I like everyone's evil little drabbles, headcanons, and whatevers about NeAllen. Though honestly, I never saw expected that shadowy figure to be a fucking damn cute ship with Allen?

AU Highschool with NeAllen, and rated T. This is a Past Allen with Neah, therefore there might not be the usual gang that we see.

I do not, do not, own DGM! All rights go to Katsura Hoshino. With that said, thank you all for reading and I apologize for any grammar mistakes!

He let out a deep breath as he stared intently into his soup. It was some nasty green, thick like mucus soup that didn't taste good at all. Usually that was what he would be complaining about right now, but noooo. Instead he had something or rather someone on his mind than to care about what his dinner was. A certain someone that he hated… no actually he didn't really hate that person. He was... rather… fond of? No, no that didn't sound right either… because that would imply that he actually cared for… no. He couldn't believe he was thinking about this. Though the closest word came to… well… like? No! He disliked that person! … No, that was a lie because he didn't really dislike the person. He liked… no wait a minute. If he liked that person then that means, no it can't be… because that would mean he's completely fallen for that person and that's not possible. So perhaps despise? No!

Jesus he was confusing himself and just truthfully he didn't know how he felt. He hated that person, but at the same time he didn't. God… he couldn't even say or think of that person without that smile on their face appearing in his mind. It made his cheeks burn every time he saw the smile. A smile he knew that would never be directed to him.

Damn it scumbag body. He couldn't be in love.

Unknowingly he let out another deep breath and the two others, who he forgot sat there, raised their eyebrows at him. The two have noted how many times he's sighed and the sullen expression on his face when dinner started.

"Oh my god, I don't think I can take it Adam." The youngest of the triplets hissed quietly, causing their dog laying at the corner to raise his head up.

"Shh, shh Mana. You have to be patient and let Neah come to us."

Mana flashed the oldest brother 'are you serious there is something obviously bothering him' look.

However Adam return the look to the youngest with 'this is obviously a sensitive situation for our brother and we need to proceed carefully'. Adam watched as Mana shook his head and rub his forehead. While the other was absentmindedly stirring his soup and staring at it like it was the most fascinating invention since sliced Wonder bread.

The second oldest didn't even notice how worried his brothers were about him.

The atmosphere became extremely heavy that none of the servants dared came out and it was becoming unbearable for Mana. However for Adam, he tried to ignore the tension because pushing people to a corner never worked… well for his brother.

Not even a minute passed and Mana began to indicate with his eyes between his brothers. Obviously hinting to say something or else he was because this had gone far enough.

And all Adam could do was reply with a troubled sigh. It's not that he wasn't concerned at all, but forcing someone to tell their problems didn't work… at least with his younger brother. In addition, Mana had a habit of pushing too far when he became overly worried. Though the scolding look from Mana made him not want to say otherwise. The last thing he would ever want to do was to make both his brother upset. One was enough for his poor heart to handle. Some people might have told him he spoiled them a little too much...

"Ahem."

No response.

"Ahem." Adam tried again, but with a lot more emphasis.

Still no response.

Even Timcanpy joined in with a loud bark to get Neah's attention, but it didn't work and Neah still didn't react.

Finally Mana rolled his eyes and shouted out. "NEAH!"

The cry of the Neah's name jolted him out of his deep thought and he looked left and right frantically. "Yea?! What?! Where's the fire?!"

"Are you alright Neah?"

Neah calmed down to go back to his Debbie Downer attitude and muttered. "Yea. What makes you say that?"

"Well you've been sighing a lot this whole dinner time." Mana eyebrows crossed worryingly.

"I'm fine."

Mana persist and his tone turned annoyed at the lame response his brother gave him. "Doesn't sound like it."

"Jesus Mana, get off my case!" Neah snapped as he let the spoon in his hand clatter on the table forcefully. He didn't want to talk about it, he couldn't because hell, he hasn't even figured it out himself. He needed time to think about it and his brothers bugging him wasn't helping him in his dilemma. In fact, he didn't want them to know if it happened to be the worst case scenario. Them knowing would just kill him. It wasn't Mana, but himself that he was frustrated with that caused him to snap irritated. It was too late to retract his words without them knowing.

"I won't! Not until you tell me what's wrong!" Mana snapped back heatedly and stood from his chair causing the chair to scrape harshly against the wooden floor.

