History: A Touch of Colour in Grey
Book 1: Shading the black.
Date: 25 August 2018, corrected in April 2022
Beta: AxZi (2018) RostosGirl (2022)
Fandom: D Gray Man
Disclaimer: No, I don't own D Gray Man and I'm not making any money on this story.
Summary: After landing in the 19th century, Estelle soon realizes that she has been hired by the Kamelott family, basically the villains of DGM. Taking the name Eve, she then becomes Tricia Kamelott's lady-in-waiting and helps her with her daily tasks. Now that her life is a little less chaotic, Eve reflects on her arrival in this world and decides to make up her own mind about the people in this new world despite her knowledge of manga. However, she soon becomes aware of the social difference between women at that time and starts to fear for her future, especially when Road and the twins arrive...
Chapter trigger: Not a lot, just characters doing something morally bad (but, hey, still not at the manga level with murder and all so I guess we're safe)
The first drawing is from a past beta of mine Arya39!
The second one is from a kind reader, UtopiA :D
Good Reading !
Chapter 11: To each their own way
Friday 13 March 1885
"Again?" I sighed as I sat down at the bar table where Tyki and Allen were playing an intense game of cards.
Allen blushed shyly as he rubbed his head. "Tyki is teaching me new cheating techniques." He said with a smile.
"And we don't just play poker, Robin, I'm teaching him a bunch of betting games if he ever needs to bail out." Tyki replied, tossing a pair of cards into the pile in the middle of the two boys, causing Allen to grimace. "You should thank me. Allen is good and I'm a good teacher. With his skills, you won't have any trouble getting money for food or shelter if you need it. And believe me, you'll be grateful you don't have to hire yourself out to the mines."
"Yes, thank you for your extreme kindness, Tyki," I said sarcastically, rolling my eyes. Both he and I knew he was playing with Allen exclusively for fun and not really to save our lives. Still, they were useful abilities for the future exorcist so I didn't say anything.
"My pleasure," he replied with a wink, managing to get a laugh out of me despite myself.
Watching them exchange cards, I thought back to the last few days. Fortunately for me, I had managed to arrive on time on Tuesday. Besides, Sheryl had come home that night and fought hard with Road, forcing her to go back to class, even threatening her with boarding school. So I had been able to breathe a sigh of relief and avoid the confrontation, the girl being far too angry with her father to pay any attention to me.
So I had continued my little merry-go-round these last few days, managing to leave every afternoon to join these two idiots. And I must say, Tyki really knew the city like the back of his hand. He had taken us to beautiful places, walking through unknown passages and guiding us to unusual places. The day before, he had even managed to take us behind the Big Ben clock! I was terribly disappointed not to have been able to stay and watch the sunset while eating ice cream...
"So what are we doing today?" Tyki suddenly asked as he picked up the cards from the table and put them away.
"Well actually..." Allen began to say hesitantly, catching our attention. "I found out I'm leaving for India tonight... this is our last afternoon together."
"Already?!" I asked in surprise, my voice going slightly high.
"You're not going away together?" asked Tyki in surprise.
"No... Allen has been taken on as an apprentice. I'm staying in London." I say quickly, Allen nodding beside me.
Tyki sighed as he leaned back in his seat. "And I was thinking of leaving tomorrow," he said thoughtfully, lighting a cigarette. "Well, goodbyes are in order then. It's been a pleasure knowing you."
"Hey, we're not separated yet! We still have all afternoon, let's do something together." I say, trying to make Allen smile as he looks grim.
"But what?" asked the boy. "We need something memorable!"
"Memorable...?" Tyki murmured before a sly smile took possession of his lips. "I have just the thing."
"Really?" I asked skeptically as I pulled away from him slightly. "I have a feeling you're going to drag us into something I won't approve of at all..."
"Naaah, trust me, we'll remember this for the rest of our lives!" he said with a laugh as he stood up. "Come on boys, let's go!" Jumping out of his seat, Allen ran after Tyki and I soon followed them, but not without letting out a tired sigh. Following Tyki through the streets, we quickly passed through the poor neighborhoods and approached dangerously close to the upper class areas.
"What are you doing?" I hissed at him as we reached the main street. There's no way we could walk through the high street in our clothes without getting stopped by the cops... Still, I could get away with it because I just looked like a student in my brown jacket and my newsboy cap. If anything, you could ignore Allen with his knee-length shorts and white shirt.
But Tyki?
No way.
Even considering the beggars of the East End, I had never seen a man caricature the homeless so well.
