"Either get them to open the gate, or I'll make the Moyashi do it." Kanda was shouting at Komui through his golem. And I was just about angry enough to do it. It was my ark after all. Neah had let me keep it when we parted ways.

The people in charge of opening the ark gates had refused to let us in because we were a measly five minutes late. Even explaining that we got ambushed by akuma and lost a finder didn't change their minds. Kanda, true to character, argued with everyone he could about it until they ran away.

"You're going to make me do it? Really, Bakanda? Do you think you can?" From the look on Kanda's face, my challenge had been perceived as a sexual innuendo rather than a death threat.

"Now, now boys, don't kill each other." It was a good thing Komui couldn't actually see us. "And Allen-kun, you're injured, you shouldn't be fighting with Kanda. Just calm down, Lenalee's on her way to open the gate for you."

'Injured?' I gave Kanda a look. He shrugged. "It was too hard to explain over the phone."

.x.x.

Lenalee led us into headquarters. Lavi pounced on Allen the second we walked inside. The Moyashi was still wearing his stupid hood, probably the only time I'd ever be thankful for that. The last thing either of us wanted right then would be for the Baka Usagi to discover Allen's cat ears.

Allen skillfully dodged the redhead's attempt at a hug. And Lenalee smacked him on the head with her clipboard. "You shouldn't run at him like that if he's hurt, Lavi."

"But he looks fine~!" Lavi whined as he tried to hug my Moyashi again. "You're fine, right Allen-chan~?" Fuck, that rabbit was annoying. And way too loud...

The Moyashi visibly cringed. He bit his lip, strangling a whimper. It must've hurt badly if he was showing others that he was in pain. "Allen-chan?"

"Shut up, Baka Usagi. The moron here hit his head." I pulled my Moyashi away from the redhead, and started dragging him away. "Had to cut the mission short because his hearing's all screwed up."

Allen put on a good show, fighting me as I dragged him from the room. He stopped as soon as we were free of the others. "We're alone now, Yuu. You can let go of me."

I stopped dragging him, but I didn't let go. I merely adjusted my grip so I was holding his hand instead of his wrist. I wasn't ready to release my hold on him just yet. He squeezed my hand gently. "I'm scared too."

"Moyashi." I stopped walking when Komui's office was in sight. "Don't put all your hopes on this psycho."

He laughed mirthlessly. "And who else am I supposed to count on to fix me? Master Cross?" He sighed and let go of my hand. "However crazy Komui might be, he's definitely more reliable than Cross."

I followed him as he walked into the office, making sure to close the door behind us. Komui was sitting at his desk, awake and expecting us. "I got a call from General Cross. It was just as cryptic as yours, Kanda-kun. All he said was that Allen-kun needs my help. Care to tell me what's going on?"

Before Allen could say anything, I shoved him forward and pulled off his hood. "It's easiest to just show you."

Komui stared at the cat ears on Allen's head. His eyes widening in surprise when they moved. Then he immediately glomped the Moyashi. "You're so adorable Allen-chan~!"

I had to resist the urge to draw Mugen. Forcing myself to stay still, I watched Allen push Komui away. "Please don't be so loud, Komui-san."

The supervisor went right back to serious mode, sitting at his desk and gesturing for us to come closer. "What do you mean, Allen-kun? What exactly happened?"

"I was unconscious for most of it. I can really only tell you what-"

"He got cursed by a witch." I cut the Moyashi off. He was going to take way too long to tell the story. "She tried to turn him into a cat. Cross showed up out of nowhere and tried to reverse it. The Moyashi's Innocence helped too. He ended up like that."

Allen turned and glared at me. "Bakanda! You could have at least told it properly!"

I smirked at him. "Then you wanted me to tell him how you cried like a baby? Or the part where you almost lost to a group of level ones?"

Fake fighting sucked. It was a lot easier to make fun of Allen back when I thought he hated me. Now that embarrassed look just made me feel bad. So I acted like I was annoyed, and stormed out. Maybe some training would clear my head.

.x.x.

I was relieved that Kanda left. I didn't trust myself to not give us away.

Komui laughed as the door slammed shut. "Kanda never changes." Then he turned back to me. "Sit down and tell me everything."

I sighed as I looked at the chair. I really had no idea how to sit in it without taking off my coat or sitting on my tail. Komui would have to see the tail eventually, but I was scared of how he'd react. That hug earlier had caught me off guard.

I unbuttoned the jacket and slowly slipped it off. I heard Komui gasp as my tail came into view. He gave me a hesitant smile as I sat down, but I couldn't bring myself to match it. "Where do you want me to start?"

Komui stared at me like he was studying me. "How are you feeling?"

I snorted in annoyance. "Ask me a question I actually know the answer to."

"Sorry." He smiled gently. "I meant, do you feel sick? Does anything hurt?"

I shook my head. "I'm tired and haven't had a good meal in a while, but otherwise I'm fine." Komui's face said he thought I was lying, so I elaborated. "When I first woke up like this everything hurt, but that's passed."

"What hurt the worst?" Komui was writing things down now, apparently we were skipping the story and going straight to the medical exam.

