D. Gray-man Fan Fiction ❯ Touch of Innocence ❯ Touch of Innocence ( One-Shot )

[ X - Adult: No readers under 18. Contains Graphic Adult Themes/Extreme violence. ]

TOUCH OF INNOCENCE
A D. Gray-Man Fanfic With Lemon


By Sailor Mac
"Bean Sprout?" Lavi knocked on Allen's doorframe. "Hey, Bean Sprout, you coming to dinner?"

He knew that was usually a moot question. With the amount that Allen usually ate, "are you coming to dinner" was akin to asking, "are you breathing." But today . . .

The boy yanked open the door, silver eyes burning. "My name's not Bean Sprout," he said in clipped tones.

*Uh-oh,* Lavi thought. *That sounds more harsh than usual. "Are you still mad at me?" he said, in what he hoped was his sweetest voice.

"Maybe," Allen said, stepping out into the hall and shutting the door behind him, the gold Golem who was his constant companion fluttering here and there around his head as if concerned.

"I couldn't help it!" Lavi said, following his friend down the hall. "She was gorgeous! I just had to talk to her!"

"Do you have a thing for Akuma women?" Allen cut his eyes toward his friend, narrowing them. "First Eliade, now this."

"But we got her, didn't we?" Lavi leaned a hand on his friend's shoulder, which Allen quickly shrugged off.

"If I hadn't been with you," Allen said, his voice starting to wobble with an emotion that was more fear than anger, "you might have been dead, Lavi! Weren't you the one who said our coats make us the *target* of Akuma, and that we should be careful?"

"Love is never careful, Allen," Lavi said as they entered the dining hall, his step feeling lighter as he remembered the thrilling moment of looking at someone beautiful, and damn the consequences. "You'll find that out someday. It makes you do stupid things you regret." He leaned over and whispered in his friend's ear, "It's very easy to end up regretting the first time you have sex, you know."

"Gyaaaa!!!" Allen's face turned as white as his hair, his eyebrows almost shooting halfway up his skull.

"Just kidding." Lavi patted Allen's shoulder again, and this time, the boy didn't shrug the touch off. "Okay, I got carried away. I should have been more careful, I didn't mean to scare you . . . friends again?"

Allen sighed as they headed for Jerry's window. "Don't do it again, Lavi," he said. "Please."

He leaned over and whispered, "Were you jealous of her?"

That brought another "Gyaaaa!!!" -- only this time, Allen turned tomato-red.

Lavi watched Allen out of the corner of his eye as he placed his food order. The boy *did* look genuinely worried. And he didn't mean to upset him. He was definitely going to have to do something to lighten the mood a bit.

He cast his eyes around the room, and they settled on a convenient target in the form of his sometimes-lover, who was sitting by himself as usual.

He put a hand on Allen's shoulder again as the boy was placing his usual enormous food order and said, "Hey, let's go sit next to Yuu!"

Before he could hear any protests, he grabbed his own tray and sprinted across the dining room, calling out, "YUU-CHAAAAANNN!!" One of the advantages to knowing a good portion of the world's spoken languages is you knew how to push the buttons of people all over the world. He knew very well what the "-chan" suffix meant, and what its effect would be on Kanda.

He plunked his tray next to the Japanese swordsman, who didn't even look up from his soba. *So he's playing the ice king first,* he thought. *Guess I'll have to work on him to get him to explode.*

"Look at how long your hair is getting, Yuu," he said, leaning over so he could better observe the other man's ponytail. "You're going to be able to mop the floor with it pretty soon!"

Kanda just made a "hnn!" sound and looked away.

"Hey, I'm just saying how pretty your hair is!" Lavi said, pointing his fork at Kanda -- who lashed out with his arm, knocking it across the room, just as Allen arrived at the table.

"Allen!" Lavi said as the younger Exorcist set his tray down. "Man, I hope you brought some extra silverware! Yuu just threw mine away!"

"You're lucky you only lost a *fork*," Kanda humphed, gripping his own pair of chopsticks as if it were the hilt of his sword.

"Guess he doesn't like me saying things about his hair," Lavi stage-whispered, leaning across the table toward Allen.

"What did you say?" Allen whispered back.

"That his ponytail's getting long enough to mop the floor with if he leans over."

Allen stifled a laugh, and got a withering glare from Kanda in response. He rummaged around on his tray, saw that he did, indeed, have an extra set of silverware (since someone in the kitchen probably thought he was collecting food for two people) and handed it over to Lavi. "Don't let him throw this away," he said.

"Thank you." *Good, it's working*, he thought. *He's lightened up like nothing happened.* He turned his attention back to Kanda again. "You *do* have pretty hair, you know. Have you *ever* had it cut?"

Kanda leaned over toward Lavi and hissed, "I don't think that's any of your business."

"You're not fun, Yuu." Lavi began to scoop up a huge amount of food on his fork. To Allen, he said, "Don't you think we should get him to lighten up?"

And that was when pain suddenly exploded through Lavi's skull, as a female voice above him yelled his name, holding it for about four measures and spanning three key changes.

"Are you tormenting people again?" Linalee said as she removed her laden tray from Lavi's head.

"OW!" Lavi put up a hand to rub what surely would have been a huge egg on his skull had not it been padded by his hair. "What'd you do that for, Linalee?"

"I *knew* when I saw you over here that you were just out to make trouble." Linalee sat down in the vacant seat next to Allen. "We can't take him anywhere, can we?" she said to him.

"Mmmph mmmph mmmph," Allen said around the massive piles of food he was plowing through.

"Oooh, I almost forgot to give you this, Miss Linalee!" said another voice above them. There stood the flamboyant cook himself, a huge pitcher in his hands.

"Forgot? I didn't order anything else, Jerry." She gently pushed the fluttering Timcampy out of her way so she could see him.