Adam shrinked in his seat as he watched his younger brothers argue back and forth. There was no way that he wanted to get caught in the fight and be forced to choose a side. He preferred his side, where no one was fighting or right or wrong. It was dinner time, the one time where they could spend at least a hour or so together from their busy affairs. He rather spend his time eating with his brothers and conversing with one another. Not fighting each other. He loved his brothers, he did and without a doubt. It's just sometimes they were… well... brothers. He watched Mana leave the dining hall room from the left exit and Neah the right. He winced as the two both slammed the doors roughly and he could have sworn he heard the door crack from Neah's side.

"Oh dear." Adam whistled nervously to no one in particular and Timcanpy looked at him with sad eyes. "Oh don't give me that look! I can get them to make up! Give me a bit of time and everything will be as good as new!"

Timcanpy barked, satisfied with that and followed after Neah.

Now it was just him... by himself, sitting at the dinner table and they hadn't even hit the main course or the best part: dessert! "Well then, I guess I'll just skip to dessert before I go up there." Dessert will be his reward for getting the two to make up later.

XXXXXX

Adam knocked gently on the door of Neah's room. "Neah, it's me Adam. May I come in?"

"No."

Whatever was bothering Neah must have been bad. Neah would never be this angry with his own family member like this. He opened the door to find his brother on his bed and lying flat on his stomach, buried in pillows.

"What is the point of asking me when you're just going to come in?" Neah grumbled.

"Formalities." Adam shrugged and took a seat on the bed besides his brother. "Besides you didn't even bother to lock your door."

Neah blinked in shock. "Shit, I forgot." There was a lot going in his mind apparently.

"I hope you know what you're doing is hurting not only yourself, but your family also." No point in beating around the bushes.

Neah groaned exasperated. "I know, I know."

"Then… why are you…?"

"Because I'm dumb and I have no idea what I'm doing." Neah whined pathetically into his pillow.

"Maybe if you tell us what is bothering instead of bottling it all inside and taking it out on Mana. We are both very concerned about you."

Neah sat up and blew out a frustrated puff of air. Sometimes he hated when his brothers did this, they seriously watched too much Opera or that Dr. Phil show. "That's the thing, I don't know how to describe it."

"Try." Adam sighed at how stubborn Neah was being right now. Was it so hard for Neah to turn to his brothers for help? "We can't stand for you to be so unhappy."

Neah grimaced at how he making his brothers upset and mumbled. "It's complicated."

"Complicated how?" Adam motioned for Neah to continue describing how he felt, slowly and steadily.

However it didn't work and Neah didn't last that long to even attempt to think about it before giving up. "Complicated!"

"Fine. Why don't we start small."

Neah paused for moment and actually thought about it. The first thing came to mind was Mana and he flashed his brother a sheepish smile. "I'm sorry and I should probably go apologize to Mana too, huh?"

"That would be a good start." The unexpected voice caused Neah to look up the doorway. There in front of him was Mana.

"Honestly I wasn't even going to let this go so easily, but Adam came to me first and told me to stand by the doorway. He wanted me to hear you out."

Neah frowned, but the smile on his lips said otherwise. "Can you stop that Adam."

"Stop what?" Adam asked innocently.

"Stop with whole being right and being sneaky so that you could get us both to make up."

"Well, someone has to do it because you two are as stubborn as a mule." Adam huffed with his arms against his chest.

'What?!" Mana laughed. "Look who's talking!" He shoved his brother by the shoulder playfully, knocking him into Neah.

The smile returned to Neah's face and he chuckled, feeling like himself. For a moment he didn't feel he was troubled or down casted. "Hey!" Inside his mind he rationally thought to himself that it could all just be a phase. Similar to that time he had a crush on that one girl, whose name escaped him, back in the third grade. After a few days, he'll forget about this infatuation and move on. It couldn't be… it couldn't be love. He was not in love.

Just like that they started a chain of knocking and shoving each other. In the end, boys will be boys.

XXXXXX

Neah yawned and felt tears at the corner of his eyes. He was barely registering what the teacher was saying, let alone understanding what was going on with his stupid feelings. He didn't sleep well last night and the night before that and the night before that night and… so on and so forth. It's been more than just a few days that he hasn't felt well and he's been acting strangely. He was certain his brothers knew, but didn't want to say anything. They were waiting for him to talk to them and were afraid to push or upset him. Usually if it was any other problem then he would cave and go talk to them.

