Disclaimer: I don't own D. Gray-man.
Chapter 14
"Watch your step, Miranda. There's a tree root there," Marie warned, having nearly tripped over the same tree root just moments before.
"Ah, thank you," Miranda breathed a sigh of relief when she managed, for once, not to trip over something, "I would have probably tripped over that if you hadn't warned me. Thank you very much."
"You're welcome. I would hate for you to trip. Warning you was absolutely no problem," Marie smiled kindly.
Miranda and Marie were out walking in the forests surrounding the new Head Quarter's building. It was wonderful, getting a chance to simply walk around and explore at a leisurely pace. So far, they had come across a few old gardens that had been abandoned, similar to the one they had found around the old building. The weather was very nice, as well. It was a bit cool, but not enough to be unpleasant, and the air was a bit dry, but not too dry. With the occasional breeze, muted a small bit by the trees, it was truly beautiful walking weather.
"Marie, there's a really low branch in front of you, be careful not to run into it," Miranda warned, returning the favor for him warning her about the root. She felt for once she could actually help him with something.
Marie felt for the branch so he could duck under it, thanking Miranda and chuckling quietly to himself. He probably would have run right into the branch had she not warned him, and for some bizarre reason he found that amusing.
"What's so funny?" Miranda asked, quite harmlessly, when she noticed he was laughing.
"I'm not really sure, it just seemed like a situation to be laughed at," Marie answered with a small shrug. Truth was, he was probably just in a really good mood at the moment, which would lead to him laughing and joking and smiling rather easily.
"I guess laughing without an explainable reason sometimes is nice," Miranda smiled, laughing a bit as well. Work had been so stressful for both of them recently, it was nice to have an opportunity to relax. Just being out of the chaotic environment inside the building was a good break. There was almost always some type of commotion, whether it be yet another of Komui's ridiculous robots, or someone arriving back from a mission badly injured, there always seemed to be a constant buzz of activity within the Order.
"Watch your step, again," Marie warned, yet again, when he noticed an uneven drop in the ground, caused by another tree root.
Miranda stepped down, careful not to lost her balance, before thanking him for the warning. Miranda sighed happily. This was such beautiful weather, she got to spend time with probably her favorite person in the Order, and so far she hadn't even tripped once. Really, this was such a great day for her.
"What are you thinking about?" Marie asked curiously.
"Nothing, really. Just thinking about how nice today is," Miranda responded. Her voice was cheerful and it was bordering on blissful.
Marie nodded his head in agreement, "Today is nice. It's good to spend some time outside, for once. Having good company like you is also very pleasant."
"I can't be that good to have around, can I?" Miranda asked in disbelief.
"You're wonderful company, Miranda. You're interesting to talk to, you're kind when someone needs comforting words, it's good to have you around," Marie assured with a gentle smile.
"Really?" Miranda seemed awed by this response. Truly, in her entire life, no one had said so many nice things to her in one conversation. She couldn't believe it. She didn't know how to respond. He was probably just being nice. He probably didn't even want to be around her. These thoughts started swirling around in her mind, and before she realized it, her foot had caught on a fallen branch from a tree. Miranda pitched forward as she lost her balance. She expected to hit the ground, but thankfully she didn't fall very far before she hit something solid and warm. When she opened her eyes, she realized Marie had stepped in and caught her.
"Are you alright?" Marie asked. He was concerned that tripping like that might have reopened her injury. He wondered why she had suddenly seemed to go silent just before she tripped. Maybe something was wrong with her.
"Yes, sorry. I tripped over a stick," Miranda apologized. She would have taken a few steps back, just to make the situation less close, but Marie's arms were loosely wrapped around her in a protective hug.
"No need to apologize," Marie assured.
"Thank you for catching me," Miranda smiled, "I would have hated to have hit the ground. Even if there are lots of leaves on the ground."
"It would have been quite cruel of me to let you fall. I'm just glad you're not injured," Marie lightly loosened his arms around her, so that if she wanted to she could easily move away from the hug. He was just enjoying the contact.
Miranda could only smile. She really didn't think many people had ever worried about her before, "Thank you so much." The hug was nice. He was warm, and he smelled nice. She returned the hug, lightly wrapping her arms around his middle.
After a few very welcome moments of peaceful, comfortable silence and hugging, Marie said, "We should probably head back soon. It sounds like the wind is picking up, and it would be bad to be out here in the rain. Think you can make it back without tripping again?" Marie's tone was far from unkind and teasing when he asked if she thought she could get back without tripping anymore.
"Really? The weather doesn't seem like it's getting bad," Miranda asked. It was still nice outside, "I can made it, I think. Thank you for worrying about me. It really means a lot to know you care that much about me."
"Why wouldn't I worry for you and care about you, Miranda?" Marie asked, "You've spent so much time with me recently, I can't imagine more than a few days going by without you around."
"I can't possibly be that important to anyone, though. I'm sorry, I just don't understand how you can think about me in any way more than a bother," Miranda just couldn't accept his words. She knew she probably seemed rude but she didn't know how to respond to things like this.
