I've been meaning to upload this to here for a while now, but I kept forgetting and putting it off. Whoops! ^^;

To those of you who don't follow/know my Tumblr, it's Snowball-N-Mittens, and this story is posted there first! Here and AO3 second. To those of you who do follow me on Tumblr, I hope you do follow this story on here so that you'll hopefully enjoy it and it won't get lost in the tags as it seems to do... Heh.

Anywho, I hope you all enjoy this! To those of you who follow my other stories - don't worry. I'm currently writing chapters for them, but I want to have several done before I start them up again, so they're on a mini-hiatus until then!

Enjoy!

I do not own D Gray-man. If I did, Allen would have a better childhood!

The first time Allen summoned him he was eleven. Master Cross had once again tossed him to the wolves (well, Akumas, but still...) and he had been on the run, sweat sliding down the sides of his face as his activated Innocence slashed at one Akuma and he flipped sideways to miss another's attack. Normally, Cross would attend these 'training sessions' to make sure that he didn't accidentally end up dead (even though his master knew Allen could purify himself). This time, however, Cross had decided to ditch Allen for some more... interesting interests of his.

One red/black-ringed eye with a small gear-like glass throbbed in pain from overuse and the white-haired Exorcist-In-Training winced. Ducking into an alley while the Akuma wasn't looking, he crossed an arm over his chest to cup said eye. The other silver one squinted as tears brimmed in the corners of them. Why did Cross had to ditch him tonight, and why did his eye have to act up tonight of all nights? Silently cursing Cross' existence and his throbbing eye, the preteen took in a deep breath, wiped away the unshed tears and darted back out of the alleyway. Only to be assaulted by several Akuma he hadn't detected beforehand.

Panic welled in Allen's chest as the eleven-year-old felt very, very overwhelmed. "Please," he begged quietly as he dodged another bullet. "Please... someone, anyone, Cross, Mana... help!" The ground underneath rumbled and Allen stumbled backwards, eyes going wide as pavement stones and a mound of dirt pushed upwards until the top of a coffin pushed out and rose, as if summoned by his pleads. Allen took a moment to observe the standing coffin – a simple white one with several silver chains wrapped tightly around it – before the chains shattered into millions of tiny silver pieces that glinted in the moonlight.

The coffin creaked opened to reveal a man inside.

Said man looked just barely into his twenties; with short dark hair that curled at the tips, a glowing golden eye (the other was covered in bandages) and gray skin with oddly-shaped crosses on his forehead. He wore a simple white dress shirt, black dress pants and shoes. The shirt was torn in places, as were the pants, and bandages seemed to wrap around the man's neck, some on his arms and a few wrapped around his torso. Each bandage had dried black blood on them.

Stepping out of the coffin, the man blinked sleepily as the Akuma all froze, uncertain of the strange and familiar energy coming off of the man. "It's been years and the first thing I'm called for is this? Seriously?" the man griped, the lone eye glaring at the Akuma. "Shoo," he commanded – and to Allen's shock, the Akuma immediately dispersed. "I'm a bit disappointed, how many years has it been? I thought I was supposed to..." the man trailed off as he turned and faced Allen. A gold eye blinked once, twice and his jaw dropped faintly as he looked down at the eleven-year-old. "Well, I wasn't expecting this." The man chuckled, a grin slowly spreading across his face as he crouched to get on Allen's eye-level. "My name is Nea, and you, little one, are apparently my master." Allen saw him glance at the bleached-looking coffin. "You might want to do something with that as well. What's your name, kid?"

"Allen," the young boy hesitantly answered, eyes narrowing. "Who are you callin' kid? You're not too much older than me!"

The grin grew as Nea laughed. "Wanna bet?"

