I pouted as my master tried to tame my curls. They were actually very short, only coming down to my chin, but today they were exceptionally wild. They seemed to not want to straighten, which was fine by me. Suzuchi, on the other hand, wanted them to look respectful for my new job.

We had discovered, after recording a conflict in Alaska/Canada, that my "magic" bow and arrows were actually innocence. The Black Order, a place full of 'Excorsists,' like me, had a smaller branch in America/Canada. And I was being sent to the main one for them to figure out where to send me.

"Shi!!!! Stay still and stop fidgeting!!"

"Yes ma'am." Although telling that someone who acted ADHD like me was like telling the sun to disappear.

We sat at the train station bench, waiting for the excorsist that would accompany us back to the central branch.

I began to swing my legs once my master gave up and just simply pinned my hair back out of my face with bobby pins. I began to mess with the hem of my vest.

I was wearing a black collared button-up, with a white vest on top of it (although I pulled my collar up.) I wore my best black skirt, with white tights and black platforms. I had my favorite hat, a white stocking cap with a black clown face sewn on. (AKA a mouth like Jasdero's, black circles for blush, and big black outline circles for eyes)

I pulled the cap down over my eyes because people were starting to look at me with weird expressions. I was incredibly self-conscious around people I didn't know.

"When is that Excorsist going to--"

"Hello!" a voice spoke happily. "Are you the new Excorsist we're expecting?" I heard the male hint at that voice. Ain't no fucking a way I'm going to reply to a stranger, no matter the fact that they are an Excorsist.

I pulled my cap up just a little and glanced warily at the boy. He looked about my age, although he could pass as younger. He was maybe eighteen? He had red hair that spiked up everywhere, and, like me, it seemed he couldn't tame it because he just used a green headband to hold it back (and even then several strands of red climbed over.)

His green eye matched the headband, and I noticed that his right eye was covered with a black eyepatch. He had a black coat covering his uniform, although the silver cross on his breast told me that he was from the Black Order.

I turned to Suzuchi. "Master?"

Suzuchi knew the drill and explained. "My student, SK Shiori, has this thing about talking to strangers. She usually only talks to older women and people she's known for at least a few days. Although she has no problem talking to other SK or BM..."

"Ummm....SK? BM?"

"Secret Keepers and Book Men, of course."

He then smiled, a smile that reached his eyes.

"Then that's good because I'm a bookman in training."

I was wide-eyed and stared at the man.

He was really supposedly my 'brother' in the strange secret keeper world?

~*~

He jabbered on and on about his master, who Suzuchi seemed to know better than either of us thought.

"I was told by him that this generation seemed to be more energetic. I never thought that his student would resemble Shi so much..." my master complained.

"Shi?" he turned to face me. "Is that your name?"

I was going to just nod, but I knew I could trust him. At somewhat level...

"Yes. But it's short for Shiori."

"I'm Lavi," he smiled that same eye-reaching grin. I glanced away and began to study the route from town to the Black Order.

"Why are you called Secret Keepers instead of bookmen?" I knew he was looking at me, although my master took it that he was asking her.

"Well, if you were a female, would you like to be called a man?"

He chuckled. "Nope. Makes sense now. Secret Keeper does seem rather feminine, actually, now that I think about it..."

I then decided to join the conversation. "Too feminine to me, actually. I would prefer bookman over Secret Keeper any day. I mean, is it possible that a cheesier name exists?"

"Well, you could have been called a bookgirl," he joked.

I then laughed timidly.

He rolled his eyes. "That was pathetic, Shi-chan."

"Shi-chan?"

"Your name is Shi, is it not?"

"Why add the -chan?"

"Because it's a cute name for a cute girl, duh." Is he trying to flirt?

"Har har, very funny. I'm not cute and most people don't think I'm a girl."

"Why would they think you're not a girl? I mean, you have--"

"Ehhh!!!" Suzuchi exclaimed. She hated me hearing inappropriate things although I knew more then she thought.