And Tyki must have been thinking the same thing, because he quickly tucked his shirt into his trousers, pulled his braces over his shoulders and straightened up to adopt a much more stylish body language.
"Wow." exclaimed Allen as I whistled, impressed as he curtsied to us.
With a wink, Tyki led us through the back alleys of the market, deftly snatching a black jacket and slipping it on, and a grey cap and pushing it over Allen's head with a loud laugh. At my disapproving look, he gave me a cheeky grin and dragged me by the shoulder to a large building half embedded between two old red brick buildings.
"What are we doing here?" I asked as I read the sign.
"Tyki..." said Allen sadly as he looked back at the shop. "We can't afford it."
"Don't worry," Tyki smiled slyly as he put his hands on our shoulders to gently push us inside. "And not a word! Leave it to me." Pushing open the large wooden doors, Tyki stepped into the hall with all the poise of a nobleman and approached the small desk where a lady was typing. Sensing her visitor, the woman raised her thin-rimmed eyes and blushed hard.
"Hello, how can I help you?" she stammered, looking dreamy. From where we were, we couldn't really see Tyki's face, but having seen him in action several times in the last few days, we could easily imagine his charming smile.
"Hello Miss." He purred, letting his hand play on the desk. "We'd like to do a family portrait."
The woman finally seemed to notice that they were not alone and glanced at us suspiciously. Despite our efforts to dress up, we were not above middle class, and the services this shop offered were usually reserved for the upper class, or at least for adults with a lot of money saved up. This must have been the first time that three teenagers of various ages had come to his shop without a good opportunity.
"Of course gentlemen... but I'm really sorry, I have to ask, do you have enough money?" she said awkwardly, not seeming to want to scare Tyki away.
"Of course." Tyki said condescendingly. The woman blushed even more, probably feeling like an idiot. Getting up, she nervously rushed into the next room, poking her head in before returning to us, discomfited.
"I'm sorry, gentlemen, but the photographer is away this afternoon and his replacement doesn't seem to be here either. Perhaps we could make an appointment for another day?" She asked, biting her lip.
"This is quite bothersome..." Tyki began with a frown. "I'm leaving on a business trip tomorrow with my father and I won't be seeing my cousins for a while... We wanted a souvenir, you see." He said with some annoyance in his voice. "And I know that your firm is the only one to offer color photographs of the whole capital, a revolution, if I may say so!"
"Yes, yes I understand, of course." The secretary quickly nodded. She then seemed to hesitate a little, but meeting Tyki's gaze, her eyes became dreamy and she opened her mouth. "I've been working here a long time, I know how to operate the camera... if you really want a picture, I could take it? If you don't mind, of course," she added hastily.
Thanking her, the secretary hurried off to the next room, inviting us to follow her. Behind her back, Tyki turned to us and grinned indulgently as I rolled my eyes and Allen smiled in amusement. The room was just as small as the hall, presenting a lovely, richly decorated lounge, a large black box on the side. Beginning to maneuver the device awkwardly, the secretary asked us to take our seats in the lounge area, the way we were most comfortable. Deciding to ignore the chairs, Tyki stood in front of the curtains, inviting us to do the same. Standing next to him, Allen in front of us, we waited in uncomfortable silence for the secretary to stop fiddling with the camera.
"Told you it would be memorable." Tyki murmured, amusement in his voice.
"It's true. It won't be possible to forget you with this," Allen said in the same tone.
"And I thought you were going to take us on another crazy adventure..." I mumbled with an annoyed sigh. "I'm almost disappointed!" I teased him before taking a more serious look. "But I don't understand why you want to take a picture. We haven't even known each other for a week. And these things are awfully expensive.
"Well it's not like we're really going to pay..." said Tyki quietly. "And you're always complaining that we can't stay in place for you to draw us. With this, you'll finally have willing models."
Allen hiccupped with laughter and I took on a mock outraged look at his words. "You spend hours playing poker, I have to keep myself entertained!" I said, rolling my eyes with a smile on my face. Hey, I was going to get a picture of Tyki Mikk in white mode and a Chibi Allen Walker. In the same picture. With me in it. Any D Gray Man fan would dream of being in my shoes!
"Are you ready?" the secretary finally asked with apparent relief. She must have managed to get the camera working after all. Tyki nodded and she gave us the instructions, telling us to stay neutral and not to move as the photo would take some time.
"No way, we're not at a funeral, give me the best smile you can." I whispered to the boys as the secretary reached under the black camera sheet.
"I've never seen a picture of people smiling in the lobby," Allen remarked.
