D. Gray- Man belongs to Hoshino Katsura!

Chapter 56:

I sat on the porch behind the house, old Rusty sat by my feet keeping time with the beat of his tail. The grown-ups were in the living room with the General talking about anything that came up.

The kids were with me listening to a story I was telling them.

I was one that happened two years ago on New Year's, right after I got back to the Order from visiting home.

Komui called me and told me I was going on a mission with Kanda to Venice in Italy where they thought there was innocence.

"Kanda and I arrived outside of Venice at one in the morning, dead tired and wanting nothing more than to get to the hotel, go to our rooms and sleep." The kids sat in front of Rusty staring at me with wide eyes hanging on to every word. "After an hour of walking in the freezing cold we got to Venice and took a boat to the hotel. We entered and paid for our lodgings. It was a small hotel." I went into detail, knowing they loved detail. "It was made of stone with carpets on the walls. We walked up the stone steps that were lit with small gas lamps and entered the two rooms that had been reserved for us. As I entered mine I knew that something was wrong. Someone was there, I felt it. I lit the candle that was on the table in front of the window and turned around. I started looking all over the room. Suddenly a hand pressed down over my mouth and grabbed my arms from behind. 'I wonder if I level up immediately if I kill an exorcist?' The Akuma's foul breath reached my nose as it whispered in my ear. I activated my innocence and pulled my arms free in a swift jerk that tore the Akuma's arm off. Blood flew everywhere and the Akuma screamed. I tore his other hand off my mouth as the door flew open and Kanda rushed in with Mugen drawn." All of them gasped, eyes wide as saucers. "Kanda rushed to me 'Are you okay?', 'Yeah, leave the Akuma to me.' He nodded, sheathed his sword and stepped back, leaning against the wall. 'I'm going to kill you!' The Akuma screamed 'I'm gonna tear you limb from limb!'. 'Not if I kill you first.' I replied. Then I ran to him, kicked him in the stomach and punched him in the head. He flew through the window, breaking it, and exploded in the air outside." All of them were looking in admiration at me. "The land owner was not happy to say the least, even though we said we'd pay for the damage. By this time we were all extremely tired and I wanted a bath and then sleep. We asked for another room but the owner said he'd given us the last two available rooms. So I moved to Kanda's room, the floor was stone, there was a desk across from the door with a double bed next to it. Across from the bed was a door, through that door was the bathroom. It was made of marble with a bath big enough for two people to sit in."

"You bathed with Kanda?" Abigail asked. As children growing up in the Ozarks it's common to bath with the opposite sex. When you grew older you wouldn't, but until the age of ten, who cared?

"No, we don't bathe together." I smiled, understanding the innocence of the question. "He let me bathe first and then bathed after me, then we went to sleep."

"Did you hold each other?" John asked. "Like mom and dad?"

"No." They were really curious kids, asking questions that would never have come up into my head when I was their age. "The next morning was a beautiful if freezing day. We left the hotel and took a boat to take us around the city."

"Why a boat?" Abigail asked.

"Because they don't have streets! She said that in the beginning, remember?" John scolded.

"Anyway," I interrupted them before they started to argue "we traveled to the center of the city to where there's a statue of Poseidon. Poseidon was the Greek god of the sea. Apparently the innocence was supposed to be inside the statue. Now Poseidon was sitting on his shell thrown in the middle of all his minions who were mermaids and dolphins and fish and other creatures of the sea, from their mouths and pails they were sprouting water that fell into a fountain around the statue. The innocence was supposed to be inside the statue and it was supposed to grant the wish of anyone who threw money into the fountain. So there we were standing next to this beautiful piece of art wondering how we get the innocence out of it when out of nowhere a bunch of Akuma attacked. They reined bullets down on us. We both activated our innocence and attacked. Kanda cut the first one in half. I jumped and kicked one in the face before it hit Kanda with a bullet then I jumped to the third one and punched it as Kanda sliced the forth, reversed his grip and stabbed the last one. They exploded at once and the people were so happy that we'd taken care of the 'monsters', as they called them, they wanted us to be the guests of honor at the New Year's masquerade. Kanda, being Kanda, said we were busy looking for the innocence and then proceeded to describe it. The people all knew what we were talking about and said that the mayor had it replaced because it brought too many 'monsters' and it was in his house which was where the masquerade was taking place. I pointed out that we had no costumes. So they literally took us by force, separated us, and started working on our costumes and masks."

"Really?" Tim asked, amazed.

"Yes. For hours women worked on my dress, taking measurements, sewing, they were wonderful. When they were done they had made the most exquisite ball gown. It was a deep burgundy color, one that didn't clash with my hair and complimented my eyes and skin color. It had one shoulder strap and it went down to my knees. It was a beautiful form fitting gown. Then they worked on my hair and made it into a star shape and lastly they gave me a mask. It was only an eye mask. It was white with black around the eyes and a black ribbon. By then it was night, they took me to the mayors house, after I met up with Kanda of course."

"What was he wearing?" They chorused.

"He was wearing white pants with black boots. His sword was tied to his hip. His coat was a deep midnight blue with gold on the cuffs and edges, and he wore a white shirt beneath. He wore a mask identical to mine. When we got to the mayors house we climbed out of the boat. Kanda had to help me because I was wearing high heels and I wasn't stable on them. When we got to the front of the mayors house we had our picture taken, with our masks off of course, courtesy of the town. Then we were led into the house. It was the most magnificent party I've ever seen. Champaign, everyone wearing a costume and mask, beautiful music, and everyone was smiling and dancing… When we met the mayor he had already heard everything that had gone on and so he gave us the innocence and asked us to lead the next dance. We couldn't say no. Everyone had been so polite to us and it looked like the entire town was there and like they were all waiting for us for the next dance. Thankfully Kanda knows how to dance so he lead and then one by one the rest of the town joined in. When we got back to the hotel I was so exhausted and tired I fell asleep in my dress over the sheets. The next morning we woke up and we went back to the order with the innocence."

I left out the part where I needed help from Kanda to get out of the dress and that he'd seen me in nothing but my undergarments. That was something that seemed like it was for the both of us only.

"Do you have the picture still?" Abigail asked.

"Yes, I'll show it to you."

"I'm afraid it'll have to be tomorrow." James said interrupting the conversation. He and my mother were standing by the doorway. "It's time to go home and go to bed."

"Oh, can we at least know what Kanda looks like?" John asked with a pout. James nodded.

"He's Japanese." I said, seeing him in my mind's eye. "He's tall, taller than me by a head, he has long, silky, jet black hair that he keeps in a ponytail and he has black onyx eyes that are so intense it's like he's looking into your very soul, his skin is smooth with a bit of a tannish color, he's muscular but not macho, he's graceful but strong and his voice is deep and resonating. He doesn't speak a lot but when he does you listen to him."

"Thank you Hannah!"

"Thank you Hannah!"

They hugged me and left.

"Will you tell me another story?" Tim asked, I looked at the stars.

"Tomorrow maybe. First it's time I took a walk." I got up and walked down the steps into the mountains with Rusty at my heels.