History : A Touch of Color in the Gray

Book 1 : Shading the black

Date : February 25, 2018, corrected in december 2021

Beta: Lyra (2018) RostosGirl (2021)

Fandom : D Gray Man

Disclaimer: No, I do not own D Gray Man and I am not making any profit from this story.

Plot : After landing in the 19th century, Estelle quickly realizes that she got hired by the Kaamelott family, basically the bad guys of DGM. Taking the name Eve, she then becomes Tricia Kamelott's companion. Now that her life is a little less chaotic, Eve reflects on her arrival in this world and makes the decision to make up her own mind about the personages of the mansion despite her knowledge of the manga. However, she quickly becomes aware of the social difference of women at this time and begins to fear for her future, especially when Road arrives and her mania to turn everything into something extremely scary.

Chapter Trigger : Mention of abused and street children.

Chapter 5: The Belle Twins

Sunday January 25, 1885

"J'ai maaaaaaal"

Rolling over in my bed, I buried my head in my pillow to scream. Yesterday, I had the unfortunate surprise of my monthly gift coming to see me. Yes, surprise, because it was exactly a month since I had arrived in this world and I had completely forgotten about periods. Hey, it wasn't my fault! No one ever mentions them in the novels… Honestly, I was kinda hoping that they would have… disappeared… Yes, just like that.

As they say, hope brings life...

Usually, my period was not a piece of cake, but here… it was the most painful thing that I had ever had! Worse than when I played hide and seek and ended up with a shard of glass in my forearm! Rolled into a fetal position, a pillow in my arms, I was tense on my bed, waiting for the pain to subside. Of course, there was no spasfon or doliprane here, just a few bitter-tasting herbal teas that Tricia regularly brought to me. Ah, speaking of Tricia, see the irony is, she was feeling well for once! Ecstatic, she had planned to fight the snow to go to mass today. And logically, I would have been obliged to accompany her. Unfortunately… or fortunately… no really unfortunately, I had started to feel bad shortly after lunch on Saturday.

Tricia, very worried, had gone into mother hen mode and insisted that I go to bed straight away. She had finally spent the afternoon at my bedside reading me a collection of poems in English which I had understood absolutely nothing of. Oh, I have improved a lot in the language, it's true, but try to understand the subtlety of the comparisons of old English poetry while being ill as hell and we'll talk about that later. Finally, I fell asleep in boredom at the soft sound of her voice and woke up this morning with a killer stomach ache and a big red stain on the sheets.

I felt a bit ashamed when I realized there was no way I could clean this on my own as usual because damn it, there was no running water! Well, ashamed of not being able to take care of it myself, eh, not of periods themselves. Seriously, it was bad enough to suffer, but if I also had to feel embarrassed six days a month for the majority of my life ... No really, I had never had a problem discussing it with others or complaining about it when I had them. However, being literally in another era where women were overwhelmingly seen as the weaker sex, only good at perpetuating the human race, I had no idea how they were going to react. No, really, because even though I had been at the mansion for a month, I had never seen anyone face this kind of problem. Neither Clarisse when we had shared a room for a week, nor Tricia when I literally helped her get ready every morning. Besides, how did women manage to take care of it at that time? There was no cup or tampon yet ... washable panties? Like baby diapers? Why the hell did I know more about babies in the nineteenth century than the periods, that was beyond me ...

Anyway, I was hoping the laundresses had a good stain remover.

Tricia had finally found me standing in front of my bed with a blank stare and had taken matters into her own hands. The chambermaids had come and gone, Tricia had made me a tea her grandmother made for her, absolutely disgusting, but surprisingly useful for the pain and I was back in my bed, this time clean. It had been a long time since I had depended on someone so much… Tricia had then settled down at my bedside, taken one of my hands in hers and with a tone too soft, had started to explain what was happening to me. Round-eyed, I stared at her while she was talking about the fact that I was a woman now, that menstruation was going to happen to me every month, that it lasted about five days, that it was necessary to hide it all and… that was it. Nothing about the menstrual cycle, the possibility of giving birth, the biological differences between a man and a woman, etc, etc ... Ah, yes, one more thing: she simply told me to put on as many petticoats as possible to absorb the blood when I got out of bed during my period.

"Don't worry Eve, all women go through this, you'll get used to it," she said, patting my hand when a real look of pure horror spread across my face at the history of petticoats. No but not at all! Petticoats?! Wow, periods in the 21st century were already not funny, but there it was… unlivable. Okay, I said I would try to adapt to the time but there were limits! Wondering if I should do my own sex education class for Tricia, I finally decided to put that aside for another time and instead asked my employer if I could borrow something to sew. It was time to put my skills as a dressmaker to the test ...

