A/N: Time for Christmas and Allen's Birthday!

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It was just another December day. The windows in Kanda's room were frosted over, making it hard to gauge what time it was. Though given how cold his side of the bed was, it was late enough that he was already gone for the day. I pulled my clothes on and snuck quickly to my own room. There was no panic; one of the advantages of wearing the same style of clothing all the time was that if I got caught heading back to my room after a night at Kanda's, no one would be able to tell. It also helped that when I became a neko I had developed a tendency to fall asleep in strange places. I changed into fresh clothes and then made my way down to the cafeteria. It was just another day.

Except that it wasn't. The red and green decorations that had appeared in the dining hall overnight sent me into a panic. Fuck. How did this sneak up on me?! I thought about sneaking away, but after how hard we'd gone at it last night, I wasn't even going to make it to lunch without eating let alone through the whole day. I was just going to have to suck it up.

"Happy birthday, Allen!"

I jumped at the words. Forcing a smile onto my face, I turned to face my best friend. "Thank you, Lenalee."

Her smile fell instantly. She blinked at me a few times before she spoke. "How-? No, why? Why is that a lie? I mean, I know you don't like celebrating it, but I always thought that was because you didn't like the attention. If you can't even say thank you without lying, then something must be wrong with you. So what's really going on?"

I sighed and let my smile fall, realizing that my ears had given me away. There wasn't any harm in telling her the truth, was there? I'd kept it to myself all these years after all; maybe it was time to finally tell someone. I sighed again as I felt my stomach start to rumble. "It's a long story. Can we get food first?"

"Are you actually going to answer my questions, or is this one of your evasion techniques?"

The tone of her voice hurt me, but I knew I deserved the accusation. "That depends entirely on what your questions are."

Following my promise to talk to her, she practically dragged me over to Jerry's window, the excitement glittering in her eyes.

Over breakfast that morning, I told Lenalee everything. How I'd been adopted, how Mana had died, all of it. I know I had shared pieces of the story with people before, but that was the first time I had ever told it in its entirety, from start to finish without interruption. Well, Neah knew, but that's because he was nosy and read my memories, not because I had actually told him.

It was hard, but it actually felt really good. And Lenalee was my best friend. She may have a tendency to go a little overboard sometimes, but that morning she just sat there and listened. I had to put up with her nearly hugging me to death afterward, but that wasn't anything I couldn't handle.

After breakfast I headed straight down to Komui's office, ignoring all distractions. I was on a mission. This was the reason I had been looking forward to today, despite all of the bittersweet memories it held. I was now eighteen.

I knocked on the supervisor's door, trying to keep my excitement in check. But I had been waiting for this day for two years, so it seemed impossible to keep myself from bouncing up and down. I was finally, finally, going to get promoted to General.

Komui called for me to come in, and my smile fell the second I saw his expression. I knew what that look meant: Central had rejected my promotion. "I'm sorry, Allen-kun."

I stared blankly at him for a moment, trying to stay calm as my hopes came crashing down around me. There was no point in getting mad at Komui, I knew from previous conversations that he was on my side in all of this. "Did they have a reason or was it just that they still don't trust me?"

The Chinese man sighed. "They said that since Cross is still alive, there are already five Generals and they can't appoint a sixth."

I opened my mouth to argue, but Komui stopped me before I got a single word out. "I know. It's a bogus reason. Cross is nowhere to be found and Judgement is still with Hevlaska."

"So they still don't trust me." I sighed and collapsed onto one of the chairs in front of the desk.

"Actually, no. That never came up." Komui's expression looked torn, like he didn't want to say what he was about to say. "They have a problem with you being a neko."

"Meaning?" I blinked at Komui. How was me being a neko relevant in any way to my promotion?

The supervisor sighed again. "Basically they think that promoting you while you're half cat is going to cause too many problems in the outside world."

I frowned, that seemed really wrong. "So they're not ok with promoting me because I'm a neko, yet they were fine with promoting Kanda and he's not even...? That's not fair."

