Word count: 1200

Genre: AU

Rating: worksafe-ish

Note: College-AU that never got anywhere. Re-posted, although not re-written. My apologies for the possible errors and the fact that my style of writing may have changed drastically in the time since I've written this.

He hadn't forgotten (of course he hadn't).It was just that the whole day had turned out to be crazy. He and Bookman had already made certain during the early hours of the evening before that the documents that the old man had hoped to find weren't in the bookshop, but instead, the shelves had been filled with volume after volume of extraordinary detailed diaries from the second world war, that had never even been opened since the date they'd been bought by the old fart in charge of the antique store (who looked old enough that he would be able to join his merchandise on the shelves any moment, by the way… he and Bookman made quite the pair, Lavi thought).

The entire day had gone to studying and translating the old diaries, and the redhead had barely gotten enough time off to run to the nearest Pizza Hut and buy himself an at least half-decent lunch. To pick up his phone and make a call had been impossible.

Days like these happened more and more often the longer he worked and studied under Bookman, he noticed. As the old man started to trust on Lavi's abilities, the workload just grew and grew. If Bookman had taken care of the same amount of work himself before picking the redhead as his trainee, Lavi would have to deem the geezer inhuman once and for all.

Not that he didn't love to be allowed to be part of Bookman's work. He really was proud to have been accepted as the man's successor, but sometimes, especially during days like these, he really wished that he could at least a couple of minutes to himself, or in this case, his friends.

But after the light in the antique shop had finally become bad enough so that not even the light from Bookman's laptop was enough to help him read the tiny words of lieutenant Emil Ackers – why the hell didn't the old shop owner get lights installed in the building, anyway? – Lavi's mentor finally leaned back in his chair and lit his pipe, rolling his shoulders to try and massage some of the stiffness out of them.

"Why don't you go to bed," he said. "You youngsters need so much sleep to stay alert, and I certainly won' have patience for someone who makes silly mistakes just because he can't keep track of his bedtimes."

Lavi, who had spent the last half hour yawning and nodding over Carla Swane's diary, stuck his tongue out, before oh so agreeably closing the book and saving the document on his own computer, before crawling into his bedroll, located between a few stacks of books which was dangerously high and unstable (Bookman had given him a wry, slightly evil smile when he complained about the risks of being killed by a book in his head while he slept, simply cutting Lavi's whining off with a "maybe that will be enough to finally knock the knowledge into your thick head permanently".)

He didn't bring his laptop with him to bed as usual tonight. Instead, he reached for his cell phone. If this would get him a scolding for not keeping his personal logs in order, it'd be worth it.

The light from the phone's display was weaker than the light from his laptop, but Lavi bit his lips as he squinted against it, though he didn't really need to be able to see the buttons or the text on the display to know what he was writing.

Click click click.

"You awake?"

Send; Yuu-chan cell.

He lay awake for a few minutes, not really wondering if Kanda was awake; he had an assignment due tomorrow, and Lavi was pretty certain that the other teen would be awake during the better part of the night, working until both his fingers and eyes bleed to finish it.

However busy Kanda was, though, the reply only took a couple of minutes.

"What do you want? I'm busy."

He grins. So Kanda does miss him a bit, after all.

"Naa, Yuu. There's only a few minutes left now. How's it feel to be an old man?"

Send.

The answer took a little longer this time. Lavi lay awake, listening to the sound of the store's old clock ticking. He doesn't have to turn his head and look to know it says forty seconds and five minutes to twelve. Thirty nine. Thirty eight.

The sixth of June is soon over.

At three minutes and two seconds to midnight, the phone buzzes again.

"I'm not an old man."

Lavi can barely contain a snort at his fingers quickly moves to type a reply. Click click.

"Happy birthday, Yuu."

Send.

The clock chided twelve times, and Lavi lays still and listens. At the other side of the store, Bookman glances up from his laptop and his own personal logs, and shrugs before going back to typing quickly with stiff, dry fingers.

Just when Lavi thinks that Kanda has decided that it's not worth to type a reply to suck a useless thing as a birthday congratulation, another buzz is heard.

"It's just an ordinary day. And don't call me that!"

This time, the snickering is definitely loud enough for Bookman to hear, but Lavi doesn't care. He puts away the phone and prepares to go to sleep, figuring that he'd better leave Kanda to his schoolwork, unless he wants to come back and find himself locked out of the dorm once he and the old man returns from this research trip. Hopefully, if he works fast enough and concentrates hard on not making any translation mistakes, he'll get some time to call Kanda tomorrow.

But just as he's started to drift off, the phone vibrates once more. Blinking, surprised, Lavi reaches for it. Kanda has never sent him a text without Lavi having to prompt him into it before.

The message is short, much to short for it to have taken so many minutes for Kanda to write, but as Lavi reads the two words on the display, he understands that it must have taken some internal struggle before Kanda managed to get himself to type them out.

"Thank you."

Now, to have both of them act out of character during the same texting session would just have been too much, so of course Lavi has to reply to Kanda's sentimentality with teasing.

"Awwh, Yuu's getting sentimental in his old days…!"

However, the moment he's pressed "Send", he regrets his choice a little bit, and decides that a sincere thank you deserves an honest attempt at being sincere back.

"But I'm sorry I couldn't be there today. We'll invite Allen and Lenalee over when I get back and have some cake together, 'kay?"

The reply is immediate, so fast that it almost startles him.

"Idiot, I don't eat sweets. And I do not want to celebrate with moyashi. And I am NOT old."

Click click click. Wide grin in the dark.

"Then how 'bout some phonesex to make up for the lack of birthday party?"

Send.

This is the fastest – and shortest – reply so far.

"No."

Click click click.

"What are you wearing?"

Send.

Bzzz. Bzzz.

"Shut the hell up."