"We're going to steal those pictures anyway, so we might as well make Robin happy." Tyki replied with a shrug. Allen seemed to ponder the question for a minute before shrugging his shoulders and giving his famous innocent smile.
Ten minutes later and the photos were taken. The secretary then asked us to come back later while she developed the photos, and we were back on the street wondering what to do.
"If Tyki gives us a going-away present... should we too?" Allen suddenly offered as we strolled through the shopping district.
"What do you mean?" asked Tyki of the younger man.
"Well you gave us a picture, it would be fair if we gave you something in return too."
"We did the picture together, I'll get one at the end too and I'm not going to pay for them, it's not really a gift." Tyki remarked as he deftly avoided a street kid.
I remained silent, pensive, a plan slowly forming in my head. Seeing that Allen was ready to retaliate, I pinched him lightly on the arm to get him to look at me before winking at him. "So what do we do now? Do we go back to the bar?" I asked Tyki lightly, Allen frowning.
"Okay, but I'd have to go home and get my stuff so I can get to the port on time," Allen added slowly.
"Let's go back to the bar then. We've got a good two hours to kill before I have to go get the pictures, and I've got a few more tricks to show you." Tyki smiled before ruining Allen's well-combed hair under his protests. "And then Robin needs to work on his knife throw." I groaned at his words, this was foreshadowing a long and trying practice...
I had not been mistaken. When Tyki announced two hours later that he was going to pick up the pictures, I couldn't feel my arms. Laughing at me, Tyki ruffled Allen's hair and told us he would meet us at the bar at 5:30. Reminding him that I had to leave before 6:00 so he couldn't be late, Tyki imitated a soldier, making Allen laugh, and assured me that he would be there at the appointed time. As soon as Tyki walked through the door, a sly smile came to my lips and I turned to Allen. "Come on, let's go!"
"Now? I just have to go get my stuff, you know. It's not too far and Tyki will be a while, we can do it later..." said Allen as he started a solitaire card game.
"Come on Allen!" I groaned as I grabbed his cards under his irritated yelps. "We're going to get Tyki a present!"
Surprised, Allen put his cards away and followed me down the street asking me where we were going first. "We don't have much time... so I think we should go and get your stuff by looking at the shops on the way, and if we really don't find anything, we'll go a bit further on the way back, what do you think?"
Allen nodded and we started walking down the street towards the red light district, unfortunately neither of us found anything until we got to where he was staying. Entering the small, grimy alley where the back door led directly to the upper floor, he opened the door. Oh, we could have gone through the front but... well we were in the red light district and it wasn't very polite to disturb Miss Taringan if she had work to do...
"I've already packed my bag, I just have to pick it up and say goodbye, will you wait for me here?" he asked and I nodded, telling him not to worry, but he went up the stairs at a brisk pace anyway. Sighing with fatigue, I slumped against the wall of the house, waiting for Allen to come back.
"So it's you he's spending..."
"AHHHH!" I screamed as I jumped, stumbling against the wall behind me, my hand over my heart, adrenaline coursing through my veins.
Before me, half hidden by the shadows, was the famous Marshal Cross in all his splendor. At my yell, his suspicious look had quickly given way to surprise and then annoyance as he realized that he had dropped his cigarette.
"Don't ever do that again," I hissed as I leaned against the wall again, taking deep breaths despite the putrid air of the alley.
"My apologies?" He apologized as if asking a question. In my opinion, the discussion had not gone as he expected. But, hey! If you're waiting alone in a dark alley in the middle of the red light district and a deep voice suddenly speaks from behind you when you thought you were alone, that's something to be afraid of, isn't it?
"No, I... I mean I... Did you want something?" I finally stammered.
In any case, I could be sure of one thing: it was Marian Cross. With a half-mask on his face, half-moon glasses, long red hair, almost red, and the long black and gold coat of the generals on his shoulders, there was no mistaking it. Especially with a huge Timcampy, bigger than my head, floating right behind him.
Lighting another cigarette, Timcampy eating the one that had fallen on the floor, the Marshal took a few steps towards me. He seemed to have regained his full self-control and redirected the conversation with ease. "Only to meet the boy my idiot apprentice spends so much time with..." He was now only a few steps away and continued to move closer. Uncomfortable to feel him enter my bubble space, I pressed myself a little more against the wall without knowing what else to do. He didn't think I was an Akuma, did he? "But it seems I was wrong..." He added before grabbing my gavroche and pulling it off in one swoop, my hair falling happily over my shoulders. "Well," he said with a charming smile. "That's a pretty lady we have there."
