At the moment I keep having many ideas that I want to type out, so this will be my second story.

This story takes place in the 'original' D. Gray-man world. Allen, Kanda, Lavi and Bookman are on their way to a mission in China. They come to an area, where the order had received rumors that there might be an Innocence there, so they send out beloved alchemists out to recover it. Just that the mission isn't going like they want it and they end up in quiet the predicament.

Warnings: Will be Yullen (Boys Love)! Rating most likely will go up later on!

Disclaimer: I - as always - don't won D. Gray-man.

But I do claim Kanda anyway *dodges flying tomatoes and plates and runs away from Shounen Jump (or SQ) lawyers*

I am still in need of a beta-reader. Please let me know if you are interested!

Enjoy! ^^

Allen rubbed his hands together and stared up at the sky in dismay. It was the beginning of December and it was too damn cold even for this month. Komui had sent him on a new mission two weeks ago, along with Bookman and Lavi. Now he would have been fine with those two, but unfortunately Kanda also was there. Why couldn't Lenalee have been sent along instead of the annoying raven haired exorcist?

Of course Link also had joined, to keep an eye on him. Allen smirked. Unfortunately for Link he had gotten sick while they were on the boat. There was no replacement for him, so all he could do was lie in bed sick and let them travel on without him. Normally Allen would never wish for a person to get sick, but Link was different. He hated being under constant surveillance. He hated the fact that they kept him closely watched and guarded. He was a human, he needed his own space, but all the damn higher ups of the order were concerned about was his ability and that he would do their dirty work for them. He didn't know when it started, but he slowly detested them more and more.

Allen was happy to be rid of Link, even though the man himself was not all bad. He didn't really wish him anything bad, but he did wish for Link to leave him in peace. It wasn't as if he wanted to become the 14th.

Sighing he ran his hand through his hair. So for the first time in months he was allowed to come along without anyone there to watch him. He was so happy about that that he even stayed outside the inn, where the exorcists had rented rooms tonight. He was alone outside and no one was here to watch him. It really was bliss, even if it meant his face and hands started to hurt because it was too cold.

Lost in thought he just stared up into the clear sky. The moon shone brightly, so he could see the whole street, even though no other light was on. He was glad that no akuma seemed to be near. His left eye would have already started to react if there was any.

Just as he though that the door opened and light flooded out from the inn. "Allen!" Lavi appeared behind him. "If you stay outside in the cold like this you will get sick just like Link did."

"Don't worry, I won't get sick. I am just enjoying a peaceful night."

"It's hard on you, isn't it?" Lavi watched him with a worried expression.

"Well… it sure was easier before the whole thing started."

Lavi nodded. "I'm just glad you apparently don't get too stressed… or depressed thanks to the whole thing with the 14th."

"It's not as if it would help. I'm just trying to hang in there until the whole thing is over."

Lavi threw his hand on Allen's back. "Let's go back inside. I am getting cold and you seem positively frozen. How about a nice warm bath?"

"Sounds nice" Allen smiled and they went back into the inn.

Just like Lavi had said a nice warm bath was waiting for him inside the bathroom of his and Kanda's room. He undressed there and relaxed in the bath. The hot water felt nice on his strained muscles. Twenty minutes later Allen had dozed off, lying comfortably in the bathtub.

Lavi knocked at the door to the room that Allen and Kanda shared.

"What do you want?" Kanda asked as he opened the door and saw the annoying rabbit outside.

"Bookman just called the headquarters and they told us that they have information on an Innocence we are supposed to go looking for. Or at least most likely it should be an Innocence. There have been many akuma gathering in the area that Bookman said we should travel to tomorrow."

Kanda nodded and gestured for him to continue.

"The area is surrounded by mountains and woods and apparently there is a big mine for all kinds of metals there. Maybe even gold. Komui expects that the Innocence is somewhere near the mine or in the village next to it."

"I see."

"I suppose we will also see some level four akuma there, so make sure to be rested."

"Che…"

Lavi grinned. "Where is Allen by the way?"

"He went to take a bath."

"He said he would go for it when I called him back inside before."

"So?"

"Don't you think he is taking a bit long?"

"Why should I care how long he takes?" Kanda glared at him now. Why the hell should he be concerned about the annoying boy.

"Cause you will be more annoyed if he gets sick or something?"

"If he does he stays here. It's not like we need four people for this mission." He was about to close the door, but Lavi pressed into the room.

"I'll check on him on my own then."

