Story: A Touch of Colour in the Gray

Book 1: Shading the black.

Date: 25th November 2019, corrected March 2022

Beta: KnK

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, taking the name Eve, becomes Tricia Kamelott's lady-in-waiting. Eve quickly becomes aware of the social and gender differences of the time and begins to fear for her future, especially when Road, the twins, Tyki and even Allen arrive. As she got to know them, Eve became closer to them and so, farther from the other employees.

Chapter Trigger: None I can think of

I got a beautiful drawing of Eve and Tyki at the ball by Hana and one of all Noah, Tricia and Eve by Elogane : D They can be found on my tumblr with previous fanarts, and if you want to send me yours, my email is ennael. whistler ( a) gmail. com

Enjoy your reading !

Shading the Black 26: Gifts Idea

Wednesday 25 November 1885

I'll admit it : I missed Tyki. A little bit. Then again, there wasn't much to do at the manor in the afternoon with the twins gone, Road at her classes and Tricia asleep. Quite frankly, I didn't see how noblewomen put up with this life... but I guess, when the other option is to work yourself to death...

Anyway, it gave me plenty of time to think about whether I should get the boys a gift and if so, what. The twins were the easiest. They were younger children, so there was no problem giving them a present. And the choice wasn't too difficult either, they liked games and I knew of about ten card games that could only be played with their own set, so I just had to draw the deck. (It was after a week on it that I realised it would take a biiiit longer than I thought. Luckily I still had nothing to do in the afternoon...) For Allen, there was no question, I was giving him a present, but what? And for Tyki... I wasn't too sure if I could. He wouldn't mind, I'm sure, but I wasn't too keen on getting scrapped apart by Sheryl or seeing Tricia's bright eyes (and wasn't it sad that both actions were at the same level of fear? Terrified by a smile, arf...)

Anyway, with Tyki still absent, I thought it was the best time to find him a present. If worse came to worst, I would just give it to him in Sheryl's back? An afternoon in the library, when Tricia was asleep, Sheryl was in his office and Road was at school... easy as pie, right? Except... I wasn't good at presents, I really wasn't. Not at finding them, no, I used to buy things throughout the year when I saw them and it reminded me of someone in particular. Or make things. Jewellery, a drawing, a sculpture... So no, getting the gift wasn't usually a big deal (except for my father. It was so hard to find him a gift that might even have the potential to make him happy!) I don't know why, but I had an irrational fear of giving my gifts. So much so that I tried to sneak it in on birthdays or was happy to leave the doubt on which gift was given by who on Christmas. (I'll admit it here, I gave you those ugly socks, bro, not exclusively dad, we bought them together. Sorry.) It was strange, even though I'd spent time on the present, finished it for weeks and was pretty sure it would be a good one... on the day, I was suddenly convinced that it was the worst present ever.

And you might think, why make a big deal about a gift? Because I didn't care about it for myself, but for other people... Giving something that's not appreciated actually proves that you don't know the person at all, right? And one of my biggest insecurities is that I'm absolutely terrible with people. On the surface, It seem fine... but on the inside... I don't understand why they do this or that, I don't know how to comfort someone, I never know if the person is honest or not, I create annoying misunderstandings... No matter how hard I try, I always feel like I'm in a bubble a few feet above the others. Like a bunk bed! Your desk is only a few centimetres away, if you put your arm out, you're sure you'll be able to grab the book on it, but no, it's too far. I can see it but I can't touch it. It's the same with people, I feel like there's an invisible wall between us... But it happens to everyone, right? To feel like you don't understand other people sometimes, to feel like you're on the outside... It's those "lonely moments" that you have sometimes. So that's okay! I'll give my gift! Never mind if it doesn't hit the target. It's the thought that counts... right?

Following this new resolution, I started to think seriously about a present for Tyki. A book? The library was already full of them. Clothes? I wouldn't be surprised if even one of his suits was worth more than all the money I'd earned in a year... and why not a favour? Promise to keep Road and the twins off his back for a day, for example? Unfortunately, I wasn't sure it would be possible to keep them... He'd already got a card pack for Allen, he didn't need a new disguise so what could I possibly... Ho. Found it.

Alcohol.

