Silence
D Gray Man
Trust

The morning came and Lavi opened his eye, not in his room but in Verinty's. She was still sleeping, but sleeping calmly. She didn't have another nightmare that night. She had just slept and he had too. He didn't think sleeping next to her was awkward, he just thought it bad. He was getting attached to her. There was no denying it, he was attached to her. He was, he couldn't just brush it off and pretend he wasn't because he was. He was breaking a Bookman rule, but he couldn't help it. It didn't seem completely bad. It just seemed...like it might be harder. If he ever had to leave this place, ever had to leave her, it would be just a tad bit harder than it would have been if he didn't become attached. A sigh passed his lips and he sat up. He got out of bed and walked to his room. Bookman was up and gone. He got dressed and fixed his hair, keeping it spiked up in his headband. He looked at the small mirror they had in the room. It was so Bookman could fix his hair. He looked at himself.

He looked the same as always, red hair, green eye, eye-patch, headband. He felt like he was different though. He touched his cheek, the person in the mirror did too. It was him, but it almost felt like it wasn't. He still had his good looks, he'd die if he didn't, but something felt off, wrong. He heard the door open and saw Verinty. So maybe she had been awake? Her hair was already combed. Had he been standing in here a while? She smiled lightly at him, it seemed hesitant, but it was there. Her eyes darted to the mirror as well, as if she was looking at what he was looking at.

"You wanna go get breakfast?" he suggested and she nodded. He walked out the door and she followed him, her feet bare. He wondered why she ran around barefoot when the floor was stone and therefore very cold usually. She seemed content though and he didn't bother her with his desire for her to wear shoes. They walked to the kitchen and a few people seemed shocked yet to see Verinty. She talked to Jerry easily, a few words passed between them and then he gave her and Lavi their food. They sat down over by Lenalee and Lavi talked with her. They chatted easily while Verinty ate in silence.

"How are you feeling Verinty?" asked Lenalee suddenly and the other girl looked up at the first. She had a piece of toast in her mouth. She quickly bit her piece off and swallowed it before answering Lenalee.

"I'm feeling...fine. Good. Better..." She answered though it almost sounded unsure.

"That's good" Lenalee looked relived. "I was worried by brother wouldn't let you in here" she said, her voice dropped a little. "I'm glad your back though" Verinty shrugged and went on eating. Lavi and Lenalee went back to their talking. Then when they had all finished they left. Verinty wandered off on her own, saying she was going to the library. Lavi and Lenalee went to train. They arrived at the training room before long and Lavi spotted his favorite friend, Yuu-chan. A grin spread over his face and Lenalee gave him a warning look before he dashed over to Kanda.

"Yuu-chan!" he called to the Japanese male. He was almost over to him when the male took a swipe at him with his sword.

"Listen, Baka, I hate it when you call me that!" growled the irritable young man. Lavi just smiled at him, he had easily dodged the blow with the sword. Kanda just looked more annoyed. "Che...I heard you found that girl" He seemed to be starting a conversation. Kanda actually had never gotten to meet Veri.

"Yeah, I found her. Do you want to meet her Yuu-chan? She's at the library right now" He said, a grin still on his face. He saw Kanda twitch when he used the name he hated more than anything with him. Lavi kept his grin from getting to wide, he was enjoying himself after all. He just didn't want Kanda to chop him in half. He'd rather keep in one piece. He knew that Kanda did like him though. Even if he hated Lavi's nickname for him.

"No. I don't want to meet her! I was just saying what I heard." He turned away, clearly going to walk away and do training elsewhere. It made Lavi think. Did Verinty ever train her power? Her power was beautiful, artwork in a way. He had only seen her use it a few times but it was something that he liked to watch her use. He could sit and listen to her read all day. Her power was amazing. He didn't even think people could have powers like that but she obviously wasn't a regular person. She was something different but that wasn't always a bad thing.

"Well, I'll introduce you to her at dinner tonight okay?" Lavi said with a smile, acting like Kanda had said nothing about not wanting to meet Verinty. Kanda stopped walking away for a moment to turn and look at Lavi. He rolled his eyes, looking angry about it, and then walked away. Maybe he was going to train in the forest outside the Order. He did that sometimes. Lavi watched him go and turned, drawing his Anti-Akuma Weapon. Leanlee walked to his side, her's already activated.

"You shouldn't torment Kanda so" she said to him, a small frown on her cute face. Lavi grinned at her, waving his hand, waving her words off.

"What else am I supposed to do with my day?"

"Try not to torment Kanda?" she suggested, but it was half-hearted.

