A/N: As always, your reviews are very much appreciated. [Also, my apologies to those of you waiting on the next chapter of "Loved by the Light"; I've got some pretty severe writers' block for that story and can't for the life of me figure out the next story arc.]

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When the exorcists reached headquarters, they made their way to Komui's office to turn in their mission reports. They all wanted to get that formality out of the way, and Lavi was especially impatient, as he was anxious to get back to questioning Allen and Kanda about their marriage and unborn child. But everyone's plans for the evening were dashed when Komui handed Allen a folder. "I know you just got back, but here's your next mission. You're to accompany Miranda and my precious sister to Prague. They're scheduled to open the ark gate at seven, so you should have just enough time to eat dinner and repack before you leave. Johnny's waiting for you downstairs with some new clothes."

Allen took the folder with a smile, giving the supervisor a small bow before heading for the door. He was tired and didn't want to be leaving again quite so soon, but he was thrilled that Komui was keeping his promise and continuing to treat him like a regular exorcist. But he didn't make it out of the room. Lavi spoke up, and his words halted Allen in his tracks.

The redhead could not process what he had just witnessed, and when Lavi couldn't understand something, he asked incessant questions. "Really?! You're sending him on another mission so soon? No, the better question is: why are you sending him on missions at all?! He's pregnant! Why are you putting him in danger like that?!"

Komui sighed wearily. He had known that Allen's friends were going to be protective of the boy once they learned about his pregnancy, but he hadn't expected them to be so persistent with it. He could only hope that Lavi would be easier to reason with than Lenalee had been. "As I have already explained to both of them: there is no such thing as maternity leave for exorcists. I have no cause, medical or otherwise, to be keeping Allen at headquarters."

As expected, the answer did not satisfy Lavi. "Then why don't you make something up? Tell Central he injured his arm or something. It's too dangerous-"

"Lavi. Shut up." Allen practically growled at the redhead, his fierce glare making his friend fall silent. Turning back to Komui, Allen's bright smile returned. "I'm going to go find Johnny right now."

As soon as Allen was gone, Lavi was able to find his voice, and he immediately resumed questioning Komui. "Why didn't you send someone else instead? We all just got back, you could have sent one of us instead of Allen quite easily. Just because you have to send him on missions doesn't mean you have to send him on every mission."

Komui sighed heavily. It was hard to stick to the rules when he wanted to keep Allen out of harm's way just as much as his friends did. "Unfortunately, no. This mission will benefit greatly from Allen's special talents. It had to be him."

"But-!"

Hitting Lavi over the head to make him shut up, Kanda grabbed the redhead by the arm and dragged him off. Once he determined that they were far enough away from other people, he tossed the redhead roughly to the ground, kicking him in the process.

The treatment was expected, as Kanda always got physically violent when he was pissed off, but instead of storming off like he usually would, Kanda just stood there, glaring down at him, and that confused Lavi. It was obvious that the samurai wanted to say something, but it was beyond weird that Kanda actually wanted to talk. "What's going on?"

Kanda merely rolled his eyes in response to the question. "In case you haven't figured it out by now, the Moyashi doesn't want his baby."

Lavi's one good eye went wide with horror. He knew that Allen wasn't exactly happy to be pregnant, but he hadn't thought that his dislike of his situation went that far. "You mean Allen's intentionally trying to miscarry?!"

Kanda scoffed and hit him upside the head. "He's promised that he won't, and I trust him to keep that promise. Now stop interrupting and let me talk."

Lavi briefly considered protesting the order, but he held his silence. Kanda actually wanted to explain something to him - without being pestered first - and that was a very rare occurrence; in fact, Lavi couldn't recall it ever happening before. So he held his silence and waited for Kanda to say what was on his mind. "Until Allen changes his mind about the baby, all keeping him off missions is going to do is make him miserable. Missions are the only way in which his life hasn't been drastically changed by his pregnancy, and he likes that sense of normalcy. You are not allowed to mess with that. Got it?"

Lavi blinked, trying to wrap his head around what Kanda was saying. "But aren't you worried about-?"

Kanda scoffed at the stupidity of the question and cut him off. "Of course I am. He's carrying my baby. I would much rather he stay here at headquarters where it's safe. But going on missions is what makes him happy, and that's important too. After all, the happier he is, the sooner he'll come to his senses and love the baby."

What Kanda was saying made sense, but Lavi wasn't about to accept the fact that Kanda was the one being logical and rational in this situation. "But it is your baby too. Don't you get a say in how he cares for it?"

The comment earned him another smack upside the head. "Che. Moron."

Lavi frowned at the implication that he was missing something obvious. "Seriously, Kanda." Now was not the time to annoy the samurai by using his first name. "You obviously want your child. Why aren't you being more protective of it?"

Kanda rolled his eyes at the stupidity of the question. "You're the Bookman apprentice. You know the Order's rules better than anyone. Answer your own damn question."

Lavi spent a long moment wondering what on earth the Order's rules had to do with Kanda not standing up for his baby, but once he figured out which specific rule Kanda was referring to, that confusion faded quickly. "Oh. You're the reason he didn't have an abortion."