Two hours later, Rosina was subtly trying to take her mistress to her room so that she could get ready for mass, but Tricia was reluctant to abandon me. Clearly the "first period" was a big deal for her, but she ended up giving up and reluctantly going to church with Sheryl. She was waiting for this so long, I wasn't going to ruin her day! And then, um, that would allow me to breathe a little because while yes, Tricia was very nice, but a little too much at times...

So anyway, let's get back to the topic...

"J'ai maaaaal…" I moan again, complaining about the pain and squeezing my stomach more firmly.

"I have tea if you want." Suddenly a voice said behind me. I jumped violently, pulling another moan of pain.

"Road, you really have to stop doing that," I mumbled as I rolled onto my left side so I could see the girl. "Didn't you have to go to mass?"

"No, it's boring," she said as she sat down on the chair by my bed. "I told Mom I was staying to take care of you because I was worried." She smirked.. "Tea?"

"You're welcome for the excuse," I say, amused, before dragging myself pathetically on the mattress to lean against the multitude of pillows placed against the headboard. I told you, Tricia was a mother hen. When I was a little better settled, I grabbed the cup Road handed me.

"Thank you," I said, taking a sip while wincing. "Urgh, this is horrible." Road smiled before drinking her own cup of tea which was a much different color from mine.

"Can't I have yours instead?" I begged Road, looking at her mug longingly.

"Uh ~ uh Mother said you have to drink this one. She said it will be good for you," she said, far too amused. Glaring at the cup, I reluctantly nodded before pinching my nose and swallowing all of it. Shivering with disgust, I gratefully grabbed the cupcake that Road handed me, just to change the taste. Sighing in relief, I snuggled more comfortably into the pile of pillows behind me, already feeling better. I didn't know if it was the placebo effect or if this herbal tea really worked, but it didn't matter as long as I didn't feel like someone was trying to extract my vagina with a trowel.

"So what do you want to do?" I asked Road. "Preferably something where I can stay in my bed. "

Road cocked her head to the side curiously. "You're okay to play with me?"

I looked at her strangely. "Didn't you come for that?"

She suddenly smiled, jumped off the chair, and ran out of the bedroom without saying a word. A few seconds later, she came running back and sat down again at my bedside, a small box in her hands. Opening it, she took out a few sheets and colored pencils which she poured over my knees.

"Draw me something!" She asked, wiggling her legs under her chair. "Then I'll color it." Looking at the sheet of empty space for a few seconds while thinking of Le Petit Prince, I turned my head towards Road.

"I'm okay with it, but you're going to be bored while you wait… oh, I know! Do you know the...uh… Cadavre exquis game ? I have no idea if there is an English name for it…" Wait, did that already exist? I don't really remember when this game was invented, but it seems to me that it was during the surrealism movement so… during the first half of the 20th century? Urgh, the dates… Well, that's okay, it's not like "inventing" a game earlier is going to be a problem, only Road would know about it after all. Faced with the puzzled expression of the little girl, I began to explain it. We each had to draw a part of a body from head to toe, one after another, but the previous parts were hidden so we only saw the whole monster at the end. I then suggested that we do two drawings at the same time so that each of us could have something to do.

"We can also do the same game with sentences, but since you want to color, you might as well do it with drawings," I told her, handing her a sheet of paper and bringing the pencils closer to her so she could use them without difficulty. Soon, Road got caught up in the game, and when Tricia came to see us after returning from mass, we were both laughing, looking at the latest result of our collaboration, an infamous monster that looked like Bill Cipher for my half and suspiciously to an akuma for Road's half. I pretended I hadn't noticed anything, obviously.

Tricia took the meal up to my room and the three of us ate while showing her our "masterpieces''. Well, the least blasphemous of them. I was not sure that Tricia would take our demons well and Road seemed to agree with me since she had not noted my omissions... Amused, Tricia decided to participate too and I proposed to add the writing version in addition to drawing. Around five o'clock, Sheryl, surprised by the calm of the house, knocked on the door and offered to have tea in the greenhouse. Although I was completely at ease with Tricia and, to a lesser extent, Road, I had spoken very little to Sheryl other than for the memorable episode of pencil and mass. I had a hard time understanding the man, I couldn't tell if he liked me or not, so I preferred to spend as little time as possible with him. Pretending to be tired, I convinced Tricia and Road to go have tea with Sheryl while I rested. However, Road had left her pencils when she left. Since I couldn't resist a bit of coloring, I drew until I felt genuinely tired.

Sunday February 1, 1885

A few days later, I was finally rid of this debilitating pain, even to the point of accepting a new game of hide-and-seek that ended up much the same as the last time, that is to say, my person blithely tackled to the ground by Road. However, this time, I was careful to avoid Sheryl's office, even though I knew he wasn't at the mansion, having seen him rush off early this morning. When my knees seemed to be on the verge of not being able to take another encounter with the ground, I offered Road to continue the story of the Generals of the Rose Army. Since that first time almost two weeks ago, Road and I have been expanding our playground, adding Chests Forest and Bed Town, Wardrobe Royal Palace, Door Village and Curtains City. Today we had planned to discover a new country beyond the village of the gate, leading our army to the edge of the dangerous corridor. After nearly two hours of tumultuous explorations, however, we had to give up the game to join Tricia for tea.

