A/N: Hey! *bounce* So I've been over this a few times already, sorry if you've already seen this - but I'm crossposting my stories from AO3, long story short, I didn't want to keep that many stories on a schedule and then decided I didn't have to. So. Here we go. *smile*
Title: Heart and Soul
Author: liketolaugh
Rating: T
Pairings: Miranda/Marie, Link/Allen
Genre: Romance/Supernatural
Warnings: None
Summary: Miranda and Marie have just moved into their first house, and they have... a couple of unexpected roommates. Luckily, they're very friendly. Ghost!AU.
Disclaimer: Like hell I own D. Gray-man.
"Thank you for your help," Miranda said earnestly, giving Tiedoll a grateful smile with her hands pressed together. "Thank you, thank you, thank you."
Tiedoll laughed, waving his hands dismissively. "You're very welcome, my dear. I assure you, it's an endless weight off my shoulders to know that Marie won't be alone even if he's not in my home anymore."
Marie emerged from the house and gave Tiedoll a smile of his own. "Kanda really did give you a scare, didn't he?" he asked, amused.
"That boy will be the death of me," Tiedoll said firmly, and then, "I'm still going to call you every night. Do answer, please."
Miranda giggled softly, knowing that Kanda had never answered, and promised, "We will."
"Remember not to delay unpacking too terribly long. Miranda, you don't start work for another month, but you, Marie, you only have a week before you'll have to start going. Don't forget to set your alarm, you don't want to be late on your first day-"
"Dad," Marie interrupted, an amused smile on his face. "We'll be fine."
Tiedoll sighed. "Yes, yes." He smiled ruefully. "I suppose I'll allow you to settle in now. Call me if you need anything. Remember, I'm just fifteen minutes away."
"We will," Marie assured him, politely keeping the laughter out of his voice.
It took another ten minutes of dithering, but Tiedoll eventually left, and Marie chuckled, while Miranda cast him a smile, reaching out to twine her hand with his.
"Your father really is very kind," she commented, a hint of laughter leaking into her voice. Tiedoll had warmed up to her very quickly after she'd begun dating Marie, something that couldn't have been said for Kanda or Daisya, and she'd responded to his kindness and encouragement almost as well as she had Marie's.
"He worries," Marie said fondly, and when she looked up at him, he was smiling at her. "Are you ready?" he asked.
She lost her breath in the span of a short moment, staring at him.
Her heart pounded, thinking of all the things that could go wrong. She'd lived on her own, in an apartment, for a while, but she hadn't lived with anyone before. What if she was too messy, or too loud, or what if Marie got tired of her and asked her to leave-
"Miranda?" Marie asked, smile melting to concern.
Miranda took a deep breath, blew it out, and smiled at Marie. "I'm ready," she promised, to herself as much as to Marie.
Marie believed in her, so she could believe in herself. She could.
Marie smiled warmly and released her hand. "Let's go do as we said and start unpacking."
"Ooh, that'll take a while," Miranda worried, and Marie reached out to squeeze her shoulder reassuringly, drawing her attention back to him.
"No hurry," Marie said simply, and opened the door. She relaxed, half-smiled again, and went after him.
Miranda looked around curiously – the house was bare of the furniture that had been in when they last looked, and filled with boxes now instead – and her eyes landed on something in the middle of the room. She smiled. "Oh, you opened the kitchen box! Maybe we can put something together for lunch."
"Hm?" Marie frowned, stepping forward cautiously. "I didn't open any boxes."
Miranda started slightly. "Oh…" She shrugged helplessly. "Perhaps Tiedoll did."
"Perhaps," Marie agreed, smiling at her. "We'll have to thank him."
It took two weeks to unpack completely, and a little longer for Marie to learn his way around enough to stop moving so cautiously.
It was fun, if Marie was honest with himself. Certainly, hunting down the boxes with the things they needed tended to be tedious, and it was astonishing how many things you needed on a day-to-day basis. Miranda, he knew, had a running list of things they would need to buy, mostly groceries.
But it was a moment of quiet, of privacy. Hours that Marie was happy to spend talking with Miranda, filling the silence with the sound of a voice he could listen to all day. And she made the best surprised noises when she found something she'd forgotten they'd packed.
