A/N: Here's the rest of Allen's birthday. You didn't think I'd actually leave Kanda out of the celebrations, did you?

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

I made it ten feet down the hall before I was attacked by Timcanpy. He landed on my head and began nuzzling my ear. It was very weird having my golem pet me. But at the same time it was like I'd never lost him, and that felt amazing.

"Well?" I jumped at the sound of Lenalee's voice. She was standing with Neah a little further down the hall. They shared the same expectant look. "Did you do the right thing or were you a stubborn idiot?"

Her word choice made me frown. "I accepted the promotion."

"Congratulations!" She squealed as she hugged me, but she calmed down before I could get mad at her. "Sorry. I know it's not what you wanted, and you deserve so much more. But this is a good thing, right?"

"I guess." Despite my earlier excitement, I couldn't bring myself to be happy about it; I was too distraught over not making General.

"Allen-"

Lenalee's lecture cut off before it started when Neah placed a hand on her shoulder. "Could you give us a minute?"

She looked uncomfortable for a moment, and I could tell she was wondering if it was ok to leave the two of us unaccompanied. "Sure. I have to go see my brother anyway."

As she walked away, Neah grabbed my wrist and started pulling me down the hall. He didn't speak until we were back in my room, sitting side by side on my bed. "There are some things I need to say to you that are going to be awkward. Ideally I'd have taken you out to celebrate your eighteenth birthday and gotten us both plastered before I said them, but that idiot Marian had to go and traumatize you, and getting you drunk is unfortunately out of the question. So I'm going to have to do this sober."

What are you going on about?

He cut off my attempt to talk telepathically. "No, we're going to do this out loud so that Tim can record it. I don't want you forgetting any of this, ok?"

I nodded, catching that I was supposed to listen and not talk. Neah sighed and began stroking my ear. He waited for me to start purring before he spoke. "We haven't really talked about him before, and there are some things I want to tell you about my brother."

My eyes went wide, but I managed to keep myself from interrupting, even though I desperately wanted to. "I may only know about your relationship with Mana through your memories, but there's no one who knew my brother better than me. So you can believe me when I say that Mana loved you a lot. Marian wasn't wrong when he told you that Mana went a little crazy after I died, but he was wrong to let you think that it was so bad that he mixed the two of us up.

"It may be wishful thinking on my part, but I'd like to think that you made Mana better. He was certainly happier with you than he had been in a long time. And I know that he would be proud of you. That obnoxious little kid he picked up eleven years ago grew into a wonderful adult."

Sensing that I wanted to argue with that last statement, Neah's hand moved from my ear to my cheek, where he stroked the line of my scar with his thumb. "Yes, he was disappointed in you when you did that, but I know you know that he cursed you out of love. So it's time for you to forgive yourself for that, ok?"

He laughed lightly, not giving me a chance to respond. "Now, where was I...? Mana knew when he took you in that the cross in your hand was an Innocence fragment. I don't agree with his choice to not tell you what it was, but I can understand why he didn't. We had a few encounters with exorcists when we were on the run from the Earl, and they definitely weren't pleasant encounters. He didn't tell you as a way of protecting you from all that. Though maybe he was just waiting until you were older, and never got the chance. Either way, he'd be proud of what you've done with it."

Neah paused for breath, and I knew he was getting to the reason why he had chosen now to tell me all of this. "You've done some really amazing things in the two and a half years you've been with the Order. You don't need a promotion from people who don't even like you to validate that. It's ok to be disappointed, but don't dwell on it. You really should be happy for this. Got it?"

I frowned at him, but the tone of his voice told me not to argue with him, so I kept my complaints to myself. Of course that doesn't work when the person you're talking to literally can read your mind. Neah laughed at my reaction and pulled me into an embarrassingly tight hug. "Alright then, let's try this a different way. The people here care about you. Your best friend was more pissed than you were that you didn't make general. Her brother put himself on the line to get Central to lighten up on you, and I'd be willing to bet that Link had a hand in that too. And I'm sure that when your boyfriend finds out about the whole thing, you're going to have to keep him from doing something stupid. They all want to see you happy. So if you can't be happy for yourself, can you at least be happy for their sakes?"