Komui sighed and adjusted his glasses. "Unfortunately that's how it works. I'm sorry Allen-kun."

"So that's it then? I'm never going to be a General?" I felt like crying at the hopelessness of the situation.

Komui nodded and I shoved myself out of my chair and toward the door. The tears had started to fall and I didn't want the supervisor to see me cry.

I barely made it two steps before Komui called after me. "Before you storm off, what would you say to a compromise?"

I turned back to him warily. "What do you mean by 'compromise'?"

Komui gestured for me to sit back down, and waited until I did before he explained. "I know how badly you wanted this Allen-kun. And we all wanted it for you. I may not be able to make you a General, but I can offer you a different kind of promotion."

"I'm listening."

"What if we made you a Lieutenant General?" Komui offered me the file he'd been fiddling with. "You'd be somewhere between an exorcist and a General."

I hesitated as I reached for the file. Something about what Komui had just said was really bothering me. "No, you mean I'd still be an exorcist, I'd just also have a fancy title."

Komui laughed lightly. "So you saw through that... Well, you're right. The position would be all the same work you're doing now, and your orders would still come from me. The title would simply be a way of recognizing that you're a critical."

"Why would I want that? What's the point of making up a title if it doesn't mean anything?" This discussion was not helping me deal with the disappointment I was feeling.

"Because it does have some perks." Komui offered me the file again, but I still refused to take it. I wanted an explanation before I let him get my hopes up. But the supervisor seemed to know that, he smiled softly at me. "You would be allowed to assist the Fourteenth Noah without an escort."

I scowled to hide how excited that made me. "Does that also mean that I'd be able to go with Neah without having to get permission first? Or just that I wouldn't have to take anyone else with me?"

Komui frowned in thought and pulled the file back towards him. He flipped through it until he found whatever it was that he was looking for, which didn't take long as the file was only a couple pages thick. He shook his head when he was finished reading. "Just that you'd be allowed to go alone. However, since I'm the one you would be getting permission from, I can at least tell you that getting it isn't going to be a problem."

He offered me the file yet again. "You really should read it, Allen-kun. You'll like what you see."

When I still refused to take it, Komui made his whiney face at me, the one he always made when people were trying to make him do his work. "Please, Allen? I've been working on it for months..."

I caved to his pleading and reached for the file, but once again I stopped myself from taking it at the last second, only this time I was livid. "Wait a minute. If you've been working on this for months then that means you knew all along that they were going to do this to me."

Komui sighed and adjusted his glasses. "No, not all along. Just since you became a neko. And I wasn't sure of anything; I merely suspected that they might use the neko thing as grounds to reject your promotion. So I created this new position as a way to ... keep you from feeling too disappointed."

I stood there staring at him, not knowing what to say or how I felt about the whole thing. Finally, I sighed and frowned at him. "I can't deal with this right now."

"I understand." He smiled gently and offered me the file again. "Just take the file and read through it. You don't have to decide anything today."

I had no intention of reading the file; I only took it to make Komui stop trying to force it on me. Excusing myself, I returned to my bedroom. The file was tossed on my dresser and immediately forgotten. I collapsed on my bed, finally allowing myself to cry.

It wasn't fair. I'd been waiting to become a General for so long, and to have it rejected because I was a neko was so infuriating. If they had denied it over my split loyalties, that still would have hurt, but it would have at least been understandable. But this? This wasn't anything I did. It was something that had happened that was completely out of my control. I never asked to be a neko; my Innocence did that to me all on its own. And that's what made this whole thing even worse. I had come to consider my cat parts as part of my Innocence, so to have my promotion rejected because of them made it feel like Central was rejecting my Innocence.

.x.x.

The two people that bumped into each other outside of the entrance hall weren't people who had had much interaction with each other. But they were both doing the same thing: looking for Allen. Though there wasn't much 'looking' involved as they were both certain they would find the neko crying in his room.

