Wow guys! I got at least 21 messages, one of which being from , and the rest of them from you all! Wow! Thank you, and I hope to do well in this chapter, too! I got a total of ten reviews: Fyrearth, Naarano, Soulless Ghost, usuilove21, animephoenix2468, moonray9, rin1782, Variation on Ink, madwomans, and Doctor Yok! I give you all cookies for you to enjoy, along with this! So! Let us commence forthwith with Chapter 2 of 'Miranda Lotto: A Survivor's Tale'!

Disclaimer: D. Gray-Man is property of Katsura Hoshino and Funimation. This series is a parody and nothing more, so please support the official release. Got it? Damn well better.

~O~

2. Two's a Party, Four's an Inspiration

"Job number one hundred, here I come," she muttered under her breath, a tone of defeat already reaching her voice. She found a different dress out of her selection of only three and put it on, hoping the rip on the side wasn't too revealing. She knew, because of the dust storm the previous afternoon, that there would be an opportunity to help out and possibly get food for her and Allen. With two mouths to feed now, she had to get as much food and water she could get her hands on.

She put on her shabby shoes and walked upstairs to the loft, where the orphan she found yesterday laid still in sleep. A fur coat of a bear, one that she found within the building, covered his small body as his head pressed up against the wooden floor. He didn't seem to mind. Carefully, she placed a basket of eggs and a few apples beside his head, leaving a note with terrible spelling telling him how to cook scrambled and over easy eggs. It also mentioned how she might not be home until later that evening.

The miraculous sound of a bird chirp caused her to jump. Typically, it was eerily silent within the dead forest, so the sound of a bird was rare. She opened the window and peered out, turning her head from side to side to look for it, but she didn't even catch a glimpse. Sighing, she closed the window, then descended the stairs and glanced at herself in the broken mirror. Half of her face revealed worry and desperation, the dress indicating work of failing proportions.

"Get yourself together," she told herself. "There is no way you can lose one hundred jobs. There is absolutely no way, not when a disaster struck. Someone needs me… right? Or am I so pathetic to even not be of use after a disaster?"

She looked back over to the loft, hearing the small snores of the boy, then headed out the front door. The morning sun was covered with clouds, though she doubted it would rain. It never rained anymore, not since the war ended.

She locked the door and left, heading down the dirt-covered trails made by her own two feet, twisting and turning at overgrown roots covered in dried moss and toppled trees. She jumped over a tree once or twice before seeing the start of a dusty reminder. Shingles got into the picture shortly afterwards, along with doors and glass pieces. When she arrived to the hill, she spotted only a few people digging his or her way into the rubble, hoping for either a loved one or someone else to be alive. She tried to run towards them, but instead ended up tumbling down the hill for a few feet.

Great job, Miranda! She picked herself up and continued running, spotting a boy who looked to be a teenager in desperation. His fingers were cut raw by digging. One of his nails even appeared to have fallen off. He looked angry.

"E-Excuse me!" she yelled, rushing towards him. "Would you like some help?"

"Yes, please!" He didn't even turn to look at her. Now that was some dedication. "My friend got buried under a house, and I can hear her, but she's incredibly thirsty and in pain, and everyone else is busy, so I've been digging all night."

He had unusual features on his person, mostly the flickering red hair that nearly made her wince whenever she looked at it. An eye patch was strapped to his face, covering one eye as the other was a lively green. She shoved those thoughts aside and helped him dig through the sand and rubble, noticing several water pitchers.

"She's buried under a building?"

"Yes! And I can't… Damn, Lenalee, keep talking to me!" He pressed his ear up against the remnants of a roof as his eye widened. "Lenalee? Lenalee, answer me, damn it, I can't find you if you're silent!"

A small, muffled cry of a girl's pain caught Miranda's attention. She was close, but a roof covered her location from her eyes. The redheaded boy attempted to lift the roof up by himself, his muscles obviously tired and strained, and failed. He stumbled back and panted, glaring at the heavy structure, before walking towards it again, but she stopped him.

"Wait, you can't do this by yourself," she said, but he batted her hand away.

"She's going to die if I don't lift this thing up!" His anger fitted perfectly with the way he looked, but the green eye, it seemed to give away the emotion of anguish. "If you're going to try and stop me, I will hurt you!"

"I'm just trying to help," she replied dismally, but he ignored her. She felt the tears welling up in her eyes. Even though it really wasn't a job, she wasn't needed. She got 'fired' for the one hundredth time. The pre-teen approached the ceiling again, grunting and exerting as much force as humanly possible, lifting it about three inches. Miranda scampered over, almost tripping, and helped him push the object up. He glanced at her warily.

"Look, lady, it's obvious you have no muscles in you! All you're going to do is get in the—"

"…L… La…"

He stopped, glancing under the seven inches they managed to lift, and spotted the young girl. Miranda managed to see her and another person, looking to be a young male, covering her as if out of protection. Both had black (those her seemed to have greenish highlights, which she didn't think was possible) hair and were covered in dirt. The boy's eye blinked and looked back at Miranda. "You've got to hold this up higher," he said, then yelled loudly as he took every amount of effort possible to lift the roof up. She tried to do the same, but her fingers slipped, causing the roof to fall back onto the two defenseless people.