Lavi went into the bathroom, which luckily was unlocked. He was greeted by a lot of steam and humid air. 'At least the bath is warm then.'

"Allen?" He looked around and found the boy sleeping in the bathtub. Chuckling softly he went over to him. For a second he regretted not having his marker with him. The opportunity was just too good, but since he didn't have the marker there was nothing to be done about it. 'Damn, and he looks so cute too.'

"Wake up sleepy head. The bath will get cold soon." He shook the boy's shoulders. Allen opened his eyes and looked around the room disoriented for a moment before he realized that he must have fallen asleep while taking his bath.

"… Lavi?"

"Just get out here, dress and go to sleep." Lavi smiled.

"Ok…" Lavi closed the door when Allen got up and started to dress for bed.

"Your cute companion was asleep. You really should take better care of him."

"If you're only here to talk crap then get out."

"If you mind sharing your room with him so much then lets exchange rooms. I sure wouldn't mind. Allen is nicer company than the panda. And he's cuter too."

Kanda looked as if he was contemplating this for a moment before he just kicked Lavi out and slammed the door close.

A moment later Allen came out, seemingly half asleep. The boy went straight for the first bed. Which happened to be the one Kanda had claimed for himself.

Kanda's clenched his fists. "GET OUT OF MY BED!"

As Allen didn't even turn around he shoved the young boy out of his bed.

"What the hell?" Allen whined.

"Idiot! This is MY bed!"

He glared daggers at the young boy. "Go over to yours!"

"How was I supposed to know you chose this one? Last night you chose the one besides the window and not the one near the door!"

"And today I choose the other. If you would have gone to the room earlier you would have seen!"

"Alas you could have just said something."

"And you would have listened, being as awake as you were, right?"

"It's common curtsy to say which bed you want. Ah, of course seeing that you lack common sense in almost all areas that's impossible to know for you I suppose."

"What did you just say, moyashi?"

Allen gasped. "You are deaf now too, BaKanda?"

"With you around I sometimes wish I was. Unfortunately you mumble so much one could think your tongue was tie-"

That moment bookman barged into the room and hit both of them on their heads. "Will you two cut it down already? Other guests want to sleep. Idiots! Go sleep and don't you dare to be late tomorrow!"

With a frustrated sigh Allen got to the bed by the window.

After ten minutes of turning around and angry pouting he said. "Seriously, what is it with you Kanda? If you changed the bed then why didn't just say so?"

"I changed the bed cause I thought it was fair in case you wanted to sleep at the window as well."

Allen sat up. Kanda was being considerate? "Why?"

"You stared at the sky all day long. Now go sleep."

Was Kanda worried about him? Somehow that thought seemed a little bit of still. Allen felt too tired to think about it any longer. Whatever it was that possessed Kanda, he decided that it was not an akuma and as such he liked the change.

"Goodnight, Kanda."

He didn't get any reply from the man, but he still smiled happily at the thought of a nice Kanda.

The next morning after breakfast the four exorcists got onto a coach with a finder and went to the village where an Innocence might be hidden somewhere.

"How was the Innocence found by the way?" Allen asked after he was told about the information they got from Komui the day before.

Bookman told them the story he had heard. "Apparently there was an accident in the mine and several workers were trapped deep under the earth with no way out. The rescue team was by far too late to be of any help to them They needed over one week to get all the rubble out of the way that had trapped the workers. There should have only been dead bodies there, but some miracle happened and they were all alive. They survived even though there should not have been any air left."

"Maybe there was air coming from further down?"

"That was not the case. The candles also had gone out on the first day, according to reports." Lavi answered this time.

"That and the akuma sightings there lead us to believe that there must be an Innocence there."

Allen nodded. No matter what, if there were akuma it always meant trouble.

"Why do we have to check the village though?" Kanda asked.

"Because the Innocence might have been brought there. Even tough there was an accident inside the mine they never stopped digging for metals."

Bookman closed the map of the area. "Lavi and I will check the village. You and Allen will head to the mine and check there. Be aware that there most likely will be akuma around no matter what."

"Won't there be level four akuma as well? If there are more than one it might really become a problem if we separate."

"We will all pass through the village. If there are akuma there I am sure you will detect them at once. If that's the case we will get into battle from the beginning on. If not then you two head on. It's dangerous to fight in mines. Just think what could happen if Lavi was to use his Innocence. Also you and Kanda already defeated level four akuma before. It shouldn't be too much of a problem."

