Standard disclaimers apply here.

It's weird to update two days in a row, but I got this idea and ran with it, so here it is. Their ages aren't stated but it'll be easy to figure it out at the end. More growing up~. I should write them as bbs again, but for some reason it just wants to progress like this. This one was fun to write, which was nice because it feels like I haven't enjoyed writing in awhile. I'll probably think of a title later but uncreative now, so 9 it is. Feedback would be lovely~.


One morning, Lenalee nearly skipped into the cafeteria. After getting her breakfast, she went and sat across from Kanda, a large smile on her face.

"What?" he asked, incredibly confused by her behavior. The smile dimmed.

"What do you mean 'what?'? Don't you remember what today is?" He stared at her.

"No," he responded bluntly, moving to finish his soba. He was surprised she didn't say anything about that; she'd taken to bugging him about it lately (good-naturedly, as Marie put it, but Kanda didn't see how that was the case and ignored it after awhile; that only made her bug him more).

Lenalee made a little 'hmph' noise. "Well, I'm not going to tell you. You're going to have to figure it out for yourself."

"Figure out what?" His tone didn't put her off.

"I already told you."

He would have said more but Daisya came in at the moment, sitting next to Lenalee and whispering something to her that made her laugh. Kanda stood and left, determined to discern what the hell she'd been talking about, even though he probably had better things to do.

She sighed as he left. Daisya eyed her. "He doesn't remember, does he?"

Her mood darkened at the fact that Daisya remembered, but Kanda couldn't. Of course, she'd told the former a few months ago, but this day really meant nothing to him. So why was it that he was conscious of what happened some years ago today? Perhaps she should have cut Kanda some slack, but she didn't want to on this.

Unfortunately, Lenalee had a feeling that he'd find out through someone else, and that was no good. After telling Daisya she had to take care of something, she threw away her garbage and half of her breakfast – it was wasteful, yes, but she wasn't going to make this easy for him.


It took him awhile to find Marie, but finally Kanda found him outside, apparently tuning his strings. He thought he saw someone disappear around the corner but couldn't be sure; anyway, he was more focused on talking to his teammate.

"Hello, Kanda," Marie greeted him. "How are you?"

"Fine. What's today?" He could have made idle chitchat before going into it, but was that really necessary?

"It's Wednesday, isn't it?" He paused, thinking. "I believe it's the twelfth."

"That's not what I meant."

"What did you mean?"

Kanda frowned and tried to think of how to explain it. "Lenalee made it seem like today is important but wouldn't tell me why."

"Really? Why are you asking me about it?"

"You've been here the whole time." Almost there; Marie didn't imply that he was on the right track because Lenalee, who had spoken with him right before this, implored him to not tell Kanda. She quite fervently wanted him to piece things together alone; she'd inquired why he was smiling like that, but Marie shook his head and agreed to keep his mouth shut on the matter.

Neither seemed to realize it yet; they were on the verge of it and didn't know, and he almost wanted to warn them to be careful. He stayed silent about it, however, and let things unfold because he honestly couldn't imagine that anything bad would come from it.

"I'm sorry, but I have no idea."

Kanda made an irritated noise but when Marie said good morning he echoed it – sort of. He spun and left then, and Lenalee came back around the corner once he was gone.

She sighed as she came closer to him. "I don't think he will figure it out."

"Give him a little more time. I think he'll get it." She winced as he plucked a string in the wrong place, sending out an awful squeal. "I'm sorry; I'm a little distracted."

She glanced at him and frowned. "I'm sorry that we bothered you," she apologized, watching her feet and not seeing the small smile on his face from her use of "we" instead of "I". "Oh! I need to go talk to General Tiedoll before Kanda does." She bid him a good morning and he did the same, listening to her hurried footsteps and letting the smile take over his expression now that they had both left.


General Tiedoll proved to be quite hard to find. He didn't really want to ask him about this, but, other than Marie, he couldn't think of anyone else that would know what today was. He found him on the roof, and he was almost certain that a shadow flitted behind one of the spires across from the door.

Kanda was about to see if his imagination was playing tricks on him or not when his General called to him.

"Yu! What are you doing up here?" The idiot was sitting on the edge of the roof, and certainly one good gust of wind would send him over it. He seemed entirely unconcerned, using the rare break time to sketch the scenery.

He was already irritated and became even more so at the use of his first name. Still, he gritted his teeth and walked over to the man. "What's today?" he demanded without pretense.

"It's Wednesday, the twelfth of – "

"I meant what happened today!" he snapped, no more patience left.

"What happened today? Well, I'm sure a lot of things have. Though I think the most important is the fact that we – " A strangled noise behind the spire cut him off again.

Since she had revealed herself already, Lenalee decided to come out from behind it. Kanda seemed surprised and Tiedoll appeared a bit abashed.

"I'm sorry, Lenalee; I simply can't refuse one of my sons." Aforementioned "son" bristled a bit but didn't have the chance to give that a response.

"It's okay, General Tiedoll," she assured him, despite her obvious bad mood. "You didn't say it, so it's fine."

"Say what?" Kanda had relaxed a bit when she spoke, but what she said left him bemused.

"She means that I didn't reveal what today is," Tiedoll supplied, but gave nothing more than that.

