The next two weeks passed in much the same manner as that first full day back at the Order. Every morning Kanda would go off to do his general's duties; he would return around dinner time, and then the lovers' evenings would be spent on some combination of talking and having sex. To the Order nothing was different: unless Kanda had a specific mission he would always take advantage of the ark to come home for his soba and to sleep in his own bed. No one needed to know that a certain white haired neko was now his real reason for returning so often.

When Kanda wasn't around, Allen was training. With each day that passed he grew more accustomed to the changes to his body. He no longer had to put conscious thought into not sitting on his tail, and he had come to enjoy, albeit a little begrudgingly, his heightened senses. He was still embarrassed by how he looked, but the need to hide his ears and tail from the rest of the Order had faded.

But at the end of those two weeks things started to change. Lavi became the first of their friends to discover that Allen's changes weren't solely physical. The redhead had returned from a mission and was dying of curiosity about how much progress Allen had made in his absence. He went straight to the training room where he knew the neko would be.

The room was quiet when he entered, Allen was nowhere to be seen. Lavi stepped further inside, glimpsing a bit of white on the floor on the other side of the room. Thinking the teen had passed out, the redhead ran to his side.

He stopped short once he got a better look at the neko. Allen was curled up in a ball, lying in a pool of sunlight from one of the windows. His tail was wrapped around his body and his ears were twitching slightly in his sleep. The teen was merely napping, exactly like a cat would.

Lavi tried and failed to keep himself from laughing at the sight. He squatted down beside the neko and reached out to pet Allen's ears. His hand was batted away immediately. The light laughter had woken Allen. "What do you think you're doing?"

"Sorry." Lavi scooted away quickly. The redhead watched in fascination as Allen sat up, yawning and stretching, still acting exactly like a cat would. "Exactly how deep did that curse go?"

Allen blinked at the question, unaware of how catlike his behavior was. "What do you mean?"

"You're acting like a cat, Allen."

Allen froze in the middle of smoothing out his hair. He collapsed back to the floor with a groan. "What was I doing this time?"

Lavi chose to ignore the reference to a previous event, he could get that information later. "You were sleeping in a pool of sunlight, and when you woke up you started stretching and grooming yourself." At the look on the neko's face, Lavi laughed. "It was way too adorable."

Allen groaned again and pushed himself up onto his feet. "At least I wasn't purring."

The comment was said under his breath, but Lavi caught it. "You purr? Oh man, I've gotta hear that."

He was unprepared for Allen's reaction to his careless comment, and ended up splayed out on the ground when his left foot was kicked out from under him. Allen hissed at the redhead, his ears laying flat against his head. Lavi scrambled away from the angry neko.

Allen suddenly sighed and sat back down. "Look. I don't like the purring. It's the part of all this that I hate the most." He narrowed his eyes at the redhead. "So can you not do whatever it is you're planning, and just leave it alone?"

"Fine. But I promise that I will not give up on my desire to hear you purr."

Given what he'd just learned, Lavi wasn't shocked when Allen stormed out of the room without a word. What was surprising was that by the time dinner rolled around the neko was still nowhere to be found.

.x.x.

Lavi was making a fuss when I returned to the Order. The Moyashi clearly wasn't in the cafeteria, given that that was the reason the redhead was being loud and annoying, so I chose to pass on dinner and do some meditation until things had quieted down.

I stopped at my room to drop off my jacket, only to discover the missing neko asleep on my bed. I stood in the doorway a moment, admiring the strong yet slender body of my lover, before a troubling thought hit me. I strode over to the bed and roughly shook Allen awake. "Oi Moyashi! How the fuck did you get into my room?"

Allen bolted upright, the fur on his ears and tail bristling. "Damn, Bakanda. That's not a nice way to wake someone."

I narrowed my eyes and growled at him. "Answer the question Moyashi."

"I picked the lock." The Moyashi yawned and lay back down.

I blinked at the completely innocent way Allen was acting. He didn't seem to realize that he had invaded my privacy. I said the only thing that I could think of. "...Why?"

He shrugged. "I wanted a nap."

"So you broke into my room?"

"It made sense at the time." He looked up at me with a serious expression on his face. "All I really remember is thinking that your bed would smell like you."

I snorted, a sound that could almost pass for laughter. I sat down beside the Moyashi, rubbing his ears. He started purring immediately, leaning into the touch. "You're such a cat, Moyashi."