.x.x.

I knew it was Christmas Day, it was hard to miss that given how decorated the halls were, but the fact that it was a holiday didn't stop me from dragging Camilla out for her daily training.

Something was nagging at me though. I felt like I was forgetting something important, and that feeling distracted me all day. It wasn't until we returned to headquarters for the evening that I remembered:

Today was the Moyashi's birthday.

How did I forget that?

... Wait. Is that ... guilt? Do I actually feel bad for forgetting? Fuck. This is all that damn Moyashi's fault. I never had this problem before he came around.

...

At least he won't care that I forgot. He doesn't like his birthday any more than I like mine.

...

That's not going to stop him from giving me crap though. Hopefully he'll be so excited over his promotion that he'll let me off easy.

That thought was shot to hell when I found him in the cafeteria. The Moyashi was sitting with a group of fellow exorcists, laughing and smiling that fake smile that none of them saw through. Something was wrong.

But he was wearing a gold General's coat. And from the way Johnny was hanging around him, he'd only had it for a few minutes. If he had just received his new jacket, he should have been bouncing off the walls. So why was he upset?

That question was answered when I got close enough to hear what they were saying: Lenalee had just finished proposing a toast to the new Lieutenant General. I may not have been the smartest person around, but I could put two and two together. Central had rejected the Moyashi's promotion.

I was beyond livid. I wanted to go give Central a piece of my mind. However, before I could storm away, Lenalee was wishing me a Merry Christmas and pushing me into a vacant seat at the table. Instead of acting on my rage, I was forced to push it aside and interact with my friends. To make it all worse, the Moyashi gave me a look, and the expression on his face said that he didn't want me to make a scene. My hands were tied.

But that was all forgotten once Allen and I were alone in his room that night.

I locked the door behind me, and was immediately attacked by a flying gold blur. Ugh. Timcanpy. Neah must have actually succeeded at putting the obnoxious thing back together.

I plucked it out of my hair and glared at it, which made Allen laugh and take it from me. "Tim, leave Kanda alone. He's not going to do anything to me." He smirked briefly in my direction. "Well, actually I'm hoping he'll do quite a lot to me..."

The golem's expression changed into something that made the neko smile shyly at it. "You remember all that stuff I used to wish for, Tim? It's all true now. Kanda's my boyfriend."

That excited Timcanpy, and while it was distracted, Allen walked over to his dresser and closed the golem into one of the drawers. "Sorry about this, Tim, but I don't want you to record any of what's about to happen. So just stay in there and be quiet, ok?"

I wanted to tease Allen about what I just saw, but before I could say a single word, Allen's arms were around my neck and he was pressing his lips into mine. "Thank you, Yuu. It means a lot to me that you did that."

I raised an eyebrow at him. "What are you talking about?"

He kissed me again before he answered. "Neah told me that he was able to fix Tim because you picked up the pieces. So, thank you."

"Che. That wasn't my intention behind picking them up, but if it makes you happy, then I'm glad it worked out that way."

My comment was rewarded with a fist to the shoulder. Allen tossed his hands in the air and gave an exasperated sigh. "You're supposed to say 'you're welcome'."

I just scoffed at him, and that made him roll his eyes at me. "Fine. Have it your way. But it's my birthday, before I drop it, you have to tell me I look good in my new coat."

He backed away from me and did a little spin, modeling the coat for me. I caught his wrist and pulled him into me. Pressing his back into my chest, I began undoing the buttons on his coat. "I'd rather see you not wearing it..."

.x.x.

My first official mission as a Lieutenant General came a few days after my birthday. I was to investigate a suspected Innocence fragment in Greece. With Kanda and Camilla. It was her first real mission as an exorcist.

