Part Three: The 14th Pianist and Solara
27 days (1 month) later
Day: 037 as a comrade (February 14th, Valentines Day)
it was pitch black outside, and while I fought the humans slept. I could hear Zokalo's crazy laughter piercing through the night. The tearing of flesh and explosions joined it. I gripped the glowing green innocence in my hand tightly. The demons wanted it, the Millenium Earl wanted it. I definitely wouldn't give it to him. Out in the dark all I could rely on was my hearing. I could hear the demons surround me, their heavy and in human footsteps.
My right hand continued to grasp the innocence but the ring on my left arm began to glow and turned in to a hand held pistol. I heard a heavy foot scrape the pavement and I fired in that direction. More shots rang out as more demons lunged towards me. Their bodies fell to the ground. The sun became to rise over the hills of Berlin. "Happy Valentines Day," I spat as they exploded in to smoke and ash.
"Good work apprentice," Zokalo told me. I threw the innocence at him and he caught it. "Let's just go home," I groaned.
We took the next train back to England. I was exhausted, I hadn't gotten any sleep, so amazingly I fell asleep on the train seats. Even first class train seats felt a little scratchy, but after a while I managed to get used to them.
"Good work Sephiria, that's your fifth completed mission!" I heard Solara say. Her image blurred in to my mind. We stood face to face. "Yeah no thanks to you. You've never helped me once. Even though you know I'm exhausted in battle you refuse to take over my body." I sighed.
"Well you never ask."
"Do I have to? You're living in this body too you know. Try and protect it for once."
"Y'know that you can handle it," she sneered. "Anyways if I complete a mission for you it's not like people are going to be congratulations Solara you completed the mission! They're going to say congratulations Sephiria, you completed the mission!"
"And your point?" I crossed my arms.
"Nothing at all," Solara had her annoying grin plastered on her face. Her attitude drove me nuts sometimes. She was always so laid back and acted if she hadn't a care in the world. Maybe that was because she'd lost her only reasons for living. Her parents were dead, her sister didn't remember her, and Aaron was well… gone. I still hadn't gotten my memory of him back yet. "Thinking about something?" Solara asked. "Yeah, about how different you are from the you in your memories and the you now," I told her.
"I was younger?" She shrugged.
"You're twelve," I snapped.
"No, actually I'm 16. Haven't you noticed? I look older than you! Aaaand I don't age sooo…"
"Oh shut-up," I groaned. "Either way you still act like a kid, just a lot ruder, and cockier. And are you ever going to give me the memories about what happened to Aaron ever?"
"Bye Seph," Solara waved.
The image in my mind started swirling away. Solara always made an exit in the most ridiculous way, whether it was a hole in the ground, or crumbling walls, and a lot of other things. "Wait! Stop ignoring my question!" I cried. "You can't keep it from me forever!"
My eyes flickered to life again. "So the princess is awake," Zokalo joked. "Oh quiet, and stop calling me that!" I snapped, I was in a bad mood after being flat out ignored by Solara again for the hundredth time. "We're almost back," the General said changing the subject. I nodded. England was my home now and the order was like my huge fricken' house! Though my constant missions always seemed to keep me away from it for long periods of time. I hadn't been back to HQ for almost two weeks now and I was definitely starting to miss Jerry's amazing cooking.
The train finally stopped and we got off. In the station stood a boy in a long cream colored coat, it was Jayson Stadfeld. He was my finder. He bowed in front of Zokalo, "good afternoon general." Jayson greeted. "Get Sephiria back to headquarters," Zokalo ordered. "Yes sir," Jayson said, his voice almost shaking. "Where are you going?" I asked Zokalo. "I have some business to attend to before going back," he replied. I nodded and left with Jayson.
Jayson brought me to the underground passageway and helped me on to the boat. "You got it?" He asked holding on to my hand. "Yeah, I do," I nodded. "Thanks for helping."
A blush grew on his face, but quickly disappeared. "How was your mission, Miss Exorcist?" he asked climbing in to the boat and grabbing a row. "Eh, it was normal. Zokalo has the innocence though."
"That's good, are you hurt?"
"No, and one thing Jayson."
"What?"
"Stop calling me Miss Exorcist please, just call me Sephiria."
"Sorry Miss- I mean Sephiria." Jayson stumbled.
"It's okay."
Jayson had been assigned as my finder because of our age. Jayson was 14 years old. Only two years older than myself. The order thought that it would be appropriate to assign him to me. Truthfully I was pretty happy that they did. Jayson was a good guy, he was my friend.
