It was no surprise at all that Lavi was waiting for me in the hallway outside of the cafeteria. He had clearly disagreed with Lenalee when she had decided I needed space. She was my best friend, she knew me better than I knew myself sometimes, and she was probably right that I needed some time to myself. However, I really did not want to face Hevlaska alone, so I let Lavi tag along.

I knocked hesitantly on the door to Komui's office. I could hear enough of what was happening on the other side to know the supervisor wasn't alone. "Come in, Allen-kun."

Lavi laughed at my surprise. "You're the only one polite enough to knock."

I stuck my tongue out at him briefly before opening the door. And if Lavi hadn't been right behind me, and therefore blocking my escape route, I would have left immediately. Leverrier and Link were there. I did not want to see either of them.

"Hello Walker."

I didn't feel the need to acknowledge the inspector, so I ignored him and turned my attention to Komui. "I can come back later if you're busy."

"Sorry, Allen-kun. The inspectors are actually here because of you." Komui stood up and clapped his hands together in forced cheerfulness. "Shall we go see Hevlaska now?"

Of course Central had somehow already heard that I was having issues with my Innocence.

I stared at Komui's back as he led the way to Hevlaska's chamber. Lavi walked beside me, and I intentionally blocked out the other two. I was nervous enough about this, I didn't need to worry about Central too.

Hevlaska greeted Komui warmly. "Good morning. What brings you to see me?"

"Good morning, Hev." Komui smiled at her. "Allen-kun is having a little trouble with his Innocence. Could you check it out for us?"

"Of course." She turned her attention to me. "What seems to be the problem, Allen?"

I sighed and took my coat off. And promptly heard everyone gasp at what they saw. I ignored them and looked up at Hevlaska. "It fought off a curse. Not long after that I struggled fighting some level ones."

At her bidding I came closer. I did my best to hold still while she examined my Innocence, but the invasive feeling made it difficult. Hevlaska smiled gently as she set me back down.

"What's the verdict, Hevlaska?" I was glad Komui asked, I was too scared.

"Allen and his Innocence have fallen out of sync." That didn't sound good.

"Does that mean Walker is no longer a critical breaker?" Leverrier's tone was demanding and rude. I froze in horror at the implication. Was it possible that I'd lost the ability to draw my sword?

"No. His synchro rate is actually higher than it was last time I inspected it." Hevlaska gave me a small smile. "They've both been through a traumatic event. They're simply too weak to synchronize properly. The Innocence overstrained itself, and Allen has yet to adjust to the changes to his body."

"Does that mean Walker can't fight anymore?"

"Again, no. Allen merely needs time to recover. Once he and his Innocence are back to full strength they'll be able to sync correctly once again. However, until that happens he should stay off the battlefield. In his current state he'll only be at risk for repeating what happened before."

"You're talking about benching one of the Order's best exorcists. I can't allow that to happen." Yet you had no problems with pulling me off missions back when you thought I was a Noah.

"Secretary Leverrier. That is my call, not yours." Komui sounded as frustrated as I felt. "Based on what Hevlaska has told us, Allen-kun should be treated like he's recovering from a major injury. Therefore he will be kept off missions until he's well enough to fight again."

So I was going to be stuck at headquarters until I got used to being part cat. Wonderful.

Leverrier growled at Komui and stormed off. Link gave me an apologetic smile and followed after him. Once they were gone, Lavi spoke up. "What about changing him back?"

"Ah, yes." Komui cleared his throat and turned back to Hevlaska. "I suspect that Allen-kun's Innocence would repel any attempts to return him to normal. Can you confirm whether or not that is indeed the case?"

I braced myself for bad news. Despite what I had told Kanda, I expected things to get worse.

"Your thinking is correct, Komui. Allen's Innocence does want him to stay this way. If it had simply dispelled the entire curse it wouldn't have drained itself like it did." She gave me a gentle smile. "I'm sorry, Allen. I know that's not what you wanted to hear."

"It may not be what I want, but I decided last night that if this is what my Innocence wants, then I will accept it." I smiled at her. "Honestly I'm just relieved that everything is alright."

"Dude, I wouldn't call getting benched 'alright'." Lavi laughed and placed an arm around my shoulders. "How can you still be so positive after all these years?"

I tried to shove him away, he responded by ruffling my hair like I was a little kid. His fingers brushed one of my ears, and my gut reaction was to stomp on his foot. "What was that for?!"

I backed away from him, holding my ear. It didn't hurt, but the feeling was so bizarre. I had accepted that I was different, but I still needed time to adjust, and the invasion of my personal space didn't help.