"Present from me," he said. "It's a new juice drink we made up in the back. Fruits we've never had around here before! They were a gift from the Asian branch."

"Whoa, it smells great!" Lavi said as Jerry put a glass in front of each of the Exorcists and started to pour the liquid.

"This isn't the result of one of my brother's experiments, is it?" Linalee said, eyeing her glass with suspicion.

"Nobody but my staff even touched it," Jerry said. "Nothing in it but pure juice."

Kanda just disregarded the glass and continued eating. Lavi picked up his, raised it in a toast, and said, "Bottoms up!" He gulped it, and what greeted his taste buds was definitely pleasant. It was mildly sweet, and a bit tangy, and a little like apples and a little like grapes and a lot like nothing he'd ever had before, even during his travels with Bookman. He brought the glass to his mouth again and took a bigger gulp.

"It's good, isn't it?" Jerry said. "There's more in the back if you people want it!" He waved and headed back toward his kitchen.

Across the table, Allen drained his glass rapidly and poured himself a second. "Wow, you really *do* like that stuff, don't you?" Lavi said.

"I can't stop drinking it," Allen said.

"See, at least *someone* appreciates it," Lavi said, leaning over toward Kanda again. "You haven't touched your juice at all, Yuu."

Kanda just made a "hnn!" sound and looked away.

"If you don't drink your juuuice," Lavi said, teasingly, "someone else is gonna get it!"

The "someone else" was very obvious. Allen was guzzling the juice like there was no tomorrow. "I think we're going to need that other pitcher," Linalee said as Allen set the glass down on the table, wiping his hand across his mouth.

Allen leaned over for the jug again . . . and suddenly weaved back and forth, an odd look on his face. He tried again, grabbed it successfully and poured it, but the liquid sloshed all over the place, the puddle around the glass accounting for almost as much as what made it into the container.

"You okay, Bean Sprout?" Lavi said. "You look a bit woozy. Maybe even *you* can eat too much." *Did he get more hurt in the fight than he let on?* he thought, and suddenly felt very concerned for his friend.

"My name's not Bean Splot . . . Bean Sprout." The boy's eyes had a strange, unfocused look. "It's Allen."

Lavi and Linalee exchanged glances. Even Kanda glanced up from his food to give him an even harsher glare than usual.

"His eyes," Linalee said. "Something's wrong with him, Lavi."

"There's nothin' . . . nothin' wrong with me." Allen started to stand up -- probably going after that second pitcher, Lavi thought -- and ended up pushing the chair down to the floor, which landed with a loud *crack*. He stared at it . . . then suddenly started to laugh, then laugh louder, then roar like it was the funniest thing that ever happened to anyone.

"Did you see that?" he said, pointing to it as he gasped for air between outbursts of hilarity.

It suddenly dawned on Lavi that this was not the behavior of someone who was tired, or had whacked his head in battle. This was the way people acted during some of the Order's more raucous holiday parties.

"You sure this was just juice?" Lavi picked up his own cup and started to sniff it -- just as Kanda got up and started to leave. "Hey, where are you going, Yuu? This is just getting interesting!"

"Yeah, where are you going, Yuu?" Allen rushed around the table, staggering a bit, and seized the departing Kanda by the ponytail, giving it a good yank.

A dead silence fell over the area, the way it does when everyone knows an act of extreme horror is about to follow. Allen, seemingly oblivious, still didn't let go of the swordsman's hair.

Kanda just stood stock still for a split second -- then whirled around, yanking his hair out of Allen's hands so fast it almost left rope burns and drawing Mugen in one motion.

"Aw, CRAP!" Lavi shouted as he dove for Allen, knocking him down, both of them rolling across the floor before Kanda could complete swinging the sword in an arc.

"Do that again," Kanda said in an icy tone, pointing the weapon at both of them, "and I *will* spill your guts all over the floor."

"Hey!" Lavi said. "It's nothing *I* haven't done to you!" -- but he found himself with the point of the weapon shoved mere centimeters from his face.

"And that goes DOUBLE for you," Kanda said.

Around them, people were rushing around, murmuring. Jerry ran over to them, saying, "What happened? What happened to Allen?"

"Your little fruit punch seems to have gotten him *drunk*," Lavi said, getting up and hauling Allen to his feet.

"It's just juice!" Jerry said. "I swear! Fresh squeezed! I did it myself! I even personally tasted everything! I wouldn't give you guys anything that's . . ."

"What's going on in here?" Komui said, entering the room ahead of his sister. "Linalee came flying up to me saying something was wrong with . . ." He leaned over and looked into Allen's eyes. Allen looked up at him and let out a small "heh."

He looked around. "What happened to him?" he asked everyone.

"It was just juice I gave him!" Jerry leaned on Komui's shoulder, hiding his face against his arm. "I swear!"

"Juice?" Komui looked into Allen's eyes again. "It doesn't look like that. It looks like something got this boy *drunk*. We're going to have to get someone in the infirmary to look at him. We need to find out what happened, and . . ."

Allen let go of Lavi, took a few steps and wobbled a bit. Linalee grabbed hold of his shoulders, trying to steady him -- only to have her brother grab onto her shoulders.

"Don't touch him!" he said. "He's drunk!"

"Brother!" Linalee said, trying to wriggle away from him. "He only drank *fruit juice*!"

""I don't care what he drank! Until he's fixed, he's out of control! He could be all hands! There's no telling what could happen!" He started to push her toward the door.

"His hands are *standing still*," she said, trying to push back.

"I know how drunken men are!" Komui pushed at his sister again, she pushed back, and it started to look like some kind of bizarre backwards tug-of-war. "I worked with Cross Marian! I don't want any soused pervert like that corrupting you!"