He looked back and forth between them, from the mild expression to the dark one, and finally gave an irritated sigh. "Why won't you tell me?"

"Because you should know!" Lenalee returned, her tone similar to his. He glared but she didn't back down. After a moment, she gave in – a little. "Why did you ask General Tiedoll and Marie instead of anyone else?" She knew why, of course; she was trying to lead him to the conclusion.

"They've been here as long as I have been," he responded tersely.

"And what might they have to do with this?" The question confused him and he had no answer.

"Lenalee, why don't you just tell him?" Tiedoll had been viewing their exchange with amusement, a soft smile on his face. Marie was right; they hadn't realized it yet. Then again, neither had a normal childhood, so they wouldn't know exactly why she teased him or what it meant because there was no one to definitively explain it (of course, he could, but it was more fun to let them work things out). Perhaps they did each have some idea, but one thing was clear: neither was backing down, and both were not giving an inch.

"Because he should know," she repeated, irate. This wasn't what she wanted to happen today at all. Not that she had any specific expectations, but running around the Order, trying to make sure no one told Kanda anything definitely wasn't what she would have anticipated doing.

Tiedoll gave a little sigh. "Yu," (and that was certainly an awful look he received then, but he pushed through it) "how long have you been here?"

"General Tiedoll – " He held up a hand. Lenalee stopped and crossed her arms.

"Five years," he replied with no hesitation or pause to think. The gears began to turn in his head. The General and girl waited. He narrowed his eyes. "Is that it?"

Lenalee was more puzzled than livid now. "Is what it?"

"Five years ago today I arrived here," he stated. "I knew that. What about it is so important?"

Frustrated and tired, she shoved past him and ran down the stairs; Kanda and Tiedoll could each see that she was crying.

"'What about it is so important'?" Tiedoll repeated. Kanda turned to him, a questioning expression on his face. "You really hurt her feelings there, Yu." He stared, not even reacting to his first name; it didn't make sense.

"What did I do?"

"Well," he drew out the word, wondering if Lenalee would want him to let Kanda figure this one out too. He decided that it was better to tell him this time. "You arrived here five years ago today, of course; but who did you meet when you got here?"

"Lenalee," he answered immediately, not knowing that he was supposed to think on that inquiry more before saying anything; to consider what it meant before he spoke. Tiedoll said nothing else, setting down his sketchbook momentarily to swing his legs over the edge of the roof; he stood and walked down the stairs after he picked up his things. He patted Kanda's shoulder as he passed him, but that was all.

Left alone on the roof, he thought for a long, long time about that.


Lenalee ate her dinner morosely; it was later than usual and she was alone.

Stupid Kanda. Stupid, stupid Kanda. She tore into her napkin, but not far enough to rip it in half.

Someone sat next to her; she didn't expect it to be Kanda and didn't want it to be. She was about to get up but he stopped her.

"Sorry," he apologized quietly.

"For what?" she prompted, not letting this go that easily.

To her surprise, he didn't glare at her or put on an irritated face. "Earlier," he responded simply, but went on, "I...didn't mean it like that."

Lenalee could have gone on forever, asking him how he meant it and then another question to follow his response and yet another after that; that day, however, she decided to leave it. "All right." Still, she wasn't entirely amicable.

A tap on her shoulder brought her out of her annoyed state. Jeryy was standing behind her with a small chocolate cake in his hand. He set it in front of her.

"There you are, darling," he said, sounding happier than usual, if that was possible.

"Th-thank you, but I...I didn't order it." She stumbled over her words and she didn't know why; normally receiving a little cake like this out of nowhere would be a delight but for some reason, on this day, it didn't feel the same.

"I know," Jeryy responded with a wide grin. "That handsome thing next to you did." With that, he left them; Lenalee's eyes were round and Kanda was staring at his soba.

Instead of whipping around, she slowly turned herself so she was facing forward. Then she looked at him.

"Really?"

"Really what?"

"You know what I meant."

"Just eat the cake."

"I don't think I can finish the whole thing."

"Then have Jeryy put it away for later."

"No, I meant you should split it with me."

He made a face. "You know I don't like sweets."

"A fourth of it?" The face remained. "At least take a bite." He didn't seem keen on that either, but when he glanced at her and saw her expression, he knew there was no getting out of it.

And of course she had to insist on feeding it to him. "How is it?" He chewed, swallowed, grabbed his water, and drank half of it.

"Too sweet."

"Good; I'm sure I'll really like it." Their palates were quite different, she'd found, so the fact that he had that reaction meant it would definitely be great. She considered bugging him about his nothing-but-soba diet again as he went back to it, but decided not to, for once.


Marie, Daisya, and Tiedoll all listened to this exchange; Marie shook his head as they ate in silence after Lenalee said she'd enjoy the cake because he didn't.

"Not there yet," he stated, but he was smiling.

"Give 'em time," Daisya almost defended. "This is Kanda we're talking about. Lenalee'll probably get it years before he does."

"Kanda deserves more credit than that," Marie returned. "She'll figure it out before him, but it won't take him years; one year seems fairer."

"Still a long time," Daisya pointed out, and Tiedoll laughed.

"Ah, it's wonderful to see two of my sons caring so much about the other. What a great day this has been."