The second time he called on Nea was a year later. A lot had passed in that year. To say that Master Cross had been surprised to see Nea and Allen arguing in the street with no Akuma in sight was a rather large understatement. They (Allen and Nea) agreed that if Cross hadn't been a necromancer himself, he would have had a heart attack. The look on his face had been amusing – even if they could only see half of it. A cigarette laid on the ground forgotten, one eye wider than Allen had ever seen it, and the blood had seemed to have drained from his face.

Master Cross had then devoted time to show Allen how to send Nea back and began their lessons on Necromancy.

Allen hated every second of it.

It reminded him too much of how the Earl brought back souls of loved ones, how he used the souls to his own twisted desire. Necromancy was similar, one brought back the soul of a dead one, but in their own body and not a false metal one that would then kill and replace the body of said loved one. But still, they would have to control the soul.

Yet somehow Nea was different. Allen had noticed right away that Nea was different from The Grave of Maria (Cross' own personal summon, a dead exorcist that Allen wondered once in a while if she had been one of Cross' many lovers at some point). Nea, unlike most of the dead Allen himself summoned, had his personality. Nea had argued with Allen and playfully fought with the young boy. He had shown emotions that a dead corpse shouldn't.

It made Allen curious. Cross had banned him from summoning Nea unless it was a dire, dire, DIRE situation (when questioned, Cross had been adamant that the dire had been needed three times). Rather than wait, the white-haired boy waited for a day when he knew the redhead would be gone for a very, very long while before he summoned the white, chained coffin that contained the corpse of a young man inside.

Allen stared at it for a while, weighing the pros and cons of actually opening the coffin and bugging the man inside. In the end, his curiosity won out and small hands reached up, cupping chains and pulling them away. Links in the chain fell apart at Allen's touch and they shattered like before, before they touched the floor. The coffin lid creaked open, revealing the bandaged corpse behind it.

One golden eye opened and a large yawn escaped the man's lips as Nea stepped out of the coffin, stretching his arms above his head. After a quick glance around his gaze fell on the white-haired boy who was staring at him. "No battle for me this time?" he asked.

"No," Allen answered.

"Then why am I here?"

Allen bit his bottom lip, uncertainty wavering through him for a moment before his courage returned and he said, "Master Cross told me that when you summon someone, you should know as much about them as you can. Seeing as how you're the one I've summoned first, I figured I should start with you."

Nea slumped against a nearby wall (they were staying at another Inn, or rather Allen was while Cross was out) and sat on the floor. "I'm not interested in answering any questions of yours, kid. I'm a fighter, not a talker. Send me back or just let me go."

Instantly Allen frowned. "You're not even going to tell me a little bit about you?" he asked as he moved to sit next to the corpse.

"No. What's there to really learn about a dead person? I'm dead and gone – should have stayed that way. Yet, here I am. Summoned by you." Nea gave a faint wave of his hand, the corners of his lips turning downwards somewhat.

"It's not like I like this you know." Allen mumbled, his own lips curling into a scowl. "In fact I hate it."

"You what?" Nea cocked a brow. Tilting his head so he could look at the white-haired kid sitting next to him, he watched in silence as Allen seemed to shrink in on himself.

"I hate it," Allen whispered. He tucked his knees to his chest, arms wrapping tightly around his legs. "I hate everything that Master Cross is teaching me about Necromancy. I know I need to know it so that I can learn to keep the balance, and so that I don't accidentally summon someone without knowing what could happen. I need to know this so that I can control it, but I hate it. I hate it, Nea. It reminds me of what happened to Mana."

"Mana?" The preteen could hear the surprise and hesitance that laced the dead man's tone.

"My foster father," Allen began to explain, "was named Mana. My parents abandoned me as a baby and only the circus took me in. All because of my deformed arm, my Innocence. I couldn't use it back then, it only woke when..." Swallowing the lump that had formed in his throat, Allen opted to continue his explanation instead of thinking of that time. "Mana was a clown that joined the circus I was apart of. When he decided to leave he asked if I wanted to go with him, and I did. He named me 'Allen' and raised me from then on. When I was ten he was ran over by a carriage." Tears gathered in the corners of silver eyes. "I... I gave in to the Earl. When he showed up offering to bring back Mana, I took it the offer. I called out Mana's name... He gave me my curse," his voice was just a whisper, on the edge of being broken as one gloved hand placed itself against the scar, covering his eye. "And my Innocence activated. I killed him, I killed Father."