"Or I could tease Kanda and get my work out for dodging his blade" Lavi said, a small laugh falling out of his mouth. She rolled her eyes at him now, a smile on her lips, and then went back to her training. Lavi never understood why she wore that small skirt when Komui was so protective of her. If he didn't want guys leering at his sister, he should probably not have her wear that tiny skirt. Lavi didn't watch her, just for the fact that he didn't want Komui to kill him or slip some strange potion in his drink or something along those lines. Lavi wanted to avoid all of those things. He'd rather keep all his limbs, not be poisoned or turned into a zombie or something stupid and silly like that. He wanted to keep himself in rather good health. He didn't want to evoke the wrath of Komui,

Well either way, with those thoughts aside. Lavi had to train. He didn't know where Bookman was, nor was he going to go looking for the old man but he had things he had to do too. He knew Bookman actually wanted him to train a little, to keep his skills from getting rusty, to keep from getting himself killed. He couldn't die because he was the next to be Bookman and he doubted the old man had time to train another kid to be the next Bookman. So, Lavi knew it was best if he actually kept himself alive.

Verinty sat in the library. There weren't many works of literature here, mainly just reports filed away. She found a book and picked it up, happy to find it was an actual book. Her eyes turned down to the pages, reading the story within the book, a small smile on her face. She loved reading, she loved being able to read and she was very well aware that some people did not know how to read well. Her mother had taught her, been very careful to teach her. She wondered if her mother knew...

No.

There was no way her mother could have known about her power.

Unless...

Who was her father? Was he...was he one of those people? Could he have been one of those people? They all...were strange. She remembered that much but her mind's eye couldn't see them as clearly as she had once seen them. Was her father among them? Or had he once walked among them? The thought scared her. It felt right though. It felt like her father was once among them, which meant that it made sense for her to be among them. Was the Order not where she belonged?

Fear clenched in her stomach and she gripped the book's cover so hard her knuckles turned white. This was where she was but it was not where she belonged? Why kind of cruel world would allow her to figure this out now. Suddenly the door to the library opened and her eyes turned to look and see who it was. It was Lavi and he had some bread, cheese and a drink on a tray.

She looked at him, wondering why he had brought this to her. She gave him a questioning look, not loosening her grip on the book. She couldn't just yet. She was holding onto her world from that book and denying everything that her instincts were screaming. She was one of the, she was one of them, she was one of them. Them? Her own mind questioned her instincts.

"Are you alright Veri?" he asked.

"Yeah. What's with that?" she motioned to the tray of food.

"Do you know what time it is? I finished my training a while ago. It's an hour past dinner. Jerry was worried so he made me bring you this" Lavi held up the tray a little higher, as if he wanted her to see it better. He brought it over to her. "Are you sure you're alright?" he asked.

"I'm just...connecting some dots" She replied and she looked away. She knew Lavi wanted to ask. She could feel coming off him but he held back and she wondered by. He held the tray out to her.

"Well you can't do that on an empty stomach." She took the tray from him, sitting it on her lap and eating a piece of the bread. She was surprised to find that it was warm inside. She'd have to thank Jerry later. "What are you reading?" he pointed to the book that she had set aside and she handed it to him. She was busy eating, she found that she was starving. He looked at the book and then handed it back to her. She tucked it against her leg again and ate in silence.

Lavi folded himself onto the floor in front of her and looked around, waiting for her to be done. She finished rather quickly and she set the tray aside. He smiled at her and asked a question she wasn't expecting him to ask. "Do you practice you power?" he had asked before, she had gotten mad at him but now she started at him and then sighed.

"No"

"Why not?"

"I don't have much control"

"You won't get better unless you practice"

"I don't want to"

He was silent for a moment. She looked at him. He was frowning, clearly thinking about something. "Will you let me watch you practice?"

"I'm not going to practice, so that'll be kinda hard" She replied, yawning lightly.

"Please?"

She glared at him. "No"

"Verinty, please. You should practice your power anyway." he said, and she glared at him a moment longer and then sighed.

"You're right." She stood and walked out of the room though. She heard him stumbling after her. He nearly had to run to keep up with her. When he finally caught up to her he walked beside her, surprised when she stopped and flung open the door to her room. He followed her in, closing the door behind him.

She walked over to her bed, grabbed a beaten and worn black book and then sat down on her bed and looked at him. She opened the book and then said "Lock the door" He complied and then walked over to her bed and sat down by her. He looked at her book and she opened it. She held it up to her face and read. She read and he sat there and listened, not sure what else to do. She read because he had suggested that she practice and now she was. She read each word slowly, pronouncing each syllable easily. Her words flowed like clear water down a stream.