Lenalee smiled hesitantly at the Fourteenth as they walked alongside each other. She wanted to be nice to him because he meant so much to Allen, but it was hard because she still held on to those feelings of dislike from back when the Noah possessed her best friend. She was startled when he suddenly addressed her. "You're still Allen's best friend, right?"

"Yeah." She was going to make a snarky comment, but the concerned look on his face stopped her.

Allen would probably hate him for this, but Neah knew that someone needed to know what had happened to him when he was a child. "I feel like you should know why Allen hates his birthday. You see, it's not really his birthday, it's the day my brother adopted him."

Neah paused to come up with his next words, but Lenalee took advantage of his silence. "You can stop there. Allen told me all of this at breakfast this morning."

Neah blinked at her. "Really? All of it?"

"Yeah, he talked for over an hour." She smiled. "It was an awful story, but telling it did him a lot of good. He actually seemed happy when he left."

Her words made Neah stop short. "Wait. If he told you everything and he's finally moved on, what does he have to be depressed about?"

Lenalee sighed and turned to look back at the Noah. She was still angry over the news her brother had given her when she'd delivered his coffee. "Central rejected Allen's promotion to General."

Neah stood frozen for a moment, but as soon as he processed what the Chinese woman had said, he took off running.

Lenalee caught up with the Fourteenth as he reached Allen's room. They spent a few minutes trying to convince the neko to open the door before they realized that it wasn't locked.

When they came in, Allen was sitting on his bed with his back against the wall, staring out the window and absently playing with his tail. He wasn't crying, but it was obvious that he had been. Upon hearing the door open, he turned to glare at them. "I don't want to talk about it."

"But-"

Lenalee's retort was cut off by a wave of Neah's hand. "Then we won't say anything. But I brought something that will cheer you up..."

.x.x.

I stared suspiciously at the box Neah was offering to me. It looked normal enough: a plain white box, just big enough to hold an orange, tied shut with a bright red ribbon. I took it cautiously, the grin on my uncle's face only making me more suspicious of him.

All my worries were confirmed when the box started shaking the second it was in my hands. I nearly dropped it in shock. Neah laughed at my reaction. "Hurry up, Allen. Open it!"

I raised an eyebrow at him. "Are you sure it's safe?"

Just open it already!

Tentatively I gripped the edge of the ribbon and pulled the bow untied. The shaking stopped the moment the ribbon was off the box. The lid popped off as whatever was inside freed itself. There was a flash of gold and a familiar feeling of something nestling into my hair. No way...

I reached up to grab it, but it flew off as soon as my fingers got close. But if I was right... Moving my arm in just the right way, I caught the thing flying around my head. The feeling of it in my hand was so familiar. I moved the thing to where I could see it, and nearly died of happiness. "Timcanpy!"

The golden golem in my hand grinned. I let go of him and he returned to nestling in my hair. There were tears of joy streaming down my face as I turned back to Neah. "What-? How-?"

He laughed at me, but I could tell he was just as happy as I was. "I rebuilt him from the pieces that were left when he died. He's mostly the same; his personality is intact and so are his memories of you. The recordings he had are gone though, as are some other technical things you don't care about. Anyway, it took longer than I expected, but I got it done in time. Happy birthday, Allen."

I threw myself into his arms and sobbed into his chest. "Thank you so much!"

"You're welcome." Neah laughed as he hugged me. Make sure you thank your samurai too. If he hadn't collected the pieces then none of this would have been possible. He loves you a lot, you know.

I know. I couldn't help smirking through my tears at him. No thanks to you.

Neah returned my smirk. How did you figure that out anyway? You were so completely clueless about it, there's no way you discovered it on your own.

I frowned. Master Cross knew and he convinced Kanda to confess.

So it was Marian who ruined my fun. I'm going to have to have words with him.

Neah's words made me laugh. It was so weird to hear Master Cross referred to like that. My laughter died when I felt something tugging on my ear. Reaching up, I yanked Tim off my head. "Hey, be careful. That hurts."