In a strange quirk, Sheryl forbade Tyki to drink any alcohol other than the wine served at the table. And even that wasn't always the case. In fact, I'd awkwardly watched a fight between the two on the subject several times before. Tyki liked hard liquor, but he couldn't drink it at the mansion because Sheryl kept an eye on his bottles (or rather the level of alcohol because even locked up, it's not like Tyki had trouble accessing it with his powers). Worse than that, Sheryl regularly had Tyki's room searched (well, he said he sent the maids to tidy up, which was true, but that wasn't their whole job either. Clariss told it to me.) and the last time (and only time I'd seen it in almost a year) Tyki had been caught, the shouting had been so extreme you could still hear it distinctly two floors above. They'd been on the outs for three days after that and it was the first time I'd seen Sheryl really angry at his darling brother. Tyki and I had talked about it a bit after that, in the library. He didn't even like it that much, a drink now and then just was nice, but his brother was so adamant about not drinking "while I'm of age and normally free to make my own life choices" that Tyki had developed a dark amusement constituted by trying it anyway at the risk of it blowing up in his face. Unfortunately, after this last stunt, the controls had intensified even more and Tyki had been very annoyed at the forced abstinence. "I understand," he had said with an annoyed grimace. "He's afraid I'll turn out like our father. But I'm not him, and here it just proves that Sheryl doesn't trust me. I'm still a child to him, and I doubt he'll ever see me as an adult." I'd been careful not to point out that his sneaking out, running away and other antics were certainly not helping his case.

So there you have it. The gift would not only be a good bottle, but a place to hide it: my room. And let's pray Sheryl never finds out or it'll be my dismembered body that would end up in a bottle...

Tyki's gift taken care of (maybe too simple for a friend... or too complicated for a simple employee... I didn't know and I cursed the problems with the other employees that didn't allow me to participate in the common gift like for Road. It would have been so much easier). I immediately set about the Jasdevit's, waiting patiently for the following Thursday so that I could go into town with John and buy the bottle.

And of course Tyki turned up like a flower at the manor on Wednesday morning. The whole thing was discovered when a series of screams woke me up at the ungodly hour of five in the morning. Folding the blanket over my head, waiting patiently for it to pass so that I could go back to sleep, I had to face the fact that no, it wouldn't pass when five minutes later, the heated conversation was still going on. So, stumbling out of bed in the November chill, I rolled up in my dressing gown with a scowl and opened the door to see who was doing all the racket. And so of course, as you might expect, right outside my door, or rather right outside Tyki's bedroom door, the Noah of Pleasures was being yelled at by his brother. Or rather it was a sort of whispered howl that seemed to take into consideration the fact that they were in the Master's corridor in the middle of the night but was actually not much less loud.

"Tyki?" I called, surprised, when I saw him, drawing both Noahs' attention to me. It was a bit surprising to see him here, like this, without warning, when he'd been away from the manor for almost three months.

"Ah, sorry Eve, we've been a bit too loud it seems." Tyki replied at once and he seemed relieved at the intrusion. Clearly he hadn't planned on getting caught by his brother sneaking in here.

"Yes, apologise for the inconvenience, we should have had our reunion in a more suitable place. Go back to bed." Sheryl continued in a voice so icy that I preferred not to impose my view on him any longer. Muttering some sort of farwell, I sent Tyki an apologetic glance and climbed back into bed, wondering why Tyki was being shouted at. The other times, Sheryl had been much happier than angry and it was only after a few days that he had started to berate his little brother.

A few hours later, after some more reunion drama, I was finally able to ask Tyki why he was back now and so early in the morning.

"I would have been home by the end of December," he began to sigh. "But Sheryl asked me to come home last week. That's why he was so upset this morning. I took my time getting home, I didn't think it was urgent. And the hour? That's because I've learned that it tends to take less time if I get home early in the morning. He often has meetings he can't shift, whereas in the evening he can encroach on the night to keep me as much as he wants." He explained with a haunted look on his face and I wondered if he'd ever had a whole night's worth of yelling on one of his returns.

