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


Chapter 24

Miranda was in the little sewing room again when Marie returned. She had managed to finish gloves for everyone in the Science Department, and was working on a pair of sturdy, fingerless gloves for Marie. This all was at some small cost to her hands, but she didn't seem to mind the ache in her joints or the series of pinpricks all over her finger tips. Her own gloves had helped greatly in reducing the painful little pits on her hands. She was just finished the first glove when there was a soft knock on the door of the sewing room. No one aside from Johnny ever bothered to come to the room, and he never knocked since it was originally a room he had set up for himself to work in.

With a small, curious hum, Miranda called, "Yes, who is it?"

"It's Marie, I'm back," his voice held a slightly exhausted note to it.

"Marie!" Miranda was on her feet and walking to open the door in just a few moments. She hugged him, "Oh, it's so good to see you! How did the rest of your mission go?" He hadn't been in reception areas for most of his travels.

"It went well. How have you been?" a small smile tugged at his lips and he gently wrapped an arm around her waist. The drained, defeated expression that had tugged at his features before he left for the mission was no longer there. The frown lines and worry lines had grown less prominent, and Miranda couldn't have been happier to see that.

"I've been wonderful, since you called last. I had been really worried about you and Lenalee, before," Miranda smiled and moved away from the hug enough to look up at his face. Sometimes she wished she wasn't so short compared to him. "I'm glad that you two found Kanda and brought him home."

"Yes. Oddly enough, I'm a bit mad at him for wanting to come back. All he's ever wanted, for as long as I've know him, was to be free of the Order. I am happy to know he's safe, though," Marie sighed.

"I think, if I knew him as well as you did, I might be a bit mad with him, too, for coming back," Miranda murmured softly against Marie's chest.

His shoulders sagged slightly, and everything about his posture showed exhaustion. "I wanted to come and tell you that we're back. I'm afraid I need to go get some sleep, soon. I'm glad you've been doing so well." He rested his chin on her head and hugged her for a moment longer before slowly pulling himself away from her.

"You look like you could use the rest. Would you like me to walk back to your room, with you?" Miranda asked softly.

"No, I should be fine on my own. Besides, it sounded like you were working on something. Johnny said you'd been spending a lot of time in here, I would hate to disrupt you further than I already have," he murmured gently and smiled at her. "But, if you would like to walk with me, and it wouldn't be bothersome to you, I wouldn't mind it, much."

"I need to give myself a break for a little while, anyways. I would love to walk with you," she smiled brightly and gently took his hand. She waited for him to start walking. For once she didn't have to put much effort into keeping up with him.

His steps were sluggish and lethargic and every so often his mouth would open in a jaw-cracking yawn that he didn't bother to hide behind a hand. "What have you been working on, recently?"

"It's a surprise," she smiled softly, "Perhaps it will even be done by he time you wake up!"

"I'm excited to know what it is," his smile was tired and he seemed to become even more lethargic when they finally reached his room. He gave her another quick hug and mumbled a soft "talk to you later" before he went to bed. For once he had no trouble with the sounds all around him. Thankfully, he was tired enough to tune them out.

Miranda was in a far brighter mood that day than she had been for a long while as she went to the cafeteria. It still felt empty and dull, but at least she knew Marie would be okay. She knew Lenalee was slowly but surely getting better.

"Oh, Miranda, there you are," Lenalee waved her over to her table in the cafeteria. Her smile didn't quite reach her eyes, which were exhausted, but she was smiling like normal.

Miranda walked over and sat down beside her without even getting herself food. That could wait. "How have you been, Lenalee? I hear you two found Kanda."

Lenalee's lips pulled down in a scowl and her eyes hardened, "I'm mad at him right now." She added a little huff at the end of her sentence that made the proclamation seem entirely childish.

"Oh? Did he do something to upset you?" Miranda raised an eyebrow in question.

Lenalee's pout was almost as childish as her previous statement, "He said I looked ugly because I was crying! But I was crying because of him! He should learn that I'll worry about him whenever he does something stupid like that!"

"I'm sure he just meant that it was because you were crying," Miranda attempted to console and attempted to keep the small note of amusement out of her voice. Seeing Lenalee that upset over something like that was oddly amusing. It made things seem almost normal. As if things hadn't been so terrible as of late.

"It's not funny," Lenalee insisted with a serious set to her jaw.

"I'm sorry, I shouldn't be laughing like that. It's just odd to see you behaving so much like someone your age normally would. It's nice," Miranda gave her a sweet little smile, "I'm sorry if I seemed rude by laughing."

"You don't need to apologize, Miranda," Lenalee puffed her cheeks out and laid her chin on her arms on the table. "I'm glad he's back, though. Even if he can be an idiot."