"My head and lower back." I was tempted to roll my eyes at him.

He didn't notice my reaction, he was too focused on his note taking. "Have you noticed any other changes?"

"Where do you want me to start?" This time I did roll my eyes. Then I sighed and answered the question, taking out my frustrations on Komui was not going to help. "My sense of hearing is a lot more sensitive than it used to be. Same goes for my sense of smell. I can-"

"What do you mean by 'more sensitive'?" Komui looked up from his notes as he interrupted.

"Exactly that." I shrugged. "Loud noises seem louder, and I can pick up sounds I couldn't before."

"Like what?"

"Like heartbeats. Or conversations in the next room." I knew this was relevant, but it was still hard to say out loud.

"So you're actually hearing through the cat ears?" Komui asked cautiously, like he was afraid of how I'd react to the question. My answer was to push back my hair and show him that my human ears were gone. He gaped for a moment then looked away. "Oh."

The supervisor returned his gaze to the papers as he scribbled something down. "What were you saying before I cut you off?"

"I can see in the dark now." I waited to make sure he wasn't going to interrupt me again before I continued. "When I activate my Innocence-"

I stopped abruptly. I couldn't say those words. Much like I couldn't acknowledge my ears and tail out loud either.

"What about your Innocence?" Komui's head snapped up urgently when I stopped talking. "Is something wrong with it?"

"As far as I can tell, it's fine." I sighed and bit the bullet. "But when I activate it my ... teeth change..." No, I really couldn't say it. And for all I knew there were other changes, that was just the only one Kanda had told me about.

Komui let it drop. Sort of. "Kanda said you almost lost to some level one akuma. What happened?"

"The bastard stood on the sidelines and refused to help." I huffed in anger. "We were on our way back here when we encountered them. Kanda fought the level three while I took on the rest. It should have been a piece of cake." I shook my head. "Except that the heat of battle is not the time to suddenly discover that your body moves differently. I almost lost because I couldn't fight like I normally would."

Komui scribbled some more notes then set the pen down. "And Cross thinks there might be something I can do to change you back?"

I nodded. "That's what Kanda said. I didn't actually see Master Cross, he was gone before I woke up."

"Then let's go to my laboratory, so I can get a better look at what's happened." He picked up the papers as he stood up.

I swallowed. I hadn't been in Komui's laboratory since we packed up and moved from the old headquarters. Nothing good had ever happened there. It scared me to think that letting this psycho experiment on me was my best chance at returning to normal.

I followed the supervisor out of the room after throwing my coat on. I absolutely did not want any of the science division guys to see me like this.

.x.x.

Allen sat there silently while I poked and prodded him. He cooperated and answered my questions, but he never protested. I did every test I could think of, and Allen never objected. He didn't even fight me when I drew his blood, and he hated that more than getting his Innocence fixed.

"You've been unusually quiet, Allen-kun. What's wrong?" I asked as I finished the last of my notes.

"Really?" He laughed at me. "You can't tell?" He gestured at his ears which twitched in response to his frustration.

"You hate them that much?" From what I'd gathered so far, he was actually better and stronger than he was before. Cat ears and a tail seemed like a fair trade to me. It never occurred to me that he wouldn't see it that way.

He gave me a pointed look. "Am I supposed to be happy that I was cursed?"

"No, I suppose not."

He gave a small smile as he left. "Just figure out how to fix me, ok?"

.x.x.

Waiting for the results of Komui's tests was going to kill me. I just wanted to get this over with and go back to normal.

In the meantime, I went to get a decent meal in the cafeteria, my nearly empty stomach was not helping my mood.

Apparently everyone had heard Kanda's story about me hitting my head. Which wasn't all that surprising given that he had told it to Lavi and Lenalee. No one reacted to me wearing my hood inside, though the cafeteria was fairly empty since dinner wouldn't start for another hour.

Jerry shooed me away from the counter before I even got close. "No, no, sweetie. You go sit down and rest. I'll whip up some of your favorites and have someone bring them out to you. Now go."

I sat down at an empty table, and the food arrived soon after. Lavi and Lenalee came into the cafeteria about then too, sitting at the table with me. I ignored them until my food was gone, but we'd known each other for long enough now that they weren't offended.

I listened to them talk about past missions, the weather, anything and everything they could think of that wasn't me and my last mission. Which meant that the second I was done eating they were going to bombard me with questions. So I took my time.

They were discussing Marie and Miranda's wedding when I finished eating. Interesting. They'd reached events that happened three months earlier. They must have really wanted to question me to put up with me eating that slowly.

"Are you ok, Allen-kun?" Lenalee was on top of things, her question out the second I set my fork down.

I smiled gently at her. "Mostly. But I'm still waiting for the results of the tests your brother did." I would play along; if they thought I had a head injury, pretending to be alright would only make them more suspicious of me.

"What exactly happened? All Kanda would tell us was that you hit your head."

I didn't know how to answer Lavi's question, but I didn't have to. I was rescued by the message that Komui was ready for me. I gave them a smile as I left. "Sorry. Guess we'll have to finish this later."

