A/N: Thanks for the reviews! Here's some grandparent drama. ;)

.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.

Given that it was only a few days before my wedding to Kanda, it was not the least bit surprising that General Teidoll chose to stay at headquarters for a while. It was also not surprising that he was more focused on me and my unborn child than he was on Kanda; ever since we'd learned I was pregnant, I had been repeatedly warned that that was how it was going to play out. It was annoying, but I put up with it, as I knew Teidoll was simply too excited to act any other way.

I thought that Yuu would appreciate the break from Teidoll's overbearing father side, but it actually seemed to bother him more that the general was so focused on me. He had gotten some enjoyment out of the bruised ribs I'd given Teidoll for touching my baby bump without permission, but otherwise, Kanda was in an even worse mood than he usually was when Teidoll was around. I tried to make him feel better, but when I learned that his possessive side was angry that someone was monopolizing all of my time, the urge to help him faded. This was something that Kanda had to work through on his own, and I hoped for the sake of our relationship that he did it quickly.

For me, the hardest part about Teidoll's presence was that he was getting along so well with my mother. It wasn't anything inappropriate, they were just two people who were excited to be grandparents, but it still creeped me out. I know that for Natasha it was an opportunity to talk about things that Cross was too uncomfortable to discuss with her, but I wished that they would at least not do it when I was around. Together they were far worse than they were separately. When they weren't fawning over my pregnancy, they were pestering Lenalee and Camilla about the wedding plans.

But even the fact that Teidoll and Natasha were spending too much time together wasn't something I could complain about.

Lenalee had tried to take me out shopping for baby things several times, but I always came up with excuses for not going. Part of it was because I didn't want to be out in public in my condition; going out while being pregnant and very obviously male was just asking for trouble - even more trouble than I'd already get for my white hair, scar, and the fact that I was a neko. But the real problem was that I didn't have the heart to tell Lenalee that I didn't like shopping with her. Sometime after learning I was gay, she had taken that to mean that I was into girly things, and she had tried to turn me into her shopping buddy. So I was stuck between a rock and a hard place, wanting to buy the things my baby needed but unable to do so without horribly offending my best friend.

So when Teidoll and Natasha had taken it upon themselves to go behind my back and furnish the nursery without my knowledge or permission, they were actually solving a major dilemma of mine. It both got me out of going shopping with Lenalee and saved me from having to hurt her feelings; she couldn't be mad at me because the things were gifts from the baby's grandparents. And as an added bonus, Teidoll was an artist, so the nursery actually looked amazing.

However, while I was grateful they'd solved that problem for me, it was right after they finished the nursery that Teidoll and Natasha started arguing.

At first, I was simply thankful that they were no longer getting along so well, but when Cross joined in, I began to worry that I'd be spending the rest of my life trying to make sure my parents and Kanda's weren't in the same room together. It was getting seriously irritating, as they'd be getting along and then they'd all of a sudden be at each other's throats, and I had no clue what had set them off. Plus, it was right around that point that it had finally hit me that I was getting married of Sunday, so my stress levels were already through the roof.

Just when I thought I couldn't take any more, Neah showed up.

He made the fighting worse at first, but instead of getting sucked into their bickering, he dragged me into it. I had been trying to stay out of the fight, hoping they'd resolve the issue themselves, but it turned out that they were never going to be able to solve it on their own.

I went with great reluctance when Neah called for me to join them, and I was even more off put by the irritated way he had his arms crossed over his chest and was glaring at the others. "Come on Allen; just tell them that I'm going to be the baby's godfather so that we can get this over with."

I blinked at the gathered adults in confusion. I couldn't believe that they were arguing over something that ridiculous. "Really? That's what you've been fighting about all week? Which of you are going to be the baby's godparents?"

On the one hand, I was touched that they cared, but on the other, I couldn't believe that the adults in my life were that petty to have been arguing about this for so long without ever asking me about it. These people were supposed to be my role models. "Well you can stop fighting now. Kanda and I decided on that months ago."

"And?"

I blanched from the force of the demanded question, knowing that they weren't going to take the answer well. "We've already asked Marie and Miranda to do it."

Teidoll was the first to react to the disappointing news, latching onto Kanda and sobbing into his shoulder. "You'd pick your brother over your father?!"

Kanda's reply required zero thought. "Yes. And you're not my father."