Lavi just stood there, feeling Allen heavily sag against him again. Well, Komui wasn't going to be any help. Next thing that was inevitably going to happen was Linalee would invocate the Dark Boots and things would get ugly. Jerry was just standing there fretting and swearing the pitcher only contained juice. Kanda was long gone.

"Looks like I'm gonna have to take matters into my own hands." He slung Allen's arm around his shoulders. "Come on, Bean Sprout. I'm gonna get the old panda to take a look at you, and then I'm gonna take this stuff down to the lab."

Allen just let out a small laugh, leaning heavily on Lavi as the older boy grabbed the pitcher with the small amount of liquid remaining in the bottom. This was definitely not the kind of thing his training as a Bookman prepared him for.

* * *

He managed to get Allen as far as his own room when the boy started seriously sagging against him. "Hey," he said, "you're not gonna pass out on me, are you?"

Allen made a noise that sounded a bit like "Hmmmph" and leaned on Lavi even more.

"Okay, looks like I'll have to dump you here," he said. "Geez, for a Bean Sprout, you're heavy."

"Name's not Bean Sprout," Allen mumbled as Lavi bent over to put the pitcher on the floor, then fumbled with his door key. He managed to get it open, dragged Allen over to the bed and let go of him. The boy fell like a sack of potatoes.

"I'll be back with the old panda in a moment," he told the very passed-out Allen. He rushed out into the hall, knocking on the door next to his. No answer. "Come on, old man, I know you're in there," he said, knocking louder.

Still no reply. He knew there were times when Bookman would go off on his own, wandering around on the grounds of the Order, or even to the town beneath, doing some kind of meditation. Of all times for the old fart to disappear . . .

"Stay here," he said to the unconscious boy. "Looks like you're not gonna go too far, anyway."

Allen stirred and made a small noise that may or may not have been an attempt at speech. Lavi sat on the edge of the bed next to him, slowly reaching out a hand to brush silver-white bangs away from his eyes.

"Well, a little rest is probably gonna do you good," he said. "They've been working the hell out of you lately, haven't they? Seems you just get back here and they're sending you off somewhere again. And they don't always send me to look after you, either."

Allen made another small noise that may have been an attempt to comment on the irony of that last statement, considering what had happened earlier that day, and moved his head a little, leaning into the older boy's touch. Lavi obliged him and started stroking Allen's hair, gently.

"Yeah, I'll just let you sleep," he said. "I'm still going out to look for the old panda, though. You're gonna need a treatment if you don't wanna wake up tomorrow with your head exploding. Believe me, I know."

He kept stroking the boy's hair, threading his fingers through it a little. It wasn't very often he got a chance to just *look* at his friend like this. Right now, his brain, which recorded every detail like a camera, was telling him that whatever the juice did to him, it made him look younger and more vulnerable. Maybe it was the pink flush across his cheeks. Or maybe it was the fact that he looked *peaceful*.

More often than not, Allen was in a streak of frantic motion, Innocence arm at full extension as he charged at an Akuma.

"I think the Earl has something against people getting to take a weekend off from time to time, Bean Sprout," he said aloud, curling one lock of hair around his finger. "Sure hate to work for him."

Even when he was in battle, though, Allen had a *purity* about him. He *wanted* to be out there, amongst the Akuma, saving the dead souls from their enslavement by the Earl -- whereas Lavi himself had felt he was fighting someone else's war. Of course, he *had* been told that over and over by Bookman.

Just *looking* like this made him feel . . . warm. Maybe it was just the fact that they were together in a quiet place, at peace, nobody to disturb them . . .

Except he felt *warmer" when Allen turned his head a bit more, so that the palm of Lavi's hand rested on his cheek. And that felt damn good . . . and damn bad.

He could hear the words of his mentor as if the old panda were standing right in front of him. "A Bookman has no need for a heart . . . we must stay completely objective . . ."

*Easy for him to say,* he thought.*Don't think anyone would have wanted to come near *him* when he was younger. Bet he was *born* old.*

He tried to follow the rule. He really did. His flirtations with pretty people like the one that had nearly gotten him in trouble today didn't really count, that was just meaningless playing around. He had indulged himself with Kanda several times, but he told himself it meant nothing emotionally (it was with *Kanda*, after all, who wasn't exactly a lovey-dovey type of guy).

But sometimes, it was damn hard, nearly impossible. Especially those times he didn't want to admit to himself, when he indulged in fantasies that were often more suiting a schoolgirl than a Bookman.

"Okay, that's it," he said, starting to get up. "I'm gonna go get the old panda and . . ."

Allen's hand stopped him. Not so much the fact that the boy had grabbed him, it was *where* he had grabbed him.

The younger Exorcist's hand was on Lavi's thigh, high up in the danger zone, and he was squeezing and stroking.

Lavi froze in place. At first, he thought that Allen had just grabbed any random part of his body, that he wasn't *aware* of where he was touching him. "Um, Bean Sprout?" he said.

When the hand moved even higher, the caressing became firmer and more insistent, he knew it was no mistake. "Hey, there, now, watch where you're going . . ."

Allen suddenly sat up, flinging his arms around Lavi, and clumsily pressed his lips against the older boy's, kissing him frantically, throwing Lavi completely off-guard. He brought his hands up, not quite pulling Allen toward him, not quite pushing him away, just resting them on his shoulders.

Allen was kissing him a bit, then pulling back, then kissing him again, making it look like he really didn't know what to do. Lavi didn't know whether it was the result of alcohol or inexperience.

And almost before he knew what he was doing, his arms were wrapping around Allen and he was kissing back, his lips caressing the other boy's tenderly. His sharpened senses took in a faint taste of the juice that had started all this, the warmth of Allen's body, the scent of soap and a bit of peppermint.

He felt the other Exorcist's tongue touching his, and he wasn't sure which of them had opened his mouth first, but alarm bells were going off in his head, because he knew if he let this continue, he would do something he'd regret for the rest of his life.