Before I could say something witty... yeah, no, I'm sure I would have stammered something stupid, but whatever! Before I could do anything more or less intelligent, the door to the house slammed shut and Allen came in beside me, a big bag slung over his shoulder and his eyes huge. "Master!" he shouted in shock.
It's true that I wasn't in the best of positions.
Placed against the wall, my hair flowing down my shoulders, Cross' left hand resting on the side of my head and his other hand holding my cap, it was certainly confusing.
"Allen!" I breathed in relief before taking my gavroche from Cross' hands and forcing my way out of his inert arms.
"It's alright you stupid apprentice, your little girlfriend has nothing..." Cross growled, rolling his eyes, barely listening to Allen's furious rebuttals.
"Yeah, no, don't worry, I love him, but not like that." I say, shaking my head frantically.
At my side, Allen turned an amusing shade of red before grabbing my arm and starting to pull me away from his master. "I'll meet you at the port later, Master. Come on Eve, we really need to hurry."
"Oh uh, nice to meet you?" I said to Cross before disappearing around the corner, Allen walking faster and faster as he pulled me behind.
"I think there's a shop selling a bit of everything at the end of the alley next to the park, do you want to go and have a look?" Allen offered when I opened my mouth to talk about Cross. In all the weeks we'd spent together, I'd never seen him so annoyed and enterprising. Wisely choosing not to tell him about Cross, I nodded and told him that if we didn't find him there, we would have to go home empty-handed. We soon arrived at the little shop. It was a shop like one rarely seen in my world, filled with random things piled on top of each other in every available square meter.
"Well, I'm sure we can find something good in there..." I muttered to Allen, who made a skeptical face as he looked at the pile of rubbish.
Poking around, I quickly found a bunch of interesting trinkets and inwardly promised myself to come back and go digging around later when I had a bit more time.
Less than ten minutes later, Allen came back to me with a nice pack of checkerboard cards.
"I think I'll take that for him... his cards were completely destroyed the day before yesterday when there was that fight in the bar." He says to me with a little shy smile. "Shall we go?"
"We still have a little time and I'd like to find something for him too," I replied to Allen as I started looking again. He nodded and continued to walk around the shop.
A few minutes later, I came across a small wooden box that was not very special. Intrigued though, I walked over to it and opened it to find a bunch of very different glasses. Rummaging through the box to see if any of the pairs would fit me, I soon found one without much correction, iron rimmed and quite pretty.
"Hey Allen, does it look good?" I asked the boy. I was lucky enough to have a physique with which hats and glasses usually fit, but it didn't hurt to ask. Coming back to me, the boy looked at me for a few seconds without saying anything. "It's a little weird, but it's pretty good," he said with a smile. "You really don't look recognizable in them."
"Really?" I asked in surprise. "I'll keep them aside then, in case I need to make a better disguise..." I said quietly before returning to the box to close it. Suddenly, however, a pair of black-rimmed glasses with large lenses caught my eye. Taking them, I was surprised to see the real Tyki's glasses from the manga.
"Perfect..." I murmured with a smile before taking them too. Closing the box, I got up in turn to join Allen and leave as quickly as possible. Finding him at the corner of an alley, I was about to call out to him when I noticed that he was looking at a pile of ties with nostalgia. I approached him slowly and put a hand on his shoulder, wondering what to do.
"My father used to wear a tie like this all the time," he said sadly, pointing to a piece of brown cloth with fine stripes. "He said that as an artist, appearance was everything, and that living on the streets was no reason to be badly dressed." Suddenly he seemed to come out of his thoughts and told me he'll wait for me outside having already paid for his purchases. I pretended not to notice that his eyes were shining.
Looking at the ties and biting my lips, I thought again about the Mana/Millennial Earl problem. I knew it was useless, without new information from the manga, it was all conjecture, but... Suddenly, a flash of red caught my eye, and I saw a beautiful crimson ribbon. Not far from it, a grey ribbon with a white border was keeping it company. With a smile, I hurriedly grabbed them to pay with the glasses at the counter. Joining Allen on the street, we hurried back to the bar, arriving panting just before 5:30 to take our place at the table.
Less than five minutes later, Tyki walked into the bar with an envelope in his hand. "There you go." He said proudly as he took a seat at the table, tossing the envelope between us. Unable to stop myself, I grabbed the envelope and took six pictures of it, hardly different from each other. Passing two to Tyki and Allen, I looked at my own photo avidly. The quality was far better than I could have expected, I thought as I looked at the rich scenery that didn't fit us very well. The colors, on the other hand, were a bit yellowish, but in the end they added a warmth to the whole setting.