Anyway, Tyki didn't get much time off after that, he worked all day with Sheryl doing who knows what and came home exhausted at night. I was fine with that, I was able to buy my bottle with no problem (the shop in the nicest part of London wouldn't sell it to me but the barman at the place where we'd spent time with Allen and Tyki had sold me one without question) and it was a bit harder to get it into the manor (it was a funny story with Road, Louise, John, an orange, an encyclopaedia and a big basket of clothes. Don't ask.) but otherwise I had much less trouble than I expected.

And so the next few days passed slowly, Tyki at work, Road at school and me drawing the twins' present (and I was rapidly coming to hate geometric shapes, it was long).

Sunday 29 November 1885

"What are you doing?" A small voice behind me suddenly asked as hands came to rest on my shoulders without much warning.

"I'm drawing Road." I replied calmly in the least informative way possible. Obviously, she saw me drawing and that wasn't what she meant by her question, but if she thought I was going to be helpful after this morning's fu-... hey, I was a poor human in Noah territory, we'd take any little revenge we could get!

"I see that." She replied, rolling her eyes before dropping her shoulders to lean closer over the table and observe my work. "But why on such small sheets? Besides, it doesn't make any sense, it's completely abstract. I've seen the drawings in your room, it's at least better than that usually." She said, looking at the cards with a sceptical eye.

There were a lot of things wrong with that sentence. "What do you mean 'at least'?" I asked slightly outraged. I knew I wasn't Renoir, but she didn't need to denigrate my sketchs! "And what do you mean 'in my room'?" Road, I've already asked you not to go there!" I replied, trying to keep my tone not too high. I didn't want her to sense how worried I was about her finding Victor Hugo's writings.

The little pest simply rolled her eyes and continued without bothering further with what I was saying, "So? You didn't answer." She insisted, turning back to me with a thoughtful look.

"...it's a card game." I end up saying grudgingly.

"A card game?" She repeated sceptical as she picked up one of the drawings to examine it more closely. "It doesn't look like a deck of cards... it's not a tarot deck either."

"It's for another game, a specific one, it's called jungle speed" I replied, putting my pencils away. It was hard to work with her here anyway. Especially since if she was bothering me, she must have been in deep trouble and probably had something to ask me.

"I've never heard of it. Is it a French game?" She asked in a strange tone.

"I don't know, I just remember it. I thought the twins would like it." I replied with an uncomfortable shrug. Maybe I needed to calm down a bit about the whole amnesia thing...

Road made a small indistinct noise in response as she looked at the cards before turning to me. "Anyway, I need your help! I can't find my doll but I'm sure I didn't take it to school so it must still be in the manor." She said, leaning towards me with big eyes. What did I say? Sighing, I left my things there and followed her to her room. Fortunately, I had no more problems with the staff, most of them were far too afraid of me. I didn't understand why at first and then the whole situation came back to me: they thought I had pushed Marie Brown on purpose and that Road was covering for me.

At the same time, how could you blame them? It was hard to see Road as anything other than a sweet, if full of pointy angles, little girl. If I didn't know all these things from D Gray Man... I wouldn't have believed it myself. But a girl being harassed for weeks? Yes, yes, of course she had to break down and get revenge.

As a result, over the last few months they intended less and less contact with me. If they could avoid talking to me or even seeing me, most would. It was sad, really. Only my usual small group remained. John, Louise and Clarisse. Well, and then of course Berthe, Philippe and Peter were still friendly and there were some who just didn't care but still... In fact... I had practically managed to alienate the humans instead of the Noahs... how did that happen? I couldn't even remember if anyone hated me in my old life! Well, with how good I was (that's sarcasm) maybe I just didn't notice...

I tended to be blind to the drama. All these problems in a class or a group of friends... unless it affected me directly, it was very possible I wouldn't notice. In my defence, it was often due to silly things. Three quarters of them could have been prevented with better communication...

Grumbling half-heartedly, I continued to rummage through a far too large toy box while letting my thoughts wander.