Lavi pulled away from Allen, noticing the boy was breathing just as hard as he was, and there was a look of confusion and a bit of hurt in his eyes.

Suddenly, Lavi felt something he wasn't used to feeling -- awkward. He usually had a fresh one-liner, a smart remark, an appropriate persona for any occasion. This had caught him completely, totally with his defenses down.

*Crap*, he thought. *If I didn't have self-control, if I'd let things go a little further . . . crap, crap, crap. It would have been a disaster.*

Knowing he had to do something and get Allen the heck out of there, he reached out and brushed a stray lock of Allen's hair back again. "Hey, we've got something else to worry about right now," he said, as lightly as he could. We really *do* need to get you some help. We don't want you to pass out again, do we?"

Fortunately, Allen gave him a small smile and a nod. He helped him get to his feet and slung an arm around his shoulders, all too aware of the warmth again.



* * *

When he made his way out into the hall, a groggy Allen's arm slung over his shoulder, he noticed the almost-empty pitcher still sitting in the hallway. *Crap*, he thought, *I never took it to the lab.* He hoped whatever was in there didn't spoil any during its time outside without refrigeration; it would be a definite shame if they never found out why this had happened to Allen.

"Just a few steps," he told the boy. "If the panda's not back by now, I'm gonna have to send a search party after him."

Fortunately, Bookman heard his voice in the hall, and opened the door before he had a chance to knock. "I was wondering when you'd bring him around," he said, his voice carrying a touch of annoyance. "It's about time."

"Hey, I came looking for you and you were missing!" Lavi led Allen into the room and helped the younger Exorcist lie down on the bed. "How'd you know, anyway?"

"Komui informed me," he said. "They sent the other pitcher of punch Jerry had made to the lab. The fool didn't test the ingredients before he used them."

"Test 'em?" Lavi watched the old man prepare the acupuncture needles. This was part of the job he hadn't learned yet -- and he wasn't sure he wanted to. "They were just fruit!"

"He didn't test how the new fruits would react to Innocence." The old man began checking the boy over. "That's what happened to him. The Innocence in his body reacted with one of the fruit juices and literally turned it to wine in his stomach."

Lavi winced. He couldn't imagine being a parasite-type like Allen. There were still so many things they didn't know about Innocence, and to have the stuff *attached to your body* . . .

"How the hell did it do that?" he said.

"Innocence reacts to the user." Bookman began to loosen Allen's jacket. "How much has he been working lately?"

"Constantly," Lavi said.

"I imagine the Innocence created the wine in order to help him relax," Bookman got the jacket off and dropped it on the floor. "There have been cases like this with parasite-types before. But since he's young and not used to drinking, it hit him hard and made him pass out."

Now Lavi felt a chill go through him. The very idea of having something like that controlling what went into your body . . .

He suddenly felt a wave of protectiveness toward Allen. *I'll take some of his missions on myself if it means this won't happen to him again*, he thought.

"Fortunately, he's suffered no ill effects other than being thoroughly drunk." Bookman began inserting needles into Allen's pressure points. "I'll balance his qui so he'll have as little hangover as possible, but I can't guarantee he'll have no discomfort."

And before he knew what he was saying, Lavi blurted out, "Is he gonna remember?"

The old man turned to him with a frown. "Remember?" he said.

"Never mind," Lavi said.

"Remember what happened when he was drunk, you mean? He may or may not." Bookman's frown deepened. "Why? Is there a specific thing you don't *want* him to remember?"

He thought of soft lips and warmth and a scent of peppermint and soap and how close he came to ruining the boy for life.

"Nah," he said, trying to sound as casual as possible. "Just curious."

Bookman turned his attention back to Allen, and Lavi breathed a sigh of relief. The old coot was suspicious, he knew. Of course, he *had* caught him in full makeout with Kanda a year or so back. Lavi could still remember being physically dragged from the bedroom as he protested, "Hey! You said I shouldn't fool around with *women*! You didn't say anything about *boys!*

"Well, then, if your curiosity is satisfied, get out of here and let me work," he said. "I don't need you interrupting the flow of qui in the room."

"You're such a smooth charmer, Panda," he said, heading for the door.

"Shut up, fool!" Bookman took a swing at him. "And never call me that!"

Lavi rushed out the door before his mentor could make contact. He didn't feel like having bruises all over his body in the morning.

He found himself wandering the halls, aimlessly. He didn't want to go back to his own room, not yet -- he didn't want to face what had happened there, and what *could* have happened. He knew from experience it would take some time before the treatment was over, so going back to Bookman's room would only mean another booting.

Almost unconsciously, he found himself heading for the lab. Might as well confirm what Bookman had told him, see if they found anything else out about the fruit. Gathering and recording information was what he did, right?

He was a bit surprised to see a tall, slim figure in a long coat coming out of the room. "Yuu?" he said.

Kanda turned toward him with his usual steely gaze, looking as if Lavi had committed a grievous sin just by being in the same space as him. "And what are you doing here?"

"I was just gonna ask you the same thing," Lavi said. "Don't usually see you wandering around this time of night."

"We all have free reign of the premises, don't we?" Kanda said.

"Sure, we do," Lavi replied. "'Cept you don't *reign* around the premises all that much. In fact, the only time I ever saw you walking around at night was when you were headed to *my* . . ."

"I know where I was going!" Kanda snapped, one hand automatically reaching for the hilt of Mugen. "Now, out of the way, if you don't want to . . ."

The door to the lab opened, and a small, gnarled technician came out, gazing up at them through owlish glasses. "Kanda?" he said. "We isolated the specific fruit. It was rambutan."

"Rambutan?" Kanda said.