Allen gave me a strange look. "Lavi said something similar this afternoon." He winced. "I wonder..."

When the sentence went unfinished I gave him a nudge. "You wonder what, Moyashi?"

He sighed. Whatever was bothering him was eating at him enough that the purring stopped. When he finally spoke it was slow, like he was scared of what he was saying. "I've been like this for two weeks. And I've started to act more and more like a cat. Maybe... ...Maybe the curse is getting stronger. Maybe whatever my Innocence did is wearing off. Maybe-"

I laughed. For some reason hearing him panic like that was funny. I pulled the pillow out from under Allen's head and slammed it into the neko's face. "Calm down, Moyashi. Stop thinking so hard. It'll give you a headache."

Allen grabbed the pillow and threw it at me, but I caught it in midair. "You're just stressed and tired, Moyashi. You haven't been sleeping well."

"I have too!"

"Moyashi. We've been sleeping in the same bed. I know it's true." I smacked the Moyashi with the pillow again when the neko stuck his tongue out at me. "It's good that you're acting more like a cat. It means that you're getting used to this thing. And that means you're one step closer to getting your life back on track."

I stood up off the bed and dragged the neko with me, silencing his protest with a serious look. "Now, you can either listen to me and go get dinner like normal, or you can go see Komui and have him examine you and tell you exactly what I just did. Your choice, Moyashi."

He just stared at me. It was one of those moments where I really wondered what on earth was going through his head. Even with how close we had become since admitting our feelings, I had no hope of understanding that boy.

"Thank you, Yuu." His arms were suddenly around my neck and his lips were pressed into mine.

I could have kissed him forever, but after only a few seconds his stomach rumbled. I laughed as I shoved him away. "Really, Moyashi?"

"Yes, really." He hit me playfully in the side. "Komui said that until my Innocence is back to full strength I'd probably be hungrier than usual."

"Then go eat." I pushed him out of the room.

He looked sad when he turned around. "You're not coming?"

I rolled my eyes as I closed the door. I heard what sounded like a strangled sob, like the Moyashi was trying not to cry. He couldn't really be that stupid, could he? I hissed through the door at him. "Baka. Our relationship is supposed to be a secret, remember?"

"Damn it." There was a thump against the door. I could practically see the Moyashi banging his head out of how stupid he felt. "Any chance you can forget that just happened?"

I laughed at the request. "Go eat. I'll catch up with you in a little bit."

.x.x.

After Lavi finished fussing over Allen's disappearance, dinner passed uneventfully. Kanda and Lenalee both joined the pair over the course of the meal, and the conversation contained nothing out of the ordinary. Until Allen accidentally let it slip that he hadn't activated his Innocence since he'd been sidelined. His friends let it pass at the time, but the second the food was gone, Allen found himself physically dragged into the training room.

"Come on guys, it's not that big of a deal! I'm just letting it rest!"

Lenalee laughed. "I seem to remember you using that excuse a couple years ago... right before you broke it!"

"This is a completely different situation!" Allen began to make his way toward the door.

"I was there when you talked to Hevlaska, Bean Sprout." Lavi blocked the door so Allen couldn't leave. "Your synchro rate is part of the problem. You need to activate your weapon if you want your condition to improve."

Allen's tail thrashed behind him as he hissed in frustration. He would never say it out loud, but he was scared.

Lavi continued talking, but he really should have shut up. "Come on Kitty, you just-"

The sentence was never finished. Allen punched him in the nose before the rest of the words were out. "Don't call me that!"

As he clutched his bleeding nose, Lavi looked around for sympathy, but didn't get any. Kanda was leaning against the wall, as cold and impassive as ever (though inwardly he was grinning with pride for his Moyashi). Lenalee rolled her eyes at the redhead. "Really Lavi, you should have known better."

She tentatively placed a hand on Allen's shoulder and led the angry neko further into the room. "We're not asking you to spar or do anything fancy. We just want you to activate it. We're worried about you and want to make sure you're recovering properly."

"Fine. Let's just get this over with." Allen grumbled as he stalked to the center of the room. He turned around to face the others, and activated his Innocence. "There. Are you satisfied now?"

Lavi's eye widened. He said something that may have been "oh shit!", but with the bleeding nose it was hard to tell. With his Innocence activated, and giving the general area a death glare, Allen looked terrifying. And Lavi was the reason the neko was pissed off. He did the only smart thing and fled.

