Readers,

I'm sorry for the long break from and as weird as it sounds, I guess I thought I didn't deserve to show my writing to the public if it was crap. I worked on grammar and form for a while, so I hope it's better now :)

As for the other stories… everything is paused. The story I will most likely continue (besides this story) is Nice Guys Finish Last, and that is because I received the most requests to continue that one. Everything else… well, I guess we'll see. I'm not promising anything though because the minute summer ends, I'll probably disappear from again.

Thanks, everyone for putting up with my bs ^^'. Thank you so much; you guys are really amazing :D

From: ICMPN

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Beta: Guy-Would-Doesn't-Want-To-Be-Named

Warning: Lenalee = sometimes not so loveable here. Sometimes, she's just downright silly and OOC.
This is totally not a desperate attempt to compromise for Lenalee-haters who keep messaging me to write anti-Lenalee stories... cough.

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Italics = inner thought

Disclaimer: No own.

Prologue:

Lenalee used to believe in fairytales. And when she fell madly in love, she believed it all the more, believing that the time for realizing her dreams had finally come. For you see, while dragging herself to work one morning, she met the prince of her fantasies, of her most wildest dreams. Tall, dark, and handsome with a slim muscular structure… He was quite attractive, yes, and although those traits made her heart skip a beat, what really won her over had nothing to do with physical attributes.

Their first meeting? Let's see…

On the day of their first meeting, Lenalee lacked much sleep. She had stayed up the night before attempting to complete the PowerPoint assigned to her about her company's current profits. And as she wandered down Main Street towards the bus stop, she could not stop her eyelids from sagging, before letting them fall to a full close over her brown-tinted eyes.

Next Step: A stereotypical out-of-the-storybooks situation occurs.

Before she could react to the sound of furious honking, a car sped towards her, driven by a drunk driver, and Lenalee, like a stereotypical out-of-the-storybooks girl, found herself paralysized with fear. As if her legs had suddenly transformed into lead, she could do no more than gawk and shriek in terror.

"I'm going to die!" she thought typically, like a stereotypical out-of-the-storybooks girl. "Oh, dear God, I am going to die!"

She squeezed her eyes shut –this time consciously- and braced herself for the impact. But instead of an eruption of pain, she felt warm hands wrap themselves around her, pushing her to either her right or left –she couldn't tell.

When she finally opened her eyes, she was lying flat on the floor, weighed down by a warm body on top of her; a last minute prince had jumped into the streets and dragged her to safety. Lenalee could do no more than gape at her savior.

The man stirred –probably due to the loud alarm of the speeding car, which managed to swerve into a light pole last minute- and tried to stand up to survey the scene. But when he pulled himself to his knees, he felt a sharp pain in his left ankle and quickly fell back down again. Lenalee, still unsteady from the accident, dozily watched the man nurse his newfound wound. But the minute she collected herself and processed the current situation, she lost all senses again, including the well-known sense of "common-sense".

A knight in shining armor… saving her from a deadly accident… I knew this would happen one day! Not about to let this opportune chance slip away, Lenalee went right down to work.

"Please tell me your name!" Lenalee asked, her eyes sparkling as she waited for a reply. It took the man a good ten or so seconds to register what the rude girl had just said –didn't even thank him for his deed- before scowling.

You see, this man was no stranger to admirers and because of this, he instantly recognized the blindingly bright and disgustingly hopeful shine in her smile, and turned to take his leave. Lenalee, unwilling to let her fairytale slip away, quickly got up and followed.

"Wait, please don't leave yet!" By then, a small crowd has gathered at the scene. Some wore worried expressions while others looked downright amused by the scene. A few from the latter group even hooted as Lenalee, growing desperate, grabbed the man's shirt.

"Sir, please don't go!"

The man stopped to shake off the clingy grasp before narrowing his eyes at Lenalee. He turned to walk away again but after taking a few steps, he had the sudden feeling that his actions were a bit too heartless.

"What do you want?" he finally said in a low and almost-dangerous tone of voice. I guess I'll hear her out… if it isn't something utterly retarded.

"Please go on a date with me!"

…Yeah, forget that. Kanda twisted his lips downwards and wrinkled his nose.

"No." His frown deepened when Lenalee casted back a forlorn gaze.

He opened his mouth, prepared to explain in detail why she was stupid for even thinking he'd agree to that, when the crowd started voicing their opinions.

"Don't be so mean!"
"She's pretty cute!"
"At least tell her your name!"

And because he never was much of a "people" person, he shot out death glares, the corner of his right eye twitched.

"It's Kanda, ok?"

Taking advantage of the dazed audience –none of whom thought he would actually do as they playfully commanded- he quickly slipped away and disappeared out of site. When everyone finally realized that the main object of interest had left, they groaned, muttered amongst themselves, and went back to their own daily routines, as if the car accident had never happened.

No one bothered to call the ambulance or offer Lenalee a ride to the hospital… but she didn't care. So love struck, she not only forgot all about mishap but fell into a speechless daze for the next fifteen to twenty minutes…

And this is where the real story begins.