.x.x.

"So, what's the news, Komui-san?" The tests were done sooner than expected, Allen was expecting good news.

Komui wrapped the white haired boy in a hug. "I'm sorry, Allen-kun. There's nothing I can do."

The hopeful look on Allen's face vanished in an instant. A single tear escaped down his cheek before his expression hardened. "What do you mean?"

"Anything I could do would do more harm than good." Komui sighed and returned to his desk. He knew Allen wasn't going to take this well. "If I try to mess with this you'll only end up deaf."

Allen was silent as he tried to process what he'd just been told. He'd put his hope in Komui only to be told that the supervisor could only make things worse.

"Aren't there any other options?" The desperation Allen felt was audible in his voice. His fists clenched at his sides and his tail twitched behind him. "Can't you make a potion or something?"

"Any potion I could make would be temporary." Komui sighed and took off his glasses. "It would wear off after a couple days. And you'd probably be in pain the entire time."

"Why?" If the situation weren't so serious, Komui would have been distracted by how adorable cat-Allen looked when he was confused.

"Your Innocence would fight it off."

"What?! What do you mean?!"

Komui sighed and gestured for Allen to sit down. "The tests I ran showed that Cross's spell did nothing in fighting off the curse. Your Innocence did all the work. It somehow managed to fight off the bad parts of the curse and leave only the parts that would make you stronger. For some reason I can't understand, it wanted you to be like this."

Allen had no response to that. He just sat there staring at Komui. So Komui kept talking. "You should go see Hevlaska tomorrow. She should be able to give you more specifics. In the meantime, why don't you go get some sleep? You'll feel better after sleeping in your own bed."

Allen nodded slowly and left without a word.

When the door closed, Komui placed his glasses back on his nose and stared at the paper in front of him. He hadn't told Allen what it said, about the change to the boy's body it described. He couldn't bring himself to do it. The boy would only take it badly, and Komui worried that he might take it bad enough to hurt himself. He sighed and stuck the page in Allen's file, hiding it among papers most others would assume were junk.

Allen didn't need to know. After all, the change only mattered if he was gay. And Komui was certain that Allen was not gay.

.x.x.

I opened the door to my room to find Kanda sitting on my bed. I sighed as I closed the door behind me, I wasn't ready to see him just yet. "What are you doing here?"

"Lenalee told me you'd already eaten dinner and that you'd gone to get your test results from Komui. This seemed like the best place to wait for you."

"Why?" I pressed my forehead against the door. I didn't want to look at him.

"Because I knew you'd try to hide from me if it was bad news." Kanda embraced me from behind and pulled off my hood. "I'm sorry. I know how much you wanted him to be able to fix the curse."

I sighed and leaned into the hug. "Actually Komui can fix the curse."

"That's good, right? So what's wrong?" He pulled me away from the door and led me towards the bed.

"My Innocence won't let him." I sighed as I flopped down on the mattress.

Kanda sat beside me and started rubbing my ears. The feeling was nice and relaxing after the stressful day I'd had, so I didn't push him away. We were silent for a while before I spoke again. "According to Komui, my Innocence chose which parts of the curse affected me. I'm like this because it's what my Innocence wants."

I still didn't know how I felt about that. I wanted things to go back to normal, mostly- I wasn't about to give up Kanda. I didn't want to be part cat. I didn't want to have a tail. But if that's what my Innocence wanted... Well, it had had my best interests at heart for years. Why should I start doubting it now? If this is what it wanted for me, why shouldn't I trust it?

The answer? There wasn't one. There was no reason why I shouldn't trust the thing I trusted with my life. If this is what my Innocence wants then I guess I have to accept that I was different now and move on.

Having reached a decision, I looked up at Kanda. He was still petting me, his expression was unreadable. "What are you going to do now, Moyashi?"

"If this is what my Innocence wants, then there's no point in fighting it." I smiled up at him, hoping it conveyed my acceptance. "So I guess I'm part cat now."

He leaned down and kissed my forehead. "Are you ok with that?"

"I'm working on it." I sat up and leaned against him. "There are some things I'm going to have to get used to first."

I couldn't see his face, but I felt him smirk. "What?!"

"You'll be fine. You've gotten used to the purring already." I pulled away and narrowed my eyes at him, he met my gaze. "Don't give me that look. You've been purring for the last hour, and haven't tried to push me away once."

An hour? Had I really been lost in thought that long? The purring would explain why Kanda hadn't interrupted me though. Because for some inexplicable reason he liked that. "I don't have to explain myself to you."

Kanda laughed, scratching my ear and reminding me that he hadn't stopped petting my head. Which meant that I was still purring. Somehow I was no longer aware of that rumbling in my chest. He was right, I'd gotten used to it.

I looked up at him when he suddenly stood up. He leaned down and kissed me, then he started walking towards the door. "Where are you going, Yuu?"

"You need sleep tonight, Moyashi. If I don't leave now that won't happen." It took me a second to understand what he meant.

"And if I asked you to stay?"

He paused with his hand on the doorknob. He laughed. "Go to sleep, Allen." Then he was gone.