He gave me a confused look, clearly asking about the cat ears. It was so nostalgic; it felt so good to see him again. "Yes, I have cat ears now. Get used to it."

Lenalee laughed at our interaction, causing Tim to fly over to her and say hello. "Will he still regenerate like he used to?"

"Of course."

I blinked at her. "Why'd you ask about that, Lenalee?"

She snorted as she smirked at me. "How many of the Order's golems have you destroyed in the past month?"

"Just the three your brother tried to give me." I stuck my tongue out at her.

Neah caught Timcanpy as he flew back towards me. "Wait. Why are you destroying golems?"

"It's a cat thing." I sighed in annoyance, but that turned to happiness when Tim came back to me.

Lenalee laughed as Tim and I got reacquainted, but I didn't realize that we had lost Neah's attention until he let out a slow whistle. "Wow. This is pretty great. Is this what Central is offering you to keep you from making a fuss over the General thing?"

"Huh? What are you-?" The words died in my throat when I looked up and saw him holding the folder Komui had given me. "Put that back! I don't want to even think about that right now!"

Neah ignored me. Instead of putting the file down, he gave it to Lenalee. She avoided my attempt to take it from her, so I resigned myself to collapsing on the bed with a groan. I felt Neah frowning at me. "You haven't read it yet, have you?"

I snorted. "Of course not. I don't want to know what it says. I'm not interested in a fake promotion."

As soon as I said the words, Lenalee smacked me upside the head with the file. "Hey!"

"Stop being a stubborn idiot and read it." She whacked my head again before she dropped the file in my lap. "My brother obviously put a lot of thought into this. You should read it before you say stupid things about it."

I glared at her, but she won that contest when she threatened to slap me for real. I dropped my gaze to the file and flicked it open with a resigned sigh.

It was most of the same things that Komui had already told me: I'd still be an exorcist, but I would no longer need an escort to go with Neah. There was even a page that explained how if I was involved in the recruiting of a new exorcist then I would be considered when deciding who their mentor would be. But it was a later page that made my breath hitch and my heart stop: there was a lengthy list of conditions under which I could use the ark without getting permission first. A lot of them were emergency situations, like with what happened when we found Timothy, but there were some that could really come in handy; especially the one where having a General's permission was the same as having official permission.

In my excitement I forgot that the others were there. The moment I was done reading the file, I bolted from my room and sprinted to Komui's office.

The Chinese man smiled brightly as he opened the door for me. "So you finally read the file. I told you you'd like it."

I stood in the doorway gasping for breath and staring wide-eyed at the supervisor. "How? How did you get Central to agree to this?"

"I've been trying to get them to lighten their restrictions on you ever since they imposed them." His smile morphed briefly into a smirk. "So I took advantage of the situation with your rejected promotion to get them to finally cave."

My excitement wore off as he spoke. The reminder that those things that had felt like perks a few minutes earlier were originally restrictions placed on me had me depressed again. This fake promotion wasn't putting me somewhere between an exorcist and a General; it was putting me back on the same level as the rest of the exorcists.

"So, what do you say? Do you want the promotion?"

I sighed heavily and that made Komui's smile fall. "I don't know. Yes, I want these things, but at the same time... I broke critical two years ago. I'm supposed to be a General. I shouldn't have to settle for this."

"I know." Komui pulled me into a hug and started rubbing my left ear. I was going to kill whichever of my friends had told everyone that rubbing my ears would calm me down when I was upset; I did not want to be calmed down right then. "It's not fair. And I'm not going to stop trying to convince Central to promote you. But in the meantime... Won't you please accept this?"

"Do I at least get to wear the gold jacket?"

Komui laughed as he let go of me. "Absolutely."

"Then I accept." When he offered me his hand, I shook it. "But you better have meant what you said just now about talking to Central. I can't go on like this forever."

"Of course. Now, go enjoy Christmas with your friends." Komui shoved me out into the hall and closed the door behind me.

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A/N #2: A second chapter without Kanda in it, but he at least got mentioned in this one. ;)