Story: A Touch of Colour in the Gray

Book 1: Shading the Black.

Date: January 25, 2021, corrected November 2023

Beta: Fluffyluffy (2020) and Nobody (2023)

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. But the exorcist leaves for India and the twins are sent to boarding school. She meets Baroness Lucie Belle, the twins' older sister and her feline counterpart. She gets into a fight with Tyki, who nearly kills her with his Noah powers, starts a correspondence with Conan Doyles and again nearly dies of Tuberculosis. Yeah : D

And in the last chapter: Christmas with the Noahs, Eve falls into the icy lake when the children go skating and Tyki saves her with his powers.

Chapter trigger: Nothing I can think of.

Guess who FINALLY begin a calendar for this fic while reading it all to try to see where to add excrept I never succeed to put in ? Yep, it's me ! Firsts chapters were easy since I actually wrote the dates but I stoped at arround chapter 15 and it's a pain to read it all up to find the time clues... Even more since it actually make sense so I did it right while writing it... Why didn't I do it at the time ?!

Enjoy your reading!

Shading the Black, Chapter 41: Magic Trust

Saturday 25th December 1886

All in all, I hadn't done too badly. Admittedly, I'd fallen into an icy lake and the thirty minutes it took to get back to the manor and sneak into Road's room while the twins were distracting Tricia had been no fun. But, hey! I wasn't dead! And it was only my third (or fourth?) near-death this year! And hopefully it would be the last, I thought as I enjoyed a hot bath that was all too rare for my liking, given that New Year's was less than a week away.

Except that...

Tyki had saved me with his powers without any more pretence.

I couldn't even pretend I hadn't seen it this time, knowing that Tyki had carried me to the lake shore, floating literally ten centimetres above the water. Even if they thought I was a bit dumb, there was no way they'd believe I was that stupid... Or at least I hoped not, it would hurt my pride otherwise. I could be reassured on that point, given the looks and aborted attempts at conversation on the way back as I tried not to fall into a hypothermic coma from the freezing wind.

So there I was, wondering whether I was going to drown in my bath (at least the water was warm) rather than face the Noahs for, at best, a very awkward conversation or, at worst, my very dramatic death, when there was a knock on the door. It was Road who whirled inside with no regard for my modesty (admittedly, for the time, I didn't have much, but still... Road...) to drop off some clothes with a disappointed pout and a very clear remark that we'd be going to the tailor very soon (and wow, déjà vu).

"And hurry up, Mother's beginning to wonder why the twins have come home on their own when it's nearly dinner time!" she said, taking a big fluffy towel out of the dresser.

A little reassured that she hadn't started talking about Tyki's powers straight away, I groaned: "Can't we say I've caught a cold? That way I can go and rest in my room."

"Are you kidding?" Road exclaimed, looking at me in disbelief. "With what happened last month, if you pretend to be ill, Mother won't let you leave your room until Epiphany!"

"Road, there's no way I'm not going to get sick after falling into an icy lake." I replied, rolling my eyes.

"Well in the meantime, you're not, so get out of here quickly so we can go to dinner. I promise I'll make you an excuse if you really start to feel sick." She replied as she headed for her bedroom.

"I'm having dinner with you all?" I asked, surprised. Christmas was over now, there was no point, was there?

"Of course." She said simply before continuing in front of my surprised expression. "Eve, you celebrated Christmas with us. As a family. Don't think you'll be able to escape dinner from now on."

And she left.

Getting out of the bath and getting ready in a confused haze, I let Road braid my hair in deep thought. But when I shyly showed up at dinner, just behind Road, I had to face the fact that she was right. A place was set for me, next to Tyki, and I sat down without a strange look from the Earl or a stern remark from Sheryl. I didn't even have time to get nervous when Tricia immediately started asking me how the afternoon had gone while the other adults were discussing politics.

I felt like I'd passed a test and with flying colours too. It was terribly strange, but it felt good to be totally accepted. I belonged, I was supposed to be there and not just some guilty pleasure Sheryl allowed his wife. That was nice.

