This was my story for Yullen Week (Winter Edition), but I couldn't get to a computer to put it up. It contains a bit of each theme day, but I'm just calling it "Eternity" since that was what I was thinking about when I wrote this...

Disclaimer: I DO NOT OWN D. GRAY-MAN... only the plot of this.

Warning: AU, Fluffy!Yullen.

Notes: Don't be confused by the Lenalee-centeredness at the beginning. Enjoy and review!

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Eternity

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Lenalee pouted as she stared out the window, glaring at the blizzard that forced her brother Komui to stay on his out-of-town trip in Philadelphia, where his research team was studying something about past lives (she never quite understood his interest). They had apparently found a family of breakthrough subjects who remembered their past lives from the Victorian era.

But, twelve-year-old Lenalee didn't care a bit. She just wanted Komui home in time for them to celebrate Christmas. As a kid, she didn't even care if there was still a few days till Christmas anyway. A day less is a day less, after all.

"'Miss Lenalee? You're still up?"

The girl glanced past one of her black pigtails at the person she knew so well.

"Mr. Allen. Why are you still up?" She turned and looked at him with questioning, violet eyes.

The man walked into the room, closing the door softly behind him, and then into the light of the lamp Lenalee put on.

He was like the snow outside, white all over-silver hair, silver eyes, the palest skin (excluding his burned arm and his weird scar with a star and lines covering the left side of his face).

Also like the snow, Allen was cold, but, just like many other things, she didn't understand why. He was always expressionless; she'd only seen him smile once. Lenalee thought he was especially pretty when he smiled, but at such a young age, she could still tell something was wrong. 'I'll ask when I'm older, so he'll take me seri—'

"Miss Lenalee, I've been your au pair* for years, and you still add the 'Mister' part? I'm only twenty-four, you know?"

At Allen's voice, the girl returned to their conversation from her wandering thoughts and replied, "Why do you still add the 'Miss' to my name? I'm only twelve, you know?"

A fake chuckle came from the man's throat. "Fine, fine. Is 'Lena' okay?"

She nodded. That was what her brother called her sometimes...

Before she could stop herself, the question popped into her head and out of her mouth in the second that she thought of her brother.

"Allen, what do you think of past lives?"

After pausing and looking as if he was frozen like an icicle from outside, Allen sighed and sat next to her on the pink, down comforter. Slowly, he answered, "They are... something tangible, something real... at least to me."

Lenalee waited, knowing there was more to this.

"Can I tell you a story, Lena?"

With a vigorous nod in response, the tale began.

"Once upon a time..."

...

... a boy, who looked just like me and shared my name, lived to "destroy time", as it was prophesized. "Time" referred to an evil man known as the Millennium Earl, a monster who led a group of evil people known as the Noah and who created things called Akuma, which were actually trapped souls of the dearly departed.

This Allen had once made his father Mana into an Akuma, the reason for the strange scar and his white eyes and hair. But his deformed arm turned out to be a purifying weapon called Innocence, the arm activated and killed Mana.

Later, he'd joined a organization known as the Black Order, where others who wielded Innocence were known as Exorcists and where everyone worked together to stop the Earl...

...

"...Actually, Lena, there was an exorcist named Lenalee, and she looked like you, too. You were also older than me, if you can believe that."

Addicted to the story so far, the girl ordered fiercely, "Story. Now. Or Else."

"O-okay..."

...

S-so, t-there—"Stop stammering! It ruins the story!"— So, there was this one Exorcist that got on Allen's nerves. His name was Yu Kanda, but you were only ever allowed to call him Kanda, or he would kill you.

He had this long hair that was the color of the night sky. You know? A black with a hint of navy in it. Kanda always wore it in a high ponytail. Then, he had sometimes sapphire, sometimes onyx eyes, which sort of made it a little hard to believe he was Japanese. His Innocence was a katana called Mugen.

Because he was a head or so taller than Allen, he gave the boy the nickname Moyashi, a main topic of their usually stupid arguments. They were comrades in print, but they bickered like an old married couple and were always at each other's throat. Ordinarily the two would fight it out till they collapsed from exhaustion or were stopped by Lenalee and Lavi, who looked like the redhead boy down the street.

One day, their relationship behind closed doors changed...

...

"Okay, Lena, this is where the story isn't as child-appropriate. So, no telling your brother, alright?"

...

...One day after a serious sparring session, the two Exorcists were laying side by side, panting heavily. Little cuts decorated their skins (but Kanda's oddly healed in minutes).

Turning onto his side and still huffing a bit, Kanda said, "Oi, Mo...yashi."

"It's AL-LEN, Ba..kanda," retorted Allen, who still turned over. "What... is it?"

Now, their breaths warmed each other's face since they were so close. The pale-haired boy blushed a bit at the proximity, darkening his already-red cheeks.

After a few deep breaths, the two calmed their panting, and Kanda replied, "There is something I want to say to you."

"What's that?"

Suddenly, Allen felt the press of a hand on his back, drawing him flush against Kanda and causing him to gasp at the feeling. Their lips were only mere inches apart.

With a soft blow of air came something so lovely, so full of depth and sweetness, so insanely out-of-character, but so sincere.

"Ar-Allen."

The boy melted, his face ablaze with emotion, accepting emotions, disbelieving emotions, emotions that only person would ever see. That person was the one he fell in love with. That person was this irritable, high-and-mighty, son-of-a-bitch asshole...

...named Yu Kanda.

They met at the lips, at the hands with intertwined fingers, at legs woven together. Every touch was so sweet, but so hesitant, as if one was worried the other didn't exist and would disappear into thin air.

The long-awaited answer eventually came.

"Yu."

And the world was lost on them. No confessions were necessary. They already knew.

'I love you, Allen.'

