A/N: Here's the rest of the flashback.

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

The fight between the Fourteenth and Apocryphos was very anticlimactic. The sentient Innocence that I had stood no chance against was completely outclassed by the Noah. In the time it took me and Teidoll to order the finders to stay out of it, the fight was over.

I looked away for a few seconds and when I turned back, the Fourteenth had Apocryphos pinned to a wall, ready to deliver the final blow. The Noah paused the fight to speak to him. "Allen doesn't want me to finish you off. I'm trying to prove to him that I'm not the enemy, so I'm going to give you a choice. If you promise to leave Allen and his friends alone, I'll let you live."

Apocryphos growled angrily at him. The Noah growled right back. "I'm not a threat to Allen or the Black Order. You're wasting your time fighting me."

Clearly Apocryphos didn't believe him. He tried to attack the Fourteenth, who dodged it easily. He sighed. "Have it your way then."

The sentient Innocence dissolved into smoke when the Fourteenth delivered the final blow. The Noah just stood there watching the smoke dissipate, his expression was unreadable. I stalked over to him and had my sword at his throat within seconds.

The Noah in Allen's body sighed. "You know, there's no need for this. I have no intention of harming my nephew. He's free to go once I'm done with him."

"Like I would believe that." I hissed at him and moved my sword ever so slightly. "...'Nephew'?"

He sighed again. The exasperated tone was not lost on me. "Yes. Did you not know that? My name is Neah Walker. My brother Mana was Allen's adoptive father. My ending up here was an unfortunate accident. I would never intentionally hurt my family."

If it was possible I glared even deeper at him. This guy was full of contradictions. "Didn't you betray the Noah family?"

He snorted. "That's different."

"How so?"

Neah looked me up and down critically for a moment before he spoke. "The Noah are a family in much the same way that the Order is. There's no actual blood connection."

"Wouldn't that same thing apply to Allen though?" Teidoll spoke from over my shoulder. Apparently he was paying attention to the conversation.

The Noah laughed, his focus turned on Teidoll. "That's an interesting question coming from you. Don't you think of this angry guy with the sword as your son?"

"Touché." Teidoll conceded and backed away. He went over to where the finders were gathered and started bossing them around.

"Che. We've gotten off topic." I adjusted my grip on Mugen, reclaiming the Noah's attention.

Neah laughed again, seemingly unbothered by the sword at his throat. "I know you're not going to kill me."

"What in the hell would make you think that?"

The Noah snorted. "Allen may be clueless, but I know love when I see it. You can't do anything to me without doing it to him."

I think my heart skipped a beat as I panicked slightly at those words. "That's not going to stop me."

He laughed as he nodded. "I suppose not. You did stab him in the stomach without a second thought not that long ago. Thank you for that, by the way."

I growled, but that only made him laugh more. "Anyway, as I've told you repeatedly now, Allen is in no danger from me. And I can prove it to you."

In the time it took me to wonder what he meant by that, Allen's skin returned to its usual pale coloring and his eyes flashed silver as he blinked. "Kanda? What happened? Where's...?"

The question trailed off as he looked around and noticed Mugen at his throat. He jumped slightly and tried to shove the sword away. "Gah! What the hell are you doing, Bakanda?!"

"Moyashi?" His aura had returned to normal, but I kept my sword steady anyway.

"My name is Allen, Bakanda! Al-len! How stupid are you if you can't even get a person's name right?!"

The Moyashi's attempts to move my sword stopped as his stomach growled. He paled and collapsed to his knees. I hid my worry behind a glare. "What kind of game do you think you're playing, Moyashi?"

He hissed at the nickname, but it turned into a wince. He shoved it aside and laughed, but the sound gave away how much pain he was in. "Heh. Apparently letting ...Neah take over is just as ...draining as when he does it without my permission. ... Do you think I could ...get some ...food before I ...pass out...?"

"Che. Baka." Only Allen would care about food at a time like this. It was something else he said that bothered me though. But Teidoll came back over before I could ask the brat about it.

"What's going on?" His worry was directed at Allen, but the question was directed at me.

I rolled my eyes as I sheathed my sword. "Che. The brat's back."

Allen glared at me before smiling at Teidoll. "Hello General. Are you-?"

