Disclaimer: The characters within this story all belong to Hoshino-san.
Warnings: This IS a MALE/MALE pairing, so if such things disturb you, or bother you in any way, you should stop reading.
Summary: In which the holidays are explored with the tidbits and the drama of the Kanda/Allen we all love and adore. Yaoi. This will only be updated on holidays that I recognize. Which means that if I know it, I'll probably write it if I have time, or care. Readers should mention closer holidays in reviews for faster updates.
Next Update: Next update is likely to be Mothers' Day, unless other, closer holidays are introduced to me.

In A Year
Children's Day
by: Kagome-reincarnation

On the third of April, Allen and Kanda were both sent on missions. Allen and Lenalee were off to investigate what was reported as a forty-five percent change of innocence in China. Kanda and Lavi went in search of a level three akuma in Belgium, Germany that was wreaking havoc. Since there would likely be many level one akumas, and likely some level two's as well, they'd be meeting up with Krory and Miranda at the port before taking a ship across the North Sea. Bookman, oddly enough, would be staying behind. He'd claimed he had found interest in some of the Order's books.

Since Allen and Lenalee also had to cross the North Sea to catch their own transport, they'd be going together, but split up once they arrived; they'd arrive just in time for Allen and Lenalee to catch their own, speedy train, but the others would have to await the next one.

Tick... Tock... Tick... Tock...

In the one week it took for Allen and Lenalee to arrive at the place in question, Kanda's group had decimated the akuma force that had awaited them. Miranda and Krory had proved extremely more useful than anyone had thought they'd be - Krory had gone rather strangely happy after the first ten or twenty akuma and had easily begun killing them in swoops. Miranda had been the most likely to fall since she was a supporting exorcist, but since Krory had been with her, it had all worked out.

Kanda and Lavi had both begun to lose their tempers when their kind hosts had been killed, but when the level three akuma had finally come out of hiding, they'd surpassed themselves, literally tearing the killing machine into pieces.

When the level three akuma had fallen, most of the level two's had begun to flee - which left them unshielded and open for attack. They'd died shamefully easily. The level ones had gone next, dying quickly.

As the least injured of their group, Kanda had left them behind. They would return to headquarters, and he'd go to China, and, more importantly, to Allen and Lenalee. If they were done, he'd likely meet them halfway. If they'd not yet completed their mission, he'd help. It took him five days to reach them, seeing as he was closer than they had been, and he had his own rather unconventional means of speedy transport. On the fifteenth, the date of his arrival, he found Allen and Lenalee sipping tea in a supporter's home. One of the servants had seen him and associated him with the two, happily leading him to them.

Tick... Tock... Tick... Tock...

They'd made little to no progress and were happy to see Kanda. All the same, they didn't find anything definite until the eighteenth. From that lead, they'd spent the next couple of days unearthing far too many akuma to be normal. In the end, they'd been forced to fight their way through three or four waves of akuma before being half-killed by a pair of level three's.

It had taken Kanda and Lenalee to take down the first one, leaving Allen to face the second. It took time, but the two were able to subdue their own akuma, though Lenalee was knocked unconscious. With a combination attack from Kanda and an exhausted Allen, the remaining level three akuma was utterly destroyed. It was already the twenty-third.

Two days were spent simply recovering from their more severe injuries before they started back to headquarters. They arrived on May second.

Kanda was very nearly sent on yet another mission to add to his record, but when Komui had suggested it, he'd been granted looks of pure anger from young Allen, and Lenalee - angry, but with a calm face - took him aside and explained exactly what had happened and stressed that he was to send another exorcist. Or else. While it was certainly true that Kanda was the least injured of their group, no doubt due to his special ability, he'd also gone straight to Allen and Lenalee, and thus was the most weary of them. Certainly, he managed to hide his fatigue as well as ever thanks to the many years he'd spent emotionally frigid.

Komui had sent someone else, and all had been quiet.

Tick... Tock... Tick. Tock...

Quiet as it was around the large building, Kanda would have been a fool if he hadn't noticed Allen's actions. The white-haired boy had started acting strangely since their return to the Dark Order's headquarters. At first, he'd been unhealthily happy, but he'd suddenly become morbidly depressed.

It was confusing to say the least, and all of Kanda's probing and cautious questions were met with casual, "It doesn't matter's," and "Don't worry about it's."

Needless to say, it was driving the Japanese teenager absolutely crazy. Kanda was very much used to getting what he wanted when he wanted, especially when it happened to be information, and was to be drawn from people smaller than he. With Allen, he'd had no such breaks. He wasn't able to intimidate the boy into giving him an answer, nor was he able to hint at it. He couldn't trick an answer out of the boy, and when he'd tried to force it out, Allen had very easily batted him out of the way with his Innocence-imbued arm.

Tick... Tock...Tick. Tock. Tick...

It was a scowling Kanda that seated himself in the mess hall with his familiar bento of soba and chopsticks. He could still feel the bruise from the blow he'd received. The worst part of it was that he didn't even have the heart to blame Allen, since he was in the wrong, trying to demand answers that he didn't earn.

It was quite irksome, knowing that the boy was so resilient, but that, Kanda supposed, was what made him love him. So it was that he ate, a dark cloud on his face warning the Finders and other exorcists away from him.