We finally reached the inside of the order, then had to walk up 10 flights of stairs. "You want me to take your suitcase for you?" Jayson asked. "Nah, it's okay. I'm fine." I smiled back. "But thanks anyways." "No problem," he smiled back.
When we got to the main floor of the order Jayson walked me to my room and waved goodbye to me. I threw my suitcase on my bed and shut the door. I almost couldn't believe how long I'd been gone. Falling on to my bed I clicked open my locket revealing the picture of my family. "Well, I came back alive this time. Let's just hope it stays that way," I said. I would rather not die fighting.
All of a sudden knocks came from my door. "Coming!" I cried snapping the locket shut. Opening the door I was immediately tackled by Lenalee. "Sephiria! You're finally home!" I grunted as my breath was knocked out. "Lena! Weren't you on a mission?"
"Yeah, but unlike you I came home forever ago! You need to stop leaving for such long periods of time!"
"Well blame that on Komui for constantly assigning me missions!" I said. "And Lenalee, please get off of me."
"Oh sorry!" she jumped to her feet.
"I'm going to go eat. Want to join me?"
"Oooooh Seph. That's where Allen, Lavi, and Kanda are right now. Are you trying to surround yourself in guys on Valentines Day?"
I blushed madly. The thought hadn't even crossed my mind until Lenalee mentioned it, "I would do no such thing!"
Lenalee looked at me with a surprised expression, then all of a sudden burst out laughing.
"What's so funny!"
"Your voice! You're losing your American accent and developing an English one!"
"What's so funny about that," I blustered.
"Nothing, it's just that I'm so used to hearing your American accent," Lenalee told me.
"Does it sound weird," I asked a little worried.
"No, it sounds cute."
I let out a sigh of relief.
We headed down to the cafeteria and got our food. Allen of course was easy to spot because you would always just have to look for a large stack of plates. "Hey, Happy Valentines Day," I said to Allen. "Happy Valentines Day," he smiled sweetly back at me, and I felt my heart almost leap out of my chest. Solara burst out laughing and I would've like nothing more than to sock her in the stomach, just one problem. Her body was my body. I smiled back uneasily and sat down next to him. For once Kanda was sitting at the same table as us. "Welcome back Sephy!" Lavi grinned. "Good to be back. I'm exhausted," I sighed. "Hey Sephiria, wanna' go to the town with us today? We're gonna go Valentines day shopping," Allen invited me. "O-of course!" I cried sounding a little more happier than I planned on sounding. "Then you should get changed, you wouldn't want to go out to town in your uniform would you?" Lavi laughed. I nodded in agreement, "Is Kanda going?" I asked trying to include him in out conversation, since it was so rare for him to be sitting with us, or just anyone in general. "Oh, I don't know. Are you coming with us Yuu?" Lavi turned his attention to his friend. "TCH! Of course not! I wouldn't want to be seen with a bunch of fools like you guys!" Kanda snapped. Well I guess my question just got answered. "Oh just shut up Kanda, you're such a moody-" Allen was interrupted by Lenalee trying to prevent the fight that was about to erupt between the two exorcists. "Uhm… so Sephiria, what are you planning on buying?" "You want to say something to me bean sprout? Then go ahead and say it!" Kanda snarled, and Lenalee and I let out a sigh. "Fine Kanda! You're always such a moody bastard. Happy now!" Allen grinned one of his rare and scary smiles that sent chills down my back. The two of them were basically butting heads like bulls and you could almost see an electric current of hate running between the both of their glaring eyes.
t
I'd never been out in the town before even though I had been living in the order for about a month now. The sun was shining brightly even though it was freezing outside. Lenalee and I had split up in to two person groups with each other while Allen and Lave shopped with each other. We agreed that at 5 o' clock sharp we'd all meet up at the town square to exchange gifts. I'd never really bought anything for my friends on Valentines day, but I figured that this could be a chance to spend some of the money that had begun to stack up in the corner of my bedroom. As an exorcist I got paid plenty. Sometimes I think it's too much, but I guess that's how it is when your job is life threatening.
Their were many gift shops all over town and Lenalee pointed me towards her favorites. "What do you like?" Was the first thing she asked me when we entered the first shop. "Like as in what do I like in presents?" I asked back. She smiled at me brightly and smiled. "Yeah, as in presents." I thought about it really hard, what did I really want that I didn't already have? Aaron. My heart felt like it was about to burst. "N-nothing really in particular," I answered trying to shake the thought from my mind.
