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


Chapter 16

Marie returned the day after he and a small team had left for a short mission mission. Just like everyone had planned, it went very well and no one was injured. They had finished the mission with no problems and we're done even before they were scheduled to come back. When they got back to the Order, it was storming outside again. This time the thunder was much louder, the lightning much brighter, and the wind much stronger than it had been in the storm a few days prior. Marie was surprised when he didn't find Miranda in the cafeteria. That was normally where she was during that time of day. After he had eaten, he had gone back to his room to rest for awhile; even if the mission had been easy, it had still been exhausting. It was a few minutes before he heard Miranda's frantic heartbeat from her own room- the weather it was hard for him to pick up less noticeable noises like that, but it was alarming to hear how fast we heart was beating. It sounded like something must have absolutely terrified her. He walked to her room, knocking quietly on the door so he wouldn't scare her any more.

The answer was a shaky, "Just a second." A few moments and a few rather shaky-kneed footsteps later Miranda opened the door, "Yes?"

"Are you okay?" Marie asked. He was getting worried about her. It wasn't natural for her heart to beat that quickly, nor was it even remotely healthy.

"Th-The thunder is just rather terrifying," Miranda assured, stuttering a small bit, "I'm not really used to storms like this. Back in my home town we only ever got rain."

Marie could tell all Miranda needed to calm down was a bit of a distraction from the loud claps of thunder that rattled everything. "Miranda, would you like to go to the library with me?" Marie offered politely. Already he could hear her pulse slowing to a far more normal, steady beat. Just the few seconds of conversation seemed enough to distract her.

"But you just got back from a mission. Aren't you tired?" Miranda asked uncertainly, "You really should rest."

"It's fine, the mission wasn't tiring at all," Marie brushed away her concern with a smile. "Do you want to go to the library?" he repeated the question calmly.

"Yes, that would be nice," she nodded, eyes locked on the floor and shoulders slumped, "I'm sorry you have to bother with me right now. I know it's stupid to be scared of a little thunder."

"It's no bother at all, Miranda. I offered to go, I wouldn't do that if I found you troublesome, would I? And being afraid of thunder this strong isn't stupid. If it scares you, it scares you, and there's nothing to be ashamed of about that," he offered her a reassuring pat on the shoulder and a gentle smile.

"It's just such a foolish thing to be scared of. It's not like the noise alone can hurt me," she heaved another heavy sigh.

"Everyone has something senseless they're afraid of. Really, you're not so different yourself," he assured yet again as they started walking. He walked beside her, tempted to take her hand while they walked. He didn't. The situation in the cafeteria the other day had made him doubt how she would react to finding out his feelings for her even more and he knew this would be an awful time to further embarrass her.

"I'm sure that's not true. You and everyone else around here don't even seem to fear sensible things," this was said with a small frown and drawn together eyebrows.

"Of course we do. I'm afraid of heights. My master is afraid of people criticizing his drawing. Even Kanda is afraid of something rather pointless, though I don't think he would appreciate me telling you what it is," Marie explained with a slight chuckle at his own words.

"You're afraid of heights?" she asked in surprise, her previously narrowed eyes going wide.

"I am. Not extremely, though. Mostly when there are no railings or things to hold onto near a tall ledge. Neither of our fears are that uncommon," he explained, opening the library door for Miranda when they reached the room. It was much quieter in the shelf-lined room, and since it had no windows the lightning wasn't lighting up the room in erratic, spastic patterns.

Miranda had relaxed considerably, though she still wrung her hands nervously.

"Why don't we sit over here for awhile? It's a bit late to start a new book but we can sit and talk," Marie said.

The library of the new building had enough space for multiple couches and large armchairs scattered throughout the room, some clustered together around tables and others on their own between shelves. It was much more comfortable to sit on one of the large chairs or couches, Miranda and Marie had found, than sitting on the floor.

"You didn't want me to read anything to you?" Miranda blinked, following him despite her question.

"The library is much quieter in bad weather than most of the quarters, I figured the quiet would do you a bit of good until the storm is over," Marie sat down on one of the couches. Just like many of the seats, it was tacky and extremely dull colored.