Monday 27th December 1886

This revelation didn't stop me from trying to dodge Tyki and the twins' attempts at questioning, however, and I miraculously managed to hold out for almost two days before Tyki finally caught me in the library.

"Are you done avoiding me?" He asked, annoyed, as I pressed myself a little harder against the shelf, pathetically pretending to be looking for a novel.

"I'm not avoiding you..." I replied, staring intently at a book whose title I couldn't even decipher. "I was just looking for a book, besides, I'm a bit busy and..."

"Eve, you're in the Portuguese section." He interrupted me with a flat look, and I was pretty sure I was blushing with embarrassment.

"...I thought I could learn." I mumbled desperately as I grabbed the book in question.

"And I would be delighted to teach you. But although I have every confidence in you, I doubt you'll manage it on your own with such a dry anatomy treatise as a learning aid." He scoffed and I looked down at the book in my hands to discover, indeed, a diagram of the human body on the cover. Slowly putting the book back down, I turned to him with a sigh of defeat. He was still crossing his arms over his chest, clearly not impressed by my attempts to escape.

"Well, what is it?" I asked, and he raised an eyebrow in answer. But when I held his gaze without blinking, he unfolded his arms and assumed a more nervous posture. It made me feel a little better to know that I wasn't the only one dreading this conversation.

"I wanted to talk about what happened... at the lake." He said as he ran his fingers through his hair, destroying his perfect hairstyle. Oh. He was handing me a far too tempting stick! No accusations and an evasion of the subject? I just felt like teasing him a bit now.

"The fact that next time you'll listen to me when I tell you it's a bad idea to jump on a frozen lake?" I replied innocently and he rolled his eyes.

"Hey, you're the only one who's fallen, we were doing fine otherwise." He replied, and I gave him a clearly unimpressed look in response. "But no, I meant... well, I wanted to talk about what happened after..."

"Oh, you mean when we had to sneak into the mansion?" I blinked and he fixed me with a flat stare.

"...You're doing it on purpose." He sighed and despite the strange and potentially dangerous conversation, I smiled, far too happy to see him even more uncomfortable than I was. "My powers, I mean my powers." He finally spat out with an exasperated look on his face.

"Okay." I replied and waited patiently for him to continue.

"...Well?" He finally said when I simply looked at him without saying anything.

"Well what?" I asked, wondering how much longer, I could get away with this before he went through the floor of frustration.

"Doesn't it... scare you?" he finally asked, and he was so uncomfortable that I almost wanted to give him a hug to reassure him.

"Honestly Tyki, it could have, but you're so not discreet that I got used to it a long time ago... although it's still funny to see you slide through your chair when Road surprises you." I replied, relieved that he was more worried about my reaction than anything else.

"You knew?" He exclaimed, flabbergasted. "Why didn't you ever mention it, then? And avoided me for the last few days?" He asked, a little pained, after wincing at the anecdote about the armchair.

"I thought it was some kind of big secret that I wasn't supposed to know about..." I replied seriously. "So I figured if I pretended I didn't see anything, none of us had to deal with the problem."

"Oh." He muttered, blinking like an owl before laughing softly. "I owe you a lot of apologies then, it must have been hard to pretend when I knocked you out at the ball and then this time wh-..."

"What?" I interrupted.

"What?" he repeated confusedly.

"You knocked me out at the ball?" I repeated, confused.

"I thought you said you knew." He exclaimed before looking at me suspiciously. "You didn't just bluff me, did you?"

"No, no, I knew you had powers, you'd really have to be blind not to notice! But I thought I'd fainted because of the corset!" I replied before putting on an air of understanding. "That's why Lord Kaamelott didn't make such a fuss about it! I really thought he was going to tear me apart alive when I woke up after breaking one of his sacrosanct rules of decorum... but actually, it was your fault!" I pressed, pointing at him.

"Sorry, sorry." He smiled, shielding himself limply with his hands, before his smile suddenly fell. "And I'm really sorry about what happened in the forest, I got angry and lost control and if Road hadn't come, I really could have... hurt you." He admitted and I felt touched that he'd thought about it and bothered to apologise.