He would tell them if he could, but... he wasn't going to. They wouldn't understand that he couldn't.

It's not like he didn't want his brother to help him… ah who was he kidding?! If worse came to worse, then he definitely did not want his brother to find out he had a crush on someone! It would be embarrassing! They would do something he'd dread in front of his crush. He didn't even want to think about what if his brothers ruined everything! Despite that he had no plan of confessing so there was nothing to ruin at the moment.

Acting odd and not sleeping well were only the icing on top of the cake. He was also experiencing some… not so normal dreams of his crush and woke up with a tiny bit of… god why him? It was embarrassing to even think about it. To be fair he was a normal, okay maybe not normal, but as normal could be, healthy teenage boy. He's researched on the internet that it wasn't uncommon. However what he cannot fathom was why, why did it have to be that demon of a boy? Why not someone cuter? Someone milder? Technically he didn't have a gender preference, but he really wished it was someone else.

So he was wrong, oh so horribly wrong to assume this phase would go away. He needed to take a reality check and maybe… consider... the idea that he was actually…. in love.

If that was really the case, then he needed to be extra careful how he acted around his brothers.

He mentally groaned to himself and slumped down against the desk in total agony. He hit his forehead against the wooden desk with a small thunk. He's only heard horrible, terrible, awful, awful things about love.

God he hated his life.

What snapped him out of his thoughts was something that hit his head. He turned his head to find a ball of paper on the floor. He looked at his brother, sitting behind him, oddly for throwing that at him. Though what was even more confusing was the nervous look on Mana's face. Mana pointed to the front of the classroom and what he saw was a-not-so-happy teacher by his desk.

Oh great, just what he needed. When did the Mr. Pan get so close to him? Mr. Pan must have called on him again and the one time when he wasn't paying attention. "... Hey teach… what's up?"

Judging from the teacher's disapproving gaze, he'd say that he was in trouble. "Detention Neah Campbell, today after school."

"What?!" Neah exclaimed and lept from his seat. It's not like he was failing this class or that he was a bad student. He swore this teacher didn't like him because he wasn't failing this class or struggling to pass the class. In fact he was passing with flying colors and with ease. It seemed like the teacher hated it when a student doesn't struggle. However it was a math class, so that saved him from not arguing with Mr. Pan every day. Math was either right or wrong, no in betweens.

Mana shook his head and wished his brother didn't do that. He knew the teacher wasn't going to compromise and going to further punish Neah for questioning his authority. Unlike Neah, he was one of the students endeavoring to not fail the class and making do with a C.

"Detention for the whole month, Mr. Campbell."

"Hey can you even-mmpfff?!"

Mana quickly clamped his hands over his brother's mouth when he had the feeling Neah was about to make an outburst. He could practically feel his twin brother about to explode with rage. "Yes sir! I'll make sure he will get to his detention after school!"

"Make sure he does. You should be more like your brother, Neah."

It was a good thing the bell rang for lunch because they needed the hour break and allowed Mana to drag his brother out of the classroom before anything else could happen.

For the brothers, being compared to each other was uncomfortable and frustrating. It was poisonous. There is just nothing more demoralizing than being compared to someone, especially a sibling. They all had their own faults and weakness just like everyone else. Was it because they were triplets that made it easier for others to compare them?

"God what is his problem?!" Neah growled as he stuffed his books into the lockers and some into his bag. He slammed his locker door shut with much more force than intended causing the door to bend slightly and not closing properly. Neah's eyes narrowed at the locker door as if everything was its fault. Him not getting a good night rest for the past few weeks or so, him acting strangely, him worrying his brother, him for not paying attention in class, him for getting detention for the whole week! God he wanted to destroy something.

"Hey." Mana sighed as he touched his brother's hand before Neah would break something. "Calm down and stop taking it out on the poor locker." He closed the locker for his brother and gently. "Mr. Pan is like that to everyone, you're not special to him Neah."

"Yea right." Neah scoffed. "He calls on me more than everyone else and picks on me for the tiniest things. Like docking off points off my test because my handwriting was 'too small' "

"One day Neah. He'll get what he deserves, karma." Mana offered positively to his angry brother.

"Karma? Pfft, that's bullshit."

"One day!" Mana declared as they entered the cafeteria to get some food.

When they ordered their food and sat down, Neah couldn't help but eye his crush, he who shall not be named. He gaze lingered as the boy left the cafeteria.