Allen's anger faded to confusion over Lavi's reaction. Kanda snickered at the look on the neko's face. "I told you the other day Moyashi: you really need to see your reflection."

Lenalee nodded and hurried out of the room. "Stay right there, I'll go get a mirror."

The door slammed closed behind her, the sudden exit only confusing Allen more. He finally turned his gaze to Kanda. "Don't give me that look Moyashi. I'm going to end up jumping you if you don't knock it off."

He approached Allen carefully, the last thing he wanted to do was startle the neko and get his face clawed off. When he decided that he was close enough, Kanda reached out and grabbed Allen's right hand, pulling it up into the teen's field of vision.

Allen gaped at his human hand. It was covered in the white fabric of his Innocence, like he expected, but his fingernails had become razor sharp claws. They were about an inch long, and the same black as his Innocence hand, which made that tiny portion of his brain that wasn't freaking out wonder if they would be useful fighting akuma.

Acting on impulse, Allen willed the claws to retract, and they did. The action was repeated, and the claws once again slid into view. He was so stunned that when Kanda let go, the hand fell limply to his side. There was one more item for the list of ways he'd become more like a cat.

Steeling himself, Allen slowly moved his Innocence hand into his line of sight and looked it over critically. It wasn't all that different from how it normally looked, black claws edged in silver. He couldn't figure out exactly what it was, but they were definitely giving off a deadlier vibe than they did before.

He looked up to see Kanda smirking at him. Before he could say anything though, Lenalee came back. Seeing that Allen had calmed down, she approached him without fear. She offered him the hand mirror, but he didn't take it. Lenalee couldn't help laughing at the terrified look on Allen's face. "Come on Allen, it's not that bad."

"Oh really? Then why are you all acting like you're scared of me?"

Kanda scoffed, then smacked Allen upside the head. "Baka. Just take the mirror."

Allen stuck his tongue out at Kanda and kicked the samurai in the shin. Lenalee rolled her eyes and forcibly shoved the two apart. "Boys! Knock it off! This isn't the time for that!"

Lenalee focused her ferocity on Allen as he tried to escape. She thrust the mirror into his chest and glared at him. "Allen. Look at your reflection. Now."

Allen frowned and took the mirror. He didn't want to look, and not just because he was scared; he had been avoiding his reflection ever since he had become a neko. But he knew that Kanda was aware of those feelings. And that his lover would actually make him look if he took to long to do it himself. So he took a deep breath and turned the mirror around.

It was nowhere near as bad as he was expecting it to be. From the way Lavi had run from the room, Allen figured something was horribly wrong. But his reflection was mostly normal. The sharp canine teeth were strange to see, but he knew that they would be there. His white hair was spiked up, as was the fur covering his ears. Their existence was much more obvious this way, they looked almost twice their usual size.

But it was his eyes that caught his attention. His pupils were catlike slits, and the silver irises were tinged with just enough Innocence green to make them glow slightly. There was no denying that they were more cat than human.

Allen sighed and handed the mirror back to Lenalee, deactivating his Innocence in the process. He couldn't look any longer. He left the training room without a word. Lenalee followed after him. "Allen. It's going to be ok. You-"

He slammed the door behind him, effectively keeping her from following him into the hall. It wasn't just that he was upset, he was tired of her treating him like he was fragile. She had been doing it ever since he got turned into a neko, and he was sick and tired of it. She was his best friend, she was supposed to know better.

.x.x.

Lenalee gaped at the closed door that she had almost collided with. I couldn't resist scoffing at her. She turned around and narrowed her eyes defensively at me. "What?"

I walked to the door and forcibly moved her out of my way. "If you really want to help, go find that idiotic rabbit. He's going to need someone to explain to him that it was his own damn fault the Moyashi broke his nose."

Before I walked away, I paused. The Chinese girl may have been like my obnoxious little sister, but she was my Moyashi's best friend. Treating her too roughly would only come back to bite me. Yet I knew that he would never tell her to back off. "The brat's not made of glass. Stop treating him like he's going to fall apart if you say the wrong thing."

I left Lenalee standing there, gaping like a fish. I knew she was fixating on the fact that I had said something civil about Allen, but I didn't care. I was just happy that I got my point across without physical violence. Plus there were more pressing matters to attend to.

Namely my erection that was becoming harder by the second. I couldn't stop picturing my Moyashi breaking the redheaded moron's nose. I had never felt more attracted to him. I needed to find him, and fast.