Fortunately for him, there were always at least one or two that never seemed to obey the rules. Both Lenalee and Lavi had approached him at the same time. Without asking, they'd seated themselves. Kanda had grunted in reluctant acceptance. He'd learned that it was very much impossible to force the ever stubborn Lenalee to move without harming her, and even then, she'd easily reprimand him and his attacks with her winds. Lavi, though, simply never seemed to learn.

And it was Lavi, though he seemed reluctant - probably remembering their revenge on All Fools' Day - who spoke first.

"What's up, Yuu?"

Kanda simply glared, carefully slurping more of his soba noodles. He didn't bother giving the redhead an answer, deeming it unimportant, and silly. In short, it wasn't an issue he intended to share, particularly not with the loudmouthed, redheaded Bookman.

He seemed to take the hint and fell quiet. He certainly didn't fall silent, as his eating was far louder than the conversations around them.

Lenalee was next. "Kanda, what happened?"

Again, he ignored the question, simple downing more soba, glaring at the oblivious and loud male teenager that sat with them.

Lenalee nodded, a serene expression laying itself out on her face. She understood. Lavi was the one that Kanda wished to remain blind and deaf to his business. She'd simply ask him again when the redhead wasn't there.

Tick... Tock. Tick. Tock.

It was much later when she finally got a hold of him. It was in the corridors, after the two with unusually colored hair had retired for the night.

"So, what happened?" she asked him once more.

"Nothing." he responded, continuing his walk to his own room.

"Don't lie to me." she scolded him.

"Who says I'm lying?"

"It's obvious. Look, you're even saying things you normally wouldn't say. If you were lying, you just wouldn't mention anything and let us think whatever we wanted." she expressed her concern. "So tell me what's wrong."

He sighed, shoulders relaxing only slightly. "It's Allen."

She followed suite, sighing as she nodded. "I figured as much. He's the only one whose able to get you so riled up. Is it something he said?"

Kanda shook his head. "It's something he hasn't said."

Lenalee frowned, jumping to conclusions. "You can't force him to love you." she told him gently.

He frowned, wondering what she meant, before shaking his head. "That's not it. I've come to terms with that already."

"Then?"

"Allen has been... strange. He was excited when we returned from our mission on the second, but he became depressed just two hours later and has remained depressed since. It's been two days now, and I can't figure out what's wrong." his frustration was beginning to show through his mask of nonchalance.

Tick-Tock. Tick-tock. Tick-Tock.

"Have you tried asking him?"

"What?" Kanda was surprised. And yet, when he thought about it, he found he wasn't as surprised as he thought. Embarrassed, and turned a tomato red, he turned away.

"Let me guess - intimidation, force, and your usual methods?"

Still turned away, he nodded sharply.

He heard her sighing behind him.

"Next time ask him." she said. He could practically feel the smile on her face. A kindly one.

He nodded again. He stood there for a few moments, waiting for her footsteps to fade away.

Then, he promptly changed his destination to that of the ever-constant teenager.

Tick-tock-tick. Tock-tick-tock. Tick-tock-tick.

Rapping on the door, he awaited the opening of it almost anxiously. As he waited, a sense of deja vu swept across him, making him bite his lip in nothing short of bitterness.

Still, when the sleepy, tousle-headed boy opened the door, it was all he could do to not let the words spill out.

"Kanda?" the boy blinked. "What is it? What do you need?"

"Er... What's wrong?" Kanda asked, fidgeting a bit.

Allen blinked again. "What?"

"I asked what's wrong. You've been depressed."

Allen suddenly turned bright red. "Oh! It's nothing important." He made to shut the door.

Kanda frowned, dragging the door open.

"It's important to me." he said, voice stern. "Now tell me what's wrong."

Allen sighed. "Come in." He stepped back, giving the Japanese boy the space to enter.

Kanda took the offer eagerly, curious about both the room and the problem that ailed the teen.

"It's actually pretty stupid." Allen admitted, teeth worrying his bottom lip.

Kanda sighed. "It can't be as stupid as me when I was trying to get it out of you before."

The parasite-type equipped exorcist frowned. "Is that what you were trying to find out?"

Kanda turned red again. "Er... yes?"

"Just ask, why don't you?" the boy demanded.

"Lenalee suggested it, so I am, now." Kanda told him. "Now stop evading the question."

Tick... Tock... Tick-tock.

"Er... Children's Day." Allen muttered beneath his breathe.

Kanda blinked, before calculating the date. Allen was right. May fifth was Children's Day.

"I'm fifteen, so it's stupid and all, but I can't help but want to participate, even if I am too old for it." the white-haired boy continued on.

"It's fine."

Allen blinked. "You won't tell anyone?" he implored, his expression that of a child worried about being teased.

"Don't worry. I won't tell." Kanda promised. "Now go to sleep." He stood up and quickly left the cursed boy's room, not even hearing the farewell the boy called after him.

Tick. Tock. Tick. Tock. Tick. Tock.

And the next morning, when Allen found his room filled with food, he was ecstatic. When he found that the mess hall had been prepared for a party, he was overjoyed. It was with tears of happiness in his eyes that he thanked the black-haired exorcist, knowing that it was only he that could've done all that he'd done.

Even if it meant that Kanda had told people about his wish for Children's Day.