Disclaimer: I don't own D. Gray-man.
A/N: Okay, so this chapter isn't necessarily gonna start off as fluffy and cute as it should, but it will get better I promise! Also I am twisting a few details because I do NOT wanna go back and look for those itsy bitsy details on the wikia every time I forget about little things from this ark, so if something is wrong just know I do not really want to go back and fix it.
Chapter 3
"Marie, hello, it's Miranda," Miranda said. She and Marie had gotten permission from Komui to talk over their golems, when they got the chance. Shortly after Marie had left on his mission with Daisya to meet up with Kanda Miranda had found herself almost afraid to even leave her room of the Order. It wasn't that she didn't trust the members of the Order, but she didn't know many people, and all of the people she knew were currently gone on missions. Since Marie and her had been getting along so well before he had to go she had asked Komui if it would be alright to talk over their golems.
"Hello, Miranda," Marie responded back.
"How's your mission going?" Miranda asked.
"It's been uneventful. We're still on our way to Barcelona and we haven't met up with Kanda yet. And how are you?" Marie responded before asking a question of his own.
"I'm doing fine. I still haven't gotten any missions of my own, yet," Miranda answered.
"I'm sure you'll have something to do soon," Marie said.
"You're going to get to see your old teacher again, right? Are you excited to see him?" Miranda asked. She always had trouble keeping conversations going, but she didn't want to stop talking to Marie because he had a familiar voice.
"Yes, I'm very glad. He's been away from the European Branch for at least a year, it will be good to talk to him again," Marie's voice sounded happy.
"That's good, I'm glad you're happy," Miranda couldn't help but smile. Marie always seemed so serious about everything; hearing him happy about something was a very seldom thing.
"I have to go now, Miranda," Marie said.
"Oh, right. Goodbye, I'll try to get in contact with you again soon," Miranda answered back.
Marie waited, patiently, for Miranda to answer her golem.
"Ya calling your girlfriend again?" Daisya teased.
"Be quiet," Marie answered simply. He had long since gotten over Daisya's childish teasing. The call stopped ringing as someone picked up.
"S-Sorry for taking so long to answer, Marie. How are you doing today?" Miranda answered; she was speaking quickly.
"It's fine, Miranda," Marie assured, as he usually did, before answering her question, "I'm doing very well today. What about you?"
"I'm doing wonderful," Miranda answered back cheerfully. It was odd, Marie had to admit, to hear her so happy, "How is your mission going?"
"It's going fine," Marie answered, "Daisya and I still haven't met up with Kanda yet, but we should be arriving near the meeting place the day after tomorrow."
"That's great," Miranda sounded like she was smiling, "I don't really have much time to talk today, though. I'm supposed to help a few of the finders move around some furniture in some of the unused rooms. I'll talk to you next time, though."
"Goodbye, be careful not to hurt yourself," Marie warned with a good-natured laugh.
"When are you gonna tell her you love her?" Daisya asked in a taunting voice.
Marie, from years of experience, ignored him.
"Marie?" Miranda said cautiously when someone had answered her call. She had heard about the incident in Barcelona, and she knew that Daisya and Marie had been quite close, so she wanted to make sure that Marie was doing alright.
"Hello, Miranda," Marie's voice lacked its usual emotion.
"H-How are you doing? I heard what happened, Marie, and I am so, so sorry," Miranda said quietly.
"I'm doing... alright," Marie answered, his voice sounded flat and broken, "How has it been back at headquarters?"
"Not much better, I'm afraid," Miranda responded glumly, "They're going to have a mass funeral tomorrow, for all of the finders and the exorcists that have been shipped back."
Marie was silent for a moment, "Please take care of yourself, Miranda."
"I will, Marie. Be careful, yourself. Please come back safe," Miranda responded.
Marie leaned against the railing of the ship he, Kanda, and Teidoll were on. The vessel was headed to Japan so they could meet another group of exorcists in Edo. Almost all of the members of the ship's crew were uneasy about Marie, seeing as he was blind, being near the ship's railing, but Marie knew he wouldn't fall into the water as long as he was careful. Marie didn't know who all was alive or dead out of the exorcists he had last seen. He briefly wondered about Miranda. After that the incident in Barcelona there had been less opportunities to talk, and then Miranda stopped answering all together for some reason.
Marie had been grief-stricken at the thought of losing both Daisya, who had been like a brother, and Miranda, who he cared dearly for, in such a short period of time.
