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.

We're rejoining Allen on his mission with Lenalee and Miranda, and it's time for something important to happen...

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

It was a fairly easy assignment. The area was infested with akuma, but they were hiding and the finders were unable to locate them. The mere presence of exorcists was going to be plenty to draw them out, and Allen's cursed eye and Noah aura were just the icing on the cake to make it even easier.

If he weren't pregnant.

Lenalee wouldn't hear of Allen making himself a target in his condition, and she stubbornly insisted that his special abilities could only be used as a last resort. They would draw out the akuma the old fashioned way, and if that didn't work, then and only then would they consider letting Allen do his thing. She even went so far as to make him remove his exorcist jacket, so that the akuma would only notice her and Miranda.

Allen was annoyed with her overprotectiveness, but he went along with her plan, on the condition that she wasn't allowed to stop him from fighting once the akuma did finally show themselves. And honestly, his exorcist jacket didn't fit nearly as well as his new maternity clothes did, so he was almost happy to have an excuse to not wear it.

Aside from Allen's complaining, the next two days passed without much fanfare. The three exorcists wandered around the city, acting like tourists and drawing as much attention to themselves as they could without causing a scene. It was almost fun acting like normal people for a change.

Yet the akuma never attacked.

On the morning of their third day in Prague, Lenalee finally relented, allowing Allen to search out the akuma with his eye. Even then, he was only allowed to point them in the right direction, so that they were wandering in the correct area of town. And it was that restriction that led to them being in the middle of a crowded area when the akuma finally revealed themselves. Instead of facing the enemy in an isolated location, the exorcists now had civilians that they had to protect.

Allen was doing his best to both fight off the akuma and help the innocent bystanders escape from danger, two tasks that were equally important in his eyes, but that was when he finally noticed that they were at a playground. Every single one of the humans fleeing from the scene was a child. And as he watched those innocent little children run screaming in fear, with tears streaming down their precious little faces, it hit him that there was another equally innocent child present who was unable to run away from this fight: the child growing inside his womb. His own baby's life was in danger because he had stubbornly insisted that he needed to go on missions.

Lenalee was starting to get overwhelmed by the akuma, so she spared a quick glance towards Allen, wondering what he was doing and why it was more important than fighting. With Miranda as their only other exorcist companion, she had had no intention of preventing Allen from joining the fight, even in his condition, and the sheer number of akuma around meant that Allen would have had to fight regardless. However, instead of seeing him protecting Miranda or helping a civilian, Lenalee's eyes landed on an Allen that was standing in place, staring at nothing.

It was odd behavior for the boy, especially when he was so eager to fight and go on missions, and while part of Lenalee was worried that something was wrong, she was mostly just annoyed. And when he didn't respond to her calling his name or crying out for help, that annoyance only grew. He didn't even react when an attack was headed straight for him.

Fortunately, Lenalee wasn't the only one paying attention to the unresponsive exorcist, and Miranda managed to surround Allen with her time bubble just in time to defend him from the attack. Lenalee quickly landed beside them and immediately set about trying to figure out what was going on, but Allen still hadn't moved from his spot, even after almost getting smashed, and that pissed her off. "What's going on with you, Allen?! Why aren't you fighting?! Now is not the time to be standing around with your head in the clouds!"

Allen finally spoke, but his words clearly weren't said in response to the questions Lenalee had just asked. "Oh god. I'm pregnant."

Lenalee sighed heavily, trying to hold in her annoyance. She knew just how important that realization was for Allen, but he had chosen a very inconvenient time to finally fall in love with his unborn baby. "We don't have time for this, Allen."

The boy just continued to stare off into space with that blank look on his face. It was like he couldn't hear her. He didn't even budge when she tugged on his arm. And his lack of reaction was making it harder for her to mask her annoyance. It was time for drastic measures.

Allen blinked in confusion and shock. He knew that he had just been slapped across the face, but he had no clue why or by who. Though the way Lenalee was scowling at him with her hands on her hips answered that second question pretty quickly. He still had no clue why she'd slapped him, beyond that he'd somehow pissed her off, but she didn't let him ask. As soon as Lenalee saw the light return to Allen's silver eyes, she immediately reminded him of the chaos around them. "Good. You're back. Now, are you going to come help me fight the akuma or not?"

Allen smiled and moved to follow her, but he halted in his tracks once more as he recalled why he'd frozen up in the first place. "But what about my baby?"

Lenalee rolled her eyes at the stupid question. "The baby's fine, Allen. You've been fighting for the last several months without any problems at all. Besides, Crowned Clown is protecting it too. You are not in danger of hurting the baby by fighting. If you were, Kanda and Komui would have never let you leave headquarters."

That got a hesitant smile out of the boy, so Lenalee grabbed his wrist and pulled him towards the edge of the bubble. Miranda's stuttering questions continued to go unheard as the pair launched themselves back into the fight.

Once Allen got over his misgivings towards fighting while pregnant - which happened really quickly once his curse reminded him why he liked fighting akuma in the first place - the fight came to a swift end. What was almost a disaster ended without so much as a scraped knee. It was anticlimactic after their struggle to locate the akuma in the first place.