Everyone began talking at once, Teidoll pouting over how mean Kanda was being and the others trying to convince me to change my mind. Having finally had enough, I cleared my throat loudly to make them all shut up. "Listen. You're her grandparents. You all already have a special bond with her. You don't need to be her godparents too. Besides, in case you've forgotten, there's a war going on."

As I hoped, they all instantly sobered with that reminder, their expressions changing from offended to chastised. "We have to be prepared for every possibility. If something were to happen to us, we want to know with certainty that she won't end up on the streets like I did."

When I paused to collect myself, Kanda tacked on, "Or in the Order's care."

I shot him an apologetic smile and continued before the conversation could rabbit trail onto the subject of Kanda's history. "So, to keep our options open, we picked godparents who weren't already related to her."

Teidoll smiled and apologized for making a fuss before dragging Kanda off, probably to find Marie and pester him about this whole thing. However, my relatives didn't budge. And I didn't have to see the looks on their faces to know why: they knew I was lying to them. My attempt to make excuses to make them feel better had gone over like a lead balloon. I sighed heavily and eased my pregnant body into the nearest chair. "Don't give me that look, you guys. You can't tell me that you really want to know why we didn't pick you. Can't you just accept the lie for once? There's no need to call me out on it every single time."

I was focused on my belly, trying to calm the baby down after upsetting her with my stress, so I couldn't see their faces as they reacted to my comment. It wasn't something I wanted to see, so it was a bit of a shock that the first reaction I got were fingers caressing my left ear. My mother smiled gently when I looked up at her, then she glared at Cross, grabbed him by the arm, and dragged him from the room.

Left alone with Neah, he immediately started berating me for my choice. Not out loud, of course, meaning my head was suddenly filled with words that I was almost glad he wasn't saying out loud.

I sighed and shook my head, speaking out loud instead of telepathically so that he'd have to listen to me. "She's got a parasitic Innocence, Neah. That's all there is to it. She's going to be an exorcist, and you're a Noah. It's absolutely nothing against you. You're welcome to fight for her if something were to happen to us, but officially, all you can be is her uncle."

He argued with me a bit more, but he eventually calmed down. When I was finally left alone, I retreated to my spot at the window in the nursery to give myself the chance to calm down.

And that was where Kanda found me when he finally escaped from Teidoll a couple hours later. He sighed in exasperation as he sat down by my feet and placed his hands on my belly, finally relaxing as he felt our baby kick. "I really hope this kid doesn't take after any of her grandparents."

The look on his face made me chuckle. "Or mine."

Kanda stilled, but it wasn't until he looked at me with eyes full of confusion that I realized what I'd just said. "Moyashi? You've...?" He paused, changing his mind about what he wanted to ask me. "Which?"

I sighed heavily at the memory. I wasn't intentionally keeping this from Kanda, it was simply painful to recall and I hadn't wanted to share it. "I met Natasha's parents a few months ago. ...They were not nice people..."

.x.x.

~April~

I felt better after pouring my heart out about Nolan to Kanda, but I was still working on moving on. So when Natasha showed up out of nowhere, suddenly wanting to spend time with me, it didn't take a genius to figure out that Neah had sent her to cheer me up. I was a little miffed at my uncle for butting in on my life and not observing the boundaries I'd set, and I really wanted to be left alone until I'd had more time to heal, but I also knew that one on one time with my mother was not something I should pass up.

Natasha played it off flawlessly, never once letting on that Neah had put her up to this. Instead, she continued to insist that she was simply struck with the inspiration to take me back to the town where I was born and show me off to her parents. And between the way her pride for me made me feel and the curiosity I felt towards meeting my grandparents - I had only recently discovered that I had parents, also having grandparents was a completely foreign concept to me - I knew I had to go with her.

My excitement and curiosity faded the instant we arrived in town. Instead of feeling happy, albeit a little reluctantly, for what was coming next, a pit of dread settled into my stomach. I'd been here before.

Unfortunately, Natasha could read me far too well for only having known me for three months, and she immediately picked up on my change in mood. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing." I sighed and continued, knowing that she wouldn't accept that as an answer. "I was here on a mission not that long ago, and the people weren't exactly friendly."

She laughed and played with a strand of her blue streaked hair. "Yeah, they can get a little judgmental towards people who don't conform to social norms."

Half-smiling at her attempt to make me feel better, I pulled a bandanna out of my pocket and tied it around my head. I'd recently gotten comfortable enough to stop hiding my cat ears, but this was a place where I felt a lot safer with them covered.

