History: A touch of color in the Gray

Book 1: Shade the black.

Date: December 25, 2019

Author: Me -_-'

Translate and Beta: Koneko! -w-

Fandom: D Gray Man

Warning: No, I do not own D Gray Man and I do not make any profit with this story.

Summary: After landing in the nineteenth century, Ennaèl discovers that she started working with the Kamelott family, essentially, the villains of DGM. Taking the name of Eve, she became Tricia Kamelott's handmaid, helping her with her daily tasks. Now that life is a little less chaotic, Eve reflects on her arrival in this world and makes the decision to make her own opinion on the characters— ...people of this new world despite her knowledge of the manga. She gradually becomes aware of the social differences towards women at this time and becomes afraid for the future especially when she is saddled with Road and the twins ... Deciding to visit London, Eve encounters, as if by chance, Allen, then Tyki and they become friends. A few days later, the three go their own ways. However, it was not a long parting between Eve and Tyki. After having a rather awkward first meeting with the Duke, Eve decides to flee like the plague, her attempts to escape leading her to make a trip to Paris with Tyki, where she meets Victor Hugo who entrusts her with a bunch of information about the holy war before dying a few days after. As a result, Eve was dragged to a ball by Tyki, because he does not want to suffer alone, the sneaky guy, and Eve faints spectacularly because of her too tight corset. Don't ask how, but then she discovers a strange talent for musical instruments and wonders with horror if she could be the 14th. It does not help that the Duke has discovered her talents and seems to be more interested in her. And then of course, Eve is harshly harassed for weeks until an employee is almost killed by Road. And so, everything calms down just in time for the twins to be sent to boarding school while Road believes that Eve has a phobia of storms.

French version: 39 chapters long :)

English version: KnK: Koneko here! I am currently in college, so I may give up a chapter or two occasionally in favor of schoolwork. I will do my best to keep with the once a month schedule.

Fanart: You can see a draw of Eve and some fanart made by Kazemarune and Arya39 on my Tumblr (Ennael too). Also, Elogane made a canon side-fic but in french, It's "Nuancer les sentiments"

Italic: french, important thought (or both)

I plan my days until Christmas ... too much work to do ... this one was made in time, though but ffnet didn't want to work :( impossible to open the docX Knk sent me ! And PM didn't want to work either so it was really difficult to get this one X') Anyway, it's here now and the bonus "shade it all" is here too ! Don't forget to look it up :)

Happy reading

Shade the Black Chapter 27

"Miss Campbell." An authoritarian voice said, and I jumped violently before quickly turning towards Sheryl and tried to limit my guilty aura. It was Road's fault! I was screaming in my mind as I tried to muster up something clever to answer the accusation that was soon to follow. "Join me in my office." He said dryly before turning around and walking away without looking back.

Slightly puzzled, I glanced at Road's last bout of nonsense that her father hadn't even deigned to look at and followed him quickly, not wanting to make him angry. If it wasn't about his uncontrollable daughter, why would he want to talk to me? I could count on one hand the number of times he had called me to his desk and still have fingers left. Perhaps a question? On a family member? His spoiled daughter? His recalcitrant brother? His sick wife? His impetuous nephews? There are too many problems in this family, seriously…

But I wasn't right at all. Sitting awkwardly in the chair across from his desk, he told me about a vacation. Specifically, a vacation for me. Alone.

"You haven't taken any days off since last May. And everyone has the right to rest, so why don't you take a week off at Christmas?" He said calmly, but it clearly wasn't a question. "You don't celebrate Christmas, do you? It'll be difficult to get away from it here, and what's more, I'll be here to take care of Tricia, so you don't have to worry." He said and I nodded slowly in response.