"Grows in Southeast Asia," Lavi said. "Looks like an ugly, hairy ball. Really good when you pop then, though. Surprised that you didn't know about them, Yuu, since you're from that part of the world."

"I'm not from *that* part of Asia!" Kanda said. "And I don't have time to hang around here babbling." He turned to go -- but Lavi wasn't going to let him.

"You were worried about him, weren't you?" he said.

"Shut up," Kanda said. "I was just making an inquiry."

"You don't *inquire* very often, do you, Yuu?" Kanda started to walk down the hall, rapidly, but Lavi kept pace with him. "Especially when it's about another *person*."

"You never know when to keep quiet, do you?" Kanda put on another burst of speed. Lavi continued to keep pace. He figured that by the time they reached the end of the hall, they'd be running fast enough to jump high hurdles.

"I know when to keep quiet. I just don't feel like doing it right now, because I had a question." He could see Kanda looking from side to side, desperately seeking out one of the staircases that were in the vicinity. Teasing the other boy just shouldn't amuse him so much -- especially considering how often it happened -- but it did.

Kanda finally sighted an escape route and turned for the stairs so abruptly his coat made a loud *snap* and his ponytail flapped behind him like a banner. "Keep your questions to yourself!" he spat as he started to climb.

Lavi just stood in the corridor for a moment, watching him go and holding back the urge to laugh out loud. *Wait until I tell Allen about *this* one*, he thought. *I can't wait to see his face when I tell him Yuu was actually *worried* about him. He'll look like he'd seen a ghost.*

With that thought, the images of the kiss were back again. He could almost smell and feel and taste the boy again . . . and he *knew* the memories were never that vivid after his encounters with Kanda, even with his recorderlike brain.

He found himself turning around and heading back to the lab. The gnarled technician was still there, peering squinty-eyed into the contents of a test tube. Lavi thought the little man looked like he'd been constructed entirely of prunes.

The scientist relaxed his squint a bit and looked up at Lavi. "Yes?" he said, his tone implying a snapped "Whaddya want?"

"Hey," Lavi said, "what can you tell me about the Innocence of parasite types?"

"You're going to have to be more specific than that." The man set his beaker down. "That's a very complex subject."

"Well, does it ever seem to have a mind of its own? Do things to protect its host?"

"Oh, my, yes." The prune-man poured a bit of the contents of another beaker into the first, then set it on a burner. "If the host doesn't have complete mastery, a hundred percent synchronization, all sorts of things can happen. There's been cases of Innocence making people sick to keep them from going into a dangerous situation, supercharging a person's muscles temporarily so they can flee a fire . . . I've even heard cases of it repelling unwanted sexual advances."

Lavi swallowed hard. "Is that so?"

"Yes, yes." The little technician shifted a few more tubes around. "There was one case where a man tried to come on too strong to a young lady who had a shin and foot made of Innocence. The leg activated, moved on its own and . . ."

"Thanks, I think I can take it from there," Lavi said, holding up a hand and wincing, pressing his legs together. "Well, thank you!" He turned and left the lab in a hurry.

*Unwanted sexual advances,* he thought. The Innocence hadn't reacted during their kiss . . . did that mean it trusted him? Or that it merely trusted that he wouldn't try to take advantage of his friend while he was drunk?

He'd seen that claw in action. He never wanted to be on the wrong side of it.

And it wasn't the place of a Bookman to be *worrying* about such things, anyway, was it? He'd just been gathering information. That's what he did.

"No need of a heart," he grumbled as he stomped his way back up the stairs, more than a touch of bitterness in his voice.



* * *

Fortunately, by the time he arrived back in Bookman's room, his mentor was done with his work.

"Take him back to his own bedroom," he said. "Then just leave him to sleep through the night. If he passed out in your room, I don't see why you didn't just bring me in there."

"You wouldn't want to see my room right now."

Bookman nodded. "Your room usually resembles the aftermath of a typhoon."

"Hey, I know where everything is." Lavi bent over the once-again-sleeping Allen and gently tapped his arm. "C'mon, Bean Sprout, looks like we're gonna have to move you again. Last time, I promise."

The hated nickname at least brought a reaction from Allen. He sat up, mumbling sleepily, "Not a bean sprout," and let Lavi loop an arm around his neck and pull him to his feet.

As they stumbled out into the hall, Lavi said, "You're not gonna believe in a million years who was down in the lab asking what happened to you. I nearly fell on the floor when I saw it myself. Then he denied it up, down and center. Yeah, right, Yuu!"

That just brought a small "mmm" noise from Allen. Lavi decided that story definitely had to be repeated when the boy was more conscious.

When they were down the hall, in front of Allen's room, Lavi was just thinking he'd have to reach down into Allen's uniform pockets to get the key when the younger boy woke up enough to plunge the hand in himself, drawing out the item and holding it toward Lavi.

When he led Allen over to the bed and let go of him, the boy fell like a ton of bricks -- just like he had on Lavi's own bed. He tried to keep the memories of what had happened after *that* at bay.

Lavi perched at the edge, smoothing Allen's hair back from his forehead. "You gonna be okay?" he said.

No answer at first. Then, Allen suddenly sat up, yanked off his jacket and flung it to the foot of the bed, landing back on the mattress with a *whumph.*

"Can I take that as a yes?"

"Mmmm," was the only answer.

Lavi got up and slowly backed toward the door. Allen was asleep. No need for him to stay here. He'd just go back to his own room, go to sleep and try to forget the whole thing had happened tomorrow.

Drunken kisses happened all the time. No need for a heart, right?

He was almost to the door when a small voice from the bed called, "Lavi?"

Turning around, he saw Allen wide-awake, propped up on his elbows so his head and shoulders were off the bed. "Hey, you're alive," Lavi said, hoping his voice still held its usual cheeriness. "I was getting concerned there."

"What happened to me?"

