[Note from the Author: Hello, loves :D

Sorry this is late. I had a bad case of allergies paired with a horrid sunburn Dx Damn summer...

Well, I must say, waking up the day after I updated with an inbox full of death threats is most definitely the best way to wake up ever. It made me feel all warm and fuzzy ^^ So thank you for the wonderfully violent reviews! And the nonviolent ones were nice too, so thanks!

Alright my dears, this is it. The final chapter. I want to thank everyone for sticking with me this long. Thank you for those of you who have been reading since November, and those who have started reading just recently. It's you guys that keep me writing. So thanks, guys.

Onto the finale~!

I do not own D. Gray-Man in any way, shape, or form. This fic is completely fanmade and I am not making any sort off profit off it.

Happy Readings!

~Kumori]

((Note from the Beta:

Well, here we are. Kumori's finally finishing this story up (not like I'm complaining), so I think we should all congratulate her.

This story was really great, Kumori, and it was a pleasure to beta a few chapters for you. You've gotten much better since November, and I barely had to change anything in this chapter. I'm proud of you, and your readers should be, too. ^^

Ah, yes, and speaking of the readers: I intend to stay as her beta for future stories, too. It probably doesn't matter that much to you, but I'm just throwing it out there in case you, for some reason, feel an emotion other than indifference for me.

Gee, I talk a lot for a beta, don't I? ^^;

Eh, whatever.

Enjoy.

—Zamizu))

Chapter Twenty

Allen watched with forlorn as his uncle's car passed by the sign that told them they were officially leaving Missouri. He had only been in the car for about two hours, but he already hated the world. About a half hour ago, he had dried all his tears and replaced the depression in his heart with gut wrenching hate. Instead of turning all of that malice onto his poor uncle, he decided to take it out on the world. He decided that he hated it with the fiery passion of a thousand burning suns. No, more than that. He hated the world about as much as Kanda hated him and as much as he hated Kanda combined. Yeah, that should be enough hate.

Neah sighed to Allen's left. "Allen, please, don't look so angry."

Allen grumbled and crossed his arms over his chest. "It's that or I start crying again," he mumbled.

"You don't have to see this as a bad thing; you could try to be a little more chipper."

"You're expecting me to be happy when you just dragged me away from my home, my friends, and my boyfriend? I don't think so."

Neah sighed again. "It doesn't have to be this way, Allen. You could look on the brighter side of this. You'll be living on the Oregon coast, so you'll be by the beach. That's a plus, isn't it?"

Allen knew that Neah was trying. He was doing all he could to make this move a little less painful for him. Even so, he couldn't lighten his black mood if he tried. "Sorry, Uncle Neah, but that isn't going to happen."

"I figured as much, Allen. It's alright. You just need a little time."

"No. What I need is Lavi," Allen whispered as he wiped his eyes. He would not cry anymore. He was determined to dry all his tears. He didn't have to be happy, but he didn't have to be miserable either.

"You could just sit back and enjoy the trip," Neah suggested.

Allen huffed and glared out the window to a passing by 7-Eleven. Fucking 7-Eleven. It looks so happy. It's like it's taunting me. Fucking 7-Eleven. Their food sucks and the people who go in there are all losers. Stupid people. Stupid 7-Eleven. When he realized that he was silently telling off a gas station, he face palmed. He decided that maybe it would be better if he went to sleep. It would be better then damning poor people he'd never met to hell and looking like some angry old man in the process. He grumbled a bit and situated himself so he was sitting as comfortably as he could manage in the stiff passenger seat. He tilted his head as much as he could against the car door and closed his eyes. At first, he couldn't sleep. He couldn't help but think about how much he wished that he was laying on Lavi's chest instead of the cold car door.

It took about a half hour, but after silently crying a little more—despite how much he was mad at himself for it, he finally fell asleep.

*.*.*.*

"Allen, wake up, it's time to eat."

Allen cracked his eyes open slightly to see Neah smiling and holding out a McDonald's double cheeseburger. He yawned and stretched his poor aching muscles and held his hand out for the burger. He took the big mass of grease and unwrapped it. He examined the extremely fattening food before stuffing it into his mouth. It was cold, so it didn't taste that great, but food is food. The lard and salt and other fattening components would not effect him, seeing as he had the metabolism that every girl in existence wished to have.