"Neah, are you okay?" Mana asked concerned and failed to follow his brother's gaze to whatever he was staring at.

"Nothing!" Neah answered quickly, almost being caught. "Please Mana, don't start with the whole mother hen thing."

"Well I wouldn't have to if someone wasn't acting so weird lately and looking as if you haven't been sleeping well." Mana frowned and groaned exasperated at how different, miserable his brother was acting. He was getting real close of getting fed up and the only reason why he hasn't exploded was because he promised Adam. "Neah! Stop picking your food around!"

"It's my food, I can do whatever."

"Will you stop acting like a child?"

"Considering I just got detention for something I totally didn't deserve for a whole month?"

"Now I know that is not the reason why you're acting so miserable."

Neah glared at how annoying his brother could be and wished he would just stop caring at times. He stood up from his chair and totally did not just waste food.

"Neah." Mana murmured to himself unhappily as he watched his brother leave. Maybe Adam was right that he shouldn't keep poking and prodding Neah. He should really know better, but he couldn't handle seeing any of his family so down. It just tore his heart and he wanted to see a smile on their faces. It was his turn to pick at the food that suddenly didn't so appetizing anymore.

"Hey."

Mana thought to him seriously what was wrong with Neah.

"Mana."

DId he do something wrong? Mana tried to rack his brain through the past weeks of what happened.

"Hey anybody in there?" Mana never noticing once the hand waving in front of his face.

At this rate Mana was going to keep worrying and not get a wink of sleep. He'll have to talk to Adam again and- a sudden clap to his face jolted him out of his thoughts. He saw a familiar fiery redhead with glasses and a face that told everyone to fuck off, but it was a female then it would be a different story. "Oh Cross."

"Oh Cross? What the hell is wrong with you and your brother? I just said hi to him and he ignored me. How can anyone ignore someone this handsome?"

Mana didn't even respond, still feeling dejected and worried beyond all belief. The light hearted joke flew right over his head.

"Alright." Cross sighed reluctantly as he readied himself for the onslaught of complains from Mana. "What's got Neah's panties in a twist and causing you to be a stick in the mud?" He didn't want to hear people bitch, he got that enough from society. Fuck he should just be allowed to do whatever he wants, not that he wasn't already doing that and rocking at it too. However he rather enjoyed the company of the Campbells or well just Neah and Mana. He's got some issues with their older brother, Adam.

Mana sighed dejectedly. "No, no. I don't want to trouble you Cross and I know you hate things like these."

"I asked so… lay it on me."

Mana bit his lips and took a deep breath as if trying to control himself. Cross rolled his eyes and looked at his expensive looking watch to count just how long Mana could last.

5…

4….

3….

2…..

1…...

"I don't even know what is wrong with Neah! I mean he is just so stubborn and why can't he see that I just want to help him and for him to be happy? I mean we are triplets aren't we? We've always been thick as thieves?! So what is wrong with him?! Why won't he tell me anything! But nooooooo, he keeps shutting himself off and I don't understand that's going through that thick skull of his! I try and try, but nothing! I talked to Adam about his behavior, but Adam just keeps telling me the same thing over and over. He keeps explaining to me that I can't just push Neah to tell me what is wrong with him because Neah is the kind of person that pulls away when you push. Let me tell you that it's been weeks that he's been like this and I know he isn't getting any sleep and… and … what should I do Cross?!"

Cross blinked in awe at how fast Mana spoke and without taking any pauses to breathe. He still was trying to process all the stuff Mana spewed out. Though he should probably say something because Mana practically looked as if he was going to cry and he really wasn't a person that could comfort someone; especially a boy. "Umm… err... do you have any ideas?"

"If I did then I wouldn't be like this now would I?"

"So much sass." Cross rolled his eyes at how much his friend needed to get laid and stop being concerned for his dumbass brothers.

Mana exhaled distressed. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to sound that way. I'm just…"

"Yea I know."

"I'm sorry,... um… did you need something?" Mana asked, trying to change the topic to be less about him and his angst.

"Came to say hi and ask what happened in first period.."

"Oh. Hi and um… nothing much." Mana shrugged.

"Look, stop caring about that idiot so much about. You'll be hideous looking in no time."

"Thank you Cross." Mana flashed his friend a small smile for wanting to cheer him up with his jokes. "I appreciate the concern, but that idiot is my brother."