Miranda still smiled at Lenalee's words. It was good to see that Lenalee wasn't as hopeless, any longer. "Lenalee, I've been meaning to ask you. Would you prefer a pair of new gloves, or would you prefer a new pair of shorts?" There were measurements for the clothes of all of the exorcists and finders in the little sewing room that Johnny kept for when he wanted to make a new uniform for someone. Miranda could easily figure out a pattern for a new pair of shorts for Lenalee.

"I think a pair of shorts would be better. I don't usually wear gloves all that often," Lenalee admitted. "Is that what you've been doing? I noticed everyone had nice gloves in the Science Department."

"Yes, I've been making things for everyone. Since the Science Department gets so cold all of the time and they always have to write I figured that would be the most useful thing that I could make for them. I'm making Marie some gloves that should help support his hands when he plays things so he won't hurt his knuckles by playing for too long."

"That's really thoughtful of you," Lenalee said gently.

Softly, and hesitantly, Miranda added, "I-I was thinking of making something to take to Allen. Do you think i would be allowed to? I was making him a pillow. I don't imagine that it would be comfortable for him down there in that cell..."

"I don't know if you would be allowed to take it to him, but you could still try. If you were able to, I'm sure Allen would really appreciate it," Lenalee said gently. "Just don't get discouraged if you're not able to take it to him."

"Don't worry, I won't. I just feel so bad for him... I'm too afraid to ask to go down and see him. I'm sure he's lonely down there, too... B-But that's why I'm going to make him something," for once she didn't put herself down for her failure to go try and comfort the boy who had pulled her form such a dark place.

"Allen will appreciate the thought, Miranda, even if you're not allowed to give him anything," Lenalee gave her a reassuring pat on the shoulder.

Miranda nodded, "Sorry, I've made this conversation quite glum. What kind of fabric would you like your shorts to be?" Her quick change to the subject was in an attempt to keep herself from getting too gloomy.

"I don't really mind many fabrics, so long as it's not a very rough fabric," Lenalee responded. She said nothing about the change of topic.

"All right, I'll see what I can figure out to use," she smiled. "And you usually keep them the same color as your skirt, right?"

"Yes, that usually seems to work best for me," Lenalee nodded, "Otherwise people tend to think it's my underwear."

"Your skirts are all black right now, right?" Miranda definitely didn't want to mess that up, "I would hate to make a mistake with the color."

"Yes, they're all black or grey. I would be fine with any colors, really, I could just as Johnny to make a skirt to math when he got the time," Lenalee hummed cheerfully.

Miranda nodded, "I'll keep that in mind. It might be a little while before I get them to you, though. Just because I'll probably try out a few different ways of making them."

"Take your time, Miranda. I didn't even expect you to do something like this, so you don't have to feel like you need to be rushed on my account," Lenalee assured as she finished her food.

"Thank you, Lenalee," Miranda offered a slight smile, "I just feel like I should be doing more to try and cheer everyone up. Baking didn't really do much good because I just kept ruining the kitchen, but I can sew, so I figured I would try to do something with that. Maybe when I get a bit better I'll try to do more to help Johnny out and make things for people. Perhaps if I have the time, still, I could even help him more with full uniforms."

Lenalee praised, "That's a wonderful thing for you to do! I'm sure everyone appreciates you doing this."

"I'm glad that you appreciate it, too... I'll do my best to make sure that I'm doing all I can to help everyone out," she said. Her stomach growled and reminded her why she had gone to the cafeteria in the first place. "Sorry, I need to go get some food. Don't feel like you have to wait for me, if you're ready to leave."

"All right. Have a good meal, Miranda. I'm going back to my room to rest," Lenalee said with a small smile. She took her dishes to the dish bin and then left.


Miranda carefully tied off the last stitch on Marie's gloves. She smiled and hummed as she carefully turned the gloves right-side out and set them on the table. She put away the extra thread she had and carefully put up the needle before she picked up the gloves and stood up.

Not even a day had passed since Marie returned. She knew he was still in his room and quickly went there. She knocked on the door. She was fidgeting and shifting her weight around when he opened the door. "Marie, I, um, I made you a present." She stammered.

"Thank you, Miranda. May I ask what it is that you made?" Marie offered her a warm smile. He had known she was making something, but he did his best to let what it was stay a secret for himself.

"It's a pair of gloves. I made them out of really sturdy fabric, so they should last in battles, but they're also fingerless, so you can still use Noel Organon with them on," Miranda quickly responded. She was smiling shyly as she gently pressed the gloves against his hand, "I hope you like them."

Marie closed his fingers around the fabric placed against his palm, and held Miranda's hand for a few moments before it was pulled away. His smile had widened, "Thank you very much, Miranda. These will be very useful."

"I'm glad you like them!" she had been so worried he wouldn't, but with the fact that he did she couldn't help a giddy little laugh.