Someone leaned against the railing beside Marie, "Is everything alright?"
"I'm just thinking," Marie recognized the voice as General Teidoll's voice.
"About anything in particular?" Teidoll asked.
"About a friend," Marie answered.
Teidoll hummed thoughtfully in response, "Are they from the Order?"
"Yes, they're an exorcist," Marie nodded.
"You're worried about them, aren't you?" Teidoll asked. There was the light sound of pencil on paper and Marie could tell Teidoll was sketching the sea.
"Yes, we had been communicating regularly before..." Marie faltered when mentioning the city. Neither he, Kanda, nor Teidoll liked to think about what had happened. Luckily Teidoll seemed to understand, so Marie continued, "But we began to have less and less opportunities to speak. I don't even know if she's still alive."
"I'm not sure, Marie," Teidoll patted Marie's shoulder in a comforting manner, "I'm sure we'll know soon enough, though. So, tell me about this friend."
Marie had expected this to pop up eventually. Teidoll was always trying to get him and Kanda to be more social, and the fact that Marie had befriended someone probably seemed like a miracle to the General. "Her name is Miranda Lotto. We didn't really talk very much until she had gotten back from one of her first missions and had accidentally run into me in the halls. I thought she had been hurt at the time, because she had fallen asleep in the middle of the hallway, so I took her to the infirmary. After that she just seemed to gravitate towards me, you could say. She didn't know very many people in the Order. When I got called to go look for you with Daisya and Kanda, we started talking over our golems whenever we could spare a moment. I'm sure you've probably heard her reputation around the Order. She's very kind, but she's very panicky, and I don't think she even knows what self-confidence is."
"You're speaking fondly of her. Does Marie have a crush?" Teidoll teased.
Blood rushed to Marie's cheeks and caused him to blush a bright pink. Oddly enough, Marie didn't deny his master's teasing.
"She's very pretty. I talked to her once just before she made it back to the European Branch for the first time," Teidoll stated.
"What does she look like?" this wasn't the first time Marie had asked Teidoll, or Kanda, to describe someone or something for him.
"She has pale skin, very fair skin. Her eyes are slightly sunken, they're a very nice brown. Her hair is almost black, it has a bit of brown to it, and it reaches her shoulders. Her hair is also wavy. Lets see, her nose is rather small for her face. She has a very fragile build, she's skinny," Teidoll described. As he described her he did a quick sketch of her face to make sure the way he had described her fit.
Marie tried to picture her in his head, and he had a slight idea what she looked like, but he wished he could actually see her.
"I'm sure she's doing alright," Teidoll assured gently.
"You're probably right," Marie nodded.
Exhaustion dragged at Miranda's thoughts. She had to keep herself awake by any means necessary; that much was certain. She had tried so many things to stay awake and so far the only think that worked was talking to someone. Lenalee was still resting from her fight with the level three akuma, Miranda saw it was best to leave her alone. Lavi and Krory were also recovering their energy from the fight. This left Miranda to sit in the very noisy mess hall and sleeping quarters of the crew to stay awake. She would try desperately to start conversations with any of the crew members who could spare her the time.
The noise of everyone talking pounded against her eardrums and made her want to go back to her own quiet room, but then she would risk falling asleep. She couldn't or the ship would sink. Her thoughts began to wander in her sleep-deprived state to the feeling of guilt she felt for not being able to tell Marie she was being sent on a mission and wouldn't be able to contact him. She wondered how he was doing.
"Are you okay, Miss Exorcist?" one of the crew members asked as he sat down beside her.
"Yes, just a little tired," Miranda assured with as convincing a smile as she could muster.
A sudden look of realization dawned on the crew member's face, "You're the one who has to stay awake to keep the ship sailing, right?"
"Yes, I'm surprised you would even remember hearing about that," Miranda said.
"Yeah, we were all kinda thinking you were pretty amazing if you could stay awake for this long," he nodded.
Miranda managed a small chuckle, "Once I managed to stay up for ten days straight."
"Really? How?" the young man's eyes widened in either amazement or surprise.
"I couldn't sleep, I was too ashamed of myself for losing too many jobs," the atmosphere around Miranda seemed to grow heavy and cold as she gave a small, tired laugh.
"I'm sure you couldn't have lost that many jobs," he pointed out.
"I could, actually. I lost one hundred jobs before I discovered I was an accommodator," Miranda answered.