"He'll bounce back in no time like he always does, Mana." Cross stayed in his seat and watch Mana prepare to leave, but Mana halted for a moment and stared at him."What?"

Mana decided to ignore his instinct telling him that maybe Cross knew something about it. He didn't want to accuse his friend of anything. He sighed hopelessly, yet again "Never mind. I've got a tutor session to go to and Cross if you find out anything then please tell me, okay?"

"Will do." Cross waved his friend goodbye and watched as Mana sulked away from the cafeteria. As soon as Mana was out of hearing range, Cross muttered. "That idiot."

XXXXXX

As soon as Neah found some empty hallway with no one in sight, he moaned out frustrated and slammed his forehead against the concrete white walls. He really needed to stop fucking up and upsetting his brothers. He didn't know what to do if this really happened to be his worst nightmare: love. Honest to god, he had no idea.

Though his biggest fear was to find out if the feeling wasn't mutual scared him and he was not a person that was easily scared. Just how could one boy have so much influence over him? Why couldn't it have been some sort of infatuation, at least that could be easily taken cared of! He was driving himself crazy!

"I always knew eventually that you would surrender your sanity, Campbell."

Neah stopped hitting his head against the wall and instead his heart was practically beating fast against his chest when he heard that melodious voice. The tiny voice in his head kept chanting to him: 'Don't fuck up Neah D. Campbell! Don't fuck up! Say something nice to him! Tell him!'

"Well yea if anyone saw your face." He sneered and the words just flew out of his mouth like a punch to his balls. DAMN IT NEAH, the tiny voice in his mind screamed. He done fucked up and now he wanted to just hide away or some way to rewind time so that he could have a redo. Though knowing him he'd just mess up again.

"Then a simple solution would be to not look at my face if you despise it so much."

It wasn't that he hated the boy's face, it was quite the opposite actually. "Can't you ever talk normally?"

"I have no idea what you're going on about."

Sometimes the boy spoke in a confusing, wordy, and polite manner. Sometimes he thought it was done on purpose, all for the sake of just annoying the hell out of him. However that wasn't the case when he heard Mana and him talking. He'll admit that it is kind of adorable the way the boy does sound. He prefered the boy when he was heated up in a argument or angry. The boy's tone would change completely into something rude and foul mouthed. Probably that's why he went out of his way to anger or annoy the boy.

He watched the boy roll his eyes, but the smirk never left his face. "Honestly I don't know why I give myself the inconvenience of speaking to a simple minded person like you."

"Cause you can't get enough of me." No it was the other way around it and he really wished he would learn to think before he spoke like his brother's have often commented about.

"Uh-huh, think whatever helps you sleep at night Campbell. Is there a significant reason as to why are you following me?"

He would sleep well if the boy didn't keep appearing in his dreams and thoughts. "Following you? Aren't you following me?" Actually he didn't know, his feet had moved on its own when the boy started walking.

"Guess again Campbell."

"What, I can't go to the library?" Neah scoffed, but knew that the boy was often at the library because he was such a book worm.

"You? At the library? Is the world coming to end or something? Why would you ever set foot in the library?" The boy snorted in contempt.

"For your information, I got detention."

"Am I supposed to be surprised about that?"

"From that jerk pre-calc, Mr. Pan and I need something to do for an hour after school.""

"Oh." The boy grimaced and flashed him a pitiful look. "I had him and he was a pain in the arse until I asked for a transfer."

"I tried and it didn't work since there were about ten other people asking the same request. Guess how well that went."

"It didn't."

"Exactly."

"Well…" The boy paused for a moment as he adjusted the book in arms to open the library door. "I can offer you a good book to read so that your hour with him becomes more bearable."

A rush of warm feelings swept through him and he was glad the boy had turned away from him to open the library door. So there was no way that the boy could see how red his cheeks were.

"Though that is... if you want me to recommend a book to you."

Finally, a smile crept on his lips after weeks of moping. "You would know a good book wouldn't you?"

The warm feeling in his stomach kept fluttering around his stomach and the smile on his lips refused to go away. These signs meant that he could not deny it any longer. These feelings and thoughts occurred only when he saw the boy and thought about him. This could only mean one thing: he was in love with Allen.

