There will be some serious OOC-ness with Lenalee in this chapter. PLEASE continue reading it to the end so you can read my explanation at the end of this chapter. I promise, there are reasons for the OOC behavior.

...

When Silverton was brought to the Black Order, one of the first people she met was Lenalee Lee. When Lenalee tried to introduce herself to the new recruit, she unknowingly angered Silverton by taking a mysterious black notebook from her, leading to Silverton punching Lenalee's jaw and taking the notebook before running out of the room. Silverton ran to the Black Order's meditation room and met up with Kanda. The two of them soon became well acquainted and Silverton openly discussed a private matter with him regarding two old friends (Drek and Riche) that she often drew in the black notebook. Eventually, they each felt comfortable enough to reveal their full names to one another.

Kanda sat on the floor of the Black Order's meditation room in silence. It had been almost two days since he'd learned Silverton's first name, and ever since then she'd been nowhere in sight. Tiedoll had been panicking, worried that she'd run away, but Kanda knew better.

Silverton entered the room. "Hey, Yuu." She greeted him.

"Where have you been lately? The General's been looking for you."

She got comfortable on the floor beside him. "He must not have searched too hard, since I've been in my room this whole time." *gurgle*

"What were you doing in there for two days?"

"Sleeping…and doodling a little in my sketchbook." *gurgle*

"Shh…" Kanda held out his hand to silence her. "Do you hear that?"

Silverton blushed. "H-Hear what?" *gurgle*

The dark haired man shot her a glare. "Is that…your stomach?"

*gurgle*

He rolled his eyes. "It is, isn't it?"

"So what," she said, "I feel just fine. I don't even feel the slightest bit-" *gurgle* "-…hungry…"

Kanda growled, "Baka tsubaki…you haven't eaten since the day you punched Lenalee, have you?"

She sighed and slouched, blowing her bangs out of her face. "Fine, I'll admit it, I haven't set foot in the cafeteria since then…" *gurgle*

"…"

"..."

*gurgle*

"Go get some food, moron." He scowled. "I can't meditate in the same room with your noisy stomach."

She fidgeted a bit. "But I-"

"Alyssa," He interrupted her, "If it's going to bother you that much, I'll go with you. Just remember, I'm not going to hold your hand and babysit you. You have to have the courage to stand on your own, got it?"

Silverton smiled nervously and nodded.

"What you do once you're in there is up to you. I won't stop you if you do something stupid again. Now, let's go already."

A few minutes later, Kanda and Silverton were outside the cafeteria entrance. She took a deep breath to compose herself before nodding to Kanda. "Alright, I can do this."

With that, he stepped into the crowded room with the brown haired girl following close behind him.

Silverton tried her best to avert her eyes from everyone else, but the more embarrassed she got, the more she could feel her face burn red and her heart pound in her chest. Every step she took echoed throughout the cafeteria, for everyone else in the room was dead silent, staring at her with hateful eyes. On occasion, she could make out a few whispers here and there going on around her.

"That's the girl who punched Lenalee!"
"What's SHE doing here?"
"Who does she think she is, showing her face here?"
"I'd like to teach her a lesson!"

Kanda shot the obnoxious gossipers a nasty sideways glare, causing them to go silent. Once he and Silverton reached the other side of the room, he stopped at the counter and rang the small bell. As he waited for Jerry, he glanced over his shoulder at his nervous teammate, who was staring at the ground with her arms crossed and her shoulders shrugged; obviously feeling insecure and uncomfortable.

Jerry pranced over to Kanda from the other side of the counter. "Hey there, handsome! I assume you want the usual?" he said with a smile, not detecting the tension in the room.

"Yeah," the samurai answered, "Make it two orders of the usual."

As the flamboyant chef disappeared into the kitchen again, Silverton clenched her fist. *"Damn it…it's not going to change anything…but I'm already in here…If all I do is walk in, get my food, and leave, everyone is still going to hate me…"* She thought to herself, *"Well, may as well take the chance. That's what my dad and Master Tsamo would want me to do…"*

When Kanda looked back to check on her again, he was shocked to find that the girl was no longer standing directly behind him anymore. Instead, she was walking off in the direction of the table where Allen, Lavi, Bookman, and Lenalee sat.

She stood at the far end of the table, everyone's eyes fixated on her. Then she bravely spoke, "Lenalee, I…I've never been…very good at dealing with other people…When I'm around people I don't understand…who also don't understand me…I just get pissed off and do stupid shit…like a few days ago…when I punched you…it wasn't something I wanted to do…I just panicked because that notebook was something very important to me…I really never meant to do you any harm, I just…I didn't know what else to do, and…I know that doesn't justify my actions…It was stupid…and…what I'm trying to say is…Lenalee…I'm sorry…"

The room was still silent, however, this was a different kind of silence. She could still feel everyone's eyes on her, and her heart was still pounding like crazy. Maybe it wasn't the atmospheric silence lingering in the room that was different. Maybe it only felt different to Silverton in the room because it felt different in her heart. *"Aren't you proud of me, Dad? I did what was right...!"*

"Who do you think you are?" A voice sounded, breaking Silverton's self-pride. "You think you can just punch me, apologize, and everything will be better?" It was Lenalee. Although there's no way she would be able to admit it to herself, what Lenalee felt was total, utter defeat. No one had ever hit her out of anger, and over the past few days, she was fairly satisfied by how disgusted everyone had been towards Silverton. But, just then, Lenalee had felt the silence in the room change as well. But, she wasn't ready yet. She wanted to be praised and pitied by her comrades just a little bit longer, but Silverton's bravery to apologize under such intense pressure was crushing her glory.