Narrowing my eyes, I forced my brain to work at full speed, trying to see what I could do with this situation. Clearly… he's trying to throw me out. No matter how much I tried to look for another reason, I could only see this: Sheryl didn't want me in the mansion for the holidays. I wasn't surprised, lately I had spent much more time with his family than he himself had and since he was finally getting a vacation, surely he wanted to spend it with only the people he loved. My first reaction was to be hurt by this. Of course, we weren't the best friends in the universe, Sheryl and I, but we didn't get on too badly either… I was a little disappointed that he would throw me away like hot garbage at the first opportunity. My second reaction was much more positive, however. I don't really want to be a part of the Noah family's celebrations, especially since I had just learned the day before that the Duke would be at the manor all throughout the holidays.

But… where to go? The only other people I knew outside of this mansion were in China. And the others were dead. Wow. It was high time that I actually made other friends.

"Of course…" I replied hesitantly.

"Very well, I'll let you organize your trip in this case." He said and then, as if thinking, he said more softly. "If you need help, my door is open." He said and I thanked him when I got up, even if I had absolutely no intention of taking his offer. I could take care of myself, at worst I could disguise myself as a boy and I could get by just fine.

Po-si-ti-vism.

So, with a dreamy look on my face, I started to think about where I wanted to go. Tourism still wasn't really a thing until the end of the nineteenth century. Even during my grandmother's age some sixty years later, it was still in its infancy. So right now? Only business trips or exploration could qualify as such. Ordinary people didn't have access to it, at most they would undertake a long journey using up their savings to find a job elsewhere (dust off your history lessons, the great exodus of the Irish to the United Stated during the famine for example). Finally, that was all in my old world. With the strange advancements in technology here, trains were practically accessible to all social classes and it was much easier to travel. Small villages strangely got pretty good service, so much so that you could travel between a bunch of lost cities between two big cities. (This explained how Allen and Lavi ended up in the village near Krory Castle which never would have been on the railway lines in the older times of my old world.) All this to say: I had choices.

And I had no idea what to do.

No internet or even a tourist office here meant that I ended up wondering if I should just pull out my map from a few months ago and go get a room in the nearby village.

It was such a shame to sacrifice such a great opportunity to see the world, but hey, I was too busy chasing Road and giving the twins their gift to be able to do much research. And yeah, okay, I was lazy.

So, without any further questions, I let the hours pass until there were only a few days left before Christmas. And, maybe, in the end, Sheryl was right. I wasn't sure if I would have endured the holidays. The mansion had entered this terrible Christmas frenzy a few days ago and every inch of the space seemed to be occupied by some decoration or another. Tricia smiled like crazy every time she looked at the small ornate glass balls or the worked candlesticks and while it was nice to see her so happy, at the same time, there were so many decorations it seemed like they were trying to shove them up your nose. Perhaps it was because I had already tripped four times on the new carpets or on the garlands and had ended up on the floor with Tyki's hiccupping laughter above me.

Twice.

Traitor.

It was also surely due to the fact that the twins and Road always seemed to be in the middle of some kind of sugar rush these days and they couldn't stop bouncing everywhere. I had completely lost my voice one evening after spending the whole day yelling at them in an attempt to keep them from throwing the gigantic Christmas tree out of the window. Let's talk about the tree, by the way: It was the most monstrous thing I had ever seen. I kind of thing that you only see in public places and definitely shouldn't have a place in a house. Or maybe in the old Nutcracker movies. But no, it exists here. Taking up all the space and even before the fact that it's tip bends against the ceiling (which was already very high) it was so large in width that I thought its diameter at the base would be longer than I am tall. (Not that I had checked… Tricia would have crucified me on the spot for being rude. No, I had sent Devit instead, which passed right by.) With all that, it took up almost a quarter of the small living room and I felt awkward when I joined the housekeepers for the evening. Even more after Jasdero pushed me into it during a slightly excited game of tag and it took Tyki's help (and his powers, or at least I suspected) AND Jean the butler to get me out of there alongside the terribly guilty look from Jasdero. I still had some unpleasant scratches and the tree had a bunch of damaged branches and broken ornaments. I'm not even going into how funny it was when I had to explain this to Sheryl after…

And then, obviously, adding insult to injury, the Duke decided he wanted to come and settle into the manor a week earlier than planned. So okay, he hadn't really approached me since this summer and our whole debacle with the piano, rather letting me approach him first, but it was much more difficult to avoid him now that he was spending a good part of the afternoon with Road or Tyki or the twins… and therefore, invariably: me.