Lavi apologized immediately when he saw me clutch my ear. "Oh my god. Allen, I'm so sorry. Are you ok?"

I forced myself to smile at him, that fake smile I knew fooled everyone but Kanda. "I'm fine. Just a little startled. But given the circumstances that's to be expected, right?" I laughed lightly as I moved to pick up my coat. Then I thanked Hevlaska and left the chamber.

Lavi caught up to me when I stopped to put my coat on. He gave me a weird look as I pulled on my hood. "You're not going to be able to hide forever. People are going to find out."

"I know." I sighed as I adjusted the fabric to make sure my ears were hidden. "I'm just not ready for the freaking out yet. I want to have a chance to get used to this before I have to explain it to others."

Lavi threw his arm around my shoulders again. "Wearing your hood inside is just going to make them suspicious."

"So long as everyone thinks I suffered a head injury on that last mission it'll work for a few days." I smiled as I pushed him off of me.

Lavi followed me to the training room. I had hoped he would leave me alone, but I could see the curiosity sparkling in his eye and knew that any attempt to get him to go away would fail.

The room was empty, Kanda must have gone off on a mission. I stared at the door for quite some time after I closed it behind me, debating whether or not I should lock it.

.x.x.

It surprised Lavi when Allen locked the door. The teen had seemed perfectly fine, which made Lavi wonder why he suddenly felt the need for privacy. "Allen, what-"

The redhead was cut off when Allen threw his coat over his head. While he untangled himself from the fabric, Allen crossed his arms and narrowed his eyes at him. "If you're going to stay then you have to promise to keep your mouth shut."

From the look on his face, Lavi could tell that the boy was dead serious. He knew that he would be dead if he breathed a word to anyone about what he was about to see. The redhead contemplated leaving, but his curiosity was too strong. He calmly backed up against the wall and out of the teen's way. "I promise."

Allen stared at him for a moment longer before he turned and walked out into the middle of the room. Lavi watched intently as Allen worked through his usual warm up routine of stretches and modified circus tricks. Though he had a hard time forcing himself to focus on the white haired boy and not the tail that moved behind him.

Allen moved slower than usual, concentrating hard on what he was doing. He was testing all the ways in which his body had changed. Lavi found himself wishing he had paid more attention to the boy before now so that he could catalogue what those changes were. As it was he had no frame of reference and could only tell that the boy was freakishly flexible.

Then Allen fell. He managed to catch himself and make it look like it was on purpose, but the expression on his face gave away his frustration. If it was possible, Lavi's attention became even more focused on the white haired boy. He may not have paid much attention before, but he knew that Allen had his routine down, and he never stumbled unless Kanda was somehow involved.

About two minutes later it happened again. And around the fourth time Allen started swearing whenever he stumbled. And that was just as shocking to Lavi as the falling was. Allen only ever swore at Kanda, and only when he was really pissed, which made Lavi realize that Allen was a lot more upset than he had been led to believe.

As the hours passed the swearing only got worse. Neither of the young men noticed that lunchtime had come and gone. Allen was breathing heavily and his hair was matted to his forehead with sweat. His ears and tail constantly twitched. He was angry as hell and looked it. He wasn't going to get anywhere if he continued on like that. "Allen."

"WHAT?!"

Lavi gulped at suddenly becoming the focus of Allen's rage. Everyone knew by then that even if he rarely showed it, Allen's temper rivaled Kanda's. You did not want to be on the receiving end of it. "Why don't you take a break? Get some dinner and cool down a little. You'll feel better."

"No. I can't stop-" Allen's angry protest was interrupted by his stomach rumbling. "Fine."

Lavi laughed and handed him his jacket, watching in fascination as Allen hid his ears under the hood. He was so caught up in it that he didn't notice the glare Allen was giving him. "Could you stop staring at me?"

"Sorry." Lavi averted his eye quickly. "It's hard not to stare, they're just so-"

"'So' what?" Allen hissed, cutting Lavi off. "Weird? Strange?"

"Actually, I was going to say adorable." Lavi's word choice startled the boy. True to Cross's prediction, Allen had hardly any self-esteem left. He still thought of himself as a freak, still secretly thought that Kanda was only pretending to love him to get in his pants. As much as his male ego hated being called cute, hearing it from someone who didn't have ulterior motives felt really good.

Lavi saw the stunned expression on Allen's face, so he smiled and kept talking. "Why do you think Lenalee ran away at breakfast? It certainly wasn't because she thought you needed space."