He started to make his way back to the bed. "You got drunk. Your Innocence turned the stuff you were drinking to booze inside your body. Didn't know that arm of yours had hidden talents."

Allen looked away from him for a moment, sinking back to the mattress. Lavi tentatively perched on the side of the bed again.

"Did . . . did I really . . ."

The whole world seemed to stand still, all of a sudden. Did he remember kissing him? Worse, did he remember *groping* him first?

". . . pull Kanda's hair?"

Lavi exhaled a long breath. "Yeah. Yeah, you did. And you lived to tell about it. Wouldn't recommend you doing it all the time, though."

Silence, again.

"Did you hear what I was saying before?" Lavi said, quickly. "He was down at the lab when I was there, asking about you."

"He was, huh?" Allen's voice had a dreamy quality, as if lost in his own world.

A knot was rapidly forming in Lavi's chest. He had to get out of there, before he started *thinking* too much about what had happened, and if it meant anything, and if it would ever happen again, and what did it all matter if Allen didn't remember a thing, and why was he thinking so much about all this anyway when he was a Bookman-in-training and such things shouldn't matter to him? "I'll tell him you're all right," he said, getting up. "You need to get some rest."

Again, he started for the door. Again, he was stopped by that soft voice saying, "Lavi?"

He stopped and turned. Alan was flat on his back, head turned toward him, eyes wide.

"Will you stay with me? At least . . . until I fall asleep?"

Now the older boy found himself swallowing hard. He knew what he *should* do, as a Bookman. He should turn him down, offer to send someone else to look after him, walk out of the room and put an end to the whole thing.

But he wasn't a full Bookman. Not yet. And Allen needed him now. He was tired, he was stressed, and dammit, he could do something about it.

He crossed back to the bed rapidly, sat down, and said, "Never been drunk before, Bean Sprout?"

"Never."

*Poor guy, he's probably scared to death*, Lavi thought. He knew Allen had been apprenticed to Cross Marian, and he'd heard more than a few stories of the drunken states the general had ended up in. Allen must have witnessed some of the most epic hangovers of all time.

"Fortunately, the Panda took away the worst of it." Lavi took off his jacket and headband, tossed them across a nearby chair, slipped out of his boots and stretched out on the mattress next to Allen, leaving a small amount of space between them. "You probably won't want to *die* tomorrow, but your head may feel a bit ouchy."

Allen turned so that his head was pillowed on Lavi's chest. "Thank you," he said.

Lavi turned his eye toward the boy, a bit worried. "For what?"

"For taking care of me tonight."

In his mind's eye, Lavi was seeing two big balloons bobbing around him, emblazoned with the slogans "No Need Of A Heart" and "Not Our War, We're Just Observing" in huge letters. And the balloons also had big, dark pairs of panda eyes.

"Hey, I wasn't gonna leave you at the mercy of Yuu," he said, keeping his voice as light as possible. "They'd still be cleaning you off the walls."

Silence for a moment. Then Allen said, with a yawn, "I knew *you* wouldn't do that. Even if you *do* do stupid things like chase Akuma women."

"I promised I wouldn't do that anymore, you know," Lavi said, one arm wrapping around the younger Exorcist's body.

"Gonna hold you to that," Allen mumbled, barely awake.

Lavi waited until he heard nothing but steady breathing, Allen's cheek rubbing a bit against his shirtfront.

He leaned over so he could kiss the boy's forehead, then lay back, wrapping both arms around him.

The balloons were hovering closer to his head now, and all he wanted was a big, long pin to pop the hell out of them. Or smashing them with his hammer would suffice.

His eyes began to droop, and soon he, too, was asleep.

* * *

It was the sensation of a loss of warmth that awakened him. He half-sat up, feeling confused. He wasn't in his own room, he was still fully dressed . . .

The sound of rushing water brought him back to reality. Of course -- Allen had one of the few rooms with a private bathroom. Lavi figured his status as the prophesied Destroyer of Time earned him some brownie points with the Order.

Allen stumbled out of the bathroom, looking groggy but not hung over at all, and flopped back down to the mattress. "Hey," Lavi said. "How are you feeling?"

Allen raised his head. "No different than any other morning," he mumbled.

"Good, the Panda did his work. Guess the old coot's good for something." Lavi rolled off the mattress and headed for the bathroom himself, catching a glimpse of Allen turning on his back, Innocence arm across his eyes.

He didn't want to let on just how relieved he was that the episode didn't seem to have any ill effects.

When he made his way back to the bed, Allen raised his arm and sat up a bit. "Lavi, do you know if they found out *why* this happened?"

He sat down next to Allen, legs on the bed, back resting against the headboard. "Yeah," he said. "I talked to the Panda and to the prune man in the lab." He reached out a hand and pressed it over the one resting on Allen's chest. "Gonna have to take it easier from now on, Bean Sprout. That Innocence of yours doesn't react well to stress."

Alan looked away from him. "I can't," he said. "I *have* to go on the missions, Lavi. I have to save them."

He definitely knew what Allen was talking about. He couldn't imagine the hell of having to see the tormented souls attached to Akuma all the time and wanting to save them all.

"You're not gonna do the Akuma *or* yourself any good if you kill yourself with exhaustion," Lavi said, as gently as he could. "Your Innocence knows this."

"I *have* to," Allen said, still looking away. "It's why I'm *here*."

Lavi's hand tightened on Allen's. "What if I said I'd make sure that they were saved *for* you?"

Now Allen looked at him. "But . . . you can't . . ."

"I can't see them -- well, not without you doing that eye thing like you did at Kro-chan's place -- but I know they're there."

"You forget what they are sometimes, you know," Allen said, narrowing his eyes.

"What do you mean by that?"

"Yesterday, remember?"

Hitting on that Akuma woman seemed like it was decades ago instead of less than 24 hours. He felt like an idiot for it now, too.