Charming Prince Charming

"Please, please, pleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeease Allen-kun? Allen-chan? Allen-sama??"

Allen slammed his hands onto his keyboard. "What do you want?" Although it was just Lenalee and he should have been used to her antics by now, he felt his eyes shoot glares at her nonetheless; this was a very important report and it was due in a week. "Go back to your cubicle, Lenalee. Some people actually have work to do."

Lenalee pouted exaggeratedly and gave the boy a friendly, just forceful, smack between the eyebrows.

"Ow!"

"Don't be a meanie," she said through another pout. "Just gimme' a few minutes and listen to my story-"

"You mean 'gossip'."

"No, I mean story," Lenalee stuck her head out towards Allen, making sure he could see her as she thinned her lips at his interruption. "I mean, if you weren't such a procrastinator, you would be done with this report already."

Allen rolled his eyes. "Says the girl who wrote her PowerPoint the night before."

"Hey!" Lenalee reached out to smack him again and although Allen managed to catch her hand, he quickly release it and turned away with a blush, after realizing that the direct contact was making his hands uncomfortably clammy.

"Erm… Allen? Are you okay?" Lenalee leaned in, slightly concerned about the bright color that suddenly ran over her friend's face.

"I'm fine," Allen said as he tried to avoid eye-contact. Lenalee thought about pushing the topic but after a quick glance at her watch and noticing there was only twenty minutes left of their lunch break, she decided to veer back to the original topic.

"So, about this guy I met..."

"I don't remember agreeing to hear this," Allen said stiffly after he recovered and the redness faded. Lenalee held up her index finger.

"Shh! I'm trying to think of the best way to start off this story. Let's see…"

"Really, Lenalee, I'm kinda' busy…" and even if he wasn't, why would Allen want to spend his spare time watching Lenalee be giddy over some guy... who wasn't him. He brought his hands up to his temples and massaged counter-clockwise.

An almost awkward silence –almost awkward because enough noise was coming from the other cubicles to make the silence nonexistent- passed and just when Allen was thinking it was safe to return to his work, Lenalee started speaking.

"Okay, I think I got it! You know those dramas about a perfect guy getting together with a not-so-perfect girl? It's sorta' like that, and in those dramas, there's always a scene where the guy saves the girl from her impending doom, like falling off a building, fending off a rapist, and –of course- pulling her away from a car crash."

"Except you are perfect."

"Huh, what was that?" They were talking from the awkward position of over the cubicle divider, with Lenalee perched up and kneeling on her desk while Allen sat in his rolling chair, leaned back for a good angle of Lenalee's face. Lenalee moved forward, dangling her arms onto the wall. "What did you say –I didn't catch that."

"Nothing, nevermind."

Lenalee glanced at Allen skeptically before hesitantly continuing on. Allen did act weird from time to time so it shouldn't have caught her off-guard.

"Alright then… as I was saying…," she took a deep breath to regain her pace. "In those stories, the heroine usually doesn't get the guy at first –in fact, he's completely uninterested. After a while, however, usually due to lucky coincidences or the interference of a third party, he slowly develops an interest in her, before they finally live happily ever after. And I think with a bit of work, I can get that result too.

"What do you think?"

Allen stopped typing away as his computer, not even attempting to hide the fact that he wasn't paying her much attention. He glanced up at her with clear wide eyes.

"What do I think about what?"

Lenalee huffed. "It makes sense, right?"

"Um…," Allen shifted his eyes, avoiding eye-contact as he smiled sheepishly. It seems like Lenalee didn't realize Allen only heard the words "Alright then". "…Yeah, makes a lot of sense."

"Yeah! So we are bound to end up together!" Lenalee threw her hands up into the air, proud of her successful analysis. Her smile, however, suddenly flattened as she folded her hands together. "The only problem is, because this isn't a drama and there's no way we can guarantee-"

"Wait, 'we'?" That caught Allen by surprise. But Lenalee ignored it.

"-'lucky coincidences' would happen, we'll just have to use the third party interference. …Although it would also be very possible to use a third party to create manufactured 'lucky coincidences'." Lenalee balled her right hand into a fist and knocked it onto her left palm. "Oh, that's the perfect idea! That's what we'll do!"

Lenalee turned to Allen with a wide and almost-wicked grin, eyes glistening mischief. Allen's face fell and he inched backwards, rolling his chair as far away as his cubicle allowed.

"W-what are you looking at?"

Lenalee's smile widened.

"Nothing much… just thinking about how nice and wonderful you are, not to mention such a great friend."

Allen's shoulders tensed at her song-like tone. "W-whatever it is, I'm not doing it."

But Lenalee didn't falter. Instead, she hid her mouth behind her hands and batted her eyelashes. Allen didn't know it yet but he was going to help.

–He always helped.

End Prologue

Next Chapter:
Section One: Find Out his Schedule

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Any comments? Besides that I should update my other stories? .

-points to review button-