I was about to brush it all off with a smile and say that I didn't know what he was talking about when I saw his eyes and closed my lips. He'd been honest with me, he didn't need to say it and I thought I should at least return the favour.

"I... you really scared me then." I admitted. "But you didn't hurt me after all and I was just as wrong with what I said to you so... let's not dwell on 'what ifs' we've both apologised far too much already, there's no need to do it again." I murmured and he nodded gently.

And there we were. Two emotional idiots in the library not knowing what to say. Time seemed infinitely long all of a sudden, and no matter how much I racked my brains, I didn't know what to say to free us from the heavy atmosphere. Except maybe...

"So, what can you do?" I asked suddenly, lifting my head. Surprised, he blinked in my direction, clearly not understanding my question. "Your powers? I've been a bit... busy the times you've actually used them and I haven't quite understood. Can you fly? Pass through objects? Remove air? I don't really see the logic in all that." I continued, exaggerating my questions a little, but not my interest. As usual, I knew a bit about the manga, but it was always more impressive to see it in real life.

"Only you would look for logic in powers instead of running screaming." Tyki laughed and I wanted to contradict him so bad. It was a perfectly sensible reaction for a human drunken on 21st century superhero movies, but then again... We were some 150 years too early for that. "I can manipulate matter, so I don't fly, it's more like I walk on air." He explained, literally stepping into the air and pulling himself up onto... nothing. "And I can walk through anything, not just objects." He said proudly as he dropped to the ground and then put his hand through my arm. With round eyes, I watched his fingers brush through my arm without feeling it, and it was the strangest sensation in the world. It was as if my brain couldn't match what I was seeing with what I was feeling, and my skin itched with a phantom pain where his hand had undoubtedly passed through my muscles.

Even if I knew that in theory, it was still terribly terrifying in practice and I couldn't even imagine what Allen must have felt when Tyki had... or will? I mean, when he'd stuck his hand in his chest.

Holding back from telling him that he couldn't, in fact, get through everything, I let out a little of my fear instead. "Please, don't ever do that again." I whispered, shivering. "It's very disturbing." I winced and he chuckled in response while I flicked him punitively on the arm. Terribly ineffective against the Noahs, true, but still very satisfying, especially when they bothered to rub their arm with an imitation of exaggerated discomfort in response. "What about what happened at the ball? How did you get the air out?"

"Oh that..." He said, looking embarrassed. "It wasn't on purpose, in fact, it's the first time it's happened to me and I didn't understand what I'd done at first, it was Adam who..." He said before suddenly cutting himself off and looking at me with panicked eyes.

"Was it the Duke who guessed what you'd done?" I said lightly and Tyki relaxed at my non-reaction. Clearly he hadn't intended to involve anyone other than himself in this little discussion.

"Yes. I've been practising, and I've got it under control now, but I still find it a bit difficult to replicate on such a large scale... well, not intentionally..." He said, avoiding my gaze and, still having nightmares of the whole bike debacle, I understood the sentiment.

"So basically, you manipulate atoms. You group them together when you want to step on them, spread them apart when you want to pass through an object and push the oxygen away when you remove the air... or something like that." I shrugged. Physics lessons were soooo far away and I was ashamed to admit that there wasn't much of it left in my head.

"...Atoms?" Tyki asked confusedly and I looked at him with empty eyes.

...don't tell me that atoms hadn't been discovered? Oh, maybe that wasn't the same word back then! It was the whole story of Road's maths homework all over again; she had looked at me extremely strangely when I hadn't been able to do basic mental arithmetic, but shown her a technique for solving multiplication which, it seemed, hadn't yet been invented.

Oops.

"Atoms are what make up everything... I think... probably... do you think there are physics books here?" I asked a little confused.

There were, in fact, some physics books in the library, but very few and they were half dwarfed by the dozens of theology books, which easily explained why I'd never seen them before. As Sheryl and Tricia had taken it upon themselves to slip religious books into my room to make up for my glaring lack of knowledge, I had never considered it necessary to delve any deeper into the subject and had largely avoided this section of the library.