"No, Lenalee!" He turned to the trembling woman and yelled, "Beat it! You're of no help to me! She might die because of you!"

"I-I'm trying—"

"Yeah, well, trying isn't good enough! I have to… She's gonna…" He paused shortly afterwards, eye staring at the sky as if transfixed, then collapsed.

"Ah…" She covered her mouth with one hand before fussing over the boy. His body was too warm for comfort. A fever induced by exhaustion, maybe? He looked at her tiredly with his eye, gasping for air, as she rested a hand against his forehead. "Are you alright?"

"Why are you asking me that?" He was on the verge of snapping. "Lenalee's… Get help for Lenalee! If she dies, it's all your fault!"

It took her a moment before she nodded, leaving him behind as she ran through the ruins of town, trying not to fall into the dust. She turned left and right, asking, pleading, even begging for help. She even added promising rewards of food, but no one was swayed. All were too tired or hurt to help. Finally, one burly man heeded her call for help and asked her to show the way. By the time she got back, the redheaded boy was at it again. His scrawny fingers managed to lift the structure about five inches.

"Stop it, you'll kill yourself! I got help," she said, trying to help him lift it up. "He's probably all we need."

The boy didn't respond, a bead of sweat running down the side of his head and his dry lips coughing up dust. The burly man hefted and helped heave the roof up and out of the way, revealing broken plates, wooden beams, and two bodies in the same place. The boy did not hesitate to run up to her.

"Lenalee—"

"Wo de…"Miranda blinked, hearing the language only once before. It was Asian, but she didn't know from where. What was left of the government frowned on Asians and any foreigners in general, mostly because of the attacks from everyone. Russians were especially on bad terms, but that didn't matter. The small girl reached out and grabbed the boy's tunic by the sleeve, barely making out the words. "Wo de… gege… Ta shi…"

Immediately the redheaded boy checked the slightly older man for a pulse, pressing two bruised fingers against his neck. His eye widened before returning to the girl named Lenalee. "Duibuqi, danshi ta shi…" Two languages? She stared at him in amazement. She could only speak German because she was born there.

"Bu!" The girl sat up too quickly for her injured state and gasped, laying back down as quickly as she sat up. "Ta bu hui… Ni gaosu wo ta bu shi… Ta bui hui…!"

"Duibuqi." He seemed sad, which was more than enough to tell Miranda that the younger man was dead. Flies flew around the corpse as if dancing for their next meal. The girl burst into tears, her body shaking with the enormous amount of grief. He only stared at her before giving her a long hug.

For the third (probably more, she thought cynically) time that day, she felt completely useless. The burly man thanked her and took an orange off her hands before heading elsewhere, all the while the little girl cried and cried, the corpse of what seemed to be a relative—an uncle, maybe? Perhaps even a brother—not getting any more alive. She spaced out for a little bit, staring blankly at the rubble. She wondered vaguely how many people died within the town. Probably most of them.

"Lenalee? Lenalee! Are you okay? Hey!"

Miranda snapped out of her thoughts and turned her head. The boy was shaking the little girl, whose body seemed bloodied, yelling her name over and over. She walked over to them and pushed the boy aside gently, checking the girl. She didn't seem to have any significant injuries, just a lot of bruises. Whoever the male was must have taken the damage for her. She picked the girl up and turned to the boy, who looked confused.

"I'm going to take her home," she said, "and make sure she recovers properly. Is that okay with you?"

"No!" He glared at her. "Lenalee speaks little English as is, and now you, a complete stranger, are going to take her right after her older brother dies? No way in hell am I gonna let you do that unless you take both of us?"

"She needs rest, but if you want, you can come along."

The boy blinked, as if not expecting that response, and paced in a circle, pondering. It took about half a minute before sighing. "Fine," he said, "but I have to come along. No leading me astray now."

"I wouldn't do that to you, Mister…"

"Lavi," he replied, a childish grin on his face, "but hold on the 'mister' part. I'm only twelve or thirteen years old."

~O~

Wandering back through the woods, the boy named Lavi talked a lot. His discussions ranged from the chances of a previously-boreal ecosystem having a dust bowl to the current governmental disasters. He was quite the intellect for a little boy, but his emotions, even down to his rage, she noticed, was a bit detached. Despite that, he seemed to be an overall good kid with a love of learning and a worry streak for Lenalee.

"She moved with her family when the war nearly reached the end," he explained. "Her parents were put into questioning and never came back, leaving her and her brother to themselves. They essentially fled from the law and moved here. No one ever comes here, not even that new radical group promising to bring good fortunes."

The information sounded familiar. She remembered eavesdropping while being a maid on some people, talking about the 'Noah' group and 'The Millennium Earl'. Since the government's collapse, the country resided in a state of anarchy and everyone fended for themselves. Trust was a foreign concept by now, and the idea of having the slightest affection for someone other than yourself became a joke. However, the group claimed to 'help bring back democracy' and would 'restore the way we used to live', which sounded enticing to her ears, but the way the house owners spoke, it sounded nothing more than a myth.

"How is she?"