Miranda sat beside him, close enough that her shoulder rested against his shoulder, "Thank you for getting me to come here. I'm feeling much better now." Her shoulders were relaxed, and she had even stopped messing with her gloves as she did when she was nervous.

"That's good. Your heart rate is at a normal pace right now, which is certainly a good thing. I thought you might have been having heart issues when I first got back," her pulse had sounded strong, not like the pulse of someone about to die, but it had been so fast he had been very, very concerned.

"I thought that might have been the problem at first, too. I've never actually been awake during a storm like this before, so I didn't realize how much they scare me," she said. She leaned her head against his shoulder.

"I'm glad it wasn't anything like that," he moved his arm a bit so that he could rest his arm around her, but she was still leaning her head against his shoulder. They normally sat like this when she read aloud.

"Me too. I would have hated to have to bother the Head Nurse," Miranda's light tone and small smile implied she was trying to joke around a bit.

"Miranda..." Marie's tone warned of a bit of a lecture about how her problems and injuries weren't a bother to anyone. "You know that it is the job of everyone who works in the hospital wing to help anyone who is unwell. I know you were joking, but thinking that way will do nothing but hurt you."

"You're right," Miranda wanted to avoid the usual argument that went with this, so she only responded with these words and a small sigh. She closed her eyes, relaxing against Marie's side further. A particularly loud clap of thunder made her tense up again, only to have Marie hug her a bit closer.

"The thunder sounds like it's getting further away. The storm should be over soon," he assured, hoping to distract her from the weather. "Did you remember to eat lunch today?"

"Yes, I did," she nodded. He always worried about her eating enough; she was almost happy someone worried about her even if she felt a bit guilty for causing him more worry than necessary.

"That's good. Did you do anything interesting today?" he kept talking, never giving her enough time to think about the storm still rumbling outside.

"No, I really didn't do anything of much importance. I got up early, then I helped Komui file some papers and talked with Allen for awhile," she answered, seeing what he was trying to do. She tried to think of something to talk about as well.

"Really? That sounds like a rather active day, to me. Was the Science Department crowded today? Or were you sorting papers in Komui's office?" he kept the stream of conversation going, not pausing between his response and the next question.

"It was quite crowded, actually. I might be helping him clean one of the labs tomorrow, if I don't have anything better to do. Lenalee asked me to help the Science Department pick everything up, since I haven't had much to do recently and they don't want it getting as bad as it was at the old Head Quarters," Miranda responded, relaxing again against his side again for the first time since the last loud clap of thunder.

"That's very kind of you. It will certainly be a help to all of them, especially when work starts to pile up again," Marie smiled, glad that he could feel her relaxing against him so soon after the thunder. He could hear the rain lightening up and the thunder growing much further away, but he wanted to make sure to keep talking to her and keep her calm until the storm had passed completely. "I'm sure Lenalee appreciates you helping her brother out, as well. It really is quite sweet of you to do for them."

"Not really, I just didn't have anything better to do," Miranda shook her head quickly. "I also helped Johnny pick up his work room today, he even gave me some extra fabric and sewing supplies he had left over from a recent sewing project he had done."

"You sew? I can't say I knew that," Marie didn't know she really had any sort of crafty hobbies, as it seemed all she ever did was read or clean up around her room. He suspected her life at the Order could get quite monotonous when she wasn't on missions constantly.

"Yes, though not very well. I've never tried my hand at making anything more than little dolls. I mostly just like to fix dolls and clothing that are torn already. I just want to get back into the habit of sewing again so I can try to get better," Miranda explained. A good deal of the smaller scars on her hands were from sewing incidents, so she was just the slightest bit hesitant to begin sewing again.

"Sewing is a good hobby to have. I'm sure it will be useful," Marie said. The conversation was beginning to lag, but with the storm almost over it wasn't too crucial to keep talking. Marie easily enjoyed quiet company as well as talking.

"If I can ever get good enough to make anything useful, it will be a very good thing," she agreed, for once not degrading herself.

The two continued talking, switching between topics quite frequently, until Marie had begun to nod off and eventually fell asleep.