Now that it was over, Lenalee wanted to be angry at Allen for spacing out in the middle of the fight, but the way he sat there, gently rubbing the slight swell of his abdomen, was so sweet that she decided that it was better to just ignore it and move on. Miranda, on the other hand, had had enough of keeping silent. She had kept her focus on the fight, like her job demanded, but now it was over and her curiosity and confusion were about to eat her alive. She practically collapsed beside Allen in her hurry to get his attention. "Umm... A-Allen? About what you said earlier... about being pregnant... What-? H-how-?"

Allen smiled gently as he cut her off before she could freak out further. "Kanda got me pregnant about three months ago. It's a long story that I won't get into, but basically, it happened because I have a parasitic Innocence."

Miranda stared at him in complete disbelief. As weird as it was that he was claiming to be pregnant, there was something else that Allen had said that was even weirder. "Kanda?"

Allen nodded solemnly. "We've been married for nine weeks now."

Not knowing how to react to the news that Allen was married to the man he supposedly hated more than anyone else, Miranda decided to switch topics. "So you really weren't joking about being gay."

Before he could finish shaking his head, Allen found himself wrapped in a tight hug. Miranda's constant sobbing on this mission had become rather annoying, but it also felt really good to have someone express care for him like that. This time Allen even managed to keep his tears on the inside, making him feel even better about this current hug.

Lenalee watched the interaction between the pair, silently marveling at how easily Allen had just admitted to being pregnant when just the day before, he could barely hold a conversation with her about it despite the fact that she'd known about his pregnancy for weeks. But there were more important things going on, and Miranda crying was definitely not one of them. "I hate to interrupt, but can we get back to the mission?"

Miranda continued to cry, oblivious to the interruption, but the way Allen cocked his head at her clearly indicated that Lenalee had his full attention. And while that was good, the blank look on his face annoyed her; he clearly hadn't gotten her implied question. "What's the status of the akuma, Allen?"

Allen's innocent smile turned into a frown of concentration as he activated his eye and looked around. It was hard to focus with Miranda still sobbing into his shoulder, but now that he had completely returned to his senses after his meltdown earlier, he was ready and willing to search out more akuma. And it was with great disappointment that he reported his findings to Lenalee. "They're gone. We got them all."

"Then let's head home."

.x.x.

It was late by the time they'd finished reporting in with the finders and collected their bags from the inn. They headed straight for the ark, and the second they arrived at headquarters, Allen made a beeline for the room he shared with his husband.

Kanda was awake and waiting for him, having been notified earlier that Allen was on his way home. Waiting up for the boy was both something he wanted to do and something that would hopefully show the Moyashi just how much he cared. He stood from his chair when Allen opened the door, only to find his arms immediately full of a teary-eyed bean sprout. The boy's arms were wrapped tightly around him as he practically snuggled into his chest. The hug was surprising, but not nearly as surprising as the words Allen spoke. "Thank you."

Kanda scoffed in embarrassment at the sentiment. "For what? I haven't seen you in three days."

Allen buried his head further into the samurai's chest. This was embarrassing to admit to, but his gratitude overpowered the urge to keep quiet. "For not letting me abort the baby. I don't know if I actually would have gone through with it if you wouldn't have stopped me, but I'm glad you did. I would be in a very bad place right now if you hadn't. Thank you for looking out for my feelings."

Internally, Kanda was jumping with joy over learning that Allen finally loved their unborn child, but his pride wouldn't let him express that emotion, so instead, he tried to deny it. "I just really want a baby, Moyashi. That's all."

Allen laughed at the samurai's reaction; that was exactly what he had expected Kanda to say. "You can deny it all you want, Yuu, but I know the truth. It means a lot that you love me so much that you'd rather have me hate you for the rest of my life than risk me committing suicide."

Kanda sighed and held the boy closer; the mention of suicide was more than enough to get him to drop his pride. "Yes. Alive and hating me was infinitely preferable to the alternative of you killing yourself out of guilt over an abortion. But this is even better."

Kanda tightened his hold on Allen, hoping that the boy would understand what he was trying to say. It felt so good to have the Moyashi finally return his feelings that he was having difficulty expressing himself; not that he was any good at expressing himself to begin with. The comfortable silence that followed said that Allen did understand what he had meant, as did the way he wrapped his arms around his waist, but Kanda still pushed. "Will you say the words, Allen?"

Allen looked up at him with a bright, genuine smile on his face. "I love you."

Internally, Kanda kicked himself. He should have known that Allen would say the words regardless of whether or not he was actually ready to say them, and now that he had heard them, Kanda knew beyond the shadow of a doubt that Allen hadn't meant them. Yes, the Moyashi's feelings were deeper and more genuine than they used to be, but it wasn't love yet. And that hurt.

He felt a little better knowing that Allen thought that the words were true - the Moyashi's face held none of his usual tells - but that didn't change the fact that Allen wasn't actually in love with him. Though any disappointment that he felt died with Allen's next words. "Come on, Yuu. Let's go to bed. I want to show you how grateful I am for what you did for me."

It was clearly an attempt to instigate sex, and that blew Kanda's mind. Allen may not have been in love with him, but he had at least warmed up to him enough to actually ask for sex. Their moments of physical intimacy usually arose out of the heat of the moment or because Kanda started them; Allen had always consented to them, but he had never initiated them. Yet, as the Moyashi grabbed his wrist and guided him towards their bed, that could only be what he was doing now. And Kanda certainly wasn't going to object to that.