The conversation just seemed to die after this, and Miranda found it harder than ever to stay awake. Her thoughts wandered back to her fellow exorcists, and eventually Marie. No one had heard anything from his group since they got news that Daisya died in Barcelona.
Miranda couldn't believe it. She focused on Time Record again, but she still couldn't find Kanda's time amongst those of the other exorcists in the Ark.
"Miranda? What's wrong?" Marie asked. He could hear the change in her breathing.
Miranda could hardly bring herself to say it. She knew how dear Kanda was to Marie, and she didn't want to be the bearer of bad news. Finally she managed to say, "Kanda's time disappeared."
Marie didn't say anything for a long time, but when next he spoke it was to relay the news to Teidoll.
About an hour had passed, and no one in the group said anything. Miranda had lost track of another person's time. Krory's.
She didn't want to have to tell the others, so she quietly stood and walked to the bridge they had previously been taking shelter under. It didn't take long for someone to notice her absence, though, and soon Marie had come over to where she was sitting.
"Someone else died," Miranda whispered.
"Do you know who?" Marie asked.
"Arystar Krory," Miranda answered, "I'm so useless, Marie. I couldn't help anyone on the ship, and now I can't help any of them."
"You're not useless, Miranda," Marie assured gently, "If it weren't for you, half of us who are here right now would be dead from our injuries. Because of you we can live until we get medical attention."
"But what about all of the people I couldn't save? That outnumbers anything else I've ever accomplished," Miranda had begun crying.
"Miranda, you don't have to save everyone. We all know the risks of our job," Marie said.
"B-But I should be able to save more people," Miranda whimpered. She began to cry even harder as another time disappeared from the record, then another. They were all dead, except Allen and Lenalee. Miranda's shoulders shook as she sobbed, and she was surprised when Marie hugged her.
"It's not your fault that your innocence can't completely heal people, Miranda. It's not your fault that the Noah are killing people," Marie whispered.
Miranda buried her face against his shoulder. The physical contact was calming, and soon she had managed to slow her crying to a few strangled, quiet sobs every few moments, "Won't everyone else hate me, for not being able to save the others?"
"No one expects you to be able to save everyone, Miranda. They won't be mad, they could never hate you," Marie assured.
"Marie, do you hate me for not being able to save Kanda?" Miranda asked uncertainly.
"Never," Marie answered, "I could never hate you."
I'm so happy, to hear that from him. But I'm such an awful person, being happy in a situation like this, Miranda thought as she pulled out of the hug. Suddenly her eyes widened as the lost times, Kanda's, Krory's, Chaoiji's, Lavi's, they all returned at once and she wanted to laugh with joy, "They're not dead. Marie, Kanda is alive."
Marie smiled, it was a truly grateful smile. He didn't think he could stand to lose Kanda, so soon after losing Daisya.
"I'm going to go tell the others," Miranda smiled. She wiped at the drying tears on her cheeks as she stood up and walked out from under the bridge.
Marie followed close behind her. His smile grew as he heard the others reactions to the news. And, before long an Ark gate opened. He was overjoyed to hear Kanda's voice.
"Don't touch me," Kanda glared at Teidoll, who was hugging him and blubbering about how glad he was that his son was safe and well.
Miranda watched the happy reunion of all of the others from a ways back. She didn't really know very many of them too well, and felt it was best to let them all enjoy themselves as the remaining finders and exorcists who had been outside of the Ark rushed to meet their recently revived comrades. She watched as Chaoiji and his friends, the only other survivors from the crew, hugged, welcomed, and talked. She laughed lightly at Kanda's reaction to being hugged by both Teidoll and Marie. Seeing all of the others happy made her happy too. And soon they were all going to the Asia Branch to borrow a phone. She stayed on the Ark to keep an eye on Krory, whose injuries were by far the worst.
She knew, once they returned to the European Branch, she would have to deactivate her innocence so the others could be treated for their wounds, but she was afraid to. She was afraid that, without her help, their injuries would kill them. Though she was a little happy she would be able to rest soon. She was exhausted, not just mentally but physically as well. Activating her innocence for such long periods of time usually left her muscles achy and her movements clumsy.
"We're going back now," Allen opened an Ark door into the 14th's Piano Room.
"Okay," Miranda nodded and stood up. She followed him out, and instead of ending up in another part of the Ark she was standing in the Order's European Branch. This surprised her greatly, and she couldn't help but gape at the sudden change in her surroundings. A few of the nurses under the command of the head nurse went to get Krory from the Piano Room. They returned a few moments later with him on a stretcher.