Speaking of better communication, I was going to have to send my gift to Allen soon if I wanted it to arrive on time. A letter every month was the best we could do. He was so far away now! China... and he was still travelling, so it was hard to contact him anymore. It's funny how the letters had evolved in those few months. From barely a page in the first one, to eight in small print in the last one. But that was easily explained, the letters had become like a diary for him. The way they were written, I had the impression that he was writing down day by day what had impressed him. In fact, of the eight, at least seven were such a vivid description of where he was that I felt like I was travelling with him. But it was a bit sad too. He didn't talk about himself or say anything negative. He must have fought his first akuma in all that time but he never mentioned it. Or at least never directly, I just suspected. I'd hardly had a real complaint about Cross! Just a few vicious jabs. These letters were really more of a travel diary than a way of giving news... Everything was analytical and only the first page usually showed a bit of feeling in the sense that it was there that he replied to my own letters. He seemed terribly interested in our mundane daily lives, scribbling almost a whole page of questions that seemed to me to be of little importance. He would ask me what my favourite colour was, or what Tiky had done one afternoon, or how Tricia was doing, or what mischief the twins had done, or Road... At first I had tried to play down what I was saying about the Noahs. I had to tell him that Tyki was in fact a nobleman and that I was his sister-in-law's employee, but that was mainly because the Noah of pleasure had asked about Allen and had wanted to write to him too. Who would have thought that such a small encounter with a street kid would make such an impression on him...?

Anyway, it had been hard, after that, to be evasive with my comments about the other inhabitants of the manor when Tyki spent his letters complaining about them. Of course, Allen had started to ask my opinion, doubting that they were as horrible as Tyki described. So, after a while, I just gave up holding back. My life had literally revolved around them for almost a year, and it was hard to find different things to talk about. So I told him everything. In edited versions of course. I didn't have to tell him I was being harassed by a jealous housekeeper, for example. Unfortunately, once again, Tyki was writing his own version of events and, from time to time, his' and mine conflicted. And it's not like I could just delete Tyki's letter before sending it to Allen because most of the time he was the one who was going to post it in town!

This sometimes led to some awkward conversations. It was quite strange to be reprimanded by a thirteen year old in letters often more than a month or two after the fact...

Anyway, all this to say that I needed a present for Allen, and I needed it fast. Unfortunately, I was running out of ideas. It was easy to find a trinket in town, my employers paying all my expenses for lodging, food and even some clothes, I had been able to amass a nice salary, barely scratched for some art supplies. So I had enough. The problem was that Allen was in China and even if I could send him a small package... what would I put in it? The kid was traveling all over the world, stopping only a few days here and there. He only had the bare necessities with him and to burden him with something useless would not be the best idea...

A photo was small and unobtrusive, and it was even useful for his mood... but a book? Another pack of cards? Not so much.

And then I thought... surely Tyki would want to participate? He may not have written as much as I did, but he always made an effort to answer Allen and he seemed to enjoy reading his letters. And indeed, Tyki had wanted to participate. "The way he talks about it, I doubt his teacher will do anything... We owe him that much," Tyki had said with a shrug. That's how Tyki and I had ended up in the mansion's library, on one of Tyki's rare breaks while Sheryl was at a meeting in town. (Tyki should really be working, but he'd been only too happy to throw his paperwork in the fire when I'd come to him for help. I might have been flattered by the fact, but I knew it was more the lure of NOT doing paperwork than my glorious company that had caused him to follow me so promptly) with a sullen look and a deep boredom on his face.

"Clothes?" suddenly offered Tiky, looking up at the ceiling as if he could find all the answers to the world's mysteries there before glancing at me to see if I had heard.

"He's in his teens, I doubt we can trust the size we saw the last time he was in London." I replied, absentmindedly tapping a piece of paper in my lap. It was full of crossed out propositions and strange scribbles.

"Indeed..." Tyki murmured, dropping his head back onto the back of the chair where he lay. "A deck of cards? He didn't have any." He offered again.

"That's a bit sad, that's exactly what he gave you as a parting present." I replied with an annoyed sound. "If nothing else, you could always get him one when you see him again, it would be a good sentimental gift."

"I'll keep the idea." He said, shrugging his shoulders with an amused little smile. "You can give him a real tie this time."

"Yeah." I replied with a soft laugh. "We're not going to recognize him."

"For sure, he might even be bigger than you next time." Tyki continued, letting his head rest in his hand.

"Don't say that!" I almost groan. "The twins are almost my size now, a few more months and they'll have outgrown me. I feel old..." I say as I wipe away a fake tear.