Allen grumbled as he finished off his burger followed by six more and four packages of large fries. On the bright side, his uncle knew about how much he could eat and never failed to remember. Unlike Cross, who would constantly space the fact that Allen ate about four times the amount of a normal full grown man. That's one good thing about moving in with Uncle Neah. . . .

Allen shook away the thought and jammed three more fries into his mouth. After chewing and swallowing, he frowned. I'd rather be underfed than live without Lavi.

"So, Allen, how did you sleep?" Neah asked.

"Well enough," he grumbled.

"That's good."

An awkward silence filled the car. Allen looked out the window as he munched on the last of his fries. It was almost pitch black outside. They were no longer in a city, but driving along a very long and bare highway. The air was thick and heavy, making it seemly hard to breathe. Allen cracked open the window on his side, but slammed it shut when he was hit with the freezing cold air.

Neah chuckled. "It's a little cold out there, Allen."

"I can see that," Allen mumbled. He looked back out of the window and asked, "So where are we?"

"We just left Topeka, Kansas," Neah replied. "That's where I got your dinner. I didn't want to wake you up, though. That was about two hours ago."

"How long have I been out?" Allen asked.

"Hmm, I would say about eight hours. You really can sleep, nephew," Neah said.

Allen shrugged. "They say depression makes people sleep."

"Ah, that it does."

More silence. Allen really hated the tense feeling in the car, so he thought of ways to change it. There was the idea to start talking about something random, but he decided against it. With his uncle, things would more than likely turn depressing easily. Instead, he pulled his iPod out of his coat pocket and hooked it up to the cord that was attached to the stereo and hit play.

"Do you ever feel like breaking down? Do you ever feel out of place? Like somehow you just don't belong, and no one understands you? Do you ever wanna run away? Do you lock yourself in your room? With the radio on turned so loud that no one hears you screaming? No, you don't know what it's like when nothing feels all right. You don't know what it's like to be like me. To be hurt, to feel lost, to be left out in the dark. To be kicked when you're down. To feel like you've been pushed around. To be on the edge of breaking down and no one's there to save you. No, you don't know what it's like. Welcome to my life."

"Very interesting song choice, Allen," Neah commented.

Allen shrugged. "Would you like me to change it?"

"That would be nice, yes. Your music is making me feel very depressed."

Allen grumbled and hit the next button.

"You would not believe your eyes if ten million fireflies lit up the wall as I fell asleep. 'Cause they fill the open air and leave tear drops everywhere. You'd think me rude, but I'd just stand and stare. I'd like to make myself believe that planet Earth turns slowly. It's hard to say that I'd rather stay awake when I'm asleep. Because everything is never as it seems."

"What is the point of this song?" Neah asked.

"No one really knows," Allen said. He had his eyes closed and was enjoying the techno sounding instrumentals. He liked this version better than the remix. He was the type that liked the original versions of songs rather than the remixes. Like Linkin Park for example. Their older material is a lot better than the remixes they made of those songs. Their albums Hybrid Theory and Meteora were genius! But then they started to make remixes of those songs and Allen couldn't stand to listen to them. Thankfully, their newest albums were new songs and actually sounded good. Every time he would listen to "New Divide," he had to hear it a second time. It was that amazing.

"You listen to the most peculiar music," Neah commented.

"And you listen to oldies."

"Hey now, The Beatles are not that old," Neah defended.

Allen snickered. "No, not at all."

Neah rolled his eyes and chuckled. "I'll have you know, I used to listen Slipknot, Slayer, Mushroomhead, GWAR, and Metallica," he said as he ticked off his list on his right hand.

Allen raised an eyebrow. "Really? Why the drastic change in music taste?"

"I figured that if I wanted to change my way of life, my music taste would be one of the first things to be changed."

Allen thought about how hard that must've been for his uncle. He knew that he could not stand the sound of The Beatles because he was more into alternative and punk rock with the occasional techno, but he could not imagine how tough it was for his once badass uncle. "How'd you do it?" Allen asked.

"Oh, it wasn't easy. The first few days were terrible. I went through three stereo systems. I beat the first one with a baseball bat, the second one had an 'unfortunate' accident with a two liter Dr. Pepper bottle, and the third I shot." Neah laughed. "I really didn't like The Beatles in the beginning."

"I can tell," Allen said. He was starting to question his poor uncle's sanity.

"But after plenty of perseverance, and a little help from your dad, I managed to find that style of music not so bad. But even that wasn't enough to completely convert me."

"Then what was?" Allen inquired.