"You didn't kill him." Allen jerked his head to the side to stare at Nea, whose golden eye was staring intently down at him. "You freed him, Allen." When the young Exorcist could only gape at him in surprise, Nea rolled his eyes and elaborated, "When an Akuma is destroyed by Innocence, it sends the soul back to the afterlife."

"I know that," Allen mumbled, uncertain of what Nea was trying to say.

"Stop mumbling and don't interrupt people, little master." Nea placed a hand on Allen's head, ruffling the white-haired boy's surprisingly soft hair. "You'll find that people tend to forget what they're trying to say if you interrupt them too often – it's funny when you don't want to listen to them, now what was I saying? Ah, yes. You sent his soul back to the afterlife – heaven, hell, purgatory, who knows what. That curse of yours-" Nea tapped a finger against Allen's bloody red scar. "- makes you see Akuma's souls, correct?" At getting a nod he continued, "They're always crying, right?" He got another nod. "Do you know why they're crying?"

"No," Allen answered slowly after a long moment of consideration. "I don't know why for sure. Isn't it because they hate you?"

"No, kid. They're crying because of their love," Nea answered.

White brows scrunched in confusion. "Huh?"

""Why couldn't you have been stronger?" They cry. They cry because they wanted to see their loved ones happy even after they died. To see that they gave in makes them sad, Little Master," Nea explained. "What was the last thing that your father said to you after you made him an Akuma."

"He... He said he loved me," Allen answered. "And he asked me to destroy him."

"See, kid? He didn't hate you. He loved you and wanted – probably still wants wherever he is – you to be happy. To live on," Nea said.

They sat in silence for a long while; the corpse wondering why he had taken the time to reassure his master instead of convincing the kid to send him back and the Exorcist pondering what Nea had just told him.

"Thanks, Nea," Allen said softly. Hesitantly, he leaned against Nea's side. Unsurprisingly, the man's body was cold – a corpse's heart didn't beat and therefore did not warm the blood and give off body heat. Yet still, the presence of someone who cared (even just a little bit) was comforting.

"Hm?" Nea glanced down at the kid. "Yeah, you're welcome or whatever."

A faint smile spread across Allen's lips, and his eyelids fluttered closed. He was tired, emotionally and magically – it took a lot to summon the dead, even his personal summon. Master Cross wouldn't be back for a few days, so he didn't need to worry about his Master seeing that he had gone against his orders and summoned Nea. Plus, if Nea was here then he didn't have to worry about Akuma – they seemed to avoid the odd corpse-man like he was the plague. A soft breath left him as he slipped off to sleep.

Meanwhile, Nea wondered how had everything ended up this way. His friend – who was de-aged and had no recollection of him before he died and was summoned as a corpse of all things – had screwed up royally. Looking down at the sleeping de-aged friend of his, Nea sighed. Their plans were a long way off now, but perhaps Nea could still salvage what he could of it. It would take a long time though.

"It seems we have a very long way to go, Allen."

And that's the chapter! I hope you all enjoyed it! If you did, go check out Badlydrawnnea and Badlydrawncrownclown on Tumblr! They both did fanart of this chapter! owo

Hope you all enjoyed!

Comments, criticism, or just want to say what you liked about the chapter? Please leave a review! Reviews and constructive criticism helps keep me motivated! (All flames will be used to set my bonfires this summer, and roast marshmallows. Yum!) Liked what you read and want more? Please Follow and Favorite if you haven't!

I'll see you guys next week! Until then,

~Snowy.