As she read, reading of a bracelet that would appear when a hand was held out, she noticed Lavi holding out his hand, hoping that the bracelet might appear in his hand maybe. It started to. The silver wrapping its way from nowhere into the boy's hand. The red and blue gems were the next to appear and then finally the tiny details that she read about. When it was done, he looked at it curiously as Verinty closed her book and sat in on her lap.

"Did you write about this?" he asked.

"Yes. I have a lot written in here" she said, stroking the back of the worn black cover. "I get an idea in my head and I write it down, to make sure that if I ever need the idea I have it..." She said, her voice now soft.

"That's a good idea" He examined the bracelet a little bit deeper now, it was right before his face and was looking at the gems on it. "Are these real...?"

"I don't know...I read them as sapphires and rubies...but I don't know if they're real or not" He tapped them with his finger but didn't seem pleased with her answer. How was she supposed to know if they were real or not? She was not a expert on gems and jewels and such. Her eyes turned back to her book and she stroked the cover again.

He looked at her and handed her the bracelet. "Can you read anything else out of the book?" he asked, a curiousness in his voice that he couldn't suppress. A small smile touched her face at the thought. He was a good person, worthy of her trust. Bookman or not. He was a good person. She trusted him and she realized that he was the only person she trusted. She trusted him more than she trusted herself. Why? That was an easy one.

She kept feeling them...or she thought it was them...pulling on her. Pulling on her mind, on her body and sometimes on her very soul, trying to get her to sink into that state where they could pull her away, get her away. Take her away again. It terrified her but she wouldn't let Lavi know that. That was none of his concern, though she realized she relied on him more than she really wanted to. She needed him because without him she had no one but herself and she could not do this alone. She needed him, she needed him more than anything.

"Yes." she answered him. "I can" And so she did.

That was how their nights became. They stayed up late so she could practice her power in the dead of night when there were no eyes to watch her as she did what Lavi loved watching her do. He was so interested in her power, he always asked questioned her and asked her to do it over and over again. She enjoyed her time with him though and they soon began to talk and laugh late into the night as well.

Verinty could admit that she was happy and that she felt at home now. She slowly started talking to other people and they came to know her as a pretty shy, but sweet girl who didn't talk much, except to Lavi. She was almost always with Lavi then. She liked to watch him train too then. She'd make comments, sometimes teasing, when he was training and she really changed.

She started talking to Lenalee a little more and even met Kanda, but she didn't tease him like Lavi did. She didn't like nicknames but that was easy to see because she still corrected him when he called her 'Veri' instead of Verinty. Sometimes, if it was night and she had her book, she'd read some sort of minor revenge on him but for the most part, she seemed happy. She didn't go on missions with him though, afraid of leaving the safety of the Order's tower. She'd always see him off.

Lavi knew some people thought that the two of them were together because of this, but they weren't. He knew he was growing attached to her, more and more so by the day. He liked her smile, it was cute and he even got to see it more often now so that was always nice. Actually Lavi had to say that he was happier now too. He didn't want to say that Verinty was the cause though, it would be a bad idea to say that. He actually had many friends in the Order now though, or at least people he called "friends". He got along with most people in the Order but they were also used to seeing Verinty somewhere behind him. She sometimes even played pranks on people with him. He actually got to see a side of her that no one ever had seen and he didn't think that she'd show to many others.

Days turned to weeks and weeks turned to months. Before they knew it they were both over the age of sixteen and into the new year of seventeen.

Everything was different for Verinty. She had a friend, a good friend, a best friend who knew everything about her and she could trust. It was an odd feeling, trusting someone but she trusted Lavi. She really did. He did nothing to betray her trust either. She often walked through the halls with him, talking, laughing and sobering up when another person came too near by the smile never left her face.

She also didn't have nightmares anymore. They had long since faded. She didn't know why she didn't have them anymore but they no longer haunted her at night. She slept peacefully and easily, even without Lavi there. Oddly he still spent some nights in her room and she found that comforting. It wasn't often, just every once in a while when he was too tired to walk across the hall to his room after their nightly activities. She enjoyed showing him her power now and she had stopped thinking of it as a curse. Everything seemed a little brighter for the girl now.

Though one thing depressed her.

She could no longer search for answers about her father. She had to stay in the safety of the castle. She always waited for Lavi in the tower. She never left it. She could no longer search for her father, but Lavi assured her that he would search for her. He never came with many answers though. She never told him what dots she had connected though. She knew she should, it might lead him in the right direction but she didn't want to speak those words out loud. She didn't even want to think it.