Unfortunately, the books were terribly old and talked more about biology than anything else, even if some paragraphs on the laws of gravity gave me hope of deeper concepts in other books. So it was while leafing through a pile of science books that the Earl found us in the library some two hours later.

"What are you two up to? It's tea time." he told us, before walking over to us and glancing curiously at the rickety pile of books that barely fit on the table where we were sitting.

"We were looking for science books." Tyki explained, closing the book in front of him with a sigh.

"You, Tyki?" The Earl asked incredulously and Tyki gave him an outraged look.

"Eve had an interesting idea." He finally admitted under the Earl's dubious gaze. "But there's practically nothing here." he complained as I got up to start putting away the science books.

"You should come over, I might have just what you need." The Earl offered, and I stopped for a second to look at him strangely. Did the Earl have a house? Like a mansion? Now that I thought about it, Adam Campbell was a respected Duke of society, and even a shortened ball and a few mass meetings had been enough to make me realise that. So obviously he had to have a mansion and even a territory.

"Yes, of course!" Tyki exclaimed before suddenly turning to me. "You'll love it, Eve, the library is at least three times bigger than here." He smiled, and I looked at him with round eyes. I'd already found the size of the Kamelotts' library frankly excessive for the use of a small noble family, so three times as big... Oh, I wanted to see that! What's more, after two years of scouring the library on a daily basis, I had to admit that I'd more or less devoured every book that caught my eye...

Seeing my sparkling eyes, the Earl laughed softly before placing a hand on each of our shoulders. "Come on, children, we'll work out the details later. We'd better go downstairs for tea, we don't want to keep Tricia waiting."

Tricia was ecstatic about our plan to visit the Earl's manor house. She seemed less enthusiastic about the library and more about his works of art. Apparently he had quite an impressive personal collection, and Tricia was dying to see the new pieces. She went on and on about it all afternoon, babbling to the Earl about the logistical details, and even when we sat down to dinner she continued. As I listened distractedly to Tricia, I thought to myself that I'd never seen so many people at that table. There was the whole Noah family, or at least everyone I'd been introduced to. The Earl, Sheryl, the twins, Road, Tyki and even Lulubell! In fact, even more extraordinarily, Skin Bolic was standing in the dining room, behind the Earl near the wall, dressed as a butler. He was so quiet, though, that I wasn't quite sure how long he'd been there. I'd only noticed him the day before when I saw Road slip him some sweets as he left the dining room. When I asked her who he was, and she told me his name, I found it hard not to react. To be honest, I'd more or less forgotten that Noah existed until Road reminded me. Worse still, I'd never have guessed who he was without a name, not being really recognisable without his stigmata and suit. I thought about getting to know him for a second, but on reflection, I already had more than enough Noahs in my life, there was no need to add an unstable one if I didn't have to.

As well as the Noahs, there was obviously Tricia and me and that was quite a crowd. Fortunately, with so many people around, it was easy to separate the conversations and leave the adults (not including Tyki) to their boring chit-chat and enjoy ourselves in our own corner. Well, enjoy... it was all relative, especially when Road was busy babbling about the virtues of her new teacup set. It was one of the many presents she'd received at Christmas and for days she'd been trying to persuade Devit to join us for a Tea Party. Surprisingly, he resisted, especially considering that Jasdero had gone willingly. Me? Wow, no, I'd stopped fighting her a long time ago. At this point, I had my place reserved right between Mr Fluffy and Tyki. Well... when Tyki couldn't jump out the window fast enough, of course.

"And the best thing, for New Year, Mother is going to give me a pretty tablecloth that she's embroidered herself! It'll be even cuter." she insisted, but Devit just rolled his eyes. Road lost patience and kicked him in the knee, which startled the boy. Without further ado, Devit hit the table, shaking the wood with an audible clatter of cutlery. Ouch.

Attracted by the noise, Tricia gave us a worried look, but Adam was quick to catch her eye again.