Miranda, too, was more relaxed here, when it was just the two of them. She talked a little longer, fretted a little less, and was simply more comfortable. Sometimes the two of them were just quiet, unpacking silently or taking a break, and sometimes, once he'd unpacked his guitar, Marie played for the two of them, filling the quiet of the house.
It was toward the end of the unpacking period, while the two of them were taking a quiet break, Miranda leaning against Marie, breathing deep and even, that a knock came at the door.
"Oh!" Miranda yelped and sat up quickly, half-scrambling to her feet before she fell over herself with a yelp and collapsed onto the ground. "Ah, um- C-c-coming!" she called out, distress filling her voice as she pushed herself up.
Before she could finish, Marie reached out, finding her knee, and she stilled.
"I'll get it," Marie assured her gently, smiling fondly, and she blew out a breath, still anxious.
"Ah- okay." Deep breath. Marie gave her a moment, knowing she always had trouble gathering herself when she felt she'd messed up. "D-do you think it's a neighbor?"
"Most likely," Marie confirmed, standing up and carefully picking his way across the room, still half-filled with boxes and furniture he hadn't memorized the exact positioning of yet. Finally, he reached the door, opened it, and smiled. "Good afternoon."
"Good afternoon," returned a voice he didn't recognize – a girl in her teens, he guessed. "My name is Lenalee; my brother and I live across the street. I thought I should give you some time to settle in, but I wanted to greet you."
"It's nice to meet you, Lenalee," Marie greeted with a small smile, holding out his hand. "I'm Noise Marie; my girlfriend, Miranda, and I moved in together."
"Welcome," Lenalee replied, shaking it, and then, "Ah… Pardon me, but…"
"Am I blind?" Marie finished for her.
"I'm sorry, was that rude?" Lenalee asked, clearly embarrassed.
"No, don't worry," Marie assured her, smiling again. "What gave it away?"
"I have some cookies for you," Lenalee explained, a trace of embarrassment still in her voice, though it was melting away. "As a housewarming gift."
"Oh!" Marie smiled and held out his hand, and wrapped his fingers around the plate pressed into it. "Thank you. That's quite kind of you."
"It's nothing," Lenalee assured him. "Is Miranda busy?"
Marie heard footsteps approaching, the light, half-hesitant gait of Miranda, and stepped aside slightly to allow her room.
"No, no, I'm here!" Miranda insisted. "H-hello. I- I'm Miranda."
"Welcome," Lenalee repeated with just as much warmth. "Are you both settling in alright?"
"We're almost done unpacking," Marie said, leaning slightly against the wall.
"It's a very lovely neighborhood!" Miranda added earnestly. "Y-you s-said you live across the street, d-didn't you?"
"I did," Lenalee agreed, and Marie heard her shift, her shoes scraping against the pavement, possibly to point. "That house there."
"Oh!" Miranda exclaimed. "That's, ah…"
"Brother has some odd hobbies," Lenalee said ruefully, and Miranda explained to Marie,
"There appears to be some kind of, um, robot, I think, in the garage. It's rather-"
"It's weird," Lenalee interrupted, sounding amused. "You can say it. I don't mind and Brother will pout, but he doesn't mind either." Giggle. "Believe me, he knows."
Miranda laughed a little. "Have you lived here long?" she asked.
"Since I was six," Lenalee confirmed. "This house actually goes through more residents than all of the other houses combined. I'm not sure why."
Miranda made a worried noise, and Marie put hand on her shoulder, smiling at Lenalee. "Whatever it is, we'll handle it," he said firmly.
"Of course!" Lenalee said quickly. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to imply anything."
"Of course not," Marie agreed, but he was thinking anyway.
Miranda hadn't lost anything since they'd come here. Actually, anything they were looking for seemed to appear within moments of beginning to search for it.
But that was nothing, surely.
There was something about this house.
It wasn't unsettling, exactly- Well, okay, it was a little unsettling. Marie, she was sure, had noticed this as well, attentive as he always was.