Lenalee slammed her palms against the table in frustration. "You really are something, you know that? You've got some serious guts to show your face around here after what you did to ME."

Lavi and Allen were shocked by her furious reaction. Allen placed his hand on her shoulder to calm her. "Lenalee, please…"

She shot him a glare. "You're not seriously buying this innocent act of hers, are you Allen?" She directed her attention back to the brown haired girl who stood before her. "You think you've got everyone fooled, don't you? Well I don't buy it. It's pathetic, really, how far you'll go just to get pity."

Silverton had a flashback in her mind of Nova. Nova always used to say, 'You're so pathetic!' because she knew the word bothered her. Yet again, this girl, Lenalee Lee, was becoming more and more like Nova in Silverton's eyes.

"Why don't you say something? Cat got your tongue?" Lenalee taunted her.

Silverton stood there in silence and tolerated her, the way she'd tolerated Nova for thirteen years. She simply pretended that what she was saying had nothing to do with her, and blocked her voice from her mind as best she could.

This pissed off Lenalee even more. "The Black Order is my family, and you are not welcome to be a part of it!"

Before anyone knew it, a dark blade was flung up to Lenalee's lips, silencing her. It was Kanda, holding an unsheathed sword to Lenalee's face.

The moment Lavi and Allen noticed this, they stood up from the table, ready to protect Lenalee if need be.

Kanda sent a narrow glare in Lenalee's direction, his powerful eyes meeting her terrified ones. "Shut your damn mouth before I cut out your tongue."

"Back off, Kanda!" Allen hollered from behind Lenalee, but this did nothing.

"How DARE you call her pathetic. The one who's pathetic is YOU, Lenalee. It's downright childish that you can't handle the fact that someone here took the attention off you. And how DARE you say she's putting on an innocent act. You have no idea how much courage it took for her to even consider setting foot in this room. She starved herself for two damn days because she was so disgusted by her own actions. She made the decision to be the mature one and right her wrongs, despite the way everyone was staring at her. Of all the people in this room, I'm the one who knows her the best, and I know the pain she had to suffer through. Maybe you should stop trying to exclude her from your 'family' just because you don't understand her. If anyone deserves pity, it's you for being such an immature, childish, selfish little brat with an inferiority complex."

Jerry, confused as to what exactly was going on, cautiously called, "Uh…Kanda, order up…?"

Irritated, Kanda sheathed Mugen and grabbed Silverton's arm. "Come on, let's go." He said as he handed her the tray of soba before taking his own. Then, the two of them exited the cafeteria, but not before Silverton could turn around and bow to Jerry and thank him for the meal subtly.

...

::: Alright, I can tell I'm probably going to get quite a few hate comments for the way I made Lenalee behave. PLZZZZ let me explain. I wanted to write a story with characters that I could emotionally connect to, and I wanted to use two of my most dominating and contrasting emotional issues and distribute them between two characters. I used Silverton and Lenalee. Silverton has serious self-doubt and finds it difficult to admit her faults to other people, but has no problem pointing them out to herself. Lenalee has an issue where she can't accept 'defeat', typically in the form of maturity or intelligence. Therefore, when Silverton was mature enough to admit her faults to Lenalee, Lenalee tried to retaliate, but only wound up worsening her situation. It also has to do with enjoying glory, since originally everyone was on her side, she felt very defeated when the tables turned so suddenly. I hope that clears things up...

Also, I wanted to make Lenalee a more three-dimensional character. The way Lenalee is in the anime/manga is not to my liking. She is one of those female characters who have only one side to them. The whole, everyone loves her, no one has any problems with me, I get along with everyone, I have no flaws. Let's be honest, real teenaged girls are WAY more complex than that. We all get jealous and act immature at some point, and we all have that one thing that makes us tick. The actual character, Lenalee, by Hoshino Katsura, is not really a good description of a teenaged girl. In fact, she winds up being that female character to can't do anything, cries a lot, and has no real purpose in being in most situations. I wanted to change that.

This version of her shows another side to her that, I think, would make sense. This way, she's a more accurate representation of a typical teenaged girl. Although the change may upset some people, I actually would have liked Lenalee better in the first place if Hoshino made her a character like this. That would be a character who I can relate to. I promise, she won't be completely bashed on in this entire fanfiction. She's simply being used to contrast with Silverton right now. To be honest, however, they aren't quite as different as they may think... :::