XXXXXX

He had not felt this happy for while, not since he first found out out he had fallen for Allen these past few weeks. He had spent the whole lunch time with Allen, talking! Talking, albeit that they were talking about books and mainly Allen did all the talking since he didn't read much, but still! Usually they never talked like normal people. Pretty sure shouting and yelling at each other didn't didn't argue and had a bit of witty banters. Nothing could ruin his mood!

"Don't forget detention, Mr. Campbell."

Except for that.

He had completely forgot about detention until he saw the man walking down the wall to greet him. It wasn't even a greeting but a reminded to him of how much of a jerk the man was. Now everything was coming back to bite him in the ass as he remembered his fight with Mana. No doubt that Adam would notice how upset Mana was and how gloomily he's been. It's not that they weren't good at hiding and keeping secrets from each other. In fact, They were all real good at pretending and lying. Though that's not something to be proud of as most people would say and Mana had an extremely guilty conscious when he did. It's just they knew when one of them was pretending or hiding. It was some stupid inner sense or feeling because they were triplets. He wouldn't be surprised if Adam decided to confront him for his behavior. They would be so mad at him. His only saving grace was that he had an hour to come up with an excuse to appease Mana… and Adam.

The day went by in a blink of an eye and he sent a text to Mana to remind him that he had detention. So there was no need for his brother to wait and could just head home. He headed down the hall for his hour of after school hell with his most favorite teacher of all time. He made it to his destination and opened the door to be greeted by his not so pleasant teacher who sentenced him here.

"Late Mr. Campbell." The man tapped a his watch causing Neah to look up at his smartphone for the time. He was only a minute late.

"I'm only a minute late."

"Just a minute?" Mr. Pan frowned disapproving. "When you get to the real world , we'll see how many times you can use that excuse before you get fired."

Neah kept his mouth shut tight and thought angrily. 'Yea well not everyone is jerk like you to cause a fuss over being a minute late.' He sat down on a desk and opened his book, though quite honestly he was just going tune out everything and go into his own world to pass the time. He didn't feel like reading, but then again Allen had recommended this book to him... what another dilemma he was in. He needed to stop putting himself into situations like these.

"Mr Campbell."

Ah but, he needed to think about his brother issues. Now what lame excuse could he think of to apologize to Mana?

"Mr. Campbell."

Stressed from school work? That seemed plausible since his troubles did come from someone in this school... Allen.

"Mr. Campbell!"

Reluctantly he turned away from his thoughts to pay attention to the man. He actually heard the Mr. Pan the first time, but he wanted to annoy him by not paying attention the first time. "Yes." He managed to reply without any sarcasm.

"You're so young Mr. Campbell, how can your hearing be that bad?"

'It's because I keep listening to your voice every day.' And that's what he really wanted to say to the man. However the repercussions at the moment didn't seem to be worth it. He still needed to last the whole year with this man and had two more years in this school. So…

"As I was saying, instead of having you waste my time here and laze around as most kids your age does."

Waste time? The man was the one that wanted him here in detention! Neah really wanted to strangle the man and the tingling in his hands didn't make the urge lessen.

"I have decided that a child like you needs discipline and what better way than to work? Pack up your things and go to the library. Mr. Bookman will be there in charge of your detention."

That had to be the best thing he's heard from his Mr. Pan's mouth and he had to surpass the urge to not smile. Anything to spend less time with the teacher and the librarian was a decent person… Then again it's not really hard to compare others with Mr. Pan. The only downside was that he would be doing physical labor. However he still gathered all his belongings and skedaddled down the hall.

He arrived at the library entrance and the door opened, revealing a man of short stature with his black hair tied in ponytail that oddly was shaped like a question mark. The man was a mystery, as mysterious as to the dark circles around his eyes. No one knew his first name and the man hardly talked about himself, but he was still a good person to many, Bookman.

"Neah, you looked like I saved you from a terrible fate."

"You did!" Neah said with much gratitude.

"Well I don't want to hear it, but I'm glad you are so eager to work with us. "

Us? Neah questioned to himself confused as he placed his belongings down. He didn't realize the librarian, Bookman had an assistance. Everyone knew the man had a strict code and regulations when it came to the library.

"You can put your things behind the counter and join Allen in section C-D."

Neah did a double take and nearly tripped as he left the checkout counter. "Wha?"

"Allen. Now I know you two don't get along, but you two will behave in my library." It was no secret how Allen and Neah regarded each other. They were frequent to warnings from teachers and even visitors to the principal.