Allen blinked in confusion, making the redhead smirk. "She's got a crush on you, you know. You could probably use this cat thing to finally get with her."

"You better not let Komui hear you say things like that." The white haired boy sighed as he opened the training room door. "Besides, Lenalee and I had that conversation over a year ago. She knows I don't like her like that."

That revelation set Lavi's mind reeling. The bean sprout not liking Lenalee put a major wrench in everything he'd been plotting.

Allen was thankful that Lavi let the subject drop and remained quiet on the walk to the cafeteria. Though he probably wouldn't have been quite so relieved if he knew what the redhead was thinking about.

The white haired teen suddenly froze about ten feet from the cafeteria doors, causing the spaced out Lavi to bump into him. Allen didn't notice though. He was too focused on the sheer amount of noise coming from the cafeteria. His previous two meals had both been while the cafeteria was relatively empty, and therefore relatively quiet. But this was the middle of the dinner rush, and the noise that went with it felt deafening to his overly sensitive ears.

His mismatched hands flew to his ears in an attempt to shelter them from the noise. As his fingers brushed against the soft fur, tears began to prick at the corners of his eyes. Allen blinked them away quickly. He was not going to cry over this anymore.

While Allen forced himself to calm down and make his ears adjust to the excess volume, Lavi tried to get the cat-boy's attention. The teen had suddenly stopped in the middle of the hallway, and the pained expression on his face worried the apprentice Bookman. When he finally got a response from the boy he wasn't expecting it to be, "It's too loud."

Lavi blinked at the whispered words. "What are you talking about? It's no louder than it usually is."

"It is to me." Allen dropped his hands back down to his sides.

When the boy cringed at the change in volume it finally clicked for Lavi. "We can come back when it's not so crowded if you want. Or I can go grab something for you and we could eat somewhere else. The third floor lounge is usually empty this time of day."

Allen smiled at the redhead's concern. "Thanks, but I'm going to have to face it eventually, so I might as well start now. I can't avoid the cafeteria forever, right?"

Both laughed briefly at the joke. The idea of Allen avoiding the cafeteria was pretty ridiculous.

They walked into the cafeteria and waited in line together. Nothing more was said, Lavi choosing to remain silent and let Allen adjust to the noise in the room.

When they were halfway through the line Allen's usual smile returned to his face, which Lavi took as a sign that his friend had recovered. Before he could say anything however, there was a loud shout from across the cafeteria. "Allen!"

Allen winced as the blue haired boy came from out of nowhere and jumped on his back. "Hey Timothy."

Timothy wrapped his arms around Allen's neck, adjusting his position on the white haired teen's back. "They said you got hurt on your last mission. Are you ok?"

Before Allen could answer the question, the boy continued chattering. "Why are you wearing your coat inside? Aren't you hot? And why's your hood up? It's not gonna rain inside."

Allen's hood was pulled off before Timothy was done talking. The cat ears twitched as they were released from their hiding place. Timothy laughed when he saw them, unaware that Allen was frozen in fear. "Why are you wearing cat ears? That's weird, even for you."

The blue haired boy reached up and grabbed one of the ears. He tugged on it innocently, thinking it would come off. The action was met with a pained yowl from Allen as the teen practically threw the boy off his back.

The entire cafeteria turned to look at source of the screeching. One was Timothy, surprised at having been suddenly dropped on his butt. No one paid him much attention, the blue haired boy was generally found to be annoying and probably deserved it. The other cry had come from Allen. Everyone stared at the white haired teen as he clutched the ear that Timothy had yanked. Or rather, they all stared at the other white furred cat ear sticking out of the teen's head.

"Allen! Are you ok?" Lavi immediately moved to check his ear, but the white haired teen shoved him away.

"I'm fine. Let go of me." Lavi didn't listen and continued to try to move Allen's hand out of the way. Seeing how angry Allen was with the redhead, the observers quickly went back to what they were doing, though they couldn't help sneaking glances at the teen.

Timothy picked himself up off the floor, ready to yell at Allen for pushing him. But when he saw what Lavi was doing, and the barely concealed pain on Allen's face, he at least had the sense to not say what he was thinking.

Successfully pushing Lavi away, Allen pulled his hood back on. He tried his best to ignore the stares coming from the rest of the room. Lavi threw an arm around his shoulders. "Dude, you probably don't need the hood anymore." Allen frowned at the suggestion.

Timothy looked from one teen to the other. "What's going on?"

