midnightstar | A SURPRISE LENALEE APPROACHES; Command?

Despite all of everything the Black Order has been through, it was business as usual for the various teams. Lenalee and Allen were in one team with Miranda and a few Finders. Lucky them, their mission took them to the mountains - beautiful scenery, but cold weather. Fortunately they managed to find a small inn with vacancies, so they could stay indoors. Amazingly, Miranda was actually sleeping more peacefully than Lenalee at the moment.

Although after all of the scenarios and seeing all of the deaths in the war with the Earl and fighting the akuma, (...not to mention what she personally has been through), it really should come as no surprise that Lenalee's sleep was less than restful. While she managed to snatch an hour or two here and there of sleep, worries about her friends, her brother, and one exorcist in particular all contributed to making her nightmare particularly bloody and gruesome. When she jerked awake for the second time that night (or was it third, she wasn't sure), she knew she wouldn't be able to get back to sleep right away, so she silently slipped out of her room, padding down the hall. Maybe a glass of water would settle her nerves.

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The clink of dual utensils caught her attention as well, and she gave Allen a surprised glance. With him looking just as surprised, she couldn't help but giggle, "Did you really just finish now? You didn't have to slow down for me, you know-" Though she had a feeling he didn't do it intentionally. She'd been so wrapped up in the conversation and all, she just never noticed that their food had been disappearing at a steady rate.

"I didn't do it on purpose, honest. It just happened like this." Allen defended himself with a shake of his head before the silliness of the situation actually sunk in and he joined Lenalee with a small chuckle of his own. "Well it works out perfectly anyway. Lets get these dishes over to Jerry."

And then...well then he would have Lenalee all to himself. He could be excused for feeling a little giddy about that surely.

As much as she liked spending time with her friends, she was definitely not against being able to spend even more of that time with Allen. Now that she had food in her she was able to unwind and relax properly from her trip. Gathering up her one little plate (comopared to Allen's) she glanced at him, "Do you need help with those?" She offered, standing from the table to head over to the counter where Jerry was waiting.

Allen was already expertly balancing the dishes in one hand and following after Lenalee without so much as missing a step or even a tremble from his hand. Perfect balance was key for a clown of course. After all one had to safely fall and time their antics and balancing acts perfectly.

"No I can handle it just fine." Allen replied with a warm smile.

He certainly could handle it fine, Lenalee could see that now. She grinned brightly, nodding at him once. "All right, but let me know if it gets too much for you." She said. That was, after all, quite a stack of plates.

Jerry turned when he heard the two approaching, and - for a moment, just -stared- at Allen's balancing act. "Ahaha -- please don't drop those, Allen," he fretted. Even though Allen seemed to have perfect balance with the plates - it was really a sight to see, honestly. "Here Lenalee, let me take those - Allen, if you could put yours in that sink there -" he pointed over to the second sink.

Oh ye of little faith. Allen didn't even slip with the plates once as he made his way over to the sink and smoothly deposited one platter after the other neatly before turning back to face Jerry.

"All done. Do you want any help with these Jerry?" He was just offering. In fact part of him might have been hoping he said no.

He was just a little panicked seeing Allen smoothly walking along with that huge stack of plates. Maybe he worried too much but he didn't want him to hurt himself slipping on a puddle or something. "Hm?" He paused, and for a asecond he looked like he might actually accept the offer. But he shook his head, "This won't actually take long, despite the looks of it. Thank you for the offer though Allen; you're a good kid."

Lenalee let out a silent sigh - maybe she'd been holding her breath hoping he wouldn't take Allen's offer too.

Allen didn't let even that out and instead flashed the same winning smile as he nodded to Jerry's decision. In that case we'll get out of your hair now. Thank you for the wonderful meal, Jerry~" Allen said before joining Lenalee

"Shall we go?"

Jerry chuckled, "Stay out of trouble you two," as if they were prone to getting into trouble. Well, of the two, Allen was the troublemaker, one supposes. Maybe. In any case, once Allen joined her side, Lenalee smiled, reaching forward for his hand, "Yep~! Let's go." lightly, she waved to Jerry before turning to trot out of the mess hall with Allen.

Allen gladly left with Lenalee at a brisk happy pace, leaving behind a group of disgruntled jealous people. For some reason that thought made him feel quite a bit of satisfaction. But it was brief and quickly sheer happiness reasserted itself over that slight selfish emotion.

"So shall we go back to your room~?" Allen asked with a whisper against Lenalee's ear.

Uncharitable it may be, but Lenalee's general opinion was to let them be jealous. It wasn't her or Allen's fault the Order didn't have many female members~! And it wasn't like falling for Allen was planned - it just sort of.. happened.

Contentedly padding along at his side, Lenalee glanced towards her fellow Exorcist when he leaned over to whisper, blushing faintly. But after glancing around to make sure no Komurin were around to harrass them, she curled her arm around his, nodding. "Yeah, let's." She hugged his arm with both of hers in impulse, leaning against him as they walked.