"Promise, won't do things like that anymore," he said, raising a hand. "Seriously . . . I'm gonna look out for you, and I'm gonna make sure everyone else does, too. Even Yuu. I'll glue that hair tail to the table if he doesn't cooperate."

Allen rolled on his back, raising his left arm and contemplating it. "It really did that so I'd rest?"

"You wouldn't believe some of the things the prune man said Innocence does," Lavi said. "Let's just say you don't want to hit on a woman with an Innocence leg."

Allen dropped his arm and turned toward Lavi. "Maybe you should tell me if I really did everything I remember doing -- before I hear it from other people."

"Well, nothing *really* bad, except pull Yuu's hair, but you know about that one already," Lavi said. "You laughed a lot, freaked Komui out 'cause he thought you were gonna hit on his sister, but you didn't, wobbled around some . . ."

"Did I . . . I . . ." Allen turned bright pink, and Lavi could tell without asking what he was thinking.

"Kiss me?"

Allen just turned pinker. "I'm sorry," he said.

"Why should you feel sorry?" Lavi reached up and brushed Allen's hair out of his eyes. "Not as if I *minded* it."

Allen's eyes opened wider with surprise. "You didn't?"

"Nope. Not at all."

"Well . . . can I . . ."

Lavi answered that by leaning over, brushing his lips against Allen's. The younger boy jolted with surprise for a second, then his arms wrapped around Lavi, purring deep in his throat as he responded, their mouths pressing together, pulling apart, and then pressing together again, longer this time.

It felt good and it felt right. Lavi pulled Allen against him, kissing him longer, deeper, until the kiss was almost fierce, his tongue starting to flutter in and out of the other boy's mouth. He heard a sharp intake of breath and felt Allen *melt* against him, one hand coming up to grip the back of his shirt as his own tongue pushed back, out of instinct.

They pulled back from each other for a long moment and Allen looked up into Lavi's single eye, cheeks deeply pink, breathing as hard as if he'd been running uphill, and Lavi felt his heart swell almost to bursting.

He lowered his head, sweeping his tongue up Allen's neck, sinking his teeth lightly into his earlobe when he arrived at it.

Allen let out a small cry, leaning hard against Lavi, the hand that had been gripping his shirt now moving up and down his back. "Y-yes," he gasped as Lavi's hands started to fumble with the buttons on his vest -- then suddenly stopped.

*Crap,* he thought, *I need to put the brakes on.* He was moving too far, too fast, and the last thing in the world he wanted to do was upset Allen -- especially considering what that Innocence could do to him.

Allen raised his head. "What's wrong?" he said.

Lavi pulled away a bit. "I don't wanna rush you."

"It's okay." Allen took Lavi's right hand in his left, and brought it back to his buttons. "I want you to."

He looked at their hands resting over the vest. It was *that* hand, and it wasn't doing anything unusual. *Maybe it trusts me,* he thought.

Lavi bent over and started to kiss Allen again, his fingers making swift work of the buttons, then unfastening the shirt beneath. Allen pushed his tongue into Lavi's mouth insistently, telling him without words to keep going.

He pushed the fabric back, and Allen sat up enough to strip the garments off entirely and drop them on the floor. Lavi's eye took in the smooth, white skin, his fingers brushing over it lightly, and Allen let out a sudden moan, startling them both.

The sound fired Lavi's passion, and before he knew it his mouth was closing around a delectable pink nipple. Allen gasped, then panted heavily. He could feel the young man's entire body tremble as he licked at it, dragging his tongue slowly back and forth over the bud.

"M-more," Allen panted. "Yes, yes . . ."

Well, he was all too glad to oblige *that*. He buried his face in Allen's chest, smelling a faint whiff of soap and a bit of linen and a lot of the scent of sweat and heat. He teased the sensitive flesh with his lips, then dragged his teeth over it oh-so-lightly, drawing another gasp.

"Did anyone ever tell you how good you taste?" he said in a low purr before attacking the other nipple, sucking on it hard as his fingers teased the one he'd been pleasuring before. Allen's body writhed against him, feeling like the rise and fall of the waves, just making him suck harder, stroke faster.

"Let me touch you," Allen managed to say between gasps. "Lavi . . ."

The redhead pulled back, reluctantly, moving up to give his lover's lips a quick kiss. "All right. Just give me a second here . . ."

He hopped off the bed and shed everything as fast as his fingers could move -- shirt, pants, underwear. Hell, he nearly tossed his eyepatch onto the pile. When he turned back to the bed, he saw that Allen had shed his remaining clothing and was lying on his back on the mattress, the innocent smile in stark contrast to the very full erection lying on his stomach.

He held his arms out in invitation, and Lavi practically flung himself at him, lying atop the younger Exorcist and kissing him hard, moaning deep in his throat when Allen's tongue probed for his first. Mismatched hands swept down his body, the left one rougher in texture and warmer, and before he knew it, there was a *squeeze* on sensitive flesh and he jerked his hips forward, pushing his erect cock against Allen's.

A small burst of fireworks blasted behind his vision, and a little shiver passed through his veins, and somewhere in the back of his pleasure-fogged mind was the realization that the Innocence hand was not only failing to attack him, it felt *nice* and warm and even a bit tingly . . .

*It's not just accepting me*, he thought in the small part of his mind that was still rational. *It's *welcoming* me.*

"Ohh," Allen said, raising his hips off the bed a bit so his erection brushed against Lavi's again. "So good . . ."

"You like this?" Lavi began to thrust against him. "Feels good, doesn't it?"

"Yes!" the younger boy cried out, starting to roll his own hips, his hands gripping Lavi's ass tighter.

Lavi kissed Allen's neck, nibbling just under his chin. "I can't stop," he said, breathlessly. "Soo nice . . ."