Our relationship may have been short so far, but I could read my mother just as well as she could read me. And I found it more than a little odd that her nervousness only grew the farther we got into town. When I prompted her about it, I was surprised by the answer she gave. "It was exactly nineteen years ago today that I told them I was pregnant and they threw me out."

I smiled along with her, but then the math clicked in my head. Based on today's date and everything else she'd told me about her pregnancy... "Wait. My birthday actually is in December?"

She stopped in her tracks and gave me an odd look. "You didn't know that?"

I shook my head at her. "I never knew when my birthday was. Mana adopted me on Christmas Day, so we always celebrated it then. It's a bit surprising that we actually got the month right."

I had kept walking, so it caught me off guard when her arms were suddenly around my shoulders. "The twenty fifth..."

When she trailed off, I looked up at her, surprised to see that she looked as stunned as I felt. "You were born at eight o'clock in the evening on the twenty fourth..."

It felt like you could have knocked me over with a feather. But before I could get too freaked out, I thought of a rather important question. "What year?"

She just laughed. "You're eighteen, Allen."

We were both in a good mood as Natasha rang the bell to her parents' house, but once again, that feeling was replaced with a feeling of dread as I recognized the woman who answered the door. I knew her from my mission, but the real problem was that even though she was older and sterner, the resemblance between her and Natasha was unmistakable. This was my grandmother.

She immediately got angry when she saw Natasha, and while that bothered me, I was mostly just thankful that she hadn't noticed me yet; there was no doubt in my mind that she would remember me.

Natasha tried to be pleasant, but I could tell that it wasn't easy for her, especially when her father came to the door in response to the fuss his wife was making. It looked for a moment like he was going to be reasonable, but then he looked Natasha right in the eyes and said, "You're not our daughter, our daughter is dead."

I felt my claws unsheathe in reaction to the anger that washed over me, but I managed to keep it all inside. Natasha also somehow managed to remain calm and collected, though I could feel her seething. "I just wanted to introduce you to your grandson, but if you don't want to meet him, I'll be on my way."

Their attention immediately snapped to me, and I was right, they did recognize me. And as I also expected, they began saying nasty things to me. I tuned them out as my anger faded to disappointment. Letting out a tired sigh, I grabbed Natasha by the elbow and began to lead her away. "Let's go, Mum."

I only dragged her a few steps before she turned and willingly followed me. We found a secluded spot to rest, and while we sat on a low wall under some overhanging trees, I pulled off my bandanna and shook out my ears. "Sorry, Allen. I thought they'd want to meet you. I didn't think they'd still be so upset with me."

Reluctantly, I sighed and corrected her. "That wasn't about you. I met them the last time I was here."

"Allen?"

I didn't want to share the story, but that concerned look she gave me made it spill out. Before I realized it, I was telling my mother all about how rude her mother had been to me on that mission. Tired of being depressed today, I tried to turn it all into a joke as I finished. "Their behavior makes a whole lot more sense now that I know that the last exorcist they saw before me was Cross." I briefly laughed as I fiddled with one of the gold buttons on my coat. "They probably hate all the generals."

Natasha just frowned at me, so I smiled as brightly as I could without it being fake, just enough to reassure her that I wasn't lying about my feelings. "I'm fine, Mum. Honestly, I had no interest in meeting people who abandoned their only child over one stupid mistake. I only came along to spend time with you."

She started crying with that and I found myself wrapped in a hug. I returned the gesture, a few tears of my own slipping down my cheeks, loving the feeling of my mother's embrace and feeling sad that that was something she'd probably never feel again.

We were interrupted when a stray cat suddenly forced its way between us and settled down in my lap. We laughed at the random happening, but as I started to pet the little gray cat - because that's what you do when a cat is lying on your lap, or so Kanda tells me - it started to purr. My amusement quickly faded to irritation over what it was saying to me:

It was calling me "mommy".

I scowled down at it and tried to set it straight. "I'm not your mother."

It gave me a look that was clearly laughing at me, laid its head back down, and fell asleep. As I sighed in exasperation, I felt a gentle hand come to rest on my shoulder. Facing Natasha's concerned look, I smiled mischievously. "Yes, I can understand animals. It's either from your curse or because I'm going crazy. But it's nothing to worry about."

.x.x.

~Present Day~

When I finished the story, Kanda chuckled and rubbed my belly. "I wonder if it knew that you were pregnant..."