Oh well, it had served our (nonexistent) relationship well and given me more time to devote to making my card game. Well yeah, it was usually enough to pretend I wanted to leave them alone as a family, or better yet, find a corner to hide in for the afternoon and then neither of us needed to interact at all. Despite all of this free time, I still hadn't finished the card game before I left for my trip and I was patting myself on the back for having had the intelligence to take a quiet vacation in a small London inn rather that having attempted an initiatory journey somewhere on the other side of the continent.

So, on December 20 in the early afternoon, as I had agreed with Sheryl, I accompanied Jean to London, and he left me with a happy goodbye near one of the main arteries of the city. I felt a bit guilty for leaving without saying goodbye, but hey, it was only for a week, and the other employees weren't leaving, right?

…

Okay, so I forgot. I didn't care about when I was leaving for the trip and so when Sheryl asked me on the night beforehand if I had everything ready for the next day, I realized it was the 19th and that it would be a good idea to pack my suitcase. And then on the next day, the Earl had come to eat breakfast with Tricia and the twins had decided it was the best idea of this century to start a fire in the library, so I didn't have a minute to myself. And of course, I only remembered my imminent departure when I accompanied Tricia to her room for her afternoon nap. I weighed the pros and cons of waking her and finally thought that it wasn't worth the headache, so I just wished her a good sleep and quickly wrote a note explaining that I was going to visit London on a week-long vacation that Sheryl had so generously granted to me, and that I wish her happy holidays. At least like that, she would have someone to spit her venom at, and hopefully she will be fairly calm by the time I come back…

And no, I absolutely don't feel guilty about throwing Sheryl under the figurative wheels of the nonexistent cart.

Anyway, the inn where I laid down my suitcase couldn't be more perfect for my needs. It wasn't as expensive as the one we stayed at in Paris, but it wasn't a cutthroat place in the alleys either. I had taken care to choose something that wasn't far from the main streets and managed by a fifty-year-old widow who didn't tolerate any problems. So much so that I didn't have any either during my stay. I admit, I was a little afraid of being alone for almost two weeks. No matter how much I complained about Tyki or Sheryl, the fact remains that I felt much safer with them than when I was with them than when I walked alone in town. Now that I knew London better, I even wondered how I had found the courage to roam alone through the alleys during the beginning of last year.

In any case, there was no longer any question about it. Already the London fog didn't let much sun pass through, and it perpetually caused a dark atmosphere to weigh down the city, but in addition, we were in the middle of winter and night started falling even earlier than usual. This led me to very happily take advantage of the fire in the common room where, in a comfortable chair, I finally finished making my deck of cards. Having already carved out the totem a few weeks ago, I only had to sew a pocket and I would be done with this project! Unfortunately, I had no supplies with me, and, the day after Christmas, I had to resolve myself to go outside.

Christmas, by the way, had passed without anything really notable happening. Of course, I had a twinge in my heart that I couldn't celebrate it with my family, but… even at the time, it wasn't really an event that we scrupulously respected, not being a believer, it was still a good date to have a family celebration. And since I hadn't really done anything other than eat the good meal that the host had prepared and enjoy the warm atmosphere of the common room, well… it came and went, I guess.

Anyway, it was the next day in the early afternoon that I headed outside of the inn for the first time in five days. A ray of light had pierced through the fog and even then I was still dying of cold despite the thick coat that Tricia had given me in addition to the scruffy jacket that I had added above it to try and go unnoticed.

With my nose already dripping, I hurried through the surrounding streets trying to remember the instructions from the innkeeper when a little brown haze bumped up against my legs.

"Sorry!" I yelped at once, trying to catch up with the rickety little form, but he left immediately, and I didn't have the chance. A little puzzled, I looked back to see if someone was chasing after him (with an awful feeling of deja-vu in my stomach) but when I saw nothing, I continued on my way. Finally, ten minutes later, I found the shop. It was a simple little thing embedded between two large buildings. It didn't look like much, but the interior was excessively warm, immediately thawing my chilled fingers.