Kanda thought about this for a moment before he agreed. "Fine, I don't think this is the wisest thing to do but we definitely want to get this over with soon and head on. Don't forget that this is just a stop before we continue on to China."

Allen closed his mouth. If three were for this way then they would not listen to him, even if he voiced his disagreement.

"Let's stay in contact with our golems. If anything bad happens we still should manage to help each other out."

"Alright." Allen finally agreed with Lavi. "If a Noah turns up you better be calling and see to it that you get away however."

"Of course." Bookman agreed.

One hour later they arrived at the village. Allen did expose several akuma, but none of them were higher than level three. They quickly disposed of them and when Allen didn't notice anything anymore he and Kanda went on to the mine while Lavi and Bookman started to search the village and talk with reluctant people.

Allen supposed this was the reason why Lavi and bookman were taking care of the village. He would have a hard time talking to them, and Kanda was even worse at talking than him.

A finder was waiting for the exorcists outside the mines as well.

"Hello, I am Tomoki. I'm here to guide you through the mines so you won't get lost inside."

Allen let out a breath of relieve. His sense of direction was bad enough outside in broad daylight, there was no need to add a mine and narrow dark ways to get him lost.

Kanda smirked as he watched Allen's antics.

The younger exorcist looked around, but seeing that his eye didn't react he was sure that at least for the moment there were no akuma in this area. He quickly got into contact with Lavi and Bookman to tell them that they would enter the mines now.

"Scaredy cat!" Kanda commented.

Allen decided to ignore him for this once. He didn't feel too well at the thought of Lavi and Bookman being in danger so he wanted to get this over with as fast as possible.

"How are Lavi and Bookman supposed to come here if they don't have a guide that knows the way around here?"

"They have the map. And unlike you they can use it too."

"Oh shut up!" Allen glared at him, his resolution from before was forgotten already.

"Sorry to interrupt you, but we should probably hurry. Akuma are around this area, so we should try to get along."

Allen mumbled an apology while Kanda remained silent. Both of them followed the finder however.

A while later, Allen already felt completely lost, they came to an area where the finder suddenly stopped.

"This is where the accident had happened, the one where no one died, even though there should not have been any air left for them to survive. Not to mention the lack of water that they had at that time."

Kanda went ahead and looked around the wall for any signs.

"Be careful. The ground is not save over there."

Allen searched the ground, but could not see anything out of the ordinary when he followed Kanda.

"Did you find anything?"

"Nothing."

Just as he said that the mine started the shake and the ground disintegrated under their feet.

"Whaa~"

The finder quickly jumped back, but Allen and Kanda fell down.

"Walker-dono, Kanda-dono!" The finder shouted after them, but neither of the two could get out of the way in time.

------------------

Allen landed with a thump on his behind. "Ouch." he whined while he tried to get up. Kanda's landing seemed to not have been much better according to the noise he made. Allen's eye activated and he quickly shouted for Kanda to be careful. Kanda activated Mugen at once.

"Finally you are here, exorcists!" They heard a vile voice behind them. "You did make us wait for a long time!"

Turning around they found a level four akuma behind them as well as some lower level ones.

"Where is the Innocence?" Kanda asked, while Mugen pointed directly at him.

"There is no Innocence here."

"Then why would the Millennium Earl send a level four akuma here?"

The vile creature laughed a high pitched laugh. "There was supposed to be one. But nothing is here."

"We thought some of you would come. So we wanted to at least tell the master that your ranks have once again thinned.

Allen didn't wait any longer and attacked the lower level ones with Cross Grave.

"Be careful! We don't want the whole mine to collapse!" Kanda shouted before lunged at the level four akuma.

Allen saw this and decided to go for the lower level ones first, so that Kanda would not have to look out for more than the level four.

It was difficult to fight them in the closed area. If they did too much damage to the surroundings they might be trapped here for a long time before Lavi and Bookman or someone else would come to help them. Also the akuma were strong. Two of them were level three and a few times they almost managed to get to Kanda who had enough trouble with the level four already.

Allen managed to get rid of one of the level three akuma, but was stabbed into his chest by the other akuma in the process.

Kanda didn't fare much better than him. He tried to kill the akuma, but it really seemed like he needed the other boy to finish it off. He could just hope that the boy would hurry up and take care of the others soon. Just as he had come to that conclusion his right shoulder was cut by the abominable creature he was fighting.

The akuma laughed loudly again. "I shall kill you slowly and painfully. You will suffer and writhe in pain."