Whatever the Moyashi was about to ask was cut off by a groan. He convulsed for a few seconds then fell limp. He suddenly glared up at me. "Hey, Bakanda! Make yourself useful and go find Johnny before he electrocutes me again."

"Che. Why do I have to do that?"

"You're the moron who stuck this idiotic contraption on me!" He thrust his wrist in the air and shook it at me.

"Che. If you hadn't tried to run away, I wouldn't have had to."

The Moyashi's retort was drowned out by Teidoll laughing. "Goodness! Can you two do anything without bickering? You do realize that this situation is serious, right?"

"Che." I glared at my former teacher for a moment before turning back to Allen. "Can I leave you alone here without you trying to run away again?"

Allen glared back at me. "Of course."

Teidoll spoke before I could retort. "I'll keep an eye on him, Yuu. He's not going anywhere." The Moyashi's stomach growled, making Teidoll laugh as he gestured to one of the finders. "You'll probably be back before he's done eating."

Fetching Johnny was simple; getting him to stop freaking out when I brought him back was a different story though. But Allen was there, acting perfectly content, and that calmed the scientist down quite a bit.

True to Teidoll's prediction, Allen was still stuffing his face. The finders were much more relaxed though, and that made me suspicious. The feeling was only heightened when Teidoll approached me and handed me my golem. "I spoke to headquarters."

I glared at him, but that only made him laugh at me. "Technically, I spoke with Komui. We bought you three a month. You, Johnny, and Allen have thirty days to travel around and figure out what's going on with the Noah inside Allen. You can do whatever you need to, but you have to keep your golem on, and Komui wants weekly phone calls. At the end of that time, no matter what else is going on, all three of you are to return to headquarters. If you don't, you'll be marked as traitors once again, and the Order will resume pursuing you. So I suggest you get this resolved quickly and come home. You have new duties to attend to."

I blinked at him. Apparently I had been wrong in not trusting Teidoll. The frizzy haired man wrapped me in a hug. "Take care of yourself, Yuu."

"Che." It wasn't in my nature to say thank you. I shoved him away, but that just made him laugh again.

.x.x.

At the Moyashi's request, we moved on to a different town. It was an exhausting trip. We kept getting attacked. Apparently the akuma were drawn to the Fourteenth's presence. It was incredibly annoying.

When we finally reached the inn I was ready to collapse. Allen actually did. He fainted in the middle of the lobby. I had to carry the brat up to our room.

He didn't wake up the next morning. According to Johnny, the Moyashi had spent the night tossing and turning. He didn't have a fever, but he was sweating and mumbling in his sleep.

Usually I would have noticed something like that, but I had been exceptionally tired. But what bothered me more than my lack of awareness was the guilt. I actually felt bad for not noticing that the Moyashi was in pain. I cursed myself yet again for falling in love with the brat.

Allen remained unconscious for another two days; his skin occasionally growing dark and fading back to pale. Johnny surmised that he was talking to the Noah inside of him. There was nothing we could do but wait for him to wake up, and be ready with food for when it happened.

But it wasn't Allen who woke up on that third day. It was Neah. Apparently he wanted to talk to me. Johnny was sent away; he volunteered to go fetch dinner.

I sat across from the Noah, scowling at him. Seeing that dark complexion and those golden eyes on my Moyashi's face really bothered me. And worse still was that he knew it. The smirk he gave me sent shivers down my spine. "Alright, what do you want?"

"The same thing you want: for me to no longer be inside Allen's body." He laughed once. "It amazes me that he can't see the way you look at him."

"What's the catch?" What he was proposing seemed too good to be true. And it definitely bothered me that he knew why I wanted that.

Neah's answer was actually serious. "I need you to help me find a new host."

I snickered. "Good luck convincing the Moyashi to agree to that."

"He's on the fence about it." Neah shrugged. "He dislikes the idea of sacrificing someone else to save himself, but if it doesn't happen, we'll both die."

His nonchalant tone was definitely contradicting what he was saying. I narrowed my eyes at him. "What's that supposed to mean?"

Neah sighed. "Allen's the host of a parasitic Innocence and a Noah. If I stay inside of him much longer, those two opposing forces won't just kill him, they'll tear him to shreds. And none of us want that to happen."

"Assuming I believe that," which I did, "why don't you just leave the Moyashi on your own?"

"Because that's not how it works." The Noah seemed annoyed. "I can't leave without someplace to go to."

