Disclaimer: I own nothing and get nothing from using DGM for my own purposes.
I apologize. I really do.
As far as Zokalo Winters was concerned, Cross Marian was an unremarkable brat with rather obnoxiously fluffy, brown hair cut close to his scalp. The kid was a full eleven years younger than his own twenty-five years old, and barely came up to his chest, not counting the unruly spikes of his hair, so Winters wasn't inclined to take him at all seriously. That the brat was a member of the Science division made him even less of a concern, despite his apparent preference for corrosive or otherwise deadly chemicals. It was a wonder all the higher ups were concerned with his psychological health considering that kid. Marian was just another face in the sea of unimportant people of the Order, as far as Winters was concerned, and he wasn't going to let his existence get to him.
But it did bother him. He wasn't even entirely sure where he'd first run into the kid, but thought it might have been the cafeteria. After all, it wasn't often you saw someone who didn't have parasitic Innocence eat their way through four courses piled up taller than Winters' 6'8". He had to wonder where the kid put it all, even after a few weeks of not being witness to the scene. The kid's girlfriend packed away about the same amount, but she was an Exorcist, and he'd heard she was of the Parasitic variety. Not that he cared, or so he told himself.
Something about the kid just fascinated him, and it was really starting to piss him off that whenever he was back at HQ he'd end up keeping an eye out for the short teenager. Though he supposed the kid wasn't all that short, based on the height of the other men of the Order who were closer to average height, but that didn't matter to Winters in the long run.
When he'd come in from a mission with a piece of Innocence and the blasted thing had started vibrating and freaking out, he had nothing else to do but let it go off to find whoever in the Order it was compatible with. That the damn thing had gone straight to him had him on the verge of rolling his eyes, because he somehow wasn't at all surprised that the unremarkable little brat had ended up with what Hevlaska said was one of the most powerful pieces of newly accommodated Innocence she'd ever encountered.
Cross Marian was still entirely unremarkable as far as appearances went, though.
xxxxxxx
Cross Marian had absolutely no idea who Zokalo Winters was. Really. Not a single clue. The Science Department really didn't have all that much to do with the Exorcists, especially the Generals, so Cross had never even seen the man. Maria had said the tall man seemed to always be looking over toward them whenever he was in the room, but Cross had yet to see evidence of this.
From what the other scientists said, Winters was the tallest man they'd ever seen, was possibly the most terrifying they'd ever seen -and a few had even seen the Earl-, and reminded them closely of a dragon or some sort of dinosaur. Cross honestly didn't want to have a run in with the giant man, but then we don't always get what we want, and Cross knew that intimately.
Staring down at the gun that had suddenly appeared on the worktable covered in paperwork, Cross really had to wonder why it was this piece of Innocence that Winters had to have found. The teen only knew it was Winters who found it because the man followed it into his lab, and by God the man was tall.