Chapter 1: When Snow Kisses the Earth

It was snowing the day she first asked him to dance.

He remembered staring down at her, completely off guard as she graced him with her sweet smile and held out her hand for him to take. They'd never really spoke until that day, foregoing brief greetings as they passed one another in the Order's echoing halls. Nothing that would have prompted a dance in the courtyard. Link turned to Walker in askance, but his ward was sitting on the steps chatting with the scientist, Johnny Gill, and oblivious to his current predicament. Typical. General Tiedoll was no more help, sitting with his legs crossed as he sketched the snowy courtyard.

And Miss Lee was waiting patiently for his answer.

He knew how to dance; that wasn't the issue. It would be rude to refuse a lady. He glanced around once more, then slowly rose to his feet and dusted snow off his coat. Miss Lee's smile widened as he descended the cathedral's front steps and took her hand. By then, Walker and Gill had gone quiet, but he ignored them and dipped his head in a polite bow. That seemed to surprise the lady, but she gripped the ends of her black coat and bent her knees in a delicate curtsey. Until today, he'd never had the honor of dancing with an apostle of God, he thought as he placed his free hand around her back and over her shoulder blade. From the corner of his eye, Gill suddenly leapt up and ran back inside, snapping General Tiedoll's concentration. He felt Miss Lee's hand on his shoulder and, after a pause, stepped forward. They didn't have music, so taking the lead was an uncomfortable venture.

The lady exorcist was a strong dancer, he quickly noticed. She kept her head erect and staring over his right shoulder, and her feet made precise movements as they stepped and circled about the cobblestones. She neatly followed his lead in the silence, but when he released her shoulder to let her move in an underarm turn, her foot suddenly caught a patch of ice and she slipped. Link cried out in alarm, rushing forward and helping her back to her feet, "Are you all right?"

"Yeah, I'm fine." She brushed off her long, black coat. "Again." This time, she took the first step back before allowing him to resume the lead. Basic steps back, then a neat spin, basic step, then underarm turn again, this time without accident.

Then a song began to fill the winter air, drawing both their attention to the cathedral steps. The scientist, Johnny Gill, had returned with a violin in hand and was playing a tune as smooth and natural as silver stardust, a song that somehow reminded him of midnight snow in the courtyards of crumbling castles. Part of him was wondering where the little scientist had obtained the instrument, and the other part strongly expected Miss Lee to burst into laughter at the absurdity and break away to sit with the violinist on the steps.

But she didn't.

She just kept dancing, and her smile grew even wider and her footsteps became even lighter as they waltzed. Somewhere above their heads a window swung open and the keening of a second violin joined the first. Looking up, he saw it was the Romanian exorcist, Lord Arystar Krory III, leaning over his dormant flower box and grinning down at them. General Tiedoll quickly turned to a fresh page in his sketchbook and began a frenzied scribbling. Walker leaned over to watch and more windows began to open up, the residents investigating the source of such a merry commotion. He saw the window beside Krory's slam open and Yu Kanda's dark head appeared, strangely curious instead of angry, and he leaned against the windowsill, cupping his chin in his hand as he studied the scene below. On the floor above them was another window opened a crack and the timid Miss Lotto poked her head out.

Through it all, Miss Lee's lovely smile never faded. She was a beautiful woman, and he'd considered her so since the day they met. He may have been apathetic to beauty and grace, but he was not blind to it. He thought it was rather fetching how the white feathers dusted her ebony black hair and sprinkled her long eyelashes. The way her bright red scarf hugged her slender throat. Or how her dark eyes glistened when she smiled. She was quite lovely. Quarter turn now, then the underarm spin again.

Twice more, she slipped or skidded on a patch of snow and ice, and then fell, crying out and laughing as he caught her and pulled her upright again.

"Smile!" General Tiedoll suddenly called. "Pretend you love her."

It took all his self-control not to disrespect the elder with a glare.

Basic step, quarter turn, spin, then one misstep in the ice and he skidded, throwing his arms out to stop his fall. Miss Lee grabbed his hands, but the song came to a clumsy end as the two violins fell tragically out of harmony. Gill was laughing hysterically on the stone steps, and when he was unable to recover, the harmony crashed into a wretched cacophony of squealing strings until the spectators were shouting for both musicians to end it. Kanda went so far as to slam his window shut. Then Miss Lee slipped for a fourth time, unwittingly stepping into the same patch of ice he had and they both collapsed to the cobblestones. The lady exorcist landed on her back, shrieking in laughter as she stared up at the sky over their heads. Link landed hard on his left shoulder and groaned, listening to the hooting laughs echoing across the courtyard, the closest of which was Walker's as he rose from his seat and approached to help his fellow accommodator off the ground.

"You okay?" He asked with a grin.

Unable to speak through her laughter, Miss Lee nodded and wiped away the mirthful tears that had escaped her eyes, which only made the others cackle harder than ever. Link, seemingly forgotten, climbed back to his feet and primly brushed snow off his coat sleeves as the lady gripped two handfuls of her black coat and made a flamboyant curtsy for her applauding friends.

"Bravo, beautifully done!" General Tiedoll folded his sketchbook and stepped down to join them. "I haven't seen a performance that spectacular since Larue's rendering of 'The Maiden and the Moon' I was fortunate enough to see in Amsterdam."

Link frowned at the oddity of the compliment. "General, I beg your pardon, but I hardly think an unrehearsed, amateurish, and altogether clumsy waltz in the courtyard can measure up to that of professional actors in a well-scripted theatrical work." But the old man was not listening and had instead turned to praise Gill and Lord Krory's violin skills, asking where they'd learned to play and so on. A cloud of breath left Link's lips as he rubbed his now sore shoulder, ignoring the little scientist's tale of how his uncle had taught him to play and of the Count's claim he was self-taught. No matter. He thought as he stepped back to where he'd left his notes.

Yet before he could sit down, a finger tapped his shoulder and he turned to find Miss Lee standing behind him. "Thank you." She said. "I'm sorry if I caused a distraction, I just—"

He turned to face her and nodded his head in a polite bow. "The pleasure was mine, Lady Exorcist."

Miss Lee curtsied again and had gone back to the others before he turned around, her coat kicking up snow as she joined her friends. He watched her go in silence, her sweet smile still fixed in his memory. General Tiedoll put a hand on her shoulder and said something Link didn't quite care to catch as he knelt and picked up his notebook.

Smile, pretend you love her. He cleared his throat. Dancing and pretending he loved her was the least of his concerns. He was more worried about how long it would be before he had to pretend he didn't.

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Author's Notes: This story is inspired by the song 'Hunter' written by Heather Dale.

D Gray Man is owned by Katsura Hoshino.