Neah turned his head so he was looking at Allen and gave him a genuine smile. "When you were eight, your favorite song was 'Lucy in the Sky.' You would sing along with it word for word. It was the most adorable thing in the world!"

Allen grumbled and crossed his arms over his chest. "Hush, it was not that cute."

"Oh, yes it was, my dear nephew. You would dance along too. Mana always said that you would be a performer some day."

"Well, he couldn't have been more wrong," Allen mumbled.

Neah nodded and reached over his right hand and ruffled Allen's white hair. "You really were a cute kid, you know."

"Shush."

"You've barely changed over the years," Neah commented.

"That's not true; I've changed a lot," Allen denied.

Neah shook his head. "Okay, perhaps you've changed a bit, but whenever I look at you, I can still see you as the cute little six year old Mana dragged home from work one day. The only difference is your hair color."

Allen stuck his tongue out. "Well, I have difficulty seeing you as the man dressed in all black and chains with three guns hidden in your pockets like when I first met you."

Neah laughed. "Then that means that my metamorphosis was successful."

"That is was."

The two went quiet as "Leave Out All The Rest" by Linkin Park played. Allen went back to looking out the window and couldn't help but think that maybe, just maybe, he could survive this move after all.

*.*.*.*

Two days later, Neah was whistling happily as he pulled into his town. "We're almost there, Allen. I'm telling you, you're going to love it here. It's a nice, quiet town."

Allen's gut was twisting a turning in a thousand different directions. He was torn on how to feel. He had to admit that he was a little excited to be here. He had heard a lot about his new town and it sounded pretty nice. From how Neah described it, it was no more than seven miles long from one end of the town to the other. Despite how small it was, it was a very successful tourist town. People from all over Oregon, Washington, California, and Idaho would come over in the summer. He didn't understand why people would drive out so far to stay in a town less than ten miles long, but that was just him.

He watched out the window as they passed by the usual necessities in a town – McDonald's and Walgreen's. There weren't that many cars out and about, so there really wasn't all that much traffic. Neah said that it would be different once May rolled around. Mid May to about early September was tourist season, Neah had explained. Allen was happy that he wasn't coming in during that time. This gave him plenty of time to adjust to the place before tourists flooded it.

Outside looked beautiful to Allen. It was icy and frosty, with little bits of snow collected on the tops of roofs. Winter always was Allen's favorite season, but he could never get over how much the sight of snow really affected him. It was indescribable how familiar the snow was and how at home he felt when he caught sight of it.

Neah continued driving for about two more minutes before he turned on to a road on his right. He drove past streets filled with giant houses that looked very expensive. Most were two stories, but there were a few that were three. Allen's eyes widened as stared at them.

"These are the houses that are rented out to tourists," Neah said.

"Are you serious? Why would someone rent out houses as big as this?"

"I don't know. But in this town, we depend on the money that they bring, so we don't exactly complain."

"That's understandable."

Neah made a sound of acknowledgement and continued to drive until he turned onto a small street. There were four houses on the street, each one of them were huge. The first three were three stories, but the last one was only two stories. It was white with red clay roofing tiles. The shutters were red and matched the roof. There was a large wooden deck that circled the top half of the house. There was hardly a yard, but Allen guessed that in the warmer seasons there were flowers that grew along the front of the house.

Neah pulled into the driveway of the house and cut the engine. He turned and caught Allen gaping and chuckled. "Well, this is it. Welcome home, Allen."

Allen could not tear his eyes away from the enormous house in front of him. Yes, it was only two stories, but it was huge. This house looked like it could eat Allen's old house and still have room for dessert.

"You look surprised," Neah said.

"How the hell did you manage to afford this?" Allen asked, momentarily forgetting to mind his manners.

"My job pays really well. I am a private music teacher on my own time, but I also am a social worker."

"You're a social worker?" Allen asked incredulously. "How'd you manage to do that? Don't you have to have serious background checks or something?"

"Yes, but my boss is very lenient. I'll tell you about him later. For now, let's get your things inside, shall we?"

"Y-yeah."

Allen unbuckled his seatbelt and stepped out of the car into the comforting cold January air and walked back to the U-Haul. He unlocked the door and hefted up the nearest box, watching as Neah walked up the driveway to the front door and unlocked it. Allen followed his uncle inside and almost dropped his box.

The house was even bigger on the inside! The ceiling was about thirty feet up, only adding to the feeling of the house being massive. He could see the other side of the house from the entryway. The living room and dining room and kitchen all blended nicely as one big room without any walls separating them. Neah walked into what Allen assumed to be the dining room and set his keys on the nice mahogany table. Allen followed Neah and set his box down at the table and continued to gape at the house.

