Disclaimer: I don't own D. Gray-man


Chapter 5

Miranda trailed off in the middle of reading a sentence of a book aloud. A bright red cardinal was fluttering between the branches above her and Marie, and she couldn't help but be distracted by the pretty bird.

"Is everything okay, Miranda?" Marie asked; he couldn't help but worry about her sometimes.

"Yes, sorry. I just got a little distracted by a bird," Miranda chuckled as she resumed reading. It was early evening and they were sitting in the old little garden. A slight wind occasionally rustled the trees around them and provided a slight chill. Miranda occasionally paused in her reading to look up when she heard something move in the trees or plants. She loved to watch the birds hop between branches, and there had even been a few squirrels scavenging around in the bushes for food. And then, before Marie could worry about the silence, she would begin reading again. This pleasant moment was only interrupted when Miranda's stomach growled quietly, but loudly enough for Marie to hear.

"Are you hungry?" Marie asked. He was smiling.

"Yes, a little," Miranda nodded.

"Why don't we go back and eat. It's getting cold out here anyway," Marie smiled, "It would be bad if you caught a cold."

Miranda blushed slightly. It always flustered her when Marie worried about her like that, or went out of his way to help her, "It would be bad if you caught a cold, too. We probably should go back."

Their walk back to the Order's tower was pleasantly quiet. The silence was only interrupted occasionally by Miranda's quiet, off-key humming.

"I bet your singing voice is very beautiful," Marie smiled.

Miranda blushed again, only this time her cheeks were bright red, "T-Thank you. I-It really isn't though."

"You should think better of yourself, you're an amazing person," Marie stated, as if he were pointing out the obvious. He was smiling kindly at her.

Miranda could simply stutter and stammer incoherently until they had reached the cafeteria. They ordered their food and sat down at one of the empty tables. The cafeteria wasn't as empty; more finders had been recruited and many of the injured exorcists had been released from the infirmary. The room still wasn't as bustling and crowded as it had been before the ark, but it wasn't as depressing to be in anymore.

"Marie, about what you said earlier, please don't think I'm amazing. I don't think I can live up to your expectations. I'm too clumsy, and apologetic, and..." Miranda trailed off, unsure of how to put the rest of her negative qualities into words, "I'm too much of a burden."

Marie hugged her, "Miranda, you are amazing. You're kind and compassionate. You are never a burden, you are always so eager to help people. Yes, you could do to apologize a little less, but it's not necessarily a bad thing. I won't argue that you're a bit clumsy, sometimes, but it's not something you can help." Marie rarely showed affection physically, he almost never hugged people except for the few occasions he had tried to cheer Miranda up or the times he was welcoming a friend home. These rare signs of affection showed how much he truly cared for Miranda, and she could sense that.

"Thank you," Miranda smiled slightly and returned the hug. She was never sure how to accept compliments, and so today she would simply say thank you and show Marie she appreciated it.

From somewhere across the room a finder "aww"ed before calling, "Look at the love birds."

This left Miranda red in the face and practically wishing she could disappear from the room as she returned to eating her dinner.

Marie suffered a similar reaction, and was almost happy when he had finished his food. However, he decided to wait for Miranda to finish so he could walk her to her room.

Miranda, seeing that Marie was waiting for her to finish, hurriedly ate the rest of her food.

"I'm so, so sorry that that happened," Miranda apologized. If she hadn't been so mopey Marie wouldn't have hugged her and neither of them would have been embarrassed like that.

"It wasn't your fault, Miranda," Marie assured.

Miranda decided not to push the topic, and the rest of the walk to her room was silent.

"Goodnight, Marie," Miranda smiled when they reached her door, "Thank you very much for spending time with me today."

"I was glad to. Sleep well, I hope to see you tomorrow," Marie said.


Miranda and Marie were eating lunch together, as usual.

Marie had been laughing lightly at something Miranda had said when both of their golems received incoming emergency alerts.

"All able bodied exorcists are to report to the science department. Akuma have infiltrated the building, help is requested. Noise Marie, Miranda Lotto, and all Generals are needed," the message was repeated several times.

The entire cafeteria went silent at the sound of the alerts as Miranda and Marie quickly hurried to the science department. When they arrived Lavi waved them over to a side entrance, the main entrance was completely blocked.

"Miranda, we need ya ta reverse the time around the akuma egg. It's been pulled inta the ark," Lavi instructed, "Do ya need ta get closer?"

"Yes, I don't think I can control it from here," Miranda nodded.

With little to no warning Marie Picked Miranda up and placed her on his shoulder before activating Noel Organon and using the strings to keep them a safe distance from the ground and fighting.