I rolled my eyes. "Master, I'm thirsty. May I please have something to drink?" she glanced at me, knowing full well that I just wanted her to leave. But she nodded and left, if only to attend to some sort of errand on the train.

"Everyone assumes I'm some alien or robot. Because of how much memory I have." I rolled my eyes.

"No one has ever assumed me inhuman before though..." he stated.

"That's because you're male, naturally. No one expects something like that from a girl."

"Any way, you are cute." Ah, so he does have a good memory.

"No, I am not." He rolled his eyes with a smile and reached over to mess with my hair.

"Uhn!!!" I shrieked, slapping his hand away with a surprising speed. I then started to pet my curls possessively. "Nooooo!!!! Mee!!" I squealed, using the Swedish term for 'mine.'

He chuckled and rubbed his hand. "Det är alltför söt."

"IT IS NOT CUTE!!!"

"Is it natural?" he asked, already bored with the argument. He sat with his elbow on his knee, his face on his fist.

"Well, it's not dyed if that's what you mean..." I mumbled, running my fingers through it, wondering if you could poison your hair with a stranger's touch.

"I thought it was because your eyelashes were the same shade of purple, and no one dyes their eyelashes."

I rolled my eyes and finally gave up on trying to disinfect my hair. Let's just hope he doesn't have any hair eating diseases...

It was an awkward silence. Which only lasted about two seconds because of our curious nature.

"Is your hair real?/Where are you from?" we both asked at the same time.

I coughed, signally him to ask first. "Do you know where you were born?" he asked, rather sheepishly.

"I was born in Germany although my parents were Japanese and English..."

"Wurden Oh, so wie lange Sie es?"

"We are in England right now, so I believe you should speak English. And I was there until I was two, when my adoptive parents noticed that I had a wide memory capacity."

"Adoptive? What happened to your birth parents?"

"They were murdered...by, um, Noah..."

"Oh."

"What sucks is one time we had to recover the Noah's side of a conflict, and I had to work with two Noah. I couldn't help but be sickened, and it made it hard to work without bias."

"I'm sorry."

"So, um, where were you from?"

"I honestly don't know, although I think I'm Irish."

I didn't even bother asking him why he thought so because it was rather obvious.

"And I suppose that answered your question?"

"Yes, it did."

Another short but awkward silence. I paused and let him speak first again.

"Where were you last at?"

"I was...hmm, well I was last at the North American branch, but you mean last 'mission,' if you will, which was around the Alaskan/Canadian borderline. A small tribe and a large city were fighting over a natural resource, which lay on both sides of the boundary." I said the word like bondury, and the word branch like brawnch.

He noticed that as well. "How long were you in England the last time you were there?"

"About a two years." He chuckled at my hesitant reply.

"You have quite the accent, then..."

I rolled my eyes and knew what was coming next.

"Say so--"

"Soprano." I said it like so-prawn-oh.

"Cr--"

"Crayon." crown.

"The--"

"I've said that one so many times that I am sick of hearing about any type of royalty." We both laughed at my joke.

"So, are you going to be nervous again when we arrive at the Order?" he asked suddenly.

"Not around you, your master, Suzuchi, or any women. But around everyone else, hell yeah."

"Oh, so I'm special?"

"More like someone I trust..."

He shrugged. "Don't worry, I talk a lot more around women as well." If I had been drinking something, I would've done a spit-take. Either that or it would gone up my nose.

~*~

Finally!! I got this idea after I saw a picture of Lavi's supposed 'daughter.' It made me think, well why would a girl have the title 'bookman?' and what if there was another group of bookman, only female instead of male?

And, yes, before I came up with SK I called them bookgirls XD

Yep, you've guessed it. It's going to be Lavi*OC

And I'm also wondering if Bookman and Suzuchi should be lovers...(I'm kidding!!!)