"… And then Eve stopped the demonic Maleficent from casting a curse on our troops. So I took advantage of her heroic act and stabbed the wicked witch with the magical sword we found in Bed Town!" Road finished, mimicking a sword blow with her hand. Tricia let out an amused laugh and turned to me. I had long given up caring about what she thought of the… boys games I played with Road. Tricia had seemed a little cold about the subject at first, but now she was just happy that Road had a playmate. She had even participated once in one of our games as a princess in distress!

"Really Eve, I don't know how you manage to have so much imagination!" She said as she pulled out a handkerchief to wipe Road's mouth, jelly all over her cheeks.

"Oh, well, I read a lot…" or at least I read a lot of manga, fanfics, novels."… and Road helps me build the story too." Tricia smiled and opened her mouth to answer but a few quick knocks on the door cut her off. At the "Come in!" Tricia's door swung open to let a somewhat tired Sheryl pass.

"Ah, Tricia, Road, there you are." He said opening the door a little wider but still staying on the threshold. "Perfect. Our friend has taken in some children again, the late Lord Belle had adopted them, but with all that has happened recently, Lucie really does not have time to take care of them… Anyway, I offered to welcome them here for a while. Let me introduce you to David and Jasper, I am going to… "

"Devit and Jasdero." Suddenly muttered a voice behind Sheryl. The latter turned to the voice, finally allowing me to see two young, skinny and bruised boys. They were clean and well dressed, but several bandages covered their hands and forehead. It was hard to guess their age with their waxed skin and protruding bones. They were obviously malnourished, but I thought they must have been three or four years younger than me. In any case, there was no denying that they were brothers, maybe even twins. Their resemblance was striking, they were the same height and both had black hair and eyes. Behind Sheryl, they were holding hands, but one of the boys was standing in front of the other with a scowl on his face. His brother was a little behind, his head bowed and the hair covering his eyes. They couldn't be taller than my elbow and if I hadn't heard them say their names seconds ago, I never would have recognized the nefarious Twins of the Noah's Link. There was one little thing that bothered me though ... Hair dyes were already around at this time? No, because I was sure Jasdero had blond hair…

"We've talked about this before, David. These are not appropriate names for your new social class. You no longer live on the streets." Sheryl replied dismissively. I didn't know how Devit could keep giving him such a dark look, Sheryl wasn't even addressing me and I was already shaking at his bossy tone of voice. However, Devit only curled up further, tucking his neck and letting go of Jasdero's hand, fangs bared and knees bent, as if he was ready to attack like an animal. Sheryl stiffened, glancing quickly at us. However, before Devit or Sheryl could pounce on each other and battle Noah style, Tricia suddenly stood up and knelt in front of the twins.

"Hello Devit, Jasdero." She said in a soft voice. "My name is Tricia, I'm Sheryl's wife and at the table behind me is my daughter, Road, and my good friend, Eve." Road waved a hand with a big smile at the mention of her name and I did my best to sketch a calm, welcoming smile.

"Tricia, sweetheart, don't encourage them, you know that…" Sheryl began in an annoyed voice.

"Come on Sheryl, all kids have nicknames, look at Road and Tyki. We'll call them David and Jasper when we're in… good company, and those will be the names written on their IDs, but between us, we can call them whatever we want." Sheryl sighed but nodded at his wife's requests. Tricia gave him a soft smile before turning back to the two boys, trying to pull them into a conversation with Road's help.

I, however, had stayed in my seat because ...

Identity papers.

The fucking IDs.

Damn, I literally didn't exist in this world! I didn't even think there were any at this time! I vaguely remembered that there were workbooks for workers, and that the church recorded the births of their towns, but… That was in France and in our true 19th century. How was it in England in this revisited Victorian era?

That's okay, don't panic! I had already said that I did not remember anything, and it must have been frankly very difficult to find someone in all of France without the internet. Even being a wealthy nobleman. Or a Noah with unlimited access to thousands of Akumas. Oh Merlin…

"Eve" Road said suddenly beside me pulling my sleeve up, making me jump out of my head.

"Sorry, I got lost in my thoughts. What is it?" I asked Road, noticing that Tricia and the two boys were no longer in the room. All that was left was Sheryl, near the door watching us, his face white with emotion.

"Mother went to show the twins their room. Are you coming to play?" Road asked. Blinking, I smiled at her, nodded and followed her out of the room with an awkward greeting to Sheryl. I had survived more than a month without any papers, it could wait a few more hours, right?

We leave the "arrival" arc and enter the "Twins" arc! it will last three chapters.

Think about the reviews and see you on the 25th of next month!