She caught herself from tumbling over out of the shock of being put back into reality. "Wh-What?"

"Lenalee. I asked how she is." He rubbed the back of his head. "You're… kind of a space case, aren't you?"

"Sorry," she replied, head drooping slightly. "She's sleeping."

"Oh."

They walked in silence for the remainder of the trip. She was used to the silence at that point, what with having to walk by herself to the town. The cabin caught her sight, much to her relief, and approached it, Lavi following behind her, glancing from side to side out of curiosity. Miranda blinked, noticing the door was unlocked and the smell of eggs cooking wafted a bit outside the front door.

"Allen?" she called, opening the door wide. The small boy blinked and looked over his shoulder with a smile on his face.

"Welcome home, Miranda."

"Miranda, huh? That's your name?" Lavi peered from behind her, looking around at the interior of the cabin. Allen stopped approaching towards her, shocked by the presence of other people aside from the older woman. "Ooh, something smells good."

"Ah!" She smiled briefly, hefting up the little girl in her arms. "Allen, I would like you to meet Lavi—" she pointed to the redhead by her left "—and, uh…"

"Lenalee," Lavi whispered.

"Lenalee," she repeated, thanking him for the help in her head. "I brought them here because she is injured and he refuses to leave her side. Lavi, this is Allen. We just met yesterday and—"

"That's potentially dangerous. What if he had rabies?" He turned to Allen. "And what if she was a pedophile, hm? You're both too trustworthy. You have to question everything. Why did you go with her in the first place?"

He hesitated, fidgeting with the spatula in his hands, sizzling from the warm contact with the fireplace. She wondered if he couldn't figure out the gas stove in the kitchen's corner. He stared back at the frying pan and watched the eggs, flipping them over before answering, "Because she didn't hit me when she met me."

The answer nearly made tears well up in her eyes as Lavi stood there, unimpressed. He took notice of Lenalee and said, "We should probably put her down."

"Oh! Yes, you're right. Allen, if you cook more eggs for the rest of us, that would be nice! Lavi, in my room down that hall, there's a bed with blankets on it. Go get one for me and the pillow."

Allen nodded and dug more eggs out of the basket, cracking open the shells to release the hidden treasure of yolk onto the frying pan. Lavi said nothing and proceeded down the hall and disappeared into her room. Miranda placed the girl on the floor of the living room, watching her take in small, shallow breaths. She got up, obtained a glass, and filled it with water. Lavi came back down the hall with the pillow in one hand and a blanket in the other, seeming to rush himself as he approached Lenalee.

"I got her some water," Miranda said, but he wasn't listening.

"Lenalee's a happy girl, you know?" He fluffed the blanket out over her, letting it gracefully fall and cover her body. "She doesn't like it when people of her family get hurt or even die." He put the pillow behind her head and sighed. "When she wakes up, what're we going to do? She's going to be too upset to live on her own, and I certainly can't help her that much. I couldn't even lift up the roof by myself." He stared at her with a solemn expression. "When the storm hit, it made me realize that I'm just a child. But compared to the adults, I am more better off than anyone else. I thought I was lucky. Seeing Lenalee like this, knowing there is no way to bring her brother back…" He trailed off, staring blankly at the floor.

"If you want," Miranda said after a moment of silence, "you can stay here, too. I certainly don't mind. I can take care of her as well. It's not like I'm going to kick you out when she recovers."

He snorted. "You have an abnormally high liking for children. What are you running, an orphanage?"

"Well, no, but…" She paused, mulling over the idea. Orphanage. It wasn't like she could hold onto any other job. Besides, there were no other jobs available. The entire town was in post-disaster mode and still recovering. Children like Lavi and Lenalee needed help, but they were easily discarded for items, like clothes or food. Allen brought over four plates worth of eggs and fruit, nervously handing it to Lavi and Miranda, but she didn't even notice the plate was there. "An orphanage," she repeated. The more she thought about it, the more she figured it was a good idea.

"Miranda?" Allen held his fork up nervously, confused at her suddenly-bright expression.

"An orphanage is perfect!" She clapped her hands together, beaming. "Thank you so much for the idea, Lavi! An orphanage!"

"What? I didn't even—"

It was too late to make her idea be shot down. She was almost singing with excitement and joy, spinning around in a full circle before walking towards the kitchen, humming while she stabbed her egg. Lavi blinked.

Is this gonna be okay? She seems crazily depressed. He stared at her as she smiled at Allen, helping him peel some apples. His attention returned to the sleeping Lenalee, noticing the cup beside her head. He hoisted it up to her lips and dripped a few drops of the liquid, which made her gasp a little, but not enough to wake her up. At least this is better than nothing, but me? Living in an orphanage? Great going, Lavi, giving her that idea. Sheesh, I'm losing my touch.

I seriously need to try and find Bookman to fix that…

~O~

Woo-hoo! Chapter 2, done! So! Did you like it? Hate it? Love it? Destroy it? Hit me with a review, por favor! Next chapter is going to be the start of all that is bad. Well, bad for her and the kidlets. Not so bad for this totally-new group called the Noah. …Yeah, shut up. See you in Chapter 3~! —Mr. Ree