Allen sighed and let Lavi pull his hood back off. The redhead tried to touch one of the ears and was rewarded with an elbow to his rib cage. "Don't touch!"

He gave Timothy a half smile. "There was an incident on my last mission, and now I have cat ears."

Before the boy could respond someone else spoke. "And a tail. You always forget to mention the tail."

Allen glared at the intruder. "That's because it's embarrassing, Bakanda! Why do you feel the need to constantly remind me of it?!"

Kanda smirked at him. "Because you find it embarrassing, Moyashi."

"Bastard."

Lavi pulled Allen away from the Japanese man before they decided to start fighting in the middle of the cafeteria. It had been four months since they'd pulled their weapons on each other outside of the training room, and the redhead wanted that streak to last a little longer. "Ok Allen, I've had about all the swearing I can take from you today. It's your turn in line."

He shoved Allen towards the window where Jerry was waiting. "Well aren't you just adorable today. What can I make for you?"

The teen blushed as he listed off the numerous dishes he was hungry for. He wanted to put his hood back on, but he knew one of his friends would just pull it off again.

The others placed their orders, Kanda not caring that he had cut ahead of several finders, and the finders too scared of him to complain. When the food was ready Timothy led the three older exorcists over to the table he'd been sitting at. Kanda kicked Allen away when he tried to sit down. "If you want to sit down, lose the coat, Moyashi."

"Don't tell me what to do, Bakanda!"

He turned to the others for help. Lavi shrugged. "I'm with Kanda on this one, Allen. And it looks like Timothy is going to die of curiosity, so just take the jacket off."

Allen grumbled, but did what they wanted. Timothy squealed in delight when the white furred tail came into view. "That's so awesome! You're a neko!"

The older three all stared at the blue haired boy in confusion, but it was Lavi who spoke. "What's a neko?"

"It's the Japanese word for cat." Kanda answered with a growl. "But I'm guessing he means something more than that."

"Of course I do!" Timothy stuck his tongue out at the samurai. He pulled out one of the comic books from the pile by his plates. Placing it where the others could see it, he flipped it open and pointed to the drawing of a girl with cat ears. "See! In comic books a neko is someone with cat ears and a tail. Like Allen."

Lavi had that gleam in his eye that meant trouble was coming. But when he looked over at Allen to start the teasing the words died in his throat. Allen's black side was ready and waiting for any taunt the redhead could come up with. Not wanting to start something he wasn't going to win, Lavi kept his mouth shut.

"Moyashi." Kanda smirked at Allen. He was no longer afraid of the teen's black side. Now that they were together, the worst that could happen to him was rough sex, and that was far from a bad thing.

"My name's Allen, Bakanda! Why can't you get that through your thick skull?!" The teen was nowhere near as angry as he was pretending to be, he merely wanted to keep his friends from teasing him. Truthfully he was relieved that there was a word for what he had become. It was somehow comforting to know that half-cats existed, even if the others were fictional.

After the outburst, Allen turned his attention to his food and began eating as if nothing had happened. The three watching the neko gaped at the sudden change in behavior. They couldn't tell if the storm had passed or if more trouble was on the way. "Allen?"

The white haired teen stared levelly at the redhead. "You can call me a neko all you want. I really don't mind. But if you turn it into a joke or a nickname," he glared at Kanda, "then we're going to have a problem."

Lavi filed away the threat for later, he had more pressing concerns at the moment. "You're really ok with that?" Allen's mouth was full, so he could only nod. "Really? Even after the day you had?"

"What's your point, Lavi?"

"You're not as ok as you've been pretending to be." Allen tried to protest, but Lavi stopped him. "No, no more of that. I've spent all day with you. I've never heard anyone swear that much. So stop pretending. I want to know what you really think. Are you really ok with being called a neko?"

Allen was having trouble keeping a straight face. Kanda had placed a hand on the neko's knee. It was a simple gesture meant to be comforting, but to Allen it was so much more than that, and he had to struggle to not react. "I'm fine with it. Honestly."

They all fell silent. Lavi didn't believe Allen, but the neko was now ignoring him, giving his undivided attention to the food in front of him. Timothy was still trying to wrap his head around the idea that Allen knew more swear words than Lavi.

Kanda was thankful for the silence. He wanted dinner to finish quickly so he could be alone with his Moyashi. He didn't have to wait long; it was also what Allen wanted, so the neko ate his dinner quickly. The pair escaped the cafeteria together, those who saw assumed they were heading to the training hall to beat the crap out of each other.