A/N: As always, thanks for the reviews, favorites, and follows; they mean a lot!

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~16 Months Earlier: June 6th~

It started as a nice day for Kanda. An early breakfast in the cafeteria without any of his so-called friends around, followed by a mission so simple that he was back by lunchtime, allowing him to spend the afternoon doing things that he actually wanted to do. Things seemed to have gone his way for a change, which would be nothing short of a miracle given what the day's date was. But Kanda knew it wouldn't last.

It was his twenty-first birthday after all, and Lavi had certainly made sure that everyone knew that. So even though the redhead himself happened to be out on a mission and nowhere near headquarters, that didn't mean that Kanda was safe. He was almost considering hiding out somewhere until the day was over.

And that was when General Teidoll had to go and show up.

While Kanda was grateful to his former teacher for everything he'd done back when Allen had been on the run from the Order - they definitely wouldn't have been welcomed back without his help - interacting with the man was still something he hated having to do. Teidoll was as overbearing and paternal as ever, and while they were both generals now, the old artist tended to ignore that fact. Sure there were some days where Teidoll actually managed to treat Kanda like an equal, but today was not going to be one of them. The old artist had been gone for several months after all, something that guaranteed in and of itself that Teidoll would be a mess of happy tears over seeing his son, and the fact that it was Kanda's birthday would only make it worse.

Kanda made no move to get up from his spot when Teidoll walked into the room. He wanted to run away, but experience had taught him just how futile that was. It was much easier in the long run to stay where he was and let Teidoll fawn over him and get it out of his system.

Like always, the old artist burst into tears the moment he saw him, but to Kanda's relief, he kept his distance rather than invading his personal space and wrapping him in an uncomfortably tight hug. Though his relief was short lived, as he would have much preferred the hug to the conversation Teidoll started. "It's so good to see you, Yuu! Happy birthday! You've gotten so tall since- Wait. No, you haven't. You're still barely taller than me, but you should be quite a few inches taller by now. In fact, you look exactly the same as you did the last time I saw you. And that was at Christmas. How can you not have changed at all in the last six months?"

While Teidoll had always had an uncanny knack of knowing exactly what to say to make Kanda uncomfortable, this was a little too on the nose. Kanda had been noticing the signs that he had stopped aging for months now, and it was beginning to get to him. Having someone else notice it too meant that it definitely wasn't his imagination, and that was incredibly stressful.

It had started with little things at first, like noticing that he'd suddenly stopped growing taller, things that could have easily been explained by him simply having reached the point where he was done growing, but it was the razor that Lavi had jokingly given him for Christmas that had really cemented the realization that he wasn't getting older into his head; he should have been shaving by now, but he didn't even have any stubble. It had worried him at first, wondering why he'd stopped aging before he was done growing, but the answer to why it had happened was so glaringly obvious that it pissed him off instead. His body was artificial. This was the Second Exorcist Project fucking with his life again.

And the last person he wanted to talk with about any of this was Teidoll.

Not only was the old man going to be sentimental and overbearing like he always was, but Kanda was pretty certain that Teidoll knew absolutely nothing about the project that had screwed up his life. And that was a conversation that he did not want to have. Ever. As awkward as it was to have had Allen literally flung into his memories, that was still preferable to having to actually tell someone about it.

So Kanda snorted in derision, trying to act like nothing was wrong and hoping that that would throw Teidoll off the scent. "That's just your imagination, old man. You're being overly sentimental. As usual."

Teidoll fixed Kanda with a stern glare. "Don't take that tone with me, young man. I may be getting up there in years, but I am far from senile. I know what I saw. Your hair may be longer, but the rest of you definitely hasn't changed."

Cursing internally, Kanda stuck with trying to convince Teidoll that he was seeing things. "I don't know what you're talking about. I haven't noticed anything like that. Are you sure that you're not mistaken?"

The denial only confirmed for Teidoll that Kanda was lying to him. "Yuu. Don't lie to your father."

Kanda tried to interrupt him, to let him know that someone else had come into the room, but Teidoll talked over him, assuming that the samurai was simply going to deny that he was his father. "I'm an artist. I have an eye for details, and I can tell that you haven't aged a single day in the entire time I've been gone, so-"

The sentence came to an abrupt end when Teidoll finally realized that they weren't alone in the room. Miranda had giggled nervously at walking in on such a serious conversation, and it was that noise that had made Teidoll notice that there were others around. Marie and Miranda were hovering awkwardly in the doorway, and standing next to them, trying to pretend he hadn't heard anything, was Allen Walker.

Teidoll smiled at them and offered them greetings, but he froze when he got to Allen. Much like Kanda, that boy hadn't aged a day since Teidoll had last seen him. Allen was supposed to be eighteen, but he still looked as scrawny as ever. And that was confusing. How was it possible that both of them hadn't changed? "I owe you an apology, Yuu. You were right; it must have been my imagination. I guess I'm not as good at gauging people's ages as I thought. Not only have you not gotten older, but it doesn't look like Allen has either. And if he hasn't changed-"

To everyone's surprise, it was Miranda who chimed in and cut off Teidoll's babbling. "Actually, now that you mention it..."

She laughed nervously when all eyes turned on her, but she still managed to stammer out what she was thinking. "I've only just noticed it, but I think it's true, Allen hasn't gotten any older in a while."