Allen's only reply was a small "aaahh!" sound as he thrust upward, his eyes tightly shut, his mouth open and panting until Lavi's kisses silenced him again, They writhed against each other, Allen's legs spreading wider and rising higher to allow more contact, more friction.

When Lavi nibbled his ear again, Allen let out a long, high-pitched keen. "Close!" he cried out. "I'm . . . I'm . . ."

"Come on," Lavi said. "Just relax . . . relax and . . ."

Allen let out a cry that was damn close to a scream, his hips jerking upward violently, relaxing, then jerking upward again, and Lavi felt the warm fluid splatter on his own skin.

The younger boy collapsed to the bed, and Lavi kissed his damp, heated flesh, first his neck, then his cheek, and finally, a tender kiss on his lips. "Was that good?" he whispered.

Allen just responded with a sleepy "mmmm." He reached out to run his right hand down his lover's chest and stomach, and discovered . . .

"Lavi . . . you didn't come," he said.

"Eh, not a problem," he said. "I can take care of it."

"I want to," Allen said. And before Lavi could get another word in, Allen's hand was closing around his erection, beginning a rapid, rather jerky motion that showed his lack of experience. Lavi closed his own hand around it, moving it in the steady, mid-tempo rhythm he liked, twisting a little at the top.

"Like that," he said. "Keep going . . ."

Allen proved to be a fast learner -- when Lavi took his hand away, his lover matched his motions perfectly, and Lavi could just relax and surrender to the sensation, the heat from his cock, super-sensitive from the earlier friction, racing through his whole body like a dangerous but seductive drug.

"Oh, yeah," he moaned. "You're damn good. I'm gonna . . . gonna come soon . . ."

Allen sped up his motions, leaning over to kiss Lavi, and when the explosion burst inside him, a huge shower of fireworks this time, he cried out into the boy's mouth as he felt the seed pour and pour and pour from him in shudders of ecstasy.

The boys kissed, tenderly, and snuggled together, Allen's head pillowed on Lavi's chest, Lavi lightly tangling his fingers in Allen's hair.

"Hey," Lavi said, kissing Allen's forehead. "I gotta get us cleaned up, you know."

Allen answered with a contented "Mmm."

Lavi got up from the bed and made his way to his bathroom, gladder than ever that Allen had the private facilities. He wouldn't have wanted to go into one of the public bathrooms right now.

When he made his way back to the bed, he could see that Allen was fast asleep, curled up in the spot Lavi had just occupied. He gently wiped him clean, then did the same to himself. Allen stirred a bit, but did not awaken.

He went back to the bathroom, wrung the rag out and returned to the bed, sitting on the edge. Reaching out with his right hand, he lightly ran the tips of his fingers up and down Allen's left arm. It wasn't warm and tingly anymore, it felt like it always did.

"This arm knows what's good for you more than you do, Bean Sprout," he whispered. And he knew if it weren't for that arm, he wouldn't be in that bed, next to that person.

Suddenly, the fantasies he didn't even want to admit to himself were reality.

The images of the balloons with their annoying panda faces were back. The one labeled "Not Our War" seemed to hover in front of his face.

*It *is* our war,* he thought. *Like it or not, we're part of it. And I have to look out for my comrades. As long as we have to fight, I'm one of them.*

The balloon exploded with a loud pop, only to bring Lavi face-to-face with the next one. "No Need For a Heart."

He looked down at Allen sleeping beside him and started stroking the arm again, thinking of how it reacted to him making love to its host, how it seemed . . . happy.

*This Innocence seems to think I have a heart*, he thought. *It wants me in his life.*

There was a huge pop as the second balloon exploded, and Lavi drew a deep breath. Suddenly, he felt like a huge load was lifted from his shoulders, like things that had been cloudy and obscure were now clear.

He knew he was going to have to deal with some huge, heavy issues further down the road. But he knew what he had to do -- what he *wanted* to do -- for now.

As he ran his fingers down the Innocence arm again, he thought, *Maybe it knows what's best for *me* more than I do, too.*

Their relationship would have to be kept a secret, of course. He was sure the Order wouldn't exactly be cool about fraternization, and then there was the Panda to deal with -- but he'd make sure they had time where they could be alone together.

Alan's eyes opened and he stirred. "Mmmm," he said.

"Hey." Lavi bent over and kissed him. "We're gonna have to get dressed and go down to breakfast, they're gonna wonder where we are."

"Do we have to?" Allen snuggled against Lavi.

"Gotta at least put in an appearance, there's people worried about you," Lavi said. "Jerry will be falling all over himself to make it up to you. He'll probably make you every kind of pancakes under the sun." He kissed Allen's lips lightly again and said, "And we'll be back in here later . . . if you want."

"Can we stay in your room tonight?" Allen said, cupping Lavi's face in one hand.

"You don't wanna see my room," Lavi said.

"I was in it already."

"You were unconscious. Trust me. Here is fine."

Allen gave him one last kiss, then slid off the bed, heading for his chest of drawers. "Oh, Lavi? What you said before dinner last night, about it being easy to regret your first time? Well . . . I don't. I . . . I never wanted it to be with anyone else."

Lavi stood up and wrapped his arms around his lover, resting his forehead against Allen's. "Maybe something else didn't want it to be with anyone else, either," he said.

Allen looked confused. "What do you mean?"

"Nothing," he said. "Let's get ready and go, okay?"

But he gave Allen's left arm a caress before he moved away from him. He never thought he'd be so grateful to a piece of Innocence -- at least one that wasn't directly involved in saving his life.

Sometimes, the best life guidance of all came from the damndest of places.



Thanks to <lj user="dragonscholar"> for beta-ing this fic. D. Gray Man is property of Katsura Hoshino and Shueisha. These characters ain't mine, I'm just borrowing them for a little while.