"Fuck you!" Kanda slashed at the creature cutting its arm off. The creature continued to laugh and let its arm reform.

"Weakling!"

Meanwhile Allen with some difficulty defeated the other level three akuma as well as the others that had been in this area. His vision blurred for a moment. 'Not now. We have to take care of the level four akuma.' He ran back to Kanda and arrived just in time to get him out of the way of another attack.

"So you managed to defeat all of my companions. More fun for me then."

"Kaichu Ichigen!" Allen knew the attack was too weak to do any harm, but it gave them the necessary distraction. They both attacked at the same time and cut the akuma in half.

After everything had calmed down they could hear Tomoki calling for them. They told him that they were alright and that he should get in contact with Lavi and Bookman. There was no way up as far as they could tell and Allen didn't feel strong enough to try climbing up the wall. Not with the nasty wound he had received in the battle.

Kanda nudged him and pointed toward another passageway. A blue light seemed to come from that way. "Let's check it out."

Allen followed Kanda with some difficulty to the place that the other had pointed too. At first he had thought it might be an Innocence after all, but the light of Innocence was green, not blue like the light they saw now.

They followed the light until they ended up in a small cave. The walls in the room glittered and Allen assumed that there was a lot of metal, maybe even gold, in the walls here. In the middle of the small cave, on the ground behind some rubble they saw the source of the light. It seemed to be a goblet that was glowing.

"Is it an Innocence after all?"

"How am I supposed to know, moyashi?"

"Just asking what you think, BaKanda!"

Kanda took the goblet and turned it upside down. They checked it from all sides but couldn't get any clues from it.

Allen took the goblet. "Shall we just destroy it? If it's an Innocence that should set it free."

"Go ahead."

Allen nodded and smashed the goblet on the ground, but the impact didn't destroy the goblet.

"Moyashi… can't you even destroy a single goblet?" Kanda asked in a voice that dripped with sarcasm.

Anger rising Allen set the goblet on the ground. "Just cause it can't be smashed by being thrown on the ground doesn't mean I can't destroy it." He quickly activated his Innocence and hit the goblet hard. That indeed did the trick. The goblet was smashed and a strange blue light came free.

The light did not look like an Innocence. It was merely a small ball of blue light. It hovered in the air for a few seconds before it expanded itself, covering Allen's left arm.

"Wha-"

The light was still expanding and Allen seemed to vanish completely inside it.

"Get back!" Kanda called and grabbed Allen's right arm to pull him back. The light however grew bigger and bigger until it seemed to be too big to keep itself up and extinguished. Kanda looked all over the room, but didn't see it anymore.

"Kanda…" he heard Allen's soft voice and turned around. His eyes widened in surprise as he saw the other exorcist's wound. A soft blue glow was emitted from there. Quickly he checked his shoulder, but nothing was out of the norm with him.

"Are you… feeling well?" he asked, feeling strange at asking such a question.

"Yes. I feel the same as before. The wound hurts just like it did before it started glowing."

"Let's go back. Maybe Bookman knows something."

He pulled Allen along and lead the way back. As they arrived there they could already hear Lavi and Allen.

"Oi! Are you two ok?" Lavi shouted down.

"Ah. Throw a rope down so we can get back up!"

Kanda let Allen go up first, in case something strange happened. Afterwards he quickly told the other two what had happened and Bookman at once took a good look at the blue glow that was coming from Allen's wound. Maybe it was the light that was coming from the lamp that Tomoki was carrying, but he had a feeling that the blue light was fading. As far as Kanda was concerned this was a good thing. A wound alone was already a nuisance, no need to add something strange and unknown to that.

"I've never seen anything like this. I would suggest that we wait for a little while, not that we can actually do anything else anyway." Bookman told them.

They decided to head back to the village, where he and Lavi had been searching for clues on the Innocence. They had gotten no clues about the Innocence either.

"The Akuma said there was no Innocence. Maybe it was just that weird blue light after all. Though I would like to know what it was. It didn't feel like an Innocence." Allen mused.

"No use wondering about what you can't solve without more clues." Kanda said.

"We will stay here till tomorrow evening. A day rest will be good for you and we will check once more to see if we can find anything." Bookman declared.

"Can't we go tomorrow already? We do have to get to China after all." Allen asked, hoping that they would just continue on so that Link would have no way to follow them, even if he wanted to.

"No. We have to make sure that there is no Innocence involved and you can't afford to run around like this either." Lavi rejected his ideas.

