everything was his fault. If the world were to end the next day, it'd be his fault somehow).

Enough was enough. Kanda was sick of it. He'd find out what was wrong with Allen if it killed him.

Review please?

P.S. Has anyone else been watching No. 6? It looks like Yullen but with more fanservice :D