Miranda yelped in surprise when her feet were lifted off of the ground but she quickly gained her balance once Marie had set her down. It was good she had gained her balance too, because they were soon swinging quickly past the fighting until she was in close enough range to reverse the time around the ark gate and the akuma egg. Once the akuma egg was above the ark gate so that the platform around it was clear of the gate Marie let Noel Organon set them down on the platform, he knelt down so that Miranda could easily climb off his shoulder, and then they stood there to wait the fighting out.

After all of the akuma were destroyed Marie contacted the command center to report. Marie explained the situation, and passed along the commands and information that the others shouted in turn.

"Guard Miranda, make sure she can keep Time Record activated," Komui commanded.

"I will keep her safe," Marie assured. The conversation was turned to Cross's headset.

Marie looked up, startled; there was water moving all around them. He realized what was happening a moment too late as Miranda made a small, startled sound that was cut off by the gurgling of water rushing into her mouth. Marie lunged forward to catch her before she could be swept up by the water, he didn't know what was controlling it, but he missed and only managed to disturb a small portion of the water. He reactivated Noel Organon and sent out the strings to try and bind the water around Miranda.

"Noel Organon can't bind it," Marie was more than a little frustrated that he was helpless to help Miranda. He could hear Cross explaining something about the Noah of Form, but he heard the Noah's demand louder than the explanation. He knew Miranda would never deactivate her innocence if it meant that the enemy would benefit, even if it cost her her life to keep it activated.

Miranda desperately struggled as her lungs burned. She couldn't breathe and she was running out of air. If she didn't get any air soon she was going to pass out and Time Record was going to deactivate whether she wanted it to or not.

Whether he liked it or not, Marie had to devote his attention to keeping the akuma egg from being stolen instead of trying to free Miranda. He directed Noel Organon at the egg, but not even his innocence was strong enough to stop the egg's downward descent into the ark gate.

"Destroying the egg takes priority. She's an exorcist, she should be ready to lay down her life," General Socalo said.

"Yes, destroying the egg takes priority," General Cross agreed.

Marie couldn't believe what he was hearing. He didn't want to believe it, "Stop!"

The Generals prepared their attacks, and Marie only grew angrier as he could tell the Noah was using Miranda as a direct shield for the egg. Marie would have done anything at that moment to save Miranda. He would have even, if possible, switched places with her. He couldn't stand the thought of losing her. He couldn't lose her, the thought repeated in his head again and again.

Marie could only pick up white noise around the egg, after it had entered the ark, but a moment later he could hear Miranda's familiar pulse, if a bit sluggish. He also heard Allen mutter, under his breathe, the word "despicable". Allen, carrying Miranda, walked over to where Marie, Bookman, and the Generals were.

Marie took Miranda from him, and was more than relieved to hear that she was breathing properly. Miranda's head lolled against Marie's chest as he shifted the way he was holding her. He was silently thanking whatever God existed in the world, he had long since stopped believing in any type of God or deity figures, that Miranda was alive when he heard an all too familiar sound. The sound of an akuma, but this sound was different. It was mixed with a childish laugh that sent chills down Marie's spine.

Sounds of fighting echoed around, and Marie couldn't exactly tell what was going. After about five minutes of this, there was a sudden sound that made his ears ring. The sound pressed in on his hears, and he had to take off his headphones in a desperate attempt to muffle the shriek. His eardrums felt like they were going to bust and he wanted to scream in pain from the horrible sound. The sound continued to ring in his ears, he couldn't tell if it had stopped or not, but he was aware of the ground around him falling away. After that he fell unconscious.


Miranda's eyes shot open as she groggily registered that there was still fighting going on around her. She opened her eyes, and saw that she, along with many of the members of the science division and a few other exorcists, were a few floors from where she remembered being before she passed out. She looked up and saw a rather large chunk of concrete hanging unstably from a steel cable. This was a good time to activate Time Record, she decided. Her body and mind were already drained from her previous ordeal, but she somehow managed to keep herself awake enough to keep Time Record activated.

Reever had woken up, and after asking is she was okay and receiving a half-coherent answer, he called Komui to see what was going on in the rest of the Head Quarters.

Miranda was hardly aware of anything after that. She was aware of everyone moving just a bit closer to her so that she didn't have to use up as much power to keep Time Record activated over a larger area.

She wasn't truly aware of anything until she felt a warm hand envelope one of her hands and heard a gentle voice saying, "Miranda, you can release it now. You've done great. It's okay, we'll all be fine." She could feel another warm hand against her side, opposite of that hand.

"The fire has gone, Miranda. You can deactivate Time Record now," Marie coaxed, but Miranda could hardly register she was being spoken to.

Finally Miranda deactivated Time Record and she slumped in exhaustion again Marie's chest.

"You did well, Miranda. Rest now," Marie assured.


A/N: I'm just gonna leave it off there. Thanks a bunch for reading, please review~