Strolling between the shelves filled with rolls of colored fabrics, I had a big smile on my lips. Everything made me want it and despite the absurdly expensive prices, my fingers itched to buy everything. But, well, I didn't have any sewing machine with me, and I certainly didn't have the patience to do something with just a needle other than something small. So, holding myself back with much difficulty, I chose three fabrics that I liked, and I asked for a small cutting from each of them. Hey, no one said I couldn't make my own pockets, right?

But just as I was going to pay, I finally noticed that I didn't have my wallet. Frantically rummaging through my pockets, I had to face the facts: the two crumpled bills I had stuffed into my pocket before leaving the inn were no longer there.

A little disoriented, I praised the heavens for having scrupulously followed Allen's advice and took out another bill from my sleeve and another one from my sock. It wasn't very pleasant to walk around with pieces of paper glued to clammy skin, but it certainly was useful. Don't "put all your eggs in one basket" indeed, I thought then as I slid the bills towards the lady with a shy smile.

Taking my small packet of fabrics, I continued on my way towards the inn, still making a small detour on the way past a large shopping street. On one hand, because I didn't feel like tempting the alleys, on the other, because I was already outside and I might as well take advantage of the meagerly good weather and the happy crowds. Heck, Tricia and her hobbies had rubbed off on me.

The mystery of how these two notes had disappeared wasn't really one: I would bet my bottom dollar that it was the boy who had run me over earlier. Either that or I had forgotten to put the money in my pocket. That was just as likely, knowing me. Anyways, I didn't worry too much about it. Of course, I was a little annoyed at the time, but… it's not like I really needed the money, and although I couldn't see the child very well, the glance I got was enough to tell me that he certainly wasn't well dressed enough for bad weather. Yes, clearly, I had misplaced pity. I did little to nothing for all these street rats. I wasn't rich. It would be difficult to help everyone I saw, even more so when the streets seemed to be swarming with malnourished children and naked tramps. There were simply… too many people. Once again I praised my luck, wondering why the old butler had decided to hire me since… he surely saved my life.

Shivering as my head filled with all the ways I would have had to survive instead of taking advantage of my privileged position as a Kamelott employee, I continued on my way, putting my hands into my pockets to protect them from the cold.

And I stopped dead.

Mumbling an excuse while I was pushed around because of my sudden stop, I began to rummage through my pockets, my facial expressions deteriorating as time went by. Nothing, nada, niet. My photo was gone. With round eyes and eyebrows arched in despair, I stumbled towards a wall to lean on it for a second before I hurriedly set off again for the alleys. I either dropped it, or the little pickpocket took more than just money from me…

I knew it was a bad idea to bring this photo along with me! But it would have been an equally bad idea to leave it at the manor… Road spent so much time entering my room even when I was there, I had no doubt that she'd take advantage of my absence to enter uninvited, especially since I left so suddenly, without saying anything. I had long deliberated over whether to take Hugo's writings with me, wondering if it might be better for me to leave them under the floorboards. But ultimately, I took them with me, tightly wrapped between my underwear, a formidable weapon with which to put off most people of this time, men and women included. And then, when I closed my suitcase and got all wrapped up in my older coat and then the prettier one on top (it was better to do it that way while I was at the manor) I took the photo from my nightstand drawer on a whim. I was pretty sure Road had seen it before, but Sheryl and Tricia certainly hadn't, or I'd have heard about it for ages. And, really, they didn't have much of a reason to come in here, but just in case… better to be too careful than to be sorry later.

And since then, it had been in my pocket. Since I hadn't gone out, I hadn't paid attention to returning it to my suitcase, and I regret it now. But no matter how I stalked my way back to the clothing store, then through the aisle I had found my fabrics in, I couldn't find a trace of the piece of cardstock. I had to face the facts, it wasn't my legendary awkwardness that was the issue this time.