The difficulties started sooner than expected, when it turned out that our assigned inn had a limited number of available rooms, and Kanda and I were going to have to share. We were both happy about that, but we had to pretend we weren't. That led to Camilla offering to share with me so that Kanda could have his own room. It was a sweet gesture, but it frustrated me because I couldn't say no without her figuring out my feelings for the samurai. It was a tense moment. Fortunately, the finders accompanying us wouldn't hear of a co-ed arrangement and she was overruled.

Then came breakfast the next morning.

I was sitting at a table and eating my usual sized pile of food, when Camilla sat down across from me. She gave me a weird look before she leaned back in her chair. "You look like you slept well, Allen. You're lucky. I had a terrible time falling asleep. The walls in this place aren't very soundproof, and the couple in the room next to mine were quite loud in their lovemaking."

I nodded along sympathetically, not really processing what she was saying. Though if I had been paying attention, I would have recalled that the only room next to hers was mine and Kanda's, and I would have been prepared for what she said next.

"Either that or they were torturing a cat. It was kind of hard to tell through the walls..."

The smirk on her face was what finally made everything click into place. I choked on air and it took a while to regain my composure. "Fuck."

Camilla snickered. "So tall, dark, and angry is your type. I'm surprised. I heard he almost killed you a few months ago."

I opened and closed my mouth repeatedly, but no words ever came out. It didn't matter that I couldn't come up with anything to say though, because Camilla just kept talking. "I think I'm more surprised at him though. I never would have pegged him as gay. Which leads me to an awkward question... Are you two together, or was last night some sort of stress release thing?"

Kanda chose that moment to come into the room. "You done stuffing your face yet, Moyashi?"

It took him repeating my nickname to snap me out of my stunned silence. "Moyashi?"

"Huh? Oh. Umm. Not yet." I forced a smile at him. "Camilla was just telling me about how thin the walls are here."

Watching the understanding dawn on him would have been priceless if I wasn't so panicked. Camilla was definitely enjoying herself though. "Yeah, the man in the room next to mine was torturing a cat last night. It made it hard to sleep."

Kanda did not react how I thought he would. "Maybe the cat deserved it. He was probably being obnoxious."

"I'm sure he was." Camilla smirked devilishly at me as she bantered with Kanda. "He certainly seemed to be enjoying himself. I don't think I've ever heard a cat make sounds like that before."

"Hey!"

My protest shut Kanda up before he said anything, but Camilla just cocked an eyebrow at me. "Answer my question and I'll stop."

I placed my forehead on the table in annoyance. Kanda spoke over my groan. "What question?"

I lifted my head off the table just long enough to raise my eyebrow at him. Given the context of the conversation that look was all he needed to put it together. But because my head was down, I didn't see his expression when he addressed Camilla. His tone was fierce; it was the one he used when he was bossing his apprentice around. "We've been together for three months. Now drop it."

She didn't drop it, at least not when it was just the two of us. She kept her silence around Kanda, but teased me whenever she got the chance. Those next two days were awful.

And just when the novelty of it was wearing off and she began to let up on me, that's when the next thing went wrong. And this time it would be Kanda who would tease me mercilessly afterwards.

As we left the inn that morning, a stray dog started barking at us. Though it was rather obvious that it was me, the neko, that was freaking him out. He was a small, scrawny mutt, clearly no threat, so we ignored him. Then he started following us, yipping and growling the entire time. It was incredibly annoying, and I could have sworn that I actually understood what it was saying, but I managed to keep calm. Mostly. I only hissed at him once. Though he stopped following us after that, so it's hard to say what I would have done next.

"Was that really necessary, Moyashi?"

I frowned at the amusement on Kanda's face. "Absolutely. He called me a stupid furball."

While I continued to walk, Kanda and Camilla stopped and shared a concerned look, though I didn't see it. "Allen..."

The way Kanda said my real name froze me in my tracks. I slowly turned around to face him. "What?"

"Are you saying that you ... understood the dog?" The look on his face put me even more on edge.

I glowered at the ground. "Yeah. What of it?"

"You do realize that's impossible, right Moyashi?"

"I guess... But I am half cat. Maybe it's not that weird that I can understand animals now."