"You're not even of age, Ivy." Tyki replied, rolling his eyes before running a hand through his hair with a sigh. "Something useful..." He muttered. "What could Allen possibly need... he does manual labour, right? I realize I don't even know what he's studying." Said Tyki with wide surprised eyes. It was true that Allen had been particularly non-explicit about the whole thing and in a totally underhanded way at that, if I hadn't known, I certainly wouldn't have been able to guess.

"Anyway, with the way his master looks, I doubt he'll learn anything..." I replied quickly to try and get the question out of Tyki's head.

"It's not wrong..." Tyki admitted. He too could read between the lines of what the kid wasn't really telling us. I suddenly had the urge, in a fit of nostalgia, to ask him what he didn't understand, but I restrained myself. I'd just look stupid and without the 21st (or 10th I suppose) century reference, he'd never get the joke, even explained... Oh how I missed humour, everything was far too strict here. Well, for the women anyway, the men had a field day with dirty jokes in the bars... Making a joke here was really difficult, you always had to take kid gloves an-...

"Gloves!" I said suddenly as I jumped to my feet, startling Tyki. And I was pretty sure I'd seen him slip a few inches inside his chair, but, well, I wasn't going to point that out, thank you very much.

"I'm not sure I'm following you...?" Tyki asked confused as I began to pace the lounge area of the library.

"Allen always wears gloves! And they were practically ragged when we last saw him. Maybe he's bought some new ones since then, but it doesn't hurt to have a second pair and maybe we can get him some sturdier ones for manual labour like you said?" I replied, babbling a mile a minute as Tyki followed my back and forth gaze like a tennis match.

"That's not a bad idea." Admitted Tyki as he frowned, thinking more about it as I gave him an incensed look. Of course it wasn't a bad idea! "Although, like clothes, it's hard to estimate the size of your hands. In any case, it's useful, small and easily sent, even to China. It meets all our criteria." He said with a happier air. "Perfect! And I know just the place to have them made, they'll be the strongest, most adaptable gloves ever created!"

"Maybe we shouldn't overdo it." I replied with a laugh just as the door slammed against the wall.

"Uncle Tykiiiiii!" Shouted a familiar tempest as she rushed into the room to jump on the Noah's chair. "Guess who didn't find you in your office?" She said in a gleeful voice as she swung her feet over the file. Tyki turned white and stood up suddenly to turn back to his niece.

"Is he back already?" he choked.

"Oh yes, and he's positively furious. Probably because of the burning smell." Road continued, almost licking her lips in delight as Tyki let out a small sound suspiciously like a squashed cat and bolted out the library door without a backward glance.

...

...

"He's not here, is he?" I asked as Road dropped into the seat where her uncle had been resting seconds earlier.

"Of course not." She said with a sadistic smile "He's too gullible." and I nodded in sympathy for Tyki. The poor guy was too easy to lead around by the nose. But, hey, I admit I'd cherish that memory for a long time. It wasn't often you saw a terrified Noah, so you might as well enjoy it...

KnK: Poor Tyki. And yet every time he gets messed with somehow it's the most entertaining thing, along with Road showing her manipulative sadist side.

Nël: I realise that NLN is becoming more and more a diary for me. Not in the sense of "I tell my days", (I swear I don't play dolls with Road or drink with Tyki in my daily life), but in the sense that "I put my feelings into shapes" and I realised a lot of things about myself thanks to that! So, perhaps, my monologues bother you (though, why would you read an AN of the 26th chapter ...? Mystery ...) and you would prefer that I do more things like UAPV instead, but it makes me feel better, so I'm not going to stop anytime soon : 3

Also, hey, we caught up with the date! (minus about 150 years...) From now on, I will try to keep the pace of a month in the story equals one month IRL, so that I can finally announce an end date for NLN! Because one way or another, this story will end shortly after Canon begins in August 1887. We are at November 85, the story should be completed by September 2020 IRL for the french version (yes because there will surely be an epilogue.) Wow, it coincides with my hypothetical year of diplomas. Since UAPV should be finish around there too, I'll attack my exams quietly and will brave the adult world with a page of my childhood closed : D Or so I hope ^^' (Edit2022: GUESS WHAT ? : 'D)

That's it, I wish you a lot of good things, think of letting a review and see you on the 25th of next month!