Both him and Lenalee gave so much for the Order and it's goals at least those of the headquarters rather than Central itself for which neither him nor Lenalee held much love.

Still when he felt her squeeze his arm like this so closely and happily he couldn't help but smile back and tuck in a little closer smiling back to Lenalee as they both made their way back to her room. This was all he ever wanted now. At least as far as his life with another person was concerned. Naturally his other main goals didn't just up and vanish irresponsibly because of Lenalee.

"I love that smile you make." He said softly to her ear.

Those soft words, so close to her ear - they always made her blush, and that was no doubt because of how intimately close he was. It made her feel girlishly giddy and happy. Of course no matter how close he was, she didn't want him to pull away; if anything, she smiled even more, "I make it because you're with me. As long as that's true, I'll never stop smiling. No matter how dangerous things get, or ..whatever we lose, we'll always have each other - and that's heaven to me."

Allen could feel his heart race quicker at those words. So precious and pure. But he felt she was wrong about one thing. Losing things was not something he would allow her to experience ever again again. She had already lost more than enough to this war and its players in this twisted play.

"You are my heaven." Allen answered softly and this time actually pressed his lips to her cheek softly before pulling back so they could walk properly.

Walking was not a thing Lenalee was capable of doing. Dancing on air would be a better description of how light her steps were at his words - euphoric even, so totally smitten and tunnel-visioned on him that a train of Komurin riding Elephants could stampede through and she wouldn't notice.

She was fine with staying close to him all the same though, her arm resting around his waist as she paced along with him with a dreamy, happy smile on her lips. Such a simple, emotional sentiment like that, to make her so happy! Though she had to shake her head a little to focus enough to not take a wrong turn to her own bedroom.

Hopefully she wouldn't invocate her innocence to do just that or it would get the attention of everyone for sure. Not that Allen would have really minded it. Still seeing her so high on cloud nine because of those simple words. He couldn't help but love that cute side of her even more.

Soon enough or rather sooner than either of them realized, they were standing in front of the door to Lenalee's bedroom. "We...got here quickly." He admitted with surprise.

"Already?" Allen wasn't the only one surprised by how swiftly their path had come to an end. She stared at her door a moment, "Somehow.. I thought it was further than it is," she admitted sheepishly, chuckling as she reached out to open the door and let them both in.

"That makes two of us." Allen chuckled before Lenalee did the honors of letting them both into her room, Allen stepping in after the girl and closing the door behind them both, making sure it was closed properly. Alone at last. Well not quite. Alone with Lenalee at least would be more apt.

Lenalee chuckled, stepping into her room ahead of Allen and scanning it out of habit Relaxing the instant Allen made sure the door was closed properly, she padded over to drop lightly on the bed with a sigh. "Phew. Haha, I wasn't sure I was going to make it for a while there." As far as wanting to touch and hold him more closely, during lunch.

Luckily the room was still completely devoid of anything other than the two of them. Which in turn meant he was free to sit next to Lenalee on the bed before he automatically reached for her hand and pulled her up close to his chest.

"Well we made it through that and now it's just the two of us until the morning~" Allen said, his voice growing deeper for a moment there.

Lenalee felt herself smile more when he reached for her, her body immediately turning to press against his. There was a slight pause at the deeper tone of voice, but it inevitably met with Lenalee's approval, and she raised her arms to loop behind his neck. "And no distractions or interruptions." she murmured softly, leaning closer with a playful smile.

Allen almost outright pulled her into his lap when she leaned in close. To be honest he really wanted nothing more than to feel her against him. And now he could definitely achieve that without fear or any more interruptions.

"Do you...want to slip into something more comfortable first?" he asked, nose almost brushing against Lenalee's

Lenalee was about to point out that her outfit was pretty comfortable without the jacket- but a realization, and a better idea, popped into her head. "Ah... yeah...actually I should... I do." she tugged away, "Just... give me a moment." She didn't have a separate changing room, but she -did- have a large screen she used to change behind. Once Allen let her up, she made a quick detour to her bureau and grabbed something, then scuttled off behind said screen.

And that was an answer he would have accepted without question. But then whatever Lenalee thought of seemed to kick into gear and for a moment He watched Lenalee disappear behind the folding screen before quickly snapping his eyes front like a gentleman would. That lasted all about a minute before he slowly peeked over his shoulder.

Pretty folding screen! Well that and the hint of a feminine figure moving behind it, hesitating more than once. "So.. um.. Allen --" she started to say, paused a bit longer, and then seemed to shake her head. Whatever it was, she was going to keep it to herself to surprise him. After a few minutes, there's a soft mutter of "there" indicating she had finishsed, though she ..still doesn't emerge from behind the changing screen.

....maybe she was worried about his reaction.

What if the shock was too much for him!