"You can't do that!" Devit hissed as soon as he'd finished hurling abuse. I was impressed that he hadn't already jumped on her with a battle scream, I was so proud... A little less so when Jasdero came to his brother's rescue:

"Eve said we shouldn't fight at the dinner table!" Jasdero seconded and Road immediately stuck her tongue out at him. Suffice to say that my 'Or fighting at all' was lost under an offended gasp. Jasdero immediately turned to me with a look of betrayal, pointing at Road as if to say 'did you see that?!' and, yes, I did see it, but that didn't mean I could do anything about it. Especially as the twins had just turned sixteen. Barely ten days ago, admittedly, but sixteen all the same. It was frankly disturbing that they were still paying attention to what I was saying and even worse that they expected me to have any authority. But if not authority, those two years at the manor had given me confidence that I could say what I thought... at least with the four of them. And if I knew that the moral argument wouldn't work, it was always possible to promote manipulation. Hey! that was better than violence... maybe.

"You know, that's not a very good strategy. He might have ended up agreeing by talking, but now that you've hit him, I doubt it."

Road took a pensive pout before shrugging. "I suppose... but I can always force him, it's easier anyway."

"Nonsense, nev-... HEY!" screamed Devit, jumping out of his seat. No doubt he'd been kicked again. Obviously, his shout had attracted the attention of the adults, but he didn't even notice before jumping on Road. His revenge didn't get very far, however, because the little girl suddenly slipped under the table, disappearing through the folds of the white tablecloth. Devit didn't even hesitate, throwing himself to the ground after her, Jasdero following close behind.

"Oh my-...! Road! Devit!" exclaimed Tricia.

But other than screaming, none of the children bothered to reply. In the meantime, Tyki and I had long since left the table, not wanting to have our legs torn off by those little demons. I grabbed my plate on the way. Hey, they were cream puffs, I wasn't going to let them go to waste, was I? Anyway, Tricia was too busy to even think about yelling at me. She seemed to be on the verge of a nervous breakdown, vacillating between keeping a straight face and getting down on all fours to grab the brats by the ears. Adam looked curiously under the table, seeming more intrigued than outraged. As for Sheryl... he was staring at the wall without really seeing it, one hand on his temple, looking in denial.

"Well, this is as good an opportunity as any to excuse ourselves." Tyki muttered beside me. I gave him a quizzical look as I chewed on a piece of cream puff. Excuses? For what? Oh, from the table! I understood when he waved his arm to attract the Earl's attention before pointing to the door. Adam nodded with a smile and Tyki hastened to push me into the hallway, taking barely a second to take my plate from my hands and stuff it into those of an incredibly stoic servant. The mourning for my dessert was horribly short-lived, however, as there was something a little more urgent.

"Tyki, wait! We can't just leave, Tricia and your brother are going to-...!"

"Adam gave permission, he'll let them know." he cut me off, still pushing me lightly by the shoulders. "Go and put some warm clothes on, I want to show you something outside."

"Now?" I asked, confused. "But it's dark."

"I know, but it's now or never. We won't have time in the next few days with the New Year."

"Are you sure it can't wait? It's far too cold to... er, where do you want to go again?"

He gave me an amused smile, telling me it was a surprise. Squinting, I nodded slowly, wondering what kind of trouble he was getting me into again. He was lucky that I was curious and that I liked him, too, because it was far too cold to go out. Nevertheless, I did as he said, going back to my room to put on a few more layers. And Ooooh, now was my chance to put on the big scarf the Earl had knitted for me! Tyki rolled his eyes when he saw me wearing it, but I was still glad to have it when we took our first steps in the snow.

Tyki had a big rucksack and a lantern in his hand, but he was as silent as ever about our destination. I didn't get much further when I realised he was leading us to the stables. Did he want us to go and see the horses? A birth, perhaps? No, no, he said it could have waited if it hadn't been for New Year's Eve...