"They're really good," Allen said with surprise, scrutinizing every detail of the photo.
"Yes, they have some fancy material," Tyki nodded. I glanced at Allen who nodded and took Tyki's hand to put his pack of cards in it.
"Here, happy last day in our company." He said with a shy smile. He had told me earlier that it was the first time he had given a gift to a friend.
I had mentally translated it as the first time he had a friend...
Tyki's eyebrows rose and he took the pack curiously, opening it to see the cards. Shuffling them in his hands, he spread them out on the table to observe them. And, oh! The joker looked familiar... Seriously, finding Tyki's glasses and the iconic Poker Pair deck in the same shop? Well, I guess it made sense, it was close to where Tyki was snooping and since he'd bought both...
"Thanks kid, these are great." Tyki said as she ruffled Allen's hair and he blushed with pleasure in response, a big smile on his face.
"Hey, don't forget about me!" I said with a laugh before throwing the pair of glasses to Tyki, who caught it without difficulty.
"Glasses?" he asked me, puzzled.
"They don't have corrections and are thick enough that we can't see your eyes," I say, putting my head in my hand. "With these, it's impossible to recognize you, I assure you!"
"Wow Tyki, Robin is right, we really don't recognise you!" laughed Allen as Tyki tried them on.
"It's perfect," he said with a sly smile that boded ill. "Thanks, boys."
"No problem," I said before a piece of cloth was suddenly pushed into my face. Following the arm that held it, I saw Allen, his cheeks red but his eyes determined.
"Happy last day with us." He said again. "It's a scarf to uh you know, hide you a bit more..." He mumbled quietly before jumping up from his seat and whispering in my ear. "...because you still look a lot like a girl!"
"Ahah, thanks Allen." I said as I ran a hand over his shoulder in a parody of a hug. Even so, he stiffened slightly, but when I let go of him immediately, it was he who grabbed my hand to squeeze it in his. "We had the same idea," I said mysteriously, pulling out the red and grey ribbons and tying one around his neck. "You're a little too young for the tie, but a ribbon is fine too."
"Hey, I feel like I'm missing something..." Tyki said, perplexed. "Anyway, I'm sorry, but I think we're going to have to cut this short, you have to go now if you don't want to be late." he said in an apologetic tone.
"Ah!" I made as I looked at my watch before fetching my bag containing my dress from behind the counter with a smile to the boss, taking the photo and wrapping the scarf around my neck. "It was great to meet you boys, I hope we meet again one day." I say before giving a quick hug to a surprised Tyki. Turning to Allen, a little hesitantly, it was he who came up to wrap his arms around my waist very quickly. It wasn't enough for me but it was clearly enough for him and I was happily enjoying the compromise. When he stepped back, his arms coming back to rest at his sides, looking a little lost, I made a decision.
The idea had been on my mind all week, and even this morning when I had made the preparations, I still wasn't sure. But this time I was. Quickly rummaging through my bag, I pulled out a bunch of envelopes with the address already written on them and pressed them into Allen's left hand, holding up the little finger of my right hand.
"Promise me you'll write me." I asked, looking him straight in the eye.
He seemed to hesitate for a moment, but finally raised his left hand and squeezed my finger with his own.
"I promise," he assured me in all seriousness.
With a huge smile, I told him to put in his letter what address I should write back to and ruffled his hair before running off at full speed, not looking back. It was terrifying to think that I might never see him again and even more terrifying to realize how attached I was to him already. It had only been a week, really... but it had been over ten years since I had seen him grow up in the manga and it was hard to separate those feelings from each other. Shaking my head and hoping he would actually write to me, I ran a little faster towards the high streets. With a bit of luck and if John was kind enough to wait for me I would have just enough time to change and catch my carriage.
And here we are, meeting Cross and Allen's departure :) We won't see him for a while, but it also means we'll see the Noahs again! and Tyki in a noble version too :p and it announces another character we're waiting for…
Also, the drawings arn't from me this time! The first drawing is from a past beta Arya39 and the second one is from a kind reader, UtopiA :D They both made it when this fic was first published on FFnet in 2017.
Other drawings from readers will be put in their chapters when they come out, you're welcome to join the fun if you want! Just draw a scene you loved from this story and then publish it on Tumblr (and me so I can reblog! It's Ennael too :) or send it to me on my email adresse : [ ennael. whistler (a) gmail. com ] and please specify you're okay with me to put it on tumblr/AO3. You're not obliged at all if you don't want others to see it, though! It just mean I'll be the only one to enjoy it :)
Think about letting a review on your way out and see you on the 25th of next month!