"Alright, Miranda, you can deactivate your innocence now," Marie coaxed.
Miranda suddenly felt more helpless than ever, "B-but you all's injuries will return."
"It's fine, we'll be able to get treatment for them now," Lavi assured.
"We'll all be fine, Miranda," Lenalee smiled.
Miranda blinked away her tears as she deactivated Time Record. Her thoughts were muddled by exhaustion after that, though, and she only remembered being led to one wing of the infirmary where they left her to sleep.
Miranda walked beside Marie down one of the hallways. Technically, neither of them was supposed to be out of the infirmary, but they had both been rather restless and found getting away and walking through the quieter halls of the Order was a nice change to the crowded, bustling atmospheres of the infirmary. She timidly reached over and took Marie's hand.
This seemed to startled the blind man, but only momentarily, "How have you been doing, since we got back?"
"Wonderful. I don't even think I need to be in the infirmary anymore- I'm just taking up needed space and effort- but they still won't allow me to leave," Miranda answered, "I should be asking how you're doing. Are you injuries healing okay?"
"Yes, I wasn't hurt very badly. If anything, I'm just taking up space as well. It would be nice if I could go back to my room soon, if only to escape all of the noise in the infirmary," Marie answered.
"Is it very loud in the male wing of the infirmary?" Miranda asked in surprise. The small section of the infirmary divided for the female exorcists was usually very quiet and peaceful.
Marie's sigh answered the question, "I don't know what is the loudest, Krory's stomach or Allen and Kanda's arguing."
"If you told the head nurse it was too loud, I'm sure she'd probably let you go back to your own room," Miranda pointed out.
"Yes, probably, but she never stays in the infirmary long enough for me to ask. She's usually going to check on Lenalee," Marie responded.
"Oh, maybe I can bring it up next time she's around," Miranda smiled. She had shifted her position slightly so she was lightly hugging Marie's arm while she walked. She wasn't normally this affectionate, but she was still a little terrified from almost losing so many of her friends.
Marie smiled as he felt her hugging his arm, "Do you want to go to the cafeteria?"
"Okay," Miranda nodded.
They went to the cafeteria, ordered their food, waited for a few moments before Jerry called their orders, and then went to one of the empty tables. Recently the Order had been far emptier than normal.
"It's so quiet in here," Miranda stated sadly, "Most of the finders are dead, aren't they?"
"Yes," Marie answered, "Most of the finders have been killed, as have quite a few of the other exorcists in this branch and the others."
"Does this happen a lot, Marie?" Miranda asked.
"There are times where many of the exorcists and finders will be killed at nearly the same time, yes, but it isn't usually this extreme," Marie explained, "Sometimes, maybe, three or four exorcists and five or six finders will be killed on one mission. This is the worst I've ever seen it."
"This is the first time, I think, that I've been one of the only people in here," Miranda stated sadly as she rested her chin in her palm, her elbow was propped up on the table. Her and Marie were the only two people in the cafeteria aside from Jerry, but he seemed to be far too busy cooking to notice their conversation.
Marie, trying to cheer Miranda up, awkwardly wrapped his arm around her shoulders in a side-hug. He had never been very good at cheering people up, but he couldn't stand to hear Miranda sound so gloomy.
Miranda blushed and leaned into the hug so that she was leaning against Marie's side. "Thank you," she whispered.
Marie didn't know how to respond to the thanks, so he simply whispered back, "You're welcome."
Miranda smiled at the way Marie's side and chest rumbled when he spoke, "You're very kind, Marie." Shortly after stating these words she dozed off.
After Marie was sure Miranda was asleep and he wouldn't accidentally wake her up he picked her up and carried her back to the infirmary. As he was going back to the guys' wing of the infirmary, which was down two more hallways, he couldn't help but think that sneaking out had been worth it. Even if he was going to get into trouble with the Head Nurse for leaving without permission.
A/N: Thanks a bunch for reading, please review~ And SO sorry for the long wait, I had to get chapter 4 written and I kinda had a bit of loss of inspiration for ALL of my stories the past few days. I'll be posting the next chapter of Happy Changes soon. Also, if you're looking for an AMAZING OC story, then you should check out Silver Rain, Crimson Snow by FarewellfromFaith. The author is a real sweetie, and she's done a lot for me so I thought I'd go ahead and recommend her.