When Lavi was around, she didn't. When he left for a mission sometimes her mind wandered in a dangerous direction. She'd always make sure to go and be around other people when it happened. She'd go to the cafeteria or go to the training room or go see Lenalee. Lenalee and her were on pretty good terms now, but she didn't hang out with the other girl very often. She spent more time with Jerry actually. She loved to talk to the man and he enjoyed talking with her as it seemed. He was nice to her and she enjoyed his company because of it.

She always enjoyed Lavi's more though. Lavi was her best friend. She didn't know if he knew it but she didn't really care. She knew it and she supposed that all that matter. She was happy, he was happy and that was all she really cared about at the moment.

She sat in her room, writing as usual. Lavi was out on a mission. He had been gone for a week and she was worried about him. She worried about him a lot though and she wouldn't deny it. She wasn't as quiet as she had been before. She was far from outgoing though. When Lavi wasn't there and she wasn't having an episode, she was usually somewhere by herself, as she was right now. She closed her eyes, envisioning the object she was writing about. It was a dagger. She had only written about one weapon before this dagger and she never summoned them in front of Lavi. She did not want to summon a weapon in front of Lavi.

It brought her mind back to the day she first used her power. The day she almost killed Lavi. If she hadn't awakened...Well she didn't know what would have become of her. Something bad, or maybe she would have found out about who her father was or at this point what her father was. She still wondered and sometimes wished the nightmares would come back, just so she could ask the people in them about who her father had been. What they were, where her father was, why he had not been in her life, why she had this power.

It was a curse at first. She had been scared of it at first and it had been unstable but now she had much more control. She was doing pretty well with it now. She had a few slip ups every once in a while but the backlash always came back on her. There were a few scars on her hands now. She didn't mind them. She knew that Lavi worried every time she got hurt. She always brushed it off though. It never really mattered in the end.

There was a knock on her door and she closed the book and stood up, opening the door. Lenalee stood on the other side, a small smile on her face. "You weren't going to skip dinner again were you Verinty?" she asked. Verinty glanced at the time.

"Oh. Sorry, I didn't realize" she replied and then she walked on the door, closing it behind her. They walked together towards the cafeteria, in silence. She wondered if Lenalee had eaten yet but she didn't ask. She didn't want to break the silence between them because it was an understanding one. Leanlee understood that Verinty didn't like to talk when Lavi wasn't around, that she felt less secure when Lavi was around.

They were only half way there when Lenalee's voice came to her ears, hesitate almost as if she was afraid to as Verinty, "You like him...don't you?"

She stopped, mid-step and Lenalee walked to steps ahead before turning back to look at Verinty. She waited for Verinty to answer but Verinty just looked at the other girl, a look of shock on her face. She lowered her other foot to the ground and her look became thoughtful.

"What do you mean?" she asked. They walked again, more slowly.

"Well..." Lenalee thought about her words before she spoke them. "You're always around him, you're always happy around him and I noticed he's happier around you. I see how you smile at him. You never use that smile on anyone else. I figure...it's a special smile for him. And with that thought...comes the one that I think you might like him...More than a friend"

Verinty thought about it and then shook her head, her long hair splaying around her. "No" She answered. "But...I get what you mean. I like Lavi, but only as a friend. He's my best friend"

Lenalee smiled, like she didn't believe Verinty. "If you say so, but I'm convinced there's more going than you...or Lavi...will admit" She smiled and laughed lightly at the situation.

"Wait! What do you mean by that? Did you...did you talk to Lavi too?" she asked, her mouth open in a 'o' shape.

"Well we did have a mission together just a little while ago" she answered. Verinty waited for her to go on. "Ah...yes, I did talk to him"

"W...What did he say?" she asked, curious.

"He wouldn't answer me" she said, a smile playing on her pale face. Verinty felt heat fill her cheeks. If he didn't answer did that mean...?

"I'm sure I'm just a friend to him as well" she said and then they reached the cafeteria and Verinty hurried over to Jerry to get her food.

Lenalee's words bounced around in her head though. They wouldn't leave. Even as she sat around and tried to eat without thinking about it, it stayed in her brain and it wouldn't leave her alone. How did Lavi feel about her? He couldn't feel more deeply for her than for a friend could he? He was a Bookman after all and they didn't like to form romantic bonds. She felt the blush creep back into her face, just thinking about it. Lavi was a good looking guy, but...she really didn't know how she'd feel if he liked her.

She suppose she'd ask and find out when he returned.

I know this chapter is a little short but I hope you enjoyed it either way. I'm sorry it did take so long. College is a bit more than I thought it would be, so chapters may be coming out slowly so I'm sorry ): I will try to get the next chapter out sooner~ I hope you enjoyed

Note: Know things are going to start getting more...dark soon. You have been warned.