"Can you hold this for me?" Tyki asked, handing me the lamp, and I barely grabbed it as he disappeared into the stable. He didn't keep me waiting long, fortunately, coming out quickly with his black horse already sealed. Uh, had he warned Philippe in advance that we were going out? He'd have looked pretty dumb if I'd decided to stay under my sheets... Well, more importantly:

"I don't think it's a good idea to ride when it's so dark." Especially in the forest, the moon would struggle to reach us from there.

"That's why you're coming with me, I know the way by heart, don't worry." He assured me before holding out his hand to help me up. The worst thing was that he was right, if it was him, I wouldn't worry. Giving him back the lamp, I grabbed the saddle and pulled myself onto the incredibly calm horse. Tyki quickly climbed on behind me and took the reins, guiding the stallion along the dirt track.

The wind had died down, and the half-light coupled with the repetitive walk soon lulled me. I didn't fall asleep, of course, but relaxed as I was, I wasn't paying much attention to my surroundings either. So it took an incredibly long time before I noticed that I knew this path well too. Suddenly, much less relaxed, I turned my head slightly towards Tyki, anxious.

"Tell me, you wouldn't happen to have ice skates in your bag, would you?"

Tyki lowered his head, meeting my gaze for a second before refocusing on the road. "What if I would?"

"In that case, it's not a very nice surprise." I replied, my fingers curling nervously around the lamp.

"Wasn't it you who told Jasdero that it was important not to dwell on a bad experience so as not to develop traumatism?"

Well, yes, probably, but do as I say, not as I do and all that... But we were already through the last of the trees, and the arrival on the hill overlooking the lake was as fabulous as ever. Even more so, because I'd never seen the lake at night, like this, with the full moon making the ice shine like a jewel. I was so engrossed in the view that it wasn't until the warm weight behind me disappeared that I realised, Tyki had already come down and was holding out his hand to me.

Chewing my lip, I looked out over the lake again, a heavy weight dropping to the bottom of my stomach. "I'm really not su-..."

"Eve." Tyki called, drawing my attention. "Do you trust me?"

Difficult question. Because yes, I trusted Tyki. The Tyki with whom I debated books, played the piano or went on clandestine outings. But there was always a little corner of my brain that remembered that... well, he was a Noah. But apart from all that, just with the current situation, I could answer:

"Not so much, right now, no." I mumbled and he chuckled. Oh, what the hell. He started to pull his hand away, but I caught it on the way down, gripping it tightly. "All right, all right... but you'd better not let go of me."

"Promise." He swore and I swung my leg over the horse, using his hand to jump to the ground safely. Although, twisting my ankle would surely have helped me avoid this whole situation.

We still had to uncross our fingers to put on the skates, but Tyki was quick to hold out his hand again to help me up and never let go again. Without a moment's hesitation, he walked very quickly across the ice, but I was clearly less serene, holding him back while I stayed on solid ground.

"It would be a shame never to use those skates again, Adam would be sad... shall we go?" He insisted. If it had been Road, she wouldn't even have waited for the answer before pulling me onto the ice. But it was Tyki and so it was up to me to make the first move. Knees wobbly, fingers probably much too tight, I timidly placed a blade on the ice... and then two.

"Now what?" I asked Tyki after waiting a few seconds to see if the ice was really holding.

"Now we'll try to replace your last bad experience with one that's hopefully less terrifying."

And so we did, skating under the moonlight and dutifully avoiding the spot where I'd fallen a few days earlier. That didn't stop me from falling hard on the ice, but fortunately never underneath it and Tyki was always there to help me up. Not without a few laughs, though, but I could hardly blame him when I was chuckling too.

Tyki was right, it was a good evening, but it was too late for the trauma: I doubted I'd ever be able to skate again without him there to catch me.

The next chapter is a bonus chapter that fits between this chapter (41) and the old 42 (now 43). So it takes place after Christmas when Eve has officially discovered everyone's powers but before she discovers her... er... spoiler. For continuity, it also means that the whole ending from the meal onwards in this chapter is a new ending written in 2023 The old ending has become the ending of the next chapter :)
So basically, if it's not clear, there's an extra 10k of story between 41 and 43, enjoy!

Consider leaving a review even if it's been years, it's always a pleasure!