The underlying threat in Bookman's words were unnecessary because it wasn't true that he hated Allen. He just didn't know how to convey his true feelings and the one who he was going to be stuck with for the next hour! Fuck his life.

"Allen!" Bookman called out.

"Over here." Allen answered as he wiped his glasses.

The timing to see Allen could have not have been worse because that when the boy had taken his round and large glasses, revealing his face. The light shining from the window didn't make the situation any better, all it did was emphasis how angelic and beautiful Allen was to him. Neah's breath got caught in his throat and was disappointed to see the glasses back on.

"Neah, you will be helping Allen to organize the books and you two will behave." Bookman repeated the last part before leaving them to their own devices so he could finish his work.

"Understood." Allen nodded and went back to sorting the books.

Neah awkwardly went besides the cart of book and asked. "What are you doing here?"

"Organizing the books."

"Well yea, I see that."

"I'm here so often and Bookman is not bad company so..." Allen muttered, very focused on placing the books to their proper spot. The boy's eyebrow crossed irritated together. "Will you keep in mind of what you're doing? That book doesn't even belong there."

Neah looked down let out out an. "Oops."

"Don't know your alphabet Campbell?"

"Hmm, yea sorry." To be fair he had just absentmindedly grabbed a book because he was distracted by a certain someone. When Allen hand brushed his hand to take the book from him, the sudden touch caused him to drop the book on the soft carpet with a soft thump.

Allen sent him a strange look as he picked the book off the floor. "I don't particularly have a personal interest in you, but it unsettles me when you take no offense in my insult."

"You could have just said that you were concerned for me." Neah retorted cheekily. He didn't expect the boy to care about him and he won't lie that it didn't make him the slightest happy.

"Hmpf, that implies that I actually cared for you in the first place."

Just like that, all his hopes and dreams came crashing down… okay maybe not. He was over exaggerating, but it did make him upset to hear Allen say that he didn't care for him.

"These people!" Neah unexpectedly heard Allen swear angrily and turned to see a book in his face. "Don't they understand the importance of alphabetizing?! How could Kafka be placed among authors with the last name clearly starting with C?! Is C and K the same?!" Allen walk out of the aisle muttering. "Bloody morons."

Neah watched amused at how much it bothered Allen that someone simply misplaced a book in the wrong place. However it was a fleeting moment and he went back to the issue lingering in his mind as he put the books on the shelves, in the right order. Did Allen feel the same as him? He didn't want to find out if it turned out to be just him. He didn't want Allen to become uncomfortable or disgusted around him. Worse, he didn't want to have Allen make fun of for it or never talk to him again. The thought of that practically made him want to cry. He guess he could settle for Allen staying as a friend if worse came to worse.

Neah blinked in shock at what he just thought and mentally slapped himself across the face. How could he be acting so emotional? It wasn't going to be the end of the world. All he had to do was tell Allen. Simple. He'll get the boy's attention and look Allen in his round and smoky gray eyes… and… and… he was losing his train of thought... Neah let out a pitiful and small whine. Nothing was going to go as plan, no matter how simple it was just to tell the boy three easy words: I love you.

"Hey."

Neah frowned. How hard could it be say I love you? He's said to his mom before she died, Adam, Mana, his pet dog Timcanpy, his favorite foods, and to a bunch other random things. Sure he did say 'I love you' willy-nilly, but he always mean it every time..

"Hey."

So what was so different about this anomaly called Allen? How could-! Neah never got to finish his thought when something hit the back of head painfully and caused him to stumble forward. He smacked his forehead against the bookshelves with a lot more force than he realized. He got hit from the front and the back. However that wasn't even the best part. It was what came after when he had stumbled towards the shelves. He didn't even have time to register the pain as he saw one by one the bookshelves of the library toppled down like dominoes.

"..."

"..."

"Oh... bugger."

Neah didn't know what Allen said, but the tone of the boy's voice summed up well to how he was feeling right about now. They had ruined Bookman's library. They were so dead. Dead as dead could be. He turned to the boy, whose face was drained of all color, while rubbing the back of his head. "Ummm…. You think Bookman will notice this?"

The only response he got was the boy slapping his forehead. Though in his defense, it was only a section, only a part of the library bookshelves were completely ruined. So… all was not lost.

"Oh I noticed."

They both turned slowly towards a very livid Bookman and suddenly to them, the short man looked a lot taller now.

If anything is unclear or I made a mistake or any questions, please send me a message!