Slightly depressed, I dragged my feet back towards my inn, my eyes sad. It was only a photo… Tyki still had the negatives, I could always get it developed again, but it didn't matter… I was thinking, when a small hand grabbed the end of my jacket and pulled it down gently. Looking down, I saw a tiny boy, or at least what I presumed to be a boy, covered in a rough jacket that was too big for him and swallowed his little frame, leaving only a small red nose and tired green eyes.

"Hello…?" I asked while starting to lean down to see what he wanted, but before another word of questioning could pass my lips, he pushed a piece of paper into my face and fled without asking for anything else. Puzzled, I clumsily grabbed the object and peeled it off of my face long enough to spot my lost photo before I started running like a madman to follow the boy.

Turning around a particularly difficult corner, I stumbled on the snow, sliding lightly on a plate of frost and keeping myself from bashing my chin into the ground, but... there! There he is! Spotting the boy who had disappeared into an alley, I took care to put my photo carefully into my breast pocket while I continued to run, short of breath and cursing my lack of exercise.

Finally noticing me running after him, the boy let out a surprised cry and accelerated his pace, forcing me to redouble my own efforts. "Hold on!" I yelled after him, and I didn't even know why I was chasing after him. But when I thought about stopping, the cold air burning my throat, the boy slipped on a frozen puddle and collapsed into the snow. Of course, since I was going way too fast, my destiny was much the same, and it was with a strangled cry that I avoided crushing him at the last minute, destroying my left knee instead.

"Is everything fine?" I groaned as I got up on rickety legs, hands outstretched towards him in an attempt to see if he had any injuries. But, terrified, he didn't let me approach him, pushing my hand away and hurrying to get up… making me fall miserably onto my knees, once again mowing my legs and sending me waltzing again on the iced-over paving stones.

"Ouch." I let out very eloquently, stretching out to my full length, my back painful, my knees surely bloody and a headache starting behind my nose. I'm just blessed, I tell you. "Hey, hey!" I suddenly exclaimed when I felt him moving to get up again. "Everything's fine, I don't want to hurt you!" I was trying to tell him softly. "I just wanted to thank you, for the photo, I was very sad to have lost it you know, really, thank you, you…" I began to babble quickly, my eyes fixed on the child who was putting his knees under him in front of me, trying not to pay attention to the wet snow that seeped into my canvas pants. Heck, the snow was getting red… I was going to have to do a little sewing, luckily I had taken some extra fabric.

"…to thank me?" He whispered shyly, still looking very nervous, tense as a spring, ready to take off at the slightest sudden gesture.

"Yes." I let out more gently, relieved that he wasn't moving for the moment. "I thought I had lost it for good. I really care about it, you know, so thank you for bringing it back." I tell him with the sweetest and most sincere smile I could produce. It really wasn't that difficult, since the soaked fur ball in front of me was simply adorable with his surprised big eyes and when the boy let out a shy smile and his shoulders relaxed, I couldn't help but melt for him.

Admittedly, I hadn't done much for the people here… and perhaps there were too many people in need that I could actually make a difference, but… just a child, that wasn't bad, right?

Making a decision, I held out my hand as I stood up. "Tell me, I really want to thank you… I'm staying in an inn for now, would you like to come to warm up and have a hot meal? It's the least I can do." I proposed, full of hope.

He hesitated for a few moments, shivering in the cold since it was uncomfortable to stay bent, with my hand outstretched in his direction, but finally he nodded carefully and put his fingers in my palm.

Yes. For the moment, perhaps just a child wasn't enough… but it was already a good start.

KnK: Here you go, Eve's boring Christmas. Haha.

Nël: Eve finally acts to put her ethical problems to rest ... Will she get there? We will see that in the next episode!

Okay ... as you probably guessed, it was not planned. This story goes straight into the wall.

Meh, I hope you liked it, KnK made the translation of the Bonus "shade it all" last 21 ! If you didn't read it yet, go for it ! Everyone show their point of view on the story (until chapter 25 i think) appart Eve :)

Kisses and think about reviews