A/N: Well that was a rather long unintended hiatus. Definitely did not expect to be away for more than two months. Work got crazy over the holidays and I was suddenly working twice as many hours as usual on top of having to start work at three am. And this was on top of trying to do family things and adjusting to having a new puppy in the house. Writing or posting anything just didn't happen. Things have started to settle down now, so hopefully I can get back into the flow of things.

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The teasing of Lavi for being so completely clueless that he'd missed the fact that I was female lasted for about an hour. We teased him all the way to the restaurant - Lenalee had insisted that we had to have lunch out to celebrate our marriage - and we teased him most of the way through the meal. It was fun and amusing, right up until it hit me that I had gotten married that morning.

I was a strong, independent woman, yet I had ended up married and pregnant before I finished college. None of my problems had anything to do with the man who was now my husband - Yuu was more perfect than any man I could have possibly designed for myself - but this was not the direction that I had wanted my life to go in.

My friends were too observant when it came to my feelings, and they easily noticed the change in my mood, but while Kanda was content to simply take my hand and offer me silent comfort, Lenalee felt the need to call me out. "Are you ok, Allen? You got really quiet all of a sudden."

Before I could say anything, which probably would have been an attempt to deny that anything was bothering me, Lavi interrupted. "I'm sorry, Lenalee, but if that's really a girl, why on earth do you call her 'Allen'?"

Being referred to as "that" was insulting, but I couldn't be too offended because I knew that Lavi was still just trying to figure out how it was possible that I had been female all along. Lenalee, on the other hand, was not so understanding, and she was quite brusque as she answered his question. "Because it fits her better. Now shut up and stop changing the subject."

Her stern look faded to a gentle smile as she turned back to me. "Now, Allen. Please tell us what's wrong. And don't try to hide things from us like you usually do. It's your wedding day; we just want you to be happy."

The noise that came out of my mouth was somewhere between a scoff and a sigh. I was annoyed by how she'd worded the request, but I found the truth coming out anyway. "'Allen' is the problem. I created him so that I could get through life without having to explain myself to everyone I met, and it worked better than I ever could have hoped. The last few years have undeniably been the best years of my life. But now it's all over. I can't be Allen anymore. I was stupid enough to get myself pregnant, and now I have to go back to being Allison Walker."

The natural frown on Yuu's face had deepened as I spoke, and I couldn't help but wonder how what I'd said could have possibly upset him; he was supposed to already know that I didn't blame him for what had happened. "What's that look for, Bakanda?"

Kanda's frown turned into a scowl as he clicked his tongue and looked away. "It's something we can discuss later, Moyashi."

I understood the unspoken implication that whatever was bothering him was something he didn't want to say in front of Lavi and Lenalee, but before I could agree to change the subject, it suddenly clicked; I knew exactly what had caused the change in his mood. "Oh. You want me to take your last name."

The look on his face not only confirmed my guess, but it also said that he was expecting me to put up a fight. I really didn't know what to make of it, but the more I thought about taking my husband's last name, the better I felt about my situation, and that made it easy to reach a decision. "It's a little old school, but I think I can work with that. I may be losing Allen, but I'm not going back to how things were before I met you; it's another new beginning. I'm becoming Allison Kanda and-"

Yuu kissed me before I could say another word. And he didn't let go after just a few seconds either. We made out until our friends became so uncomfortable with the kissing that they made us stop. Which meant that we were making out for quite a while, as Lavi was still struggling to wrap his head around the idea that I was female and Lenalee actually liked watching us kiss.

I didn't mind the intensity of the kiss; it reminded me that our marriage was something that Kanda had wanted for years, and that was something that I definitely needed right now. What I did mind was that I had let it get so heated in a public place.

The one downside to pretending to be a man was that whenever I made out with my boyfriend in public, there was always that one person around who was prejudiced against homosexuality and insisted on lecturing us about how we were going to hell for being together. It was incredibly frustrating and something I would be glad to have stop once I went back to being Allison, but then again, I'd never had a boyfriend before I became Allen, and with the way I looked, vocally homophobic people were probably something that I was going to have to put up with for the rest of my life. It wasn't something that I had to deal with today, as Lenalee always took comments like that personally and scared off the offender before Kanda could even glare at them, but it was still a depressing thought.

While Lenalee shouted at a stranger for being a closed-minded bigot, Lavi finally spoke up. He struggled over deciding what to call me, which was somewhat amusing, though it was painfully clear from the look on his face that whatever he was about to ask was serious. "Umm... Allen? ... Allison? ... Allen. ... You're pregnant?"

I sighed heavily as I nodded. Kanda wrapped his arms around me in a comforting gesture and I found myself leaning into the embrace for strength. "Twelve weeks. Give or take a few days. The baby's due in September."

I braced myself for a loud reaction, but Lavi was apparently too confused to freak out. "Well that explains the elopement... But how'd you convince him to marry you? He-"

Yuu stiffened, but I beat him to setting Lavi straight. "Kanda first proposed to me two and a half years ago. I told him that there was no way in hell that I was ever going to get married, to anyone. But I apparently didn't anticipate getting knocked up..."

I cut myself off, biting my lip to try to keep myself from crying, and that was when Lenalee's arms joined Kanda's around my shoulders. "We're all here for you, Allen. You're not doing this alone."