Things moved around, when she wasn't looking. They weren't where she'd left them (she usually remembered once she'd found them) but instead where she looked, and oftentimes she was sure they hadn't been there until she turned around. And, if she stayed up and listened to the quiet of the night, sometimes-
She could hear voices. Quiet, too quiet to hear. She couldn't hear what they were saying, and the one time she'd gotten up to look, there had been nothing there, but they were definitely there. She was sure.
For instance, now she needed groceries, but she couldn't find her keys, which she had been so sure had been in her purse. She glanced distractedly at the counter, saw it clear of everything but a stack of mail and a jar of peanut butter she hadn't yet put away, and looked away against, scanning anxiously for anywhere she could have left them.
And she turned back around, glancing at the counter again, and was only half-surprised to see the keys, laying innocently in place as if they'd been there all along.
Even more startling, though, was the grocery list – oh no, she'd almost forgotten the grocery list! – and an uncapped pen, with another entry scribbled in unfamiliar, messy handwriting.
Call Tydol
She stared at it for a moment, startled.
They'd lost a box along the way, the one with most of Marie's music CDs, and he'd asked her to call Tiedoll about it, earlier. Now would be the perfect time, when she could pick it up on the way back if needed.
"Th-that's not h-how you spell his name," Miranda said at last, breathless. She picked up the pen, scratched out 'Tydol', and rewrote it the correct way.
She wondered if she'd imagined the breathy 'oops' in her ear.
She didn't think so.
"Th-thank you," she added on a whim, and definitely didn't imagine the 'you're welcome' that followed.
"Noise?" Miranda started tentatively, unable to stop thinking about what had happened.
"Hm?" Marie looked up from his guitar, slowing to a stop. "Is something wrong?"
"Do you think…" Miranda took a deep breath, rubbed a hand over her arm anxiously, and then blurted out all at once, "Doyouthinkourhouseishaunted?"
Marie blinked. "Ah…"
Miranda flushed, but forged on, confident that Marie would actually consider her words. "D-do you think our… our house is h-haunted?" Marie didn't answer, frowning slightly, and Miranda flinched. "I-I mean! With the things moving, a-and the voices at night, and the note on the notepad-"
"Miranda," Marie interrupted, leaning forward slightly, and Miranda stopped talking, hyperventilating a little. Marie smiled reassuringly, and it was… nice, that just his hand on hers calmed her a little. "I… actually do. Dad might say that it's because we're in a new house, but…"
"It isn't normal," Miranda finished in a whisper, and Marie nodded.
For a moment, both of them were silent, wondering about that, and then Miranda asked tentatively,
"What should we…?" She trailed off, biting her lip.
Marie shrugged. "I don't know," he said honestly, expression a little troubled. "Certainly they don't seem unfriendly, but it doesn't feel right to ignore them, either."
Miranda bit her cheek against a nervous smile. "Yes, it feels kind of rude."
Marie nodded, and there was a soft laugh in the air that belonged to neither of them. Miranda jumped, and Marie looked up sharply, and she knew he'd heard it, too.
Then, as Miranda watched, a notepad lifted itself from where it was kept under the table, flipped to a blank page, and was swiftly followed by a pen – moving as if handed from one person to another, Miranda noted faintly – which was then pressed to the paper. A note was drawn out, slow and careful, and then the pen fell to the table.
A moment later, the notepad floated to her – again passed as if from one hand to another - and, numbly, she took it and read what it said.
My name is Link. Allen is with me.
Softly, Miranda whispered, "There's two of them."
Marie started. "Really? How…?"
"They wrote a note," Miranda explained, voice breathless, staring down at the innocuous notepad in her hands. "One of them is named Allen, and one of them is named Link."
Marie stared for a moment, and then he cleared his throat, though the slightly disconcerted look stayed on his face.
"Hello, Allen, Link," Marie said politely, sightless gaze still on Miranda.
"Hi," a voice whispered back, and Miranda tried not to jump too badly, though her hand did fly to her mouth to muffle a squeak.
Oh God. They really did have a couple of roommates.
…Oh no! And she hadn't even said hello for more than two entire weeks!
*smile* Miranda and Marie really are the cutest. This one is going to be fairly short, like See You Later will be, but it should be fun nonetheless. Thank you for reading, and please review!