"Miranda, with my teacher gone so often, and Kanda being as anti-social as he is, you're the only person around who bothers keeping me company, aside from occasionally one of the others, but that's hardly often. You've been nothing but kind to everyone, even Kanda, since you arrived here, and you've saved each of us on multiple occasions. Without you, Kanda, Allen, Lenalee, Lavi, and I would probably all be dead right now. Of course you're important, and you're someone that I hold very dear. Please try not to think so poorly of yourself," Marie answered.
Miranda was speechless. People never really put much worth on her existence, so this was new. She didn't know how to respond.
Marie could tell she was struggling with a response, so he simply offered, "Let's go back inside, now. It might be easier if I carried you, though, so you won't have to worry so much about tripping."
"If you wouldn't mind carrying me, that would be nice," Miranda agreed. The wind was picking up, and with it the temperature was dropping. To get inside before the weather got much worse, they would be walking relatively fast and she knew she would undoubtedly fall.
"I wouldn't mind at all. You hardly weigh anything, and I wouldn't want you to hurt yourself if you tripped," Marie smiled. When he picked her up he gave her a second to move until she felt like she wasn't going to be dropped, before he started walking. It was true, to him she hardly weighed anything and she was easy to carry, "We'll have to do this again, sometime. It was nice having a chance to get a bit of a break from working."
"Yes, we certainly will have to do this again soon," Miranda agreed with a small smile. They had been required to carry their golems with them in case they needed to be called back for a short notice assignment, but it still felt like they weren't in danger of being called back to work.
Marie chuckled when he noticed Miranda had dozed off. He had noticed recently that she had learned to fall asleep just about anywhere when she could. He supposed it probably had to do with her innocence, since she had to stay awake for days on end sometimes. Her body probably needed to catch up for all of the sleep she missed during those times, or maybe she had begun to think about how tired she got at those times. He wasn't sure, but he knew that it was cute that she had managed to fall asleep while he was carrying her.
Thankfully, he managed to get them back to the building just before it started raining. Right when the door closed behind him it began raining hard.
He decided it would just be best to take her back to her room. He would feel bad about waking her up.
He ignored the quiet, mocking "ooh"s and the many comments of "they look so cute together" from various finders or scientists he passed in the halls. Really, everyone in the Order was always looking for something to gossip about. He and Miranda would probably be the main topic of much of that gossip for the next few days. He could only imagine the rumors some of the more imaginative people would come up with. He just hoped no one bothered Miranda about any of it.
When he reached Miranda's room, which was beside his own room, he carefully shifted her weight in his arms so he could open the door without dropping her. Her room was set up very similarly to his own room, so it didn't take him long to figure out where her bed was. He laid her down and pulled the blankets over her. He quietly closed the door behind him when he left.
Marie was about to go to the cafeteria when he heard the unmistakable voice of his master.
"Ma-kun! How was your date?"
"It wasn't a date, but it was nice," Marie couldn't help but frown a bit at the question. General Teidoll was always referring to any time Marie spent with Miranda as a date, and it was beginning to irk him a bit.
"You're just embarrassed that you have a crush on her," Teidoll teased. Despite his being a general, he could still be relatively immature.
"Master, I think you're being immature about this," Marie pointed out. Why did Teidoll always have to act like this? It got annoying sometimes.
Teidoll only snickered at Marie's comment, "You're just in denial."
"I assure you, Miranda and I are only friends," Marie wanted to add "at the moment" but in this situation he knew it was an ill-advised thing to do. If he said that, he would only have to put up with Teidoll's teasing comments even more.
"Of course you two are, Ma-kun," Teidoll laughed.
Marie sighed in a manner that clearly showed he had given up on this argument. Let Teidoll bother him about this, he finally decided. He wouldn't win this argument, anyway. He just wanted Teidoll to drop the subject.
He loved Miranda, but he didn't know how she felt about him, and because of that he was just going to let her decide what their relationship was. If she didn't ever approach him about having romantic feelings for him, then they would simply remain friends. Therefore, the topic at hand wasn't one he wanted to think about, nor talk about. He especially didn't want to talk about it. Rumors and chatter had a way of getting back to their source of topic rather quickly, and while he trusted Teidoll not to bother Miranda too much about any of this, he didn't trust anyone who may walk by and hear the conversation.
With Marie's silence, Teidoll sensed he had hit a nerve. He apologized, adding in, "It's just that you and Yu-kun aren't the type of people who usually get very close to someone. It's just fun to tease you about it."
"Just please don't do that anymore. It's not exactly something I want to think about," Marie requested.
"Of course. I didn't realize it was a sensitive topic," Teidoll nodded. He never wanted to tease any of his students about things that truly bothered them.
"Thank you," Marie was glad he didn't have to worry about being bothered about that anymore. He knew he could trust his master to stick to his word on this.
A/N: Thanks a bunch for reading~