"Really?" Teidoll practically jumped with joy at having someone else confirm what his eyes had seen. He desperately wanted to prove that he was right about this. "Are you sure? Is he really not aging?"

Allen sighed inwardly when the focus turned on him, feeling very uncomfortable as they all scrutinized his appearance. He was painfully aware of the fact that he'd stopped aging, and he knew exactly when it had happened and why. He had been avoiding the subject for as long as he possibly could, knowing that talking about it was going to be a major headache. But Allen didn't let any of his frustrations show on his face. He rolled his eyes and replied with a heavy dose of sarcasm. "I wonder why that could be."

At the blank looks the others gave him, he sighed and closed his eyes. As he did so, his pale skin morphed to an eerie shade of charcoal gray and his formerly bright red scar darkened until it was pitch black. And though the others couldn't see them behind his bangs, the stigmata marking him as a Noah rose to the surface. When he opened his eyes again, his right iris burned gold.

The transformation silenced everyone in the room; even Marie, who could still sense it even though he hadn't seen it. Kanda was the first to speak, as he'd seen the Moyashi like that countless times and had grown somewhat used to it. He greatly disliked Allen's Noah form, as it was hard seeing an ally take on the appearance of their greatest enemy, but it was something else that bothered him more. The fact that Allen's left eye didn't turn gold with his transformation really creeped Kanda out. Seeing the Moyashi with one silver eye and one gold eye made his skin crawl. "Don't do that, Moyashi. It's creepy."

Allen smirked darkly at the samurai before letting his skin fade back to its usual pale ivory. He flashed a brilliant fake smile at the others in the room that irritated Kanda just as much as the Noah transformation had. "I stopped aging when my Noah awakened. Just like all the others did."

The statement made the others incredibly uncomfortable, so they immediately changed the subject. While they talked about the weather and their latest missions, Kanda let himself fade into the background and took the first opportunity he could to escape.

Allen could tell that the whole not aging thing was bothering Kanda, and he was pretty sure that he knew why, so he followed after Kanda when the samurai wandered off. It didn't take long at all to catch up to him. "The Second Exorcist Project?"

Kanda very nearly froze up at the question, but then he recalled that the Moyashi was one of the few people who actually knew about that, so he was able to calm himself out of a panic attack. He didn't often feel like he needed to be emotionally honest with Allen, but this was definitely the exception; the Moyashi was the one person he could trust completely when it came to the Second Exorcist Project. "Obviously."

Surprisingly, the Moyashi didn't press for details. Allen simply smiled disarmingly at him before heading down the hall. "If you decide you want to talk, you know where to find me."

Wanting to mask just how arousing that action was, Kanda faked disgust. He was not going to admit, even to himself, that the Moyashi was attractive when he was being a tease. "Why on earth would I ever talk to you?"

Allen laughed darkly and spoke without turning around, but Kanda could still tell that his skin had turned grey and his right eye was blazing gold. That laugh was a dead giveaway that he had let his inner Noah out. "Because unlike everyone else, I actually know firsthand what you're feeling right now. And if you can't talk to a fellow immortal, who can you talk to?"

Kanda snorted at that, knowing that even if he was no longer aging, he was far from immortal. He also knew, better than anyone else did, that it actually was possible to kill a Noah, so it was quite ridiculous that Allen had chosen to refer to himself that way. And it was much safer to focus on that than on the fact that the Moyashi was offering to be his confidante. "Noah aren't immortal, Baka Moyashi."

The comment didn't faze Allen in the slightest, proving that the brat was much too optimistic for his own good. "If we win this war, I might be."

"Good luck with that." Having had enough of the Moyashi's childish ridiculousness, Kanda rolled his eyes before he turned and walked away.

Kanda wasn't heading anywhere in particular, just going in the opposite direction of that idiot bean sprout to put as much distance between them as possible before he lost his temper and punched the brat, as starting a fight while Teidoll was around was a headache that he didn't want to deal with. He certainly hadn't intended to head towards the science division, but that was where his feet were taking him. And once he'd cooled down and taken in his surroundings, Kanda continued on in the same direction he had been unintentionally going. It was time to go see Komui. He had been avoiding talking to the psychotic supervisor about this, but after everything that had happened that afternoon, he needed to go through with that annoyance for his own peace of mind.

Komui was all too happy to drop everything and do every test he could think of on Kanda. He would do practically anything to escape from the mountain of paperwork in his office, and this was actually something interesting, so there was no question as to whether or not he'd do it. Which, unfortunately for Kanda, meant having an exam that should have only taken half an hour last well over three.

Most of the tests revealed things that Kanda had already deduced for himself, but there was one thing in particular that caught him by surprise. It wasn't the Second Exorcist Project that had caused his growth to suddenly halt. At least, not by itself. Kanda had stopped aging the day his Innocence crystallized. The act of bonding further with Mugen by allowing it to literally reforge itself using his blood had interacted with his artificial body in such a way that it had caused his body to become frozen in that moment of time. Komui had even been able to conclude that although his healing powers had been weakened, using them was no longer draining his life force. If Kanda managed to survive the war, he would probably live for a very long time; he could, for all intents and purposes, be immortal.