He snorted at my excuse. "Are you sure you're not just going crazy?"

Rather than dignify that with a response, I turned around and resumed walking towards our destination. Kanda dropped the "going crazy" part, but he called me "Baka Kedama" for the rest of the day. I didn't have to ask to know that it was Japanese for "stupid furball". By the time we started heading back to the inn, I was tired and irritated.

That dog was waiting for us right where we last saw him. He immediately started growling and swearing at me. I did my best to ignore him, but after spending all day with Kanda pushing my buttons, it was incredibly difficult.

He eventually grew tired of the barking, but continued to follow us. I relaxed in the quiet, relieved to no longer have a dog picking on me just because I was half cat.

I should have been wary of the silence.

A searing pain shot through my body as the dog bit down on my tail. I screeched and whipped around, dislodging the mutt with one quick swipe of my clawed right hand.

The dog lay limply a few feet away. Camilla ran over to him and began checking his injuries. She chastised me for being rough on the poor thing, but I wasn't listening to her.

The pain from my bitten tail was excruciating. I could feeling the blood dripping from the holes left by the dog's fangs. Biting my lip to keep myself from crying, I collapsed to my knees. I heard Kanda call out to me, but I was in too much pain to register what he was saying.

Fighting down my panic, I pulled the bandana from my head and wrapped it around my tail in an attempt to stop the bleeding. Kanda's hands replaced my own, and I let him take over treating my injury. He ripped the bandana into strips and used them to bandage the wound. Camilla came back while he worked, forgetting about the dog when she noticed that I was injured.

As soon as my tail was bandaged, I found myself lifted into the air as Kanda began to carry me. He even made sure that my jacket hood hid my exposed cat ears. It was a sweet gesture, but I didn't want it. "Put me down, Bakanda!"

I thrashed in his grip, but what I intended to be a tough act, ended in a whimper as pain shot through my tail. Kanda laughed at me. "No chance, Moyashi. I'm not putting you down until we can get you some proper medical attention."

"But the dog! I have to see if he's ok!"

Kanda stopped walking and stared down at me. I couldn't tell if he was more confused or worried. "It bit you, Moyashi. And from what you've said, it was picking on you. It deserved what you did to it. There's no need for you to worry about what happens to the mutt."

"But-!"

Camilla laughed as I tried to escape again. "The dog is fine, Allen. I checked it myself; your scratches weren't very deep. See?"

I looked to where she was pointing and saw the dog limping away.

Kanda made it three feet before he was stopped by a lady from the crowd that had gathered. She placed a hand on my shoulder, but spoke to Kanda. "Did the dog bite him?"

At Kanda's short nod, she continued talking. "I'm an herbalist. That's my shop right over there. I've got a salve that will help with the pain and prevent an infection, if you want it."

I tried to protest, not wanting this stranger to see my tail, but Kanda accepted her help, and I soon found myself face down on a couch while the woman examined the dog bite.

She didn't react how I expected her to. Instead, she acted as if it were perfectly normal for me to have a tail. She cleaned the wound, and then she applied her salve and rebandaged it, never once commenting on my cat features.

When she was done, I thanked her for her help and asked how much I owed her. She just laughed and insisted it wasn't a big deal. "It was the least I could do for a fellow Romani."

That explained why she didn't react to my tail, she thought I was a gypsy. I thanked her again and left quickly; I didn't want to have to explain to her that she was wrong.

.x.x.

Three days after the dog incident, the pain in my tail had finally vanished. And that was when things started happening again.

As the three of us walked down the stairs to head out for what was hopefully the last day of our mission, we were stopped by the lady at the front desk. "Excuse me? Mr. Walker? There's a phone call for you."

It was strange. Who would be calling me? I took the phone from her, and turned away so that I could uncover my ear and hear properly. "Hello?"

"Good morning, idiot apprentice." I nearly dropped the phone at the sound of that voice.

"G-good morning, M-master Cross."

He laughed at the fear in my voice. "You need to get your ass back to headquarters. I've caught your witch."