I snorted in disbelief. Neah scowled at me as he sighed in exasperation. "As I've told you several times: I don't want to hurt Allen. If I could leave on my own, I would. But I can't without help. And before you ask why you should bother helping me: it's not me you'd be helping, it's Allen. If you ever want the chance to do any of those ...naughty things that you want to do to him, then you have no choice but to help me."

"I object to the insinuation that my attraction to the Moyashi is merely sexual." I honestly put no thought into the retort, it just came out.

Neah smirked at me. "I know that, but thanks for admitting it out loud. It'll make it that much easier to manipulate you later."

I growled at him, but that only made him laugh. "So will you help willingly, or do I actually have to threaten you?"

.x.x.

It surprised me that Johnny was on board with finding a new host for the Fourteenth. He seemed like he'd be squeamish about something like that, but he threw himself into it wholeheartedly. But then, he really did care for the Moyashi. He was so much like Alma in that respect.

It took six days to find a host that Neah approved of. I didn't pay much attention to who, I just wanted things to be over. The Fourteenth Noah was honestly one of the most annoying people I'd ever met. To be fair though, that was probably because he was so similar to the Moyashi. They both knew how to push my buttons. And of course Neah teased me about my crush on Allen every chance he got.

It wasn't over though. Not by a long shot. Neah still needed Allen's help. And Allen was all for helping him. Apparently during those three days when the Moyashi was unconscious, Neah had shown him the circumstances leading up to him trying to kill the Earl. Those details weren't shared with me, but whatever they were, they made Allen eager to help the Noah.

Things were only made worse by the telepathic link the two now shared. They'd go off into their own little world at a moment's notice, and it drove me crazy.

I followed them around without paying much attention to what they were doing, I was concerned only with fighting the akuma that came our way. But from what I did see, it was mostly menial things they were doing, I didn't see what Neah needed Allen for.

The worst part was that Allen kept questioning what I was doing there. I sure as hell wasn't going to tell him it was because I loved him, so I made up some lie about owing him for what he did for me and Alma. He didn't buy it, but I stubbornly clung to the lie anyway.

Three of our four weeks were up when I finally ran out of patience with both of them and dragged everyone back to the Order. And that was the end of it. I was officially promoted. Johnny was accepted back into the science group. Neah, after sharing his story with the higher ups, was begrudgingly classified as an ally. And the Moyashi was once again placed on restricted duty under the supervision of Howard Link.

It put a swift end to my plan of talking to Allen once things cooled down. To be honest though, I never would have gone through with it anyway. I was too convinced that the Moyashi hated me.

.x.x.

~Present Day~

Lenalee cocked her head to the side and gave Kanda the look she'd perfected when they were children. He was powerless against it. "What exactly happened during those three weeks you were with Allen? It's been four and a half months and we still haven't been told anything. All we know is that at the end of it you'd been promoted and Allen was free."

Kanda scoffed at her. "That's because that's all that happened. Everything else was pointless."

Lenalee pouted at the answer and that made Lavi laugh. "Did you actually expect a real answer, Lenalee? You know Kanda's no good at telling stories."

She sighed. "I guess you're right."

They turned their attention back to Allen and Neah, but the pair were still off in their own little world. Eventually Lavi and Lenalee got bored and headed back to dinner. They didn't question Kanda's reluctance to leave, incorrectly assuming that the samurai didn't trust the Noah.

Allen's story ended the second he realized that Lavi and Lenalee had left. He exchanged a glance with Kanda and then turned his anger on Neah. You knew all along that Kanda liked me!

I did. Neah sighed. And I probably should have told you both the truth, but I needed him to help, and he wasn't going to do that if he knew your feelings. After that it just became too much fun to mess with the two of you.

The huff Allen gave sounded remarkably like one of Kanda's 'che's. It almost made the Noah laugh. You're together now though, so everything worked out in the end, right?

I guess so. Allen frowned.

The Noah suddenly smirked. Is he any good?

"Neah!" The name was shrieked as Allen turned bright red.

"I was joking. Please keep that bedroom stuff to yourselves." Neah chuckled at the looks the young men gave him. "Now, Allen, if you're certain you're ok, I'll be on my way. I still have things to do today."

At Allen's nod, the Noah turned around and returned to the Ark, completely ignoring Kanda pointing Mugen in his direction.