A/N: Hey! *wave* Sorry for the large gap - as I mentioned before, this story's hard for me. But I happened to be reading fairytales and it put me into the mood for this, so... *laugh*

Thank you to Kittenanimegirl13, InsanityOwl, jy24, Ryuakilover, Lena-luvs-cats, Shadow Spears, Muito, and animegirlyellow for reviewing!

Title: See You Later

Author: liketolaugh

Rating: T

Pairings: Link/Allen

Genre: Romance

Warnings: Fairytale logic, AU

Summary: On the first night, Allen meets the prince. On the second, they become friends. On the third- Allen has to leave before Link can tell him what he wants to do next. Cinderella AU.

Disclaimer: Like hell I own D. Gray-man.

The chatter of the crowd and the music of the orchestra flew and flounced together in the air. The soft candlelight cast by the chandeliers danced with the cool moonlight streaming through the windows, and the smell of warm, fresh food hung around the massive ballroom. Heat billowed throughout the room as if from a bonfire, and ballgoers twisted and turned in a rhythmic, hypnotic chorus.

Allen looked around, eyes bright and mouth already stretching into a smile, searching out but one person in particular.

To his left was Neah, almost lost in the crowd, and Tyki, flirting gratuitously. To his right was Road, spinning without a care in the world, and Miranda, dancing with a dark-skinned man and a smile on her face.

And then, somewhere in the middle, his eyes found Link, dancing with a blonde girl about Allen's age, smiling slightly. The light shone two ways off of the two of them, bathing the girl in moonlight and Link in the firelight, and Allen followed them for a moment with his eyes, wondering if she-

Link turned, and from across the room Allen could still see Link's eyes light up like the first signs of dawn, his smile widening.

The girl whose hands he held turned aside, following Link's gaze to Allen, and Allen gave her a warm smile of his own. The corner of her mouth twitched up, and to his surprise, she released Link's hands and stepped back. Link gave her a shallow bow, the two spoke for a moment, and then he cut through the crowd towards Allen, brushing aside those who sought to speak with him with but the bare minimum of politeness, and maybe not quite even that.

"Good evening, Link," Allen greeted with a smile, holding out his hand.

Link took it, shaking it once, quick and gentle, before he let go. While his smile was smaller now, it still held the warmth of a summer night, unsuited to the frost patterns on the windows. "Good evening, Red," he returned quietly. He reached up and touched Allen's shoulder, and Allen let himself be led elsewhere, expectant eyes on the prince. "It's good to see you again."

"It's good to see you too," Allen assured him, glancing around as they passed through an ornate door into the adjacent room. He looked over his shoulder as the door swung shut, and they were cut off from the rest of the ball, the music becoming muffled as if through a thick fog. "Who was that, may I ask?"

Link paused, turning towards him with a frown, one eyebrow quirked in clear question, somewhat suspicious. "Why do you ask?"

Allen smiled sheepishly, reaching over self-consciously to tug at his sleeve. "I wouldn't want to go where I wasn't wanted," he explained, and Link relaxed slightly.

"A friend," he offered, a warmth like candlelight entering his eyes. "Her name is Tewaku. I've known her for quite a long time. She offered to occupy my time until you arrived."

"That was kind of her," Allen murmured, struggling to hide the delight he felt that Link had been not just looking forward to his arrival, but waiting for him. "What are your other friends like?"

They reached a table, small and simple compared to the grandeur of the rest of the room, painted with pictures of strong knights doing great deeds, tucked away in a corner. For a moment, Allen wondered if it was always there, and then Link replied and he forgot about it.

"Tewaku is a Marquess' daughter," Link was explaining, eyes not quite on Allen's as he thought. He leaned on the table, though, one hand cast carelessly over a dragon's roaring head, and he was angled toward him. "So she's around quite often, and so is her brother, Madarao – I'm friends with him as well." Allen nodded encouragingly, and Link refocused on him and let a small smile flicker across his face again, quick as a butterfly's wingflap. "Tokusa isn't around quite as often, but he always makes trouble when he is-"

Both of them moved in small shifts as Link talked. Allen moved his hands from his lap to the table's edge, and the table's edge to the center, intertwined with each other as he leaned forward to listen. Link, in his turn, moved his hands from the tabletop to the air and back down, and eventually they landed near to Allen's, not quite touching and not quite apart.

"But you haven't told me about your friends," Link said at last, looking embarrassed to have spoken for so long. Music filtered in through the thick wooden door, faint and muddled with the sounds of the crowd they couldn't see, and Allen half-inclined his head and smiled, brighter than anything he'd produced so far.

"Well- I see Lenalee often. Her brother is an engineer who works near where I live-"

Now it was Allen's turn to talk - about Lenalee, about Lavi the historian, Kanda the blacksmith, and it didn't even occur to him that there was anything at all odd about what he was saying until he noticed, at last, Link's expression.