"Exactly." Seeing that despite having figured it out, Lavi still didn't really get it, Kanda explained further. "Because of the Order's rules and regulations, he's had all of his choices taken away. He had to keep the baby, and he had to marry me, so it's important that I let him make as many of his own decisions as possible."

It was just too weird trying to hold a conversation with Kanda when he was being so open about his feelings. Lavi had barely gotten the samurai to even admit to having feelings before, and now he was suddenly spilling his guts of his own free will. But that was nowhere near as weird as the things that he was saying. "Why are you being so respectful of Allen? Even if you are in love with him like Marie claims, you're still you. Impatient and irritable. And Allen irritates you more than anything else on the planet. How on earth are you being this patient with him?"

Kanda scoffed, but he managed to resist the urge to smack the redhead again. "Che. Patient and respectful gets me laid. It's as simple as that."

Lavi laughed and shook his head. "So even the great General Kanda Yuu is motivated by something as basic as sex. Who knew?"

Kanda scoffed once more. "Che. As painful as it is to admit, Marie knows me way too well. The better I treat Allen, the sooner he'll reciprocate my feelings."

That was an uncharacteristically optimistic thing for Kanda to say, and Lavi couldn't resist snorting as he pointed out the flaws in the samurai's logic. "If at all. You raped him and then forced him to keep the baby he conceived; you're lucky he didn't kill you. Komui's going to give up coffee before Allen will ever actually sleep with you willingly."

The comment pissed Kanda off. "First of all, I didn't rape him. We were both drugged. Second, we've had sex together at least five times in just the last week. And third, he's already told me that he likes being married to me. So I win this argument. I know my husband better than you do."

Kanda stalked off, having finally lost his patience with Lavi and their much too personal conversation. Lavi wanted to follow after him and question him more, to find out if he would continue to remain open and honest about his feelings, but he was much too shocked to move from his spot. He just couldn't believe Kanda's claim that Allen was actually sleeping with him. Though that shock was nothing compared to what he would feel when he caught up with Allen before the boy left on his mission. Allen had blushed and stuttered through the whole conversation, but he had only confirmed Kanda's claims that the pair were sexually active, and Lavi felt like his brain was going to explode.

.x.x.

The second Allen escaped from Lavi, he headed to the entry hall to meet up with his mission partners. He was excited to go, and he was not going to be the reason why their mission got delayed. In his hurry, he beat them both there, but it was a short wait, and then they were on their way.

Upon arriving in Prague, the three exorcists headed straight for their inn to ditch their suitcases. Check-in was usually a quick process, but every once in a while, they'd run into a particularly conservative innkeeper who would make everything difficult by insisting that men and women who weren't married couldn't share a room. This innkeeper was proving to be exceptionally difficult, and even lying and telling her that Allen was female wasn't working. In the end, Lenalee lost her patience and outed Allen as gay. It was potentially going to cause trouble later, but right now, all she wanted to do was get their room so that they could go meet up with the finders and get on with their mission. It worked, and the innkeeper finally gave up their room key.

Allen grumbled about what she'd said, but Lenalee was too annoyed to care that she'd upset him. As far as she was concerned, he had nothing to complain about; he was pregnant, so that particular secret was coming out sooner rather than later. In fact, she quickly grew annoyed with him too, and she ended up snapping at him when his whining got to be too much for her. "If you're going to insist on going on missions, you need to stop cutting your hair. It'll be much easier to convince everyone that you're a girl if you let your hair get long."

"Why on earth would I want to-?!" The complaint cut off abruptly as it clicked for Allen that she was referring to his pregnancy. "Oh. Right. Never mind."

Miranda smiled nervously at the exchange between the pair. It worried her to see the two of them bicker like that, but she also knew that punctuality was important to Lenalee and that the Chinese woman tended to get short with people when they were running late, so she desperately hoped that this was just Lenalee being impatient and not an actual fight.

When an awkward silence settled between the pair, Miranda took it upon herself to change the subject. "Hey, Lenalee, I'm curious. What possessed you to tell that lady that Allen's gay? She's going to figure out that you were lying eventually, and then we're going to get in trouble."

Allen blanched at the comment, sending a silent plea to Lenalee to keep her mouth shut, but she didn't catch it. "The only one who might possibly be getting in trouble is him, for being gay."

"Wait. You mean that he's actually...?" Miranda stopped short, glancing surreptitiously over at Allen, and she was surprised to find that the boy's face was flushed with embarrassment.

Allen braced himself for an especially loud rejection. So far, all of his friends had been perfectly accepting of his sexual orientation, but his luck was bound to run out soon, which meant that it was going to be Miranda, who tended to scream when she was freaked out, who was going to be unable to accept him.

But while he was right about her being loud, Allen was wrong about her rejecting him. The moment she got over her shock, Miranda had him wrapped in a tight bear hug and was sobbing hysterically into his shoulder. He wanted to be embarrassed or shove her away, but instead, Allen found his own tears falling. He'd blame them on his pregnancy hormones later, but he was really just relieved that everyone important to him had been able to accept him for who he was.

Lenalee huffed as she shoved the two of them apart. "You can cry later. Right now, we're late for meeting the finders."