Miranda, not wanting to wake him up, simply stayed quite and still, smiling at how peaceful he seemed. After an hour of listening to the sound of his breathing and the sound of rain hitting the roof, Miranda began to doze off herself. She slept for a few hours and when she woke up she decided it would probably be a good idea to wake Marie up so he could go back to his room. Sleeping sitting up like that was bound to be bad for him. Sleepily, she sat up and rubbed one of her eyes before yawning and lightly shaking one of Marie's shoulder with her other hand, "Hey, Marie, wake up."

In a manner that had probably been adapted over his years as an exorcist, he was awake in seconds. He didn't startle awake, though, like some people might.

"We fell asleep in the library," Miranda explained, adding in a few apologies at the end. She was still curled up rather contently against his side, waiting for him to move his arm before she stood up. Part of her reason for staying so still was because she wanted to stay like that for a little while longer; unfortunately, if she did she would fall asleep again and she didn't want to make Marie carry her back to her room. Again.

"Thank you for waking me up," he sounded tired still, "Sleeping like this all night would have made my back hurt, I imagine." He moved his arm so she could stand up, and once she had stood he did too.

"You're welcome," Miranda was disappointed and cold when she stood up. He had been warm and comfortable and it had been extremely nice to snuggle up against him like that. But, with the storm over, she didn't really have a reason to stay like that. Even just thinking about staying there was embarrassing to her, and she wondered what had come over her, letting herself fall asleep on him like that.

"It sounds like the storm is over," Marie could no longer hear the wind or the thunder, just light rain, "That's good."

"It ended awhile ago, just after you fell asleep," Miranda explained, "I think it's kept raining since then, but I fell asleep for awhile too so I can't really say for certain if it ever stopped raining or not. I think it's still raining, though."

"Yes, it is raining right now," Marie nodded. The sound of the rain would probably be much more noticeable on the second floor where the exorcist and finders' quarters were, but from what Marie could tell it certainly wasn't raining anywhere near as hard as it had been earlier.

"This whole thing was really silly. I'm sorry you had to go out of your way, just after a mission, too, to take care of me," Miranda suddenly apologized. Her shoulders slumped a bit, and she frowned.

Marie couldn't see the way she was standing or her expression, but he could hear it in her voice. She was feeling guilty about him having to help calm her down. Offering her a small smile of reassurance, he said, "It was no problem. I enjoyed chatting with you. Please, don't think you bothered me at all. If I didn't want to help, Miranda, I wouldn't have gone to check on you when I had gotten back. And also, don't worry about the fact that I just got back from a mission, if you ask me, it was hardly a mission. More like a day trip."

Miranda wanted so badly to argue with him about how he shouldn't worry, but she knew it would only annoy him, and she couldn't think of a valid argument. It was odd, recently she had wanted, more and more often, to accept peoples' reassurance, thanks, and apologies without arguing. Most people would say she was growing more confident, but to her it just seemed like she was growing arrogant. Finally, as much as it pained her to admit she wasn't too much of a bother, she said, "I suppose you're right."

"Come on, you sound tired let's go back to our rooms," Marie, again, could tell she wasn't really happy with the course of that conversation by the tone of her voice, so he chose to end it for her. He wondered what could be bothering her, but he knew that it would probably only bother her more if he asked. With that in mind, he tried to start a bit of small talk until they got to their rooms.

Their rooms were just about a ten minute walk from the library, and when they reached the door to Miranda's room, which happened to be first from the direction they were coming, Marie said, "Good night, Miranda. Sleep well."

"Sleep well, Marie. Good night," she replied before disappearing into her room. She was ready to sleep again, after her little nap a few minutes before. It was nice, sitting and talking with Marie like that. She couldn't help but smile as she thought about how warm he had been.


A/N: Thanks a bunch for reading, reviews are really, really appreciated. Also, guys, I am SO sorry I disappeared for so long. I had a really awful bout of writer's block, and then some stuff happened IRL that really messed with me, it's all good now, message me for more details, but it's taken a lot of work to get back into writing. I'm sorry if any of my chapters are lacking or bad, it's just that I'm trying to get back into it. For all of the reviews I got while I was gone, thank you so, so much. You all rule, I hope at least some of you are still here :)