'I love you more, Yu.'

'Impossible.'

'Oh, really? Can you prove it?'

'Yes.'

But...

...

"Allen? Why are you crying?" Lenalee nudged and poked her now-crying caretaker.

He gave a weak smile through the tears. "Because this is the sad part and it always makes me cry."

"I don't know if I want to hear the end then."

"I can stop, if you want."

Thinking for a moment, the girl said, "Don't stop. I want to know how the story ends."

...

After they had been secretly together for a long time, a whole series of problems came to light with the war.

Kanda wasn't a real human and, with Allen's help, had escaped with his past life's love.

Allen was turning into a Noah and was imprisoned.

The war had gotten worse, and the Millennium Earl and the Noah family were winning it.

The lovers were apart, and Allen wasn't sure if their love was still there.

There wasn't any hope for them.

On the day the war ended, they met again.

Allen, now completely a Noah, fought the Earl.

And Kanda was there, dressed as a Finder, a person who helped without Innocence.

After hours of fighting, the Earl was defeated.

Without a purpose anymore, the Innocence and the Noah family disappeared. The Noah family's gray skin and golden eyes faded into the individual's normal colorings, and the Innocence disigrated.

Flying high above the city, Allen returned. Neah, the Noah who took over him, left with an "I'm sorry."

The Exorcists, the former Noah family, the Finders and Kanda, and all the rest watched as Allen's Innocence became a brilliant, silver dust, taking the form of a man named Mana. Mana smiled at his son whose arm of innocence was no longer was there. This form, thought the audience, was the Heart of all Innocence... Allen's Heart.

Then, Mana wisped away, and Allen's original appearance came back. Unfamiliar chestnut hair, eye coloring, and scar-less face met the eyes of so many people who knew him.

And he fell.

But the shocked people couldn't move.

Yet someone caught him.

"Yu Kanda."

"Allen Walker."

"How was Matel?"

"How was the war?"

"How are you?"

"How are you?"

Blood dripped out of the corner of Allen's mouth.

"The hole in my heart that was closed by Innocence is open again."

"I see... Are you going to die?"

A salty drop of water fell on Allen's cheek.

"I think so... And you? What about the Lotus Curse?"

"I have a little longer."

"Oh... Maybe we'll meet again sometime..."

"Sounds good, Moyashi. Make sure you don't look like this though. I'd never find you."

"Alright, Bakanda."

More drops fell on the dying boy's face, and blood trickled from his lips.

"Kanda, you never said it out loud, you know."

"Neither did you."

"Bakanda, I know... could you say though? Please? Even if it's a lie?"

"Okay... but it's not a lie... I love you... Allen. I'll love you... for all eternity."

"And... Yu... I'll... lo..."

Something warm held him close, and something familiar pressed against his lips.

Then, there was nothing...

...

"Where's the happy ending?" Lenalee questioned as she dabbed at Allen's eyes with a tissue.

"Lena, there's no happy ending to this story."

Grabbing a book from her nightstand, the girl hit the man on top of his head, earning her a sound of pain from him.

"What was that for!" Allen asked, rubbing his head.

"Stupid, there's always a happy ending. Just you wait. The story's one of your past lives, right? Well, Kanda said eternity, so he'll come! So, don't be all depressed!"

"Lena-"

She jumped up and started to drag him to the stairs. "Come on! We're getting you some hot chocolate to drink because I don't like a sulking au pair."

Without any word of protest from Allen, Lenalee took them to the kitchen and brought out the hot chocolate mix and milk, and then she and her caregiver (who was slightly forced into it) looked for the mugs to no avail. "Where are the mugs?" she asked aloud.

"Are these what you're looking for, my dearest Lenalee?"

Surprised, Allen and Lenalee spun around and saw Komui standing there, holding the two mugs.

"Brother..." Tears forming, the girl rushed at him and embraced him.

"How are you already here? Weren't you supposed to return tomorrow?" Allen asked, coming to stand next to the reunion.

Komui gave him a smile. "Well, the family we were investigating offered to get me home, so they had a son drive me here... Wait, Allen, were you crying? Your eyes are red."

"N-no. M-must be a t-trick of the l-light," the younger man stammered, giving a fake reassuring grin.

"A Moyashi shouldn't lie."

Allen froze, and Lenalee pushed out her brother's arms and turned to see.

She glared to the newcomer. "You take too long! Take my depressed au pair already, and let him have his happy ending."

The Japanese man blinked at the girl and looked at the small, pale-haired nanny's back. "I see the woman hasn't changed much, and Moyashi hasn't changed at all."

Unfrozen, Allen whipped around. "Bakanda! You're younger than me this time!"

"Baka! You're like eighteen! I have four years on you!"

"Ha! I'm twenty-four! So, I beat you by two years, Brat-Kanda!"

"Shut the hell up, Moyashi!"

"Make me!"

"I will!"

Komui covered Lenalee's eyes as the two kissed quite passionately. Looking down at his sister, he sighed. "Well, I guess I don't have to introduce Yu Kanda to you both. Oh and Lenalee?"

"Yeah?" she replied, tugging at the hands over her eyes.

"Would this be the happy ending you were talking about? These two being together?"

"Yes! Kanda said eternity. And Allen's been waiting. Finally, they can be together again... Wait a second... Don't tell me... You got interested about past lives because of Allen's story, didn't you?"

Leading the girl out of the room, Komui answered, "Perhaps, but right now, I think we should let them enjoy the beginning of eternity, without an audience."

...

"I love you, Allen. I'll love you for all eternity."

"And Yu, I'll love you for all eternity and all the eternities after."

...

fin

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*au pair: a French word that refers to a live-in nanny

SO MUCH FLUFF! (^_^) ~*

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Till Next Time, 13