Even though Allen knew Lavi was right he still would have liked to go on. His time without the 24 hour surveillance felt just too great.

"Stop looking like a kicked puppy already!" Lavi laughed at the expression the youngest exorcist had. "It's not like we can't afford a one day break, right?"

Allen didn't answer that. In his opinion they indeed could not afford the break.

The next day Allen stayed in the inn. His wound had stopped glowing and been tended to by Bookman. The man had ordered him to stay in bed for a day. Kanda's wound had already healed by morning so he could get up and join the others in their search.

The three exorcists headed out right after breakfast. They decided that the mine probably was not the place where they could find anything, since the miners had already told them that nothing unusual had been found or seen and that everything seemed normal with the exception of the akuma that they had slain the previous day.

They walked through the village, searched for anything that could be out of the ordinary, but nothing was found. The villagers themselves had no idea of anything either. In the evening they finally decided to head back to the inn, and just travel on the next morning when Kanda saw something flying towards the wood that was between the village and the mine.

"Let's check what that was!" he yelled and ran off towards the point where the thing would have probably landed.

As they came closer to the mine, they could see some akuma there again.

Kanda already drew his sword and Lavi changed the size of his hammer. They quickly attacked two of them and finished them off. The third one, a level three akuma, jumped out of the way in time and attacked them in turn.

"Why do you keep returning here?"

The akuma ignored the question. "You're in the way, exorcists! DIE!"

After dodging the attack Bookman pinned the demon with his needles to the ground. "What are your orders?"

The creature ripped an arm free and lunged for the old man, who swiftly jumped out of the way. "To help the others. Noah-sama is interested if there is another part."

"The other akuma have already vanished." Kanda sneered. "And so will you."

"Wait Kanda!" Lavi interrupted. "What other part are you talking about?"

Instead of an answer Lavi was hit in the stomach by the akuma's next attack. The akuma used some special attacks to get free and do whatever he had been told to do.

"Let's finish him, we won't get any other information!" Lavi yelled and he and Kanda attacked the level three. Just at the last moment the akuma took a rather small round plate and held it in front of him. The plate took both of their attacks and crumbled into small pieces.

Without waiting for what would happen the akuma launched into another attack and shot. Just at the last second Kanda had pushed Bookman out of the way of the shot.

"How dare you?" Lavi shouted and smashed the akuma away with his hammer. He quickly delivered a second strike, defeating the akuma in the process.

"Damn. Are the two of you alright? No virus?" he quickly asked.

Bookman smiled. "Idiot. There is no need to worry."

Kanda had already gotten up and went over to where the plate had fallen down. Two strange circles were now lying on the ground. They somehow reminded him of shackles. What caught his interest the most however was the fact that both of them were emanating a blue glow, just like that ball he had seen yesterday.

"It has the same color as the ball from yesterday."

"Any idea what it is, gramps?"

Bookman shook his head and went over to inspect the rings more. "We should definitely take them along however. Nothing ever good comes from something that akuma are interested in. Let's bring it to Komui."

He picked them up. "They're light. So most likely it's not any kind of metal. I wonder what they are made of."

Kanda took them to stow them away when they suddenly started to glow brighter and brighter before the light vanished completely in a flash.

When Kanda could see again he noticed that the shackles had vanished.

"What the fuck is it now? I thought it was save to touch them!"

"They seemed to be before. Is that what has happened yesterday?" Bookman asked Kanda calmly.

"Somewhat. There were no circles. Just a ball of light."

"Man… I somehow have a bad feeling about this. You're not glowing anywhere, are you Yuu-chan?"

"Stop calling me by my first name, asshole!" Kanda shot a glare at him that promised certain death if he did.

"And no, I am not glowing anywhere." He checked his body still, just to make sure that this was indeed the case.

"There really is nothing we can do about it right now. Let's go back to the inn and contact Komui about it."

Ok. That's enough for the first chapter. If I stay with my current ideas then the main pairing (I have not yet decided if there will be more than one) will start of in the next chapter already. So again, if you don't like it don't read it. Forgive any mistakes I oversaw please (and maybe I will change the title still later on… too tired to think of any other now. ^^;

Also rating most likely will go up in later chapters! ^o^

All else, please give me some feedback. It is discouraging to post things if I see that many people seem to read my story, but no one says anything.

Please no flames. If you don't like the story tell me what is bad so that I can improve (if you don't like the general storyline that will be difficult, but other things could be helpful for me.)