Link was studying him, brown eyes sharp and discerning, and Allen's smile slowly faded, his words grinding to a halt like a carriage that had lost its horse. He tilted his head in concern, brow furrowing.

"Link?" he questioned.

"You've only mentioned people of the working class," Link noted, sounding perfectly puzzled.

Allen's smile vanished altogether, a cold like morning frost gathering inside his chest as he stared at Link with a blank-eyed gaze. "I suppose so," he said at last, without moving.

For a moment, Link frowned, and then Allen saw something like alarm flicker behind his eyes, and he shook his head quickly.

"It's of no importance," Link assured him. "I simply found it strange."

Allen forced himself to relax somewhat. "I suppose to a prince it would be," he teased, keeping his voice light.

Link blinked, looking briefly startled. He opened his mouth, closed it, struggled a moment, and then glanced away, visibly embarrassed. "My perspective isn't ordinary," he acknowledged uncomfortably. "Might I ask what rank your family holds?"

For a long, surprisingly long, moment, Allen struggled to remember, it was so little a part of his existence.

"An Earl," he said at last, remembering. "My family holds an Earldom."

Link seemed to mull that over for a long moment. "I'd have expected you to attend balls far more often, with that rank," he commented at last, and Allen relaxed the rest of the way as he came to understand Link's confusion.

"My family does," Allen dismissed instantly, ducking his head. "My cousin loves balls, in fact. But I'm not allowed."

"Why not?"

Allen smiled self-deprecatingly, reaching up to tangle his fingers in his hair, embarrassment setting his cheeks aglow as he dropped his gaze. "I'm a shame to my family."

"I would speak to your father about that."

Startled, Allen looked back at Link, whose expression, a dark thunderstorm that stood in place of the summer warmth, matched his tone exactly. Already, Link was rising. Without thinking, Allen reached forward and caught Link's hand in his own gloved fingers, and Link stopped.

"I don't live with my father," he said quietly, choosing not to explain why, keeping his eyes on Link's. "I live with my uncle and cousins." He let his worry, his fear, and his trust creep into the edges of his expression, and he continued, "Please don't speak to them. I'd prefer they never know I was here."

Link held his gaze for a long moment, frowning his worry and his disapproval, but finally, he sighed and sat back down, leaving their fingers intertwined atop the table.

"If you'd rather," Link murmured.

The clock struck nine, and Allen asked Link, "If you could have anything in the world, what would it be?"

Link held his gaze, thoughtful, and said at last, slow and considering, "I suppose I'd want to be the best ruler possible." He raised an eyebrow at Allen, curious. "What would you want?"

"I don't know," Allen admitted, smiling sheepishly. "Cake, maybe?"

Link laughed.

The clock struck ten, and at last they left the room to return to the ballroom, where Link introduced Allen to his friends, one by one.

The clock struck eleven, and the two of them returned to their place with a plate of cookies and shared it.

Allen ate the most, of course.

At five minutes to midnight, Allen glanced at the clock, winced, and said apologetically, "I'll have to leave soon."

Link frowned. "Won't you stay a little longer, Red?"

Allen smiled, leaned forward, and away from the crowd, lit by more moonlight than candle, pressed a kiss, brief and chaste, to Link's cheek.

"I'll see you tomorrow."

Before Link could react, he vanished into the crowd, smiling to himself with his heart soaring.

In the morning, Allen's hair matched the snow outside and a bruise decorated his face along with his scar. He hardly noticed. He smiled past the aching cheek and past the sneers of his cousins and never even noticed Neah's suspicious frown.

Neah was suspicious, though, and he was angry. He spoke to Tyki and made him smile, and spoke to Road and made her laugh, and that day they worked both together and apart.

When Allen finished Neah's meal, Tyki demanded his to be prepared again. When that was finished, Road had spilled hers across the ground. Tyki needed repairs to his suit, and Neah required the house cleaned again. He remade Road's dress in its entirety, precisely as it was, and repainted the scratched door.

"Aren't we clumsy today?" Neah asked, leaning against the wall with a smirk.

Allen smiled. "I don't mind."

By the end of the day, Allen was as exhausted as one might be after a month's worth of work.

That night, Tyki, Road, and Neah left in a flurry of conversation, and Allen waited until they were gone before stepping out the door onto the front step.

Cross was waiting for him, arms crossed and face set in a dark scowl. He looked Allen up and down, down and up, and shook his head.

"You look like you're about to fall over, brat," he said flatly.

Allen, dressed in his suit and gloves already, gave him a tired smile. "I won't."

Cross snorted, reached over, and tapped Allen's left cheek, just below his eye and opposite his bruise. Warmth spread out from the point of contact, and Cross said, "Get going, and be back by midnight."

Allen dipped his head, let out a soft breath, and said, "Thank you."

Cross sighed and waved him off, and Allen took off toward the castle.

I'm not 100% happy with the simplicity of character in this story, but it is, at heart, Cinderella, so there are expectations and themes inherent already. *smile* It's good enough, anyway. Thanks for reading, and please review!