"What do you think, Allen?"

"I think I am going to wake up any second now and be back in the car. There is no way you live here."

Neah smiled. "Oh, but I do. I've lived here for two years now. It's been very nice."

"Why do you have such a big place to yourself?" Allen asked. He could not imagine why Neah would need an enormous two story house to himself.

"That's because I have turned the bedroom down here into a classroom. I give musical lessons to kids on Fridays through Sundays. Then upstairs is my bedroom, my office, and the guest bedroom, which is now your bedroom. Go ahead and start taking your things upstairs. It's the first door to the right. I'm going to check my messages and call my boss and then I'll come assist you."

Allen nodded and lifted the box once more and started towards the stairs. Once upstairs, he looked to his right and saw a large bedroom. It wasn't the master bedroom, but it was still big—about two times bigger than his room before. There was already a sleek black desk in the corner and a queen sized bed that matched. Allen set the box on the bed and sat down next to it. The room was dark, and he liked it. There was only a little light from the window because the curtain that covered it was black. The walls were gray and plain, and the carpet was a dark navy. All in all, it was a nice, simple, and dark room. Perfect for Allen.

Allen stood up and started back down stairs to get the rest of his things. When he was about halfway down the staircase, his pocket vibrated. His heart sped up. The past three days his phone has been vibrating like crazy, but he was never allowed to open it up and check the messages or answer the calls. He jammed his hand into his pocket, took hold of his phone and whipped it out. Just like he was hoping, it was a message from Lavi.

7:42 am: hey. ya there?

7:43 am: Yeah, I'm here. We just got in town.

7:44 am: holy shit ur alive! i thought that u like died or sumthin. i was bout ready to jack gramp's car n come find ya.

7:45 am: Thanks for the thought, but it's not really necessary. We're here and we're safe. It was just a very long trip.

7:47 am: i bet. so how're ya holdin up?

7:49 am: I'm fine. I'm just getting used to my new house I guess.

7:51 am: thats good to hear. god i miss u. r u sure u cnt come bak?

7:52 am: I'm afraid I can't. You know that. But I miss you too.

7:54 am: i miss you more ;D

7:55 am: I'm going to let you win this argument. Only because I'm working on bringing my things inside.

7:56 am: ah ok. want me 2 leave ya b?

7:57 am: Only for about an hour.

7:59 am: ok. i guess i shuld b payin attention in class anyway. ill txt ya at lunch k?

8:01 am: Oh, I forgot you're in school! I'm sorry for interrupting. Text me at lunch.

8:02 am: will do. love ya.

8:03 am: Love you too. Now pay attention! Raise those grades so I can see you!

Allen smiled happily as he put his phone back in his pocket. Only talking to Lavi for fifteen minutes made him feel more positive than he had felt since he left Missouri. With a new skip in his step, he started downstairs to bring up the rest of his things. Maybe this won't be as bad as I thought.

Little did he know that things were only going to get worse from there on.

[Note from the Author: Hmm. Weird way to end the final chapter, huh? It's like I'm leaving open room for a sequel or something...

Which I am! ;D

Ahh, you guys didn't think I was really going to separate Allen and Lavi for forever, did you? :O Even I'm not that evil.

Anyway, after thinking about it for some time and discussing the idea with my beta, I thought that it would be cool to have a sequel to this because Allen moved and the title So Close, Yet So Far didn't really work out too well. And it's an excuse to bring in more characters and drama~! :D I'm so excited for this.

So, here's the plan. I think I am going to wait awhile before I post the new story until I have at least two or three chapters written out so updating won't be so bad this time around. I'll try to not take any longer than a month. Okay? I hope that's not too long.

I hope all of you enjoyed reading my story and will move on to the sequel. It would make me so, so, so happy.

Thank you again to everyone who has take the time to review, favorite, alert, and just read my story. It means so much to me. THANK YOU ALL! :D *blows kisses everywhere*

Keep an eye out for the upcoming sequel, Distant Hearts!

Songs: "Welcome To My Life" by Simple Plan and "Fireflies" by Owl City.

Until Next Time!

~Kumori]

*.*.*.*

Story: So Close, Yet So Far

Status: Complete

Started: November 30th, 2011

Ended: July 10th, 2012

Chapters: 20

Word Count:106,625

*.*.*.*