"C'mon, everyone has at least one thing that they want, don't be shy just tell me and I'll buy it!"
Wishing that she would just drop the subject so that I wouldn't have to think about the 14th anymore I said, "yeah, everyone wants something, but that something may not be something that you can buy with money."
She studied my face carefully, "is what you want something money can't buy?"
I nodded and she gave me a curious look. I knew that she was expecting me to tell her what it was, but I would rather not go through all of the trouble of Solara and my past, and about Aaron. She might not even believe me, and if she would I would probably have to go through a very long interrogation with the order. I wasn't about to put myself in that kind of position.
I wandered to a hat hanger and looked through the hats. "Hey, Allen likes to hide his white hair, right?" I asked Lenalee. She nodded, "yeah, his first exorcist uniform had a hood on it because he asked Johnny to make one. Probably to hide his hair (don't ask me where I got this piece of info right here. I don't remember, all I know is that I saw it somewhere)." I looked through the hats a little more and found the perfect one. It was completely black except for a white cross that was perfectly sewed in to the corner of it. I took it off of the rack and brought it up to the cashier. "I'm buying this."
The both of us wandered to a few more shops, at that time I had already bought a dark blue scarf for Lavi. I had come to realize that Lavi had somewhat of a scarves fetish. When we got in to the last store we glued ourselves to the glass case in the back. Both of our eyes gleamed at a set of sparkling hairpins. Crystal studs were pressed together at the end of the pin to create white wings. The pin itself was made of sterling silver. "Hey, Seph. Let's get that," Lenalee whispered to me. "Two for each of us," I agreed. That was the most expensive present I had ever bought in my entire life.
After shopping until we almost fell to the ground we got to the town square on time. "You two sure took your sweet time," he eyed my bags seven bags that were either filled with presents or clothes, "Bought a lot too." "Me?" I asked surprised. "Look at Lenalee!" I pointed at her 10 bags and Lavi let out a loooong sigh. "While we've been freezing our asses off here in boredom you guys have been having fun shopping?" I looked down at my feet feeling a little guilty, "sorry." I felt an arm pat my shoulder, I looked up and saw Allen. "Don't worry about it Sephiria. We weren't even waiting that long. Lavi's just exaggerating like he always does." Allen's soft smile was almost refreshing. I felt my cheeks get hot, Allen was pretty close to me. "You call an hour not a long time!" Lavi cried snapping me out of my daze, "Allen you're way too polite!" Allen's eyebrows began to twitch in irritation at his friend. "Shut up Lavi."
"Hey Allen, you never call Sephiria "Seph" like everyone else does. Why is that? You know her better than most people," Lenalee asked curiously. "Yeah and why is that bean sprout?" Lavi grinned evilly. Allen seemed to pause for a moment, like he was wondering why himself. "No reason," he finally replied bluntly. "Let's just exchange gift already!" I blushed.
Allen looked really good in the hat that I had bought for him, just like I had expected… better actually. And when I say better I mean like I'm blushing like crazy and this is sooo much better than what I expected, better. That was basically what was running through my mind when he wore it. My favorite was actually Allen's also. It was a gold charmed bracelet. Real gold? I don't know, it kind of looked like it. He'd helped me put it on and even complimented me on it. The whole time my heart beat at an unhealthy speed and I just wished that it would stop. "Pretty hair pins," Allen smiled at me. "R-really? You like it? Lenalee has some too, we bought them for each other," I curled a lock of my hair behind my ear feeling mega embarrassed (this is actually one of my habits when I get embarrassed, I'm not weird, am I?). "It looks good on you." He told me.
Lavi got me a old fashioned picture frame. I had decided that the first group exorcist picture we took would be the picture I would put in the frame. Just about the whole order knew about my soft spot for old fashioned things. On our way back to the order I couldn't help but sneak small peeks at the frame. Just like I couldn't help but sneak small peeks at Allen in the hat I had gotten for him. Ok, maybe not so small peeks. I tried really hard to stop but for some reason my eyes always made their way back to him.
Crap, what's going on with me, I thought to myself. All of a sudden Allen caught me staring at him, but just smiled at me like he always did. I did the same, but while his heart was most likely calm, mines felt like it was about to burst. It was beating really fast, kind of like it did when I fought with demons, but it was somewhat different. I'm just being an idiot, I let out a sigh. Really, what was wrong with me?
Jayson Stadfeld
Age: 14 years old
Height: 5'6
Innocence: none. Finder for the Black Order. Quite a good finder despite his age.
Favorite Things: friends, his job, eating, sleeping, Sephiria(?)